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
The amendment filed November 13, 2025 has been filed. Claims 1-4 and 6-19 remain pending in this application. No claims have been amended, cancelled, or are new.
Response to Arguments
As requested by Applicant, Examiner has provided another translation of Zhao for clarity and updated citations of Zhao accordingly, though a human-assisted machine translation instead of a purely human translation. However, in response to Applicant’s assertion of a difference between the previously submitted Espacenet translation of Zhao, paragraphs 59-60, filed August 13, 2025 and the corresponding citations of Zhao in the rejections of claims 1 and 13 in the Non-Final Rejection filed August 13, 2025, Examiner asserts that there were no discrepancies. More specifically, Applicant claims that the Espacenet translation of Zhao, paragraphs 59-60 recites “Specific system signals include the Ocusync system, Lightbridge system and the frequency hopping system used by the video transmission signal.", but this is not the case, as it recites “Specific system signals include the Ocusync system, Lightbridge system and the frequency hopping system used by the video transmission signal." which is consistent with the corresponding citation in the Non-Final Rejection filed August 13, 2025.
Nevertheless, the Non-Final Rejection filed August 13, 2025 has been retracted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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, 8, 10, 13, 14, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moo et al. (Multifunction RF Systems for Naval Platforms [2018]), hereinafter Moo, in view of McKerracher et al. (US 20170356988 A1), hereinafter McKerracher, and further in view of Zhao et al. (CN 113259029 B), hereinafter Zhao.
Regarding claim 1, Moo teaches
a hybrid system that is a hybrid RADAR and signal communication system (Fig. 1, hybrid radar and signal communication system), the hybrid system comprising:
an antenna (page 3, “The particular requirements for naval RF functions that most impact MFRF system design relate to transmit and/or receive specifications, since these are the requirements that can pose the greatest challenge to sharing a common set of electronics and antenna apertures between multiple RF functions.”),
an RF receiving system comprising a broadband receiver and a narrowband receiver (Fig. 1, receive array; page 17, “In the ideal MFRF system architecture, all of the hardware components are sufficiently wideband to support the full range of operating frequencies for the RF functions of interest.”; page 18, “Furthermore, the employment of relatively narrowband radiating elements in the AESA yields the attendant benefit of being able to readily source narrowband components with the required performance characteristics for the associated Rx and Tx channels.”; in the instant application, para. 30 read with para. 50 suggests that the frequency range of 400MHz to 36GHz is considered a broadband range, and is comparable to a wideband frequency range as defined by Moo on page 17 as being from 0.5GHz or 500MHz to 400GHz. As such, hereinafter examiner will interpret the terms “wideband” and subsequently “ultra-wideband”/”UWB” as sufficiently equivalent to “broadband” when in reference to a frequency range),
an RF transmitting system (Fig. 1, transmit array transmitting radar signals), and
a communications module (COMMS) configured to control transmitting and receiving of communication signals by the antenna, RF transmitting system, and RF receiving system (Fig. 1, hardware controls transmitting and receiving of RF and communication signals), but fails to teach
the broadband and narrowband receivers being configured to enable the broadband receiver to continuously monitor a broad frequency range while concurrently the narrowband receiver detects signals that are received within a narrow frequency band included within the broad frequency range, and
wherein the broadband receiver is further configured to receive control signals transmitted over a predetermined pattern of frequencies within an electronic warfare (EW) frequency range and wherein the broadband receiver receives the control signals at power levels that are below a predetermined ambient noise threshold.
