DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to claims filed on 01/23/2026.
Claims 1, 3-13, 19-20, 22, and 25-26 are pending.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 8-11, filed 01/23/2026, with respect to 35 U.S.C 101 rejection of claims 1, 3-13, 15-17, 19-20, 22, and 25-26 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of 11/19/2025 has been withdrawn.
CCi10
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 10-13, and 22 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 1, 3-5, 10-13, 15-17, 19, 22, and 25-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zimmer et al. Pub. No. US 2005/0268078 A1 (hereinafter Zimmer) in view of Dong et al. Pub. No. US 2021/0225096 (hereinafter Dong) in view of Pandya et al. Patent No. US 9,872,254 B2 (hereinafter Pandya) in view of Pingili et al. Pub. No. US 2019/0380095 A1 (hereinafter Pingili).
With regard to claim 1, Zimmer teaches a vehicle control system comprising one or more controllers ([0016], Computer system 100 may be implemented to support virtual machine environment which may include virtual machine monitor (VMM) 125 and computer system platform 110), the vehicle control system comprising a global power state (Fig. 2, VMM Power Management Policy 210; [0024], The VMM 125 may use the system power savings settings as a global power management policy or boundary … The power management policy may incorporate system power savings settings as configured for the computer system 100) and comprising at least two virtual machines being hosted on the one or more controllers (Fig. 1, Virtual Machines 132, 142, 152; [0019], The VMM 125 may present abstraction of one or more VMs 132, 142, 152) wherein each virtual machine has a respective local power state (Fig. 2, Power State info 211, 212, 213; [0022], Each of the VMs 132, 142, 152 may have its own local power management policy), wherein the one or more controllers collectively comprise:
at least one electric processor ([0016], The processor 112 may be any type of processor (e.g., a microprocessor, digital signal processor, microcontroller, or the like) capable of executing software instructions) having an electrical input for receiving a vehicle parameter signal ([0033], the power management policy 210 may be accessed to determine the global power management policy and current power state information of the VMs in the system); and
at least one memory device electrically coupled to the at least one electronic processor having instructions stored therein ([0018], The memory 114 may store instructions or data for performing the operations associated with various embodiments described herein),
wherein the at least one electronic processor is configured to access the at least one memory device and execute the instructions thereon so as to ([0017], The processor may include microcode, programmable logic or hard-coded logic for performing operations associated with various embodiments described herein):
…
determine a respective commanded local power state for each virtual machine ([0024], FIG. 2, is a block diagram that illustrates an example of a power management policy to handle power management policy to handle power management commands from the virtual machines, in accordance with one embodiment. To facilitate the conflicting power management commands from the different VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may retain control over the hardware resources. For one embodiment, the VMM 125 may trap the power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152 and handle the commands based on a power management policy 210) in dependence on the requested global power state ([0024], The VMM 125 may use the system power savings settings as a global power management policy or boundary while it handles the power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152);
update a respective current local power state of each virtual machine to the respective commanded local power state therefor ([0028], For one embodiment, responsive to the power management commands from a VM, the VMM 125 may make all necessary modification to the hardware resources to reduce the power consumption of the computer system 100. For example, when the VMM 125 traps the power management commands from the VM 132 and the VMM 125 recognizes that the other VMs 142, 152 are already in the low power state as indicated by their respective power state information 212, 213, the VMM 125 may proceed to place the processor 110 into a low power consumption state … Thus, depending on how the power management policy 210 is implemented and the current operating state of each of the VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may perform various combinations of operations to accommodate the power management commands from each of the VMs 132, 142, and 152), …; and
However, Zimmer may not teach that the control system and parameter signals are a vehicle control system and a vehicle parameter signals.
