DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Prior arts considered in this office action:
applicant admitted prior art hereinafter “AAPA”)
Sung et al. (US 20080057934 A1, hereinafter “Sung”)
Ramsay et al. (US 20110109423 A1, hereinafter “Ramsay”)
Seo et al. (WO 2012070889 A2, hereinafter “Seo”)
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 07/23/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant’s Arguments/Remarks: applicant argues that Thus, none of these references, individually or in combination, show, teach, or suggest "a tone map response payload indicating which subbands the metering device is to receive communications over, the tone map response payload having only a single (1) power control bit corresponding to each of the subbands of the second set" as recited by claim 13.
Examiner’s Response: examiner disagrees with applicant assertion above that the combination of the cited prior arts does not teach or suggest applicant invention as claimed. Examiner agrees with applicant that Ramsay discloses a "control circuit configured to: receive a 2-bit signal comprising a first bit indicating a power state and a second bit indicating an actuation state; and transmit a power signal based on the two-bit signal, the power signal configure to cause the actuator to operate at the actuation state at a fixed power." Ramsay [0003]. Ramsay further explains that "the actuators power state is either on or off," Ramsay [0015] and the second bit may indicate either a clockwise of counter-clockwise rotational direction." Ramsay [0015 - 0016]. In other words, one control bit can be used as control bit response payload indicating which subbands the metering device is to receive communications over, the tone map response payload having only a single (1) power control bit corresponding to each of the subbands. The second bit in Ramsay is used for something else namely for rotational direction. As previously stated again and again Ramsay was cited to show that instead of using several bit one to indicate whether the power should be increase or decrease and other bit (s) to indicate the amount only a single bit can be used when the power has only two levels and behave like an ON-OFF switch. When the power on the subband to be used can only take one 2 values ON or OFF (where OFF represent zero power and 1 the maximum power) a single bit is enough. Using a single bit allows for resource conservation and the other free subbands that would have been used to indicate the power level, etc., could remain unused or used for different purposes.
Applicant is reminded that the test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981). In this case . Using a single bit to allow for resource conservation and the other free subbands that would have been used to indicate the power level, etc., could remain unused or used for different purpose when the power on the subband to be used for communication can only take one 2 values ON or OFF (where OFF represent zero power and 1 the maximum power). In doing so the system can be simplified while resources are being conserved.
Claims 14-21 and 30 depend on claim 13 and are therefore not allowable for the same reason given with regard to claim 13.
Claim 22 contains similar limitations to claim 13 and is therefore rejected on the same ground as claim 13.
Claims 23-29 and 31 depend on claim 22 and are therefore not allowable for the same reason given with regard to claim 22.
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.
Claims 13-17, 20-25, 28-31 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over applicant admitted prior art hereinafter “AAPA”) in view of Sung et al. (US 20080057934 Al, hereinafter “Sung”), and in view of Ramsay et al. (US 20110109423 A1, hereinafter “Ramsay”).
Regarding claims 13 and 22:
AAPA teaches A method, comprising:
selecting, by a metering device, a first set of subbands from a second set of available subbands in a communications network based on a channel quality indicator (CQI), the first set being smaller than the second set so that the union of the first set and a third set of subbands is equal to the second set, the intersection of the first set and the third set is empty, and the first set and the third set each includes a non-zero number of subbands, wherein each subband in the second set includes a plurality of tones (AAPA [0006]-[0012], where AAPA teaches selecting subbands from a plurality of subband forming a band based on the quality of the particular subband (SNR/CQI) to transmit data information wherein each band in the subbands includes a plurality of tones);
generating, by the metering device, a tone map response payload indicating over which
subbands the metering device is to receive communications over, the tone map response payload having only a single power control bits corresponding to each of the subbands of the second set (AAPA [0003]-[0005], [0006]-[0012], [0014], where the AAPA discloses based on SNR allocate tone map response payload power control bits for each of the plurality of subbands).;
for each of the subbands in the first set, causing, by the metering device, the corresponding power control bits to be asserted to indicate communication to the metering device is to be increase for the corresponding subband, (AAPA [0013]-[0015], where AAPA discloses a power control bit is used to indicate the state of the corresponding subband, increasing or decreasing).
for each of the subbands in the third set, causing, by the metering device, the corresponding power control bits to be deasserted to indicate a decrease for the corresponding subband (AAPA [0011]-[0015], where AAPA discloses each subband that is determined to not be having the desired SNR indicate whether to attenuate the power lever for this particular subband);
transmitting, by the metering device via the communication network, a first frame including the tone map response payload (AAPA [0011]-[0015], transmit to the receiver a first frame that contains the tone map response payload).
communicating, by the metering device, metering data via the communications network
based on the tone map (AARP [0003], PLC is a medium for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) which allows communication signals to be sent through an existing powerline, so new communication lines are not needed).
