DETAILED ACTION
Status of Case
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the claims filed on 1/29/2026.
Claims 1-19 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 1/29/2026 with respect to the pending claims have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
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 1-5, 12-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (USPN 9,143,206) in view of Mizrahi (USPAN 2017/0093492) and Yoon (USPAN 2011/0171930).
Consider claims 1 and 12, Zhang discloses a method of saving power in a system (see figure 10, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is said method) and a corresponding system (see figures 1, 6, 11, and 12, wherein disclosed is said system), to:
based on a determination of the control circuit that a parameter associated with the remote unit exceeds a threshold, turn off selected antennas in an antenna array at the remote unit; and serve user equipment using a remainder of the antenna array (see col. 16 lines 33-67: “At step 1006, the UE determines whether the at least one signal metric exceeds a threshold. In an aspect, the UE may determine whether the at least one signal metric exceeds a threshold by implementing a comparator configured to compare the at least one signal metric to the threshold. In another aspect, a processor of the UE may compare the at least one signal metric to the threshold. If the at least one signal metric does not exceed the threshold (1006), then at step 1012, the UE selects the maximum number of antennas of the UE to receive a multicast/broadcast signal. However, if the at least one signal metric exceeds the corresponding threshold (1006), then at step 1008, the UE selects a number of antennas from among a set of antennas of the UE for receiving the multicast/broadcast signal. For example, if the serving cell geometry factor G.sub.SC, MBSFN geometry factor G.sub.MBSFN, RSRP measurement, RSRQ measurement, or SNR measurement of an MBSFN signal exceeds the corresponding threshold, the UE may select less than the total number of the antennas of the UE for receiving the multicast/broadcast signal. For example, if the UE is equipped with two antennas, the UE may select less than the total number of the antennas for receiving the multicast/broadcast signal by enabling (e.g., turning on) one antenna for receiving the multicast/broadcast signal and disabling (e.g., turning off) the other antenna, e.g., the antenna with the highest signal strength may be enabled and the other antenna disabled.”).
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Although Zhang discloses a system (see above), Zhang does not specifically disclose a distributed communication system (DCS) comprising: a central unit configured to be coupled to a service provider; and at least one remote unit communicatively coupled to the central unit.
Mizrahi discloses a distributed communication system (DCS) comprising: a central unit configured to be coupled to a service provider; and at least one remote unit communicatively coupled to the central unit (see figure 1 and paragraphs 6 and 23: distributed communications system (DCS) comprising a remote antenna unit and a central unit).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Mizrahi. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a DCS system so that a remote unit can facilitate distribute of communications services from a radio source into the DCS at locations other than at a centralized location in the DCS (see paragraph 6 of Mizrahi).
Zhang does not specifically disclose that the parameter comprises at least one of: a number of user equipment in an area of coverage associated with the remote unit, and an overall traffic volume associated with the area of coverage.
Yoon discloses that the parameter comprises at least one of: a number of user equipment in an area of coverage associated with the remote unit, and an overall traffic volume associated with the area of coverage (see paragraph 42: parameters include “amount of communication traffic” and “number of users,” which are compared to a threshold and if exceeding the threshold, an ON/OFF command is sent to power off power sources of PA units of antennas).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Yoon. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for supporting an energy saving function in a communication system (see paragraph 3 of Yoon).
Consider claim 2, Zhang discloses periodically activating all antenna elements of the antenna array (see col. 16 lines 33-67: it is implied that all of the antenna elements would be activated when the threshold is not exceeded).
Consider claim 3, Zhang discloses that after activating all antenna elements, rescanning for user equipment to reevaluate the parameter (see col. 16 lines 33-67: it is implied that all of the antenna elements would be activated when the threshold is not exceeded, but when the parameter (such as the RSRP measurement, RSRQ measurement, or SNR measurement) exceeds the threshold, this would require a rescanning for user equipment).
Consider claim 4, Zhang discloses measuring the parameter (see col. 16 lines 33-67: “RSRP measurement, RSRQ measurement, or SNR measurement”).
Consider claim 5, Zhang discloses measuring the parameter comprises determining a single-to-interference noise ratio (SINR) for each user equipment in an area of coverage associated with the remote unit (see col. 16 lines 33-67: SNR).
