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 Objections
1. Claims 1-8 are objected to because of the following informalities: The acronyms recited in the claims need to be defined in the claims. The acronym “BER” recited in claims 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 should be defined as bit error rate prior to the first introduction of this acronym in claims 1, 5 and 6. The acronym “CN” recited in claims 3, 4 and 8 should be defined as carrier noise prior to the first introduction of this acronym in claims 3 and 8. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
2. Claims 1, 2 and 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujii (US 2008/0316099) in view of Fukushima (US 2006/0116079).
Regarding claims 1 and 5, Fujii discloses a wireless communication system (Figures 6 and 10) and a wireless communication method that transmits data from a transmission device to a reception device by using a plurality of frequency channels (Figure 6: transmitting apparatus 200 comprises a MCS selector at each sub-stream 210, a channel encoder 112 and a modulation mapping unit 114 for each sub-stream. MCS selector will select a modulation to vary the amplitude and phase of that channel to reflect the encoded information for that sub-stream. Each of the channel encoded and modulated sub-streams will be one of a plurality of frequency channels transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver. Receiving apparatus 150. Figure 10 shows the transmitting apparatus 300 and receiving apparatus 450. The MCS selector 454 provides a feedback signal to provide the MCS selection information to the transmitter.),
wherein the transmission device includes a reduction controller to perform, for traffic remaining on the frequency channels in which a BER reaches the predetermined value, reduction control to reduce at least one of a multi-level number of multi-level modulation or a coding rate (Paragraph 0117: The MCS selector at each sub-stream (hereafter, referred to as the MCS selector) predicts a bit error rate or packet error rate after performing an MLD operation and error correction decoding based on the SINR of each sub-stream after the MLD calculated by the SINR estimator and selected an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted bit error rate or the packet error rate below a predetermined value while increasing the transmission speed. Also, the MCS selector transmits the selected encoding rate to the channel encoders and simultaneously transmits the selected modulating order to the modulation mapping units.).
Fujii does not disclose a transfer controller to perform transfer control to transfer a part of traffic of one or more frequency channels in which a BER reaches a predetermined value to one or more other frequency channels in which a BER does not reach the predetermined value.
Fukushima discloses the communication system shown in figure 1. Fukushima discloses if the bit error rate of wireless communication exceeds a predetermined value, the communication environment monitoring section determines that it is necessary to change the combination of the channels to the access points and activates the channel combination section as stated in paragraph 0034. Paragraph 0035 discloses the measuring section 22 measures a bit error rate, throughput and reception level of a radio wave. Paragraph 0036 discloses the channel combination selecting section 24 selects a combination of channels from the candidates of a plurality of combinations of channels written in the channel combination candidate table 31. The table is shown in figure 4. For example, when the combination of channels is switched from combination 1 to combination 5, the traffic that was on channels 6 and 11 is transferred to channels 5 and 9. Paragraphs 0037 and 0038 provide additional information regarding the channel allocation setting and allocation.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the channel allocation of Fukushima into the system and method of Fujii to select channels that are operating with less bit error rate than other available channels. This will improve the quality of the transmissions in the system. Therefore, the system and method of the combination of Fujii and Fukushima discloses a transfer controller to perform transfer control to transfer a part of traffic of one or more frequency channels in which a BER reaches a predetermined value to one or more other frequency channels in which a BER does not reach the predetermined value (Fukushima: Paragraph 0034: if the bit error rate of wireless communication exceeds a predetermined value, the communication environment monitoring section determines that it is necessary to change the combination of the channels to the access points and activates the channel combination section. Paragraph 0036: the channel combination selecting section 24 selects a combination of channels from the candidates of a plurality of combinations of channels written in the channel combination candidate table 31. The table is shown in figure 4. For example, when the combination of channels is switched from combination 1 to combination 5, the traffic that was on channels 6 and 11 is transferred to channels 5 and 9.), and wherein the transmission device includes a reduction controller to perform, for traffic remaining after the transfer controller transfers a part of traffic of the frequency channels in which a BER reaches the predetermined value, reduction control to reduce at least one of a multi-level number of multi-level modulation or a coding rate (Fujii: Paragraph 0117: The MCS selector at each sub-stream (hereafter, referred to as the MCS selector) predicts a bit error rate or packet error rate after performing an MLD operation and error correction decoding based on the SINR of each sub-stream after the MLD calculated by the SINR estimator and selected an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted bit error rate or the packet error rate below a predetermined value while increasing the transmission speed. Also, the MCS selector transmits the selected encoding rate to the channel encoders and simultaneously transmits the selected modulating order to the modulation mapping units. Even when the MCS and coding rates are changed for all of the channels in figure 6, the MCS and coding rate will be changed for the traffic remaining after the transfer.).
