Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed March 3, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant asserts that the claims are patentable because Seok does not teach uplink MIMO. However, this is incorrect, because Seok does teach uplink MIMO and so do all of the other cited references, as discussed in the claim rejections below. Seok, in particular, teaches for example, in paragraph [0008], multi user MIMO transmission in which a plurality of non-AP STAs concurrently access to a channel; and in claim 10, transmitting a data frame to the beamformer using MU-MIMO transmission technique. Applicant’s arguments do not address the teachings of Zhang references at all.
Applicant further asserts that the claims are patentable because the Seok’s teaching of an LTF field are in the same frame as Seok’s teachings of the AID field. However, as discussed in the claim rejections, the Examiner looks to the Zhang references to disclose that the uplink OFDMA MU transmissions including the LTF and STF fields are in response to [and distinct from] the OFMDA MU downlink scheduling transmission by the AP.
Applicant further asserts that the NDP of Seok cannot be sent by a station. However, firstly, this is incorrect, because Seok discloses that NDP can be sent by a station acting as an AP to another station. More importantly, this would not contradict the Examiner’s interpretation of the combination of cited references, as discussed above, because the Examiner looks to the Zhang references for the disclosure that the uplink OFDMA MU transmissions that are scheduled by the downlink control frame. Applicant’s arguments do not address the teachings of Zhang references at all.
Applicant further asserts that the claims are patentable because Park does not teach “many-to-one” transmissions. However, firstly, many-to-one transmissions are not recited in the claims and are not inherent to the terms recited in the claims. Secondly, all of the cited references do teach uplink many-to-one transmissions, as discussed in the claim rejections below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a).
Claim(s) 1-28 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Seok (US 2012/0026909) in view of Park et al. (US 2014/0204891), and further in view of Zhang et al. (US 2013/0195092) (Hereafter, Zhang ‘092), and further in view of Zhang et al. (USPN 9,924,512) (Hereafter, Zhang ‘512).
Regarding claim 1, Seok ‘909 discloses a station (STA) (Seok ‘909, Fig. 1, STA; paragraph [0028], AP which are STAs) comprising:
a receiver configured (Seok ‘909, Fig. 1, STA; paragraph [0029], station for wireless communication includes a processor and a transceiver) to receive, from an access point (AP) (Seok ‘909, Fig. 1, AP; paragraph [0008], AP transmits frames concurrently to one or more MIMO-paired non-AP STAs; paragraph [0028], AP which are STAs [a STA may be an AP]), a control frame that includes a broadcast address and a plurality of information fields, each of the plurality of information fields associated with a respective STA (Seok ‘909, paragraph [0015], NDPA frame received from a beamformer may include one or more station information fields and may be broadcasted if the NDPA frame comprises a plurality of station information fields; paragraph [0072]-[0074], AP 810 broadcasts the NDPA frame including STA information fields including recipient address and the field in Table 3; claim 5, receiver address field indicates a broadcast address), for scheduling an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) transmission (Seok ‘909, paragraph [0008], multi user MIMO transmission in which a plurality of non-AP STAs concurrently access to a channel; paragraph [0078], number of spatial streams allocated to the target STA, channel bandwidth information; claim 10, transmitting a data frame to the beamformer using MU-MIMO transmission technique), wherein the plurality of information fields associated with a respective STA each include:
an association identifier (AID), information indicating subchannels assigned to a respective STA for the OFDMA UL MU transmission, an indication of an error correction code type, an indication of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), and an indication of a number of space time streams (Seok ‘909, paragraph [0008], AP can transmit frames to MIMO-paired STAs; paragraph [0009], modulation coding scheme (MCS) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) vary depending on station type; paragraph [0059], number-of-channel field indicates the numbers of a sub-channels; paragraph [0076], AID sub-fields of the NDPA frame; paragraph [0077], NDP having a typical PPDU format; paragraph [0078], number of spatial streams allocated to the target STA, channel bandwidth information);
a transmitter configured to transmit, to the AP, an OFDMA UL MU transmission (Seok ‘909, Fig. 1, STA; paragraph [0008], multi user MIMO transmission in which a plurality of non-AP STAs concurrently access to a channel; paragraph [0028], AP which are STAs [a STA may be an AP]; claim 10, transmitting a data frame to the beamformer using MU-MIMO transmission technique), based on an AID included in one of the plurality of information fields matching an AID of the STA (Seok ‘909, paragraph [0013], AID indicates the beamformee that receives the NDP frame; paragraph [0028], AP which are STAs; paragraph [0076], AID sub-fields of the NDPA frame), and
an OFDMA UL MU transmission includes a preamble comprising a first portion and a second portion following the first portion, the first portion including a first training field and the second portion including a second TF (Seok ‘909, paragraph [0008], multi user MIMO transmission in which a plurality of non-AP STAs concurrently access to a channel; paragraph [0028], AP which are STAs [a STA may be an AP]; paragraph [0069], training symbol for each channel; paragraph [0077], VHT-LTF); and
the receiver further configured to receive, in response to the OFDMA UL MU transmission, an acknowledgement (ACK) frame from the AP (Seok ‘909, paragraph [0040], second station transmits to the first station an association response frame having a value of successful).
