Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 17/881,451

MACHINE LEARNING FOR RF IMPAIRMENT DETECTION

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Aug 04, 2022
Priority
Aug 04, 2021 — provisional 63/229,396 +2 more
Examiner
MOORE, IAN N
Art Unit
2469
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Arris Enterprises LLC
OA Round
3 (Final)
56%
Grant Probability
Moderate
4-5
OA Rounds
8m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 56% of resolved cases
56%
Career Allowance Rate
61 granted / 108 resolved
-1.5% vs TC avg
Strong +45% interview lift
Without
With
+45.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
4y 7m
Avg Prosecution
5 currently pending
Career history
120
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.4%
-38.6% vs TC avg
§103
88.9%
+48.9% vs TC avg
§102
5.1%
-34.9% vs TC avg
§112
3.2%
-36.8% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 108 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 Arguments Applicant’s arguments regarding §112b rejection, see page 4, filed 4/16/2026, with respect to claims 7 and 8 have been fully considered and are persuasive since the claims are now cancelled. The §112b rejectionclaims 7 and 8 have been withdrawn. Applicant's arguments regarding prior art rejection, filed 4/ have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Regarding claims 1-6 and 9-10, the applicant argued that, “… independent claim 1 - from which all other pending claims depend - recites the limitations of "receiving measurements comprising RF power measured over a contiguous range of frequencies, where at least a first portion of the contiguous range is used to transmit signals and at least a second portion of the contiguous range is unused." (Emphasis added). This requirement that the "second portion" of the contiguous range be unused carries through the rest of the claim, because the claim consistently uses the antecedent "the" to describe this term on every subsequent use of it. This means that at every step of claim 1, the "second portion" must not be used. Claim 1 also recites the step of "infilling the at least a second portion of the continuous range with RF power to provide modified measurements" (which again means that the infilled "second portion" must still be not used. But the Examiner tries to read this step upon the process by which McHenry's DSA engine marks a previously unused portion of spectrum as being available for use, on the assumption that once it is used, the identified portion has been "infilled" with RF power. See Final Rejection at 4. But as just noted, this would mean that the "second portion" fails to satisfy the requirement that the "at least a second portion of the contiguous range [be] unused. Therefore, the Examiner has failed to provide a reasoned explanation of the obviousness of claim 1, and by extension claims 2-10 as well..” in pages 4-5. [Emphasis added] In response to applicant's argument, the examiner respectfully disagrees. In response to argument (I) regarding broadly recited claim limitation “second portion of the contiguous range be unused”, the claim is constructed and interpret in light of the specification as follows: [0032] In either the SP or ML approach, it is beneficial to initially identify any part of the RF spectrum that is intentionally left un-used. For example, the downstream (DS) spectrum typically comprises frequencies between 54-860 MHz. Operators subdivide this DS spectrum for various services such as the high-speed data and video services. Within the spectrum used for high-speed service, single-carrier QAM channels and OFDM channels are placed in different frequency locations, where the video and SC-QAM channels are 6-Mhz wide, while the OFDM channels may be wider. Operators may choose to leave unused spectrum for various reasons—reserving bandwidth for future expansion of specific services, reserving bandwidth to avoid interfering with local FM/LTE or other regulated frequencies, or excessive bandwidth availability for the set of services currently offered. Moreover, the portion of the spectrum that is un-used can vary widely in different service groups depending on the type and tiers of residential and business services offered in those service groups. [Emphasis added] In view of the above, the specification describes unused spectrum (i.e. unused portion of the contiguous range) as “reserved bandwidth”, “excessive bandwidth”, or “available bandwidth”. Furthermore, the specification states that such unused portion varies depending on business offering of the operators. Thus, it is clear that “unused portion” is nothing more than available, candidate, backup, possible, empty or unoccupied portions of the spectrum as shown in McHenry and Shima. According, the combined system of McHenry and Shima is reasonably and consistently applied, in light of the applicant’s