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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Allowable Subject Matter
0a. Claims 9-10, 15, 22 and 24-25 are allowed.
0b. Claims 13-14 are objected to as dependent upon rejected claims, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Applicant’s Remarks
1a. Applicant’s arguments and remarks, filed on 1/20/2026 (hereinafter Remarks), are acknowledged, and have been fully considered.
Regarding Applicant’s amendmemts:
wherein the anchor nodes provide wireless connectivity to wireless communication devices in the wireless first responder network,
the Examiner finds Lopes (US 20180176111 A1) discloses similar features:
[0038] ….. A mobility manager (or controller, MC) may, for example, ensure that communication sessions ….. among different MCs (e.g., in a fail-over scenario, load redistribution scenario, etc.), across different interfaces (or ports), etc. Note that the MC may also be referred to herein as a Local Mobility Anchor (LMA), a Network Controller, etc.
Hence, Applicant’s amendments have been discloses by prior art.
The Examiner updates the rejections accordingly. This office action is made final.
1b. Regarding Claim 23 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection, Applicant has amended the claim, and the rejection is withdrawn.
1c. Regarding claim 20 informality issue, Applicant cancels claim 20, hence the issue is resolved.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
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 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.
2a. Claims 1-8, 11-12, 16-18, 21 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Serfaty (US 9572110 B1) in view of Lopes (US 20180176111 A1).
2b. Summary of the Cited Prior Art
Serfaty discloses a method for managing emergency deployable network.
Lopes discloses a method for measuring network capacity.
2c. Claim Analysis
Regarding Claim 1, Serfaty discloses:
An apparatus for establishing a wireless first responder network, wherein the apparatus is configured to
[(Serfaty discloses establishing a wireless first responder network:
[Col 8 Lines 6-12] Logic flow diagram 500 begins when local public safety agency 140, and more particularly controller 142, detects an occurrence of an incident and determines (502) a geographical location of an associated incident scene, that is, incident scene 106. For example, the incident may be reported by any one of various incident alarm devices as known in the art, the locations of which are pre-configured into a database associated with controller 142 of local public safety agency 140.
Fig 5A, Steps 502-512; see also Figs 1-5 and 5B-6)]:
receive information about a dimension of a target wireless coverage area
[(Serfaty discloses receive information about map and of a target coverage area:
[Col 8 Lines 23-35] In response to detecting the occurrence of the incident, local public safety agency 140, that is, controller 142, assigns (504) deployable network 110 to the incident scene. Further, local public agency 140, and in particular controller 142, obtains (506), from user subscription database 144, user-related and subscription-related information, such as user profiles and associated mobile device identifiers, for the users associated with each of mobile devices 102 and 104, obtains (508), from location and authentication database 138, location, authentication, and access control information, including geographical locations of each of mobile devices 102 and 104, and obtains (510), from geo-location server 146, geographical and topographical maps and signal propagation models associated with incident scene 106.
Fig 5A, Steps 502-512; see also Figs 1-5 and 5B-6)];
determine a number of anchor nodes and their position in the target wireless coverage area to provide wireless coverage in the target wireless coverage area based on the capabilities of the anchor nodes; and
[(Serfaty discloses determining a number of anchor nodes and their position and capacity in the target coverage area:
[Col 9 Lines 30-40] Based on the first set of mobile devices and the second set of mobile devices determined for each of the plurality of transmit power levels, for example, based on a first number of mobile devices in the first set of mobile devices and a second number of mobile devices in the second set of mobile devices for each transmit power levels each of the plurality of transmit power levels, information processing system 114 then selects (524) a transmit power level of the plurality of transmit power levels to set the initial transmit power of the deployable access node 112. Logic flow diagram 500 then ends.
