DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
2. Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
3. The rejection of claims 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. § 112, second paragraph, is withdrawn in view of applicant's amendments/remarks.
Response to Arguments
4. Applicant’s arguments filed on 12/22/2025 with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. In addition to, the Examiner maintained the references of Vayanos et al. (U.S. PN: US 20050147040 A1) and Melliar-Smith et al. (US 8,473,833 B2) since there is no further argument/s regarding to these references.
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.
5. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 (a) as being unpatentable over Vayanos et al. (U.S. PN: US 20050147040 A1) "herein after as Vayanos" in view of Melliar-Smith et al. (US 8,473,833 B2) "herein after as Melliar-Smith" in further view of O'Brien et al. (US 20190363981 A1) “herein after as O'Brien.”
As per claims 1, 8, and 15: Vayanos substantially teaches or discloses a method comprising: receiving, at a transmitter, a set of data blocks (see paragraph [0112], herein Data packets (RLC SDUs) received from higher layers via AM-SAP can be segmented and/or concatenated 514 to Protocol Data Units (PDU) of a fixed length); computing a set of parity blocks by performing parity operations on a set of data blocks (see paragraph [0134], herein the Encoder Packet (EP) can then be passed through an outer-code encoder to generate the parity rows), each of the set of data blocks belonging to one of a set of parity groups including a first parity group and a second parity group (see Fig. 8, N-k parity rows 93, and 10B); generating a set of parity tags for the set of data blocks, each of the set of parity tags including a unique positional identifier and a parity position number for a respective one of the set of data blocks (see paragraph [0156], herein each outer block 95 includes a plurality of inner blocks 91, 93. Identifying the sequence of inner blocks and their position relative to encoder packets can allow each available inner block to be placed in the correct position so that outer-decoding can be done correctly. In one embodiment, each inner block includes a header 94 that identifies the inner block by an inner block number m and an outer block number n); transmitting the set of data blocks, the set of parity blocks, and the set of parity tags over the wireless channel from a transmitter to a receiver (see paragraph [0158], herein a transmit buffer 420 transmits the PDUs over the logical channels 406, and a scheduling unit 422., and Fig. 11 step 408); receiving a subset of the set of data blocks and the set of parity blocks at the receiver, the subset including a first block from the first parity group and a second block from the second parity group, the second block having been transmitted after the first block (see paragraph [0175], herein the receive buffer 438 may accumulate PDUs until the entire Encoder Packet (EP) is received, and Fig. 11 step 438); determining, based on a parity tag for the second block, a unique positional identifier for the second block and a parity position number for the second block (see paragraph [0156], herein each inner block includes a header 94 that identifies the inner block by an inner block number m and an outer block number n, --- The receiving UE should be able to determine the order of the inner blocks, even if some inner blocks are lost. If the UE loses more inner blocks than can be identified by the whole sequence number space) computing, based on the unique positional identifier for the second block and the parity position number for the second block, a length of the first parity group (see paragraph [0212], herein the receiving Forward Error Correction (FEC) entity 430 uses the sequence number to determine the position of a given PDU within the EP matrix. For example, a part of the sequence number (PSN) identifies the position of the PDU in the Encoder Packet (EP), and paragraph [0194]). Vayanos does not explicitly teach determining that a missing block from the first parity group has not been received based on the length of the first parity group. However, Melliar-Smith in the same the field of endeavor teaches determining that a missing block from the first parity group has not been received based on the length of the first parity group (see column 9, lines 6-11, herein To provide protection of the parity packets at the transmitter or at the receiver, the algorithm calculates a single parity packet for all three sets of parity packets (rows, columns and diagonals). If a parity packet for a row, column or diagonal is missing, the receiver using the single parity packet to recover the missing parity packet). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the system of Vayanos with the teachings of Melliar-Smith by determining that a missing block from the first parity group has not been received based on the length of the first parity group. This modification would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the determining that a missing block from the first parity group has not been received based on the length of the first parity group would have mitigated the unreliability of the communication network and to improve the quality of the delivered image (see column 2, lines 20-21 of Melliar-Smith). Vayanos-Melliar-Smith as combined teaches all the subject matter in claims 1, 8, and 15 except wherein the length of the first parity group is non-deterministic to the receiver prior to receiving the second block. However, O'Brien in the same the field of endeavor teaches wherein the length of the first parity group is non-deterministic to the receiver prior to receiving the second block (see paragraph [0031], herein the indeterminate duration or length can be referred to an undefined length or duration as this length can be unconstrained by a protocol and also unknown to a receiving device prior to processing a multi-packet transmission. The length of different guard preambles can be variable; and paragraph [0070], herein the transmit signal chain 40 can generate a multi-packet transmission in which the guard preamble can have a length that is unknown to a paired receiving device prior to processing the multi-packet transmission; and paragraph [0077], herein the receiver 85 can receive a FSK signal that includes a multiple packets with a guard preamble of indeterminate length between successive packets in accordance with any suitable principles). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the commination system of Vayanos-Melliar-Smith as combined with the teachings of O'Brien by including the length of the first parity group is non-deterministic to the receiver prior to receiving the second block. This modification would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, because one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the wherein the length of the first parity group is non-deterministic to the receiver prior to receiving the second block would have the communication system performance.
