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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 8-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding to claims 8-14, the claims appear to be indefinite because the claims narratively recite only a controller (i.e. single part/device). A machine is defined as a concrete thing, consisting of parts, or of certain devices and combination of devices (see MPEP 2106(I)(ii)), Burr v. Duryee, 68 U.S. (1 Wall.) 531, 570, 17 L. Ed. 650 (1863). This includes every mechanical device or combination of mechanical powers and devices to perform some function and produce a certain effect or result. Corning v. Burden, 56 U.S. 252, 267, 14 L. Ed. 683 (1854). In the instant case, the claims recite what the machine is either "configured to" or "arranged to" perform. The claims do not recite the part(s) that are used to perform the claimed functions.
Claim limitation “near-real-time radio network intelligent controller” invokes 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. However, the written description fails to disclose the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the entire claimed function and to clearly link the structure, material, or acts to the function. Fig. 1-2A and paragraphs 0017-0032 of the specification designate “black boxes” to perform the limitations, and as such the specification fails to disclose an adequate structure for the claim limitations (i.e. how/what such “controller” is implemented with). The reason that the claim is indefinite is that without a limiting specification, which is required by statute, the claim limitation becomes an unbounded purely functional limitation. There are no boundaries or limits imposed by structure, material or acts. The claim will cover all ways of performing a function, known and unknown. Therefore, such an unbounded limitation renders the claim indefinite, and thus the claims are indefinite and rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph.
Applicant may:
(a) Amend the claim so that the claim limitation will no longer be interpreted as a limitation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph;
(b) Amend the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites what structure, material, or acts perform the entire claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(c) Amend the written description of the specification such that it clearly links the structure, material, or acts disclosed therein to the function recited in the claim, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)).
If applicant is of the opinion that the written description of the specification already implicitly or inherently discloses the corresponding structure, material, or acts and clearly links them to the function so that one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize what structure, material, or acts perform the claimed function, applicant should clarify the record by either:
(a) Amending the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function and clearly links or associates the structure, material, or acts to the claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(b) Stating on the record what the corresponding structure, material, or acts, which are implicitly or inherently set forth in the written description of the specification, perform the claimed function. For more information, see 37 CFR 1.75(d) and MPEP §§ 608.01(o) and 2181.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Atawia (US Publication 2023/0217313 A1).
Regarding to claims 1, 8, and 15, Atawia discloses a system (fig. 5) comprising: a near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller 510 configured to: receive 532 from a distributed unit 520 of a radio access network, current values (page 5 paragraph 0045; KPIs) of a plurality of network parameters of the radio access network (page 7 paragraph 0064), the radio access network established by at least one radio access network device 131/141 (fig. 1 page 3 paragraph 0026); obtain adjustments 512 (reconfiguration) to one or more of the current values of the plurality of network parameters (page 7 paragraph 0066); and direct the adjustments 531 to the distributed unit for implementation in near-real-time in the radio access network (page 7 paragraph 0066).
Regarding to claim 2, Atawia discloses the adjustments to the one or more of the current values of the plurality of network parameters are based on a measurement of wireless network performance comprising one or more of: data, time, frequency, area, energy, computing performance capability, and cost (page 3 paragraphs 0029-0030).
Regarding to claim 3, Atawia discloses the measurement of wireless network performance is expressed in units of bit/s/Hz/m²/J/FLOPS/$ wherein: bit is a measurement of units of the data transmitted by the radio access network in binary digits (page 2 paragraph 0029), S is a measurement of the time the radio access network takes to transmit the data in seconds, Hz is a measurement of frequency used by the radio access network to transmit the data in hertz (page 2 paragraph 0030), m² is a measurement of area served by the radio access network in meters squared, J is a measurement of energy consumed by the radio access network to transmit the data in joules, FLOPS is a measurement of computing performance capability of the radio access network to perform baseband processing in floating-point operations per second, and $ is a measurement of cost of one or more of using the radio access network and providing the radio access network in a currency.
Regarding to claims 4, 9, and 16, Atawia discloses the plurality of network parameters includes at least one or more of uplink power control, uplink scheduling, uplink resource allocation, uplink interference mitigation, uplink quality of experience, uplink performance spectral efficiency, energy consumption, and processing efficiency (page 3 paragraph 0029).
Regarding to claims 5, 12, and 18, Atawia discloses after receiving the current values, sending the current values of the plurality of network parameters from the near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller to a cloud-based computing system (page 4 paragraph 0036).
Regarding to claims 6, 13, and 19, Atawia discloses the cloud-based computing system is configured to generate the adjustments using one or more of: quantum annealing (page 10 paragraph 0105; various computer systems) and simulated annealing.
Regarding to claims 7, 14, and 20, Atawia discloses the current values of the plurality of network parameters include one or more values obtained from a non-real-time radio access network intelligent controller (page 3 paragraph 0027).
Regarding to claim 10, Atawia discloses the near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller is configured to operate on an application layer of the radio access network (page 2 paragraph 0020).
Regarding to claims 11 and 17, Atawia discloses the adjustments improve overall performance of the radio access network (page 3 paragraph 0029).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Duc T Duong whose telephone number is (571)272-3122. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri; 9am-6pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hassan Phillips can be reached at (571)272-3940. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DUC T DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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