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 statements (IDS) submitted on 04/18/2025 and 11/18/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 C.F. R 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Oath/Declaration
The Oath/Declaration filed on 04/18/2025 is hereby acknowledged.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Figures 1 and are not off legibility or quality that is easily readable or reproducible (as evident in the publication version of the instant application). For instant in figure 1, in is unclear if the “Binary Source” uses a Curly bracket and a Round bracket or two Round brackets or two Curly brackets to enclose bits “0” and “1”, i.e. {0,1) or (0,1) or {0,1}. Additionally, labeling below element 106 is unclear. Similar issues also appear in figure 2. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 4 and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities: the term/variable y’ and H
s
N
s
are not defined. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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.
Claims 1, 2 10, 11, 12, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over FABER et al. (US 20150003509 A1) in view of BEIDAS et al. (US 20150098521 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, FABER et al. discloses;
A method (Para. [0114]: “a method of canceling interference in radio systems”) for symbol detection, comprising:
receiving (Fig. 3), by a receiver (Fig. 3, 6, 9-15: “a radio receiver apparatus”), a signal (Fig. 3: “input signal 305a”) that was transmitted in a single carrier transmission system (Para. [0023]: “The radio receiver apparatus described herein may be used for various wireless communication networks such as…Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks”);
detecting, by a processor (Fig. 3-15, Para. [0022]: “embodiments may be implemented on a single semiconductor chip.” That is, element of Fig. 3 can be implemented on a single processor/semiconductor chip) of the receiver, a plurality of first symbols in the received signal that are to be detected (Para. [0035], [0047]: “The input signal 305a of the serving cell signal processing structure 305 is a signal which is transmitted from one cell, i.e. the serving cell”…“the serving cell detector input signal 304a and/or a serving cell demodulator (not shown) configured to generate demodulated serving cell symbols [i.e. input signal 305a contains plurality of first/serving cell symbols that are to be detected]”) and a plurality of second symbols in the received signal that are to be considered interfering symbols (Para. [0035], [0041]: “The serving cell signal 305b contains interference caused by an interfering cell” containing “symbols transmitted by the interfering cell [i.e. input signal 305a contains plurality of second interfering cell symbols that are to be detected]”);
cancelling, by the processor, interference from the received signal using the plurality of second symbols (Para. [0039]: “serving cell interference removing unit 303 is configured to remove the synthesized interfering cell signal 302b from the serving cell signal 305b”) to obtain a modified received signal (Fig. 3 Para. [0040]: “a serving cell detector input signal 304a”);
obtaining, by the processor, soft values (Para. [0047]: “the serving cell detector 304 may comprise a serving cell despreader (not shown) configured to despread the serving cell detector input signal 304a and/or a serving cell demodulator (not shown) configured to generate demodulated serving cell symbols (e.g. hard or soft detected symbols)) using a stochastic detection algorithm (Fig, 6, 9, 10, Para. [0058]: “An interference-aware equalizer suppresses interference…by its stochastic and spectral characteristics with a linear filter of filter coefficients
w
2
” that is the processor obtains soft values using stochastic and spectral characteristics detection algorithm with a linear filter of filter coefficients
w
2
) that considers each of the plurality of first symbols as being transmitted from respective virtual transmitters (Fig. 1, 6, 9, 10: serving cell signals/plurality of first symbols are transmitted from respective virtual/serving cell transmitters (Fig. 1: more than one serving transmitters/base stations)) and received by respective virtual receivers (Fig. 1, 6, 9, 10: serving cell signals/plurality of first symbols are transmitted from more than one serving transmitters/base stations are received by respective receivers, i.e. Fig. 6, 10: receiver elements 305, 605);
FABER et al. does not state:
using the soft values to recover symbols from the received signal.
On the other hand, in similar field of endeavor (Para. [0002]: “invention generally covers receivers in wireless communications systems, and more specifically is generally drawn to addressing noise and/or interference effects exhibited by received signals, where the signals were transmitted via a transmitter”) BEIDAS et al. teaches:
using the soft values to recover symbols from the received signal (Fig. 7B, Para. [0050]: “because the actual transmitted symbols are effectively unknown, the SISO decoder module 715 decodes the LLRs 737 to determine soft estimates of the transmitted symbols.” That is, the soft values/LLRs are used to recover the actual transmitted symbols from the received sampled signal 729).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the soft detected symbols in FABER et al.’s invention can be used to recover actual transmitted symbols in the received sampled signals as taught by BEIDAS et al., where doing so would (BEIDAS et al., Para. [0010]) increase “the transmission throughput of a wireless transmitter…while being able to efficiently decode the transmitted signal at a receiver.”
