Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
2. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Specification
3. The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the abstract exceeds the 150-word limit. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
4. Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
5. Claim 9 recites the limitation "the generating of the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample" in line 1. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
7. 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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
8. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 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.
9. Claim(s) 1,9-10, 11 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anttila et al (NPL/” Cancellation of Power Amplifier Induced Nonlinear Self-Interference in Full-Duplex Transceivers”) in view of view of Sakaue (US 20050047486 A1); hereinafter Sakaue, and further in view of Choi (US 8976641 B2), hereinafter Choi (US 8976641 B2).
10. Regarding claim 1, Anttila teaches a method of performing digital self-interference cancellation by a transmission/reception device comprising a transmitting side and a receiving side in a full-duplex system ([Page 1, Paragraph 1] full-duplex (FD) communications with simultaneous transmission and reception on the same channel has been proposed. To fill this gap, this article proposes a novel digital nonlinear interference cancellation technique to mitigate the power amplifier (PA) induced nonlinear SI in a FD transceiver) the method comprising: acquiring a time axis digital transmission signal generated by the transmitting side ([Page 2, Section III, paragraph 1] We denote the original digital baseband transmit signal by xn.); receiving a reception signal comprising a self-interference signal received through a self- interference channel between the transmitting side and the receiving through the receiving side ([Page 3, Paragraph 2] The multipath SI channel between TX and RX antennas is modeled with an FIR filter hn. The received self-interference signal after the RF SI canceller can then be written as (with the nominal propagation delay removed)); and estimating the self-interference signal, based on the estimated channel information and the estimated at least one non-linear signal coefficient ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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); performing digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The objective is now to estimate the parameters ¯fp,k based on the above SI signal model, and then to regenerate the SI signal and subtract it from the overall received signal at digital baseband. The output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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), but does not explicitly teach converting the time axis digital transmission signal into a frequency axis digital transmission signal and the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample into at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample
11. Sakaue, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches converting the time axis digital transmission signal into a frequency axis digital transmission signal and the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample into at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample ([0023] More specifically, in this embodiment, by subjecting the received signal to the FFT processing in the FFT processor 10, the received signal is transformed from time-axis digital data into frequency-axis digital data to detect the interference signal. According to the detection result of the interference signal, the filter control circuit 11 controls the notch filter 8 in such a manner that the frequency characteristic of the notch filter 8 is adapted to the frequency of the interference signal to thereby eliminate the interference signal from the received signal.)
12. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila and Sakaue. Anttila teaches performing digital self-cancellation in a full-duplex system using non-linear self-interference modeling estimation and Sakaue teaches converting time-axis digital signals into frequency-axis digital signals and performing digital interference detection in the frequency domain. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Anttila’s self-interference cancellation model with Sakaue’s FFT-based frequency-domain digital processing in order to implement Anttila’s cancellation to improve accurate interreference estimation in full-duplex systems.
13. However, Anttila and Sakaue do not explicitly teach extracting at least one time axis non-linear signal sample for estimating the self-interference signal from the time axis digital transmission signal; converting the reception signal into a frequency axis digital reception signal; estimating channel information of the self-interference channel and at least one non-linear signal coefficient of the self-interference signal, based on the frequency axis digital transmission signal, the at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample, and the frequency axis digital reception signal;
14. Choi, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches extracting at least one time axis non-linear signal sample for estimating the self-interference signal from the time axis digital transmission signal ([Page 15, col 3, lines 19-25] The system 100 reduces non-linear digital self-interference by passing a digital transmit signal through the pre-processor 110, which samples digital transmit signals in the transmission path and passes the sampled digital transmit signals to the non-linear transformer 120. [Page 15, col 3, lines 56-58] The pre-processor 110 functions to sample digital transmit signals for further processing by the non-linear transformer 120, as shown in FIG. 3); converting the reception signal into a frequency axis digital reception signal ([Page 18, col 9, lines 27-30] The post-processor 140 functions to combine non-linear self-interference signals generated by the non-linear transformer 120 with digital signals received by the RF receiver, as shown in FIG. 5. [Page 18, col 10, lines 61-64] ]The analog signal sampler 160 functions to provide a digital signal converted from the RF transmit signal (and/or a baseband or intermediate frequency analog signal) to the system 100); estimating channel information of the self-interference channel and at least one non-linear signal coefficient of the self-interference signal, based on the frequency axis digital transmission signal, the at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample, and the frequency axis digital reception signal ([Page 16, col 5, lines 23-28] The linear transformer 150 may additionally or alternatively generate mathematical models for modeling linear self-interference contributions based on comparisons of sampled digital transmit signals to received signals (from the analog signal sampler 150, the receive path, or any other suitable source). [Page 17, col 8, lines 64-68] The transform adapter 130 may adapt transform configurations and/or transform-configuration-generating algorithms using analytical methods, online gradient-descent methods (e.g., LMS, RLMS), and/or any other suitable methods).
15. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Choi into the teachings Anttila and Sakaue. Anttila and Sakaue teaches performing a digital self-interference cancellation in a full-duplex system using non-linear self-interference modeling and converting digital signals from time to frequency and Choi teaches a digital self-interference cancellation system that perform sampling of digital signals, generating non-linear self-interference signals, and estimating model coefficient based on comparisons between transmitted and received signals. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Anttila and Sakaue’s self-interference cancellation model with Choi’s digital signal processing techniques (sampling, converting, and estimation) to improve the accuracy of self-interference cancellation in a full-duplex system.
16. Regarding claim 9, Anttila and Sakaue teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample comprises: converting the reception signal into a time axis digital reception signal ([Page 4, paragraph 1] The total received signal before digital cancellation is now given as
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;Antilla); approximating the time axis digital reception signal as a polynomial for the time axis digital transmission signal ([Page 3, paragraph 2] the overall SI signal model, comprising of the nonlinear PA, the multipath SI channel, and the RF canceller, can also be expressed as a parallel Hammerstein model. Notice also that the PH nonlinearity can model perfectly a variety of other PAplus-channel models as well, for example the cascade of a polynomial nonlinearity and an LTI system, or the cascade of a Hammerstein nonlinearity and an LTI system. The self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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; Antilla); and configuring respective terms of the approximated polynomial as the at least one time axis non-linear signal samples ([Page 3, paragraph 3] There, the different branches, corresponding to nonlinear terms of different order, can be seen, alongside with the coefficients ¯fp,n.
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appear as the SI model’s components, with
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acting as nonlinear basis terms; Antilla).
17. Choi, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches generating/extracting the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample of claim 1 ([Page 15, col 3, lines 19-25] The system 100 reduces non-linear digital self-interference by passing a digital transmit signal through the pre-processor 110, which samples digital transmit signals in the transmission path and passes the sampled digital transmit signals to the non-linear transformer 120. [Page 15, col 3, lines 56-58] The pre-processor 110 functions to sample digital transmit signals for further processing by the non-linear transformer 120, as shown in FIG. 3);
18. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi. Anttila and Sakaue teaches modeling self-interference cancellation using polynomial non-linear basis terms and Choi teaches extracting non-linear self-interference signal samples. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Choi’s non-linear signal extraction techniques with Anttila and Sakaue’s self-interference cancellation model to improve the accuracy and reliability of self-interference cancellation techniques.
19. Regarding claim 10, Anttila and Sakaue teach the method of claim 1, wherein, in case that the frequency axis digital reception signal is approximated as a polynomial for the frequency axis digital transmission signal, the non-linear coefficients are correlated to at least one term of the approximated polynomial ([Pages 3-4] Anttila states the SI estimate is formed by summing an estimated coefficient and basis/polynomial term. “The self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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. Here, ¯fp,k denote the effective model coefficients of the overall nonlinear SI channel, and M1 and M2 are the non-causal and causal memory depths of the model, respectively. The simulated transmit and receive waveforms are OFDM signals with the parameters given in Table II”).
20. Choi, in the same field of communications, teaches the estimation and correlation of non-linear coefficients based on signals of claim 1 ([Page 16, col 5, lines 23-28] The linear transformer 150 may additionally or alternatively generate mathematical models for modeling linear self-interference contributions based on comparisons of sampled digital transmit signals to received signals (from the analog signal sampler 150, the receive path, or any other suitable source). [Page 17, col 8, lines 64-68] The transform adapter 130 may adapt transform configurations and/or transform-configuration-generating algorithms using analytical methods, online gradient-descent methods (e.g., LMS, RLMS), and/or any other suitable methods).
21. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi. Anttila and Sakaue teaches self-interference cancellation modeling using polynomial basis terms and corresponding non-linear coefficients and Choi teaches the estimation of non-linear model coefficients using digital signal processing techniques. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Choi’s estimation techniques with Anttila and Sakaue’s self-interference cancellation model to improve and enhance the accuracy of self-interference cancellation.
