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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 08/31/2025 has been entered.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a) because they fail to show details text/code on the Fig.3 described in the specification. Any structural detail that is essential for a proper understanding of the disclosed invention should be shown in the drawing. MPEP § 608.02(d). 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 Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
As per claims 1 and 3-8, the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the system does not include any hardware elements included into the monitoring agents, monitoring controller and a system server. Those elements are merely pure software. Thus, software is not part of the statutory classes. Thus, this claim fails to fall into the statutory classes.
All dependent claims are rejected based on the same rational set forth in the claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, and 3-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As per claim 1, this claim recites the phase “the respective scheduled mission.,
There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Thus, this claim is indefinite.
All the dependents’ claims are rejected based on the same rational set forth in the claim 1.
As per claim 5, this claim recites the phase “ the operational definition.. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Thus, this claim is indefinite.
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.
Claim(s) 1 and 3-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Daum et al US 2008/0109124 in view of Shmuel et al US 2020/0145382.
As per claim 1, Daum discloses a system for securing a rail transportation network segment, said system including:
monitoring agents (0029 [0029] The dispatch and rail management module 240 may be in communication with an efficiency measurer module 250 and an historical database module 260 for evaluating whether an insertion of a virtual consist is desirable and determining the location and characteristics of the virtual consist. For example, efficiency measurer module 250 may calculate the efficiency of the planned rail system operation with and without a virtual consist. If a virtual consist is expected to increase efficiency by a predetermined amount, then the dispatch and rail management facility 240 inserts a virtual consist. The efficiency of the rail system may be calculated with and without a virtual consist using a simulation tool, and the resulting efficiencies are compared. The results may be stored in the historical database 260)functionally associated with and monitoring communications to and from each of one or more transportation network management units regulating operational components (0029 rail management module 240 ) of the rail transportation network including Transportation Network Vehicle ("TNV") controllers ( 0034 collects train performance information mapped to the characteristics of the train consist. This performance data may also be mapped to the rail conditions that existed at the time of the train movement. This collected data can be analyzed to evaluate the past performance of a consist in the specified rail conditions and can be used to predict the future performance of a consist as a function of the predicted rail conditions. ) ; and
a network monitoring controller ( 0004a control system 0006 a movement plan may be created using the very fine grain structure necessary to actually control the movement of the train ) in communication with said monitoring agents and a transportation network segment simulation engine (SimEF') ( 0028A computational engine in the dispatch and rail management facility 240 may determine by calculation involving several variables that the stability of the rail system and 0029 efficiency of the rail system may be calculated with and without a virtual consist using a simulation tool, and the resulting efficiencies are compared), both of which are implemented on a system server and operative to receive from one or more TNV controllers information about the respective scheduled missions within the network segment , and based on the scheduled mission information, simulate operation of the segment of the network, including predicted communication to TNV controllers and other network management units to participate in the missions ( 0008 the movements of trains are typically controlled in a gross sense by a dispatcher, but the actual control of the train is left to the crew operating the train. Because compliance with the schedule is, in large part, the prerogative of the crew, it is difficult to maintain a very precise schedule 0019 a virtual consist to developed an optimized schedule ): and
during one or more of the scheduled missions, comparing information from a monitoring agent about communications received by a management unit being monitored by the monitoring agent, against communications predicted to be received by the monitored management unit during the scheduled mission (0021 a virtual consist can be used to influence the scheduled order of the trains at a meet point. With continued reference to FIG. 1, virtual consist C can be asserted in front of actual consist B to ensure that consist A is scheduled to arrive at merge point 130 prior to consist B. Thus by selectively placing virtual consists ahead of or behind an actual consist, the time or arrival or departure of the actual consist can be affected which can be used to influence the order of the actual trains at a meet point and 0029-30 0030] The efficiency of the movement plan may be determined by evaluating the throughput, cost or other metric which quantifies the performance of the movement plan and can be used for comparison between plans. For example, the stability of a movement plan is an important consideration and can be quantified by evaluating the expected variance in a planned movement. For example, with reference to FIG. 3A-D, the efficiency of a movement plan can be evaluated by comparing the stability of the plan with and without the addition of a virtual consist ).
Daum does not disclose a network monitoring controller the train.
Shmueli discloses a network monitoring controller the train(0007 Rail-Eye comprises an optionally cloud based, data monitoring and processing hub, and a distributed, synchronized network of data collection agents and aggregator nodes. The data collection agents which may be referred to as “cyber-snitches”, comprise infrastructure cyber-snitches and rolling stock, “onboard”, cyber-snitches. Infrastructure snitches are configured to monitor communications generated by and/or operations of infrastructure equipment. Onboard snitches are configured to monitor communications generated by and/or operations of onboard equipment. An infrastructure and/or rolling stock snitch may operate and provide functions of a network tap. For convenience of presentation monitoring communications and/or operations of a piece of equipment is generically referred to as monitoring communications of the equipment. And 0011 hat a cyber-snitch or aggregator may have on operation of onboard and/or infrastructure equipment, the cyber-snitch and/or aggregator may operate in a stealth mode in which the cyber-snitch and/or aggregator are in compliance with standards that govern interference with operation of railway equipment. By way of example a cyber-snitch monitoring an onboard or infrastructure device may be configured to acquire data from the device during idle periods of the device. To augment stealth operation and reduce bandwidth that activity of cyber-snitches and aggregators require for transmission of data, a rapporteur protocol in accordance with an embodiment may compress data that it configures for transmission in data messages).
