DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/420,590 filed on 1/23/2024. Claims 1-25 have been examined.
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 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 10-13 and 19-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mendiola et al. (hereinafter Mendiola)(US 2020/0244734) in view of Bradish et al. (hereinafter Bradish)(US 2023/0269558).
Regarding claims 10 and 19, Mendiola teaches as follows:
A wireless communication system (interpreted as the system 600 in figure 6) comprising:
a first wireless device (interpreted as the one of a plurality of nodes 608 in figure 6)(the plurality of nodes 608 may include a communication module 606 incorporated therein or coupled thereto. Exemplary nodes may include a plurality of communication interfaces... a communication module 606 having two (or more) communications interfaces 610, 612 for sending and receiving data wirelessly to one or more other exemplary nodes, see, ¶ [0053] an figure 6) including:
a first transceiver (interpreted as one of communication interface 610 and 612)(see, dual band #1 in figure 6) configured to communicate via wireless and machine to machine protocols (interpreted as direct communications between two nodes) and operating within a first wireless band (each node may be configured to transmit data to one or more other nodes of the system. Exemplary protocols for transmitting data may include, without limitation, TV White Space (TVWS), Long-Term Evolution (LTE), Ethernet, WiFi, optical, or other wireless or wired methods, see, ¶ [0050])(each radio or communication interface may include an independent radio, such as 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz radios configured in a mesh, see, ¶ [0053]); and
a second transceiver (interpreted as one of communication interface 610 and 612)(see, dual band #1 in figure 6) configured to communicate via a low-bitrate protocol and operating within a second wireless band that is lower frequency than the first wireless band (if the original transmission is over short range, the communication protocol for the original transmission may be one for higher throughput speeds at short range, but which may suffer greater transmission loss if over longer ranges. If the retransmission to another node requires longer transmission distances, such as to the next node in the chain, the communication protocol permitting for long range transmission while maintaining transmission fidelity may be selected for the retransmission, see, ¶ [0055])(the one of dual band used for long range transmission inherently has lower carrier frequency than wireless band used for short range transmission);
wherein the first wireless device operates as a first node on a mesh network and is configured to identify an approximate range of a second node on the mesh network, wherein the first wireless device is configured to broadcast a transmission, and wherein the first wireless device automatically shifts between wireless bands associated with the first transceiver and the second transceiver based on the approximate range of the second node (the system may select a different communication protocol to accommodate or correlate to a transmission distance to the new node. For example, if the original transmission is over short range, the communication protocol for the original transmission may be one for higher throughput speeds at short range, but which may suffer greater transmission loss if over longer ranges. If the retransmission to another node requires longer transmission distances, such as to the next node in the chain, the communication protocol permitting for long range transmission while maintaining transmission fidelity may be selected for the retransmission, see, ¶ [0055] and figure 6); and
a host server (interpreted as the cloud storage location 316 or a centralized storage location 318 in figure 3) configured to receive, store, and communicate data with the mesh network (the first node 308 may redirect the incoming data to another storage location after the predefined storage threshold has been met or surpassed. In an exemplary embodiment, the redistribution may be to an offsite storage location, such as a cloud storage location 316. The redistribution may be through a network 314, such as the internet. Other storage locations may be used, such as a conventional centralized and/or on-site storage location 318, see, ¶ [0028]).
Mendiola does not explicitly teach the host server in the mesh network.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mendiola to include the host server (cloud or centralized storage) in order to efficiently store communication data for the mesh network.
Mendiola does not teach the low-bitrate protocol.
Bradish teaches as follows:
One or more of base station devices 108 may be a device configured to receive transmissions from mobile device 102 via long-range communications at a low bit rate, such as by a LPWAN protocol or any other suitable wireless communication protocol (see, ¶ [0060]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mendiola with Bradish to include the LPWAN protocol as taught by Bradish in order to efficiently provide long-range communications at a low bit rate.
Regarding claims 11 and 20, Mendiola teaches as follows:
Wherein the transmission further includes a payload, and wherein the header of the transmission further designates a target device to receive the payload (by utilizing both pre and post routing marks, specifically marked data can pass across the selected communications standard to the next device in the chain allowing it to flow to the devices or routed systems further up the network until it is processed or received at its desired destination, see, ¶ [0058]).
