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The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
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Claims 45-51 and 54-62 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-15, 17 and 18 of U.S. Patent No. 12,185,036. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because claims of the present application are an obvious subset, arrangement and/or variation of the limitations presented in claims of U.S. Patent No. 12,185,036.
The following table illustrates a mapping of the limitations of claims of the present application when compared against the limitations of claims of U.S. Patent No. 12,185,036.
Claims of Present Application
Claims of U.S. Patent No. 12,185,036
45. A method of controlling transmission of an upstream packet traffic from a plurality of Optical Network Units, ONUs, connected to an Optical Line Terminal, OLT, in a Passive Optical Network, PON, based fronthaul network, wherein the Optical Network Units transmit packets in a time division multiplexed access scheme to the OLT and the method comprises: obtaining mobile upstream scheduling information;
obtaining from the ONUs information indicative of values of optical power of signals from the OLT received by the ONUs; determining, based on the received values, power offset values for use by the ONUs when transmitting to the OLT to equalise optical power levels of the signals received at the OLT; and transmitting the offset values to the ONUs as part of the scheduling information.
46. The method according to claim 45, wherein the mobile upstream scheduling information is obtained from a Baseband Unit, BBU, associated with the OLT.
47. The method according to claim 45, wherein the operation of scheduling the packet traffic comprises arranging the order in which the ONUs transmit their packets based on values indicative of propagation delay of the optical fibres connecting the ONUs to the OLT in a descending order.
48. The method according to claim 47, wherein start of transmission of a packet by a first ONU depends on the difference between propagation delay for a preceding ONU and said first ONU and a length of a timeslot allocated to said preceding ONU.
49. The method according to claim 45, wherein the operation of scheduling the packet traffic comprises reducing the length of timeslots allocated to ONUs for transmission in upstream direction.
50. The method according to claim 49, comprising: determining a worst-case upstream total delay between the ONUs and the OLT; if the worst-case upstream total delay is equal to or exceeds a first threshold the method comprises reducing the length of timeslots for at least one of the ONUs.
51. The method according to claim 50, wherein the operation of reducing the length of a timeslot reduces length of timeslots of ONUs assigned to services with equal priority proportionally.
61. The method according to claim 45, wherein if the BBU or the OLT determines from the mobile upstream scheduling information that there is at least one timeslot with no mobile upstream data to be transmitted by at least one ONU from a Remote Unit, RU, associated with said ONU, the method comprises scheduling transmission of data in said at least one timeslot.
66. An apparatus for controlling transmission of an upstream packet traffic from a plurality of Optical Network Units, ONUs, connected to an Optical Line Terminal, OLT, in a Passive Optical Network, PON, based fronthaul network, wherein the Optical Network Units transmit packets in a time division multiplexed access scheme to the OLT, the apparatus comprising a processing circuitry and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processing circuitry such that the apparatus is operative to: obtain mobile upstream scheduling information;
obtaining from the ONUs information indicative of values of optical power of signals from the OLT received by the ONUs; determining, based on the received values, power offset values for use by the ONUs when transmitting to the OLT to equalise optical power levels of the signals received at the OLT; and transmitting the offset values to the ONUs as part of the scheduling information.
52. The method according to claim 49, wherein the operation of reducing the length of a timeslot reduces length of timeslots depending on a service carried by packets transmitted by the ONUs.
54. The method according to claim 45, wherein the operation of scheduling the packet traffic comprises increasing length of timeslots allocated to ONUs for transmission in upstream direction.
55. The method according to claim 54, comprising: determining a worst-case upstream total delay between the ONUs and the OLT; if the worst-case upstream total delay is below a second threshold the method comprises increasing the length of timeslots for at least one of the ONUs.
56. The method according to claim 54, wherein the operation of increasing the length of a timeslot increases length of timeslots of all ONUs proportionally.
57. The method according to claim 54, wherein the operation of increasing the length of a timeslot increases length of timeslots depending on a service carried by packets transmitted by the ONUs.
58. The method according to claim 54, wherein the operation of increasing the length of a timeslot increases length of timeslots for the ONUs having the upstream total delay below the second threshold.
59. The method according to claim 50, wherein the operations of calculating worst-case upstream total delay and reducing or increasing the length of timeslots are performed periodically.
