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 .
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.
Status of Claims
This action is in reply to the application filed on 12/02/2024.
Claims 1-22 are currently pending and have been examined.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 10 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wu (US 20250199186 A1), hereinafter Wu.
Regarding claim 10, Wu discloses
filtering the received binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal using a filter system to form a filtered binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal that comprises a range of frequencies in the received binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal (See at least Figs. 1A-C, 7, [0024] “binary offset carrier (BOC) waveform for use with present embodiments is illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1C.” [0054] “The signals may be from a satellite 703 of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and include binary offset carrier (BOC) signals, where antenna 710 is configured to receive these types of signals. Analog front end 715 […] analog filtering” Wu discloses modulated signals by and BOC PRN varying over frequency that are first passed through analog filtering); and
removing the binary offset carrier from the filtered binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal to obtain a restored pseudo random noise (See at least Fig. 3, Item 315, [0026] “The carrier replica signal is used to wipe-off 315 (or remove) the carrier from the received signal”); and
correlating the restored pseudo random noise with a local replica of the pseudo random noise (See at least Fig. 3, [0026] “the code replica is used correlate against the received signal (or code) once the carrier signal has been wiped-off”)
Regarding claim 22, applicant recites limitations of the same or substantially the same scope as claim 10. Accordingly, claim 22 is rejected in the same or substantially the same manner as claim 10, shown above.
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Allowance of claims 1-9, and 11-21 is indicated because:
The Examiner considers the closest piece of prior art to be Yu (US 20240125942 A1), hereinafter Yu because it discloses receiving the received binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal, wherein the received binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal comprises a binary offset carrier and a pseudo random noise (See at least Fig. 5, [0108] “the mobile object acquires GNSS satellite signals (502), including a respective channel signal for each channel of the satellite signals”, [0109] “the respective satellite channel signal is encoded with a pseudorandom number (PN) sequence”, [0110] “a satellite channel signal that is modulated using BPSK or BOC” Yu discloses receiving a plurality of satellite signals encoded with a pseudorandom number (pseudo random noise) sequence that is modulated by binary offset carrier (BOC). Figure 5 provided below.
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); passing the received binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal through a filter system to form a filtered binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal that comprises a range of frequencies in the received binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal (See at least Fig. 5, Item 506, [0109] “the method 500 tracks the respective satellite channel signal by performing mini-batch DFTs for a plurality of epochs of the satellite channel signal” Yu discloses a DFT filter system for filtering the PRN BOC signals). Yu, does not disclose multiplying the filtered binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal with a local replica of the binary offset carrier, wherein the binary offset carrier is removed from the filtered binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal to form a pseudo random noise signal estimate comprising the pseudo random noise and a noise from the filtered binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal; and removing the noise from the pseudo random noise signal estimate using a noise estimate of the noise and a local replica of the pseudo random noise to obtain a restored pseudo random noise. The Examiner considered whether or not it would be obvious to modify Yu with the concept of local replica multiplication for noise restoration. Additionally, similar references would not be obvious to combine without hindsight reconstruction to modify the prior art with the limitations of local replica multiplication for noise restoration.
None of the prior art of record teach or suggest the subject matter of independent claims 1 and 13. The prior art of record does not anticipate or render fairly obvious in combination to teach all of the additional limitations of the claimed invention, as best understood within the context of Applicant’s claimed invention as a whole, such as in claim 1, and similarly claims 11 and 13, multiplying the filtered binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal with a local replica of the binary offset carrier, wherein the binary offset carrier is removed from the filtered binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal to form a pseudo random noise signal estimate comprising the pseudo random noise and a noise from the filtered binary offset carrier pseudo random noise signal; and removing the noise from the pseudo random noise signal estimate using a noise estimate of the noise and a local replica of the pseudo random noise to obtain a restored pseudo random noise.
Accordingly, independent claims 1 and 13 and dependent claim 11 are deemed allowable. Claims 2-9, 12, and 14-21 are allowed by virtue of their dependence on allowable claims.
Claim 11 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Madhani (US 20250244486 A1) - Technical solutions improve GNSS receiver performance by combining pilot and data components of the GNSS signal to enhance the accuracy of a DLL, PLL or FLL of the receiver. A receiver receives a GNSS signal, removes a carrier component and provides in-phase and quadrature data and pilot signals. Data circuits can process the in-phase and quadrature data signals for data early and date late offsets and pilot circuits can process the in-phase and quadrature pilot signals for pilot early and pilot late offsets. The data early and data late signals can be combined to provide a data error difference and pilot early and pilot late signals can be combined to provide a pilot error difference. A summing circuit can combine pilot and data error differences to provide a delay lock loop (DLL) error signal.