[Col 13 Lines 4-27] For example, knowing the position of the mobile devices and characteristics and positions of a fixed network access node near incident scene 106, that is, access node 134, information processing system 114 can calculate, again using suitable RF propagation models, an average signal quality metric, such as SINR, that is to be experienced by the mobile devices 102 and 104 for different power levels transmitted by such fixed network access node. Based on this signal quality metric (that is, SINR), information processing system 114 can roughly estimate the normalized capacity of each such mobile device (that is, normalized to a suitable bandwidth), for example, based on the Shannon capacity theorem or in efficiency graphs in the form of bit/sec/Hz vs. SINR. Information processing system 114 can calculate a new function, ‘Q,’ that adds all the capacity gains obtained by the mobile devices that are involved in responding to the incident, as compared to their capacity under, for example, WAN coverage by the fixed network access node 134, and that subtracts the loss of capacity incurred by the mobile devices that are not involved in responding to the incident and are interfered with by transmissions by IAN 108, that is, by deployable access node 112, as compared to their capacity under WAN 130, with further weighting if one wants to emphasize the IAN over WAN.
[Col 8 Line 59 – Col 9 Line 13] Information processing system 114 then determines (516), for each of plurality of transmit power levels, a coverage area, at incident scene 106, of deployable network 110, and in particular of deployable access node 112, based on that transmit power level, the geographical and topographical maps, and the signal propagation models. Further, for each determined coverage area and based on geographical location information received for each of the multiple mobile devices 102 and 104, information processing system 114 determines (518) which mobile devices, of the multiple mobile devices 102 and 104, are within the coverage area. Further, for each of the multiple mobile devices 102 and 104 determined to be within a given coverage area, information processing system 114 determines (520), based on the user profile associated with each user/mobile device, a first set of mobile devices that are within the determined geographical coverage area and that are involved in responding to the incident (that is, one or more of mobile devices 102), and determines (522) a second set of mobile devices that are within the determined geographical coverage area and that are not involved in responding to the incident (that is, one or more of mobile devices 104).
Fig 1, Node 104x and 102x for anchor nodes; Fig 5B, Steps 516-524; see also Figs 1-5 and 5A-6)];
provide the determined position and a network configuration information to the determined anchor nodes
[(Serfaty discloses determining position and a network configuration and map information:
[Col 8 Lines 36-58] Local public agency 140 that is, controller 142, then conveys (512), for example, pushes, to deployable network 110 via broadband network 130 and air interface 135, the user-related and subscription-related information, the location, authentication, and access control information, the geographical and topographical maps and signal propagation models, and an indication of whether each user/mobile device 102, 104 is or is not involved in responding to the incident at incident scene 106. In response to receiving the user-related and subscription-related information, the location, authentication, and access control information, the geographical and topographical maps and signal propagation models, and the indications of the users/mobile devices that are or are not involved in responding to the incident at the incident scene, deployable network 110 routes the received information, maps, and models to information processing system 114. Information processing system 114 then stores (514) the received information, maps, models, and mobile device identifiers in at least one memory device 404, for example, storing the user-related and subscription-related information in user subscription database 408 and storing the location, authentication, and access control information in location and authentication database 406.
Fig 5A, Steps 502-512; see also Figs 1-5 and 5B-6)].
Serfaty does not use the term “anchor node”.
However, Lopes discloses:
wherein the anchor nodes provide wireless connectivity to wireless communication devices in the wireless first responder network
[(see:
[0038] ….. A mobility manager (or controller, MC) may, for example, ensure that communication sessions ….. among different MCs (e.g., in a fail-over scenario, load redistribution scenario, etc.), across different interfaces (or ports), etc. Note that the MC may also be referred to herein as a Local Mobility Anchor (LMA), a Network Controller, etc.
Fig 8, Network Controller (NC)].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate Serfaty’s method for managing emergency deployable network with Lopes’ method for measuring network capacity with the motivation being to improve the efficiency of network (Lopes, [0043]).
Regarding Claim 2, Serfaty discloses:
further configured to determine the number of anchor nodes by carrying out an automatic survey of at least the target wireless coverage area to estimate at least one of a distance and presence of an object and transmission properties by ranging measurements or by reconstructing images
[(Serfaty discloses determining a number of anchor nodes and their position and capacity in the target coverage area:
[Col 9 Lines 30-40] Based on the first set of mobile devices and the second set of mobile devices determined for each of the plurality of transmit power levels, for example, based on a first number of mobile devices in the first set of mobile devices and a second number of mobile devices in the second set of mobile devices for each transmit power levels each of the plurality of transmit power levels, information processing system 114 then selects (524) a transmit power level of the plurality of transmit power levels to set the initial transmit power of the deployable access node 112. Logic flow diagram 500 then ends.
