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 .
Response to Arguments
Regarding first argument:
Applicant argues in substance that Wang fails to anticipate independent claims of instant application.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Applicant argues that prior art does not disclose “assigning, by the device, actual sectors to the FWA devices based on the maximum data volumes.” Wang does however state, as applicant has pointed out in arguments allocating traffic amongst the plurality of cells in accordance with the respective capacity of each cell of the plurality of cells.” Given applicants can be their own lexicographer, this is a difference of semantics where both the instant application and the prior art disclose assigning traffic based on a maximum bandwidth with the difference being allocate vs assign referring to giving the cell or sector the ability to communicate and maximum capacity vs maximum traffic referring to maximum bandwidth. Paragraph 3 of Wang further elaborates on the relationship of a cell vs a sector within a network and treats them as synonymous for the purposes of traffic assignment based on capacity. Applicant further argues that prior art does not teach the limitation of “comparing by the device, the qualified sectors and the actual sectors to identify modified sectors for the fwa devices” Applicant has defined modified data in the claim language, however has not claimed a definition of a modified sector in the claim language, and has not provided guidance in the specification as to what applicant is holding to be a modified sector. A modified sector is also not a common term in the art, this leaves the examiner broadest reasonable interpretation of the term modified sector to mean a sector that has either gained or lost a cell or has an increase or decrease in demand. Given this interpretation, the quoted portion of Paragraph 20 ([¶0020] System 100 can facilitate in whole or in part identifying a forecasted demand within a network over a first time period, wherein the network includes a plurality of cells, predicting an availability of resources in the network over the first time period, determining that the forecasted demand within the first time period exceeds the availability of resources in the network over the first time period relative to a threshold, ) of Wang reads on the claim language where a predicted demand is compared to an actual resource presence and identifies a sector that has modified demand. For at least these reasons, the rejection is proper and is thus maintained.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang (US 20210352517 A1).
Regarding Claim 1:
A method, ([¶0147] the various embodiments can be implemented as a method,) comprising: receiving, by a device and before a time period, current capacity data associated with sectors of a fixed wireless access (FWA) network and qualified sector data identifying qualified sectors of FWA devices associated with the FWA network;([¶0017] obtaining a first forecast of a first load for a sector of a network, calculating a respective first signal to interference plus noise ratio for each cell of a plurality of cells included in the sector,) receiving, by the device and over the time period, FWA data associated with the FWA devices and corresponding sectors; ([¶0020] System 100 can facilitate in whole or in part identifying a forecasted demand within a network over a first time period, )applying, by the device, one or more rules to the FWA data to generate modified FWA data; ([¶0020] System 100 can facilitate in whole or in part identifying a forecasted demand within a network over a first time period, wherein the network includes a plurality of cells, predicting an availability of resources in the network over the first time period, determining that the forecasted demand within the first time period exceeds the availability of resources in the network over the first time period relative to a threshold, ) calculating, by the device, maximum data volumes during the time period for the FWA devices based on the modified FWA data; ([¶0017] determining a capacity of each cell of the plurality of cells in accordance with the first signal to interference plus noise ratio of the cell and the second signal to interference plus noise ratio of the cell, and distributing the first load amongst the plurality of cells in accordance with the respective capacity of each cell of the plurality of cells.) assigning, by the device, actual sectors to the FWA devices based on the maximum data volumes; ([¶0018] allocating traffic of the network amongst the plurality of cells in accordance with the respective capacity of each cell of the plurality of cells.) comparing, by the device, the qualified sectors and the actual sectors to identify modified sectors for the FWA devices; ([¶0020] System 100 can facilitate in whole or in part identifying a forecasted demand within a network over a first time period, wherein the network includes a plurality of cells, predicting an availability of resources in the network over the first time period, determining that the forecasted demand within the first time period exceeds the availability of resources in the network over the first time period relative to a threshold, )modifying, by the device, the current capacity data based on the modified sectors and to generate modified capacity data associated with the sectors;([¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.) and performing, by the device, one or more actions based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.)
