Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 18, 2026
Application No. 18/400,910

TRANSMISSION CAPACITY AND CONGESTION DETECTION FOR OPEN RADIO ACCESS NETWORKS

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Dec 29, 2023
Examiner
ROBERTS, BRIAN S
Art Unit
2466
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
DISH NETWORK L.L.C.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
85%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 8m
To Grant
90%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 85% — above average
85%
Career Allow Rate
620 granted / 730 resolved
+26.9% vs TC avg
Minimal +5% lift
Without
With
+4.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
21 currently pending
Career history
751
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
7.8%
-32.2% vs TC avg
§103
32.1%
-7.9% vs TC avg
§102
20.4%
-19.6% vs TC avg
§112
31.5%
-8.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 730 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
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. Claims 1-20 have been examined. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action: A person shall be entitled to a patent unless – (a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale , or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Gandhi et al. (US 2005/0135313). In reference to claim 20 Gandhi et al. teaches a process for detecting capacity breaches in an area of interest (AOI) of a radio access network ( e.g. cells comprising sectors in a CDMA network; par. 0003 ) , the process comprising: generating performance indicators for a cells and sectors comprising the cells ( e.g. generating performance indicators such as Erlang usage and normalized hourly power per hour of multiple cells and sectors in a CDMA network; par. 0003, 0016-0019 ) ; extrapolating the performance indicators using a subscriber growth model to generate forecast indicators for the cells and for the sectors comprising the cells ( e.g. extrapolating using subscriber traffic growth model to generate forecast indicators for each cell and sector as shown with lines 202, 203, or 204 in Fig. 2, par. 0020-0021 ) ; and comparing the forecast indicators to capacity thresholds to forecast a sector break at a live cell site ( e.g. comparing the forecast indictors shown with lines 202, 203 or 204 to capacity thresholds for each sector to forecast a sector break at a particular live cell in the CDMA network ; Fig. 2, par. 0020-002 2 ) . 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) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gandhi et al. (US 2005/0135313) in view of Thakur et al. (US 11082862) . In reference to claim 14 Gandhi et al. teaches a process for detecting capacity breaches in an area of interest (AOI) of a radio access network ( e.g. area of interest comprising cells including sectors in a CDMA network; par. 0003 ) , the process comprising: generating performance indicators for a cells and sectors comprising the cells ( e.g. generating performance indicators such as Erlang usage and normalized hourly power per hour of multiple cells and sectors in a CDMA network; par. 0003, 0016-0019 ) ; extrapolating the performance indicators using a subscriber growth model to generate forecast indicators for the cells and for the sectors comprising the cells ( e.g. extrapolating using subscriber traffic growth model to generate forecast indicators for each cell and sector as shown with lines 202, 203, or 204 in Fig. 2, par. 0020-0021 ) ; and comparing the forecast indicators to capacity thresholds to forecast a sector break at a cell site ( e.g. comparing the forecast indictors shown with lines 202, 203 or 204 to capacity thresholds for each sector to forecast a sector break at a particular cell in the CDMA network ; Fig. 2, par. 0020-002 2 ) . Gandhi et al. does not teach identifying a new cell site for construction in the AOI in response to forecasting the sector break. Thakur et al. teaches identifying a new cell site for construction in an area of interest in response to forecasting . ( col. 4 lines 18 – col. 6 line 19 ) It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method to in response to forecasting the sector break of Gandhi et al. to include identifying a new cell site for construction in an area of interest as suggested by Thakur et al. because it would provide a solution to improve performance and reliability between the network and user devices and mitigate interruption of service within the network between the network and user devices. Allowable Subject Matter Claim s 1-13 allowed. Claims 15-19 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 are: US 2024/0259868 pertains to c apacity breaches are forecast in a mobile network. A Key Performance Indicators (KPI) database is accessed to obtain KPI data associated capacity of cells in a mobile network. Based on the KPI data, critical cells and non-critical cells are identified, wherein the critical cells exhibit high utilization affecting performance, and the non-critical cells do not exhibit high utilization. For the non-critical cells, a prediction model is applied to identify at least one predetermined forecast time window associated with capacity issues associated with at least one of the non-critical cells. Based on applying the prediction model, a report is generated identifying actions to execute to address capacity issues. An action from the report is executed to configure the mobile network to address the capacity issues of the critical cells, and/or capacity issues of the non-critical cells having forecasted capacity issues within one of the predetermined forecast time windows. US 2021/0250245 pertains to a computing system may access data samples associated with an access point of a communication network. The data samples may be collected at an application level from client devices associated with the access point and aggregated into data points correlating a first network metric to a traffic-volume metric. The system may partition the data points into a first and second set of data points using a first network metric threshold. The system may determine trends of the traffic-volume metric with respect to the first network metric based on regression analysis on the first and second sets of data points. The system may predict, based on the trends of the traffic-volume metric with respect to the first network metric, an amount of time until a network-capacity metric of the access point meets a traffic-loss threshold. The network-capacity metric may be determined based on the traffic-volume metric. US 2020/0015046 pertains to a processor determines that probability data indicative of a probability that an estimated throughput rate is to be consistently delivered within an area through a radio interface of a fixed wireless network and satisfies a defined consistency criterion based on an analysis of information indicative of a radio environment in an area. The processor determines speed tier data indicative of a speed tier associated with the estimated throughput rate in response to determining the probability data satisfies the defined probability criterion, where the speed tier is related to a defined billing fee. The processor initiates a presentation of the speed tier data through a sales interface (1226) to facilitate a registration of a prospective customer device that is to be coupled to the radio interface. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT BRIAN S ROBERTS whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)272-3095 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT M to F, 9am to 5pm . Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, FILLIN "SPE Name?" \* MERGEFORMAT Faruk Hamza can be reached at FILLIN "SPE Phone?" \* MERGEFORMAT (571) 272-7969 . The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. FILLIN "Examiner Stamp" \* MERGEFORMAT BRIAN S. ROBERTS Primary Examiner Art Unit 2466 /BRIAN S ROBERTS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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Prosecution Timeline

Dec 29, 2023
Application Filed
Mar 27, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
85%
Grant Probability
90%
With Interview (+4.9%)
2y 8m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 730 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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