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 .
Response to Amendment/Remarks
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 08/22/2025 .
Claims 1-12 are pending and are examined in this office action.
Claims 1, 7 have been amended.
No new claim has been added and no claim has been canceled.
Response to Arguments
Regarding Independent claim 1 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103, Applicant's arguments that combination of LANGE in view of CHIEN, specifically, CHIEN does not teach amended claim limitation “ a digital signal processor configured to measure delay time of the plurality of test signals, 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.” on pages 6-10, filed on 08/22/2025, The arguments have been fully considered but are moot, over the limitations of “a digital signal processor configured to measure delay time of the plurality of test signals, 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.” Said limitations are amended to the previously examined independent Claim 1 and have been addressed in instant office action, as shown in section 35 USC 103 rejection below, with remapping using previously used prior art and newly identified prior art teachings from newly found references JAIN et al. (US 20220240208 A1; hereinafter as “JAIN ), thus rendering said Applicant’s arguments moot.
Regarding all dependent claims: the applicant alleges that all dependent claims are allowable since they depend from all the independent claims above. The examiner respectfully disagrees in view of the above explanation of independent claims. Thus the rejection is deemed proper.
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 1,6-7, 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 JAIN et al. (US 20220070802 A1; hereinafter as “JAIN”; which has a priority date: May 15, 2020).
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. 2 : [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 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, ime, and simultaneously output the delayed plurality of downlink signals.
JAIN, 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 (see fig. 2: repeater operation includes “determining synchronization information S200, operating in a synchronized repeater mode S300, and maintaining synchronization S400 (e.g., as shown in FIG. 2),”: [0020]; Repeater “ determine the timing of uplink and/or downlink windows (==delay time) relative to the frame start time (==reference time) (and/or relative to any other reference time within the frame, such as an SSB time). The pattern can be determined from a control message (e.g., control message received from the base station,”: [0034]),
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 (“ Adjusting repeater operation timing S420 preferably functions to compensate for clock drift (e.g., drift between the base station clock and repeater clock). S420 is preferably performed based on the periodic signal (e.g., based on the periodic signal timing determined in S410). If an offset from the expected timing is detected in S410, then S420 can include adjusting the timing of repeater operation (e.g., adjusting the schedule used for operating in the synchronized repeater mode, such as described above regarding S300).”: [0046]; “ Operating in a synchronized repeater mode S300 preferably functions to provide bi-directional repeater functionality. S300 is preferably performed once synchronization is achieved (e.g., after determining synchronization information S200), more preferably while synchronization is maintained or substantially maintained, but can additionally or alternatively be performed with any other suitable timing.”{0037]; “ S300 preferably includes determining a repeater operation schedule based on the synchronization information (e.g., based on the frame start time and uplink/downlink pattern determined in S200). For example, this can include determining a schedule table referenced to the internal repeater clock (e.g., as shown in FIG. 6). In this example, determining the schedule table can include determining the internal repeater timestamp for the start of a frame and determining additional timestamps for switching between uplink and downlink modes based on the determined uplink/downlink pattern (e.g., adding a first scheduled window duration to the frame start timestamp to generate a second timestamp, adding an Nth scheduled window duration to the Nth timestamp to generate an N+1th timestamp, etc.).”: [0038]).
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 JAIN. The suggestion/motivation would be to reduce hardware cost, better performance, and/or lower noise injection in the network. (JAIN: [0003]).
Regarding claim 7, LANGE teaches A signal synchronization method performed by a mobile communication repeater (see fig. 1: Repeater 112: “The radio distribution system 110 can include a repeater 112 ”: [0033], Fig. 8-9, Repeater 904) connected to a plurality of external communication devices (==base stations in fig. 1) (see fig. 1 where repeater is connected with Base Station and Radio Unit ), the signal synchronization method comprising:
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receiving a plurality of test signals (== I/Q Streams) from the plurality of external communication devices ) ( 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 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 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]);
measuring delay time 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 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]);
receiving 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]).
