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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 07/23/2024, 08/13/2025, and 10/07/2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Pilipetskii et al. US 2022/0397448 A1 (hereinafter Pilipetskii).
Regarding Claim 1, Pilipetskii teaches an optical communication system ([0002] "Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of optical communication systems"), comprising: a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) interrogation unit ([0002] "More particularly, the present disclosure relates to... distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) in undersea optical cables": [0057,0058] "DAS interrogator 182"; fig.4), the DAS interrogation unit being configured to generate one or more optical signals for determining a status of one or more portions of an optical communication path ([0058] "DAS interrogator 182 may generate an outbound DAS signal"); modulate the one or more optical signals using one or more measurement pulses and generate one or more modulated optical signals ([0058] "outbound DAS signal that is modulated by the laser comb so that the outbound DAS signal is transmitted over a plurality of optical frequencies": [0041] “In this embodiment, and other embodiments to follow, the outbound DAS signal may be transmitted as a series of pulses, where the return DAS signal is also characterized as a series of pulses"); and transmit the one or more modulated optical signals to the one or more portions of the optical communication path ([0058] "the outbound DAS signal is transmitted over a plurality of optical frequencies, that correspond to a respective plurality of filter frequencies that are associated with the respective optical filters of the different loopbacks of DAS transmission system 171.”); wherein the status of the one or more portions of the optical communication path is determined based on one or more reflected signals reflected by the one or more portions of the optical communication path in response to the one or more modulated optical signals ([0058] "the outbound DAS signal is transmitted over a plurality of optical frequencies, that correspond to a respective plurality of filter frequencies that are associated with the respective optical filters of the different loopbacks of DAS transmission system 171. In this manner, when the outbound DAS signal is routed through a given loopback of the DAS transmission system 171, the given portion of the outbound DAS signal that corresponds to the transmit frequency of the optical filter of that loopback will be returned to the DAS interrogator 182. Accordingly, multiple DAS return signals, each signal being associated with a different loopback, may be simultaneously received and interroqated by the DAS interrogator 182. Moreover, the DAS interroqator may advantageously associate each of the multiple simultaneously received return DAS signals with a specific span or loopback location of the DAS transmission system 171, according to the frequency of the given DAS return signal").
Regarding Claim 2, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 1, wherein the optical communication path is a distributed acoustic sensing optical transmission path ([0058] “loopbacks of DAS transmission system 171”; fig.4, return DAS signal path).
Regarding Claim 3, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 2, wherein the DAS interrogation unit includes a transmitting optical device configured to transmit the one or more modulated optical signals to the one or more portions of the optical communication path ("DAS interrogator 182"; fig.4; [0058] "outbound DAS signal that is modulated by the laser comb so that the outbound DAS signal is transmitted over a plurality of optical frequencies").
Regarding Claim 4, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 3, wherein the transmitting device includes a laser source configured to generate the one or more optical signals for determining the status of the one or more portions of the optical communication path (laser comb, fig.4; [0004,0040,0057,0058]).
Regarding Claim 5, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 4, wherein the laser source includes at least one of the following: a sweeping laser, a continuous wave laser, a multi-tone frequency laser (laser comb, fig.4; [0004,0040,0057,0058]), and any combination thereof.
Regarding Claim 6, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 3, wherein the transmitting device includes a pulse generator configured to generate the one or more measurement pulses for modulating the one or more optical signals ([0058] laser comb generated by modulating the laser with a modulator driven by a pulse generator source).
Regarding Claim 7, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 6, wherein the transmitting device includes a modulator configured to modulate the one or more optical signals using the one or more measurement pulses generated by the pulse generator ([0058] laser comb generated by modulating the laser with a modulator driven by a pulse generator source).
Regarding Claim 8, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 7, wherein the modulator includes at least one of the following: an acousto-optic modulator, an electrical absorption modulator, an electric-optic modulator (EOM) ([0058] laser comb generated by modulating the laser with a modulator driven by a pulse generator source [i.e. electric-optic modulation]), and any combination thereof.
Regarding Claim 9, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 6, wherein a frequency of at least one modulated optical signal in the one or more modulated optical signals is determined in accordance with at least one portion of the optical communication path in the one or more portions of the optical communication path, wherein the at least one modulated optical signal is used to determine status of the at least one portion ([0058] "the outbound DAS signal is transmitted over a plurality of optical frequencies, that correspond to a respective plurality of filter frequencies that are associated with the respective optical filters of the different loopbacks of DAS transmission system 171. In this manner, when the outbound DAS signal is routed through a given loopback of the DAS transmission system 171, the given portion of the outbound DAS signal that corresponds to the transmit frequency of the optical filter of that loopback will be returned to the DAS interrogator 182. Accordingly, multiple DAS return signals, each signal being associated with a different loopback, may be simultaneously received and interroqated by the DAS interrogator 182. Moreover, the DAS interroqator may advantageously associate each of the multiple simultaneously received return DAS signals with a specific span or loopback location of the DAS transmission system 171, according to the frequency of the given DAS return signal").
Regarding Claim 10, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 3, wherein the DAS interrogator unit includes one or more receiving optical devices communicatively coupled to the optical transmission path and is configured to receive a plurality of backscattered signals generated by each portion in the one or more portions of the optical transmission path in response to the one or more modulated optical signals transmitted by the transmitting optical device ([0058] "the outbound DAS signal is transmitted over a plurality of optical frequencies, that correspond to a respective plurality of filter frequencies that are associated with the respective optical filters of the different loopbacks of DAS transmission system 171. In this manner, when the outbound DAS signal is routed through a given loopback of the DAS transmission system 171, the given portion of the outbound DAS signal that corresponds to the transmit frequency of the optical filter of that loopback will be returned to the DAS interrogator 182. Accordingly, multiple DAS return signals, each signal being associated with a different loopback, may be simultaneously received and interroqated by the DAS interrogator 182. Moreover, the DAS interroqator may advantageously associate each of the multiple simultaneously received return DAS signals with a specific span or loopback location of the DAS transmission system 171, according to the frequency of the given DAS return signal").
Regarding Claim 11, Pilipetskii teaches the system of claim 1, wherein the one or more optical signals include an interrogation signal ([0058], fig. 4).
Regarding Claims 12-20, claims 12-20 are drawn to the method of using an apparatus the same as claimed in claims 1-11. As such, the limitations of claims 12-20 correspond to limitations of claims 1-11 and are therefore rejected for the same reason(s) of anticipation as stated above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID W LAMBERT whose telephone number is (571)272-7692. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday, 10-6.
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/DAVID W LAMBERT/Examiner, Art Unit 2634