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.
Claims 1, 3-5, 7 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Akasaka et al (US Pub. No. 2016/0261343 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Akasaka et al teaches a monitoring device for a transmission device that transmits an optical wavelength multiplexed signal including optical signals of a plurality of channels (para [0025]; “…multiple signals transmitted at multiple channels may be combined into a single wide bandwidth optical signal.”), the monitoring device comprising:
a data acquisitor that acquires a first power value of a first range including wavelength of the channel and acquires a second power value of a second range including a part of wavelength of the channels from a monitor measuring power values of the optical signals output from the transmission device (para [0057]; “Method 500 may begin by receiving (operation 502) a first optical signal at an optical filter, the first optical signal including a first optical channel having a first nominal wavelength and a signal bandwidth at the first nominal wavelength. The optical filter is programmed (operation 504) with a passband at the first nominal wavelength to generate a filtered optical signal. A first optical power value of the filtered optical signal is measured (operation 506). The optical filter is programmed (operation 508) with the passband at additional wavelengths within the signal bandwidth. The additional wavelengths may be selected in advance or may be iteratively selected, for example, depending on measured optical power values. Additional optical power values are measured (operation 510), respectively, for each of the additional wavelengths.”; para [0054]; “…controller 412 includes processor 414 and memory media 416, which may store executable instructions (i.e., executable code) that may be executable by processor 414, which has access to memory media 416. Processor 414 may execute instructions that cause controller 412 to perform the functions and operations described herein.”; controller portion which perform passband control and power measurement is considered data acquisitor); and
a determinator that compares each of the first power value and the second power value with a threshold value based on a power value of the transmission device in a steady state and determines abnormality in the transmission device (para [0057]; “Based on the first optical power value and the additional optical power values, a maximum optical power value and an effective wavelength for the first optical signal are determined (operation 512) where the first optical channel has the maximum power value at the effective wavelength.”; it is inherent that the power values are compared with a threshold value to determine degradation from maximum power value at effective wavelength; para [0054]; “…controller 412 includes processor 414 and memory media 416, which may store executable instructions (i.e., executable code) that may be executable by processor 414, which has access to memory media 416. Processor 414 may execute instructions that cause controller 412 to perform the functions and operations described herein.”; controller portion which compares power values is considered as determinator).
Akasaka et al teaches measuring first power value and second power value from filtered optical signal using programmable optical filter which filter optical signal having specific passband (para [0055]; “…tunable filter module 404 may be a programmable optical filter that can receive WDM input 402 as well as filter parameters specifying passband 406, such as wavelength, bandwidth, etc. WDM input 402 may correspond to power tap signal 216 in FIG. 2. Tunable filter module 404 then optically discriminates WDM input 402 (or another multispectral input) to generate passband 406, representing an optically filtered signal. Passband 406 may correspond to any one of passbands 304, 310, 312 shown in FIG. 3, or another passband, as desired.”) and differs from the claimed invention in that Akasaka et al does not specifically teach acquiring an entire wavelength of the channels. However, since Akasaka et al teaches programmable optical filter that is controllable to pass multispectral input, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to program the optical filter such that it passes entire wavelength channels in order to measure power value of a desired spectrum.
Regarding claim 3, Akasaka et al teaches measuring first power value and second power value from filtered optical signal using programmable optical filter which filter optical signal having specific passband (para [0055]; “…tunable filter module 404 may be a programmable optical filter that can receive WDM input 402 as well as filter parameters specifying passband 406, such as wavelength, bandwidth, etc. WDM input 402 may correspond to power tap signal 216 in FIG. 2. Tunable filter module 404 then optically discriminates WDM input 402 (or another multispectral input) to generate passband 406, representing an optically filtered signal. Passband 406 may correspond to any one of passbands 304, 310, 312 shown in FIG. 3, or another passband, as desired.”) and differs from the claimed invention in that Akasaka et al does not specifically teach setting, as the second range, two ranges including some of the wavelengths of the channels and located at mutually deviating positions and acquires a power value in each of the two ranges as the second power value. However, since Akasaka et al teaches programmable optical filter that is controllable to pass multispectral input, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to program the optical filter such that the filter sets, as the second range, two ranges including some of the wavelengths of the channels and located at mutually deviating positions and acquires a power value in each of the two ranges as the second power value in order to measure power value of a desired spectrum.
Regarding claim 4, Akasaka et al teaches measuring first power value and second power value from filtered optical signal using programmable optical filter which filter optical signal having specific passband (para [0055]; “…tunable filter module 404 may be a programmable optical filter that can receive WDM input 402 as well as filter parameters specifying passband 406, such as wavelength, bandwidth, etc. WDM input 402 may correspond to power tap signal 216 in FIG. 2. Tunable filter module 404 then optically discriminates WDM input 402 (or another multispectral input) to generate passband 406, representing an optically filtered signal. Passband 406 may correspond to any one of passbands 304, 310, 312 shown in FIG. 3, or another passband, as desired.”) and differs from the claimed invention in that Akasaka et al does not specifically teach setting, as the second range, a range of the wavelengths of the channels including an end to which no other channels are adjacent and acquires the second power value. However, since Akasaka et al teaches programmable optical filter that is controllable to pass multispectral input, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to program the optical filter to set, as the second range, a range of the wavelengths of the channels including an end to which no other channels are adjacent and acquires the second power value in order to measure power value of a desired spectrum.
