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 03/12/2024. 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.
Claim(s) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yamauchi et al. NPL “Joint-Switching Architecture Utilizing Waveguide-Based Multicast Switch in CDC-ROADM for Multi-Core Fiber Networks” (hereinafter Yamauchi).
Regarding Claim 1, Yamauchi teaches an optical transmission device (see Fig. 1, 2, and 5; page 1, line 11 to page 3, line 18) comprising: a wavelength cross connection unit (equivalent to the output of WSS on the drop side and cross-connect function of the WSS in fig. 1) that receives an optical signal transmitted from a first optical transmission device (equivalent to input to input fibers in fig. 1), separates the input optical signal according to a wavelength, and outputs each of the separated optical signals from a port corresponding to the wavelength (equivalent to separation by WSS on the drop side in fig. 1); and an optical switch (equivalent to the switch of the TPA indicated in fig. 2 and 5) that outputs an optical signal output from the wavelength cross connection unit from a port to which a destination subscriber device is connected (equivalent to output to transponders in fig. 1), wherein the wavelength cross connection unit outputs the optical signal toward the optical switch in a case where the optical signal is an optical signal addressed to a subscriber device connected under control of a host device (equivalent to output to the TPA on the drop side in fig. 1), and outputs the optical signal toward a second optical transmission device different from the first optical transmission device in a case where the optical signal is not an optical signal addressed to a subscriber device connected under control of the host device (equivalent to output of an optical signal from the drop side WSS to the add side WSS in fig. 1).
Regarding Claim 2, Yamauchi teaches the optical transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the wavelength cross connection unit includes a plurality of wavelength multiplexing/separating units corresponding to the number of paths connected to other optical transmission lines (equivalent to WSS on the drop side in fig. 1), and the wavelength multiplexing/separating unit outputs the optical signal toward the optical switch in a case where the input optical signal is an optical signal addressed to a subscriber device connected under control of the host device (equivalent to output to the TPA on the drop side from the WSS on the drop side in fig. 1), and outputs the optical signal toward a wavelength multiplexing/separating unit connected to a path directed to a second optical transmission device different from the first optical transmission device in a case where the optical signal is not an optical signal addressed to a subscriber device connected under control of the host device (equivalent to output of an optical signal output from the drop side WSS to the add side WSS in fig. 1).
Regarding Claim 3, Yamauchi teaches the optical transmission device according to claim 1, further comprising: a multiplexer/demultiplexer that inputs the optical signal output from the wavelength cross connection unit toward the optical switch, demultiplexes the optical signal into a plurality of optical signals according to a wavelength, and outputs the demultiplexed optical signals to the optical switch (equivalent to the splitters in fig. 2, 5).
Regarding Claim 4, Yamauchi teaches the optical transmission device according to claim 1, further comprising: a wavelength tunable filter that is provided closer to a subscriber device than the optical switch and passes an optical signal with a wavelength assigned to the subscriber device connected to the optical transmission device (equivalent to wavelength tunable filters (WTFs) in fig. 2, 5).
Regarding Claim 5, Yamauchi teaches the optical transmission device according to claim 4, wherein the wavelength tunable filter further passes a wavelength of an optical signal used for multicast (system employing waveguide-based multicast; see Abst. and I. Introduction).
Regarding Claim 6, claim 6 is drawn to the method of using an apparatus the same as claimed in claim 1. As such, the limitations of claim 6 correspond to limitations of claim 1 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