Regarding claims 12 and 21, Mendiola teaches as follows:
Wherein the nodes of the mesh network other than the target device are configured to rebroadcast the transmission and enables hops from node to node (exemplary embodiments may be used to redirect data traffic to different nodes within the mesh upon an indication of a failed node. When a data transmission results in a failure across the redundant transmission protocols or interfaces, the system may be configured to send the data packet through another node, see, ¶ [0055] and figure 6).
Regarding claims 13 and 22, Mendiola teaches as follows:
Wherein the first wireless handset is configured to communicate the transmission to the host server via the Internet (the redistribution may be to an offsite storage location, such as a cloud storage location 316. The redistribution may be through a network 314, such as the internet, see, ¶ [0028] and figure 3), and wherein the host server is configured to communicate the transmission to the second node (the system may be configured to store data locally at the node, while also sending and storing a copy remotely on a remote storage device, such as a cloud storage area, see, ¶ [0026]. Therefore transmitting copied communication data from the cloud storage area to other node is obvious).
Claims 14-15 and 23-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mendiola et al. (hereinafter Mendiola)(US 2020/0244734) in view of Bradish et al. (hereinafter Bradish)(US 2023/0269558), and further in view of Abraha et al. (hereinafter Abraha)(US 2017/0347305).
Regarding claims 14-15 and 23-24, Mendiola in view of Bradish teaches all limitations as presented above except for upsampling downsampled transmission.
Abraha teaches as follows:
Each reception programmable digital signal processing circuit 508R(1)-508R(M) includes a reception digital upsampling circuit 510R(1)-510R(M) each configured to upsample the transmission downsampled digital RF communications signal 504T(1)-504T(M) at a programmed reception upsample rate based on the programmed transmission downsample rate to generate reception upsampled digital RF communications signals 512R(1)-512R(M), because of the downsampling performed in the HEU 302 (see, ¶ [0043] and figure 5B).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mendiola in view of Bradish with Abraha to include the reception digital upsampling circuit as taught by Abraha in order to efficiently regenerate downsampled communication signals.
Claims 16-18 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mendiola et al. (hereinafter Mendiola)(US 2020/0244734) in view of Bradish et al. (hereinafter Bradish)(US 2023/0269558), and further in view of Warhus et al. (hereinafter Warhus)(US 5,835,054).
Regarding claims 16-17 and 25, Mendiola in view of Bradish teaches all limitations as presented above except for triangulating an approximate position by periodically transmitting a signal.
Warhus teaches as follows:
A position transmitter 64 periodically transmits a radio frequency pulse that is received and measured by position receivers 56-58. The free-space time-of-flight to each receivers 56-58 is compared and the position of the acquisition unit 52 is solved by triangulation (see, col. 6, lines 22-34 and figure 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mendiola in view of Bradish with Warhus to include the well-known triangulation as taught by Warhus in order to efficiently measure the approximate position of other nodes in mesh network.
Regarding claim 18, Warhus teaches of periodically transmitting a radio frequency pulse to determine the position of the acquisition unit as presented above.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mendiola in view of Bradish with Warhus to include transmitting the periodic radio frequency pulse automatically until receiving any response signal back in order to determine the approximate position of other nodes in mesh network.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mendiola et al. (hereinafter Mendiola)(US 2020/0244734) in view of Bradish et al. (hereinafter Bradish)(US 2023/0269558), and further in view of Kim et al. (hereinafter Kim)(US 2019/0325667).
Regarding claim 1, Mendiola in view of Bradish teaches similar limitations as presented above and Mendiola further teaches as follows:
The plurality of nodes 608 may include a communication module 606 incorporated therein or coupled thereto. Exemplary nodes may include a plurality of communication interfaces... a communication module 606 having two (or more) communications interfaces 610, 612 for sending and receiving data wirelessly to one or more other exemplary nodes (see, ¶ [0053] an figure 6); and
a consolidated communications device 606 containing a multicore processor, DDR4 RAM modules, multi gigabit options, and interchangeable solid state hard drives through bus on the motherboard. This processing core can be coupled with additional communication devices such as computing boards with 802.x, LTE (1.9-3.9 ghz), TV White Space (900 mhz), or WIMAX radios through PCI busses built into the communication device (see, ¶ [0056] and figure 6).
Therefore, Mendiola teaches frequency band 900MHz used in one of two communication interfaces.
Mendiola in view of Bradish does not teach the Codec 2.
