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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 12/06/2024 is/are being considered by the Examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 11 and 18 are objected to because of the following informalities: “fast tracking mode” and “slow tracking mode” should have “a” in front of them since these are not previously defined terms in the art. In addition, the first clause of both has “programmed” spelled “programed”.
Claim 12 is objected to because of the following informalities: slow tracking mode” should have “a” in front of it per above.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 9 and 12-14, 17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 9, the claim refers to an “equalizer training phase subsection” and “the frequency offset estimation and CPE frequency convergence subsection” and specifies their lengths. However, claim 8 on which claim 9 depends recites “an equalizer training phase and frequency offset estimation subsection” and “a CPE frequency convergence subsection” leading to contradiction with how the subsections should be grouped. This also leads to confusion as to the proper interpretation of the specified lengths in the claim.
Regarding claim 12, the first clause of the claim recites “setting gain to a last-known-good gain value for the leaf node” and the third clause again recites “setting the gain” with no further context. As written, the third clause appears redundant leading to confusion on why gain would be set twice.
Regarding claim 13, the final lines of the claim refer to “frame-alignment sequence”. There is confusion on if this refers to the previously recited “Frame-Alignment-Sequence” of claim 1 since there is no article in front of this recitation and it is not capitalized.
Regarding claims 14 and 20, the final line of the claim refers to “the frame-alignment- sequence”. There is confusion on if this refers to the previously recited “Frame-Alignment-Sequence” of claims 1 or 15 as this recitation and it is not capitalized or if it is supposed to refer to “a known frame-alignment sequence” recited earlier in the claim.
Regarding claim 17, the preamble of the claim recites “wherein the clock phase of the leaf node from the clock-and-gain control section of the frame header comprises a trace-type phase detector. (emphasis added) This does not appear to make sense as a clock phase is a not generally a detector but a numerical value. It appears that the word “acquiring” should be after “wherein”.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-8, 10, 11, 15, 16, 18, and 19 allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claim 1, the prior art made of record fails to teach a method, comprising:
receiving, with a hub node of a passive optical network, a signal burst from a leaf node in the passive optical network, the signal burst having a frame comprising a payload and a frame header, the frame header comprising a clock-and-gain control section, a frame detection section, and an equalizer section;
acquiring, with the hub node, a clock phase of the leaf node from the clock-and-gain control section of the frame header;
estimating, with the hub node, signal power of a signal burst from the leaf node in the passive optical network;
compensating, with the hub node, for differences in the signal power of the signal burst from the leaf node;
detecting, with the hub node, a Frame-Alignment-Sequence indicating arrival of the signal burst;
determining, with the hub node, multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) polarization filter coefficients from the Frame-Alignment-Sequence;
aligning, with the hub node, a phase between X-Polarization and Y-Polarization of the signal burst using the MIMO polarization filter coefficients; and
determining, with the hub node, a local oscillator signal Frequency Offset Estimate (FOE).
Zhang et al, “Efficient preamble design and digital signal processing in upstream burst-mode detection of 100G TDM coherent-PON” (published in Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, Vol 13, No 2, pages A135-A143, February 2021, cited by applicant in the IDS dated 12/06/2024) generally teaches a method, comprising:
receiving, with a hub node of a passive optical network (see Zhang Figure 3, OLT), a signal burst from a leaf node in the passive optical network (see Figure 3, ONU-1 sending a burst frame), the signal burst having a frame comprising a payload and a frame header (see Figure 1(c) which shows a burst frame structure, wherein the header comprises the fields SP1-SP4), the frame header comprising a clock-and-gain control section (see page A138, first column “…based on three sync patterns SP-A, SP-B, and SP-C. They correspond to SP2, SP3, and SP4 in Fig. 1(c). Here, SP-A is used for burst clock recovery based on DC-balanced state near-equally distributed QPSK symbols…It is worth noting that the pattern used in SP-A can also be used for burst-mode automatic gain control with longer overall length”), a frame detection section (see page A137, first column “…SP3 used for frame synchronization with the state-of-burst delimiter (SBD) to indicate the start of the burst after synchronization”), and an equalizer section (see page A137, second column, “…SP4 used for channel adaptive equalization (CH EQ)”);
detecting, with the hub node, a Frame-Alignment-Sequence indicating arrival of the signal burst (see page A137, first column “…SP3 used for frame synchronization with the state-of-burst delimiter (SBD) to indicate the start of the burst after synchronization”); and
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determining, with the hub node, a local oscillator signal Frequency Offset Estimate (FOE) (see page A138, second column, “Δf is the frequency offset between the burst signal and the local oscillator in the OLT” and page A139, first column, “After separating the two polarizations, frequency offset is estimated based on the same training symbols in SP-B. To achieve fast and accurate FOE, the maxi mum likelihood criteria FOE algorithm [30] is modified by taking into account two polarizations to estimate the carrier frequency offset as ”).
However, Zhang does not teach the features highlighted above.
Zhu et al, “Reception of Burst Mode High-Order QAM Signals with Pilot-Aided Digital Signal Processing” (published in 2018 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exposition (OFC), March 2018) generally teaches a method for detecting a header in a burst upstream optical signal (see Zhu Figure 1(a) and caption) and Frame-Alignment-Sequence (see Figure 1(a), “K pilot preamble symbols” and Figure 1(b), pilot preamble into frame synchronization) further comprising determining MIMO filter coefficients from a sequence (see Figure 1(a), “P distributed pilot symbols” and Figure 1(b), distributed pilot symbols into MIMO adaptive filtering).
However, Zhu teaches that the Frame-Alignment-Sequence is distinct from the sequence for MIMO filter coefficients.
Independent claim 15 recites similar allowable features as independent claim 1.
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.”
Conclusion
The Examiner was unable to contact Applicant to correct the issues above because it appears Applicant has legal representation but a valid power of attorney has not been filed in the present application. Providing representative information in an Application Data Sheet (ADS) does not constitute a power of attorney. See 37 CFR 1.76(b)(4) and MPEP § 408. For information on appointing a power of attorney, see MPEP § 402.02 et seq.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CASEY L KRETZER whose telephone number is (571)272-5639. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00-7:00 PM Pacific Time.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Payne can be reached at (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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/CASEY L KRETZER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635