Dong teaches a vehicle control system ([0017], In embodiments, an in-vehicle system computing platform having a hypervisor to host one or more virtual machines) … vehicle parameter signal ([0004], However, from a power consumption perspective, the in-vehicle system (including the underlying computing platform) must be powered off, when the engine of the vehicle is turned off (Key off); [0005], For some computing platforms, suspend to persistent storage device may meet power requirement, but there is requirement to have certain functionalities available in seconds when the engine of the vehicle is turned on (Key On) (signals of vehicle power states described))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Zimmer with the teachings of Dong in order to provide a system that teaches the power management strategies applied to vehicle computing systems. The motivation for applying Zimmer teaching with Dong teaching is to provide a system that allows for coordination of power states among virtual machines to improve a vehicle control system in a similar way. Dong discloses the desire to utilize powerful computing platforms to provide virtualization support in vehicles ([0003]). Further, Dong recognizes limitations in prior art in-vehicle systems relating to inefficient power management, particularly when maintaining a suspended state over extended period ([0004]). One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that both Zimmer’s and Dong’s systems, though operating in different domains, share substantially the same computing architecture to apply the known technique of Zimmer to a vehicle computing platform of Dong in a similar way, with reasonable expectation of success, to predictably obtain the results of improved power efficiency. Dong and Zimmer are analogous art directed towards hypervisor-specific management. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Zimmer with Dong to teach the claimed invention in order to provide power management to vehicle control systems.
Zimmer reasonably teaches a global power management policy for handling power management commands from the plurality of virtual machines. Dong reasonably teaches power management methods for in-vehicle systems. However, the combination does not explicitly teach that a global power state is associated with a vehicle parameter signal and updated to reflect the current global power state.
Pandya teaches determine a requested global power state based on the vehicle parameter signal (Col. 9, lines 7-12, Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a flow chart for entering and exiting different sleep stages of a cellular communication module. Upon the vehicle being on and providing full power 401 to the cellular communication module, the vehicle computer system or controller area network (CAN) may determine if the ignition is off 403 … upon turning off the vehicle, the cellular communication module will receive a message and enter into extended mode 405);
…
update a current global power state of the vehicle control system to the requested global power state once each respective current local power state has been updated (Fig. 3A, 301 Full Power transitions to 305 Extended Mode from 303 Key off signal event; Col. 7, lines 2-9, In the illustrative embodiment of FIG. 3A, the vehicle may be a battery electric vehicle. The vehicle may be operating at full power 301 and all modules and devices may be active including the cellular communication module. Upon the vehicle trigger a key off 303, the vehicle will exit the full power state and the battery may no longer supply current to all the modules (Examiner notes: the extended mode global power state suspends all local modules).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pandya with the teachings of Zimmer and Dong in order to provide a system that teaches receiving a global power state and propagating the power state in order to reflect the received current global power state. The motivation for applying Pandya teaching with Zimmer and Dong teaching is to provide a system that allows for a global power state to be identified and applied in a distributed manner across vehicle modules in a system. As such, implementing determination and application of global power state changes gains the expected result of improving stability by using known control techniques of synchronizing the local power state of each module in line with the global power state of the system. Zimmer and Dong and Pandya are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pandya with Zimmer and Dong to teach the claimed invention in order to provide a system that ensures consistent transitions between power states by determining a global power state, distributing the power state, and synchronizing the global power state improving system stability and integrity.
Zimmer reasonably teaches a handling of power management commands for the plurality of virtual machines (See Zimmer, FIG. 2). Pandya reasonably teaches power state transitioning upon expiration of a timer (See Pandya, FIG. 4). However, the combination does not reasonably teach keep alive messaging or power state updating associated with a keep alive timer.
Pingili teaches wherein if a keep alive message is active for a first virtual machine of the at least two virtual machines ([0024], The present application described techniques and tools for managing mobile computing device power consumption through the coordination and selective operation of timer-related tasks.), the current local power state for the first virtual machine is updated only once the keep alive message is cleared or a timer has expired ([0024], By employing timers that are capable of expiring within an expiration window, a mobile computing device in a low-power state can batch the tasks associated with multiple timers, service multiple timers upon waking and thus avoiding having to wake up to service each expiring timer individually.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pingili with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, and Pandya in order to provide a system that teaches implementation of keep alive messaging associated with transitioning power states among virtual devices in accordance with a keep alive condition. The motivation for applying Pingili teaching with Zimmer, Dong, and Pandya teaching is to provide a system that allows for maintenance of a plurality of device-provider communication links that enables a reduction of device wake-ups, thereby improving the power consumption by allowing a device to spend more time in a low-power state (Pingili, [0024]). Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pingili with Zimmer, Dong, and Pandya to teach the claimed invention in order to provide keep alive messaging with power management.