own specification, to the broadly recited claims as detailed below. In particular, McHenry discloses receiving measurements comprising RF power measured over a contiguous range of frequencies (see FIG. 1A, 2; sensing module 110 receiving/detecting sensing/measuring spectrum/RF power/energy over a band1/contiguous/range of spectrum/frequencies (see FIG. 7, 8-11): see ¶¶ 114, 119, 124-126, 131, 132; also see FIG. 3, Step 310; ¶141 ), where at least a first portion of the contiguous range is used to transmit signals (see FIG. 7, 8-11, 14, first portion/part of band/contiguous/range of spectrum/frequencies is active/use/occupied to transmit signals; see ¶¶ 39, 92-94, 166, 167, 169, 171, 174, ) and at least a second portion of the contiguous range is unused (see FIG. 7, 8-11, 14: second portion/part of band/contiguous range of spectrum/frequencies is available/unused (e.g. candidate, backup, possible, or empty,); see ¶¶ 11, 39, 92-94, 109, 110, 114, 121, 128, 155, 158, 164, 171, 174; also see FIG. 13). As disclose above, McHenry’s FIG. 7 and 10 and corresponding paragraphs clearly disclose, Inter alia, the claim limitation “at least a second portion of the contiguous range is used”. PNG media_image1.png 478 668 media_image1.png Greyscale PNG media_image2.png 470 674 media_image2.png Greyscale [Emphasis added] [0011] … Each of the plurality of channels may be classified as active or candidate, wherein an active channel is a channel being used by the device, and a candidate channel is a channel on which the device has detected a cooperative signal on the channel. Each channel classified as active may be verified as available for use more frequently than each channel classified as candidate. Each of the plurality of channels may be classified as active, backup, candidate, or possible, where an active channel is a channel being used by the device, a backup channel is a channel available for use by the device, a candidate channel is a channel on which the device has detected a cooperative signal on the channel, and a possible channel is a channel that is accessible by the device. Each channel classified as active is verified as available for use more frequently than each channel classified as backup, candidate, or possible. [Emphasis added] [0112] 1. Local "hole" sensing (or monitoring) and local adaptation techniques that enable individual DSA-enabled devices to identify available communications resources without causing interference. That is, DSA-enabled devices may identify unused portions of the communications resources space (i.e. unused regions of frequency, spatial/angle, and/or time). [Emphasis added] The secondary art, Shima also disclose a method receiving measurements (see FIG. 4, Wideband spectral sensing 400) comprising RF power measured over a frequencies (see FIG. 4, Wideband spectral sensing 404 sensing RF power over spectrum of large frequencies/band X(n): see ¶¶ 35, 36, 39, 41, 63, 68,72; also see FIG. 9,Steps 906, 9082, FIG. 10, Steps 1006, 1008) where at least a first portion of the range is used to transmit signals (see FIG. 9, first part/portion of frequencies/band is occupied/used to transmit signals: see ¶¶ 72, 75, 77, 78) and at least a second portion of the range is unused (see FIG. 9, second part/portion of frequencies/band is “not” occupied (i.e. unused); see ¶¶ 72, 75, 77, 78; also see FIG. 10, ¶77). As disclose above, Shima’s FIG. 9 and corresponding paragraphs , Inter Alia, show the claim limitation “at least a second portion of the contiguous range is used”. PNG media_image3.png 862 628 media_image3.png Greyscale [0074] FIG. 9 illustrates example operations of the technology disclosed herein. … The output of the DNN is a probability of a signal being present or absent in the current channel. If the radio band is not occupied per the decision in 910, then the radio can proceed to 920 to set the transmitter parameters to the correct center frequency and bandwidth. Operation 922 denotes the radio transmitting on the desired frequency band. Afterwards, the radio re-enters the idle mode of 902. [Emphasis added] In response to argument (II) regarding broadly recited claim limitation "infilling the at least a second portion of the continuous range with RF power to provide modified measurements", the combined system of McHenry and Shima disclose these limitation as shown below. First, the broad claim recite “…to provide modified measurement”, which is merely intended use since there is no step or features of modifying RF power before or after infilling. It is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., modifying RF power) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims3. Second, McHenry discloses infilling the at least a second portion of the continuous range with RF power to provide modified measurements (see FIG. 1, 2, DSA Engine 120; FIG. 3, Step 