As per claims 2, 9, and 16: Melliar-Smith teaches that wherein the missing block from the first parity group is a parity block from the set of parity blocks, and wherein the method further comprises: recovering the parity block by performing parity operations on the first parity group (see column 9, lines 6-10, herein To provide protection of the parity packets at the transmitter or at the receiver, the algorithm calculates a single parity packet for all three sets of parity packets (rows, columns and diagonals). If a parity packet for a row, column or diagonal is missing, the receiver using the single parity packet to recover the missing parity packet).
As per claims 3, 10, and 17: Vayanos teaches that wherein the missing block from the first parity group is a data block from the set of data blocks, and wherein the method further comprises: recovering the data block by performing parity operations on the first parity group (see paragraph [0178], herein the data can then be passed to the outer-decoding function 434 to recover missing information. The outer decoder 434 receives the Encoder Packet (EP), and, if necessary, Reed-Solomon (RS) decodes the Encoder Packet (EP) by using the parity information to regenerate any erroneous or missing rows. For example, if all k Protocol Data Units (PDUs) containing information are not received correctly, or fewer than k out of n PDUs are not received correctly, then the Protocol Data Units (PDUs), up to the size of the parity PDUs, outer decoding can then be performed to recover the missing information PDUs, and paragraph [0233], herein The Forward Error Correction (FEC) can be performed so that any blocks lost during the transition can be recovered).
As per claims 4, 11, and 18: Vayanos teaches that wherein the length of the first parity group is computed further based on a unique positional identifier for the first block and a parity position number for the first block determined based on a parity tag for the first block (see paragraph [0156], herein The FECc mode can be used on common or Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) logical channels to construct outer case blocks 95 by adding parity rows or blocks 93 to the MBMS payload data 91. Each outer block 95 includes a plurality of inner blocks 91, 93. Identifying the sequence of inner blocks and their position relative to encoder packets can allow each available inner block to be placed in the correct position so that outer-decoding can be done correctly, and paragraph [0194]).
As per claims 5, 12, and 19: Vayanos teaches that wherein the set of data blocks include user data received over a terrestrial network (see paragraph [0039], herein A mobile station may be mobile or stationary, and can generally include any communicator, data device or terminal that communicates through a wireless channel or through a wired channel, for example, using fiber optic or coaxial cables; paragraph [0073]; and Fig. 11).
As per claims 6, 13, and 20: Melliar-Smith teaches that: in response to determining that the missing block from the first parity group has not been received, introducing latency at the receiver to wait for the missing block (see column 3, lines 39-43, herein For variable transmission rates, a receiver implementing forward error correction might wait an indeterminate amount of time for all parity packets for a data block to arrive before it can recover the missing packets, resulting in increased latency and jitter at the receiver).
As per claims 7 and 14: Vayanos teaches that wherein each of the set of parity tags further includes a parity group number that identifies one of the set of parity groups (see paragraph [0156], herein each inner block includes a header 94 that identifies the inner block by an inner block number m and an outer block number n. For example, outer block n includes a data portion 91 with m inner Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) payload blocks, and a redundancy portion 93 having M-(m+1) inner parity blocks).
Examiner Notes
6. When amending the claims, applicants are respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Prior Art
7. The prior art of record, considered pertinent to the applicant’s disclosure, is listed in the attached PTO-892 form.
Conclusion
8. 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OSMAN ALSHACK whose telephone number is (571)272-2069.
The examiner can normally be reached on MON-FRI 8:30 AM-5:00 PM EST, also please fax interview request to (571) 273- 2069.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ALBERT DECADY can be reached on 5712723819. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/OSMAN ALSHACK/
Examiner, Art Unit 2112
/ALBERT DECADY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2112