DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
2. This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 10/10/2024. Claims 1 and through 5 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
3. 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 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lotter (US 2019/0387493 A1) in view of
For claim 1 Lotter teaches an energy efficient distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:
a signal distribution network comprising one or more antenna devices, each of the one or more antenna devices being configured to receive and transmit signals via an antenna for wireless communications or via a wired connection for wired communications, each of the one or more antenna devices including one or more sensors for sensing an aspect of an environment of the associated antenna device to generate sensor data (Fig. 1 and paragraph 15 “a system 100 is shown in FIG. 1. The system 100 includes one or more smart antennas 104 connected to one or more signal
sources 102 through a common physical communication medium such as a coaxial cable or a fiber optic cable. The system 100 further includes a sensor processor 108 connected with signal source 102 and the smart antennas 104 via the communication medium”); and
a sensor processor connected with the signal distribution network and configured to receive and process the sensor data (paragraph 16 “sensor processor configured to receive and process sensor data”),
Lotter does not explicitly teach the sensor processor being further configured to control an energy consumption level of the signal distribution network based on the processed sensor data.
However, Atias teaches a controller is configured to be connected to at least one of a head-end unit or a first remote unit of a plurality of remote units of a DAS. The controller further determines that at least one remote unit of the plurality of remote units is experiencing user activity below a first predetermined threshold. The controller is further configured to, in response to the determination, reduce power usage by the at least one remote unit (Atias: paragraph 11). In addition, Atias teaches a controller may be a processor. A processor may be a microprocessor, any conventional
processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices ( e.g., a combination of a DSP and
a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors
in conjunction with a DSP core) (Atias: paragraph 72). In addition, Atias teaches a controller configured to be connected to at least one of a head-end unit or a first remote unit of a plurality of remote units of a distributed antenna system (DAS), the controller
further configured to: determine that at least one remote unit of the plurality of
remote units is experiencing user activity below a first predetermined threshold; and
in response to the determination that the at least one remote unit is experiencing user activity below the first predetermined threshold, reduce power usage by the at least
one remote unit (Atias: claim 13).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Atias in the distributed antenna systems (DAS) of Lotter in order to configure a controller to manage power consumption (Atias: claim 13).
For claim 2 Lotter teaches the DAS, wherein at least one of the one or more antenna devices includes a local sensor processor configured to determine the sensor data to transmit to the sensor processor via the antenna or the wired connection (paragraph 15 “smart antennas and a coaxial cable or a fiber optic cable”).
For claim 3 Lotter teaches the DAS, wherein the signal distribution network includes a sensor communications module configured to transmit, on an uplink connection, an energy control signal to control the energy consumption level of the DAS (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 4 Lotter teaches the DAS, wherein the signal distribution network is installed within a building that defines the environment (Fig. 3 “sense environmental condition associated with building at each antenna of a distributed antenna system”).
For claim 5 Lotter teaches the DAS, wherein the one or more sensors include one or more of a motion sensor, a temperature sensor, a smoke sensor, and a location sensor (claims 1 and 4 “one or more of carbon monoxide concentration, temperature, air quality”).
Conclusion
5. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David M OVEISSI whose telephone number is (571)270-3127. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8Am-5PM.
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, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached at (571) 270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MANSOUR OVEISSI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
Prosecution Insights