Regarding Claim 2:
The method of claim 1, wherein the time period is at least thirty days. ([¶0041] a variable directed to the epoch may be initialized to a first time period within the epoch. For example, if the method 200c is being executed as part of planning/provisioning/allocating resources for a given year, the year may be divided into discrete months, resulting in a potential value for the variable from 1 to 12 (where each increment in value corresponds to a given month in the year). Of course, the method 200c may be implemented over epochs that are different from a year. For example, the epoch/time periods may be broken down, e.g., quarterly, over a period of a few weeks, etc.)
Regarding Claim 3:
The method of claim 1, wherein applying the one or more rules to the FWA data to generate the modified FWA data comprises one or more of: applying one or more exclusion rules that exclude data from the FWA data; applying a rule that combines the FWA data for each of the sectors; or applying one or more network rules that modify a current capacity associated with the FWA data. ([¶0086] In some embodiments, a load balancing rule/policy in a given sector/face may tend to favor a distribution of the total load of the sector/face such that the loading factors Q.sub.j (e.g., the ratios of the traffic allocated to the j cells relative to the respective capacities of the j cells) across the j cells are approximately equal over the sector/face. Stated slightly differently, such a load balancing rule/policy may allocate/distribute the load of a sector/face approximately in proportion to the respective capacities of each of the cells.
Regarding Claim 4:
The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the qualified sectors and the actual sectors to identify the modified sectors for the FWA devices comprises: determining that one of the qualified sectors fails to match a corresponding one of the actual sectors; and identifying, as one of the modified sectors, the corresponding one of the actual sectors instead of the one of the qualified sectors. ([¶0054] an alert/warning, or other indication, may be generated. The alert/warning/indication may advise that the sector/face lacks resources (e.g., spectrum) in an amount that is sufficient to meet the demand/load (at least within the threshold/tolerance of block 222c). In response to that alert/warning/indication, one or more actions may be taken, such as for example provisioning a new sector/face.)
Regarding Claim 5:
The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the qualified sectors and the actual sectors to identify the modified sectors for the FWA devices comprises: determining that one of the qualified sectors matches a corresponding one of the actual sectors; and maintaining, as one of the modified sectors, the one of the qualified sectors. ([¶0054] an alert/warning, or other indication, may be generated. The alert/warning/indication may advise that the sector/face lacks resources (e.g., spectrum) in an amount that is sufficient to meet the demand/load (at least within the threshold/tolerance of block 222c). In response to that alert/warning/indication, one or more actions may be taken, such as for example provisioning a new sector/face.)
Regarding Claim 6:
The method of claim 1, wherein the current capacity data identifies available capacities of the sectors before the time period. ([Abstract] calculating a capacity of each cell of the plurality of cells in accordance with the first quality metric for the cell and the second quality metric for the cell,)
Regarding Claim 7:
The method of claim 1, wherein the modified capacity data identifies available capacities of the sectors after the time period. ([¶0020] wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.)
Regarding Claim 8:
A device, ([¶0147] Further, the various embodiments can be implemented as a method, apparatus or article of manufacture) comprising: one or more processors configured to: receive, before a time period, current capacity data associated with sectors of a fixed wireless access (FWA) network and qualified sector data identifying qualified sectors of FWA devices associated with the FWA network, wherein the current capacity data identifies available capacities of the sectors before the time period; ([¶0017] obtaining a first forecast of a first load for a sector of a network, calculating a respective first signal to interference plus noise ratio for each cell of a plurality of cells included in the sector,) receive, over the time period, FWA data associated with the FWA devices and corresponding sectors; ([¶0020] System 100 can facilitate in whole or in part identifying a forecasted demand within a network over a first time period, )apply one or more rules to the FWA data to generate modified FWA data; calculate maximum data volumes during the time period for the FWA devices based on the modified FWA data; assign actual sectors to the FWA devices based on the maximum data volumes; compare the qualified sectors and the actual sectors to identify modified sectors for the FWA devices;([¶0020] wherein the network includes a plurality of cells, predicting an availability of resources in the network over the first time period, determining that the forecasted demand within the first time period exceeds the availability of resources in the network over the first time period relative to a threshold, )modify the current capacity data based on the modified sectors and to generate modified capacity data associated with the sectors; ([¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.) and perform one or more actions based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.)