22. Regarding claim 11, Anttila teaches a transmission/reception apparatus performing digital self-interference cancellation in a full-duplex system, the transmission/reception ([Page 1, paragraph 1] full-duplex (FD) communications with simultaneous transmission and reception on the same channel has been proposed. To fill this gap, this article proposes a novel digital nonlinear interference cancellation technique to mitigate the power amplifier (PA) induced nonlinear SI in a FD transceiver) apparatus comprising: a transmitter; a receiver; and a controller configured to: acquire a time axis digital transmission signal generated by the transmitter ([Page 2, section III, paragraph 1] We denote the original digital baseband transmit signal by xn.); control the receiver to receive a reception signal comprising a self-interference signal received through a self-interference channel between the transmitter and the receiver through the receiver([Page 3, paragraph 2] The multipath SI channel between TX and RX antennas is modeled with an FIR filter hn. The received self-interference signal after the RF SI canceller can then be written as (with the nominal propagation delay removed)); and estimate the self-interference signal, based on the estimated channel information and the estimated at least one non-linear signal coefficient([Page 4, paragraph 2] The self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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); and perform digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The objective is now to estimate the parameters ¯fp,k based on the above SI signal model, and then to regenerate the SI signal and subtract it from the overall received signal at digital baseband. The output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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), but does not explicitly teach convert the time axis digital transmission signal into a frequency axis digital transmission signal and the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample into at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample.
23. Sakaue in the same field of wireless communications, teaches convert the time axis digital transmission signal into a frequency axis digital transmission signal and the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample into at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample ([0023] More specifically, in this embodiment, by subjecting the received signal to the FFT processing in the FFT processor 10, the received signal is transformed from time-axis digital data into frequency-axis digital data to detect the interference signal. According to the detection result of the interference signal, the filter control circuit 11 controls the notch filter 8 in such a manner that the frequency characteristic of the notch filter 8 is adapted to the frequency of the interference signal to thereby eliminate the interference signal from the received signal.)
24. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila and Sakaue. Anttila teaches performing digital self-cancellation in a full-duplex system using non-linear self-interference modeling estimation and Sakaue teaches converting time-axis digital signals into frequency-axis digital signals and performing digital interference detection in the frequency domain. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Anttila’s self-interference cancellation model with Sakaue’s FFT-based frequency-domain digital processing in order to implement Anttila’s cancellation to improve accurate interreference estimation in full-duplex systems.
25. However, Sakaue and Antilla do not explicitly teach teaches extract at least one time axis non-linear signal sample for estimating the self- interference channel and at least one non-linear signal coefficient of the self-interference signal from the time axis digital transmission signal; convert the reception signal into a frequency axis digital reception signal; and estimate channel information of the self-interference channel and at least one non-linear signal coefficient of the self-interference signal, based on the frequency axis digital transmission signal, the at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample, and the frequency axis digital reception signal
26. Choi, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches extract at least one time axis non-linear signal sample for estimating the self- interference channel and at least one non-linear signal coefficient of the self-interference signal from the time axis digital transmission signal ([Page 15, col 3, lines 19-25] The system 100 reduces non-linear digital self-interference by passing a digital transmit signal through the pre-processor 110, which samples digital transmit signals in the transmission path and passes the sampled digital transmit signals to the non-linear transformer 120. [Page 15, col 3, lines 56-58] The pre-processor 110 functions to sample digital transmit signals for further processing by the non-linear transformer 120, as shown in FIG. 3); convert the reception signal into a frequency axis digital reception signal ([Page 18, col 9, lines 27-30] The post-processor 140 functions to combine non-linear self interference signals generated by the non-linear transformer 120 with digital signals received by the RF receiver, as shown in FIG. 5. [Page 18, col 10, lines 61-64] ]The analog signal sampler 160 functions to provide a digital signal converted from the RF transmit signal (and/or a baseband or intermediate frequency analog signal) to the system 100); and estimate channel information of the self-interference channel and at least one non-linear signal coefficient of the self-interference signal, based on the frequency axis digital transmission signal, the at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample, and the frequency axis digital reception signal ([Page 16, col 5, lines 23-28] The linear transformer 150 may additionally or alternatively generate mathematical models for modeling linear self-interference contributions based on comparisons of sampled digital transmit signals to received signals (from the analog signal sampler 150, the receive path, or any other suitable source). [Page 17, col 8, lines 64-68] The transform adapter 130 may adapt transform configurations and/or transform-configuration-generating algorithms using analytical methods, online gradient-descent methods (e.g., LMS, RLMS), and/or any other suitable methods).
27. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila and Sakaue with the teachings of Choi. Anttila and Sakaue teach performing a digital self-interference cancellation in a full-duplex system using non-linear self-interference modeling and converting digital signals between time and frequency, and Choi teaches a digital self-interference cancellation system that perform sampling of digital signals, generating non-linear self-interference signals, and estimating model coefficient based on comparisons between transmitted and received signals. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Anttila and Sakaue’s self-interference cancellation model with Choi’s digital signal processing techniques (sampling, converting, and estimation) to improve the accuracy of self-interference cancellation in a full-duplex system.
