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 .
DETAILED OFFICE ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1-7 are pending examination.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b) (2) (C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (2) prior art against the later invention.
1. Claims 1,6 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103(a) as being unpatentable over REIMER et al. ( USPUB 20190190648) in view of Jie Liu et al. (NPL Doc: “ Signal power distribution based modulation format identification for coherent optical receivers,” 21st February 2017, Optical Fiber Technology 36 (2017),Pages 75-79.).
As per claim 1, REIMER et al. teaches An optical power distribution estimation device comprising: a coherent receiver configured to receive a signal transmitted from an optical transmission device via an optical transmission line ( FIG. 2- COHERENT OPTICAL RECEIVER and Paragraph [0014-0015]- “… estimates of the OSNR and signal to noise ratio due to nonlinear interference (NL-SNR) developed from the measurement of the distribution of received optical symbols can be incorporated into power control algorithms …”) ; and
REIMER et al. does not explicitly teach an optical power distribution estimator configured to estimate an optical power distribution on a basis of at least a signal obtained by compensating for or applying a characteristic of an optical reception device to a reception signal received by the coherent receiver or a signal transmitted from the optical transmission device restored on a basis of the reception signal.
However, within analogous art, Jie Liu et al. teaches an optical power distribution estimator configured to estimate an optical power distribution on a basis of at least a signal obtained by compensating for (Power distribution measurement /estimation of signal received from transmitted optical transmission device and the CD compensation process taught within Page 76- Col. 1- “…we proposed a simple MFI technique described in [18] that studies the distribution of received normalized signal power after CD compensation, timing phase recovery and constant modulus algorithm (CMA) equalization, as shown in Fig. 1. The MFI technique requires simple computations, needs no prior training and is independent of phase noise…” AND Page 76- Col. 1- Fig. 1 AND “…Fig. 2 shows the normalized power distributions of five common modulation formats including QPSK, 8-QAM, 16-QAM, 32- QAM and 64-QAM. Signals in presence of frequency offset and other phase impairments [shown in Fig. 2(b)] have the same normalized power distributions as that of the ideal constellations [Fig. 2(a)]. In a practical setting, the distribution can be obtained empirically from a block of received symbols if a sufficient symbol size is available. Clearly, different modulation formats have different power distributions, from which one can extract distinctive features for MFI….” ) or applying a characteristic of an optical reception device to a reception signal received by the coherent receiver or a signal transmitted from the optical transmission device restored on a basis of the reception signal ( Coherent Receiver on receiving from transmitted optical transmission device optical signal and the CD compensation process taught within Page 79-Fig. 6 AND Page 8- Col. 1- “…the received signal was filtered by a 3rd order Gaussian optical BPF with a 0.4-nm bandwidth followed by an integrated coherent receiver. The linewidth of the transmitter and the local oscillator (LO) were 50 kHz and 100 kHz, respectively. The frequency offset was set to 1 GHz. The coherently detected signal was sampled by a 50G sample/s real-time oscilloscope and then processed offline with the DSP described in the previous section, including normalization, re-sampling, CD compensation and CMA pre-equalization with step size of 1e-5 regardless of modulation format. In our experiments, 10,000 symbols were used to generate the received power distribution for MFI….” ) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Jie Liu et al. within the modified teaching of the Systems and methods for error-free reconstruction of transmitted symbols in a coherent receiver mentioned by REIMER et al. because the Signal power distribution based modulation format identification for coherent optical receivers mentioned by Jie Liu et al. provides a method and system for implementation of coherent optical receiver system for optical power distribution measurement within optical communication system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to the Signal power distribution based modulation format identification for coherent optical receivers mentioned by Jie Liu et al. within the modified teaching of the Systems and methods for error-free reconstruction of transmitted symbols in a coherent receiver mentioned by REIMER et al. for implementation of coherent optical receiver system for optical power distribution measurement within optical communication system.
As per claim 6, REIMER et al. teaches An optical power distribution estimation method comprising: receiving a signal transmitted from an optical transmission device via an optical transmission line ( FIG. 2- COHERENT OPTICAL RECEIVER and Paragraph [0014-0015]- “… estimates of the OSNR and signal to noise ratio due to nonlinear interference (NL-SNR) developed from the measurement of the distribution of received optical symbols can be incorporated into power control algorithms …”) ;
REIMER et al. does not explicitly teach an optical power distribution estimator configured to estimate an optical power distribution on a basis of at least a signal obtained by compensating for or applying a characteristic of an optical reception device to a reception signal received by the coherent receiver or a signal transmitted from the optical transmission device restored on a basis of the reception signal.