Regarding claim 5, Akasaka et al teaches measuring first power value and second power value from filtered optical signal using programmable optical filter which filter optical signal having specific passband (para [0055]; “…tunable filter module 404 may be a programmable optical filter that can receive WDM input 402 as well as filter parameters specifying passband 406, such as wavelength, bandwidth, etc. WDM input 402 may correspond to power tap signal 216 in FIG. 2. Tunable filter module 404 then optically discriminates WDM input 402 (or another multispectral input) to generate passband 406, representing an optically filtered signal. Passband 406 may correspond to any one of passbands 304, 310, 312 shown in FIG. 3, or another passband, as desired.”) and differs from the claimed invention in that Akasaka et al does not specifically teach setting, as the second range, a range having a width that is different from a width of the first range and including an end of the wavelengths of the channels and acquires the second power value. However, since Akasaka et al teaches programmable optical filter that is controllable to pass multispectral input, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to program the optical filter to set as the second range, a range having a width that is different from a width of the first range and including an end of the wavelengths of the channels and acquires the second power value in order to measure power value of a desired spectrum.
Regarding claim 7, Akasaka et al teaches a monitoring method of a transmission device that transmits an optical wavelength multiplexed signal including optical signals of a plurality of channels (para [0025]; “…multiple signals transmitted at multiple channels may be combined into a single wide bandwidth optical signal.”), the monitoring method comprising the steps of:
acquiring a first power value of a first range including wavelength of the channel and acquiring a second power value of a second range including a part of the wavelength of the channels from a monitor that measures power values of the optical signals output from the transmission device (para [0057]; “Method 500 may begin by receiving (operation 502) a first optical signal at an optical filter, the first optical signal including a first optical channel having a first nominal wavelength and a signal bandwidth at the first nominal wavelength. The optical filter is programmed (operation 504) with a passband at the first nominal wavelength to generate a filtered optical signal. A first optical power value of the filtered optical signal is measured (operation 506). The optical filter is programmed (operation 508) with the passband at additional wavelengths within the signal bandwidth. The additional wavelengths may be selected in advance or may be iteratively selected, for example, depending on measured optical power values. Additional optical power values are measured (operation 510), respectively, for each of the additional wavelengths.”; para [0054]; “…controller 412 includes processor 414 and memory media 416, which may store executable instructions (i.e., executable code) that may be executable by processor 414, which has access to memory media 416. Processor 414 may execute instructions that cause controller 412 to perform the functions and operations described herein.”); and
comparing each of the first power value and the second power value with a threshold value based on a power value of the transmission device in a steady state and determining abnormality in the transmission device (para [0057]; “Based on the first optical power value and the additional optical power values, a maximum optical power value and an effective wavelength for the first optical signal are determined (operation 512) where the first optical channel has the maximum power value at the effective wavelength.”; it is inherent that the power values are compared with a threshold value to determine degradation from maximum power value at effective wavelength; para [0054]; “…controller 412 includes processor 414 and memory media 416, which may store executable instructions (i.e., executable code) that may be executable by processor 414, which has access to memory media 416. Processor 414 may execute instructions that cause controller 412 to perform the functions and operations described herein.”).
Akasaka et al teaches measuring first power value and second power value from filtered optical signal using programmable optical filter which filter optical signal having specific passband (para [0055]; “…tunable filter module 404 may be a programmable optical filter that can receive WDM input 402 as well as filter parameters specifying passband 406, such as wavelength, bandwidth, etc. WDM input 402 may correspond to power tap signal 216 in FIG. 2. Tunable filter module 404 then optically discriminates WDM input 402 (or another multispectral input) to generate passband 406, representing an optically filtered signal. Passband 406 may correspond to any one of passbands 304, 310, 312 shown in FIG. 3, or another passband, as desired.”) and differs from the claimed invention in that Akasaka et al does not specifically teach acquiring an entire wavelength of the channels. However, since Akasaka et al teaches programmable optical filter that is controllable to pass multispectral input, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to program the optical filter such that it passes entire wavelength channels in order to measure power value of a desired spectrum.
Regarding claim 8, Akasaka et al teaches a non-transitory storage medium storing a monitoring program for causing a computer to function as the monitoring device according to claim 1 (para [0054]; “…controller 412 includes processor 414 and memory media 416, which may store executable instructions (i.e., executable code) that may be executable by processor 414, which has access to memory media 416. Processor 414 may execute instructions that cause controller 412 to perform the functions and operations described herein. For the purposes of this disclosure, memory media 416 may include non-transitory computer-readable media that stores data and instructions for at least a period of time. Memory media 416 may comprise persistent and volatile media, fixed and removable media, and magnetic and semiconductor media. Memory media 416 may include, without limitation, storage media such as a direct access storage device (e.g., a hard disk drive or floppy disk), a sequential access storage device (e.g., a tape disk drive), compact disk (CD), random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), CD-ROM, digital versatile disc (DVD), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and flash memory; non-transitory media, or various combinations of the foregoing. Memory media 416 is operable to store instructions, data, or both.”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 6 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. Satou (US Pub. No. 2019/0074897 A1) is cited to show signal detection system to detect optical spectrum and measure power.
Cahill (US Pub. No. 2017/0187484 A1) is cited to show optical channel monitor with integral optical switch.
Fujita (US Pub. No. 2015/0333863 A1) is cited to show transmission system comprising measuring power of optical signal in a band if the sub-channel.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DALZID E SINGH whose telephone number is (571)272-3029. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9-5 ET.
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DALZID E. SINGH
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2635
/DALZID E SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635
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