DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/26/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment/Remarks
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 02/25/2026.
Claims 1-12 are pending and are examined in this office action.
Claims 1-3, 7-8, have been amended.
No new claim has been added and no claim has been canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed on 02/25/2026 , with respect to claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. See AHN8217 et al. (US S 20200228217 A1; hereinafter as “AHN8217”).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 01/09/2026 IDS Considered have been placed in record and considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1,3-7, 9-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LANGE et al. (US 20170317738 A1; hereinafter as “LANGE”) in view of AHN8217 et al. (US 20200228217 A1; hereinafter as “AHN8217”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to LANGE unless otherwise mentioned.
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim 1, LANGE teaches
A mobile communication device repeater (see fig. 1: Repeater 112: “The radio distribution system 110 can include a repeater 112 ”: [0033], Fig. 8-9, Repeater 904) comprising:
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a receiver (== repeater with REPEATER DL INTERFACE 116 in Fig. 1 : [0080]) configured to receive a plurality of test signals (== I/Q Streams) from a plurality of external
communication devices (==base stations in fig. 1) ( Aforesaid “repeater 112 can include any radio distribution device for transporting signals between the base station radio transceiver unit 100 and the radio unit 114. The repeater 112 can also be referred to as a head-end unit. The radio unit 114 can include any remote radio unit for providing signals from the repeater 112 to mobile devices within the coverage zone of the radio unit 114.”: [0033]; Aforesaid repeater’s “ radio transceiver unit can receive multiple I/Q streams (==test signal in claim ) carrying wireless communication and control information from the base station ”: [0025]; aforesaid repeater receives multiples “wideband I/Q streams from the base station downlink interface 102”: [0068]; Fig. 5 “ FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting an example of the repeater downlink interface 116 shown in FIG. 1. The repeater downlink interface 116 can receive the serialized 66-bit stream containing I/Q data and control information (==downlink signal ) from the base station downlink interface 102 on the base station radio transceiver unit 100. The modules of the repeater downlink interface 116 can perform the inverse operations of the modules of the base station downlink interface 116. For example, the repeater downlink interface 116 can include an SFP or other physical interface 502 for receiving the serialized 66-bit stream ”: [0056]; see fig. 9 where aforesaid “repeater 904 can include multiple repeater downlink interfaces (e.g., similar to repeater downlink interface 116) and repeater uplink interfaces (e.g., similar to repeater uplink interface 118) for the respective antenna port sectors 902a-b of the base station. The repeater 904 can process the incoming I/Q samples from the base station 904 and provide them to one or more multiband, multiport remote units 906a-b via an RF or a digital I/Q communication link. ”: [0080]; see fig. 8 element 810, “the I/Q data stream, the base station downlink interface 102 can also receive downlink semi-static control information and additional control information for the base-station-to-repeater ”: [0073]) and
subsequently receive a plurality of downlink signals (==downlink control information/signals ) from the plurality of external communication devices (“ the 64-bit control signals can be provided to a downlink control de-multiplexer 512(==repeater). The downlink control de-multiplexer 512 can extract the downlink semi-static control information and base-station-to-repeater interface control information. The downlink semi-static control information and base-station-to-repeater interface control information can also be provided to the radio unit 114.”: [0057]; “the base station downlink interface 102 can serialize and output the reformatted wideband downlink multichannel I/Q samples and control signals 140 to the radio distribution system 110 ”: [0032]; “The repeater 112 in the radio distribution system 110 can include a repeater downlink interface 116 and a repeater uplink interface 118. The radio distribution system 110 can receive reformatted wideband downlink multichannel I/Q samples and control signals 140 via the repeater downlink interface 116.”:[0034]).
a digital signal processor configured to measure delay times of the plurality of test signals (see fig. 1 and Fig. 9 where a repeater is placed between Base Station and Remote Unit: “FIG. 6 is a block diagram that depicts an example of a repeater uplink interface from FIGS. 2 and 3 according to one aspect of the present disclosure. ”: [0015]; “uplink frame clock generator 610 can allow the repeater 112 to take round trip measurements of the signal, so that the repeater 112 can measure the delay between the base station and repeater link. ”: [0068]; “ the repeater downlink interface 116 can receive serialized reformatted wideband I/Q streams from the base station downlink interface 102. The repeater downlink interface 116 can extract the frame signal from the multiplexed stream and provide the frame timing information (==delay time ) to a downlink frame clock generator 510. The extracted frame timing information can control the downlink frame clock generator 510 (shown in FIG. 5). The downlink frame clock generator 510 can provide a downlink framing signal, including frame timing information, back to the repeater uplink interface 108 in FIG. 6…. This delay value can be combined with the repeater delay to enforce a delay compensation. An operations & management unit at the baseband unit can instruct the repeater or the radio transceiver unit 100 to compensate for the roundtrip delay. The roundtrip delay compensation can be reported from the repeater uplink interface 108 to the baseband unit of the base station via the radio transceiver unit 100 of the base station. In other aspects, the radio transceiver unit 100 of the base station can process the roundtrip delay and report the delay compensation to the baseband unit.”: [0068]).