Kim teaches as follows:
The codec selection unit 410 selects one from among a plurality codecs (Codec 1, Codec 2, . . . , Codec N). The codec section unit may select one from among a number of codecs depending on the user's settings. The code selection unit is controlled to perform encoding with Codec 1 by default and then perform encoding with Codec 2 if the codec is changed in the user's settings (see, ¶ [0076] and figure 4).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mendiola in view of Bradish with Kim to include the codec selection unit of selecting one from number of codecs as taught by Kim in order to efficiently encode and decode communication data.
Regarding claim 2, Mendiola teaches as follows:
Wherein the transmission further includes a payload, and wherein the header of the transmission further designates a target device to receive the payload (by utilizing both pre and post routing marks, specifically marked data can pass across the selected communications standard to the next device in the chain allowing it to flow to the devices or routed systems further up the network until it is processed or received at its desired destination, see, ¶ [0058]).
Regarding claim 3, Mendiola teaches as follows:
Wherein the nodes of the mesh network other than the target device are configured to rebroadcast the transmission and enables hops from node to node (exemplary embodiments may be used to redirect data traffic to different nodes within the mesh upon an indication of a failed node. When a data transmission results in a failure across the redundant transmission protocols or interfaces, the system may be configured to send the data packet through another node, see, ¶ [0055] and figure 6).
Regarding claim 4, Mendiola teaches as follows:
Wherein the first wireless handset is configured to communicate the transmission to the host server via the Internet (the redistribution may be to an offsite storage location, such as a cloud storage location 316. The redistribution may be through a network 314, such as the internet, see, ¶ [0028] and figure 3), and wherein the host server is configured to communicate the transmission to the second node (the system may be configured to store data locally at the node, while also sending and storing a copy remotely on a remote storage device, such as a cloud storage area, see, ¶ [0026]. Therefore transmitting copied communication data from the cloud storage area to other node is obvious).
Claims 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mendiola et al. (hereinafter Mendiola)(US 2020/0244734) in view of Bradish et al. (hereinafter Bradish)(US 2023/0269558) and Kim et al. (hereinafter Kim)(US 2019/0325667), and further in view of Abraha et al. (hereinafter Abraha)(US 2017/0347305).
Regarding claims 5-6, Mendiola in view of Bradish and Kim teaches all limitations as presented above except for upsampling downsampled transmission.
Abraha teaches as follows:
Each reception programmable digital signal processing circuit 508R(1)-508R(M) includes a reception digital upsampling circuit 510R(1)-510R(M) each configured to upsample the transmission downsampled digital RF communications signal 504T(1)-504T(M) at a programmed reception upsample rate based on the programmed transmission downsample rate to generate reception upsampled digital RF communications signals 512R(1)-512R(M), because of the downsampling performed in the HEU 302 (see, ¶ [0043] and figure 5B).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mendiola in view of Bradish and Kim with Abraha to include the reception digital upsampling circuit as taught by Abraha in order to efficiently regenerate downsampled communication signals.
Claims 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mendiola et al. (hereinafter Mendiola)(US 2020/0244734) in view of Bradish et al. (hereinafter Bradish)(US 2023/0269558) and Kim et al. (hereinafter Kim)(US 2019/0325667), and further in view of Warhus et al. (hereinafter Warhus)(US 5,835,054).
Regarding claims 7-8, Mendiola in view of Bradish and Kim teaches all limitations as presented above except for triangulating an approximate position by periodically transmitting a signal.
Warhus teaches as follows:
A position transmitter 64 periodically transmits a radio frequency pulse that is received and measured by position receivers 56-58. The free-space time-of-flight to each receivers 56-58 is compared and the position of the acquisition unit 52 is solved by triangulation (see, col. 6, lines 22-34 and figure 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mendiola in view of Bradish and Kim with Warhus to include the well-known triangulation as taught by Warhus in order to efficiently measure the approximate position of other nodes in mesh network.
Regarding claim 9, Warhus teaches of periodically transmitting a radio frequency pulse to determine the position of the acquisition unit as presented above.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Mendiola in view of Bradish and Kim with Warhus to include transmitting the periodic radio frequency pulse automatically until receiving any response signal back in order to determine the approximate position of other nodes in mesh network.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeong S Park whose telephone number is (571)270-1597. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30 ET.
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/JEONG S PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
February 21, 2026