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.
Claim(s) 1,6-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘599 (JP 2012-114599A) in light of ‘587 (WO2019/171587).
Regarding Claim 1, ‘599 teaches A gain adjustment method in an optical transmission system that performs communication by a digital coherent system including an optical transmission device and an optical reception device ([0020, 0023]), the gain adjustment method comprising: converting an optical signal transmitted from the optical transmission device into an electrical signal (Id.); converting the electrical signal from an analog signal to a digital signal; performing first signal processing on the digital signal (Id.); performing adaptive equalization processing on the digital signal subjected to the first signal processing using a digital filter ([0008] (14)); and performing second signal processing on the output signal of the digital filter whose amplitude has been corrected.
‘599 does not teach correcting an amplitude of an output signal of the digital filter based on information of the amplitude and a phase of the output signal of the digital filter and the amplitude of a known transmission signal;
‘587 teaches correcting an amplitude of an output signal of the digital filter ([0013, 0019]) based on information of the amplitude and a phase of the output signal of the digital filter and the amplitude of a known transmission signal; ([0020])
‘587 and ‘599 both teach optical receivers and are therefore analogous art.
Before the filing date of the instant application, it would have obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art to integrate the amplitude corrector taught in the ‘587 receiver into the receiver taught in ‘599. The ‘599 receiver is already applying a linear series of different filters to the received signal, and adding the amplitude corrector to the linear series is merely applying a known technique to produce predictable results. With the predictable results being a signal with a corrected amplitude.
Regarding Claim 6, ‘599 teaches An optical reception device in an optical transmission system that performs communication by a digital coherent system including an optical transmission device and an optical reception device ([0020, 0023]), the optical reception device comprising: a coherent optical receiver configured to convert an optical signal transmitted from the optical transmission device into an electrical signal (Id.); an analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the electrical signal from an analog signal to a digital signal (Id.); an adaptive equalizer configured to perform adaptive equalization processing on the digital signal subjected to the first signal processing using a digital filter ([0008] (14)) and a second signal processor configured to perform second signal processing on the output signal of the digital filter whose amplitude has been corrected ([0009] (the frequency offset (19) could be performed after amplitude correction is performed on the output signal).
‘599 does not teach a first signal processor configured to perform first signal processing on the digital signal an amplitude corrector configured to correct an amplitude of an output signal of the digital filter based on information of the amplitude and a phase of the output signal of the digital filter and the amplitude of a known transmission signal;
‘587 teaches a first signal processor configured to perform first signal processing on the digital signal ([0013, 0019]); an amplitude corrector configured to correct an amplitude of an output signal of the digital filter based on information of the amplitude and a phase of the output signal of the digital filter and the amplitude of a known transmission signal ([0020]);
Before the filing date of the instant application, it would have obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art to integrate the amplitude corrector taught in the ‘587 receiver into the receiver taught in ‘599. The ‘599 receiver is already applying a linear series of different filters to the received signal, and adding the amplitude corrector to the linear series is merely applying a known technique to produce predictable results. With the predictable results being a signal with a corrected amplitude.
Regarding Claim 7, ‘599 teaches A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores a computer program to be executed by the computer for causing a computer to function as an optical reception device in an optical transmission system that performs communication by a digital coherent system including an optical transmission device and an optical reception device ([0020, 0023]); converting an optical signal transmitted from the optical transmission device into an electrical signal (Id.); converting the electrical signal from an analog signal to a digital signal (Id.); performing first signal processing on the digital signal ([0009] (the frequency offset (19) could be performed before amplitude correction is performed on the output signal); performing adaptive equalization processing on the digital signal subjected to the first signal processing using a digital filter ([0008] (14));
‘599 does not teach and correcting an amplitude of an output signal of the digital filter based on information of the amplitude and a phase of the output signal of the digital filter and the amplitude of a known transmission signal.
‘587 teaches and correcting an amplitude of an output signal of the digital filter ([0013, 0019]) based on information of the amplitude and a phase of the output signal of the digital filter and the amplitude of a known transmission signal. ([0020])
Before the filing date of the instant application, it would have obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art to integrate the amplitude corrector taught in the ‘587 receiver into the receiver taught in ‘599. The ‘599 receiver is already applying a linear series of different filters to the received signal, and adding the amplitude corrector to the linear series is merely applying a known technique to produce predictable results. With the predictable results being a signal with a corrected amplitude.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘599 (JP 2012-114599A) in light of ‘587 (WO2019/171587) and in further light of Rui (EP 2 768 193 A1).
