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 .
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1 and 8-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over White et al. (US20200389299A1) in view of Nishioka et al. (US7649996B2).
Regarding claim 1, O’Brien et al. discloses An apparatus (Fig. 1) comprising:
a first network node (Fig. 1; network node comprising a low speed quantum transmitter 100, a high-speed classical transmitter 101, and TDM 102) having a network interface (Fig. 1; the network interface is implied, wherein optical signal transmitted to the receiver as shown) coupled to one or more processors (Fig. 1; Para. 57; The quantum transmitter and receiver are controlled by microprocessors or computers. The TDM (102) multiplexer is controlled by one or more PCs or microprocessors to allocate random time slots for quantum and classical signals), wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
randomly combine (Fig. 1; Para. 57; TDM (102) module to multiplex the two signals in random time slots), via a switching device (Fig. 1; Para. 57; The TDM (102) multiplexer is typically made of optical switches, optical delays, and couplers), one or more quantum signals and a classical data signal to produce a mixed data signal (Fig. 1; Para. 58; Para. 57; After the quantum signal (114), the quantum signal 113 in Fig. 1, and classical signal (107) are modulated, they are multiplexed by the OTDM (102) multiplexer); and
transmit the mixed data signal to the second network node (Fig. 1; Para. 58; After the quantum signal (114) and classical signal (107) are modulated, they are multiplexed by the OTDM (102) multiplexer. At the receiver side, the OTDM (102) signal is directed into two branches, namely the quantum receiver (103) and classical receiver (104) respectively), wherein disturbance of the one or more quantum signals of the mixed data signal received at the second network node indicates a presence of an eavesdropper (Fig. 1; Fig. 2; Para. 67; If the time slot is for the quantum signal, the control system post processes (208) the results measured by the quantum transmitter to monitor the security of the channel. If the monitoring result indicates a possible physical layer attack, the control system switches or drops (201) the channel before the next time slot The security of the channel is evaluated by the two parameters introduced previously. One can characterize the attack by different thresholds. For example, a sudden change of the transmittance indicates an eavesdropping attack).
However, the present system does not expressly disclose generate a random sequence by a random number generator based on a seed shared with a second network node; signal based on the random sequence.
Nishioka et al. discloses generate a random sequence by a random number generator based on a seed shared with a second network node (Fig. 1; Column 12, lines 34-37; the first pseudo-random number generating unit 60 which treats the secretly shared information 3 as a seed and generates the pseudo-random number from this seed); signal based on the random sequence (Fig. 1; Column 12, lines 39-43; a quantum modulator 80 which performs quantum modulation of the qubit based on the pseudo-random number which has been output from the first pseudo-random number generating unit 60).
It is obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize a pseudo-random number generating unit, as taught by Nishioka et al., in the present system. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so because using a Pseudo-Random Number Generator produce long, high-quality, and computationally unpredictable keys that are efficient.
Regarding claim 8, the present combination discloses The method of claim 1, as described and applied above, further comprising: receiving the mixed data signal at the second network node (White et al., Fig. 1; the receiving node receives the classical data and quantum signal 113 as shown); generating a same random sequence at the second network node based on the seed shared with the first network node (Nishioka et al., Fig. 1; Column 9, lines 45-48; A second pseudo-random number generating unit 220 is a unit which outputs a second pseudo-random number synchronously with the first pseudo-random number generating unit 60 using the secretly shared information 21 as a seed); retrieving the one or more quantum signals from the mixed data signal at the second network node (Fig. 1; Para. 58; At the receiver side, the OTDM (102) signal is directed into two branches, namely the quantum receiver (103) and classical receiver (104) respectively. When the classical detector (104) identifies the quantum signal slot, by searching the modulated data patterns, a feedback signal is sent to the quantum receiver controller and it will then process the quantum receiver output) based on the same random sequence (Nishioka et al., Fig. 1; Column 12, lines 39-43; a quantum modulator 80 which performs quantum modulation of the qubit based on the pseudo-random number which has been output from the first pseudo-random number generating unit 60); and determining the presence of the eavesdropper based on disturbance of the one or more quantum signals (White et al., Fig. 1; Fig. 2; Para. 67; If the time slot is for the quantum signal, the control system post processes (208) the results measured by the quantum transmitter to monitor the security of the channel. If the monitoring result indicates a possible physical layer attack, the control system switches or drops (201) the channel before the next time slot The security of the channel is evaluated by the two parameters introduced previously. One can characterize the attack by different thresholds. For example, a sudden change of the transmittance indicates an eavesdropping attack).
Regarding claim 1, the present combination teaches a device that necessarily performs this method claim in light of the rejection described and applied in Claim 9.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7 and 10-20 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
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JAI M. LEE
Examiner
Art Unit 2634
/JAI M LEE/Examiner, Art Unit 2634
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