With regard to claim 3, Zimmer teaches wherein the at least one electronic processor is configured to output a first output signal to the at least two virtual machines to update the respective current local power state of each virtual machine to the respective commanded local power state therefor ([0025], The power management policy 210 may also incorporate power state information 211, 212, and 2113 of the VMs 132, 142, and 152. The power state information of a VM may include information that describes the current operating state of the VM … The VMM 125 may use the power state information 211, 212, and 213 to help determine the appropriate response to power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, and 152); and output a second output signal to update the current global power state of the vehicle control system to the requested global power state ([0024], The power management policy 210 may incorporate system power savings settings as configured for the computer system 100. For example, the system power savings settings may indicate that when the computer system 100 is operating with a DC power source, the processor 112 is to operate at a lower speed the hard drive is to spin down after a shorter length of time, etc. The VMM 125 may use the system power savings settings as a global power management or boundary).
With regard to claim 4, Zimmer teaches wherein the at least one electronic processor comprises a virtual machine manager configured to output the first output signal ([0024], To facilitate the conflicting power management commands from the different VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may retain control over the hardware resources. For one embodiment, the VMM 125 may trap the power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152 and handle the commands based on a power management policy 210), and
However, the combination does not explicitly teach that the vehicle parameter signal is a state of a controller area network (CAN) bus.
Pandya teaches wherein the vehicle parameter signal is a state of a controller area network (CAN) bus (Col. 6, lines 10-18, The microprocessor is also in communication with a vehicle data bus that provides access to various vehicle modules … Non-limiting examples of a vehicle data bus includes SAE J1860 bus, a CAN bus, a GMLAN bus, and any other vehicle data buses known in the art. For illustration purposes only, FIGS. 2a-2d are represented as using a CAN bus).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pandya with the teachings of Zimmer and Dong in order to provide a system that teaches a vehicle parameter signal as a state of the controller area network (CAN) bus. The motivation for applying Pandya teaching with Zimmer and Dong teaching is to provide a system that allows for the microprocessor of a vehicle to communicate with vehicle modules through the controller area network bus protocol (Pandya, Col. 6). Zimmer and Dong and Pandya are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pandya with Zimmer and Dong to teach the claimed invention in order to provide an efficient vehicle communication protocol.
With regard to claim 5, Dong teaches wherein the at least one electronic processor comprises a power manager ([0030], In embodiments, to facilitate power management, each of hypervisor 112 and OS of VMs 122-128 may include a power manager 140-146. In embodiments, power managers 140-146 are configured to manage power states of hypervisor 112 and VMs 122-128 in complaint with the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) standard) and the virtual machine manager is configured to notify the power manager when the at least two virtual machines are in the respective commanded local power state ([0048], As illustrated in FIG. 6, for the embodiments, suspend process 610, invoked during power off may include the operations performed at blocks 612-616, whereas resume process 630, invoked during power on, may include the operations performed at 632-636. The operations may be performed by the components of hypervisor 112 and service or user OS of service or user VM 122 or 124 (such as power manager 140-144, device model 162 and so forth)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Zimmer with the teachings of Dong in order to provide a system that teaches the notification of the power manager of the local power states of virtual machines aggregated by the virtual machine manager. The motivation for applying Zimmer teaching with Dong teaching is to provide a system that allows for a particular power state to be identified by the power manager, enabling the power manager to dictate specific power management processes to occur dependent on a given state (Dong, [0049]-[0051]). Dong and Zimmer are analogous art directed towards hypervisor-specific management. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Zimmer with Dong to teach the claimed invention in order to provide a power manager and interactions with notifications of the virtual machine power states.
With regard to claim 10, Zimmer teaches wherein the at least one electronic processor comprises a hypervisor ([0016], Computer system 100 may be implemented to support a virtual machine environment which may be implemented to support a virtual machine environment which may include virtual machine monitor (VMM)), wherein the hypervisor comprises a power management service ([0030], FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of using a transfer monitor to trap power management commands from the VMs, in accordance with one embodiment) and wherein the power management service is configured to receive the vehicle parameter signal ([0030], The power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152 may be in the form of system management interrupts (SMI). The SMI transfer monitor (STM) 310 may be used to trap these SMIs from the VMs 132, 142, 152 … The STM 310 may also route the SMIs to appropriate emulation service routine stored in the system management mode (SMM) memory 305. For the example, the SMM 305 may include a service routine or program that emulates changing the power management registers (e.g., model specific registers (MSRs) of the processor 112).
