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 .
2. Applicants amendment filed on 01/20/2026 has been entered and carefully considered. Claims 1, 3-7, 9-14, 16-19 are pending. Claims 2, 8, 15 are cancelled.
Response to Arguments
3. The Applicant states in scanned page 2 “The cited references, taken each alone or in combination, certainly do not suggest applying an adjustment to the symbol rate of the TX signal”,
The Examiner respectfully submits that the specification as filed discloses in para [0029] Fig. 1, Fig. 2, , device 24 further comprises a frequency controller 68 that generates a reference clock. Frequency controller 68 provides the reference clock to TX filter 40 of TX 36, for use as the symbol clock of the TX signal. As will be explained in detail below, frequency controller 68 applies frequency adjustments to the frequency of the TX signal (i.e., to the symbol rate of the TX signal), in order to set the phase difference between the TX signal and the RX signal to a value that best facilitates echo cancellation by echo canceller 64.
Therefore, prior art Choi discloses frequency of transmitted signal which is the symbol rate of the transmitted signal.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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) 1,4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi (US 20160344574 A1) hereinafter Choi and further in view of Trans et al. (US 20030016770 A1)hereinafter Trans
As to claim 1. Choi teaches A communication device, comprising: a transmitter, to transmit a transmitted (TX) signal to a peer communication device over ([0029] [0043]Fig. 1,transmitter 174 may transmit a signal (“the transmitted signal” x(t)) via one or more antennas 107)
a full-duplex link; ([0003] A simultaneous transmission (Tx) and reception (Rx) (STR) transceiver may be configured to enable duplex communication including transmission and reception over the same frequency and time range.
a receiver, to receive a received (RX) signal from the peer communication device ([0046][0048]receiver, receive signal y(t))
an echo canceler, to cancel an echo component of the TX signal that is present in the RX signal; ([0046][0048] echo cancellation module 120 to generate an analog echo cancellation signal, denoted E(t), to be applied to the received RF signal via receiver 112, , the received signal y(t) including a combination of a desired received signal and an echo signal/echo component)
and
a frequency controller, to apply an adjustment to a symbol rate , ([0089] digital baseband module 130/frequency controller, may be configured to compensate/adjust, sub-carriers of the frequency domain signal Xn to account for phase rotations introduced to the signal x(t) by phase-shifters 124, and tap delays Tk applied to signal x(t) )
Choi does not teach over the full-duplex link; the adjustment setting a symbol phase between symbols of the TX signal and symbols of the RX signal to a value that improves cancellation of the echo component by the echo canceler.
Trans teaches over the full-duplex link ([0530] Pseudo Random Noise, Full duplex transfer technique is used for point-to-point phase and frequency transfer to obtain the highest precision and accuracy)
; the adjustment setting a symbol phase between symbols of the TX signal and symbols of the RX signal to a value that improves cancellation of the echo component by the echo canceler.([0390][0394] Each channel transmitter and receiver are synchronously detected in in any or combination of the following signal parameters detection processes Symbol absolute carrier and symbol Phase Sampling and Timing etc., using only the symbol timing synchronization, the symbol cancellation as well as linear nulling to perform the detection in synchronous transmit and receiver systems, using symbol cancellation, interference from already-detected components of the symbol vector, is subtracted out from the received signal vector, resulting in a modified received vector in which, effectively, fewer interferers are present)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Trans with the teachings of Choi because Trans teaches that with higher SNR margins, used to increase the higher performance and data rate capacity of the channel or to reduce the cost of the channel. (Trans [0018])
Claims 7, 13 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 1
As to claim 4. the combination of Choi and Trans, specifically Trans teaches wherein the frequency controller is to set the symbol phase independently of a delay of the full-duplex link. ([0537][0540][0546] receiver detection device is independent of any phase and/or frequency errors (Delta Phi, Delta Frequency), errors come about as a result of the small discrepancies between the transmitter and receiver oscillator frequencies, transmit and receive IDLE or Synchronization symbols to maintain system phase and frequency synchronization/symbol phase; differential delay differences determines the accuracy of the phase comparison of the transmit part and receive part (station delays) of station 1 and 2/full duplex)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Trans with the teachings of Choi because Trans teaches that with higher SNR margins, used to increase the higher performance and data rate capacity of the channel or to reduce the cost of the channel. (Trans [0018])
Claims 10, 17 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 4
Claim(s) 5 11, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi, Trans further in view of Medvedev et al. (US 20080056305 A1)hereinafter Medvedev
As to claim 5. the combination of Choi and Trans specifically Choi teaches the frequency controller ([0089] digital baseband module 130/frequency controller),
the combination of Choi and Trans does not teach wherein is to set the symbol phase independently of symbol phase adjustments performed in the peer communication device.
Medvedev teaches wherein is to set the symbol phase independently of symbol phase adjustments performed in the peer communication device. ([0111Fig. 10, The received data symbols e/g., received from peer communication device, are phase corrected by .theta..sub.p(n) (block 1018) and processed (e.g., detected) to obtain estimated data symbols (block 1020), data-based phasor X.sub.d(n) is then computed based upon the estimated data symbols (block 1022); phase correction is performed independently in each symbol period)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Medvedev with the teachings of Choi and Trans because Medvedev teaches that performing symbol phase correction of phase error in the frequency of the received pilot symbol would allow to improve system performance. (Medvedev [0007])
Claims 18 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 5
As to claim 11. the combination of Choi and Trans specifically Choi teaches wherein the TX signal is transmitted to a peer communication device, ([0029] [0043]Fig. 1,transmitter 174 may transmit a signal (“the transmitted signal” x(t)) via one or more antennas 107)wherein the RX signal is received from the peer communication device, ([0046][0048]receiver, receive signal y(t))
the combination of Choi and Trans does not teach and wherein applying the adjustment comprises setting the symbol phase independently of phase adjustments performed in the peer communication device.