Consider claim 13, Zhang does not disclose that the DCS comprises a distributed antenna system.
Mizrahi discloses that the DCS comprises a distributed antenna system unit (see figure 1 and paragraphs 6 and 23).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Mizrahi. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a DCS system so that a remote unit can facilitate distribute of communications services from a radio source into the DCS at locations other than at a centralized location in the DCS (see paragraph 6 of Mizrahi).
Consider claim 14, Zhang discloses that the DCS comprises a radio access network (see figure 1: E-UTRAN: Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network).
Consider claim 15, Zhang does not disclose that the control circuit is collocated with the at least one remote unit.
Mizrahi discloses that the control circuit is collocated with the at least one remote unit (see figure 1 and paragraphs 6 and 23: said control circuit is collocated with the remote unit).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Mizrahi. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a DCS system so that a remote unit can facilitate distribute of communications services from a radio source into the DCS at locations other than at a centralized location in the DCS (see paragraph 6 of Mizrahi).
Consider claim 16, Zhang does not disclose that the control circuit is collocated with the central unit.
Mizrahi discloses that the control circuit is collocated with the central unit (see figure 1 and paragraphs 6 and 23: said control circuit is collocated with the central unit).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Mizrahi. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a DCS system so that a remote unit can facilitate distribute of communications services from a radio source into the DCS at locations other than at a centralized location in the DCS (see paragraph 6 of Mizrahi).
Consider claim 17, Zhang discloses that the control circuit is associated with the service provider (see figure 1: service provider is associated with the control circuit).
Consider claim 18, although Zhang discloses an antenna array (see above), Zhang does not disclose that the remote unit comprise the antenna array.
Mizrahi discloses that the remote unit comprise the antenna array (see figure 1 and paragraphs 6 and 23).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Mizrahi. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a DCS system so that a remote unit can facilitate distribute of communications services from a radio source into the DCS at locations other than at a centralized location in the DCS (see paragraph 6 of Mizrahi).
Consider claim 19, Zhang discloses that the parameter comprises one or more of a signal interference noise ratio (SINR), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), number of user equipment in an area of coverage, and traffic volume for an area of coverage (see col. 16 lines 33-67: SNR).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (USPN 9,143,206) in view of Mizrahi (USPAN 2017/0093492), Yoon (USPAN 2011/0171930), and Shi (USPAN 2008/0268790).
Consider claim 9, Zhang does not disclose turning off selected antennas in the antenna array at the remote unit comprises changing a beam shape for the antenna array
Shi discloses turning off selected antennas in the antenna array at the remote unit comprises changing a beam shape for the antenna array (see claim 7: wherein the power management and control system comprises means to control antenna beam sidelobe and antenna beam shape by powering down selected antenna sub-arrays).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Shi. The motivation to combine these references is to provide an antenna system that includes power management and control (see paragraph 1 of Shi).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (USPN 9,143,206) in view of Mizrahi (USPAN 2017/0093492), Yoon (USPAN 2011/0171930), and Graves (USPAN 2014/0161447).
Consider claim 10, Zhang does not disclose turning off selected antennas in the antenna array at the remote unit comprises changing a coverage area for the antenna array.
Graves discloses turning off selected antennas in the antenna array at the remote unit comprises changing a coverage area for the antenna array (see paragraph 129: In step 732, the coverage on neighboring antennas is adjusted to compensate for the coverage area that was previously covered by the powered down antenna. To compensate, one or more neighboring antenna may increase its coverage area, so there is no gap in coverage. In one example, the additional coverage is provided by beam-forming an adaptive antenna.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Graves. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a system for cloud radio access network with agile traffic handling (see paragraph 2 of Graves).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (USPN 9,143,206) in view of Mizrahi (USPAN 2017/0093492), Yoon (USPAN 2011/0171930), and Tiirola (USPAN 2012/0002568).
Consider claim 11, Zhang does not disclose using a counter to determine periodicity.
Tiirola discloses using a counter to determine periodicity (see paragraph 129: 38: the user equipment initializes its periodicity counter).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhang and combine it with the noted teachings of Tiirola. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for transmitting periodic information (see paragraph 1 of Tiirola).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov.
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/JAMAL JAVAID/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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