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
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 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.
Claims 1-3, 6-7, 11-13, and 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Bahai (7,193,553).
Regarding claims 1, 6, 11, and 16, Bahai discloses a method by an apparatus in a wireless network, comprising:
receiving, from a device, information indicating an operating configuration for converting between analog signals and digital signals at the apparatus; and operating according to the operating configuration, wherein the operating configuration is associated with at least one of: a bit resolution used by the apparatus when converting between the analog signals and the digital signals, or a sampling rate used by the apparatus (ADC resolution is dynamically adjusted to output a higher or lower number of bits according to received operation mode instruction from the Data Link Layer, col. 2 lines 32-48 and col. 3 lines 37-47).
Regarding claims 2, 7, 12, and 17, Bahai discloses the method, apparatus, and device of claims 1, 6, 11, and 16, wherein the operating configuration is selected from a plurality of operating configurations for converting between the analog signals and the digital signals at the apparatus, each operating configuration of the plurality of operating configurations associated with at least one of: a respective bit resolution used by the apparatus when converting between the analog signals and the digital signals (col. 2 lines 49-63), or a respective sampling rate used by the apparatus (col. 2 line 64 – col. 3 line 12).
Regarding claims 3, 8, 13, and 18, Bahai discloses the method, apparatus, and device of claim 1, 6, 11, and 16 further comprising: transmitting, to the device, information related to channel measurement performed by the apparatus, the information related to the channel measurement being associated with the operating configuration (col. 6 lines 39-56).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 5, 10, 15, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bahai in view of Murphy et al. (2016/0173316) [Murphy].
Regarding claims 5, 10, 15, and 20, Bahai discloses the method, apparatus, and device of claims 1, 6, 11, and 16, further disclosing setting an operating mode by the device (such as which wireless protocol to use, col. 6 lines 39-56), but fails to specifically disclose receiving, from the device, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) value associated with a reference configuration for converting between the analog signals and the digital signals at the apparatus.
In an analogous art, Murphy teaches using signaling data to specifically identify a modulation and coding scheme to be utilized by an analog to digital converter was a common practice in the prior art at the time of effective filing (paragraph 0036).
It would have been obvious at the time of effective filing to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the method, apparatus, and device of Bahai to specifically include receiving, from the device, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) value associated with a reference configuration for converting between the analog signals and the digital signals at the apparatus. This is one of the finite number of available solutions of selecting an operating mode by a device with the predictable result of specifying a correct mode for signal transmission.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 9, 14, and 19 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. Said claims are directed towards controlling the converter states or operating modes using information from “one or more channel quality indicator (CQI) tables, the information from the one or more CQI tables including a CQI value, each CQI table of the one or more CQI tables being associated with at least one operating configuration for converting between the analog signals and the digital signals at the apparatus.” The specific use of CQI tables to control the operating mode of an analog to digital converter as claimed does not appear to be taught or reasonably suggested in the prior art at the time of effective filing.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DOMINIC D SALTARELLI whose telephone number is (571)272-7302. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 am - 5:00 pm EST.
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/DOMINIC D SALTARELLI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421
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