Regarding claim 2, the combination discloses wherein the reception device includes a BER detector to detect a BER of each of a plurality of frequency channels (Fujii: Figure 10. Paragraph 0117: the MCS selector 454 predicts a BER or packet error rate based on the SINR of each sub-stream.), and a transmitter to transmit the BER detected by the BER detector to the transmission device (Fujii: Paragraph 0117: the MCS selector 454 predicts a BER or packet error rate based on the SINR of each sub-stream and selects an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted BER or packet error rate below a predetermined value. Figure 10 shows the output of MCS selector 454 being provided to the channel encoder 112 and modulation mapping unit 114 in the transmitting apparatus 300.),
the transmission device includes a receiver to receive the BER transmitted by the transmitter (Fujii: Paragraph 0117: the MCS selector 454 predicts a BER or packet error rate based on the SINR of each sub-stream and selects an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted BER or packet error rate below a predetermined value. Figure 10 shows the output of MCS selector 454 being provided to the channel encoder 112 and modulation mapping unit 114 in the transmitting apparatus 300.), and the transfer controller performs the transfer control based on the BER received by the receiver (Fukushima: Paragraph 0034: if the bit error rate of wireless communication exceeds a predetermined value, the communication environment monitoring section determines that it is necessary to change the combination of the channels to the access points and activates the channel combination section. Paragraph 0036: the channel combination selecting section 24 selects a combination of channels from the candidates of a plurality of combinations of channels written in the channel combination candidate table 31. The table is shown in figure 4. For example, when the combination of channels is switched from combination 1 to combination 5, the traffic that was on channels 6 and 11 is transferred to channels 5 and 9.).
Regarding claim 6, Fujii discloses a wireless communication device (Figures 6 and 10) that transmits data from a transmission device to a reception device by using a plurality of frequency channels (Figure 6: transmitting apparatus 200 comprises a MCS selector at each sub-stream 210, a channel encoder 112 and a modulation mapping unit 114 for each sub-stream. MCS selector will select a modulation to vary the amplitude and phase of that channel to reflect the encoded information for that sub-stream. Each of the channel encoded and modulated sub-streams will be one of a plurality of frequency channels transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver. Receiving apparatus 150. Figure 10 shows the transmitting apparatus 300 and receiving apparatus 450. The MCS selector 454 provides a feedback signal to provide the MCS selection information to the transmitter.), the wireless device comprises:
a reduction controller that performs, for traffic remaining on the frequency channels in which a BER reaches the predetermined value, reduction control to reduce at least one of a multi-level number of multi-level modulation or a coding rate (Paragraph 0117: The MCS selector at each sub-stream (hereafter, referred to as the MCS selector) predicts a bit error rate or packet error rate after performing an MLD operation and error correction decoding based on the SINR of each sub-stream after the MLD calculated by the SINR estimator and selected an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted bit error rate or the packet error rate below a predetermined value while increasing the transmission speed. Also, the MCS selector transmits the selected encoding rate to the channel encoders and simultaneously transmits the selected modulating order to the modulation mapping units.).