Seok ‘909 does not explicitly disclose short and long training fields.
Park discloses a receiver configured (Park, Fig. 1, STA; paragraph [0001], station for wireless communication) to receive, from an access point (AP) (Park, Fig. 1, AP; paragraph [0038], AP which are managing STAs), a control frame that includes a broadcast address and a plurality of information fields, each of the plurality of information fields associated with a respective STA (Park, paragraph [0110]-[0111], AP broadcasts an NDPA frame that may include one or more station information fields and recipient address information), for scheduling an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) transmission (Park, paragraph [0038], AP which are managing STAs; paragraph [0035], IBSS does not include an AP and all STAs may be mobile STAs; paragraph [0052], STA to transmit a PPDU to a plurality of STAs using a MU-MIMO transmission scheme; paragraph [0081], OFDM; paragraph [0161], information indicating STAs which are to respond), wherein the plurality of information fields associated with a respective STA each include:
an association identifier (AID), information indicating subchannels assigned to a respective STA for the OFDMA UL MU transmission, an indication of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), and an indication of a number of space time streams (Park, paragraph [0052], STA to transmit a PPDU to a plurality of STAs using a MU-MIMO transmission scheme; paragraph [0098], modulation coding scheme (MCS); paragraph [0059], number-of-channel field indicates the number of sub-channels; paragraph [0112], AID sub-fields of the NDPA frame; paragraph [0115], NDP having a typical PPDU format; paragraph [0116], number of spatial streams allocated to the target STA, channel bandwidth information; paragraph [0171]-[0172], sub-channel allocation information including subchannels);
a transmitter configured to transmit, to the AP, an OFDMA UL MU transmission, based on an AID included in one of the plurality of information fields matching an AID of the STA (Park, paragraph [0035], IBSS does not include an AP and all STAs may be mobile STAs; paragraph [0052], STA to transmit a PPDU to a plurality of STAs using a MU-MIMO transmission scheme; paragraph [0112], AID sub-fields of the NDPA frame indicates the sounding target station; paragraph [0171]-[0172], sub-channel allocation information including subchannels), and
an OFDMA UL MU transmission includes a preamble comprising a first portion and a second portion following the first portion, the first portion including a first short training field (STF) and a first long training field (LTF), and the second portion including a second STF and a second LTF (Park, Fig. 4, L-STF, L-LTF, VHT-STF, VHT, LFT; paragraph [0008], data unit includes a preamble part including subchannel allocation indication information; paragraph [0035], IBSS does not include an AP and all STAs may be mobile STAs; paragraph [0052], STA to transmit a PPDU to a plurality of STAs using a MU-MIMO transmission scheme); and
the receiver further configured to receive, in response to the OFDMA UL MU transmission, an acknowledgement (ACK) frame from the AP (Park, paragraph [0019], receiving an acknowledgement (ACK) frame in response to the first data frame; paragraph [0052], STA to transmit a PPDU to a plurality of STAs using a MU-MIMO transmission scheme).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use the information fields including the long and short training fields of Park, in the invention of Seok. The motivation to combine the references would have been ton conform to 802.11 standards inform stations of control information.