With regard to claim 11, Zimmer teaches wherein hypervisor comprises ([0017], The computer system platform 110 may include at least one … input/output controller 116):
a virtual machine manager configured to ([0008], Power management operations performed by the guest operating systems in the multiple virtual machines may be emulated by a virtual machine monitor (VMM)): output a first output signal to the at least two virtual machines to update the respective current local power state of each virtual machine to the respective commanded local power state therefor ([0025], The power management policy management 210 may also incorporate power state information 211, 212, and 2113 of the VMs 132, 142, and 152. The power state information of a VM may include information that describes the current operating state of the VM … The VMM 125 may use the power state information 211, 212, and 213 to help determine the appropriate response to power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, and 152); and a power manager configured to output a second output signal to update the current global power state of the vehicle control system to the requested global power state ([0024], The power management policy 210 may incorporate system power savings settings as configured for the computer system 100. For example, the system power savings settings may indicate that when the computer system 100 is operating with a DC power source, the processor 112 is to operate at a lower speed the hard drive is to spin down after a shorter length of time, etc. The VMM 125 may use the system power savings settings as a global power management or boundary);
…
However, Zimmer may not explicitly teach the remaining limitations.
Dong teaches wherein the virtual machine manager is configured to notify the power manager when the at least two virtual machines are in the respective commanded local power state ([0048], As illustrated in FIG. 6, for the embodiments, suspend process 610, invoked during power off may include the operations performed at blocks 612-616, whereas resume process 630, invoked during power on, may include the operations performed at 632-636. The operations may be performed by the components of hypervisor 112 and service or user OS of service or user VM 122 or 124 (such as power manager 140-144, device model 162 and so forth))
Rationale to claim 5 applied here.
Zimmer reasonably teaches an exchange of management commands between the plurality of virtual machines and a hypervisor. However, the combination does not explicitly teach wherein the communications comprise a virtual machine sending a keep alive message to a virtual machine manager.
Pingili teaches wherein an application of the first virtual machine sends the keep alive message to the virtual machine manager ([0081], The method 1040, shown in FIG. 10B, can be performed by a cloud-based keep-alive service responsible for participating in maintaining communications between email services and SMS/MMS providers and a mobile phone accessing email and messaging services … At 1046, a plurality of second keep-alive communications for the keep-alive service can be sent to the plurality of cloud-based service providers.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pingili with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, and Pandya in order to provide a system that teaches communication exchange of keep alive messages between virtual machines and virtual machine manager. The motivation for applying Pingili teaching with Zimmer, Dong, and Pandya teaching is to provide a system that combines the known communication methodology of transmitting keep alive messages between client device application and service manager with the known, analogous structure of virtual machines and hypervisor to yield predictable results. Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pingili with Zimmer, Dong, and Pandya to teach the claimed invention in order to provide keep alive messaging within a virtualized environment.
With regard to claim 12, Zimmer reasonably teaches a handling of power management commands for the plurality of virtual machines through a virtual machine monitor (See Zimmer, FIG. 2). However, the combination does not reasonably teach keep alive messaging or power state updating associated with a keep alive timer.
Pingili teaches wherein the virtual machine manager increments a keep alive counter for the first virtual machine in response to receiving the keep alive message ([0039], A mobile computing device or any component thereof can operate a timer to be used to coordinate or synchronize activities of the mobile computing device. In some embodiments, timers are digital counters) and sends a keep alive notification to the power manager to inhibit the power manager from outputting the second output signal until the keep alive message is cleared or the timer has expired ([0041], Timers can be used in mobile computing devices to reduce power consumption. For example, a mobile computing device or any mobile computing device component can be placed in a lower-power state such as an idle, hibernation, or sleep state to extend battery life; [0042], A mobile computing device operating in a low-power state can operate a timer that indicates that the mobile computing device or component thereof should transition from a low-power state to an active state upon expiration of the timer in order to execute tasks associated with the expired timer).
