DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/14/2024 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 4-12, 14-20 are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stowe US 9430507 in view of Acharya US 20180013635.
As to claim 1, Stowe teaches “A computer-implemented method (Abstract; Column 2, line 54 to Column 3, line 14) for sensing, comprising: selecting a plurality of sensing locations along an optical fiber (Figure 1, 115; Column 10, lines 51-58) measuring reflections from an optical pulse on the optical fiber to generate a line of raw sensing data (Column 7, lines 32-45); compressing the line of raw sensing data (Figure 1, 130) to generate compressed sensing data (Column 10, line 62 to Column 11, line 2); and transmitting the compressed sensing data to a client (Figure 1 shows transmission of compressed data to a server).” Stowe does not explicitly teach “in accordance with present network conditions”.
Acharya teaches “in accordance with present network conditions ([0049]).”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing of the invention to combine the teachings of Acharya with Stowe. Acharya teaches that the network prediction module ensures that the network connection is secure and present, based on historical data. Furthermore, it would be obvious to arrive at the limitation “in accordance with present network conditions” based on the teachings of Stowe, which can be seen in Figure 1, 120. This network is established, and it is known that the compressed data is transmitted to the DAS server via the network. Therefore the transmitted data must be compressed and in accordance with the network conditions if the data is transmitted successfully.
As to claims 2 and 13, Stowe teaches “wherein selecting the plurality of sensing locations includes selecting a number of sensing locations based on the network conditions (Figure 1).”
As to claims 4 and 14, Stowe teaches “wherein selecting the plurality of sensing conditions includes selecting locations within a region of interest along the optical fiber (Figure 1 shows that multiple sensing locations are selected. These locations can be chosen deliberately by the user as needed).”
As to claims 5 and 15, Stowe teaches “wherein the region of interest is requested by the client (Figure 1 shows that multiple sensing locations are selected. These locations can be chosen deliberately by the user as needed).”
As to claims 6 and 16, Stowe teaches “wherein the region of interest is automatically selected responsive to a detected event along the optical fiber (Figure 1 shows that multiple sensing locations are selected. These locations can be chosen deliberately by the user as needed).”
As to claims 7 and 17, Stowe teaches “wherein compressing the line of raw sensing data includes applying a less lossy compression format to a region of interest and applying a more lossy compression format to other regions of the line of raw sensing data (Column 2, lines 31-35 teach that the compression techniques allow for faster transmission time. Therefore it would be obvious to adjust compression techniques in order to optimize transmission rates).”
As to claims 8 and 18, Stowe teaches “wherein compressing the line of raw sensing data is performed using GPU-accelerated JPEG compression (Column 2, lines 31-35 teach that the compression techniques allow for faster transmission time. Therefore it would be obvious to adjust compression techniques in order to optimize transmission rates).”
As to claims 9 and 19, Stowe teaches “wherein measuring the reflections includes measuring a time from emission of the optical pulse until reception of the reflections to determine intensity measurements at the plurality of sensing locations (Column 1, line 66 to Column 2, line 10).”
As to claim 10, Stowe teaches “transmitting the optical pulse on the optical fiber and repeating the transmitting and measuring to generate successive lines of raw sensing data (Column 7, lines 32-45).”
As to claim 11, Stowe teaches “A system for sensing, comprising: a hardware processor; and a memory that stores a computer program (Column 4, lines 62-65) which, when executed by the hardware processor, causes the hardware processor to: select a plurality of sensing locations along an optical fiber (Figure 1, 115; Column 10, lines 51-58); measure reflections from an optical pulse on the optical fiber to generate a line of raw sensing data (Column 7, lines 32-45); compress the line of raw sensing data to generate compressed sensing data (Column 10, line 62 to Column 11, line 2); and transmit the compressed sensing data to a client (Figure 1 shows transmission of compressed data to a server).” Stowe does not explicitly teach “in accordance with present network conditions”.
Acharya teaches “in accordance with present network conditions ([0049]).”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing of the invention to combine the teachings of Acharya with Stowe. Acharya teaches that the network prediction module ensures that the network connection is secure and present, based on historical data. Furthermore, it would be obvious to arrive at the limitation “in accordance with present network conditions” based on the teachings of Stowe, which can be seen in Figure 1, 120. This network is established, and it is known that the compressed data is transmitted to the DAS server via the network. Therefore the transmitted data must be compressed and in accordance with the network conditions if the data is transmitted successfully.
As to claim 20, Stowe teaches “A distributed fiber optic sensing system (Abstract; Figure 1), comprising: an optical fiber; a light source; a detector (Column 7, lines 25-51); a hardware processor; and a memory that stores a computer program which (Column 4, lines 62-65), when executed by the hardware processor, causes the hardware processor to: select a plurality of sensing locations along the optical fiber (Figure 1, 115; Column 10, lines 51-58); transmit an optical pulse on the optical fiber using the light source (Column 7, lines 25-51); measure reflections from an optical pulse on the optical fiber using the detector to generate a line of raw sensing data (Column 7, lines 25-51; compress the line of raw sensing data (Column 10, line 62 to Column 11, line 2) to generate compressed sensing data; and transmit the compressed sensing data to a client (Figure 1 shows transmission of compressed data to a server).” Stowe does not explicitly teach “in accordance with present network conditions”.
Acharya teaches “in accordance with present network conditions ([0049]).”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing of the invention to combine the teachings of Acharya with Stowe. Acharya teaches that the network prediction module ensures that the network connection is secure and present, based on historical data. Furthermore, it would be obvious to arrive at the limitation “in accordance with present network conditions” based on the teachings of Stowe, which can be seen in Figure 1, 120. This network is established, and it is known that the compressed data is transmitted to the DAS server via the network. Therefore the transmitted data must be compressed and in accordance with the network conditions if the data is transmitted successfully.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 13 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. The prior arts do not teach “dividing an expected maximum data rate by an expected per-location data rate.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 11308774 teaches a DAS system.
US 10697824 teaches a DAS system for determining strain on an optical fiber.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TARUN SINHA whose telephone number is (571)270-3993. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 10AM-6PM EST.
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/TARUN SINHA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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