28. Regarding claim 19, Anttila and Sakaue teach the transmission/reception apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to: convert the reception signal into a time axis digital reception signal ([Page 4, paragraph 1] The total received signal before digital cancellation is now given as
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; Antilla); approximate the time axis digital reception signal as a polynomial for the time axis digital transmission signal ([Page 3, paragraph 2] The overall SI signal model, comprising of the nonlinear PA, the multipath SI channel, and the RF canceller, can also be expressed as a parallel Hammerstein model. Notice also that the PH nonlinearity can model perfectly a variety of other PAplus-channel models as well, for example the cascade of a polynomial nonlinearity and an LTI system, or the cascade of a Hammerstein nonlinearity and an LTI system. The self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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. Antilla); and configure respective terms of the approximated polynomial as the at least one time axis non-linear signal samples ([Page 4, Paragraph 1] “There, the different branches, corresponding to nonlinear terms of different order, can be seen, alongside with the coefficients ¯fp,n.”
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appear as the SI model’s components, with
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acting as nonlinear basis terms; Antilla).
29. Choi, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches generating/extracting the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample of claim 1 ([Page 15, col 3, lines 19-25] The system 100 reduces non-linear digital self-interference by passing a digital transmit signal through the pre-processor 110, which samples digital transmit signals in the transmission path and passes the sampled digital transmit signals to the non-linear transformer 120. [Page 15, col 3, lines 56-58] The pre-processor 110 functions to sample digital transmit signals for further processing by the non-linear transformer 120, as shown in FIG. 3).
30. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi. Anttila and Sakaue teaches modeling self-interference cancellation using polynomial non-linear basis terms and Choi teaches extracting non-linear self-interference signal samples. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Choi’s non-linear signal extraction techniques with Anttila and Sakaue’s self-interference cancellation model to improve the accuracy and reliability of self-interference cancellation techniques.
31. Regarding claim 20, Anttila and Sakaue teaches the transmission/reception apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to, in case that the frequency axis digital reception signal is approximated as a polynomial for the frequency axis digital transmission signal, correlate the non-linear coefficients to at least one term of the approximated polynomial ([Pages 3-4] Anttila states the SI estimate is formed by summing an estimated coefficient and basis/polynomial term. “The self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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. Here, ¯fp,k denote the effective model coefficients of the overall nonlinear SI channel, and M1 and M2 are the non-causal and causal memory depths of the model, respectively. The simulated transmit and receive waveforms are OFDM signals with the parameters given in Table II”).
32. Choi, in the same field of communications, teaches the estimation and correlation of non-linear coefficients based on signals of claim 1 ([Page 16, col 5, lines 23-28] The linear transformer 150 may additionally or alternatively generate mathematical models for modeling linear self-interference contributions based on comparisons of sampled digital transmit signals to received signals (from the analog signal sampler 150, the receive path, or any other suitable source). [Page 17, col 8, lines 64-68] The transform adapter 130 may adapt transform configurations and/or transform-configuration-generating algorithms using analytical methods, online gradient-descent methods (e.g., LMS, RLMS), and/or any other suitable methods).
33. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi. Anttila and Sakaue teach self-interference cancellation modeling using polynomial basis terms and corresponding non-linear coefficients and Choi teaches the estimation of non-linear model coefficients using digital signal processing techniques. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Choi’s estimation techniques with Anttila and Sakaue’s self-interference cancellation model to improve and enhance the accuracy of self-interference cancellation.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
34. Claim(s) 2 and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anttila et al (NPL/” Cancellation of Power Amplifier Induced Nonlinear Self-Interference in Full-Duplex Transceivers”) in view of view of Sakaue (US 20050047486 A1); hereinafter Sakaue, and further in view of Choi (US 8976641 B2), hereinafter Choi (US 8976641 B2), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Wu (NPL/"Performance of RF self-interference cancellation disturbed by fast-moving object in full-duplex wireless"); hereinafter Wu.
35. Regarding claim 2, Anttila and Choi teach the method of claim 1, analyzing multiple paths of the reception signal ([Page 3, paragraph 2] The multipath SI channel between TX and RX antennas is modeled with an FIR filter hn. [Page 4] The SI coupling channel between TX and RX antennas is modeled as a FIR filter, including the main path plus four multipath components; Anttila) comparing a number of the analyzed multiple paths with a threshold value ([Page 4] The power difference between the main component and the multipath components (K-factor) is approximately 36 dB [15]; Anttila);
36. Sakaue, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches wherein converting the time axis digital transmission signal into the frequency axis digital transmission signal and the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample into at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample comprises: ([0023] More specifically, in this embodiment, by subjecting the received signal to the FFT processing in the FFT processor 10, the received signal is transformed from time-axis digital data into frequency-axis digital data to detect the interference signal. According to the detection result of the interference signal, the filter control circuit 11 controls the notch filter 8 in such a manner that the frequency characteristic of the notch filter 8 is adapted to the frequency of the interference signal to thereby eliminate the interference signal from the received signal; Sakaue)
37. It would It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Antilla’s analyzing multipath components and with Sakaue’s converting digital time signals into digital frequency signals to improve the accuracy and performance of self-interference cancellation systems.