340; FIG. 13, assign/infilling second portion/part of band/contiguous/range of spectrum/frequencies as active or use with spectrum/RF power/energy in order to provide selected/modified sensed/measured bands/spectrum: see ¶¶ 114, 115, 141, 203-208,; also see FIG. 20, ¶¶206-208). Third, Shima disclose infilling the at least a second portion with RF power to provide modified measurements (see FIG. 9, Steps 934, 936; FIG. 10, Steps 1034, 1036; assigning/allocation second part/portion of frequencies/band which are not” occupied (i.e. unused) with RF power (by turning active or ON) to provide decided sensed signals; see ¶¶ 72, 75, 77, 78 ). In response to argument (III) regarding “Examiner has failed to provide a reasoned explanation of the obviousness”, applicant's arguments are against the references individually. One cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references4. In this case, the combined system of McHenry and Shima, individually or in-combination, disclose the argued limitations as set forth above. In response to applicant’s argument that there is no reasonable explanation, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art5. The office has clearly provided reasonable explanation of obvious as previous office action6 and below. In this case, although McHenry discloses analyzing the modified measurements to identify at least one abnormality in a signal within the at least a first portion of the contiguous range , McHenry does not explicitly disclose “automatically” analyzing. Shima also discloses, Inter alia, well known missing feature of “automatically”. Shima discloses wideband spectral sensing method where it determine/identify areas/boundaries of second part/portion of frequencies/band which are not” occupied (i.e. unused) and assigning/allocation second part/portion of frequencies/band which are not” occupied (i.e. unused) with RF power (by turning active or ON) to provide decided sensed signals, and ACAR7 automatically analyze the decided sensed signals to identify weak or interferences in a signal within the first part/portion of frequencies/band is occupied/used to transmit signals. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “automatically” analyzing as taught by Shima in the system of McHenry, so that it would enable detection of low energy and low probability detection and analytical function by using deep learning or deep neural network systems; see Shima ¶7. [Emphasis added] Thus, it is clear that the combined system of McHenry and Shima still disclose the broadly claim invention, and the rejection is hereby sustained. 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 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McHenry (US 20100173586) in view of Shima (US 20180324595). Regarding Claim 1, McHenry discloses a method (see FIG. 1A, 2, process/method performed by DSA-enable device 100) comprising: receiving measurements comprising RF power measured over a contiguous range of frequencies (see FIG. 1A, 2; sensing module 110 receiving/detecting sensing/measuring spectrum/RF power/energy over a band8/contiguous/range of spectrum/frequencies (see FIG. 7, 8-11): see ¶¶ 114, 119, 124-126, 131, 132; also see FIG. 3, Step 310; ¶141 ), where at least a first portion of the contiguous range is used to transmit signals (see FIG. 7, 8-11, 14, first portion/part of band/contiguous/range of spectrum/frequencies is active/use/occupied to transmit signals; see ¶¶ 39, 92-94, 166, 167, 169, 171, 174, ) and at least a second portion of the contiguous range is unused (see FIG. 7, 8-11, 14: second portion/part of band/contiguous range of spectrum/frequencies is available/unused (e.g. candidate, backup, possible, or empty,); see ¶¶ 11, 39, 92-94, 109, 110, 114, 121, 128, 155, 158, 164, 171, 174; also see FIG. 13) identifying respective boundaries of the at least a second portion of the contiguous range (see FIG. 1, 2, DSA Engine 120; FIG. 3, Step 310, 320, 330; FIG. 5, DSA Engine 120 detects/identify spectrum area/boundary (e.g. public safety, cellular, DoD, TV, etc.) of second portion/part of band/contiguous/range of spectrum/frequencies: see ¶¶ 92-94, 109, 110, 114, 121, 128, 141 155, 158, 163, 164, 171, 174; also see FIG. 13) , infilling the at least a second portion of the continuous range with RF power to provide modified measurements (see FIG. 1, 2, DSA Engine 120; FIG. 3, Step 340; FIG. 13, assign/infilling second portion/part of band/contiguous/range of spectrum/frequencies as active or use with spectrum/RF power/energy in order to provide selected/modified sensed/measured bands/spectrum: see ¶¶ 114, 115, 141, 203-208,; also see FIG. 20, ¶¶206-208) ; and analyzing the modified measurements to identify at least one abnormality in a signal within the at least a first portion of the contiguous range (see FIG. 1, 2, DSA Engine 120; FIG. 3, Steps 360; determining/analyzing