Regarding Claim 9:
The device of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors, to perform the one or more actions, are configured to: identify a base station associated with one of the sectors that is affected by the modified capacity data; and optimize the base station based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0092] As described above, aspects of this disclosure may be used to allocate resources within a network or system. Such allocations may be geared towards ensuring a sufficiently high QoS or QoE (e.g., a QoS or QoE greater than a first threshold), while at the same time avoiding excessive or unnecessary expenditures on resources (e.g., providing for expenditures in an amount less than a second threshold). In some instances, the aforementioned first and second thresholds may converge to a single threshold, which may be representative of an optimum/best resource allocation.)
Regarding Claim 10:
The device of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors, to optimize the base station based on the modified capacity data, are configured to one or more of: modify a tilt of the base station based on the modified capacity data; modify an azimuth of the base station based on the modified capacity data; or add additional spectrum to the base station based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0054] an alert/warning, or other indication, may be generated. The alert/warning/indication may advise that the sector/face lacks resources (e.g., spectrum) in an amount that is sufficient to meet the demand/load (at least within the threshold/tolerance of block 222c). In response to that alert/warning/indication, one or more actions may be taken, such as for example provisioning a new sector/face. [¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.[¶0137] The orientation sensor 620 can utilize orientation sensing technology such as a magnetometer to detect the orientation of the communication device 600 (north, south, west, and east, as well as combined orientations in degrees, minutes, or other suitable orientation metrics).)
Regarding Claim 11:
The device of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors, to perform the one or more actions, are configured to: identify one or more of the sectors that are affected by the modified capacity data; and provide additional equipment for the one or more of the sectors based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.)
Regarding Claim 12:
The device of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors, to perform the one or more actions, are configured to: identify one or more of the sectors that are affected by the modified capacity data; and modify a sales strategy for the one or more of the sectors based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0145] Thus, the classifier(s) can be used to automatically learn and perform a number of functions, including but not limited to determining according to predetermined criteria which of the acquired cell sites will benefit a maximum number of subscribers and/or which of the acquired cell sites will add minimum value to the existing communication network coverage, etc.)
Regarding Claim 13:
The device of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors, to perform the one or more actions, are configured to: identify one of the sectors that is affected by the modified capacity data; and cause one or more base stations to be provided in the one of the sectors. ([¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.)
Regarding Claim 14:
The device of claim 8, wherein the one or more processors, to perform the one or more actions, are configured to: identify one or more capacity depletion triggers for one or more of the sectors that are affected by the modified capacity data; and modify the one or more capacity depletion triggers for the one or more of the sectors based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0054] an alert/warning, or other indication, may be generated. The alert/warning/indication may advise that the sector/face lacks resources (e.g., spectrum) in an amount that is sufficient to meet the demand/load (at least within the threshold/tolerance of block 222c). In response to that alert/warning/indication, one or more actions may be taken, such as for example provisioning a new sector/face.)
Regarding Claim 15:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions, the set of instructions comprising: ([¶0147]Further, the various embodiments can be implemented as a method, apparatus or article of manufacture [¶0106] The illustrated embodiments of the embodiments herein can be also practiced in distributed computing environments where certain tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. [¶0108] Computer-readable storage media can comprise, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM),flash memory or other memory technology, compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or other tangible and/or non-transitory media which can be used to store desired information. In this regard, the terms “tangible” or “non-transitory” herein as applied to storage, memory or computer-readable media, are to be understood to exclude only propagating transitory signals per se as modifiers and do not relinquish rights to all standard storage, memory or computer-readable media that are not only propagating transitory signals per se)one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the device to: receive, before a time period, current capacity data associated with sectors of a fixed wireless access (FWA) network and qualified sector data identifying qualified sectors of FWA devices associated with the FWA network; ([¶0017] obtaining a first forecast of a first load for a sector of a network, calculating a respective first signal to interference plus noise ratio for each cell of a plurality of cells included in the sector,) receive, over the time period, FWA data associated with the FWA devices and corresponding sectors; ([¶0020] System 100 can facilitate in whole or in part identifying a forecasted demand within a network over a first time period, ) apply one or more rules to the FWA data to generate modified FWA data; calculate maximum data volumes during the time period for the FWA devices based on the modified FWA data; assign actual sectors to the FWA devices based on the maximum data volumes; compare the qualified sectors and the actual sectors to identify modified sectors for the FWA devices; ([¶0020] System 100 can facilitate in whole or in part identifying a forecasted demand within a network over a first time period, wherein the network includes a plurality of cells, predicting an availability of resources in the network over the first time period, determining that the forecasted demand within the first time period exceeds the availability of resources in the network over the first time period relative to a threshold, ) modify the current capacity data based on the modified sectors and to generate modified capacity data associated with the sectors, wherein the modified capacity data identifies available capacities of the sectors after the time period; ([¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.) and perform one or more actions based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.)