Medvedev teaches wherein is to set the symbol phase independently of symbol phase adjustments performed in the peer communication device. ([0111Fig. 10, The received data symbols e/g., received from peer communication device, are phase corrected by .theta..sub.p(n) (block 1018) and processed (e.g., detected) to obtain estimated data symbols (block 1020), data-based phasor X.sub.d(n) is then computed based upon the estimated data symbols (block 1022); phase correction is performed independently in each symbol period)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Medvedev with the teachings of Choi and Trans because Medvedev teaches that performing symbol phase correction of phase error in the frequency of the received pilot symbol would allow to improve system performance. (Medvedev [0007])
Claim(s) 3, 9, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi, Trans and further in view of Nishimura (US 20020076037 A1) hereinafter Nishimura
As to claim 3 the combination of Choi and Ho, does not teach wherein the frequency controller is to monitor a cancellation level of the echo component, and to adjust the symbol rate of the TX signal so as to increase the cancellation level.
Nishimura teaches wherein the frequency controller is to monitor a cancellation level of the echo component,([0007][0030] Fig. 7,Fig. 9, echo cancellation signal generator 14 monitor the transmit input signal TXi instead of the amplified transmit signal TXm, and by having the signal level data generator 24 detect the levels of both the transmit input signal TXi and receive input signal RXi instead of detecting only the TXi level, predict echo level accurately.)
and to adjust the symbol rate of the TX signal so as to increase the cancellation level. ([0040] Fig. 1, echo cancellation signal EC is equally amplified/increased by the AGC unit 22, so the amplified echo component in the amplified transmit signal TXm is correctly canceled by subtraction of the amplified echo cancellation signal ECm)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Nishimura with the teachings of Choi and Trans because Nishimura teaches that an echo canceler uses the incoming far-end signal to estimate the echo signal that will be produced, and subtracts the estimated echo signal from the signal received from the microphone, thereby eliminating or at least reducing the echo. (Nishimura [0003])
Claims 9, 16 is/are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 3
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi, Trans, and in view of Razavi et al. (US 20230050128 A1)hereinafter Razavi
As to claim 14. the combination of Choi and Transspecifically Choi teaches wherein the slave communication device is to receive the TX signal, ([0044][0048]receiver, receive signal y(t) from transmitter)
the combination of Choi and Ho does not teach to recover a clock from the received TX signal, and to clock the RX signal based on the recovered clock.
Razavi teaches to recover a clock from the received TX signal, and to clock the RX signal based on the recovered clock. ([0040]{0042]Fig. 1, The digital RX signal, on the other hand, is synchronized to the receiver clock recovered from the received signal; resampling replica of the digital TX signal using the receiver clock; resampled replica and the digital RX signal are synchronized to the same clock, applying recovered clock)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine teachings of Razavi with the teachings of Choi, Trans, because Razavi teaches that providing resampled replica to echo canceler would enable echo canceler to subtract the resampled replica from the digital RX signal, thereby removing the echo. (Razavi [0042])
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 6, 12, 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Regarding claims 6, 12, 19 prior art Wang et al. [US 20050068886 A1]discloses in para [0068] The AID converter 425 digitizes the received OFDM signal by sampling it at the sampling frequency fs, to produce a sequence of received OFDM samples r(n), where index n marks individual OFDM samples in the time-ordered sequence r(n). As we mentioned before, the frequency offset here refers to carrier frequency offset, i.e., the difference between the downshifting frequency and the carrier frequency of the transmitter.
And in para [0071] Channel equalization in the MSE-OFDM receiver is performed differently from the afore described channel equalization in the prior art OFDM receiver; according to the present invention, the channel equalization is performed on a per-frame rather than per-symbol basis, and the channel equalization and OFDM de-modulation are performed in two different steps.
And in prior art Yang et al. [CN 108964868 A] teaches in [example 1, S3] S3, a preamble location mark of the start frequency F is 20 *BLF square wave sampling signal of the received echo sequence for sampling the rising edge sampling and cache the sampling value at each period of the sampling signal. normally each symbol period by sampling the signal samples 20, the Miller coding mode preamble has relatively more numbers (TRext=1 more), after several 1, the 0 hopping sequence period signal also is stable, so the invention performs the fuzzy judging the preamble tone signal in step S2 and searches.
However, combination or prior arts records Wang and Yang does not teach
For independent claims 6, 12 and 19
the frequency controller is to cause the sampling times to fall at defined target positions within both the RX symbols and the echo symbols
Therefore, claims 6, 12, 19 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the objections set forth in this office action and in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Dependent claims of claim 18 would also be allowable for the same above reasons.
Conclusion
5. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Jiang et al. [US 20130141272 A1] MICROWAVE TRANSMISSION APPARATUS
HOSSEINI; Seyedkianoush et al. [US 20220394732 A1] INTERFERENCE MEASUREMENT FOR SIDELINK COMMUNICATION
GANESAN; Raghu et al. [US 20210288656 A1] INTERLEAVING ADC ERROR CORRECTION METHODS FOR ETHERNET PHY
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 ATIQUE AHMED whose telephone number is (571)272-6244. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30 - 7:30 PM M-F Eastern.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Un Cho can be reached at 5712727919. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ATIQUE AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413