60. The method according to claim 45, wherein if the optical power levels of the signals received at the OLT are not within a predefined range the method comprises instructing an ONU transmitting in non-conforming timeslots to adjust optical transmission power by a second offset value.
61. The method according to claim 45, wherein if the BBU or the OLT determines from the mobile upstream scheduling information that there is at least one timeslot with no mobile upstream data to be transmitted by at least one ONU from a Remote Unit, RU, associated with said ONU, the method comprises scheduling transmission of data in said at least one timeslot.
62. The method according to claim 61, wherein the operation of scheduling comprises allocating said at least one timeslot for transmission of data by a different ONU whose delay exceeds a predefined maximum tolerated delay.
1. A method of controlling transmission of an upstream packet traffic from a plurality of Optical Network Units, ONUs, connected to an Optical Line Terminal, OLT, in a Passive Optical Network, PON, based fronthaul network, wherein the plurality of ONUs transmit packets in a time division multiplexed access scheme to the OLT, the method comprising: obtaining mobile upstream scheduling information;
scheduling the packet traffic from the plurality of ONUs based on delay constraints of the PON-based fronthaul network and the obtained mobile upstream scheduling information, wherein scheduling the packet traffic comprises arranging an order in which the plurality of ONUs transmit their packets based on values indicative of propagation delay of optical fibers connecting the plurality of ONUs to the OLT in a descending order, wherein start of transmission of a packet by a first ONU depends on a difference between propagation delay for a preceding ONU and the first ONU and a length of a timeslot allocated to the preceding ONU; and transmitting the scheduling of the packet traffic to the plurality of ONUs.
6. The method according to claim 1 comprising: obtaining from the plurality of ONUs information indicative of values of optical power of signals from the OLT received by the plurality of ONUs; determining, based on the received values, power offset values for use by the ONUs when transmitting to the OLT to equalise optical power levels of the signals received at the OLT; transmitting the offset values to the ONUs.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mobile upstream scheduling information is obtained from a Baseband Unit, BBU, associated with the OLT.
1. A method of controlling transmission… wherein scheduling the packet traffic comprises arranging an order in which the plurality of ONUs transmit their packets based on values indicative of propagation delay of optical fibers connecting the plurality of ONUs to the OLT in a descending order…
1. A method of controlling transmission…
wherein start of transmission of a packet by a first ONU depends on a difference between propagation delay for a preceding ONU and the first ONU and a length of a timeslot allocated to the preceding ONU...
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein scheduling the packet traffic comprises reducing a length of timeslots allocated to ONUs of the plurality of ONUs for transmission in upstream direction.
4. The method according to claim 3, comprising: determining a worst-case upstream total delay between the plurality of ONUs and the OLT; if the worst-case upstream total delay is equal to or exceeds a first threshold the method comprises reducing the length of timeslots for at least one of the ONUs of the plurality of ONUS.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein scheduling the packet traffic comprises increasing length of timeslots allocated to ONUs of the plurality of ONUs for transmission in upstream direction.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein if a baseband unit or the OLT determines from the mobile upstream scheduling information that there is at least one timeslot with no mobile upstream data to be transmitted by at least one ONU of the plurality of ONUs from a Remote Unit, RU, associated with the at least one ONU, the method comprises scheduling transmission of data in said at least one timeslot.
8. An apparatus for controlling transmission of an upstream packet traffic from a plurality of Optical Network Units, ONUs, connected to an Optical Line Terminal, OLT, in a Passive Optical Network, PON, based fronthaul network, wherein the plurality of ONUs transmit packets in a time division multiplexed access scheme to the OLT, the apparatus comprising a processing circuitry and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processing circuitry such that the apparatus is operative to: obtain mobile upstream scheduling information; schedule the packet traffic from the plurality of ONUs based on delay constraints of the PON-based fronthaul network and the obtained mobile upstream scheduling information, wherein scheduling the packet traffic comprises arranging an order in which the plurality of ONUs transmit their packets based on values indicative of propagation delay of optical fibers connecting the plurality of ONUs to the OLT in a descending order, wherein start of transmission of a packet by a first ONU depends on a difference between propagation delay for a preceding ONU and the first ONU and a length of a timeslot allocated to the preceding ONU; and transmit the scheduling of the packet traffic to the ONUs.