Fujii does not disclose a transfer controller that perform transfer control to transfer a part of traffic of one or more frequency channels in which a BER reaches a predetermined value to one or more other frequency channels in which a BER does not reach the predetermined value.
Fukushima discloses the communication system shown in figure 1. Fukushima discloses if the bit error rate of wireless communication exceeds a predetermined value, the communication environment monitoring section determines that it is necessary to change the combination of the channels to the access points and activates the channel combination section as stated in paragraph 0034. Paragraph 0035 discloses the measuring section 22 measures a bit error rate, throughput and reception level of a radio wave. Paragraph 0036 discloses the channel combination selecting section 24 selects a combination of channels from the candidates of a plurality of combinations of channels written in the channel combination candidate table 31. The table is shown in figure 4. For example, when the combination of channels is switched from combination 1 to combination 5, the traffic that was on channels 6 and 11 is transferred to channels 5 and 9. Paragraphs 0037 and 0038 provide additional information regarding the channel allocation setting and allocation.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the channel allocation of Fukushima into the device of Fujii to select channels that are operating with less bit error rate than other available channels. This will improve the quality of the transmissions in the system. Therefore, the system and method of the combination of Fujii and Fukushima discloses a transfer controller that performs transfer control to transfer a part of traffic of one or more frequency channels in which a BER reaches a predetermined value to one or more other frequency channels in which a BER does not reach the predetermined value (Fukushima: Paragraph 0034: if the bit error rate of wireless communication exceeds a predetermined value, the communication environment monitoring section determines that it is necessary to change the combination of the channels to the access points and activates the channel combination section. Paragraph 0036: the channel combination selecting section 24 selects a combination of channels from the candidates of a plurality of combinations of channels written in the channel combination candidate table 31. The table is shown in figure 4. For example, when the combination of channels is switched from combination 1 to combination 5, the traffic that was on channels 6 and 11 is transferred to channels 5 and 9.), and wherein a reduction controller that performs, for traffic remaining after the transfer controller transfers a part of traffic of the frequency channels in which a BER reaches the predetermined value, reduction control to reduce at least one of a multi-level number of multi-level modulation or a coding rate (Fujii: Paragraph 0117: The MCS selector at each sub-stream (hereafter, referred to as the MCS selector) predicts a bit error rate or packet error rate after performing an MLD operation and error correction decoding based on the SINR of each sub-stream after the MLD calculated by the SINR estimator and selected an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted bit error rate or the packet error rate below a predetermined value while increasing the transmission speed. Also, the MCS selector transmits the selected encoding rate to the channel encoders and simultaneously transmits the selected modulating order to the modulation mapping units. Even when the MCS and coding rates are changed for all of the channels in figure 6, the MCS and coding rate will be changed for the traffic remaining after the transfer.).
Regarding claim 7, the combination discloses a receiver to receive the BER of each of a plurality of frequency channels from another wireless device (Fujii: Paragraph 0117: the MCS selector 454 predicts a BER or packet error rate based on the SINR of each sub-stream and selects an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted BER or packet error rate below a predetermined value. Figure 10 shows the output of MCS selector 454 being provided to the channel encoder 112 and modulation mapping unit 114 in the transmitting apparatus 300.), wherein the transfer controller performs the transfer control based on the BER received by the receiver (Fukushima: Paragraph 0034: if the bit error rate of wireless communication exceeds a predetermined value, the communication environment monitoring section determines that it is necessary to change the combination of the channels to the access points and activates the channel combination section. Paragraph 0036: the channel combination selecting section 24 selects a combination of channels from the candidates of a plurality of combinations of channels written in the channel combination candidate table 31. The table is shown in figure 4. For example, when the combination of channels is switched from combination 1 to combination 5, the traffic that was on channels 6 and 11 is transferred to channels 5 and 9.).
3. Claims 3, 4 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujii (US 2008/0316099) in view of Fukushima (US 2006/0116079) further in view of Kim et al (US 8,194,729).