38. Further, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi do not explicitly teach in case that the number of the analyzed multiple paths is greater than or equal to the threshold value, converting the time axis digital transmission signal into the frequency axis digital transmission signal, and the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample into at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample.
39. Wu et al., in the same field or wireless communications, teaches in case that the number of the analyzed multiple paths is greater than or equal to the threshold value, converting the time axis digital transmission signal into the frequency axis digital transmission signal, and the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample into at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample ([Page 2, Paragraph 2] If the energy of the burst SI has exceeded certain threshold, then FD system begins to estimate the burst SI and then carries out the cancellation operation of the burst SI.).
40. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue, Choi, and Wu et al. Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach modeling a self-interference channel with multiple paths in a full-duplex system and applying frequency-domain OFDM processing to handle multipaths and Wu et al. teaches that in self-interference cancellation systems, certain processing can be initiated based on threshold comparisons of signal characteristics. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to apply Wu et al.’s threshold-based decision to Anttila, Sakaue, and Choi’s teaching of multipath analysis to condition the conversion of time-domain signals to improve the accuracy of self-interference cancellation in a full-duplex system.
41. Regarding claim 12, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teaches the transmission/reception apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to: analyze multiple paths of the reception signal ([Page 3, paragraph 2] The multipath SI channel between TX and RX antennas is modeled with an FIR filter hn. [Page 4] The SI coupling channel between TX and RX antennas is modeled as a FIR filter, including the main path plus four multipath components; Anttila); compare a number of the analyzed multiple paths with a threshold value ([Page 4] The power difference between the main component and the multipath components (K-factor) is approximately 36 dB [15]; Anttila);
42. Further, Anttila, Sakaue, and Choi do not explicitly teach and in case that the number of the analyzed multiple paths is greater than or equal to the threshold value, convert the time axis digital transmission signal into the frequency axis digital transmission signal and the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample into at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample.
43. Wu et al., in the same field or wireless communications, teaches and in case that the number of the analyzed multiple paths is greater than or equal to the threshold value, convert the time axis digital transmission signal into the frequency axis digital transmission signal and the at least one time axis non-linear signal sample into at least one frequency axis non-linear signal sample ([Page 2, Paragraph 2] If the energy of the burst SI has exceeded certain threshold, then FD system begins to estimate the burst SI and then carries out the cancellation operation of the burst SI.).
44. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue, Choi and Wu et al. Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach modeling a self-interference channel with multiple paths in a full-duplex system and applying frequency-domain OFDM processing to handle multipaths and Wu et al. teaches that in self-interference cancellation systems, certain processing can be initiated based on threshold comparisons of signal characteristics. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to apply Wu et al.’s threshold-based decision to Anttila, Sakaue and Choi’s teaching of multipath analysis to condition the conversion of time-domain signals to improve the accuracy of self-interference cancellation in a full-duplex system.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
45. Claim(s) 3 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anttila et al (NPL/” Cancellation of Power Amplifier Induced Nonlinear Self-Interference in Full-Duplex Transceivers”) in view of view of Sakaue (US 20050047486 A1); hereinafter Sakaue, and further in view of Choi (US 8976641 B2), hereinafter Choi (US 8976641 B2), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Pack (US 9,647,705 B2), hereinafter Pack.
46. Regarding claim 3, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teaches the method of claim 1, wherein performing the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal comprises: updating the at least one non-linear signal coefficients for the estimated self-interference signal ([Page 3, paragraph 3] Despite the nonlinear nature of the model, it is linear in the parameters ¯fp,k, thus facilitating efficient estimation with, for example, linear least-squares methods; Anttila); and a signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal ([Page 4, paragraph 2] the output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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, with the self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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; Anttila).
47. Further, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi do not explicitly teach comparing a strength of a signal with a threshold value; in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is greater than or equal to the threshold value, estimating at least one non-linear signal coefficient for the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal; and in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is less than the threshold value, estimating the self-interference signal, based on the estimated self-interference channel and the updated non- linear signal coefficient and performing the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal.
48. Pack, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches comparing a strength of a signal with a threshold value; in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is greater than or equal to the threshold value, estimating at least one non-linear signal coefficient for the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal; and in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is less than the threshold value, estimating the self-interference signal, based on the estimated self-interference channel and the updated non- linear signal coefficient and performing the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal ([Page 38, col 3, lines 3-17] The memory may include executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations that include determining a first magnitude and a first phase of a first tone in a receive signal; determining a second magnitude and a second phase of a second tone in a sampled transmit signal; comparing the first magnitude with the second magnitude; comparing the first phase with the second phase; adjusting a magnitude of the sampled transmit signal based on the comparing of the first magnitude with the second magnitude; and adjusting a phase of the sampled transmit signal based on).
49. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue Choi and Pack. Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach generating a cancellation residual
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, and updating a non-linear coefficient by minimizing this error using LS/RLS and Pack teaches comparing magnitudes and phases of received and samples signal components to adjust cancellation parameters. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivates to Pack’s comparison of residual signal strength and parameter-adjustment techniques into the non-linear self-interference cancelation of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi to control when nonlinear model coefficients should be updated based on the self-interference cancellation to improve cancellation accuracy and adaptively update nonlinear cancellation coefficient.
50. Regarding claim 13, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teaches The transmission/reception apparatus of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to: update the at least one non-linear signal coefficients for the estimated self-interference signal ([Page 3, paragraph 3] Despite the nonlinear nature of the model, it is linear in the parameters ¯fp,k, thus facilitating efficient estimation with, for example, linear least-squares methods; Anttila); and a signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal ([Page 4, paragraph 2] the output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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, with the self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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; Anttila).
51. Further, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi do not explicitly teach comparing a strength of a signal with a threshold value; in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is greater than or equal to the threshold value, estimate at least one non-linear signal coefficient for the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal; and in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is less than the threshold value, estimate the self-interference signal, based on the estimated self-interference channel and the updated non- linear signal coefficient and perform the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal.
52. Pack, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches comparing a strength of a signal with a threshold value; in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is greater than or equal to the threshold value, estimate at least one non-linear signal coefficient for the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal; and in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is less than the threshold value, estimate the self-interference signal, based on the estimated self-interference channel and the updated non- linear signal coefficient and perform the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal ([Page 38, col 3, lines 3-17] The memory may include executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to effectuate operations that include determining a first magnitude and a first phase of a first tone in a receive signal; determining a second magnitude and a second phase of a second tone in a sampled transmit signal; comparing the first magnitude with the second magnitude; comparing the first phase with the second phase; adjusting a magnitude of the sampled transmit signal based on the comparing of the first magnitude with the second magnitude; and adjusting a phase of the sampled transmit signal based on).
53. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue, Choi and Pack. Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach generating a cancellation residual
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34
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, and updating a non-linear coefficient by minimizing this error using LS/RLS and Pack teaches comparing magnitudes and phases of received and samples signal components to adjust cancellation parameters. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivates to Pack’s comparison of residual signal strength and parameter-adjustment techniques into the non-linear self-interference cancelation of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi to control when nonlinear model coefficients should be updated based on the self-interference cancellation to improve cancellation accuracy and adaptively update nonlinear cancellation coefficient.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
54. Claim(s) 4-5 and 14-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anttila et al (NPL/” Cancellation of Power Amplifier Induced Nonlinear Self-Interference in Full-Duplex Transceivers”) in view of view of Sakaue (US 20050047486 A1); hereinafter Sakaue, and further in view of Choi (US 8976641 B2), hereinafter Choi (US 8976641 B2), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Gupta (US 8,977,223 B1), hereinafter Gupta.
55. Regarding claim 4, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach the method of claim 1, wherein performing the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal comprises ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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;Anttila): a signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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, with the self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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; Anttila);
56. Further, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi do not explicitly teach comparing a strength of a signal with a threshold value; in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is greater than or equal to the threshold -4-value, adjusting a number of the non-linear signal coefficients and estimating the self-interference signal, based on the adjusted number of the non-linear signal coefficients; and in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is less than the threshold value, performing the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal.
57. Gupta, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches comparing a strength of a signal with a threshold value; in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is greater than or equal to the threshold -4-value, adjusting a number of the non-linear signal coefficients and estimating the self-interference signal, based on the adjusted number of the non-linear signal coefficients; and in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is less than the threshold value, performing the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal ([Page 22, Col 8, lines 4-18) A first canceller, adapted to cancel a portion of the second signal power without substantially attenuating the first signal power, and to produce a first modified signal comprising a residual interference content and the information content; an overload protection device adapted to selectively block the first modified signal if it exceeds a threshold; a second canceller, adapted to cancel at least a portion of the residual interference content to reduce a residual signal power thereof, to produce a second modified signal; and a detector, adapted to: detect the information content within the second modified signal; and produce an adaptation signal for control of at least the second canceller, wherein the first canceller is adapted to introduce a signal com).
58. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue, Choi and the teachings of Gupta. Anttila teaches generating a cancellation residual
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, and updating a non-linear coefficient by minimizing this error using LS/RLS and Gupta teaches comparing strength of signal strength against a threshold and updating cancellation parameters when the signal exceeds the threshold. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Gupta’s comparison of residual signal strength and parameter-adjustment techniques into the non-linear self-interference cancelation of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi to determine whether to adjust the existing set of nonlinear coefficients accordingly to improve cancellation performance and adaptively update nonlinear cancellation coefficient.
