Obviousness

To analyze the obviousness of US Patent 10,797,783 under 35 U.S.C. § 103, we will examine the independent claim (Claim 1) in light of prior art available before the patent's priority date of August 22, 2003. A person having ordinary skill in the art (POSA) in wireless communications at that time would have been motivated to combine existing technologies to address known problems in the emerging ultrawideband (UWB) domain.

Claim 1 of US10797783 describes:
A wireless repeater device for ultrawideband (UWB) communication configured to:

1. Receive UWB wireless signals with an instantaneous or overall occupied bandwidth of 100 MHz or more.
2. Process the received UWB wireless signals to identify unwanted data from interfering sources.
3. Store the received UWB wireless signals.
4. Re-transmit the processed UWB wireless signals to extend a range of the UWB communication.
5. Be controlled or have settings adjusted based on instructions received over the UWB wireless communication network.

Prior Art and Obviousness Analysis:

A Person of Ordinary Skill in the Art (POSA) in wireless communication, around the priority date of August 22, 2003, would be aware of the following:

• Emergence of Ultrawideband (UWB) Technology and its Characteristics: The patent itself notes that "Ultrawideband technologies are about to become mainstream" and defines UWB as having a bandwidth of "100 MHz or more". Prior art, such as Xtreme Spectrum's UWB chip, demonstrated capabilities of 100 megabits per second, consistent with handling such wide bandwidths. The IEEE 802.15.3 standards bodies were actively "developing Physical (PHY) and MAC layer standards for dynamic channel selection and repeater service for UWB", indicating that the concept of UWB repeaters was already being contemplated and developed within the industry.
• Need for Repeaters in UWB Networks: The patent explicitly states that for UWB, "repeaters will become necessary to connect devices over greater distances than the range of a single UWB device" due to the power-bandwidth product. This problem was known and applied to other wireless technologies, with "Repeaters... well known in the art" for cellular, PCS, and more recently, WiFi.
• Functionality of Existing Wireless Repeaters:
  • Range Extension: Commercial WiFi repeaters existed that provided "range and bridge extension for Wireless LAN standards." Examples include WiDeFi's products for IEEE 802.11a/b and Buffalo Technology's product for IEEE 802.11g, announced June 17, 2003, which provided point-to-point or point-to-multi-point operation. SMC Networks also introduced a Wireless Ethernet Adapter on June 6, 2003, with "wireless repeater capabilities for WLAN range extension."
  • Security and Filtering: The Buffalo Technology repeater included "security features such as WiFi Protected Access (WPA), WEP, Password protection, and MAC address association control." Similarly, the SMC Networks repeater featured "WEP encryption, WPA, MAC Address filtering, and SSID Broadcast Disable." These features demonstrate the prior art's ability to identify and filter unwanted data or access from interfering or unauthorized sources.
  • Network-Based Control and Configuration: Both the Buffalo Technology and SMC Networks repeaters were configurable, using a "browser based interface for configuration" or "web browser or Window-based administration software for configuration," respectively. This shows that adjusting repeater settings based on instructions received over the wireless network (or a connected wired network) was a known capability.
  • Data Storage/Buffering: While not always explicitly highlighted in product descriptions, data processing in repeaters, especially those performing filtering or quality of service (QoS) functions, inherently involves some form of data buffering or storage. The patent itself describes a "store and forward approach embodiment" that would use "vast memory... to simply buffer and retransmit the received data." This was a recognized design choice for intelligent repeaters.

Motivation to Combine Prior Art References:

The patent itself provides strong motivation for a POSA to combine these known elements. It highlights that "UWB adoption is likely to be rapid, and just as spam e-mail occurs today with increased frequency on the internet, wireless UWB devices will be subject to tremendous and increased amount of interference, spam traffic, and RF interferences, as well as security attacks by rouge or spoofed message sources or unwanted transmitters." It further states that "Proper repeater functionality will require the ability to detect and process such unwanted traffic... as well as to report back attempted breaches of security or interference sources to a network controller or host device".

A POSA, recognizing the short-range nature of UWB and the anticipated challenges of interference and security attacks, would have been motivated to combine the established functionalities of existing wireless repeaters (such as those from Buffalo Technology or SMC Networks) with the emerging UWB technology. The goal would be to create a robust UWB network infrastructure that not only extends range but also intelligently manages traffic and addresses security concerns.

Obvious Combination:

It would have been obvious for a POSA, at the time of the invention, to:

1. Develop a UWB repeater (Elements 1, 4): Given the ongoing work in IEEE 802.15.3 on UWB repeater service and the known need for range extension for UWB, it would be obvious to adapt existing wireless repeater designs (e.g., from WiDeFi, Buffalo Technology, SMC Networks for WiFi, or general cellular/PCS repeaters) to handle UWB signals (defined as having 100 MHz+ bandwidth).
2. Incorporate filtering of unwanted data (Element 2): Faced with the recognized threats of interference and security attacks in UWB networks, a POSA would naturally apply known filtering and security techniques from existing wireless repeaters (e.g., MAC address filtering, WPA/WEP from Buffalo Technology and SMC Networks) to the UWB repeater. The specific implementation for UWB's wideband signals might require different hardware (e.g., DSPs), but the functional goal and motivation would be obvious.
3. Include data storage (Element 3): To effectively process and filter received signals, especially for functions like error correction, traffic prioritization, or security analysis, buffering or storing data is a fundamental and obvious step in repeater design, as acknowledged by the patent's own store-and-forward embodiment.
4. Enable network-based control (Element 5): The ability to configure and manage repeaters remotely was already present in commercial WiFi repeaters (e.g., browser-based or software administration for Buffalo Technology and SMC Networks repeaters). Extending this capability to a UWB repeater, particularly one performing complex filtering and prioritization, would be an obvious design choice for network management.

Therefore, combining a known wireless repeater (such as those offered by Buffalo Technology or SMC Networks) with the emerging UWB transceiver technology and the recognized need for UWB repeater services (as per IEEE 802.15.3 activities) would render Claim 1 obvious. The motivation would be to overcome the inherent range limitations of UWB and to protect UWB networks from anticipated interference and security threats, using solutions already demonstrated in other wireless network domains.