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 § 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kutz et al. (hereinafter referred to as “Kutz”, US 11,296,735) in view of Jin et al. (hereinafter referred to as “Jin”, US 8,218,677).
As to claim 1, Kutz teaches a communication method and/or system comprising: sending, by a sending device, a first carrier signal to a receiving device (Fig. 4, steps 410a-410b and 415a-415b, column 21, lines 26-48); obtaining, by the sending device from the receiving device, a digital pre-distortion (DPD) coefficient (Fig. 4, step 425, column 22, lines 18-42); performing, by the sending device based on the obtained DPD coefficient, digital pre- distortion processing on a multi-carrier signal, to generate a nonlinear pre-distortion signal, and generating a second carrier signal based on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal (Fig. 4, step 430, column 23, lines 8-13); and sending, by the sending device, the second carrier signal to the receiving device (Fig. 4, step 435, downlink transmission, column 23, lines 14-23).
Kutz does not expressly teach that the multi- carrier signal is loaded with a baseband signal.
Jin further teaches that that the multi- carrier signal is loaded with a baseband signal (Fig. 2, baseband digital predistorter 120, input baseband transmit signal, column 1, lines 30-35, column 7, lines 53-57).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the multi- carrier signal is loaded with a baseband signal in order to perform predistortion in the baseband domain, which allows systems to use flexible, high-precision digital signal processing to cancel out the nonlinear distortions of an RF power amplifier before the signal is modulated and transmitted.
As to claim 7, Kutz teaches a communication apparatus, comprising: a digital pre-distortion (DPD) module (Figs. 3A-3B, DPD 305-a AND 305-b) ; an antenna (Fig. 8, antenna 825); and a power amplifier (Figs. 3A-3B, PA 310-a and 310-b); wherein, the power amplifier is separately connected to the DPD module and to the antenna (Figs. 3-A and 8); the antenna is configured to send a first carrier signal to a receiving device (Fig. 4, steps 410a-410b and 415a-415b, column 21, lines 26-48) and to obtain a digital pre-distortion (DPD) coefficient (Fig. 4, step 425, column 22, lines 18-42); the DPD module is configured to perform based on the obtained DPD coefficient, digital pre- distortion processing on a multi-carrier signal, to generate a nonlinear pre-distortion signal, and generating a second carrier signal based on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal (Fig. 4, step 430, column 23, lines 8-13); and sending, by the sending device, the second carrier signal to the receiving device (Fig. 4, step 435, downlink transmission, column 23, lines 14-23).
Kutz does not expressly teach that the multi- carrier signal is loaded with a baseband signal.
Jin further teaches that that the multi- carrier signal is loaded with a baseband signal (Fig. 2, baseband digital predistorter 120, input baseband transmit signal, column 1, lines 30-35, column 7, lines 53-57).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the multi- carrier signal is loaded with a baseband signal in order to perform predistortion in the baseband domain, which allows systems to use flexible, high-precision digital signal processing to cancel out the nonlinear distortions of an RF power amplifier before the signal is modulated and transmitted.
Claim(s) 2, 5-6, 8, 11-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kutz in view of Jin, and further in view of Hiroyuki et al. (hereinafter referred to as “Hiroyuki”, JP 2006140645 A
As to claims 2 and 8, Kutz and Jin do not expressly teach the generating, by the sending device, a second carrier signal based on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal comprises: performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal to output the second carrier signal, wherein nonlinear components of the nonlinear pre-distortion signal and the second carrier signal have an identical amplitude and opposite phases.
Hiroyuki further teaches the generating, by the sending device, a second carrier signal based on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal comprises: performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal to output the second carrier signal, wherein nonlinear components of the nonlinear pre-distortion signal and the second carrier signal have an identical amplitude and opposite phases (the third paragraph under BACKGROUND-ART).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the generating, by the sending device, a second carrier signal based on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal comprises: performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal to output the second carrier signal, wherein nonlinear components of the nonlinear pre-distortion signal and the second carrier signal have an identical amplitude and opposite phases in order to achieve the highest compensation effect when performing digital predistortion.
As to claims 5 and 11, Kutz further teaches performing, by the sending device based on the DPD coefficient, digital pre-distortion processing on the multi-carrier signal to generate a nonlinear pre-distortion signal in a digital signal form (Fig. 4, step 430, column 23, lines 8-13).