16. The apparatus according to claim 8 operative to: obtain from the plurality of ONUs information indicative of values of optical power of signals from the OLT received by the plurality of ONUs; determine, based on the received values, power offset values for use by the plurality of ONUs when transmitting to the OLT to equalise optical power levels of the signals received at the OLT; transmit the offset values to the ONUs.
11. The apparatus according to claim 9 operative to reduce length of timeslots depending on service carried by packets transmitted by the plurality of ONUs.
9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein to schedule the packet traffic the apparatus is operative to reduce length of timeslots allocated to ONUs of the plurality of ONUs for transmission in upstream direction.
10. The apparatus according to claim 9 operative to: determine a worst-case upstream total delay between the plurality of ONUs and the OLT; if the worst-case upstream total delay is equal to or exceeds a first threshold the apparatus is operative to reduce the length of timeslots for at least one of the ONUs of the plurality of ONUs.
12. The apparatus according to claim 8 operative to increase length of timeslots allocated to ONUs of the plurality of ONUs for transmission in upstream direction.
14. The apparatus according to claim 12 operative to increase length of timeslots depending on service carried by packets transmitted by the plurality of ONUs.
15. The apparatus according to claim 12 operative to increase length of timeslots for the ONUs of the plurality of ONUs having the upstream total delay below the second threshold.
13. The apparatus according to claim 12 operative to: determine a worst-case upstream total delay between the plurality of ONUs and the OLT; if the worst-case upstream total delay is below a second threshold the apparatus is operative to increase the length of timeslots for at least one of the ONUs of the plurality of ONUs.
17. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein if a baseband unit or the OLT determines from the mobile upstream scheduling information that there is at least one timeslot with no mobile upstream data to be transmitted by at least one ONU of the plurality of ONUs from a Remote Unit, RU, associated with the at least one ONU, the apparatus is operative to schedule transmission of data in said at least one timeslot.
18. The apparatus according to claim 17 operative to allocate said at least one timeslot for transmission of data by a different ONU whose delay exceeds a predefined maximum tolerated delay.
As the table above illustrates, the limitations of claims of the present application are an obvious subset, arrangement and/or variation of the limitations taught by claims of U.S. Patent No. 12,185,036. Therefore, claims of the present application would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of claims of U.S. Patent No. 12,185,036.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 45-66 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 45, Yigit et al (US Pub. No. 2020/0322052 A1) teaches a method of controlling transmission of an upstream packet traffic from a plurality of Optical Network Units, ONUs, connected to an Optical Line Terminal, OLT, in a Passive Optical Network, PON, based fronthaul network (para [0046]; “FIG. 1 is a simple access network of a 5th generation mobile network comprising (a) User Equipment 1, 2, . . . , 6, wherein UE 1, 2 and 3 are attached to base station (gNodeB) 100a, and UE 4, 5 and 6 are attached to base station (gNodeB) 100b, forming a simple Radio Access Network (RAN), (b) Optical Network Unit (ONU) 110a, attached to gNodeB 100a via link 148, and ONU 110b, attached to gNodeB 100b via link 147, wherein both connections 147 and 148 are electrical, such as twisted-pair or coaxial cable, (c) Optical Line Termination (OLT) 120 attached to ONU 110a and 110b via an Optical Distribution Network (ODN) mainly comprising Passive Optical Splitter 151, and optical fiber links 141, 143 and 144. Passive Optical Splitter 151 basically splits fiber feed 143 into each fiber drop (strand) 141 and 144 towards the ONUs.”).
Liu et al (US Patent No. 10,009,673 B1) teaches optical network units transmit packets in a time division multiplexed access scheme to the OLT (col. 4, lines 14-18; “FIG. 1 illustrates a C-RAN 100 in accordance with various embodiments of the disclosure. In the depicted embodiment, the C-RAN 100 comprises a BBU 101, an OLT 102, an RRU 110, an ONU 111, an RRU 120, an ONU 121, an RRU 130, and an ONU 131.”; col. 6, lines 44-50; “…the method 300 is performed by an ONU that is communicatively coupled to an RRU via an Ethernet interface such as, but not limited to, eCPRI 110i. The method 300 begins at block 302 by coordinating a transmission of Ethernet packets from the Ethernet interface of the RRU to fixed-length TBs having pre-allocated time slots for TDM-PON upstream transmission of the ONU.”).
