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 filed on 03/20/2025 has been considered and
placed in the application file.
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 1-2, 4, 6-7 and 9-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Drogi (U.S. 2014/0274227).
Regarding claim 1, Drogi (hereinafter, Ref~227) discloses (please see Fig. 2 and related text for details) a method, comprising:
sending (via 110 of Fig. 2), to a first device (PA 104 of Fig. 2) comprising one or more amplifiers, a first indication (please note that output from 110 broadly can be read as the claimed indication OR at least it is functionally equivalent to it) to: change input power, from an initial input power to a final input power, of one or more of the one or more amplifiers; and
measure (via Noise Margin Estimator 252 of Fig. 2) one or more parameters comprising noise of the one or more amplifiers;
sending (via 254 and/or 124 of Fig. 2) to the first device a second indication (please note that the output from 254 and/or 124 broadly can be read as the claimed indication OR at least it is functionally equivalent to it) comprising one or more configuration parameter (gate/drain bias voltages) changes of one or more configuration parameters of the one or more amplifiers, wherein the one or more configuration parameter changes is based on the one or more parameters comprising noise; and causing,
based on the second indication, the one or more configuration parameters of the one or more amplifiers to change, meeting claim 1.
Regarding claim 2, Ref~227 discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising sending to a second device a message comprising measurements of the one or more parameters comprising noise, since more than one amplifier and/or channels would be expected in the circuit of Ref~227, meeting claim 2.
Regarding claim 4, Ref~227 supports the claimed “wherein the one or more amplifiers are part of: a complete amplifier assembly; or an embedded amplifier circuit”, since the circuit of Ref~227 would be considered as part of a complete amplifier assembly, meeting claim 4.
Regarding claim 6, Ref~227 discloses the invention in a broad sense and does not expressly teach the method of claim 1, further comprise determining a position of one or more of the one or more amplifiers along a noise power ratio (NPR) curve based on the change in input power and the one or more parameters comprising noise. However, these are normal design parameters/features in the field depending on custom specifications, meeting claim 6.
Regarding claim 7, Ref~227 supports the claimed “wherein the one or more parameters comprising noise of the one or more amplifiers comprise one or more of: a modulation error ration (MER); a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); one or more input powers; one or more output powers; one or more input noise powers; one or more output noise powers; or one or more endpoint device spectra captures”, since at least input/output powers can be mapped as the claimed parameters meeting claim 7.
Regarding claim 9, Ref~227 discloses (please see Fig. 2 and related text for details) a method, comprising:
receiving, by a device (PA 104 of Fig. 2) comprising an amplifier system (200 of Fig. 2), an indication (please note inputs to PA 104 can be read as the broadly claimed indication OR at least it is functionally equivalent to it ) to change power at an input of the amplifier system;
changing (via 110 of Fig. 2) the input power of the amplifier system from an initial input power to a final input power;
measuring (via Noise Margin Estimator 252 of Fig. 2 ) one or more amplifier system input values comprising an input noise profile and one or more amplifier system output values comprising an output noise profile; and
causing (via 254 and/or 124 of Fig. 2) an adjustment to a configuration setting of the amplifier system based on one or more of the input noise profile and the output noise profile, meeting claim 9.
Regarding claim 10, Ref~227 supports the claimed “wherein the amplifier system comprises one or more of an individual amplifier, a complete amplifier assembly, an embedded amplifier circuit, and a subsystem of amplifiers within the amplifier system”, since the system of Ref~227 can be read as the claimed one individual/complete amplifier system, meeting claim 10.
Regarding claim 11, Ref~227 supports the claimed “wherein the one or more of the input noise profile and the output noise profile comprise: an input noise level; an input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); an input carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) an input modulation error ration (MER); an output noise level; an output SNR; an output CNR; and an output MER”, since at least input/output powers can be mapped as the broadly claimed parameters, meeting claim 11.
Regarding claim 12, Ref~227 does not expressly disclose the method of claim 9, further comprising determining one or more consumer premises equipment (CPE) spectra; and wherein the causing an adjustment to a configuration setting of the amplifier system is further based on the CPE spectra. However, these are normal design parameters/features in the field depending on custom specifications, since it would have been obvious to employ such feature for noise measure, meeting claim 12.
Regarding claim 13, Ref~227 discloses the method of claim 9, further comprising sending the one or more system input values and one or more system output values, since said input values and/or output values is/are sending to Config. Block 254 at least, meeting claim 13.
Regarding claim 14, Ref~227 discloses (please see Fig. 2 and related text for details) a method, comprising:
causing a change (via biasing adjustments/features provided by 254 and/or 124 of Fig. 2 would be capable of causing the claimed change) in transmitting power of one or more channels of an amplifier system comprising one or more amplifiers (PA 104 of Fig. 2);
causing a measuring (via 252 of Fig. 2) of one or more channel characteristics comprising a noise profile of at least one of the one or more channels;
receiving (via 254/120 of Fig. 2) the measurement of the one or more channel characteristics; and
characterizing (via parameters including said biasing features) a state of the amplifier system based on the measurements of the one or more channel characteristics, meeting claim 14.
Regarding claim 15, Ref~227 discloses the method of claim 14, further comprising causing a configuration parameter of the amplifier system to be adjusted based on the noise profile as seen from Fig. 2, meeting claim 15.
Regarding claim 16, Ref~227 discloses the method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the causing the change in transmitting power and measuring the change in one or more channel characteristics is from a location different from the amplifier system as seen from Fig. 2 (please note 252 of Fig. 2 is from a different location relative to the amplifier system), meeting claim 16.
Regarding claim 17, Ref~227 discloses the claimed “wherein the one or more channel characteristics comprise one or more of: a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); a carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR); a modulation error ratio (MER); an input noise power; or an output noise power” due to the “Noise Margin Estimator” employed, meeting claim 17.
Regarding claim 18, Ref~227 supports the claimed “wherein the causing a change in transmitting power is an external device” as seen the Noise Margin Estimator, Config. Block 254 broadly can be viewed as external device as see from Fig. 2, meeting claim 18.
Regarding claim 19, Ref~227 supports the claimed “wherein one or more of the one or more channels are vacant channels”, as described in paragraph [0018] and there would be vacant channel(s) depending on operating situation/condition, meeting claim 19.
Regarding claim 20, Ref~277 also supports the claimed “wherein one or more of the one or more channels are existing channels” as described in paragraph [0018] and there would be existing channel(s) depending on operating situation/condition, meeting claim 20.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5 and 8 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HIEU P NGUYEN whose telephone number is 571-272-8577. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8:30AM-6:00PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, YOUNGHUIE HAN (Jessica) can be reached on 571-272-2078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 703-872-9306.
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/HIEU P NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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