the selected/modified sensed/measurement bands/spectrum to detect an adverse condition within the first portion/part of band/contiguous range of spectrum/frequencies : see ¶¶ 141, 196, 210, 211; also see FIG. 21C, ¶220-221). Although McHenry discloses analyzing the modified measurements to identify at least one abnormality in a signal within the at least a first portion of the contiguous range as set forth above, McHenry does not explicitly disclose “automatically” analyzing. However, Shima teaches a method receiving measurements (see FIG. 4, Wideband spectral sensing 400) comprising RF power measured over a frequencies (see FIG. 4, Wideband spectral sensing 404 sensing RF power over spectrum of large frequencies/band X(n): see ¶¶ 35, 36, 39, 41, 63, 68,72; also see FIG. 9,Steps 906, 9089, FIG. 10, Steps 1006, 1008) where at least a first portion of the range is used to transmit signals (see FIG. 9, first part/portion of frequencies/band is occupied/used to transmit signals: see ¶¶ 72, 75, 77, 78) and at least a second portion of the range is unused (see FIG. 9, second part/portion of frequencies/band is “not” occupied (i.e. unused); see ¶¶ 72, 75, 77, 78; also see FIG. 10, ¶77); identifying respective boundaries of the at least a second portion (see FIG. 9, Step 910, FIG. 10, Step 1010: determine/identify areas/boundaries of second part/portion of frequencies/band which are not” occupied (i.e. unused); see ¶¶ 72, 75, 77, 78) infilling the at least a second portion with RF power to provide modified measurements (see FIG. 9, Steps 934, 936; FIG. 10, Steps 1034, 1036; assigning/allocation second part/portion of frequencies/band which are not” occupied (i.e. unused) with RF power (by turning active or ON) to provide decided sensed signals; see ¶¶ 72, 75, 77, 78 ); and automatically analyzing the modified measurements to identify at least one abnormality in a signal within the at least a first portion (see FIG. 10, Step 1038, ACAR10 automatically analyze the decided sensed signals to identify weak or interferences in a signal within the first part/portion of frequencies/band is occupied/used to transmit signals; see ¶¶ 72, 75, 77, 78). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “automatically” analyzing as taught by Shima in the system of McHenry, so that it would enable detection of low energy and low probability detection and analytical function by using deep learning or deep neural network systems; see Shima ¶7. Regarding Claim 2, McHenry discloses the step of analyzing the modified measurements is performed by an algorithm (see FIG. 1, 2, DSA Engine 120 uses various algorithms for determination/analyzing selected/modified sensed/measurement bands/spectrum (e.g. generic algorithm (see ¶160), signal classification algorithm (see ¶163, 193,300, FFT), schedule/time algorithm (see ¶¶250, 267)). McHenry does not explicitly disclose “automatically” analyzing. Shima discloses the step of automatically analyzing the modified measurements is performed by a Machine Learning (ML) algorithm (see ¶41, ACAR uses machine learning techniques to automatically analyze the decided sensed signals ). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “automatically” analyzing as taught by Shima in the system of McHenry, so that it would enable detection of low energy and low probability detection and analytical function by using deep learning or deep neural network systems; see Shima ¶7. Regarding Claim 3, McHenry discloses the step of analyzing the modified measurements is performed by a signal processing (SP) algorithm (see FIG. 1, 2, DSA Engine 120 uses signal classification/processing algorithms for determination/analyzing selected/modified sensed/measurement bands/spectrum [e.g. signal classification algorithm (see ¶¶163, 193,300, FFT), schedule/time algorithm (see ¶¶250, 267]). McHenry does not explicitly disclose “automatically” analyzing. Shima discloses the step of automatically analyzing the modified measurements is performed by a signal processing (SP) algorithm [see FIG. 4, Wideband spectral sensing 400: automatically analyze the decided sensed signals using signal detector algorithm (e.g. using spectrum analysis (see ¶27,29), Masking (see ¶29), Filtering/FFT (see ¶43, 50), efficient channelization algorithm (see ¶62), liner processing algorithm (see ¶63)]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “automatically” analyzing as taught by Shima in the system of McHenry, so that it would enable detection of low energy and low probability detection and analytical function by using deep learning or deep neural network systems; see Shima ¶7. Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McHenry in view of Shima as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Zhu et. al. (Proactive Network Maintenance using Fast Accurate Anomaly Localization and Classification on 1-D Data Series11). Regarding Claim 4, McHenry discloses identifying at least one abnormality (see FIG. 1, 2, DSA Engine 120 identify/detecting an adverse condition; see ¶¶ 141, 210, 220, 221). Shima discloses capable of identifying at least one abnormality (see FIG. 4, Wideband spectral sensing 400 identify weak or interferences signal; ¶25, 31, 32-33, 40). Although the combined system of McHenry and Shima discloses capable of identifying at least one abnormality as set forth above, the combined system of McHenry and Shima does not explicitly disclose “suck-out” abnormalities. However, Zhu discloses identifying at least one abnormality in the group consisting of suck-out abnormalities and roll-off abnormalities (see page 2, right column, third paragraph – page 3, left column, bullet points 1-4: abnormalities include suck-out, roll-off). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide “suck-out” abnormalities as taught by Zhu, in the combined system of McHenry and Shima, so that it would provide efficiently and accurately classify abnormalities (see Zhu page 1, Abstract). Claim 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McHenry in view of Shima as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Weng et. al. (US 20120270537 A1). Regarding claim 5, the combined system of McHenry and Shima discloses identifying respective boundaries of the at least a second portion of the contiguous range as set forth above in claim 1. McHenry further discloses capturing spectral measurements over successive intervals of a first frequency width (see FIG. 8, 10, 11, 14, 30: classifying/capturing sensed/measured bands/spectrum over range/successive time/interval (e.g. FIG. 8 Time T0-T4, or FIG. 30, t1-t2) of a first frequency/band width/spectrum [e.g. FIG. 9, Wide Band 1 (WB-1) for public safety/DoD band spectrum, or FIG. 30, classifying first frequency bandwidth BW over t1-t2 (e.g. BWC or smaller frequency): see ¶¶ 168-174, 306-308]. Shima further discloses capturing spectral measurements over successive intervals of a first frequency width ( FIG. 9, Step 906 and 908; see FIG. 10, Step 1006 and 1008; determine/identify detected/capture spectral sensed/measured over time-series data of first frequency/channel per Fourier transform width/period; see ¶¶ 62-65; 68, 69, 74; also see FIG. 5, time series, FIG. 2, CNN12 and DNN processes: see ¶¶ 42-43). Although the combined system of McHenry and Shima discloses capturing spectral measurements over successive intervals of a first frequency width as set forth above, the combined system of McHenry and Shima does not explicitly disclose power spectral “density”. However, Weng discloses a system capturing spectral density measurements over successive intervals of a first frequency width (see ¶ 93: the power spectral density is a power normalized according to a number of frequency bins/first frequency widths over which the power was measured). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide power spectral “density” as taught by Weng in the combined system of McHenry and Shima so that it would improve power consumption (see Weng ¶ 2). Regarding claim 6, the combined system of McHenry , Shima and Weng discloses captured spectral density measurements over a frequency width as set forth above. McHenry discloses normalizing captured spectral density measurements over a second frequency width larger than the first frequency width [see FIG. 29 and 30, normalizing classified/captured spectral sensed/measurement over second frequency bandwidth (e.g. FIG. 30, BWD or larger frequency) larger than smaller first frequency bandwidth (e.g. BWC ); see ¶¶ 299, 306-308]. Weng discloses a system normalizing captured spectral density measurements over a second frequency width larger than the first frequency width (see FIG. 5-6, see ¶¶ 80, 93, 94, 100, 141-143,147; the power spectral density is a power normalized according to a number of frequency bins where larger/second frequency bandwidths which is larger than smaller/first frequency bandwidth over which the power was measured). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide power spectral “density” as taught by Weng in the combined system of McHenry and Shima so that it would improve power consumption (see Weng ¶ 2). Claims 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McHenry in view of Shima as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Persson et. al. (US 20190280783 A1). Regarding claim 9, McHenry discloses infilling the at least a second portion of the continuous range with RF power to provide modified measurements based on predetermined parameter [see FIG. 1, 2, DSA Engine 120; FIG. 3, Step 340, 350; FIG. 13, assign/infilling second portion/part of band/contiguous range of spectrum/frequencies as active or use with spectrum/RF power/energy in order to provide selected/modified