However, none of the prior art cited alone or in combination provides the motivation to teach:
the method comprises:
obtaining mobile upstream scheduling information;
obtaining from the ONUs information indicative of values of optical power of signals from the OLT received by the ONUs;
determining, based on the received values, power offset values for use by the ONUs when transmitting to the OLT to equalise optical power levels of the signals received at the OLT; and
transmitting the offset values to the ONUs as part of the scheduling information.
Regarding claim 66, Yigit et al (US Pub. No. 2020/0322052 A1) teaches an apparatus for controlling transmission of an upstream packet traffic from a plurality of Optical Network Units, ONUs, connected to an Optical Line Terminal, OLT, in a Passive Optical Network, PON, based fronthaul network (para [0046]; “FIG. 1 is a simple access network of a 5th generation mobile network comprising (a) User Equipment 1, 2, . . . , 6, wherein UE 1, 2 and 3 are attached to base station (gNodeB) 100a, and UE 4, 5 and 6 are attached to base station (gNodeB) 100b, forming a simple Radio Access Network (RAN), (b) Optical Network Unit (ONU) 110a, attached to gNodeB 100a via link 148, and ONU 110b, attached to gNodeB 100b via link 147, wherein both connections 147 and 148 are electrical, such as twisted-pair or coaxial cable, (c) Optical Line Termination (OLT) 120 attached to ONU 110a and 110b via an Optical Distribution Network (ODN) mainly comprising Passive Optical Splitter 151, and optical fiber links 141, 143 and 144. Passive Optical Splitter 151 basically splits fiber feed 143 into each fiber drop (strand) 141 and 144 towards the ONUs.”), the apparatus comprising a processing circuitry and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processing circuitry (para [0042]; “An electronic device (e.g., a base station, router, switch, gateway, hardware platform, controller etc.) stores and transmits (internally and/or with other electronic devices over a network) code (composed of software instructions) and data using machine-readable media, such as non-transitory machine-readable media (e.g., machine-readable storage media such as magnetic disks; optical disks; read only memory; flash memory devices; phase change memory)…”).
Liu et al (US Patent No. 10,009,673 B1) teaches optical network units transmit packets in a time division multiplexed access scheme to the OLT (col. 4, lines 14-18; “FIG. 1 illustrates a C-RAN 100 in accordance with various embodiments of the disclosure. In the depicted embodiment, the C-RAN 100 comprises a BBU 101, an OLT 102, an RRU 110, an ONU 111, an RRU 120, an ONU 121, an RRU 130, and an ONU 131.”; col. 6, lines 44-50; “…the method 300 is performed by an ONU that is communicatively coupled to an RRU via an Ethernet interface such as, but not limited to, eCPRI 110i. The method 300 begins at block 302 by coordinating a transmission of Ethernet packets from the Ethernet interface of the RRU to fixed-length TBs having pre-allocated time slots for TDM-PON upstream transmission of the ONU.”).
However, none of the prior art cited alone or in combination provides the motivation to teach:
the apparatus is operative to:
obtain mobile upstream scheduling information;
obtaining from the ONUs information indicative of values of optical power of signals from the OLT received by the ONUs;
determining, based on the received values, power offset values for use by the ONUs when transmitting to the OLT to equalise optical power levels of the signals received at the OLT; and
transmitting the offset values to the ONUs as part of the scheduling information.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Zhou et al (US Pub. No. 2018/0076914 A1) is cited to show mobile and TDM-PON MAC scheduling for mobile front-haul.
Sarashina (US Pub. No. 2017/0250777 A1) is cited to show band control system in communication system between remote radio units and PON.
Kim et al (US Patent No. 8,139,937 B2) is cited to show automatic optical power control for OLT in PON.
Liu et al (US Pub. No. 2020/0350992 A1) is cited to show PON system comprising OLT and ONU communicating message indicating power range.
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DALZID E. SINGH
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2635
/DALZID E SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635
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