59. Regarding claim 5, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teaches the method of claim 1 ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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, with the self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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; Anttila).
Further, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi do not explicitly teach further comprising: correcting a time synchronization error for the time axis digital transmission signal.
60. Gupta, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches correcting a time synchronization error for the time axis digital transmission signal ([Page 22, col 8, lines 5-10] The method may further comprise digitally correlating the digitized fine residue signal with the second digital reference signal; and using the time-averaged digital correlation output to provide an adaptive feedback control of at least on. [Page 22, col 8, lines 16-20] An iterative algorithm may be applied to adjust at least one of the magnitude and delay of the fine cancellation signal, in order to reduce).
61. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue, Choi and Gupta. Anttila teaches nonlinear digital self-interference cancellation and Gupta teaches correlation-based delay and timing-alignment techniques. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Gupta’s iterative timing delay adjustment based on the correlation output to align the signals with Anttila, Sakaue and Choi’s nonlinear digital self-interference cancellation system to improve the accuracy of digital self-interference cancellation by correcting timing misalignment between the transmitted signal and the received signal.
62. Regarding claim 14, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach the transmission/reception apparatus of claim 11 ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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;Anttila), wherein the controller is further configured to: a signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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, with the self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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;Anttila).
63. Further, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi not explicitly teach comparing a strength of a signal with a threshold value; in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is greater than or equal to the threshold value, adjust a number of the non-linear signal coefficients and estimate the self-interference signal, based on the adjusted number of the non-linear signal coefficients; and in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is less than the threshold value, perform the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal.
64. Gupta, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches comparing a strength of a signal with a threshold value; in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is greater than or equal to the threshold value, adjust a number of the non-linear signal coefficients and estimate the self-interference signal, based on the adjusted number of the non-linear signal coefficients; and in case that the strength of the signal obtained by attenuating the estimated self-interference signal from the frequency axis digital reception signal is less than the threshold value, perform the digital self-interference cancellation for the frequency axis digital reception signal by using the estimated self-interference signal ([Page 22, Col 8, lines 4-18) A first canceller, adapted to cancel a portion of the second signal power without substantially attenuating the first signal power, and to produce a first modified signal comprising a residual interference content and the information content; an overload protection device adapted to selectively block the first modified signal if it exceeds a threshold; a second canceller, adapted to cancel at least a portion of the residual interference content to reduce a residual signal power thereof, to produce a second modified signal; and a detector, adapted to: detect the information content within the second modified signal; and produce an adaptation signal for control of at least the second canceller, wherein the first canceller is adapted to introduce a signal com).
65. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi with the teachings of Gupta. Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach generating a cancellation residual
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, and updating a non-linear coefficient by minimizing this error using LS/RLS and Gupta teaches comparing strength of signal strength against a threshold and updating cancellation parameters when the signal exceeds the threshold. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Gupta’s comparison of residual signal strength and parameter-adjustment techniques into the non-linear self-interference cancelation of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi to determine whether to adjust the existing set of nonlinear coefficients accordingly to improve cancellation performance and adaptively update nonlinear cancellation coefficient.
66. Regarding claim 15, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach the transmission/reception apparatus of claim 11 ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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, with the self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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; Anttila).
Further, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi do not explicitly teach wherein the controller is further configured to: correct a time synchronization error for the time axis digital transmission signal.
67. Gupta, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches correcting a time synchronization error for the time axis digital transmission signal ([Page 22, col 8, lines 5-10] The method may further comprise digitally correlating the digitized fine residue signal with the second digital reference signal; and using the time-averaged digital correlation output to provide an adaptive feedback control of at least on. [Page 22, col 8, lines 16-20] An iterative algorithm may be applied to adjust at least one of the magnitude and delay of the fine cancellation signal, in order to reduce).
68. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue, and Choi with the teachings of Gupta. Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach nonlinear digital self-interference cancellation and Gupta teaches correlation-based delay and timing-alignment techniques. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Gupta’s iterative timing delay adjustment based on the correlation output to align the signals with Anttila, Sakaue and Choi’s nonlinear digital self-interference cancellation system to improve the accuracy of digital self-interference cancellation by correcting timing misalignment between the transmitted signal and the received signal.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
69. Claim(s) 8 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anttila et al (NPL/” Cancellation of Power Amplifier Induced Nonlinear Self-Interference in Full-Duplex Transceivers”) in view of view of Sakaue (US 20050047486 A1); hereinafter Sakaue, and further in view of Choi (US 8976641 B2), hereinafter Choi (US 8976641 B2), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kleider (US 8,131,218 B2); herein after Kleider.
70. Regarding claim 8, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teach the method of claim 1 ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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, with the self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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; Anttila).