However, McKerracher teaches
the broadband and narrowband receivers being configured to enable the broadband receiver to continuously monitor a broad frequency range while concurrently the narrowband receiver detects signals that are received within a narrow frequency band included within the broad frequency range (para. 34, “A wideband data receiver system 22 having a wideband antenna 34 coupled thereto is also controlled by radar processor 18 and is operated in coordination with the radar transmit and receive systems 14, 16 to receive wideband signal data concurrently with narrowband radar data being received via antenna 32 and receiver 16. In an embodiment, wideband data may correspond to a block of frequencies in the range of, for example, 2 megahertz [MHz] to 30 MHz.”; para. 38, “For high frequency radars, typical narrowband values are a band of about 20 to 50 KHz, with a frequency range of about 3 to 5 MHZ.”), and
Zhao teaches
wherein the broadband receiver is further configured to receive control signals transmitted over a predetermined pattern of frequencies within an electronic warfare (EW) frequency range and wherein the broadband receiver receives the control signals at power levels that are below a predetermined ambient noise threshold (paras. 59-60, “Specific system signals include the Ocusync system used for image transmission signals, the Lightbridge system, and the frequency hopping system used for control signals. […] The spectrum information specifically includes: received signal strength, received signal duration, received signal time, and received signal noise floor power value.”; para. 68, “S2, for the IQ data stream of the specific system signal output in step S1, noise reduction is performed using the power spectrum cancellation method. The power spectrum of the signal in each sub-bandwidth of the IQ data stream is subtracted from the average power spectrum of the entire IQ data stream signal, and then the results are summed. That is, the power of the fixed-frequency signal is canceled out, while the average power of the frequency-hopping signal remains unchanged. Then, by setting a noise reduction threshold, the data after power spectrum cancellation is processed a second time to remove random noise signals.”; Zhao is directed to a UAV identification method used in situations wherein a target is too far away for ranging systems to reliably identify, see Moo for further evidence of control signals transmitted within an EW frequency range).
Moo, McKerracher, and Zhao are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo with the teachings of McKerracher with the motivation of being able to perform multiple data reception functions at once, and with the teachings of Zhao with the motivation of preventing signal interference within the system.
Regarding claim 3, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 1,
wherein the RADAR system is an electronic warfare (EW) system (Moo; Fig. 1, MFRF system controls radar, ES, and EA functions with the same hardware),
the RADAR module is an EW control module (Moo; Fig. 1, MFRF system controls radar, ES, and EA functions with the same hardware),
the hybrid system is an EW/COMM system (Moo; Fig. 1, MFRF system controls communications, radar, ES, and EA functions with the same hardware),
the broadband frequency range is an EW frequency range (Moo; page 17, “In the ideal MFRF system architecture, all of the hardware components are sufficiently wideband to support the full range of operating frequencies for the RF functions of interest.”),
the receiving system is configured to receive a hostile waveform at any frequency within the EW frequency range (Moo; page 1, “A modern AESA employs a separate transmit [Tx] and/or receive [Rx] channel for each of its radiating elements, with a high-power amplifier [HPA] and low-noise amplifier [LNA] in each of the transmit and receive channels respectively.”; Table 1, ES and EA reception implicitly covers the entirety of its frequency operation range; page 27, “The design also included an interface with the ship’s ES system, the information from which was used by the EA function to track hostile emitters in angle, and aid in design of the jamming techniques.”),
the EW control module is configured to generate an EW waveform in response to the received hostile waveform (Moo; page 27, “The design also included an interface with the ship’s ES system, the information from which was used by the EA function to track hostile emitters in angle, and aid in design of the jamming techniques.”; page 9, “In the case of noise jamming, so-called “spot” noise can be generated with a bandwidth matched to that of the captured waveform in the DRFM, to ensure that the full jammer power is injected into the instantaneous bandwidth of the threat radar.”),
the RF transmitting system is configured to transmit the EW waveform at any frequency within the EW frequency range (Moo; Table 1, ES and EA transmission implicitly covers the entirety of its frequency operation range),
the communication signals can be transmitted and received at any selected frequency within the EW frequency range (Moo; Table 1, all communication functions operate in a frequency range encompassed by the Electronic Support and Electronic Attack frequency ranges of operation), but Moo fails to teach
the broadband and narrowband receivers are configured to enable the broadband receiver to continuously monitor the full EW frequency range while, concurrently, the narrowband receiver detects hostile electronic warfare signals that are received within the narrow frequency band.
However, McKerracher teaches
the broadband and narrowband receivers are configured to enable the broadband receiver to continuously monitor the full EW frequency range while, concurrently, the narrowband receiver detects hostile electronic warfare signals that are received within the narrow frequency band (para. 34, “A wideband data receiver system 22 having a wideband antenna 34 coupled thereto is also controlled by radar processor 18 and is operated in coordination with the radar transmit and receive systems 14, 16 to receive wideband signal data concurrently with narrowband radar data being received via antenna 32 and receiver 16. In an embodiment, wideband data may correspond to a block of frequencies in the range of, for example, 2 megahertz [MHz] to 30 MHz.”; para. 38, “For high frequency radars, typical narrowband values are a band of about 20 to 50 KHz, with a frequency range of about 3 to 5 MHZ.”; McKerracher in view of Moo teaches concurrent and frequency-interchangeable broadband-narrowband reception in an EW application).