Although Seok in view of Park disclose the claimed downlink control frames having all of the claimed information fields and uplink transmissions based on matching an AID of the STA, and also disclose that there may be uplink transmissions to the AP that may include the claimed LTF and STF training fields, Seok and Park do not explicitly disclose that the uplink transmissions including the LTF and STF training fields may be the uplink transmissions that are based on the claimed downlink control frames.
Accordingly, the Examiner includes two Zhang references which more explicitly discloses that the disclosed 802.11 preamble format including the long and short training fields may be used in uplink packets from a station to an access point in response to downlink control frames from an AP, and also more explicitly disclose an indication of an error correction code type.
Zhang ‘512 discloses a receiver configured to receive, from an access point (AP) (Zhang ‘512, Fig. 1, Client, Access Point; column 1, lines 29-31), a control frame that includes a plurality of information fields, each of the plurality of information fields associated with a respective STA, for scheduling an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) transmission (Zhang ‘512, Figs. 4, 5, 13, 14; Fig. 16, steps 604, assign different subchannel blocks to client stations, and step 608, receive OFDM sub-channel blocks transmitted by client stations; column 7, lines 46-67, downlink OFDMA Signal in sub-channel blocks corresponding to client stations, according to IEEE 802.11n standard, includes L-STF, L-LTF, HT-STF, HT-LTF; column, 17, lines 49-58, plurality of different OFDM subchannel blocks are assigned to different client stations and OFDM sub-channel blocks are transmitted by the client stations simultaneously), wherein the plurality of information fields associated with a respective STA each include:
information indicating subchannels assigned to a respective STA for the OFDMA UL MU transmission, an indication of an error correction code type, an indication of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), and an indication of a number of space time streams (Zhang ‘512, Figs. 4, 5, 13, 14; Figs. 10, 11, FEC, modulation and spatial mapping; Fig. 16, steps 604, assign different subchannel blocks to client stations, and step 608, receive OFDM sub-channel blocks transmitted by client stations; column 7, lines 46-67, downlink OFDMA Signal in sub-channel blocks corresponding to client stations, according to IEEE 802.11n standard, includes L-STF, L-LTF, HT-STF, HT-LTF; column, 17, lines 49-58, plurality of different OFDM subchannel blocks are assigned to different client stations and OFDM sub-channel blocks are transmitted by the client stations simultaneously, a plurality of independent data streams in respective sub-channel blocks);
a transmitter configured to transmit, to the AP, an OFDMA UL MU transmission, wherein the OFDMA UL MU transmission includes a preamble comprising a first portion and a second portion following the first portion, the first portion including a first short training field (STF) and a first long training field (LTF), and the second portion including a second STF and a second LTF (Zhang ‘512, Figs. 4, 5, OFDMA preambles including long and short training fields; Figs. 13, 14; Figs. 10, 11, FEC, modulation and spatial mapping; Fig. 16, steps 604, assign different subchannel blocks to client stations, and step 608, receive OFDM sub-channel blocks transmitted by client stations; column 7, lines 46-67, OFDMA Signal in sub-channel blocks corresponding to client stations, according to IEEE 802.11n standard, includes L-STF, L-LTF, HT-STF, HT-LTF; column 14, lines 53-57, uplink OFDMA signal transmitted by client stations conforms to the format specified in IEEE 802.11n standard; column 15, lines 13-17, AP transmits information regarding reserved time period for transmissions to the client stations; column 15, lines 30-55, uplink OFDMA signals according to the 802.11n standard received in independent data streams; column 17, lines 1-6, transmission of uplink OFDMA data preceded by AP transmitting downlink synchronization [scheduling] signals; column, 17, lines 49-58, plurality of different OFDM subchannel blocks are assigned to different client stations and OFDM sub-channel blocks are transmitted by the client stations simultaneously, a plurality of independent data streams in respective sub-channel blocks); and
the receiver further configured to receive, in response to the OFDMA UL MU transmission, an acknowledgement (ACK) frame from the AP (Zhang ‘512, Figs. 13 and 14; ACKs; column 16, lines 1-2 and 26-30, AP can transmit ACKs/NAKs or block ACKs in response to the uplink OFDMA data from client stations).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use the uplink information fields including the long and short training fields of Zhang ‘512, in the invention of Seok. The motivation to combine the references would have been to conform to 802.11 standards to enable beamforming to improve the communication channel.