Regarding claim 3, the combination discloses wherein the reception device includes a SINR detector to detect a SINR of each of a plurality of frequency channels (Fujii: Figure 10. Paragraph 0116: the SINR estimator 452 calculates the SINR of each sub-stream. Then the SINR estimator 452 transmits the calculated SINR of each sub-stream to the MCS selector in each sub-stream 454.), and a transmitter to transmit the SINR detected by the SINR detector to the transmission device (Fujii: Figure 10 shows the output of MCS selector 454 being provided to the channel encoder 112 and modulation mapping unit 114 in the transmitting apparatus 300.),
the transmission device includes a receiver to receive the SINR transmitted by the transmitter (Fujii: Figure 10 shows the output of MCS selector 454 being provided to the channel encoder 112 and modulation mapping unit 114 in the transmitting apparatus 300.), and the reduction controller performs the reduction control based on the SINR received by the receiver (Fujii: Paragraph 0117: The MCS selector at each sub-stream (hereafter, referred to as the MCS selector) predicts a bit error rate or packet error rate after performing an MLD operation and error correction decoding based on the SINR of each sub-stream after the MLD calculated by the SINR estimator and selected an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted bit error rate or the packet error rate below a predetermined value while increasing the transmission speed. Also, the MCS selector transmits the selected encoding rate to the channel encoders and simultaneously transmits the selected modulating order to the modulation mapping units.).
The combination utilizes the SINR as a quality metric as stated above. The combination does not disclose utilizing a carrier to noise ratio as a quality metric for the system and device.
Kim discloses a system and device as shown in figure 1. The device comprises a channel error measurement unit for measuring signal-to-noise (SNR) or Carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) of a wireless channel as stated in the abstract. Figure 1 shows channel CNR unit 16 providing an input to BER block 18. Error ratio calculating unit 18 calculates the BER using the SNR or CNR measured by the channel error measurement unit 16 as stated in column 1, lines 33-56. A similar device is shown in figure 3. Kim shows the use of CNR as a quality measurement for calculating BER and for providing the input for adjustments to be made based on the quality of the channel. Kim also discloses the CNR is interchangeable with a SNR quality metric. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the teaching of Kim, the interchanging of a SNR for a CNR as a quality metric, into the system and device of the combination of Fujii and Fukushima. By providing a simple substitution of the CNR for the SINR, the combination would operate in substantially the same manner and would yield predictable results. In addition, using a well known quality metric to carry out channel quality adjustments is a design choice. Using well known metrics can reduce the complexity of the system or device as compared to alternative metrics.
Regarding claim 4, the combination discloses wherein the transfer controller performs control to cancel the transfer control in a case where the SINR received by the receiver returns from a value lower than a predetermined value to a value equal to or higher than the predetermined value (Fujii: Paragraph 0117: The MCS selector at each sub-stream (hereafter, referred to as the MCS selector) predicts a bit error rate or packet error rate after performing an MLD operation and error correction decoding based on the SINR of each sub-stream after the MLD calculated by the SINR estimator and selected an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted bit error rate or the packet error rate below a predetermined value while increasing the transmission speed. Therefore, the measuring means for the BER and SINR is in the receiving apparatus. Fukushima: Paragraph 0034: if the bit error rate of wireless communication exceeds a predetermined value, the communication environment monitoring section determines that it is necessary to change the combination of the channels to the access points and activates the channel combination section. When no changes are necessary according to the quality of the signals, no transfer will take place.), and the reduction controller performs control to cancel the reduction control in a case where the SINR received by the receiver returns from a value lower than the predetermined value to a value equal to or higher than the predetermined value (Fujii: Paragraph 0117: The MCS selector at each sub-stream (hereafter, referred to as the MCS selector) predicts a bit error rate or packet error rate after performing an MLD operation and error correction decoding based on the SINR of each sub-stream after the MLD calculated by the SINR estimator and selected an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted bit error rate or the packet error rate below a predetermined value while increasing the transmission speed. Also, the MCS selector transmits the selected encoding rate to the channel encoders and simultaneously transmits the selected modulating order to the modulation mapping units. When the SINR does not indicate adjustments are necessary, the signal fed back to the transmitting apparatus will indicate no change to the selected encoding rates or modulation order is to take place.).
