DETAILED ACTION
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, 2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 19, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. PGPub 2022/0393768 A1 by Kalman et al.
Regarding claim 1, Kalman teaches a method for communication over an optical communication link (a multicore fiber 125), the method comprising:
receiving, at a first communication device (transceiver 123b), a set of bits for transmission (from transceiver 123a) over a plurality of lanes (cores of the multicore fiber 125) of the optical communication link (125), respective lanes among the plurality of lanes comprising respective fibers (the multicore fiber may be arranged as a fiber bundle, ¶[0032]) driven by respective light emitting diodes (LEDs) (included in the transceivers 123a, b), wherein the optical communication link includes a larger number of lanes (referred to as “optical channels”, ¶[0027]) than a number of lanes needed to support transmission at a particular clock rate to provide a maximum speed supported by the optical communication link;
multiplexing, by the first communication device (included circuitry 445a, b), the set of data bits for transmission over respective lanes among the plurality of lanes, including one or both of i) using the larger number of lanes for transmission of error correction code bits (to ECC 711a-n, Fig. 7) in addition to the set of bits at the particular clock rate (LED signal driven by an electrical clock signal) over the plurality of lanes at the maximum speed supported by the optical communication link and ii) using the larger number of lanes to provide one or more redundancy lanes (Fig. 8) in the optical communication link; and
transmitting, by the first communication device (the transceiver 123b), the multiplexed set of bits over the plurality of lanes of the optical communication link (125) to a second communication device (the transceiver 123a).
Regarding claim 2, Kalman further teaches the plurality of lanes includes one or more redundancy lanes (added redundant lanes, ¶[0045]); and the method further comprises determining, by the first communication device, a fault (non-operational lane) on a first lane among the plurality of lanes, the first lane being driven by a first LED, and in response to determining the fault on the first lane among the plurality of lanes, transferring, by the first communication device, transmission from the lane on which the fault was detected to a redundancy lane among the one or more redundancy lanes, the redundancy lane being driven by a second LED different from the first LED (see ¶[0045], redundant lanes can be added to map inputs and outputs when some of the lanes are not operational/with a fault).
Regarding claim 5, Kalman further teaches generating a copy of data mapped onto the first lane on which the fault was detected; and multiplexing the copy of data onto the redundancy lane among the one or more redundancy lanes without shifting data from other lanes among the plurality of lanes (multiplexing is done bytewise so that all bits in each input data stream byte are mapped to the same output line, and each successive byte is mapped to a different output line than the previous byte, ¶[0043]).
Regarding claim 9, Kalman further teaches receiving the set of bits comprises receiving the set of bits at a first clock rate (LED data transmission driven by an electrical clock signal); and transmitting the multiplexed set of bits over the plurality of lanes comprises transmitting the multiplexed set of bits at the particular clock rate, wherein the particular clock rate is an integer multiple of the first clock rate (inherent to Kalman’s invention since multiplexing is done bitwise and each lane each lane carries a successive bit, i.e., number of total bits is equal to number of total lanes).
Regarding claim 10, Kalman further teaches modulating (via electrical clock signal) respective light emitting diodes (LEDs) to generate respective light signals based on respective bits among the set of bits; and transmitting (between opposing transceivers) the respective light signals over respective lanes among the plurality of lanes of the optical communication link (the respective cores or fibers in 125).
Regarding claim 11, Kalman teaches a first communication device, comprising:
a transceiver (123b), including:
a receiver (photodetectors of the transceiver) configured to receive a set of bits for transmission over a plurality of lanes of an optical communication link (multicore fiber 125), respective lanes among the plurality of lanes comprising respective fibers driven by respective light emitting diodes (LEDs), wherein the optical communication link includes a larger number of lanes (referred to as “optical channels”, ¶[0027]) than a number of lanes needed to support transmission at a particular clock rate to provide a maximum speed supported by the optical communication link,
one or more multiplexers (included circuitry 445a, b) configured to multiplex the set of data bits for transmission over respective lanes among the plurality of lanes, including one or both of i) using the larger number of lanes for transmission of error correction code bits (to ECC 711a-n, Fig. 7) in addition to the set of bits at the particular clock rate (LED signal driven by an electrical clock signal) over the plurality of lanes at the maximum speed supported by the optical communication link and ii) using the larger number of lanes to provide one or more redundancy lanes (Fig. 8) in the optical communication link, and
a transmitter configured to transmit the multiplexed set of bits over the plurality of lanes of the optical communication link to a second communication device (123b to 123a).
