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 .
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, 3, 11, and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by United States Patent Application Publication 2009/0214222 A1 to Grossman et all.
Regarding Claim 1, Grossman discloses an optical network, comprising:
an optical network unit (ONU) cluster comprising a plurality of ONUs (Fig. 3, ONT cluster at right with a plurality of ONTs);
a primary optical line terminal (OLT) configured to communicate with each ONU within the ONU cluster (Fig. 3, OLT (30A) in communication with the ONTs);
a backup OLT configured to communicate with each ONU within the ONU cluster (Fig. 3, OLT (30B) communicatively coupled to the ONT cluster);
an optical distribution network (ODN) coupled to each of the ONU cluster, the primary OLT, and the backup OLT (Fig. 3, fibers and splitters between the OLTs and the ONT cluster);
wherein, in response to signal strength between the ONU cluster and the primary OLT falling below a threshold, communication to the ONU cluster is switched to the backup OLT (¶¶ 29, 54, 55, monitor photodetectors determine upstream and downstream power levels, when the power is below a minimum power threshold the OLTs are switched.)
Regarding Claim 3, Grossman discloses wherein the primary OLT is coupled with the backup OLT through the ODN (Fig. 3, OLTs (30A and 30B) connected to each other through the ODN); and
the backup OLT is configured to monitor the signal strength and trigger control of switching the communication to the ONU from the primary OLT to the backup OLT (¶¶ 29, 54, 55, monitor photodetectors determine upstream and downstream power levels, when the power is below a minimum power threshold the OLTs are switched.)
Regarding Claim 11, Grossman discloses a method for operating an optical network, comprising:
coupling a primary optical signal generated by a primary optical line terminal (OLT) to a cluster of optical network units (ONUs) through an optical distribution network (ODN) (Fig. 3, ONT cluster at right with a plurality of ONTs coupled to OLT (30A));
coupling a backup optical signal generated by a backup OLT to the cluster of ONUs through the ODN (Fig. 3, ONT cluster at right with a plurality of ONTs coupled to OLT (30B));
in response to signal strength of the primary optical signal between the cluster of ONUs and the primary OLT falling below a threshold, switching to the backup optical signal (¶¶ 29, 54, 55, monitor photodetectors determine upstream and downstream power levels, when the power is below a minimum power threshold the OLTs are switched.)
Regarding Claim 13, Grossman discloses monitoring using the backup OLT the signal strength of the primary optical signal and generating a control signal to cause the switching to the backup optical signal (¶¶ 29, 54, 55, monitor photodetectors determine upstream and downstream power levels, when the power is below a minimum power threshold the OLTs are switched.)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 4-10, 12, and 14-20 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL G DOBSON whose telephone number is (571)272-9781. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5 EST.
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/DANIEL G DOBSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2634
09/30/2026