Rationale to claim 1 applied here.
Examiner notes: It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pingili with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, and Pandya that provides a system to receive keep alive message that inhibit power management signals until satisfying a keep alive condition motivated by improving power consumption through increasing low-power state duration.
With regard to claim 13, Pingili teaches wherein the first virtual machine is configured to send a negative power requirement message to the virtual machine manager to clear the keep alive message ([0044], Timers can be initialized, operated and monitored by an of various components of a mobile computing device. Expiration of a timer can be detected by an of various components of the mobile computing device, including components that are in a low-power state. A component monitoring a timer can send a signal to another component in the mobile computing device that the timer has expired; [0053], FIG. 4 is a second timing diagram showing the expiration of exemplary timers with expiration windows. In this example, the time at which Timer A expires, t1, occurs, within the expiration windows 410, 420 associated with Timers B and C, respectively. Accordingly, the mobile computing device makes only on set of transitions between lower-power to active states (e.g., state transitions 430 to 440 and 440 to 450) to service all three timers. Thus, the mobile computing device checks for email messages, SMS/MMS messages and social network updates within a single active state 440. After these tasks have been completed, the mobile computing device transitions to low-power state 450. The occurrence of time t1 within the expiration windows 410, 420 results in reduced mobile computing device power consumption relative to a mobile computing device employing timers A, B’, and C’ that expire at times t1, t2, and t4 respectively).
Rationale to claim 1 applied here.
With regard to claim 15, Pandya teaches wherein one of the at least two virtual machines is a telematics control unit (Col. 11-Col. 12, lines 65-67 and lines 1-3, The cellular communication module, or telematics control unit (TCU), may be in communication with a body control module or similar electronic control unit responsible for monitoring and controlling the various electronic accessories within a vehicle’s body or in communication via the vehicle bus) and the local power state request is a request to prevent the telematics control unit transitioning to a shut-down local power state (Col. 12-Col. 13, lines 64-67 and lines 1-3, If the TCU determines that the battery level is low, the TCU may determine the mode strategy of the alert 719. For example, certain alerts may require the TCU to fully reset from sleep mode to fully powered to output the alert. Upon outputting the alert, the TCU may gradually enter into the different stages of power mode (Examiner notes: system imposes intermediate conditions, through gradual power mode transitions, that must be satisfied before full shut-down is permitted) based upon the alert’s specific strategy).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pandya with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, and Pingili in order to provide a system that teaches power management of a telematic control unit to prevent immediate shut-down. The motivation for applying Pandya teaching with Zimmer, Dong, and Pingili teaching is to provide a system that allows for enablement of power savings by reducing the vehicle control system’s power consumption, while preserving the ability to wake the telematic control unit and perform operations when triggered, thereby ensuring system availability without continuous high-power usage (Pandya, Col. 9). Zimmer, Dong, Pingili, and Pandya are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pandya with Zimmer, Dong, and Pingili to teach the claimed invention in order to provide telematic control unit power management.
With regard to claim 16, Pandya teaches wherein the telematics control unit is configured to send the local power state request when the global power state is being updated from an ON state, in which all of the at least two virtual machines are active (Fig. 4, 401 Full Power; Col. 7, lines 4-9, The vehicle may be operating at full power 301 and all modules and devices may be active, including the cellular communication module. Upon the vehicle triggering a key off 303, the vehicle will exit the full power state and the battery may no longer supply current to all the modules), to a LISTEN state in which the telematics control unit is active or suspended (Fig. 4, 405 Extended Mode; Col. 7, lines 9-11 and lines 24-27, However, the cellular communication module 305 may enter into extended power mode for a certain time period … During the extended power mode, the cellular communications module may maintain a data connection with the cellular network that allows for immediate two-way data communication (telematic control unit is active).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pandya with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, and Pingili in order to provide a system that teaches the transition of activity of a telematic control unit’s ON and LISTEN state. The motivation for applying Pandya teaching with Zimmer, Dong, and Pingili teaching is to provide a system that allows for preservation of battery life while providing certain functionality to the telematic control unit, enabling high system availability (Pandya, Col. 7). Zimmer, Dong, Pingili, and Pandya are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pandya with Zimmer, Dong, and Pingili to teach the claimed invention in order to provide high system availability with low power activity.