Regarding Claim 3, the combination of ‘587 and ‘599 teaches The gain adjustment method according to claim 2,
the combination of ‘587 and ‘599 does not teach further comprising: estimating the amplitude correction amount based on a result obtained by rotating an output of an output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period to any one quadrant of a first quadrant to a fourth quadrant in a complex number plane and then averaging the result.
Rui teaches further comprising: estimating the amplitude correction amount based on a result obtained by rotating an output of an output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period to any one quadrant of a first quadrant to a fourth quadrant in a complex number plane and then averaging the result. ([0023-0024])
‘599 and Rui both relate to amplitude correction of a signal and are therefore analogous art.
Before the filing date of the instant application, it would have obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art to use the method taught in Rui to correct the amplitude in the receiver taught in ‘599. By combining the known technique taught in Rui to ‘599, a predictable result was produced with the predictable result being an amplitude correction based on a rotation on a complex number plane.
Claim(s) 2, 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘599 (JP 2012-114599A) in light of ‘587 (WO2019/171587) and in further light of Ge (US Pat. 11,121,464 B2.
Regarding Claim 2, the combination of ‘587 and ‘599 teaches The gain adjustment method according to claim 1,
the combination of ‘587 and ‘599 does not teach further comprising: estimating an amplitude correction amount for correcting the amplitude of the output signal of the digital filter based on a result of averaging absolute values of the output of the output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period or the output of the output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period.
Ge teaches further comprising: estimating an amplitude correction amount for correcting the amplitude of the output signal of the digital filter based on a result of averaging absolute values of the output of the output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period or the output of the output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period. (col. 5, l. 10-50).
‘599 and Ge both relate to amplitude correction of signals and are therefore analogous art.
Before the filing date of the instant application, it would have obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art to use the method taught in Ge to correct the amplitude in the receiver taught in ‘599. By combining the known technique taught in Ge to ‘599, a predictable result was produced with the predictable result being an amplitude correction based on absolute value.
Regarding Claim 4, the combination of ‘587 and ‘599 teach The gain adjustment method according to claim 1,
the combination of ‘587 and ‘599 does not teach further comprising: estimating an amplitude correction amount for correcting the amplitude of the output signal of the digital filter based on a result of averaging absolute values of an error between the output of the output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period and a known transmission signal or an error between the output of the output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period and a known transmission signal.
Ge teaches further comprising: estimating an amplitude correction amount for correcting the amplitude of the output signal of the digital filter based on a result of averaging absolute values of an error between the output of the output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period and a known transmission signal or an error between the output of the output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period and a known transmission signal. (col. 5, l. 10-50).
Before the filing date of the instant application, it would have obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art to use the method taught in Ge to correct the amplitude in the receiver taught in ‘599. By combining the known technique taught in Ge to ‘599, a predictable result was produced with the predictable result being an amplitude correction based on absolute value.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘599 (JP 2012-114599A) in light of ‘587 (WO2019/171587) in light of Ge (US Pat. 11,121,464 B2) and in further light of Rui (EP 2 768 193 A1).
Regarding Claim 5, the combination of ‘587, ‘599 and Ge teach The gain adjustment method according to claim 4,
Rui teaches further comprising: estimating the amplitude correction amount based on a result obtained by rotating an error between an output of an output signal of the digital filter for a predetermined period and a known transmission signal to any one quadrant of a first quadrant to a fourth quadrant in a complex number plane and then averaging the result.
Before the filing date of the instant application, it would have obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art to use the method taught in Rui to correct the amplitude in the receiver taught in ‘599. By combining the known technique taught in Rui to ‘599, a predictable result was produced with the predictable result being an amplitude correction based on a rotation on a complex number plane.
Conclusion
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/PAUL MORGAN BROCK/Examiner, Art Unit 2634 March 12, 2026
/KENNETH N VANDERPUYE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2634