sensed/measured bands/spectrum based on predetermined/acceptable parameter (e.g. adverse condition, acceptable condition, candidate list, etc.): see ¶¶ 114, 115, 141, 203-208,; also see FIG. 20, ¶206-208]. Shima also discloses infilling the second portion of the range with RF power based on a predetermined parameter [see FIG. 9, Steps 934, 936; FIG. 10, Steps 1034, 1036; assigning/allocation second part/portion of frequencies/band which are not” occupied (i.e. unused) with RF power (by turning active or ON) to provide decided sensed signals based on predetermined/favorable parameter (e.g. channel quality, SNR, power, interference, ); see ¶¶ 72, 75, 77, 78 ]. Although the combined system of McHenry and Shima discloses infilling the second portion of the continuous range with values based on a predetermined parameter as set forth above, the combined system of McHenry and Shima does not explicitly disclose a predetermined “infill value”. However, Persson discloses infilling the second portion of the continuous range with RF power values based on a predetermined infill value (see ¶ 49-50: receiving determined/measured access point (AP) comprising imputation/infilling radio access point data set/continuous portion with RSSI/RF power values based on predetermined/measured data set values (which are missing)). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide a predetermined “infill value” as taught by Persson in combined system of McHenry and Shima so that it would achieve high accuracy (see Persson ¶ 59). Regarding claim 10, the combined system of McHenry, Shima and Persson discloses all aspect of claim 10. McHenry discloses a magnitude of power less than what is used to transmit signals in the contiguous range of frequencies (see ¶¶ 114, 130,132, 291, 350; sensing/determining different power levels/magnitude of structure of bands is not maximum allowable transit power (i.e. less than what is used to transmit signal) in band/contiguous range of spectrum/frequencies: also see FIG. 26-27). Shima also discloses a magnitude of power less than what is used to transmit signals in the range of frequencies (see FIG. 6, detecting low power level/magnitude compare to acceptable power to transmit signals in the band/range of frequencies/band; see ¶¶ 25, 63, 66). Persson also discloses infilling with a value selected to be of a magnitude of power less than what is used to transmit signals in the contiguous range of frequencies (see ¶¶ 30, 48, 49,57: missing values are assigned a very low RSSI value/power magnitude corresponding to zero or close to zero signal strength (i.e., less than the signal strength used to transmit signals)). Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Rupe (US 11700082): FIG 1 THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 Ian N Moore whose telephone number is (571)272-3085. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9 AM - 5:30 PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Deborah J Reynolds can be reached at 571-272-0734. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. IAN N. MOORE Supervisory Patent Examiner Art Unit 2469 /Ian N Moore/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2469 1 A radio band is a small frequency band (a contiguous section of the range of the radio spectrum) in which channels are usually used or set aside for the same purpose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_spectrum#Bands 2 Utilizing DNN (Deep Neural Network) 3 See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993). 4 See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986). 5 See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007). 6 Id. at Non-final action (1/16/26), pages 4-5 7 ACAR=Automated Channel Access Recognition 8 A radio band is a small frequency band (a contiguous section of the range of the radio spectrum) in which channels are usually used or set aside for the same purpose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_spectrum#Bands 9 Utilizing DNN (Deep Neural Network) 10 ACAR=Automated Channel Access Recognition 11 2020 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PROGNOSTICS AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT (ICPHM), IEEE, 8 JUNE 2020 (2020-06-08), pages 1-11, 12 CNN= Convolutional neural network
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Aug 04, 2022
Application Filed
May 01, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Sep 02, 2025
Response Filed
Jan 16, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Apr 16, 2026
Response Filed
Jul 02, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

4-5
Expected OA Rounds
56%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+45.3%)
4y 7m (~8m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 108 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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