Kutz does not expressly teach converting, by the sending device, the nonlinear pre-distortion signal in the digital signal form to the nonlinear pre-distortion signal in an analog signal form; and the performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal comprises: performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal in the analog signal form.
Jin further teaches converting, by the sending device, the nonlinear pre-distortion signal in the digital signal form to the nonlinear pre-distortion signal in an analog signal form (Fig. 2, DAC 132); and the performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal comprises: performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal in the analog signal form (Fig. 2, PA 136).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to convert, by the sending device, the nonlinear pre-distortion signal in the digital signal form to the nonlinear pre-distortion signal in an analog signal form; and to perform, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal in the analog signal form in order to combat distortion caused by performing power amplification before transmitting signals.
As to claims 6 and 12, Kutz does not expressly teach performing, by the sending device, up-conversion on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal; and the performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal comprises: performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal obtained through the up-conversion.
Jin further teaches performing, by the sending device, up-conversion on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal (Fig. 2, upconverter 134); and performing, by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal obtained through the up-conversion (Fig. 2, PA 136).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to perform, by the sending device, up-conversion on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal; and to perform by the sending device, power amplification on the nonlinear pre-distortion signal obtained through the up-conversion in order to combat distortion caused by performing power amplification before transmitting signals.
As to claim 13, Kutz further teaches the DAC is connected to the power amplifier through an intermediate frequency cable or an optical fiber (column 40, lines 61-67, column 41, lines 1-24).
Claim(s) 3-4, 9-10, and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kutz in view of Jin, and further in view of Mandell et al. (hereinafter referred to as “Mandell”, US 8,929,483).
As to claims 3 and 9, Kutz and Jin do not expressly teach obtaining, by the sending device, a plurality of subcarrier signals and performing, by the sending device, carrier combination on the plurality of subcarrier signals to generate the multi- carrier signal.
Mandell further teaches obtaining, by the sending device, a plurality of subcarrier signals and performing, by the sending device, carrier combination on the plurality of subcarrier signals to generate the multi- carrier signal (Figs. 2-3, combiner 210, nonlinear predistortion 212, steps 310 and 312).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to obtain, by the sending device, a plurality of subcarrier signals and to perform, by the sending device, carrier combination on the plurality of subcarrier signals to generate the multi- carrier signal such that digital carrier signals included within the multi-carrier signal are compensated for a nonlinear distortion caused by the power amplifier.
As to claims 4 and 10, Kutz and Jin do not expressly teach processing, by the sending device, a baseband signal to be sent to generate the plurality of subcarrier signals; the method further comprising: respectively performing, by the sending device, carrier-level processing on the plurality of subcarrier signals; and the performing, by the sending device, carrier combination on the plurality of subcarrier signals comprises: performing, by the sending device, carrier combination on the plurality of subcarrier signals obtained through the carrier-level processing.
Mandell further teaches processing, by the sending device, a baseband signal to be sent to generate the plurality of subcarrier signals (Figs. 2-3, digital signals 202(0)-202(N-1), step 302); the method further comprising: respectively performing, by the sending device, carrier-level processing on the plurality of subcarrier signals (Figs. 2-3, interpolators 204(0)-204(N-1), LPFs 206(0)-206(N-1), complex frequency shifts 208(0)-208(N-1), steps 304-308); and the performing, by the sending device, carrier combination on the plurality of subcarrier signals comprises: performing, by the sending device, carrier combination on the plurality of subcarrier signals obtained through the carrier-level processing (Figs. 2-3, combiner 210, step 310).
As to claim 14, Kutz further teaches the DAC is connected to the power amplifier through an intermediate frequency cable or an optical fiber (column 40, lines 61-67, column 41, lines 1-24).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-20 are allowed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Gutman et al., US 2019/0089389, abstract, Figs. 1-12
Laraway et al., US 2025/0070725, abstract, Figs. 1 and 7
Du et al., US 2022/0239380, abstract, Figs. 1-8
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FRESHTEH N AGHDAM whose telephone number is (571)272-6037. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10:30-7:00 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh M Fan can be reached at 571-272-3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/FRESHTEH N AGHDAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632 9/28/2026