While LANGE teaches “a digital signal processor configured to measure delay times of the plurality of test signals”,
LANGE does not expressively teach:
determine reference time based on the delay time of the plurality of test signals, generate sync time corresponding to the each of the plurality of external communication devices based on the reference time and the delay time of the plurality of test signals,
delay each of the plurality of downlink signals to correspond with the sync time, and simultaneously output the delayed plurality of downlink signals.
AHN8217, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
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determine reference time based on the delay time of the plurality of test signals (DAS with repeater as shown fig. 1 as Head-end Unit with TD Syb-system: [0026]; [0032]- [0034]; Aforesaid TDD sync sub-system detects delay from Tsync Ref Signal and measure/determin an alarm when delay is out of a predetermined threshold range : [0041]; Aforesaid TDD Tsync Ref Signal with delay is applied to digital downlink signal for transmission to the remote unit : [0042]; “ The processor reads the TDD sync signal for each communications network operators from the capture memory 530 and calculates a delay deviation (=target network operator delay−reference network operator delay). The processor generates an alarm when the delay deviation falls outwith a predetermined threshold range, e.g., −3 μs to +3 μs.”: [0053]),
generate sync time corresponding to the each of the plurality of external communication devices based on the reference time and the delay time of the plurality of test signals ( “ The processor reads the TDD sync signal for each communications network operators from the capture memory 530 and calculates a delay deviation (=target network operator delay−reference network operator delay). The processor generates an alarm when the delay deviation falls outwith a predetermined threshold range, e.g., −3 μs to +3 μs.”: [0053]; “ calculating a real-time delay deviation between downlink signals of other base stations by comparing rising edges of signals of the other base stations with respect to a reference of the rising edge of the signal of the subject reference base station.”: [0055]),
delay each of the plurality of downlink signals to correspond with the sync time, and simultaneously output the delayed plurality of downlink signals ( “ The processor 440 outputs a TDD sync original signal from the capture memory 400 when the Tsync ref signal is in the normal range (≤±3 μs). On the other hand, when the Tsync ref signal is abnormal, the processor 440 outputs a TDD sync replica signal from the replica memory 410 and generates a TDD sync configuration alarm.”: [0044]; “ As shown in FIG. 6, a method is provided for calculating a real-time delay deviation between downlink signals of other base stations by comparing rising edges of signals of the other base stations with respect to a reference of the rising edge of the signal of the subject reference base station.”: [0054]- [0055]; “ he TDD sync replica module 210 is responsive to when the pulse width of the Tsync ref signal is outside the effective range of the DL-UL configuration for generating a TDD sync configuration alarm and outputting a replica of the stored Tsync ref signal as a TDD sync signal”: [0037]; “TDD sync self delay detection module 220 transmits an alarm to an external network maintenance system (NMS).:”: [0039]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of LANGE to include the above recited limitations as taught by AHN8217. The suggestion/motivation would be to quickly detecting possible errors in the system operation, and more efficiently performing responsive servicing thereto (AHN8217: [0008]).
Regarding claim 7, LANGE teaches A signal synchronization method performed by a mobile communication repeater connected to a plurality of external communication devices, the signal synchronization method comprising: receiving a plurality of test signals from the plurality of external communication devices; measuring delay time of the plurality of test signals; determining reference time based on the delay time of the plurality of test signals; generating sync time corresponding to the each of the plurality of external communication devices based on the reference time and the delay time of the plurality of test signals; receiving a plurality of downlink signals from the plurality of external communication devices; and initially delaying each of the plurality of downlink signals to correspond with the sync time; and time and simultaneously outputting the delayed plurality of downlink signals (Regarding claim 7, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1).