[Col 13 Lines 4-27] For example, knowing the position of the mobile devices and characteristics and positions of a fixed network access node near incident scene 106, that is, access node 134, information processing system 114 can calculate, again using suitable RF propagation models, an average signal quality metric, such as SINR, that is to be experienced by the mobile devices 102 and 104 for different power levels transmitted by such fixed network access node. Based on this signal quality metric (that is, SINR), information processing system 114 can roughly estimate the normalized capacity of each such mobile device (that is, normalized to a suitable bandwidth), for example, based on the Shannon capacity theorem or in efficiency graphs in the form of bit/sec/Hz vs. SINR. Information processing system 114 can calculate a new function, ‘Q,’ that adds all the capacity gains obtained by the mobile devices that are involved in responding to the incident, as compared to their capacity under, for example, WAN coverage by the fixed network access node 134, and that subtracts the loss of capacity incurred by the mobile devices that are not involved in responding to the incident and are interfered with by transmissions by IAN 108, that is, by deployable access node 112, as compared to their capacity under WAN 130, with further weighting if one wants to emphasize the IAN over WAN.
[Col 8 Line 59 – Col 9 Line 13] Information processing system 114 then determines (516), for each of plurality of transmit power levels, a coverage area, at incident scene 106, of deployable network 110, and in particular of deployable access node 112, based on that transmit power level, the geographical and topographical maps, and the signal propagation models. Further, for each determined coverage area and based on geographical location information received for each of the multiple mobile devices 102 and 104, information processing system 114 determines (518) which mobile devices, of the multiple mobile devices 102 and 104, are within the coverage area. Further, for each of the multiple mobile devices 102 and 104 determined to be within a given coverage area, information processing system 114 determines (520), based on the user profile associated with each user/mobile device, a first set of mobile devices that are within the determined geographical coverage area and that are involved in responding to the incident (that is, one or more of mobile devices 102), and determines (522) a second set of mobile devices that are within the determined geographical coverage area and that are not involved in responding to the incident (that is, one or more of mobile devices 104).
Fig 5B, Steps 516-524; see also Figs 1-5 and 5A-6)];
Regarding Claim 3, Serfaty discloses:
further configured to repeatedly adapt the determination of the geographical location of the anchor nodes to at least the target wireless coverage area
[(Serfaty discloses continuously monitoring and updating the target coverage area:
[Col 14 Lines 4-21] Thus, as described above, communication system 100 provides a method and apparatus that should set an optimal output power of a deployable access node in an IAN before the access node even starts its operation. Further, as mobile devices move around the incident scene 106, it may be desirable to fine tune the determination of the output power of deployable access node 112. This could be done in several ways. For example, deployable network 110 may implement an application that could continue monitoring of the locations of mobile devices in the area by repeatedly consulting fixed network 120 or the location and authentication database of deployable network 110, which may continually monitor location information associated with the mobile devices, such as location updates provided by the mobile devices, particularly mobile devices not involved in responding to the incident, to determine if any major changes in mobile device geographical distribution has occurred.
Fig 5A, Steps 502-512; see also Figs 1-5 and 5B-6)].
Regarding Claim 4, Serfaty discloses:
further configured to monitor infrastructure usage and/or number of devices and their quality of service requirements and/or signal quality and/or position accuracy in the target wireless coverage area and dynamically add or remove anchor nodes based on requirements of at least the target wireless coverage area resulting from the monitoring
[(Serfaty discloses continuously monitoring and updating the target coverage area:
[Col 14 Lines 4-21] Thus, as described above, communication system 100 provides a method and apparatus that should set an optimal output power of a deployable access node in an IAN before the access node even starts its operation. Further, as mobile devices move around the incident scene 106, it may be desirable to fine tune the determination of the output power of deployable access node 112. This could be done in several ways. For example, deployable network 110 may implement an application that could continue monitoring of the locations of mobile devices in the area by repeatedly consulting fixed network 120 or the location and authentication database of deployable network 110, which may continually monitor location information associated with the mobile devices, such as location updates provided by the mobile devices, particularly mobile devices not involved in responding to the incident, to determine if any major changes in mobile device geographical distribution has occurred.
Fig 5A, Steps 502-512; see also Figs 1-5 and 5B-6)].