The combination utilizes the SINR as a quality metric as stated above. The combination does not disclose utilizing a carrier to noise ratio as a quality metric for the system and device.
Kim discloses a system and device as shown in figure 1. The device comprises a channel error measurement unit for measuring signal-to-noise (SNR) or Carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) of a wireless channel as stated in the abstract. Figure 1 shows block channel CNR 16 providing an input to BER block 18. Error ratio calculating unit 18 calculates the BER using the SNR or CNR measured by the channel error measurement unit 16 as stated in column 1, lines 33-56. A similar device is shown in figure 3. Kim shows the use of CNR as a quality measurement for calculating BER and for providing the input for adjustments to be made based on the quality of the channel. Kim also discloses the CNR is interchangeable with a SNR quality metric. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the teaching of Kim, the interchanging of a SNR for a CNR as a quality metric, into the system and device of the combination of Fujii and Fukushima. By providing a simple substitution of the CNR for the SINR, the combination would operate in substantially the same manner and would yield predictable results. In addition, using a well-known quality metric to carry out channel quality adjustments is a design choice. Using well known metrics can reduce the complexity of the system or device as compared to alternative metrics.
Regarding claim 8, the combination discloses a receiver to receive a SINR of each of a plurality of frequency channels from another wireless device (Fujii: Figure 10. Paragraph 0116: the SINR estimator 452 calculates the SINR of each sub-stream. Then the SINR estimator 452 transmits the calculated SINR of each sub-stream to the MCS selector in each sub-stream 454.), and a transmitter to transmit the SINR detected by the SINR detector to the transmission device (Fujii: Figure 10 shows the output of MCS selector 454 being provided to the channel encoder 112 and modulation mapping unit 114 in the transmitting apparatus 300.), wherein
the reduction controller performs the reduction control based on the SINR received by the receiver (Fujii: Paragraph 0117: The MCS selector at each sub-stream (hereafter, referred to as the MCS selector) predicts a bit error rate or packet error rate after performing an MLD operation and error correction decoding based on the SINR of each sub-stream after the MLD calculated by the SINR estimator and selected an encoding rate and modulation order that decreases the predicted bit error rate or the packet error rate below a predetermined value while increasing the transmission speed. Also, the MCS selector transmits the selected encoding rate to the channel encoders and simultaneously transmits the selected modulating order to the modulation mapping units.).
The combination utilizes the SINR as a quality metric as stated above. The combination does not disclose utilizing a carrier to noise ratio as a quality metric for the system and device.
Kim discloses a system and device as shown in figure 1. The device comprises a channel error measurement unit for measuring signal-to-noise (SNR) or Carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) of a wireless channel as stated in the abstract. Figure 1 shows block channel CNR 16 providing an input to BER block 18. Error ratio calculating unit 18 calculates the BER using the SNR or CNR measured by the channel error measurement unit 16 as stated in column 1, lines 33-56. A similar device is shown in figure 3. Kim shows the use of CNR as a quality measurement for calculating BER and for providing the input for adjustments to be made based on the quality of the channel. Kim also discloses the CNR is interchangeable with a SNR quality metric. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the teaching of Kim, the interchanging of a SNR for a CNR as a quality metric, into the system and device of the combination of Fujii and Fukushima. By providing a simple substitution of the CNR for the SINR, the combination would operate in substantially the same manner and would yield predictable results. In addition, using a well-known quality metric to carry out channel quality adjustments is a design choice. Using well known metrics can reduce the complexity of the system or device as compared to alternative metrics.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN M. BURD whose telephone number is (571)272-3008. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30 - 5:00.
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/KEVIN M BURD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632 4/22/2026
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