Zhang ‘092 discloses a receiver configured to receive, from an access point (AP) (Zhang ‘092, Fig. 1, Station, Access Point; paragraph [0018], AP communicates with wireless stations via wireless signals), a control frame that includes a plurality of information fields, each of the plurality of information fields associated with a respective STA, for scheduling uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) transmission (Zhang ‘092, Fig. 2; paragraph [0020], AP sends a message or packet to multiple wireless stations, the packet includes a preamble which provides channel estimation information and signaling information to wireless stations; paragraph [0020], wireless stations 104a-c may send packets including preamble symbols similar to the AP to AP using similar technique, the technique using the 802.11ah transmission protocol including preamble symbols for channel estimation employed by the network; paragraph [0021], fields sent within 802.11ah packet format include STF, LTF fields; paragraph [0023], number of streams allocated to wireless stations), wherein the plurality of information fields associated with a respective STA each include:
an association identifier (AID), information indicating subchannels assigned to a respective STA for the OFDMA UL MU transmission, an indication of an error correction code type, an indication of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), and an indication of a number of space time streams (Zhang ‘092, paragraph [0023], type of modulation used and the error correction encoding used, the signal bandwidth, and the number of streams allocated to wireless stations 104a-c; paragraph [0024], tones within LTF symbols; paragraph [0031], SIG field contains identification information such as partial AID used to determine which wireless station is the recipient of the sent packet);
a transmitter configured to transmit, to the AP, an UL MU transmission (Zhang ‘092, paragraph [0020], wireless stations 104a-c may send packets including preamble symbols similar to the AP to AP using similar technique; paragraph [0021], fields sent within 802.11 packet), based on an AID included in one of the plurality of information fields matching an AID of the STA, wherein the OFDMA UL MU transmission includes a preamble (Zhang ‘092, paragraph [0023], type of modulation used and the error correction encoding used, the signal bandwidth, and the number of streams allocated to wireless stations 104a-c; paragraph [0024], tones within LTF symbols; paragraph [0031], SIG field contains identification information such as partial AID used to determine which wireless station is the recipient of the sent packet) comprising a first portion and a second portion following the first portion, the first portion including a first short training field (STF) and a first long training field (LTF), and the second portion including a second LTF (Zhang ‘092, Fig. 2, LFT_1, LTF_2, STF; paragraph [0020], wireless stations 104a-c may send packets including preamble symbols similar to the AP to AP using similar technique, the technique using the 802.11ah transmission protocol including preamble symbols for channel estimation employed by the network; paragraph [0021], fields sent within 802.11ah packet format include STF, LTF fields).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use the uplink information fields including the long and short training fields of Zhang ‘092, in the invention of Seok. The motivation to combine the references would have been to conform to 802.11 standards to enable beamforming to improve the communication channel.
Regarding claim 2, Seok in view of Park, and further in view of Zhang ‘092, and further in view of Zhang ‘512 discloses the STA of claim 1, wherein the control frame further includes: information associated with a bandwidth associated with the AP, an indication of a guard interval (GI),an indication associated with space-time block code (STBC), and padding information (Seok ‘909, paragraph [0078], number of spatial streams allocated to the target STA, channel bandwidth information) (Park, paragraph [0065], padding bits; paragraph [0096], STBC to be used, guard interval; paragraph [0059], number-of-channel field indicates the number of sub-channels; paragraph [0115], NDP having a typical PPDU format; paragraph [0116], number of spatial streams allocated to the target STA, channel bandwidth information; paragraph [0171]-[0172], sub-channel allocation information including subchannels) (Zhang ‘092, paragraph [0007], guard tones; paragraph [0023], type of modulation used and the error correction encoding used, the signal bandwidth, and the number of streams allocated to wireless stations 104a-c; paragraph [0024], tones within LTF symbols).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use the padding bits, STBC indication and guard interval of Park and Zhang ‘092, in the invention of Seok. The motivation to combine the references would have been to conform to 802.11 standards to inform stations of control information.