Regarding Claim 5, Serfaty discloses:
further configured to deploy air-borne or land-based relay nodes to extend coverage of the wireless signal to non-accessible areas of at least the target wireless coverage area and/or increase the positioning accuracy using extended coverage and/or using additional positioning sensors based on the determined number of anchor nodes or their position
[(Serfaty discloses configuring and extending target coverage area:
[Col 2 Lines 41-64] Disclosed herein are methods and systems for an automated activation and configuration of a deployable network, and in particular of a deployable access node providing wireless service to an IAN. As a general matter, a deployable network is a rapidly deployable site (for example, a deployable LTE base station, perhaps comprising an eNodeB, an evolved packet core (EPC), and/or one or more other related network-entity functions) that can be quickly set up at an incident scene to provide enhanced coverage and/or capacity. As a non-limiting list of example deployments, a deployable network can be utilized for coverage extension (for example, to extend wide area cellular coverage), coverage creation (for example, where no wide area cellular coverage is available), capacity off-loading and/or improvement (for example, in areas where wide area coverage exists, but does not have sufficient capacity or throughput for a given situation (for example, to properly service public-safety personnel at a location of a given public-safety incident). Deployable networks may utilize other in-band and/or out-of-band networks for backhaul (for example, to reach the Internet or other servers, a core network, and/or the like). Furthermore, a typical deployable network is capable of operating in a standalone fashion, or in conjunction with wide area networks (WANs).
Fig 5A, Steps 502-512; see also Figs 1-5 and 5B-6)].
Regarding Claim 6, Serfaty discloses:
further configured to count the number of wireless communication devices in a certain target area and/or determine their position
[(see:
[(Serfaty discloses determining a number of anchor nodes and their position and capacity in the target coverage area:
[Col 9 Lines 30-40] Based on the first set of mobile devices and the second set of mobile devices determined for each of the plurality of transmit power levels, for example, based on a first number of mobile devices in the first set of mobile devices and a second number of mobile devices in the second set of mobile devices for each transmit power levels each of the plurality of transmit power levels, information processing system 114 then selects (524) a transmit power level of the plurality of transmit power levels to set the initial transmit power of the deployable access node 112. Logic flow diagram 500 then ends.
[Col 13 Lines 4-27] For example, knowing the position of the mobile devices and characteristics and positions of a fixed network access node near incident scene 106, that is, access node 134, information processing system 114 can calculate, again using suitable RF propagation models, an average signal quality metric, such as SINR, that is to be experienced by the mobile devices 102 and 104 for different power levels transmitted by such fixed network access node. Based on this signal quality metric (that is, SINR), information processing system 114 can roughly estimate the normalized capacity of each such mobile device (that is, normalized to a suitable bandwidth), for example, based on the Shannon capacity theorem or in efficiency graphs in the form of bit/sec/Hz vs. SINR. Information processing system 114 can calculate a new function, ‘Q,’ that adds all the capacity gains obtained by the mobile devices that are involved in responding to the incident, as compared to their capacity under, for example, WAN coverage by the fixed network access node 134, and that subtracts the loss of capacity incurred by the mobile devices that are not involved in responding to the incident and are interfered with by transmissions by IAN 108, that is, by deployable access node 112, as compared to their capacity under WAN 130, with further weighting if one wants to emphasize the IAN over WAN.
Fig 5B, Steps 516-524; see also Figs 1-5 and 5A-6)].
Regarding Claim 7, Serfaty does not disclose about positioning accuracy.
However, Lopes discloses:
further configured to enable setting of a positioning accuracy needed for the target wireless coverage area through an application programming interface or a configuration interface and to combine a set positioning accuracy with available infrastructure information of at least the target wireless coverage area to change the position of anchor nodes or to deploy additional anchor nodes or remove existing anchor nodes in the target wireless coverage area
[(see:
[0242] Additionally, in accordance with various aspects of this disclosure, the networks and/or components thereof presented herein are provided with systems and methods for enhancing the accuracy of position or location of positioning or location information based at least in part on the utilization of anchors, non-limiting examples of which are provided in U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/244,930, titled “Using Anchors to Correct GPS Data in a Network of Moving Things,” filed on Oct. 22, 2015, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Fig 4)].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate Serfaty’s method for managing emergency deployable network with Lopes’ method for measuring network capacity with the motivation being to improve the efficiency of network (Lopes, [0043]).