Regarding claim 12, Kalman further teaches the plurality of lanes includes one or more redundancy lanes (added redundant lanes, ¶[0045]); and the method further comprises determining, by the first communication device, a fault (non-operational lane) on a first lane among the plurality of lanes, the first lane being driven by a first LED, and in response to determining the fault on the first lane among the plurality of lanes, transferring, by the first communication device, transmission from the lane on which the fault was detected to a redundancy lane among the one or more redundancy lanes, the redundancy lane being driven by a second LED different from the first LED (see ¶[0045], redundant lanes can be added to map inputs and outputs when some of the lanes are not operational/with a fault).
Regarding claim 15, Kalman further teaches generating a copy of data mapped onto the first lane on which the fault was detected; and multiplexing the copy of data onto the redundancy lane among the one or more redundancy lanes without shifting data from other lanes among the plurality of lanes (multiplexing is done bytewise so that all bits in each input data stream byte are mapped to the same output line, and each successive byte is mapped to a different output line than the previous byte, ¶[0043]).
Regarding claim 19, Kalman further teaches receiving the set of bits comprises receiving the set of bits at a first clock rate (LED data transmission driven by an electrical clock signal); and transmitting the multiplexed set of bits over the plurality of lanes comprises transmitting the multiplexed set of bits at the particular clock rate, wherein the particular clock rate is an integer multiple of the first clock rate (inherent to Kalman’s invention since multiplexing is done bitwise and each lane each lane carries a successive bit, i.e., number of total bits is equal to number of total lanes).
Regarding claim 20, Kalman further teaches modulating (via electrical clock signal) respective light emitting diodes (LEDs) to generate respective light signals based on respective bits among the set of bits; and transmitting (between opposing transceivers) the respective light signals over respective lanes among the plurality of lanes of the optical communication link (the respective cores or fibers in 125).
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) 3, 4, 13, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kalman et al. as applied to claims 2, 12 above, respectively, and further in view of U.S. PGPub 2013/0283108 A1 by Kono et al.
Regarding claims 3, 13, Kalman teaches the optical communication lanes apparatus and the method of using the same including non-operational or faulty lanes but does not specify particular component(s) used to detect the faulty lanes. Kono also teaches a data communication device (Fig. 1) and a method of using the same, comprising a transmitter (1, equivalent to the LEDs in the transceiver in Kalman), a plurality of transmission lanes (11), a receiver (2, equivalent to a photoreceiver in the opposing transceiver in Kalman), and a sideband channel (a dedicated line 21 for notification of failure or fault) between first and second communication devices (i.e., the transceiver and the opposing transceiver) such that failure lane information or in-use lane information, and an error detection code, an error correction code, or the both codes (hereinafter, collectively referred to as an error code) output from the receiver (2) are input to the transmitter (1) through a dedicated line (21), so as to allow continuing transmission of information/data in the event where the transmission channels fail. It thus would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Kalman’s invention, by using the dedicated line to transmit notification of failure or fault between the transceivers, as suggested by Kono, for the same reason or advantage.
Regarding claims 4, 14, Kalman further teaches that determining the fault on the first lane includes receiving the indication of the fault on the first lane in response to the second communication device detecting that a bit stream received from the first lane is stuck at bit value of zero or one for a predetermined period of time (inherent to Kalman’s invention a clock signal, used to drive the LED, oscillates between on/off, or one and zero).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8, 16-18 are 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. Prior art fails to teach or further suggest a receiver of the transceiver receiving the set of bits includes receiving an encoded data stream, wherein the encoded data stream is encoded by a first Reed Solomon code having a first code word length; and a transmitter of the transceiver encoding the encoded data stream using a second Reed Solomon code having a second code word length different from the first code word length, when considered in view of the rest of the limitations of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USP8205141 discloses virtual lane forward error correction in a multilane network.
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/CHARLIE Y PENG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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