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 § 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1 and 2 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng et al ;(CN 115225146A) in view of Tang (CN 105743711B).
Regarding claim 1, Cheng discloses a computer implemented method for optical network anomaly detection and localization using forward transmission sensing, (a system for detecting a failure of a forward-transmission sub-link between a first wireless device and a second wireless device, see page 2 and paragraph 7) the method comprising: by the computer: determine multiple sensing routes through the optical network that the entire optical network is covered, wherein each link in the optical network has a different combination of sensing routes;( detecting a failure of a forward-transmission split-link between a first wireless device and a second wireless device, the first wireless device and the second wireless device are interconnected via a first wavelength division multiplexer/demultiplexer and a second wavelength division multiplexer/demultiplexer to form a plurality of forward transmission sub-links therebetween for transmitting service optical signals of a plurality of operating wavelengths, see page 7 and paragraph 7) concurrently monitoring and centrally analyzing the multiple sensing routes for anomalous events; detecting an anomalous event at a specific link in the optical network;(for each of the one or more forward-transmission sub-links to detect whether there is a fault, see page 7 and paragraph 7) and
However, Cheng does not explicitly disclose determining a unique sensing route combination for the specific link in the optical network having the detected anomalous event; and determining the specific link in the optical network having the detected anomalous event from the determined, unique sensing route combination.
In a related field of endeavor, Tang discloses determining a unique sensing route combination for the specific link in the optical network having the detected anomalous event;;( one or more intermediate device on the network path between the two devices can obtain the network address of all network devices on the network path, through the mode of permutation and combination to the network path between any two devices for fault detection using a multi-hop detection, see page 12 and paragraph 4) and determining the specific link in the optical network having the detected anomalous event from the determined, unique sensing route combination ;( one or more intermediate device on the network path between the two devices, initiates the fault detection with a multi-hop detection, and after the path fault detection of positive and negative two directions are successful, it is possible to determine fault detection of the associated spare path successfully, see page 12 and paragraph 4).
Thus, it would be obvious for one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to combine the intermediate device of Tang with Chen to provide multi-hop detection and the motivation is to provide routing data through multiple intermediate nodes before it reaches its destination to fault detection.
Regarding claim 2, Cheng discloses the method of claim 1 wherein a minimal number of multiple sensing routes is determined wherein the minimal number of multiple sensing routes so determined covers the entire optical network with per-link identification ability;( detecting a failure of a forward-transmission split-link between a first wireless device and a second wireless device, the first wireless device and the second wireless device are interconnected via a first wavelength division multiplexer/demultiplexer and a second wavelength division multiplexer/ demultiplexer to form a plurality of forward transmission sub-links therebetween for transmitting service optical signals of a plurality of operating wavelengths, see page 7 and paragraph 7).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure is reproduced below.
a. Kim et al; (US 2024/0089007) discloses method for obtaining anomaly characteristics associated with an anomaly in a transmission medium in an optical transmission system. The anomaly may cause a degradation in one or more signal characteristics of an optical signal traversing the transmission medium, see figure 2.
b. Ji et al; (Optical Network Anomaly Detection and Localization Based on Forward Transmission Sensing and Route Optimization -2024 attached) discloses an apparatus to detect and localize optical network anomaly using forward transmission sensing and develop a heuristic algorithm to optimize the route selection, see figure 1.
c. Behera et al; (Machine Learning for Real-Time Anomaly Detection in Optical Networks – 2023 attached) discloses a real-time anomaly detection scheme that leverages the multi-step ahead prediction capabilities of encoder-decoder (ED) deep learning models with recurrent units, see figure 1b.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMRITBIR K SANDHU whose telephone number is (571)270-1894. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am to 5pm.
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/AMRITBIR K SANDHU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2634