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 .
Claim Objections
The numbering of claims is not in accordance with 37 CFR 1.126 which requires the original numbering of the claims to be preserved throughout the prosecution. When claims are canceled, the remaining claims must not be renumbered. When new claims are presented, they must be numbered consecutively beginning with the number next following the highest numbered claims previously presented (whether entered or not).
The claims as stand are numbered as 9, 10 (dep), 11, 10 (ind) and 13.
Misnumbered claim 10 (ind) has been renumbered 12. Any claim stated as dependent on claim 10 is treated in this action as dependent on claim 12 but an amendment must fix or clarify this as well.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6-9, 12-14, 17-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (2024/0,422,576) in view of Ansari et al. (2025/0,047,544).
For claims 1, 12, Kim teaches a method and system (abstract) for an interference detection RAN (radio access network) application deployed across one or more RICs (RAN intelligent controllers) (Para 15) for detecting and identifying external interference in a RAN (Paras 17-19) comprising a plurality of RAN base stations (Para 25 in view of Paras 1-3; base stations are in the edge servers) for servicing a plurality of users (Paras 22-23) located across a plurality of regions (Para 33; cells), each region comprising at least one RAN base station (Para 35), the method (background, summary and claims) comprising: for a particular region serviced by a particular RAN base station (Para 35):
detecting an interference incident associated with the particular region (Paras 43-44);
analyzing a pattern of spectrum interference associated with the particular region (Para 41);
based on said analyzing, determining (Para 47) whether the pattern of spectrum interference (Para 44) matches a first signature pattern associated with internal interference or a second signature pattern (Para 44 in view of Para 33) associated with external interference; and
when the pattern of spectrum interference matches the second signature pattern, generating an alert to notify an operator (Para 26, 42) of the particular RAN base station that the particular region is experiencing external interference.
Kim does not expressly disclose particularly breaking out external interference using specific patterns. Ansari teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) that includes the detection of external interference (Paras 91-95)(see also out of band interference (Para 59) based on detecting patterns (Para 51-55) and spectrum analysis for comparison (Paras 80-81) using signature patterns (Paras 62-65), resulting in various notifications (Paras 74-77, 143). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Ansari in order to provide improvements to handling interference (Paras 6-9).
For claims 2, 13, Ansari teaches wherein analyzing the pattern of spectrum interference comprises comparing the pattern of spectrum interference with a wireless channel spectrum composition for the particular region (Para 87).
For claims 3, 14 , Kim does not expressly disclose antenna and filtering. Ansari teaches wherein determining, based on said analyzing, whether the pattern of spectrum interference matches the first signature pattern or the second signature pattern comprises performing a filtering operation (Para 128, 137) to detect signal inconsistency between a set of receiving antenna branches (Paras 120-122) of the particular RAN base station (Para 73), each antenna branch associated with a different antenna of the particular RAN base station (Para 78).
For claims 6, 17, Ansari teaches that the filtering operation is a first filtering operation, wherein when the pattern of spectrum interference does not match the first signature pattern, the method further comprises:
performing a second filtering operation to detect load-based interference for the particular region (Paras 59, 71); and
when load-based interference is detected, determining that the interference is not associated with external interference (Paras 87, 91-97).
For claim 7, 18, Kim teaches that detecting the interference incident associated with the particular region comprises determining that a correlation between interference and a size of a traffic load for the particular region is greater than a load correlation threshold specified for the particular region (Para 39).
For claims 8, 19, Kim teaches that the alert comprises an indication that a root-cause of the interference incident is external interference, an identifier associated with the particular region, and indications of one or more KPIs (key performance indicators) impacted by the external interference (Para 16).
For claim 9, Kim teaches that the RAN application communicates with a set of base station components of the particular RAN base station via a particular RIC that interfaces with the RAN application and the set of base station components (Para 15).
Claim(s) 4, 5, 15, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim and Ansari as applied to claims 1, 3, 12, 14 above, and further in view of Atawia et al. (12,231,371).
For claims 4, 15, Kim and Ansari do not expressly disclose correlation of average interferences. Atawia teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) wherein:
the filtering operation comprises (i) calculating a correlation of average interference of the set of receiving antenna branches (col. 13, lines 1-25; col. 14, lines 55 – col. 15, line 5), and (ii) determining whether the calculated correlation is greater than an antenna correlation threshold specified for the particular region (col. 11, line 55 – col. 12, line 5); and
correlations that are less than the antenna correlation threshold are associated with the first signature pattern (col. 15, lines 5-15).
At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Atawia in order to provide improvements to interference detection (background).
For claims 5, 16, Atawia teaches that correlations that are greater than the antenna correlation threshold indicate a common pattern of spectrum interference is shared by each antenna branch in the set of receiving antenna branches (col. 7, lines 10-50).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim and Ansari as applied to claims 1, 9 above, and further in view of Parasher (12,408,013).
For claim 10, Kim and Ansari do not expressly disclose cRIC and rApp, though the former appears proprietary. Parasher teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) where the RAN application comprises an rApp (col. 6, line 55 – col. 7, line 20) and the particular RIC comprises a cRIC (centralized RIC)(col. 8, lines 45-65). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Parasher in order to provide improvements to RAN policy (background).
Claim(s) 11, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim, Ansari and Parasher as applied to claims 1, 9, 10, 12 above, and further in view of Froehlich (10,326,640).
For claims 11, 20, Kim, Ansari and Parasher do not expressly disclose the central manager nor GUI. Froehlich teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) that the cRIC is managed by an RMS (RIC management system) (col. 5, line 65 – col. 6, line 40) that manages one or more RICs in the RAN (col. 4, lines 25-45), wherein generating the alert to notify the operator further comprises providing the alert to the RMS, wherein the RMS displays the alert via a UI (user interface) of the RMS to notify the operator (col. 10, line 60 – col. 11, line 30). At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Froehlich in order to provide improvements to troubleshooting (col. 1, lines 25-55).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MELVIN H POLLACK whose telephone number is (571)272-3887. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00.
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/MELVIN H POLLACK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445