Moo, McKerracher, and Zhao are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of Zhao with the teachings of McKerracher with the motivation of being able to perform multiple data reception functions at once.
Regarding claim 8, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 1,
wherein the hybrid system comprises a plurality of antennae (Moo; page 3, “Reduction of the ship RCS: By reducing the number of topside antennas, the aggregate contribution of the antenna apertures to the ship’s RCS is mitigated.”).
Regarding claim 10, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 8, but Moo fails to teach
wherein at least one of the antennae is dedicated to only transmitting and/or receiving radar signals.
However, McKerracher teaches
wherein at least one of the antennae is dedicated to only transmitting and/or receiving radar signals (Fig. 1, radar transmission antenna 30 and radar reception antenna 16; McKerracher is directed solely to radar systems).
Moo, McKerracher, and Zhao are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of Zhao with the teachings of McKerracher with the motivation of minimizing hardware costs.
Regarding claim 13, Moo teaches non-transient media containing software, the non-transient media being included in a hybrid electronic warfare and signal communication system (EW/COMM) comprising:
an antenna (page 3, “The particular requirements for naval RF functions that most impact MFRF system design relate to transmit and/or receive specifications, since these are the requirements that can pose the greatest challenge to sharing a common set of electronics and antenna apertures between multiple RF functions.”),
a receiving RF amplifier that is configured to receive a hostile waveform at any frequency within the EW frequency range (page 1, “A modern AESA employs a separate transmit [Tx] and/or receive [Rx] channel for each of its radiating elements, with a high-power amplifier [HPA] and low-noise amplifier [LNA] in each of the transmit and receive channels respectively.”; Table 1, Electronic Support [ES] and Electronic Attack [EA] reception implicitly covers the entirety of its frequency operation range; page 27, “The design also included an interface with the ship’s ES system, the information from which was used by the EA function to track hostile emitters in angle, and aid in design of the jamming techniques.”),
an EW control module configured to generate an EW waveform in response to the received hostile waveform (page 27, “The design also included an interface with the ship’s ES system, the information from which was used by the EA function to track hostile emitters in angle, and aid in design of the jamming techniques.”; page 9, “In the case of noise jamming, so-called “spot” noise can be generated with a bandwidth matched to that of the captured waveform in the DRFM, to ensure that the full jammer power is injected into the instantaneous bandwidth of the threat radar.”),
a transmitting RF amplifier that is configured to transmit the EW waveform at any frequency within an EW frequency range of the EW/COMM (page 1, “A modern AESA employs a separate transmit [Tx] and/or receive [Rx] channel for each of its radiating elements, with a high-power amplifier [HPA] and low-noise amplifier [LNA] in each of the transmit and receive channels respectively.”; Table 1, ES and EA transmission implicitly covers the entirety of its frequency operation range), and
a communications module (COMMS) configured to generate and receive communication signals, the communication signals being transmittable and receivable via the antenna, the receiving system, and the transmitting and receiving RF amplifiers, at any selected frequency within an EW frequency range of the EW/COMM (Fig. 1, communications functions share transmission and reception elements with other RF functions; page 1, “A modern AESA employs a separate transmit [Tx] and/or receive [Rx] channel for each of its radiating elements, with a high-power amplifier [HPA] and low-noise amplifier [LNA] in each of the transmit and receive channels respectively.”; Table 1, all communication functions operate in a frequency range encompassed by the ES and EA frequency ranges of operation),
the software, when executed by the EW/COMM system, being configured to cause the EW/COMM system to communicate data while also concurrently engaging in electronic warfare (Fig. 1, MFRF system operates communications, ES, and EA functions concurrently) by executing the steps of:
causing the EW control module to receive a hostile RF signal at an EW frequency via the antenna, the receiving RF amplifier, and the RF receiving system (page 1, “A modern AESA employs a separate transmit [Tx] and/or receive [Rx] channel for each of its radiating elements, with a high-power amplifier [HPA] and low-noise amplifier [LNA] in each of the transmit and receive channels respectively.”; Table 1, ES and EA reception implicitly covers the entirety of its frequency operation range; page 27, “The design also included an interface with the ship’s ES system, the information from which was used by the EA function to track hostile emitters in angle, and aid in design of the jamming techniques.”),