Regarding Claim 8, Serfaty discloses:
further configured to detect an access device of another wireless network operating in the target wireless coverage area and to request a detected access device to adapt its communication scheduling to the determination of the position of the anchor nodes or a wireless communication device, or to be involved in the determination of the position of the anchor nodes or a wireless communication device, or to redirect data traffic from a wireless communication device to the first responder network
[(Serfaty discloses continuously monitoring and updating the target coverage area:
[Col 14 Lines 4-21] Thus, as described above, communication system 100 provides a method and apparatus that should set an optimal output power of a deployable access node in an IAN before the access node even starts its operation. Further, as mobile devices move around the incident scene 106, it may be desirable to fine tune the determination of the output power of deployable access node 112. This could be done in several ways. For example, deployable network 110 may implement an application that could continue monitoring of the locations of mobile devices in the area by repeatedly consulting fixed network 120 or the location and authentication database of deployable network 110, which may continually monitor location information associated with the mobile devices, such as location updates provided by the mobile devices, particularly mobile devices not involved in responding to the incident, to determine if any major changes in mobile device geographical distribution has occurred.
Fig 5A, Steps 502-512; see also Figs 1-5 and 5B-6)].
Regarding Claim 11, Serfaty discloses:
wherein the apparatus is configured to determine a need for additional anchor nodes based on the received network configuration information and a capacity of the anchor nodes
[(Serfaty discloses configuring and extending target coverage area:
[Col 2 Lines 41-64] Disclosed herein are methods and systems for an automated activation and configuration of a deployable network, and in particular of a deployable access node providing wireless service to an IAN. As a general matter, a deployable network is a rapidly deployable site (for example, a deployable LTE base station, perhaps comprising an eNodeB, an evolved packet core (EPC), and/or one or more other related network-entity functions) that can be quickly set up at an incident scene to provide enhanced coverage and/or capacity. As a non-limiting list of example deployments, a deployable network can be utilized for coverage extension (for example, to extend wide area cellular coverage), coverage creation (for example, where no wide area cellular coverage is available), capacity off-loading and/or improvement (for example, in areas where wide area coverage exists, but does not have sufficient capacity or throughput for a given situation (for example, to properly service public-safety personnel at a location of a given public-safety incident). Deployable networks may utilize other in-band and/or out-of-band networks for backhaul (for example, to reach the Internet or other servers, a core network, and/or the like). Furthermore, a typical deployable network is capable of operating in a standalone fashion, or in conjunction with wide area networks (WANs).
Fig 5A, Steps 502-512; see also Figs 1-5 and 5B-6)].
Regarding Claim 12, Serfaty does not discloses about positioning accuracy.
However, Lopes discloses:
further configured to enable setting of a positioning accuracy at the anchor node and to decide on a deployment or removal of another anchor node in the target wireless coverage area based on the received network configuration information
[(see[0242] Additionally, in accordance with various aspects of this disclosure, the networks and/or components thereof presented herein are provided with systems and methods for enhancing the accuracy of position or location of positioning or location information based at least in part on the utilization of anchors, non-limiting examples of which are provided in U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/244,930, titled “Using Anchors to Correct GPS Data in a Network of Moving Things,” filed on Oct. 22, 2015, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Fig 4)].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate Serfaty’s method for managing emergency deployable network with Lopes’ method for measuring network capacity with the motivation being to improve the efficiency of network (Lopes, [0043]).
Regarding Claim 16, the claim discloses similar features as of Claim 7, and is rejected accordingly.
Regarding Claim 17, the claim discloses similar features as of Claim 11, and is rejected accordingly.
Regarding Claim 18, the claim discloses similar features as of Claim 7, and is rejected accordingly.
Regarding Claim 21, the claim discloses similar features as of Claim 1, and is rejected accordingly.
Regarding Claim 23, the claim discloses similar features as of Claim 1, and is rejected accordingly.
Conclusion
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 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung-Jen Liu whose telephone number is 571-270-7643. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang B. Yao can be reached on 571-272-3182. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUNG LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473