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”)
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/10/2026 has been entered.
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 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 an 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 determine to not 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 for 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 information is used for power control and the attenuated/or decreased state can be a low state (which can be an on 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 transmit 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 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 determine 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 teaches 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
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/WEDNEL CADEAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632 February 19, 2026