DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This is a Non-final action for application number 18/268,677 in response to an original application filed on 06/21/2023.
Claims 1-13 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Claims 1, 9 and 10 are independent claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 06/21/2023, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 9 and 10 are objected to because of the following informalities: [a communication unit configured to be able to communicate with a plurality of access points]. (Please remove to be able). Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 11 and 12 are objected to because of the following informalities: [the active measurement is performed if it is estimated]. (Please replace “IF” with “WHEN”].
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 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun et al. (US 2015/0237609 A1) in view of (Kuwahara et al. (US 2015/0065147 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 9 and 10, a communication apparatus comprising:
a communication unit configured to be able to communicate with a plurality of access points, [Sun et al., Figure 15, wherein primary spectrum manager is able to communication with primary user base station and secondary user base station],
a reception information acquisition unit configured to acquire reception information about the communication unit, [In the step 102, resource information of a primary system is obtained, Figure 1, Step 102, (Sun et al., Paragraph 61)],
an influence estimation unit configured to estimate an influence on current communication when the communication unit performs active measurement based on the reception information acquired by the reception information acquisition unit, [The resource information of the primary system as mentioned here includes information of an interference tolerance threshold reflecting a maximum interference power level tolerable to the primary system, (Sun et al., Paragraph 61)],
an active measurement unit configured to perform the active measurement based on a result of the estimation by the influence estimation unit, [Signal to noise ratios in respective regions in the coverage area of the secondary system can be estimated from the resource information of the primary system and the resource information of the secondary system in any appropriate method to thereby determine the critical region of the secondary system, (Sun et al., Paragraph 75)],
a communication quality estimation unit configured to estimate communication quality based on the reception information and a result of the measurement by the active measurement unit, [in the step 208-2, an optimum communication quality available to the secondary system over the available transmission resource in the critical region of the secondary system is assessed, (Sun et al., Paragraph 76)],
Sun et al. fails to explicitly teach a communication path control unit configured to control communication paths between the communication unit and the plurality of access points based on the communication quality estimated by the communication quality estimation unit,
Kuwahara et al. teaches that the HO control unit 42 checks the latest mobility of the terminal 5 recorded in the communication state estimation means 43, and performs handover determination of the terminal 5 when a value of the mobility first falls below a threshold determined in advance, (Kuwahara et al., Paragraph 40),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Sun et al. by including a communication path control unit configured to control communication paths between the communication unit and the plurality of access points based on the communication quality estimated by the communication quality estimation unit, (Kuwahara et al., Paragraph 40), in order to maintain a favorable communication state since the movement speed is fast, (Kuwahara et al., Paragraph 10).
Regarding claim 2, the communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the active measurement unit is configured to set a condition for performing the active measurement based on a result of the estimation by the influence estimation unit, [wherein the resource information of the primary system includes information of an interference tolerance threshold reflecting a maximum interference power level tolerable to the primary system, (Sun et al., Paragraph 9)].
Regarding claim 3, the communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the influence estimation unit is configured to estimate a degree of interference with the current communication when the communication unit performs the active measurement based on the reception information acquired by the reception information acquisition unit, [estimating interference caused by the secondary system during communicating over the transmission resources to the primary system in the critical region of the primary system; and determining a transmission resource with an interference value which is not above the interference tolerance threshold of the primary system as the available transmission resource available to the secondary system, (Sun et al., Paragraph 10)].
Regarding claim 4, the communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit is composed of a plurality of communication units, [Figure 16 and 17].
Regarding claim 5, the communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein
when the communication quality estimated by the communication quality estimation unit is higher than the communication quality of the communication unit performing the current communication, the communication path control unit is configured to perform control to switch the communication paths from the communication unit performing the current communication to the communication unit estimated to have higher communication quality, [when the estimated communication quality is higher than the desired communication quality, transmission resource of the primary system allocated to the secondary system apparatus is only part of the transmission resources that satisfies the desired communication quality of the secondary system apparatus, (Sun et al., Paragraph 7)].
Regarding claim 6, the communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reception information is at least one of a frequency, a received intensity, a signal-to-noise ratio, and a communication rate used by the communication unit, [calculating a transmission path gain of a secondary base station to the location according to a channel model of the secondary system; estimating a signal to noise ratio of the location according to these two transmission paths gains, (Sun et al., Paragraph 18)].
Regarding claim 4, the communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the active measurement unit is configured to set at least one of an amount of data, the number of transmissions, and a frequency band in performing the active measurement based on the result of the estimation by the influence estimation unit, [The determined available transmission resource can include a wireless transmission resource (an available timeslot, an available frequency band and/or a maximum transmission bandwidth and emission power therein or the like) available to the secondary system, (Sun et al., Paragraph 68)].
Regarding claim 8, a communication system comprising:
a plurality of access points, [Figure 14, Primary and secondary],
a server connected to the plurality of access points via a network, [Figure 14, Manager],
the communication apparatus according to claim 1, [Figure 14, manager], and
a mobile body on which the communication apparatus is mounted, [Figure 14, Primary UE], wherein when the mobile body moves, the communication apparatus moves while switching communication paths between the communication apparatus and the plurality of access points, [Figure 14, Primary UE].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11, 12 and 13 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
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/SHUKRI TAHA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478