However, within analogous art, Jie Liu et al. teaches estimating an optical power distribution on a basis of at least a signal obtained by compensating for (Power distribution measurement /estimation of signal received from transmitted optical transmission device and the CD compensation process taught within Page 76- Col. 1- “…we proposed a simple MFI technique described in [18] that studies the distribution of received normalized signal power after CD compensation, timing phase recovery and constant modulus algorithm (CMA) equalization, as shown in Fig. 1. The MFI technique requires simple computations, needs no prior training and is independent of phase noise…” AND Page 76- Col. 1- Fig. 1 AND “…Fig. 2 shows the normalized power distributions of five common modulation formats including QPSK, 8-QAM, 16-QAM, 32- QAM and 64-QAM. Signals in presence of frequency offset and other phase impairments [shown in Fig. 2(b)] have the same normalized power distributions as that of the ideal constellations [Fig. 2(a)]. In a practical setting, the distribution can be obtained empirically from a block of received symbols if a sufficient symbol size is available. Clearly, different modulation formats have different power distributions, from which one can extract distinctive features for MFI….” ) or applying a characteristic of an optical reception device to a received reception signal or a signal transmitted from the optical transmission device restored on a basis of the reception signal( Coherent Receiver on receiving from transmitted optical transmission device optical signal and the CD compensation process taught within Page 79-Fig. 6 AND Page 8- Col. 1- “…the received signal was filtered by a 3rd order Gaussian optical BPF with a 0.4-nm bandwidth followed by an integrated coherent receiver. The linewidth of the transmitter and the local oscillator (LO) were 50 kHz and 100 kHz, respectively. The frequency offset was set to 1 GHz. The coherently detected signal was sampled by a 50G sample/s real-time oscilloscope and then processed offline with the DSP described in the previous section, including normalization, re-sampling, CD compensation and CMA pre-equalization with step size of 1e-5 regardless of modulation format. In our experiments, 10,000 symbols were used to generate the received power distribution for MFI….” ) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Jie Liu et al. within the modified teaching of the Systems and methods for error-free reconstruction of transmitted symbols in a coherent receiver mentioned by REIMER et al. because the Signal power distribution based modulation format identification for coherent optical receivers mentioned by Jie Liu et al. provides a method and system for implementation of coherent optical receiver system for optical power distribution measurement within optical communication system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to the Signal power distribution based modulation format identification for coherent optical receivers mentioned by Jie Liu et al. within the modified teaching of the Systems and methods for error-free reconstruction of transmitted symbols in a coherent receiver mentioned by REIMER et al. for implementation of coherent optical receiver system for optical power distribution measurement within optical communication system.
As per claim 7, REIMER et al. teaches Anon-transitory storage medium that stores a program for making a computer perform processes ( Paragraph [0066]- “…a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer readable code stored thereon for programming a computer, server, appliance, device, processor, circuit, etc. each of which may include a processor to perform functions … Flash memory, and the like. When stored in the non-transitory computer readable medium, software can include instructions executable by a processor or device (e.g., any type of programmable circuitry or logic) that…”) , the processes comprising: ( FIG. 2- COHERENT OPTICAL RECEIVER and Paragraph [0014-0015]- “… estimates of the OSNR and signal to noise ratio due to nonlinear interference (NL-SNR) developed from the measurement of the distribution of received optical symbols can be incorporated into power control algorithms …”) ;
REIMER et al. does not explicitly teach an optical power distribution estimator configured to estimate an optical power distribution on a basis of at least a signal obtained by compensating for or applying a characteristic of an optical reception device to a reception signal received by the coherent receiver or a signal transmitted from the optical transmission device restored on a basis of the reception signal.
However, within analogous art, Jie Liu et al. teaches estimating an optical power distribution on a basis of at least a signal obtained by compensating (Power distribution measurement /estimation of signal received from transmitted optical transmission device and the CD compensation process taught within Page 76- Col. 1- “…we proposed a simple MFI technique described in [18] that studies the distribution of received normalized signal power after CD compensation, timing phase recovery and constant modulus algorithm (CMA) equalization, as shown in Fig. 1. The MFI technique requires simple computations, needs no prior training and is independent of phase noise…” AND Page 76- Col. 1- Fig. 1 AND “…Fig. 2 shows the normalized power distributions of five common modulation formats including QPSK, 8-QAM, 16-QAM, 32- QAM and 64-QAM. Signals in presence of frequency offset and other phase impairments [shown in Fig. 2(b)] have the same normalized power distributions as that of the ideal constellations [Fig. 2(a)]. In a practical setting, the distribution can be obtained empirically from a block of received symbols if a sufficient symbol size is available. Clearly, different modulation formats have different power distributions, from which one can extract distinctive features for MFI….” ) or applying a characteristic of an optical reception device to a received reception signal or a signal transmitted from the optical transmission device restored on a basis of the reception signal ( Coherent Receiver on receiving from transmitted optical transmission device optical signal and the CD compensation process taught within Page 79-Fig. 6 AND Page 8- Col. 1- “…the received signal was filtered by a 3rd order Gaussian optical BPF with a 0.4-nm bandwidth followed by an integrated coherent receiver. The linewidth of the transmitter and the local oscillator (LO) were 50 kHz and 100 kHz, respectively. The frequency offset was set to 1 GHz. The coherently detected signal was sampled by a 50G sample/s real-time oscilloscope and then processed offline with the DSP described in the previous section, including normalization, re-sampling, CD compensation and CMA pre-equalization with step size of 1e-5 regardless of modulation format. In our experiments, 10,000 symbols were used to generate the received power distribution for MFI….” ) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Jie Liu et al. within the modified teaching of the Systems and methods for error-free reconstruction of transmitted symbols in a coherent receiver mentioned by REIMER et al. because the Signal power distribution based modulation format identification for coherent optical receivers mentioned by Jie Liu et al. provides a method and system for implementation of coherent optical receiver system for optical power distribution measurement within optical communication system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to the Signal power distribution based modulation format identification for coherent optical receivers mentioned by Jie Liu et al. within the modified teaching of the Systems and methods for error-free reconstruction of transmitted symbols in a coherent receiver mentioned by REIMER et al. for implementation of coherent optical receiver system for optical power distribution measurement within optical communication system.