Chrabieh (US 20240248165 A1) - A method involves receiving a ranging signal. A filtered ranging signal is generated using the ranging signal and used to determine a first estimated time of arrival (TOA) of the ranging signal. Multiple first time delay hypotheses of an actual TOA of the ranging signal are determined. A correlator vector is generated using the filtered ranging signal, a filtered local replica of the ranging signal, and the first time delay hypotheses. Multiple code phase discriminator vectors corresponding to second time delay hypotheses are generated, each code phase discriminator vector being based on estimated signal processing, filtering, and noise characteristics of the ranging signal for a respective second time delay hypothesis. A second estimated TOA of the ranging signal is generated using the correlator vector and the code phase discriminator vectors.
Lee (US 9817128 B2) - Disclosed herein are a method of generating a correlation function with no side-peak and a system for tracking a BOC signal in order to synchronize the BOC signal. The method of generating a correlation function includes step S1 of generating sub-correlation functions {S.sub.l(τ)}.sub.l=0.sup.N−1, step S2 of generating a first final correlation function R.sub.0(τ) by combining some of the sub-correlation functions, and step S3 of generating a second final correlation function R.sub.proposed(τ) by combining R.sub.0(τ) with each of the remaining sub-correlation functions that have not been used for the combination at step S2. The BOC signal is one or more of BOC.sub.sin(kn,n) and BOC.sub.cos(kn,n) signals.
Kutik (US 9100107 B1) - Systems and methods for satellite signal tracking are provided. In one embodiment, a GNSS tracking system comprises: a carrier demodulator that receives a navigation signal including pilot and data signal components; a correlator block that implements early, prompt and late correlators, generates prompt values from the pilot signal, and generates early and late values from the data signal; a carrier tracking loop that generates a reference signal using the prompt values, and outputs the reference signal to the carrier demodulator; a code tracking loop that outputs a pilot signal local replica to the prompt correlator and a data signal local replica to the early and late correlators, wherein a chip rate for the local replicas is adjusted by the code tracking loop as a function of the early and late values; and a symbol demodulator that extracts navigation data from the data signal component using the early and late values.
Chae (US 20150139282 A1) - A method of generating a correlation function used to track a code phase delay value for a local code, in a spread spectrum signal receiver system, to be correlated with a received cosine or sine BOC-modulated signal, in which plurality of pulses successively occur in a single period of a spreading code chip is presented. The Method may include generating a local signal pair having a phase delay value based on a first and second local signal pair defined by first and last pulses of a signal pulse train, received during a single period of a sub-carrier of the received signal, and a given main peak shape parameter, generating a sub-correlation function pair by performing correlation operations of the received signal and the local signal pair with respect to a total time and generating a main correlation function having only a main peak by performing an elimination operation of the sub-correlation function pair.
Komaili (US 20150091754 A1) - A method of tracking a code phase includes configuring local correlators with a first de-spreading local function; de-spreading an incoming signal with the first de-spreading local function to generate a first correlation output; determining a range estimate based on the first de-spreading local function; reconfiguring the local correlators with a second de-spreading local function when a delay-locked loop has locked to a correct correlation peak of the first correlation output; de-spreading the incoming signal with the second de-spreading local function to generate a second correlation output; determining a range estimate based on the second de-spreading local function that has a higher resolution than the range estimate based on the first de-spreading local function; and determining if the delay-locked loop has lost a lock to the correct correlation peak of the second correlation output to determine that the local correlators need to be reconfigured with the first de-spreading local function.
De Wilde (US 20070201537 A1) - A method for demodulating alternate binary offset carrier signals includes at least two subcarriers, each having an in-phase and a quadrature component modulated by pseudo-random codes. The quadrature components are modulated by dataless pilot signals. The in-phase components are modulated by data signals. The method includes converting the alternate binary offset carrier signals into an intermediate frequency, band-pass filtering the converted signals and sampling the filtered signals, generating a carrier phase and carrier phase-rotating the sampled signals by the carrier phase, correlating the rotated sampled signals, and generating, for each subcarrier, pseudo-random binary codes and a subcarrier phase, which are used to correlate the rotated sampled signals.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENNETH W GOOD whose telephone number is (571)272-4186. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Thu 7:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Resha H Desai can be reached at (571) 270-7792. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENNETH W GOOD/
Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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