71. Further, Attila, Sakaue and Choi do not explicitly teach further comprising: determining whether a time synchronization signal is included in the reception signal; in case that the time synchronization signal is included in the reception signal, correcting a time synchronization error of the reception signal by using the time synchronization signal; and in case that the time synchronization signal is not included in the reception signal, correcting the time synchronization error of the reception signal by using a data signal included in the reception signal.
72. Kleider, in the same field or wireless communications, teaches determining whether a time synchronization signal is included in the reception signal ([Page 12, col 1, lines 45-49] Some traditional OFDM methods include, on the transmitter side, trans mitting a synchronization and/or channel estimation pre amble in conjunction. ([Page 12, col 2, lines 1-3] Another traditional OFDM method excludes the use of a preamble for synchronization, and instead a cyclic prefix (or cyclic extension) is included within each transmitted OFDM symbol); in case that the time synchronization signal is included in the reception signal, correcting a time synchronization error of the reception signal by using the time synchronization signal ([Page 12, col 1, lines 50-55] The preamble is used during signal acquisition to synchronize to the received signal and, when the preamble also includes channel training information, it also may be used to perform channel estimation (e.g., estimating transmission channel parameters such as timing offset, carrier frequency offset, and multipath fading) and in case that the time synchronization signal is not included in the reception signal, correcting the time synchronization error of the reception signal by using a data signal included in the reception signal ([Page 12, col 2 lines 2-14] Another traditional OFDM method excludes the use of a preamble for synchronization, and instead a cyclic prefix (or cyclic extension) is included within each transmitted OFDM symbol. The cyclic prefix can be used for timing and frequency synchronization. Because each OFDM symbol contains a cyclic prefix, a correlation may be performed on each OFDM symbol).
73. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue, Choi and Kleider. Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teaches nonlinear digital self-interference cancellation and Kleider teaches OFDM receiver may obtain timing using a dedicated synchronization signal (preamble) or when it is present or using correlation based on the cyclic-prefix and data symbols when a preamble is not transmitted. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the timing-synchronization techniques of Kleider into the nonlinear digital self-interference cancellation system of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi to improve the accuracy and any misalignment of digital self-interference cancellation.
74. Regarding claim 18, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teaches the method of claim 1 ([Page 4, paragraph 2] The output of the digital SI canceller is given as
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, with the self-interference estimate xˆ SI n given as
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; Anttila).
75. Further, Anttila, Sakaue and Choi do not explicitly teach further comprising: determining whether a time synchronization signal is included in the reception signal; in case that the time synchronization signal is included in the reception signal, correcting a time synchronization error of the reception signal by using the time synchronization signal; and in case that the time synchronization signal is not included in the reception signal, correcting the time synchronization error of the reception signal by using a data signal included in the reception signal.
76. Kleider, in the same field of wireless communications, teaches determining whether a time synchronization signal is included in the reception signal ([Page 12, col 1, lines 45-49] Some traditional OFDM methods include, on the transmitter side, trans mitting a synchronization and/or channel estimation pre amble in conjunction. ([Page 12, col 2, lines 1-3] Another traditional OFDM method excludes the use of a preamble for synchronization, and instead a cyclic prefix (or cyclic extension) is included within each transmitted OFDM symbol); in case that the time synchronization signal is included in the reception signal, correcting a time synchronization error of the reception signal by using the time synchronization signal ([Page 12, col 1, lines 50-55] The preamble is used during signal acquisition to synchronize to the received signal and, when the preamble also includes channel training information, it also may be used to perform channel estimation (e.g., estimating transmission channel parameters such as timing offset, carrier frequency offset, and multipath fading); and in case that the time synchronization signal is not included in the reception signal, correcting the time synchronization error of the reception signal by using a data signal included in the reception signal ([Page 12, col 2 lines 2-14] Another traditional OFDM method excludes the use of a preamble for synchronization, and instead a cyclic prefix (or cyclic extension) is included within each transmitted OFDM symbol. The cyclic prefix can be used for timing and frequency synchronization. Because each OFDM symbol contains a cyclic prefix, a correlation may be performed on each OFDM symbol).
77. It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date
of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Anttila, Sakaue, Choi and Kleider. Anttila, Sakaue and Choi teaches nonlinear digital self-interference cancellation and Kleider teaches OFDM receiver may obtain timing using a dedicated synchronization signal (preamble) or when it is present or using correlation based on the cyclic-prefix and data symbols when a preamble is not transmitted. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the timing-synchronization techniques of Kleider into the nonlinear digital self-interference cancellation system of Anttila, Sakaue and Choi to improve the accuracy and any misalignment of digital self-interference cancellation.
Allowable Subject Matter
78. Claims 6-7, and 16-17 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
79. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LABIBAH I. ALI whose telephone number is (571)272-6738. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-5:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gary Mui can be reached at (571) 270-1420. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LABIBAH ILMA ALI/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/GARY MUI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2465