AAPA fails to teach said first node allocating for a tone map response payload only a single (1) power control bit for each of a plurality of subbands having two or more of said plurality of tones; wherein the increase corresponds to a maximum allowed power level in the communication network; and wherein the attenuated state is an on state.
However, AAPA discloses using four bits for the power control for each of a plurality of subbands having two or more of said plurality of tone, wherein the first bit indicates whether the power should be increased or decreased and the other bits indicate the amount of the increase or the decrease and that mid or low-level tone (MV/LV) are used for communication as well as high level tone (AAPA [0013]-[0015]).
Furthermore, Sung teaches a communication system wherein single bit of information is used for power control and the attenuated/or decreased state can be a low state (Sung [0082]). Ramsay further teaches a control circuit configured to: receive a 2-bit signal including a first bit indicating a power state and a second bit indicating an actuation state; and transmits a power signal based on the two bits signal, the power signal configured to cause the actuator to operate at the actuation state at a fixed power, maximum power or full power. The first bit indicates the OFF state or zero power level indicating zero power transmission and the ON state indicates maximum power level (Ramsay abstract, [0003], [0016]).
Therefore, using one bit to control the transmission power is well known and taken the teachings of AAPA, Sung, and Ramsay as a whole, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made for the receiver to determine what channel it can best received signal and communicated this information the transmitter using one power control bit instead of two bits to control the power in the subbands and the attenuated state can be a on state (decreased but not zero/off for example) in order to reduce the amount of resources use for power control and use them for transmitting other data.
Regarding claims 14 and 23:
AAPA in view of Sung and in view of Ramsay teaches wherein the metering device is first device, and transmitting the first frame comprises transmitting the first frame by the first device to a second device, the method further comprising, transmitting, by the second device to the first device via the communication network and in response to the power control bits in the first frame, a second frame having boosted signal power for the plurality of tones in the subbands of the first set compared to attenuated signal power for the plurality of tones in the subbands of the third set (AAPA [0013]-[0015]; Sung [0082]; Ramsay abstract, [0003], [0016], where the combination teaches transmitting to the receiver a frame corresponding the power control bit indicated by the receiver power boosted state or not).
Regarding claim 15:
AAPA in view of Sung and in view of Ramsay teaches wherein the second frame is transmitted via a transformer (AAPA [0004]).
Regarding claims 16 and 24:
AAPA in view of Sung and in view of Ramsay teaches wherein the second set of available subbands has 24 subbands (AAPA [0013]-[0015]).
Regarding claims 17 and 25:
AAPA in view of Sung and in view of Ramsay teaches wherein the CQI includes a channel signal-to- noise ratio (SNR) so that selecting the first set is based on the channel SNR (AAPA [0013]-[0015];
Regarding claims 20 and 28:
AAPA in view of Sung and in view of Ramsay teaches wherein the plurality of tones includes two or more tones (AAPA [0007]; Sung [0082]; Ramsay abstract, [0003], [0015]-[0016]).
Regarding claims 21 and 29:
AAPA in view of Sung and in view of Ramsay teaches wherein the plurality of tones in each subband of the second set is equal to 3 tones (Ramsay [0011]-[0016]).
Regarding claims 30 and 31:
AAPA in view of Sung and in view of Ramsay teaches wherein the communication network is a powerline communication network (AAPA [0003]; Ramsay [0021], [0033]).
Claims 18-19 and 26-27are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over applicant admitted prior art hereinafter “AAPA”) in view of Sung et al. (US 20080057934 Al, hereinafter “Sung”), and in view of Ramsay et al. (US 20110109423 A1, hereinafter “Ramsay”) and in view of Seo et al. (WO 2012070889 A2, hereinafter “Seo”).
Regarding claims 18 and 26:
AAPA in view of Sung and in view of Ramsay fails to explicitly teach wherein the CQI includes a channel bit error rate (BER) or frame error rate (FER) so that selecting the first set is based on the channel BER or FER.
However, Seo teaches a communication device that determines a channel quality indicator (CQI) at a Receiver and transmit it to the transmitter and the transmitter transmitted the signal based on the information regarding the channels included in the CQI. Seo further teaches that the CQI value may be a SINR of a channel, a carrier to interference and noise ratio (CINR), a bit error rate (BER), a frame error rate (FER), and the like, which are converted into transmittable data (Seo [0101]-[0108]).
Therefore, taking the teachings of AAPA, Sung, Ramsay and Seo as a whole, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the application to select the channels or subbands based on the frame error rate or bit error similar to the SINR. It would have been obvious since those values that can indicate the quality of each subband as to how good it can carry information/data to would allow for good communication
Regarding claims 19 and 27:
AAPA in view of Sung, in view of Ramsay and in view of Seo teaches wherein the CQI includes a channel capacity so that selecting the first set is based on the channel capacity (AAPA [0011]-[0013]; Seo [0101]-[0108]).
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 WEDNEL CADEAU whose telephone number is (571)270-7843. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00-5:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh Fan can be reached at 571-272-3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WEDNEL CADEAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632 September 15, 2026
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