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 .
DETAILED OFFICE ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1-5 are pending examination.
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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
1. Claims 1,4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103(a) as being unpatentable over HATAE et al. (USPUB 20150098714) in view of TANIMURA et al. (USPUB 20130209093).
As per claim 1, HATAE et al. teaches An estimation device ( Paragraph [0046]- “…The frequency offset compensation unit 1520 compensates for a phase error due to a frequency offset by performing integration of a frequency offset amount calculated by a frequency offset estimator (FOE) and taking the product of a complex number for a digital signal (complex signal). …”) comprising: a difference derivator that derives a first power difference between a positive frequency component and a negative frequency component of a received signal ( Difference of positive and negative frequency taught within Paragraphs [0157-0158]- “…the difference is changed to a predetermined positive value. It is further determined whether the difference is less than -.pi./2. If the difference is less than -.pi./2, the difference is changed to a predetermined negative value…”) or
HATAE et al. does not explicitly teach derives a second power difference between a positive time component and a negative time component of the received signal; and an offset estimator that estimates a frequency offset value of the received signal on the basis of the first power difference or the second power difference.
However, within analogous art, TANIMURA et al. teaches derives a second power difference between a positive time component and a negative time component of the received signal ( Paragraphs [0059-0061]- “… first frequency offset estimating unit 81 of a first embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 8, a digital value of the I component output by the ADC 53a is supplied to a multiplier 112. Also, the digital value of the I component output by the ADC 53a is delayed by unit time t by a delay element 115 before being supplied to a multiplier 113. A digital value of the Q component output by the ADC 53b is supplied to the multiplier 113. The digital value of the Q component output by the ADC 53b is delayed by unit time .tau. by a delay element 114 before being supplied to the multiplier 112. The multiplier 112 multiplies the I component by the delayed Q component, and the multiplier 113 multiplies the Q component by the delayed I component. A subtracter 116 subtracts the output of the multiplier 112 from the output of the multiplier 113, thereby determining a difference therebetween. An average operation unit 117 calculates an average value of differences of n times,…” ) ; and an offset estimator that estimates a frequency offset value of the received signal on the basis of the first power difference or the second power difference ( Paragraphs [0062-0065]- “…The first frequency offset estimating unit 81 is an autocorrelation calculation unit, and a signal output by the average operation unit 117 is represented by expression (1)…received optical signal is offset from the center frequency f.sub.T into a positive side or a negative side is determined from the output of the first frequency offset estimating unit 81 represented by expression (1). The supervisory signal data are thus frequency demodulated from the received optical signal.”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of TANIMURA et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical communication receiving device and frequency offset compensation method mentioned by HATAE et al. because the Optical path establishing method and optical node apparatus mentioned by TANIMURA et al. provides a method and system for implementation of optical signal processing within optical receiver module.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Optical path establishing method and optical node apparatus mentioned by TANIMURA et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical communication receiving device and frequency offset compensation method mentioned by HATAE et al. for implementing a system and method for optical signal processing within optical receiver module.
As per claim 4, HATAE et al. teaches An estimation method performed by an estimation device ( Paragraph [0046]- “…The frequency offset compensation unit 1520 compensates for a phase error due to a frequency offset by performing integration of a frequency offset amount calculated by a frequency offset estimator (FOE) and taking the product of a complex number for a digital signal (complex signal). …”) the estimation method comprising: deriving a first power difference between a positive frequency component and a negative frequency component of a received signal (Difference of positive and negative frequency taught within Paragraphs [0157-0158]- “…the difference is changed to a predetermined positive value. It is further determined whether the difference is less than -.pi./2. If the difference is less than -.pi./2, the difference is changed to a predetermined negative value…”)
HATAE et al. does not explicitly teach deriving a second power difference between a positive time component and a negative time component of the received signal; and estimating a frequency offset value of the received signal on the basis of the first power difference or the second power difference.
