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 .
Oath/Declaration
Oath/Declaration filed on 10/21/2024 has been acknowledged.
Drawings
Drawing(s) submitted on 10/241/2024 have been acknowledged.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 7, and 15-17 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-5, 8-14, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Stanforth et al. (US 9,813,914; hereinafter Stanforth).
Regarding claims 1, 11 and 20, Stanforth discloses a method of operating a first spectrum access controller (SAC), the method comprising:
determining a first interference neighborhood around a first protected zone (Fig. 4; Col 8, lines 14-31: overlapping coverages that would cause interference between secondary and primary users);
dividing the first interference neighborhood into a first plurality of interference zones, said first plurality of interference zones including at least a first interference zone and a second interference zone (Fig. 4; Col 8, lines 14-31: overlapping coverage interference areas between zone 23 and other overlapping zones); and
allocating an interference quota to each of the interference zones in the first plurality of interference zones, said allocating including allocating a first interference quota to the first interference zone and a second interference quota to the second interference zone (Fig. 4; Col 8, lines 14-31: each overlapping zones having a interference threshold tolerance).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Stanforth discloses further comprising:
communicating control messages to one or more interfering devices in the first interference zone to limit the amount of interference from the first interference zone to stay within said first interference quota (Col 10, lines 60-64: being able to evaluate and change transmit power to reduce interference on a per user device basis).
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Stanforth discloses further comprising:
determining, for each of a plurality of individual interfering devices, the individual interfering device's expected interference to at least the first protected zone (Fig. 4; Col 8, lines 14-31: overlapping coverages that would cause interference between secondary and primary users); and
wherein determining a first interference neighborhood around the first protected zone is based on determined expected interference from one or more individual interfering devices (Fig. 4; Col 8, lines 14-31: overlapping coverages that would cause interference between secondary and primary users).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Stanforth discloses further comprising:
determining an interference quota for each interfering device in the first interference zone (Col 9, lines 45-Col 11: evaluating individual interferences in each overlapping zones); and
determining an interference quota for each interfering device in the second interference zone (Col 9, lines 45-Col 11: evaluating individual interferences in each overlapping zones).
Regarding claim 5, Stanforth discloses wherein dividing the first interference neighborhood into a first plurality of interference zones includes dividing the first interference neighborhood based on:
i) interfering devices in different areas of the first interference neighborhood (Fig. 4; Col 8, lines 14-31: overlapping coverages that would cause interference between secondary and primary users),
ii) expected interference from interfering devices in different areas of the first interference neighborhood or
iii) pathloss information based on the topology of different areas of the first interference neighborhood.
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Stanforth discloses further comprising:
receiving protection zone information from one or more other spectrum access controllers (Col 9, lines 19-29: server 10 defines interference tolerances and informs the zones); and
revising the first set of protection zones based on the received protection zone information (Col 10, lines 60-64: being able to evaluate and change transmit power to reduce interference on a per user device basis).
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Stanforth discloses wherein the interfering devices are non-PAL (non-Priority Access License) CBSDs (Fig. 2, secondary devices 16a-16c).
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the protected entity is a PAL (Priority Access License) base station (Fig. 2: primary users’ base station 14).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHUCK HUYNH whose telephone number is (571)272-7866. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10am - 6pm.
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/CHUCK HUYNH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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