DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of Group I, claims 1-7 in the reply filed on 12/22/2025 is acknowledged. Applicant traverse the restriction requirement without specifically point out the supposed errors. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) was/were submitted on 03/19/2024 and 08/07/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 7, change one of the regional SAS instances has clearer in line 9 to one of the regional SAS instances has cleared.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1 and 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khawer et al. ( US 2021/0352488 A1), hereinafter referred to as Khawer, in view of Das et al. ( US 2021/0258848 A1), hereinafter referred to as Das.
Regarding claim 1, Khawer teaches: An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor ( ¶[0069] ); and
at least one memory storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor ( ¶[0069] ) , cause the apparatus at least to:
receive, by a domain proxy for a set of spectrum access system (SAS) instances (¶[0044], the domain proxy 710 (or the base stations 705-708) monitor the connection by tracking latencies of messages exchanged over the connection or by monitoring the heartbeat messages exchanged with the SAS instances 735, 740; ¶[0043], multiple instances of an SAS instance 735, 740) that includes a plurality of regional SAS instances and at least one local SAS instance, SAS load status information that includes, for each of the SAS instances in the set of SAS instances (¶[0044], the domain proxy 710 (or the base stations 705-708) monitor the connection by tracking latencies of messages exchanged over the connection or by monitoring the heartbeat messages exchanged with the SAS instances 735, 740; ¶[0043], multiple instances of an SAS instance 735, 740; It is noted that load status information is equivalent to heartbeat messages), respective SAS instance load status information for the respective SAS instance (¶[0044], the domain proxy 710 (or the base stations 705-708) monitor the connection by tracking latencies of messages exchanged over the connection or by monitoring the heartbeat messages exchanged with the SAS instances 735, 740; ¶[0043], multiple instances of an SAS instance 735, 740); and
control, by the domain proxy based on at least a portion of the SAS load status information, forwarding of Citizens Broadband radio Service Device (CBZ) traffic toward the set of SAS instances (¶[0042], a domain proxy 710 that aggregates messages associated with the base stations 707, 708; ¶[0036], domain proxy 435… conveys communications between the SAS instance 405 and the CBSDs; ¶[0035], domain proxy 435 forwards requests from the permitted CBSDs 440, 445, 450 to the SAS instance 405; ¶[0043], packets to the SAS instances 735, 740; ¶[0044], domain proxy 710 initially establishes a connection via the port 701…route the connection to one of the SAS instances 735, 740… domain proxy 710 then monitors the connection to determine whether the connection is working properly or if there is a possible failure or disruption or degradation of the connection…domain proxy 710 (or the base stations 705-708) monitor the connection by tracking latencies of messages exchanged over the connection or by monitoring the heartbeat messages exchanged with the SAS instances 735, 740; ¶[0045], domain proxy 710 fails to detect a functional port after attempting to connect with all of the available ports 701-703. In that case, the domain proxy 710 releases the connection and attempts to establish a connection to a geo-redundant secondary SAS, if available; ¶[0043], SAS instance 735, 740 collectively constitute one geo redundant SAS instance such as the primary SAS instance 405 in FIG. 4).
Although Khawer teaches multiple instances of an SAS instance ( see ¶[0043] ), Khawer, however, fails to explicitly teach information related to SAS instances that includes a plurality of regional instances and at least one local instance.
However, Das, in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches spectrum access system (SAS) instances that includes a plurality of regional SAS instances (see FIG. 3, Frontend SASs 312, 322, 332; ¶[0064], ¶[0065]) and at least one local SAS instance (see FIG. 3, On- premise SASs 317, 327, and 337; ¶[0065]; ¶[0070]).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Khawer's teachings with Das' above teaching in order to provide the flexibility required to allocate spectrum and meet complex optimization beyond incumbent protection and interference management (see Das, ¶[0067]). Known work in one field of endeavor (Das prior art) may prompt variations of it for use in either the same field or different one (Khawer prior art) based on design incentives ( provide the flexibility required to allocate spectrum and meet complex optimization beyond incumbent protection and interference management ) or other market forces if the variations are predictable to one or ordinary skill in the art.
Regarding claim 3, The combination teaches: The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, for at least one of the SAS instances, the respective SAS instance load status information for the respective SAS instance includes at least one of a processing load on the respective SAS instance ( see Khawer, ¶[0044], the domain proxy 710 initially establishes a connection via the port 701. The router 720 and one or more of the load-balancing elements 721-723 route the connection to one of the SAS instances 735, 740, e.g., based on the current loads on the SAS instances 735, 740. The domain proxy 710 then monitors the connection to determine whether the connection is working properly or if there is a possible failure or disruption or degradation of the connection… The domain proxy 710 (or the base stations 705-708) monitor the connection by tracking latencies of messages exchanged over the connection or by monitoring the heartbeat messages exchanged with the SAS instances 735, 740. A possible failure of the connection is indicated by an increase in the message latency, e.g., a latency that exceeds a threshold value, or by a failure to receive a predetermined number of consecutive heartbeat messages ) or a database access load on the respective SAS instance.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2 and 4-7 is/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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Richardson et al. ( US 2020/0236557 A1), Method and apparatus for monitoring sas cpas performance in cbrs systems
Markwart et al. ( US 2019/0132776 A1), Method, system and apparatus for channel evacuation in a wireless network with spectrum sharing
Khawer et al. ( US 2021/0211880 A1), High availability access to shared spectrum using geo-redundant spectrum access systems
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANG BOI THAWNG whose telephone number is (703)756-4751. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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/MANG BOI THAWNG/Examiner, Art Unit 2476
/AYAZ R SHEIKH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2476