causing the EW control module to transmit an EW waveform at the EW frequency via the transmitting RF amplifier and antenna (page 8, “The EA function transmits a RF signal to jam a threat electronic system, which is usually a radar.”; the EA function is an EW function),
causing the COMMS to obtain received data at a communication receiving frequency via the receiving RF amplifier and RF receiving system (Fig. 1, communications functions share transmission and reception elements with other RF functions; page 1, “A modern AESA employs a separate transmit [Tx] and/or receive [Rx] channel for each of its radiating elements, with a high-power amplifier [HPA] and low-noise amplifier [LNA] in each of the transmit and receive channels respectively.”; Table 1, all communication functions operate in a frequency range encompassed by the Electronic Support and Electronic Attack frequency ranges of operation), and
causing the COMMS to emit transmitted data at a communication transmitting frequency via the transmitting RF amplifier (Fig. 1, communications functions share transmission and reception elements with other RF functions; page 1, “A modern AESA employs a separate transmit [Tx] and/or receive [Rx] channel for each of its radiating elements, with a high-power amplifier [HPA] and low-noise amplifier [LNA] in each of the transmit and receive channels respectively.”; Table 1, all communication functions operate in a frequency range encompassed by the ES and EA frequency ranges of operation), but fails to teach
an RF receiving system comprising a broadband receiver and a narrowband receiver, the broadband and narrowband receivers being configured to enable the broadband receiver to continuously monitor a broad frequency range while concurrently the narrowband receiver detects signals that are received within a narrow frequency band included within the broad frequency range,
wherein the broadband receiver is further configured to receive control signals transmitted over a predetermined pattern of frequencies within an electronic warfare (EW) frequency range and wherein the broadband receiver receives the control signals at power levels that are below a predetermined ambient noise threshold.
However, McKerracher teaches
an RF receiving system comprising a broadband receiver and a narrowband receiver, the broadband and narrowband receivers being configured to enable the broadband receiver to continuously monitor a broad frequency range while concurrently the narrowband receiver detects signals that are received within a narrow frequency band included within the broad frequency range (para. 34, “A wideband data receiver system 22 having a wideband antenna 34 coupled thereto is also controlled by radar processor 18 and is operated in coordination with the radar transmit and receive systems 14, 16 to receive wideband signal data concurrently with narrowband radar data being received via antenna 32 and receiver 16. In an embodiment, wideband data may correspond to a block of frequencies in the range of, for example, 2 megahertz [MHz] to 30 MHz.”; para. 38, “For high frequency radars, typical narrowband values are a band of about 20 to 50 KHz, with a frequency range of about 3 to 5 MHZ.”), and
Zhao teaches
wherein the broadband receiver is further configured to receive control signals transmitted over a predetermined pattern of frequencies within an electronic warfare (EW) frequency range and wherein the broadband receiver receives the control signals at power levels that are below a predetermined ambient noise threshold (paras. 59-60, “Specific system signals include the Ocusync system used for image transmission signals, the Lightbridge system, and the frequency hopping system used for control signals. […] The spectrum information specifically includes: received signal strength, received signal duration, received signal time, and received signal noise floor power value.”; para. 68, “S2, for the IQ data stream of the specific system signal output in step S1, noise reduction is performed using the power spectrum cancellation method. The power spectrum of the signal in each sub-bandwidth of the IQ data stream is subtracted from the average power spectrum of the entire IQ data stream signal, and then the results are summed. That is, the power of the fixed-frequency signal is canceled out, while the average power of the frequency-hopping signal remains unchanged. Then, by setting a noise reduction threshold, the data after power spectrum cancellation is processed a second time to remove random noise signals.”; Zhao is directed to a UAV identification method used in situations wherein a target is too far away for ranging systems to reliably identify, see Moo for further evidence of control signals transmitted within an EW frequency range).
Moo, McKerracher, and Zhao are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo with the teachings of McKerracher with the motivation of being able to perform multiple data reception functions at once, and with the teachings of Zhao with the motivation of preventing signal interference within the system.