Daum and Shmueli are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of vehicle system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Daum to incorporate the teachings of Shmueli and provide cyber monitoring for the cyber-attack.
Doing so would identify the anonymised event, thereby increasing the protection for the cryber attack.
As per claim 3. Daum and Shmueli discloses the system according to claim 1, Daum discloses wherein the predicted future communications include the real-time configuration, location and or state of a TNV on, or approaching, the transportation network segment( 0022 the location in which to use a virtual consist can be based on the planned movement of the trains. For example, if the planned movement of the trains includes moving a predetermined number of trains through a track section within a predetermined period of time, the area can be determined as one that would benefit from the use of a virtual consist.).
As per claim 4. Daum and Shmueli discloses the system according to claim 1, Daum discloses wherein the operational definition is provided as part of a'Start of Mission' message to the given TNV's controller ( 0009 the train schedules have not heretofore been very precise is that it has been difficult to account for the factors that affect the movement of trains when setting up a schedule. These difficulties include the complexities of including in the schedule the determination of the effects of physical limits of power and mass, speed limits, the limits due to the signaling system and the limits due to safe handling practices, which include those practices associated with applying power and braking in such a manner to avoid instability of the train structure and hence derailments. One factor that has been consistently overlooked in the scheduling of trains is the effect of the behavior of a specific crew on the performance of the movement of a train. ).
As per claim 5. Daum and Shmueli discloses the system according to claim 1, Daum discloses wherein the operational definition is provided as part of an update after start of mission of the given TNV(0006 upon determining a schedule, a movement plan may be created using the very fine grain structure necessary to actually control the movement of the train. Such fine grain structure may include assignment of personnel by name, as well as the assignment of specific locomotives by number, and may include the determination of the precise time or distance over time for the movement of the trains across the rail network and all the details of train handling, power levels, curves, grades, track topography, wind and weather conditions. This movement plan may be used to guide the manual dispatching of trains and controlling of track forces, or may be provided to the locomotives so that it can be implemented by the engineer or automatically by switchable actuation on the locomotive. ).
As per claim 6. Daum and Shmueli discloses the system according to claim 1, Shmueli discloses wherein predicting future communications associated with the given mission of the given TNV includes digitally modeling and simulating operation of one or more segments of the transportation system(0007 Rail-Eye comprises an optionally cloud based, data monitoring and processing hub, and a distributed, synchronized network of data collection agents and aggregator nodes. The data collection agents which may be referred to as “cyber-snitches”, comprise infrastructure cyber-snitches and rolling stock, “onboard”, cyber-snitches. Infrastructure snitches are configured to monitor communications generated by and/or operations of infrastructure equipment. Onboard snitches are configured to monitor communications generated by and/or operations of onboard equipment. An infrastructure and/or rolling stock snitch may operate and provide functions of a network tap. For convenience of presentation monitoring communications and/or operations of a piece of equipment is generically referred to as monitoring communications of the equipment. Aggregator nodes, also referred to simply as aggregators, comprise onboard aggregator nodes and infrastructure aggregator nodes. Onboard aggregators are located onboard rolling stock, and infrastructure aggregators, also referred to as RBC aggregators, are typically installed at fixed locations in railway Radio Block Centers (RBCs). ).
As per claim 7. Daum and Shmueli discloses the system according to claim 1, Shmueli discloses wherein predicting future communications associated with the given mission of the given TNV includes predicting future locations and states, at various points in the future, of all TNVs passing through the transportation network segment, based on instantaneous transportation system operational parameters and states of all relevant transportation network management units within the transportation network segment being covered(0064 a cyber security system for providing security to a railway, the system comprising: a data monitoring and processing hub; a network comprising a plurality of data collection agents synchronized to a same network clock and configured to monitor railway infrastructure devices and onboard devices of rolling stock having a train communication network (TCN), and forward monitored data to the hub for processing by the hub to detect anomalies in railway operation that are indicative of a cyber-attack; wherein an agent of the plurality of data collection agents monitoring an onboard device connected to the TCN of a given rolling stock receives signals propagated to or from the device via the TCN and forwards to the hub data based on a given received signal together with a time stamp comprising a network clock time at which the given received signal is received by the agent. ).
As per claim 8. Daum and Shmueli discloses the system according to claim 1, Shmueli discloses wherein said SimE recalculates predictions of future communications associated with the given mission of the given TNV each time said SimE receives a new 'Start of Mission' or a 'Mission Update' message copy( 0065 the TCN comprises a multifunctional vehicle bus (MVB) coupled to a wired train bus (WTB) and the time stamp comprises a value of a time lapse between a beginning of a turn of the MVB during which the given received signal is propagated over the TCN. Optionally, the network of data collection agents is synchronized based on a reference frequency and time of day (TOD) timing information provided by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) transmissions. Optionally, the timing information comprises a reference frequency and time of day (TOD). Optionally, the agent monitoring the onboard device comprises a primary reference time clock (PRTC) that provides the reference frequency and ToD).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABU S SHOLEMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7314. The examiner can normally be reached EST: 9am-5pm.
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/ABU S SHOLEMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2496
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