Regarding Claim 16:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more instructions, that cause the device to apply the one or more rules to the FWA data to generate the modified FWA data, cause the device to one or more of: apply one or more exclusion rules that exclude data from the FWA data; apply a rule that combines the FWA data for each of the sectors; or apply one or more network rules that modify a current capacity associated with the FWA data. ([¶0086] In some embodiments, a load balancing rule/policy in a given sector/face may tend to favor a distribution of the total load of the sector/face such that the loading factors Q.sub.j (e.g., the ratios of the traffic allocated to the j cells relative to the respective capacities of the j cells) across the j cells are approximately equal over the sector/face. Stated slightly differently, such a load balancing rule/policy may allocate/distribute the load of a sector/face approximately in proportion to the respective capacities of each of the cells.
Regarding Claim 17:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more instructions, that cause the device to compare the qualified sectors and the actual sectors to identify the modified sectors for the FWA devices, cause the device to: determine that one of the qualified sectors fails to match a corresponding one of the actual sectors; and identify, as one of the modified sectors, the corresponding one of the actual sectors instead of the one of the qualified sectors. ([¶0054] an alert/warning, or other indication, may be generated. The alert/warning/indication may advise that the sector/face lacks resources (e.g., spectrum) in an amount that is sufficient to meet the demand/load (at least within the threshold/tolerance of block 222c). In response to that alert/warning/indication, one or more actions may be taken, such as for example provisioning a new sector/face.)
Regarding Claim 18:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more instructions, that cause the device to compare the qualified sectors and the actual sectors to identify the modified sectors for the FWA devices, cause the device to: determine that one of the qualified sectors matches a corresponding one of the actual sectors; and maintain, as one of the modified sectors, the one of the qualified sectors. ([¶0054] an alert/warning, or other indication, may be generated. The alert/warning/indication may advise that the sector/face lacks resources (e.g., spectrum) in an amount that is sufficient to meet the demand/load (at least within the threshold/tolerance of block 222c). In response to that alert/warning/indication, one or more actions may be taken, such as for example provisioning a new sector/face.)
Regarding Claim 19:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more instructions, that cause the device to perform the one or more actions, cause the device to: identify a base station associated with one of the sectors that is affected by the modified capacity data; and optimize the base station based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0092] As described above, aspects of this disclosure may be used to allocate resources within a network or system. Such allocations may be geared towards ensuring a sufficiently high QoS or QoE (e.g., a QoS or QoE greater than a first threshold), while at the same time avoiding excessive or unnecessary expenditures on resources (e.g., providing for expenditures in an amount less than a second threshold). In some instances, the aforementioned first and second thresholds may converge to a single threshold, which may be representative of an optimum/best resource allocation.)
Regarding Claim 20:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more instructions, that cause the device to perform the one or more actions, cause the device to: identify one or more of the sectors that are affected by the modified capacity data; and provide additional equipment for the one or more of the sectors based on the modified capacity data. ([¶0020] responsive to the determining, causing an upgrade of a capacity of the network, wherein the upgrade of the capacity comprises one or both of: deploying a new cell in the network, wherein the new cell is not included in the plurality of cells, and increasing a wireless spectrum allocation of a first cell of the plurality of cells.)
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 HUGH MARK ASHLEY whose telephone number is (571)272-0199. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-430.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Asad Nawaz can be reached at (571) 272-3988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HUGH MARK ASHLEY/Examiner, Art Unit 2463
/ASAD M NAWAZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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