Regarding claim 14, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the non-transient media of claim 13,
wherein the communication transmitting and receiving frequencies are both substantially equal to the EW frequency (Moo; Table 1, all transmission and receiving communication functions operate in a frequency range encompassed by the Electronic Support [ES] and Electronic Attack [EA] frequency ranges of operation).
Regarding claim 15, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the non-transient media of claim 14,
wherein the receiving and transmitting by the COMMS occurs during gap times when the EW control module is neither receiving the hostile RF signals nor transmitting the EW waveforms (Moo; pages 1-2, “In general, the AESA architecture allows dynamic reconfiguration of the antenna aperture, including partitioning of the array elements into subarrays, to form multiple simultaneous transmit and/or receive beams in independent directions with different beam patterns and waveforms. This provides the level of flexibility that is required to support multiple RF functions with the same antenna aperture.”; as any and all functions of the MFRF system may be simultaneous, an instance of the communications functions operating during gap times of the ES and EA functions is possible).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Bergsrud et al. (US 20220126961 A1), hereinafter Bergsrud.
Regarding claim 2, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 1, but fails to teach
wherein the COMMS is not physically distinct from the RADAR control module, but instead is a module of software code that is included in non-transient media within the RADAR control module.
However, Bergsrud teaches
wherein the COMMS is not physically distinct from the RADAR control module, but instead is a module of software code that is included in non-transient media within the RADAR control module (para. 23, “The active radar and communications enhanced sail section comprises an antenna array and a software-defined radio.”).
Moo, McKerracher, Zhao, and Bergsrud are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao with the teachings of Bergsrud with the motivation of minimizing hardware costs.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Brillant (US 20240145912 A1), hereinafter Brillant.
Regarding claim 4, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 3, but fails to teach
wherein the EW frequency range extends at least from 400 MHz to 36 GHz.
However, Brillant teaches
wherein the EW frequency range extends at least from 400 MHz to 36 GHz (para. 45, “The systems and methods according to the present invention have many useful applications and are of particular value when applied within the context of wireless communications systems, electronic warfare (EW) systems, radar systems, direction-finding (DF) systems, and any other system that utilizes beamforming techniques in order to achieve directional signal transmission and/or reception.”; para. 59, “The frequency band may span across portions of one or more sub-bands of the radio spectrum, including, for example, the high frequency [HF] band [covering frequencies in the range of 3-30 MHz] […] and the extremely high frequency [EHF] band [covering frequencies in the range of 30-300 GHz.]”).
Moo, McKerracher, Zhao, and Brillant are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao with the teachings of Brillant with the motivation of increasing channel bandwidth.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Zavrel et al. (US 20100283656 A1), hereinafter Zavrel.
Regarding claim 6, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 1, but fails to teach
wherein the narrowband receiver is further configured to receive data communications.
However, Zavrel teaches
wherein the narrowband receiver is further configured to receive data communications (para. 3, “This would permit using existing narrowband voice communications within a wideband signal, especially when receiving the narrowband signal while transmitting the wideband signal.”).
Moo, McKerracher, Zhao, and Zavrel are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao with the teachings of Zavrel with the motivation that narrowband communication signals have an high signal-to-noise ratio.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Gajjar et al. (US 20240116605 A1), hereinafter Gajjar.
Regarding claim 7, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 1, but fails to teach further comprising
a scrambler and a descrambler configured for encrypting and decrypting the communication signals.
However, Gajjar teaches further comprising
a scrambler and a descrambler configured for encrypting and decrypting the communication signals (para. 3, “The present invention is generally directed at floating or semi-submersible open ocean communication referred herein as Nautical Ground Station [NGS].“; para. 85, “A new ground station can consist of combination of some or all: […] security [crypto and other] […] Typically, a cryptosystem consists of three algorithms: one for key generation, one for encryption, and one for decryption.”).
Moo, McKerracher, Zhao, and Gajjar are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao with the teachings of Gajjar with the motivation of being able to secure communication channel from hostile interception.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Kumari et al. (US 20230358853 A1), hereinafter Kumari.
Regarding claim 9, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 8, but fails to teach
wherein at least one of the antennae is dedicated to only transmitting and/or receiving communication signals.