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Allowable Subject Matter
2. Claims 2,3,4 and 5 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but it would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
3. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for objecting the claims as allowable subject matter:
As to claim 2, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 2: “…a transmission signal restorer configured to restore a signal transmitted from the optical transmission device on a basis of the reception signal; an optical transmission device characteristic applicator
As to claim 3, Claim 3 depends on objected allowable claim 2 , therefore prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 3.
As to claim 4, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 4 : “…the reception signal is a signal obtained by compensating for a characteristic of the optical transmission device in the optical transmission device, the optical power distribution estimation device further comprises: an optical reception device characteristic compensator configured to compensate for a characteristic of the optical reception device with respect to the reception signal; and a transmission signal restorer
As to claim 5, Claim 5 depends on objected allowable claim 4 , therefore prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 5.
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.”
Examiner’s Notes
4. The Examiner acknowledges the following prior arts below as pertinent to the current applications claim limitations and inventive concept, although the following prior arts shown below were not relied upon to address the limitations within the claim , they are analogous art mentioning the inventive concept key points on (Coherent receiver, optical power distribution measurement, transmission of optical signal etc.).
1) Nebojsa Stojanovic,"An Efficient Method for Skew Estimation and Compensation in Coherent Receivers,"20th January 2016, IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 28, NO. 4, FEBRUARY 15, 2016,Pages 489-492.
2) Ruben Andres Soriano t al.,"Chromatic Dispersion Estimation in Digital Coherent Receivers,"21st April 2011, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 29, NO. 11, JUNE 1, 2011,Pages 1627-1630.
3) Aditya Kakkar et al.,"Comprehensive Study of Equalization-Enhanced Phase Noise in Coherent Optical Systems,"1st November 2015, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 33, NO. 23, DECEMBER 1, 2015,Pages 4834-4836.
4) Shaoliang Zhang et al.,"Decision-Aided Carrier Phase Estimation for Coherent Optical Communications,"26th May 2010, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 28, NO. 11, JUNE 1, 2010,Pages 1597-1604.
5) Takeo Sasai et al.,"Digital Longitudinal Monitoring of Optical Fiber Communication Link,"18th April 2022, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 40, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 2022,Pages 2390-2400.
6) Takahito Tanimura et al.,"Fiber-Longitudinal Anomaly Position Identification Over Multi-Span Transmission Link Out of Receiver-end Signals," 6th May 2020, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 38, NO. 9, MAY 2020,Pages 2726-2731.
7) Kazuro Kikuchi, " Fundamentals of Coherent Optical Fiber Communications," 24th January 2016, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 34, NO. 1, JANUARY 1, 2016,Pages 157-170.
8) Jiacheng Feng et al.,"Intelligent Optical Performance Monitoring Based on Intensity and Differential-Phase Features for Digital Coherent Receivers," 16th June 2022, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 40, NO. 12, JUNE 15, 2022,Pages 3592-3597.
9) Adaickalavan Meiyappan et al.,"On Decision Aided Carrier Phase and Frequency Offset Estimation in Coherent Optical Receivers," 25th April 2013, JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 31, NO. 13, JULY 1, 2013,Pages 2055-2059.
10) Wei et al. (USPUB 20240364419)
11) WAKISAKA et al. (USPUB 20230175884 )
12) SHI et al. (USPUB 20230055077)
13) Ma et al. (USPUB 20220263582)
14) GOEBUCHI (USPUB 20200235819 )
15) RAPP (USPUB 20200049587 )
16) Bao et al. (USPUB 20190003879)
17) Kamei et al. (USPUB 20180139007)
18) AN et al. (USPUB 20160377813 )
19) Li et al. (USPUB 20160204871 )
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Conclusion
5. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to PTO-892, Notice of Reference Cited for a listing of analogous art.
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR S ISMAIL whose telephone number is (571)272-9799 and Fax # is (571)273-9799. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00am-6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David C. Payne can be reached on (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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/OMAR S ISMAIL/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635
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