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claims 3, LANGE in view of AHN8217 teaches independent claim 1 as shown above. Furthermore AHN8217 teaches, The mobile communication repeater of claim 1, wherein the receiver is further configured to receive delay information from one of the plurality of external communication devices, and wherein the digital signal processor is further configured to delay the plurality of downlink signals by taking into account a delay time of the plurality of external communication device devices included in the delay information ( Operator 1, Operator 2, Operator 3) are in bi-direction communication. Aforesaid Head-End Unit and output the delay information to Remote Unit in Fig. 1: “the head-end unit 110 may communicate signals between the base station 100 and the remote unit 120. The head-end unit 110 and the remote unit 120 may communicate via any suitable communication link (e.g., optical fiber, coaxial cable, etc.). ”: [0027]; “head-end unit 110 calculates a real-time delay deviation of the base station's downlink signal used currently to generate the TDD sync signal, and calculates real-time delay deviations between the downlink signals of other base stations, and transmits an alarm to an external network maintenance system (NMS) when the calculated real-time delay deviation falls outwith a permitted threshold range. ”: [0032]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of LANGE to include the above recited limitations as taught by AHN8217. The suggestion/motivation would be to quickly detecting possible errors in the system operation, and more efficiently performing responsive servicing thereto (AHN8217: [0008]).
Regarding claims 4, LANGE in view of AHN8217 teaches independent claim 3 as shown above. Furthermore AHN8217 teaches, the mobile communication repeater of claim 3, wherein the digital signal processor is further configured to perform the delaying so that the plurality of downlink signal signals and a signal of the plurality off external communication devices are synchronized and output. (see fig. 2: element 230: Fig. 4: TDD Sync Configuration Alarm: see Fig. 5: Element 520: : [0052]-[0053]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of LANGE to include the above recited limitations as taught by AHN8217. The suggestion/motivation would be to quickly detecting possible errors in the system operation, and more efficiently performing responsive servicing thereto (AHN8217: [0008]).
Regarding claims 5, LANGE in view of AHN8217 teaches independent claim 3 as shown above. Furthermore AHN8217 teaches, the mobile communication repeater of claim 3, wherein the digital signal processor is further configured to generate a reference signal corresponding to the delaying, and detect errors by comparing the reference signal with the delayed plurality of downlink signals that are delayed (error detection: [0012]; “As shown in FIG. 2, the TDD sub-system 112 may include a Tsync reference signal (==reference signal ) detection module or TDD sync detection module 200 ” to delay: [0034]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of LANGE to include the above recited limitations as taught by AHN8217. The suggestion/motivation would be to quickly detecting possible errors in the system operation, and more efficiently performing responsive servicing thereto (AHN8217: [0008]).
Regarding claim 6, LANGE in view of AHN8217 teaches independent claim 1 as shown above. Furthermore LANGE teaches, wherein the plurality of external communication devices are operated by different managers (see fig. 1, Fig. 5: Operator 1, Operator 2, Operator 3; “multi-carrier synthesis operations ”: [0038]).
Regarding claim 9, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 3.
Regarding claim 10, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 4.
Regarding claim 11, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 5.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 6.
Claims 2, 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LANGE in view of AHN8217 and further in view of Hanson et al. (US 20180124729 A1; hereinafter as “Hanson”).
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claims 2, LANGE in view of AHN8217 teaches independent claim 1 as shown above. Furthermore LANGE in view of AHN8217 do not expressively disclose:
wherein the digital signal processor is further configured to generate the reference time based on the longest of the delay time among the delay times of the plurality of test signals.
Hanson teaches, wherein the digital signal processor is further configured to generate the reference time based on the longest of the delay time among the delay times of the plurality of test signals ( “Although a DAS 104 is depicted in FIG. 1 as an example, other types of telecommunication systems, such as a repeater or a radio access network, can be used. The base station 102 can be used by one or more telecommunication providers. The DAS 104 includes a head-end unit 106 communicatively coupled to the base station 102. Although one head-end unit and one base station are depicted, any number of head-end units and base stations may be included. ”: [0020]-[0022]; “a suitable processing device (e.g., a processing device in the head-end unit 106) can identify the longest total downlink delay from the set of total downlink delays ”: [0028]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of LANGE in view of AHN8217 to include the above recited limitations as taught by Hanson. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been synchronized for simultaneous transmission to one or more terminal devices. (Hanson: [0021]).
Regarding claim 8, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 2.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to M MOSTAZIR RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4785. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am-5:00pm PST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/M Mostazir Rahman/Examiner, Art Unit 2411
/DERRICK W FERRIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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