Regarding claim 3, Seok in view of Park, and further in view of Zhang ‘092, and further in view of Zhang ‘512 discloses the STA of claim 1, wherein the ACK is a downlink OFDMA MU transmission (Seok ‘909, paragraph [0040], second station transmits to the first station an association response frame having a value of successful) (Park, paragraph [0019], receiving an acknowledgement (ACK) frame in response to the first data frame; paragraph [0052], STA to transmit a PPDU to a plurality of STAs using a MU-MIMO transmission scheme) (Zhang ‘512, Figs. 13 and 14; ACKs).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use the downlink OFDMA MU ACKs of Park and Zhang ‘512, in the invention of Seok. The motivation to combine the references would have been to conform to 802.11 standards to inform stations of feedback information.
Regarding claim 4, Seok in view of Park, and further in view of Zhang ‘092, and further in view of Zhang ‘512 discloses the STA of claim 1, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the first portion of the preamble including the first STF and the first LTF in a full bandwidth associated with the AP (Seok, paragraph [0073], NDPA frame transmitted to multiple sounding stations for MU-MIMO channel sounding) (Park, Fig. 4 and 9) (Zhang ‘512, Figs. 4, 5).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to transmit the first portion of the preamble including the first STF and the first LTF in a full bandwidth, as in Park and Zhang ‘512, in the invention of Seok. The motivation to combine the references would have been to use frequency resources required for stations that can only receive the information in a full bandwidth.
Regarding claim 5, Seok in view of Park, and further in view of Zhang discloses the STA of claim 4, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the second portion of the preamble including the second STF and the second LTF in the subchannels assigned to the STA for the OFDMA UL MU transmission (Seok, paragraph [0073], NDPA frame transmitted to multiple sounding stations for MU-MIMO channel sounding) (Park, Fig. 4 and 9) (Zhang ‘512, Figs. 4, 5).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to transmit the second portion of the preamble including the second STF and the second LTF in the subchannels assigned to the STA, as in Park and Zhang ‘512, in the invention of Seok. The motivation to combine the references would have been to efficiently use frequency resources and free up unneeded frequency resources.
Regarding claim 6, Seok in view of Park, and further in view of Zhang discloses the STA of claim 5, wherein the first portion of the preamble further includes a first SIG field, and the second portion of the preamble further includes a second SIG field (Park, Fig. 3, 4 and 9) (Zhang ‘512, Figs. 4, 5).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use the SIG fields of Park and Zhang ‘512, in the invention of Seok. The motivation to combine the references would have been to conform to 802.11n standards.
Regarding claim 7, Seok in view of Park, and further in view of Zhang discloses the STA of claim 6, wherein the OFDMA UL MU transmission includes user data, following the second portion of the preamble, only in the subchannels assigned to the STA for the OFDMA UL MU transmission (Park, Figs. 3, 4 and 9) (Zhang ‘512, Figs. 14, 15).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to transmit the user data in the subchannels assigned to the STA, as in Park and Zhang ‘512, in the invention of Seok. The motivation to combine the references would have been to efficiently use frequency resources and free up unneeded frequency resources.
Claims 8-14 are rejected under substantially the same rationale as claims 1-7, respectively.
Claims 15-21 are rejected under substantially the same rationale as claims 1-7, respectively.
Claims 22-28 are rejected under substantially the same rationale as claims 1-7, respectively.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Vermani et al. (US 20110188482) discloses, in Fig. 5, uplink 802.11 transmissions including multiple LFT and STF fields.
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/ALAN L LINDENBAUM/ Examiner, Art Unit 2413
/UN C CHO/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2413