While LANGE teaches “receiving a plurality of downlink signals from the external communication devices”, LANGE does not expressively teach:
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; and initially delaying each of the plurality of downlink signals to correspond with the sync time and simultaneously outputting the delayed plurality of downlink signals.
JAIN, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
determining reference time based on the delay time of the plurality of test signals (see fig. 2: repeater operation includes “determining synchronization information S200, operating in a synchronized repeater mode S300, and maintaining synchronization S400 (e.g., as shown in FIG. 2),”: [0020]; Repeater “ determine the timing of uplink and/or downlink windows (==delay time) relative to the frame start time (==reference time) (and/or relative to any other reference time within the frame, such as an SSB time). The pattern can be determined from a control message (e.g., control message received from the base station,”: [0034]);
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; and initially delaying each of the plurality of downlink signals to correspond with the sync time and simultaneously outputting the delayed plurality of downlink signals (“ Adjusting repeater operation timing S420 preferably functions to compensate for clock drift (e.g., drift between the base station clock and repeater clock). S420 is preferably performed based on the periodic signal (e.g., based on the periodic signal timing determined in S410). If an offset from the expected timing is detected in S410, then S420 can include adjusting the timing of repeater operation (e.g., adjusting the schedule used for operating in the synchronized repeater mode, such as described above regarding S300).”: [0046]; “ Operating in a synchronized repeater mode S300 preferably functions to provide bi-directional repeater functionality. S300 is preferably performed once synchronization is achieved (e.g., after determining synchronization information S200), more preferably while synchronization is maintained or substantially maintained, but can additionally or alternatively be performed with any other suitable timing.”{0037]; “ S300 preferably includes determining a repeater operation schedule based on the synchronization information (e.g., based on the frame start time and uplink/downlink pattern determined in S200). For example, this can include determining a schedule table referenced to the internal repeater clock (e.g., as shown in FIG. 6). In this example, determining the schedule table can include determining the internal repeater timestamp for the start of a frame and determining additional timestamps for switching between uplink and downlink modes based on the determined uplink/downlink pattern (e.g., adding a first scheduled window duration to the frame start timestamp to generate a second timestamp, adding an Nth scheduled window duration to the Nth timestamp to generate an N+1th timestamp, etc.)”: [0038]).
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 JAIN. The suggestion/motivation would be to reduce hardware cost, better performance, and/or lower noise injection in the network. (JAIN: [0003]).
Regarding claim 6, LANGE in view of JAIN 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 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 JAIN 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 JAIN teaches independent claim 1 as shown above. Furthermore LANGE in view of JAIN do not expressively disclose:
wherein the digital signal processor is further configured to generate the reference time based on the longest of 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 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 JAIN 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.
Claims 3-5, 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LANGE in view of JAIN and further in view of AHN et al. (US 20200228217 A1; hereinafter as “AHN ”).
Regarding claims 3, LANGE in view of JAIN teaches independent claim 1 as shown above. Furthermore LANGE in view of JAIN do not expressively disclose: The mobile communication repeater of claim 1, wherein the receiver is further configured to receive and output 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.
AHN teaches,
The mobile communication repeater of claim 1, wherein the receiver is further configured to receive and output 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 in view of JAIN teaches to include the above recited limitations as taught by AHN. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been quickly detecting possible errors in the system operation, and more efficiently performing responsive servicing thereto. (AHN; [abstract]).
Regarding claims 4, LANGE in view of JAIN teaches independent claim 1 as shown above. Furthermore LANGE in view of JAIN do not expressively disclose: 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.
AHN 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 in view of JAIN to include the above recited limitations as taught by AHN. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been quickly detecting possible errors in the system operation, and more efficiently performing responsive servicing thereto. (AHN; [abstract]).
Regarding claims 5, LANGE in view of JAIN teaches independent claim 1 as shown above. Furthermore LANGE in view of JAIN do not expressively disclose: 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.
AHN 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 in view of JAIN to include the above recited limitations as taught by AHN. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been quickly detecting possible errors in the system operation, and more efficiently performing responsive servicing thereto. (AHN; [abstract]).
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.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
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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