Regarding Claim 11, FABER et al. discloses;
A system (Para. [0114]: “a method of canceling interference in radio systems”), comprising:
a receiver (Fig. 3, 6, 9-15: “a radio receiver apparatus”) configured to receive a signal (Fig. 3: “input signal 305a”) that was transmitted in a single carrier transmission system (Para. [0023]: “The radio receiver apparatus described herein may be used for various wireless communication networks such as…Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks”); and
a processor (Fig. 3-15, Para. [0022]: “embodiments may be implemented on a single semiconductor chip.” That is, element of Fig. 3 can be implemented on a single processor/semiconductor chip) configured to recover symbols from the received signal by:
detecting a plurality of first symbols in the received signal that are to be detected (Para. [0035], [0047]: “The input signal 305a of the serving cell signal processing structure 305 is a signal which is transmitted from one cell, i.e. the serving cell”…“the serving cell detector input signal 304a and/or a serving cell demodulator (not shown) configured to generate demodulated serving cell symbols [i.e. input signal 305a contains plurality of first/serving cell symbols that are to be detected]”) and a plurality of second symbols in the received signal that are to be considered interfering symbols (Para. [0035], [0041]: “The serving cell signal 305b contains interference caused by an interfering cell” containing “symbols transmitted by the interfering cell [i.e. input signal 305a contains plurality of second interfering cell symbols that are to be detected]”)
cancelling interference from the received signal using the plurality of second symbols (Para. [0039]: “serving cell interference removing unit 303 is configured to remove the synthesized interfering cell signal 302b from the serving cell signal 305b”) to obtain a modified received signal (Fig. 3 Para. [0040]: “a serving cell detector input signal 304a”);
obtaining soft values (Para. [0047]: “the serving cell detector 304 may comprise a serving cell despreader (not shown) configured to despread the serving cell detector input signal 304a and/or a serving cell demodulator (not shown) configured to generate demodulated serving cell symbols (e.g. hard or soft detected symbols)) using a stochastic detection algorithm (Fig, 6, 9, 10, Para. [0058]: “An interference-aware equalizer suppresses interference…by its stochastic and spectral characteristics with a linear filter of filter coefficients
w
2
” that is the processor obtains soft values using stochastic and spectral characteristics detection algorithm with a linear filter of filter coefficients
w
2
) that considers each of the plurality of first symbols as being transmitted from respective virtual transmitters (Fig. 1, 6, 9, 10: serving cell signals/plurality of first symbols are transmitted from respective virtual/serving cell transmitters (Fig. 1: more than one serving transmitters/base stations)) and received by respective virtual receivers (Fig. 1, 6, 9, 10: serving cell signals/plurality of first symbols are transmitted from more than one serving transmitters/base stations are received by respective receivers, i.e. Fig. 6, 10: receiver elements 305, 605).
FABER et al. does not state:
using the soft values to recover symbols from the received signal.
On the other hand, in similar field of endeavor (Para. [0002]: “invention generally covers receivers in wireless communications systems, and more specifically is generally drawn to addressing noise and/or interference effects exhibited by received signals, where the signals were transmitted via a transmitter”) BEIDAS et al. teaches:
using the soft values to recover symbols from the received signal (Fig. 7B, Para. [0050]: “because the actual transmitted symbols are effectively unknown, the SISO decoder module 715 decodes the LLRs 737 to determine soft estimates of the transmitted symbols.” That is, the soft values/LLRs are used to recover the actual transmitted symbols from the received sampled signal 729).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the soft detected symbols in FABER et al.’s invention can be used to recover actual transmitted symbols in the received sampled signals as taught by BEIDAS et al., where doing so would (BEIDAS et al., Para. [0010]) increase “the transmission throughput of a wireless transmitter…while being able to efficiently decode the transmitted signal at a receiver.”
Regarding Claim 2 and 12, FABER et al. in view of BEIDAS et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 and 11 above, where BEIDAS et al. further teaches;
wherein the plurality of second symbols comprises symbols occurring before the first symbols in the received signal and symbols occurring after the first symbols in the received signal (Para. [0002]: “previous output symbols [plurality of second symbols] may cause interference in the output of the current symbol [the first symbols]. Similarly, the current symbol is also affected by interference resulting from subsequent or future symbols [plurality of second symbols]. This interference in the current symbol caused by previous as well as symbols is referred to as the inter-symbol interference (ISI).” That is, interfering/second symbols occur before and after the current/first symbol).
Regarding Claim 10 and 20, FABER et al. in view of BEIDAS et al. discloses all as applied to claim 1 and 11 above, where BEIDAS et al. further teaches;
wherein the soft values are expressed as log likelihood values (Fig. 7B, Para. [0050]: “The updated soft information 735 is then de-interleaved and provided as LLRs 737”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3-9 and 13-19 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 AMNEET SINGH whose telephone number is (571)272-2414. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30am to 5:30pm.
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/AMNEET SINGH/Examiner, Art Unit 2633 /SAM K AHN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2633