However, Kumari teaches
wherein at least one of the antennae is dedicated to only transmitting and/or receiving communication signals (para. 180, “The Bluetooth module 2712, the WLAN module 2714, and the SPS module 2716 may include their own dedicated antennas and/or utilize the antennas 2780 for communication.”).
Moo, McKerracher, Zhao, and Kumari are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao with the teachings of Kumari with the motivation of minimizing hardware costs.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Aune et al. (US 20220019795 A1), hereinafter Aune.
Regarding claim 11, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 1, but fails to teach
wherein the COMMS is configured to generate and to receive communication signals according to the digital data link (DDL) protocol.
However, Aune teaches
wherein the COMMS is configured to generate and to receive communication signals according to the digital data link (DDL) protocol (para. 44, “Data communication between the two portions may be provided by a telemetry system including a digital data link established by the ground control site with the device 111. The digital data link and/or telemetry system may be programmed or configured for real-time data communication.”).
Moo, McKerracher, Zhao, and Aune are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao with the teachings of Aune with the motivation that DDL protocols provide a high signal reliability and low error rate.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Noguchi (US 20230111392 A1).
Regarding claim 12, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the hybrid system of claim 1, but fails to teach
wherein the COMMS is configured to generate and to receive IQ encoded communication signals.
However, Noguchi teaches
wherein the COMMS is configured to generate and to receive IQ encoded communication signals (para. 88, “The light interference system 107 a of the coherent IQ optical receiver 107 causes the reception light signal p1 and the reference light r1 to interfere with each other according to a general coherent IQ reception principle used in digital coherent optical communication and generates an IQ reception signal m1.”; the IQ optical receiver 107 is part of an optical communication system).
Moo, McKerracher, Zhao, and Noguchi are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of reflected electromagnetic signal detection and processing. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao with the teachings of Noguchi with the motivation of increasing spectral efficiency.
Claims 16, 17, 18, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Kimura et al. (US 11394503 B2), hereinafter Kimura.
Regarding claim 16, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao teaches the non-transient media of claim 13,
wherein the EW/COMM further comprises a broadband receiver and a narrowband receiver, the narrowband receiver being physically distinct from the broadband receiver (Moo; page 29, “The second antenna layout comprises: a multiband or at least more narrowband combined Rx/Tx array that is utilized by radar functions and some in-band communication services; a smaller wideband Tx array for use by the EA function and the Tx portion of communication links; and a linear wideband Rx array to support ES and the Rx side of communication links.”); , and
wherein the software is further configured to cause the EW/COMM system to execute the steps of:
causing the broadband receiver to continuously monitor the EW frequency range for hostile RF energy (Moo; page 29, “The first configuration involves a wideband combined Rx/Tx AESA for each quadrant that is shared by radar, EA, ES and communication functions.”; page 31, “For example, the ES function must always be allocated a portion of system resources to enable continuous monitoring for threat emissions […]”), but fails to teach
causing the COMMS to transmit first control signals over a first control channel implemented according to a predetermined first frequency pattern,
causing the COMMS to receive second control signals via the broadband receiver over a second control channel implemented according to a predetermined second frequency pattern,
causing the COMMS to transmit the transmitted data at a first data communication frequency, and
causing the COMMS to receive the received data at a second data communication frequency via the narrowband receiver,
the first and second communication frequencies being determined according to the first and second control signals.