However, within analogous art, TANIMURA et al. teaches deriving a second power difference between a positive time component and a negative time component of the received signal ( Paragraphs [0059-0061]- “… first frequency offset estimating unit 81 of a first embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 8, a digital value of the I component output by the ADC 53a is supplied to a multiplier 112. Also, the digital value of the I component output by the ADC 53a is delayed by unit time t by a delay element 115 before being supplied to a multiplier 113. A digital value of the Q component output by the ADC 53b is supplied to the multiplier 113. The digital value of the Q component output by the ADC 53b is delayed by unit time .tau. by a delay element 114 before being supplied to the multiplier 112. The multiplier 112 multiplies the I component by the delayed Q component, and the multiplier 113 multiplies the Q component by the delayed I component. A subtracter 116 subtracts the output of the multiplier 112 from the output of the multiplier 113, thereby determining a difference therebetween. An average operation unit 117 calculates an average value of differences of n times,…” ) ; and estimating a frequency offset value of the received signal on the basis of the first power difference or the second power difference ( Paragraphs [0062-0065]- “…The first frequency offset estimating unit 81 is an autocorrelation calculation unit, and a signal output by the average operation unit 117 is represented by expression (1)…. received optical signal is offset from the center frequency f.sub.T into a positive side or a negative side is determined from the output of the first frequency offset estimating unit 81 represented by expression (1). The supervisory signal data are thus frequency demodulated from the received optical signal.”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of TANIMURA et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical communication receiving device and frequency offset compensation method mentioned by HATAE et al. because the Optical path establishing method and optical node apparatus mentioned by TANIMURA et al. provides a method and system for implementation of optical signal processing within optical receiver module.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Optical path establishing method and optical node apparatus mentioned by TANIMURA et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical communication receiving device and frequency offset compensation method mentioned by HATAE et al. for implementing a system and method for optical signal processing within optical receiver module.
As per claim 5, HATAE et al. teaches A non-transitory computer readable medium which stores a program for causing a computer to execute ( Non-transitory computer readable medium interpreted as the hardware and the program for causing a computer to execute interpreted as the software taught within Paragraph [0097]- “A series of operations may be performed by hardware, and may also be performed by software. The steps describing a program include, of course, not only operations performed chronologically in order of description, but also operations that are not necessarily performed chronologically but are performed in parallel or individually.”) : a procedure of deriving a first power difference between a positive frequency component and a negative frequency component of a received signal (Difference of positive and negative frequency taught within Paragraphs [0157-0158]- “…the difference is changed to a predetermined positive value. It is further determined whether the difference is less than -.pi./2. If the difference is less than -.pi./2, the difference is changed to a predetermined negative value…”)
HATAE et al. does not explicitly teach deriving a second power difference between a positive time component and a negative time component of the received signal; and a procedure of estimating a frequency offset value of the received signal on the basis of the first power difference or the second power difference.
However, within analogous art, TANIMURA et al. teaches deriving a second power difference between a positive time component and a negative time component of the received signal ( Paragraphs [0059-0061]- “… first frequency offset estimating unit 81 of a first embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 8, a digital value of the I component output by the ADC 53a is supplied to a multiplier 112. Also, the digital value of the I component output by the ADC 53a is delayed by unit time t by a delay element 115 before being supplied to a multiplier 113. A digital value of the Q component output by the ADC 53b is supplied to the multiplier 113. The digital value of the Q component output by the ADC 53b is delayed by unit time .tau. by a delay element 114 before being supplied to the multiplier 112. The multiplier 112 multiplies the I component by the delayed Q component, and the multiplier 113 multiplies the Q component by the delayed I component. A subtracter 116 subtracts the output of the multiplier 112 from the output of the multiplier 113, thereby determining a difference therebetween. An average operation unit 117 calculates an average value of differences of n times,…” ) ; and a procedure of estimating a frequency offset value of the received signal on the basis of the first power difference or the second power difference ( Paragraphs [0062-0065]- “…The first frequency offset estimating unit 81 is an autocorrelation calculation unit, and a signal output by the average operation unit 117 is represented by expression (1)…. received optical signal is offset from the center frequency f.sub.T into a positive side or a negative side is determined from the output of the first frequency offset estimating unit 81 represented by expression (1). The supervisory signal data are thus frequency demodulated from the received optical signal.”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of TANIMURA et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical communication receiving device and frequency offset compensation method mentioned by HATAE et al. because the Optical path establishing method and optical node apparatus mentioned by TANIMURA et al. provides a method and system for implementation of optical signal processing within optical receiver module.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Optical path establishing method and optical node apparatus mentioned by TANIMURA et al. within the modified teaching of the Optical communication receiving device and frequency offset compensation method mentioned by HATAE et al. for implementing a system and method for optical signal processing within optical receiver module.
2. Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103(a) as being unpatentable over HATAE et al. (USPUB 20150098714) in view of TANIMURA et al. (USPUB 20130209093) in further view of Nakagawa et al. (USPUB 20130070874).
As per claim 2, Combination of HATAE et al. and TANIMURA et al. teach claim 1,
Combination of HATAE et al. and TANIMURA et al. does not explicitly teach further comprising a compensator that compensates for frequency offset of the received signal by using the frequency offset value.
Within analogous art, Nakagawa et al. teaches further comprising a compensator that compensates for frequency offset of the received signal by using the frequency offset value ( Paragraphs [0058-0059]- “…frequency offset estimation method of the present invention; a frequency offset compensation step of compensating for the frequency offset of the received signal based on the value of the frequency offset of the received signal estimated by the frequency offset estimation method; a phase compensation step of compensating for the phase of the received signal compensated in the frequency offset compensation step;…”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Nakagawa et al. within the combined modified teaching of the Optical communication receiving device and frequency offset compensation method mentioned by HATAE et al. and the Optical path establishing method and optical node apparatus mentioned by TANIMURA et al. because the Frequency offset estimation apparatus, frequency offset estimation method, and reception method mentioned by Nakagawa et al. provides a method and system for implementation of frequency offset calculation within received wireless signal.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Frequency offset estimation apparatus, frequency offset estimation method, and reception method mentioned by Nakagawa et al. within the combined modified teaching of the Optical communication receiving device and frequency offset compensation method mentioned by HATAE et al. and the Optical path establishing method and optical node apparatus mentioned by TANIMURA et al. for implementing a system and method for frequency offset calculation within received wireless signal.
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Allowable Subject Matter
3. Claim 3 is 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.
4. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for objecting the claims as allowable subject matter:
As to claim 3, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 3 : “…in a case where there is a plurality of potential frequency offset values, the compensator
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Examiner’s Notes
5. The Examiner acknowledges the following prior arts below as pertinent to the current applications claim limitations and inventive concept, although the following prior arts shown below were not relied upon to address the limitations within the claim , they are analogous art mentioning the inventive concept key points on (Optical signal, Frequency Offset calculation within received signal , difference calculation within positive and negative component , coherent receiver and power difference etc. ).
1) Mehrez Selmi et al. ," Accurate Digital Frequency Offset Estimator for Coherent PolMux QAM Transmission Systems," 16th September 2009, 2009 35th European Conference on Optical Communication , 20-24 September 2009,Pages 1-2.
2) Xingwen Yi et al.," Estimation and compensation of sample frequency offset in coherent optical OFDM systems,"28th June 2011, OPTICS EXPRESS, VOL. 19, NO. 14,Pages 13503-13507.
3) JOKHAKAR JIGNESH et al.," Simple optoelectronic frequency-offset estimator for coherent optical OFDM," 8th December 2017, OPTICS EXPRESS, Vol. 25, No. 25, Pages 32161- 32176.
4) Qifeng Yan et al.," Blind Carrier Frequency Offset Estimation in Coherent Optical Communication Systems With Probabilistically Shaped M-QAM,"11th September 2019, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 37, NO. 23, DECEMBER 1, 2019, Pages 5856-5865.
5) Oh et al. (USPUB 20090046815 )
6) HAUSKE FABIAN et al. (WO 2012119402 )
7) OKAMOTO MASAAKI (JP 2012248944)
8) Hyll et al. (USPUB 20130170590 )
9) Leven et al. (USPUB 20140016947)
10) Razzetti et al. (USPUB 20140195878 )
11) YEH et al. ( USPUB 20140213312 )
12) SALSI, M et al. (CN 104137445 )
13) SHAHMOHAMMADI et al. (USPUB 20220116256)
14) KIM SANG-YUEP et al. (JP 2017011501)
15) Nakashima (USPUB 20140270810)
16) KIKUCHI ( USPUB 20120134676 )
17) Soreide et al. ( USPUB 20100134781 )
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to PTO-892, Notice of Reference Cited for a listing of analogous art.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR S ISMAIL whose telephone number is (571)272-9799 and Fax # is (571)273-9799. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00am-6:00pm.
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
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David C. Payne can be reached on (571) 272-3024. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)273-8300.
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/OMAR S ISMAIL/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635
Prosecution Insights