However, Kimura teaches
causing the COMMS to transmit first control signals over a first control channel implemented according to a predetermined first frequency pattern (col. 14 lines 60-67, “The communication unit 210 notifies the receiving station 100 of the frequency hopping setting information every time a communication link occurs for data transmission/reception. In this case, the frequency hopping setting information is transmitted using a control channel for each communication link by the radio communication apparatus belonging to the radio system 10 to be controlled by the communication control device 300.”),
causing the COMMS to receive second control signals over a second control channel implemented according to a predetermined second frequency pattern (col. 7 lines 50-58, “In the case where frequency bands overlap with each other as in secondary utilization of the frequency, there is a case where radio transmission interferes with each other among different radio systems 10. Therefore, in the communication system 1 according to the present disclosure, interference among different radio systems 10 is avoided by the communication control device 300 controlling whether or not frequency hopping is performed when each radio system 10 performs radio transmission.”; col. 14 lines 44-47, “The communication unit 210 receives the frequency hopping setting information from the communication control device 300 directly or indirectly via an arbitrary communication node such as the receiving station 100.”; col. 15 line 65 – col. 16 line 3, “Other than the example described above, for example, storage of the frequency hopping setting information and application of frequency hopping based on the frequency hopping setting information may be performed between different control channels or may be performed between different data channels.”; an instance where there are multiple radio systems with overlapping frequency bands would prompt multiple frequency hopping settings to be generated),
causing the COMMS to transmit the transmitted data at a first data communication frequency (col. 6 lines 24-27, “More accurately, the receiving station 100 is a radio communication apparatus which receives data which is transmitted from the transmitting station 200 while frequency hopping is performed.”; data transmitted using frequency hopping is transmitted with a plurality of varying carrier frequencies), and
causing the COMMS to receive the received data at a second data communication frequency (col. 6 lines 24-27, “More accurately, the receiving station 100 is a radio communication apparatus which receives data which is transmitted from the transmitting station 200 while frequency hopping is performed.”; Fig. 1, the receiving station 100 is part of the communication system; data transmitted using frequency hopping is transmitted with a plurality of varying carrier frequencies),
the first and second communication frequencies being determined according to the first and second control signals (col. 14 lines 60-67, “The communication unit 210 notifies the receiving station 100 of the frequency hopping setting information every time a communication link occurs for data transmission/reception.”; col. 6 lines 24-27, “More accurately, the receiving station 100 is a radio communication apparatus which receives data which is transmitted from the transmitting station 200 while frequency hopping is performed.”; data transmitted using frequency hopping is transmitted with a plurality of varying carrier frequencies), but fails to teach
a broadband receiver operated by the COMMS, and
a narrowband receiver operated by the COMMS.
However, Moo teaches a
a broadband receiver operated by the COMMS (page 29, “The second antenna layout comprises: […] a linear wideband Rx array to support ES and the Rx side of communication links.”), and
a narrowband receiver operated by the COMMS (page 29, “The second antenna layout comprises: a multiband or at least more narrowband combined Rx/Tx array that is utilized by radar functions and some in-band communication services […].”).
Moo, McKerracher, Zhao, and Kimura are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of radar and communication devices. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao with the teachings of Kimura with the motivation that applying a frequency pattern to a signal increases its resistance to interference and interception.
Regarding claim 17, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Kimura teaches the non-transient media of claim 16,
wherein the EW frequency and the second data communication frequency are both within a bandwidth of the narrowband receiver (Moo; page 2, “In this instance, a transmit beam is being used by the radar to illuminate an incoming anti-ship missile for the purpose of supporting the ship’s fire control system, while a second radar transmit beam is tracking a helicopter within its search volume.”; page 29, “The second antenna layout comprises: a multiband or at least more narrowband combined Rx/Tx array that is utilized by radar functions and some in-band communication services […].”).
Regarding claim 18, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Kimura teaches the non-transient media of claim 17,
wherein the hostile RF signals and the received data are concurrently received by the narrowband receiver (Moo; Fig. 1, MFRF system supports concurrent operation of communications, ES, and EA functions; pages 1-2, “In general, the AESA architecture allows dynamic reconfiguration of the antenna aperture, including partitioning of the array elements into subarrays, to form multiple simultaneous transmit and/or receive beams in independent directions with different beam patterns and waveforms. This provides the level of flexibility that is required to support multiple RF functions with the same antenna aperture.”; page 29, “The second antenna layout comprises: a multiband or at least more narrowband combined Rx/Tx array that is utilized by radar functions and some in-band communication services […].”).
Regarding claim 19, Moo in view of McKerracher and further in view of Zhao and Kimura teaches the non-transient media of claim 17,
wherein the EW frequency is substantially equal to the second data communication frequency, and wherein the received data is received during gap times when the narrowband receiver is not receiving the hostile RF signals (Moo; pages 1-2, “In general, the AESA architecture allows dynamic reconfiguration of the antenna aperture, including partitioning of the array elements into subarrays, to form multiple simultaneous transmit and/or receive beams in independent directions with different beam patterns and waveforms. This provides the level of flexibility that is required to support multiple RF functions with the same antenna aperture.”; as any and all functions of the MFRF system may be simultaneous, an instance of the communications functions operating during gap times of the ES and EA functions is possible).
Conclusion
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/ERIC K HODAC/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648