With regard to claim 17, Pandya teaches wherein the at least one electronic processor comprises a timer (Col. 7, line 13, real time clock (RTC)), wherein the timer is configured to be started with the global power state is updated to the listen state (Fig. 7, 405 Extended Mode; Col. 7, lines 11-14, The extended mode may power the cellular radio with data channels open, have cellular micro on, and also power a real time clock (RTC) and controller area network wakeup circuit) and wherein the at least one electronic processor is configured to update the global power state to a SLEEP state (Fig. 4, 429 Deep Sleep Mode; Col. 8, Lines 60-67, FIG. 3B illustrates an example of the different stages of a cellular communication module based on the power-on and power-off cycles of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). In FIG. 3B, the system does not include a light sleep or medium sleep mode for the plug in mode. Thus, the PHEV may enter into deep sleep mode upon exiting the lower power mode which maintains a registered cellular connection), in which the telematics control unit is shut-down, at expiration of the timer (Fig. 4, 427 Threshold Time Elapse? If yes, enter 429 Deep Sleep Mode; Col. 7, lines 27-30, Upon a threshold period time expiring in which the extended mode is active, the cellular modem may enter into a low-power mode; Col. 10, lines 4-7, Upon entering deep sleep mode 429, the cellular communication module may be off indefinitely. The power supplied to the cellular communication module may be minimal or none).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pandya with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, and Pingili in order to provide a system that teaches the transition of activity of a telematic control unit’s LISTEN and SLEEP state using a timer. The motivation for applying Pandya teaching with Zimmer, Dong, and Pingili teaching is to provide a system that allows for different sleep and wake cycles depending request frequency, such that allows for energy consumption improvements as request become increasingly infrequent over time (Pandya, Col. 1). Zimmer, Dong, Pingili, and Pandya are analogous art directed towards power management arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pandya with Zimmer, Dong, and Pingili to teach the claimed invention in order to provide energy consumption improvements through time-directed power transition thresholds.
With regard to claim 19, Zimmer teaches wherein the respective commanded local power state of each of the at least two virtual machines is one of the following: active, shut-down, or suspended ([0025], For another embodiment, the power management policy 210 may also incorporate power state information 211, 212, and 213 of the VMs 132, 142, and 152. The power state information of a VM may include information that describes a current operating state of the VM. For example, the power state information may indicate that the VM 132 is in deep sleep state (shut-down), the power state information 212 may indicate that the VM 142 is in a normal on state (active), and the power state information 213 may indicate that the VM 152 is in a standby state (suspended)), … and wherein the respective commanded local power states of the at least two virtual machines differ across the different global power states ([0022], VMs 132, 142, 152 may have its own local power management policy. For example, when using a DC power source, the VM 132 may decide to go from a “normal on” state to a sleep state to save power consumed by the processor 112)
However, Zimmer does not explicitly teach global power state selected from a group including normal, low power, listen, and sleep.
Pandya teaches wherein the request global power state is selected from a group of different global power states including normal, low power, listen, and sleep (Fig. 3A, Full power, Extended Mode, Low Power, Sleep 1, Sleep 2, Deep Sleep; Col. 6, lines 64-66, FIG. 3A illustrates an example of the different stages that the cellular communication module based on the power and power off cycles of a vehicle)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Pandya with the teachings of Zimmer and Dong in order to provide a system that teaches the plurality of global power states that can be applied to the vehicle control system. The motivation for applying Pandya teaching with Zimmer and Dong teaching is to provide a system that allows for adaptive power management through a plurality of power states. Such power states allow for selectively enabling essential functionality and disabling nonessential functionality in order to provide power in a vehicle system depending on the operational context (Pandya, Col. 9). Zimmer and Dong and Pandya are analogous art directed towards power saving arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Pandya with Zimmer and Dong to teach the claimed invention in order to provide adaptive power management through the use of a plurality of global power states.
With regard to claim 22, Zimmer teaches a method of changing a global power state of a vehicle control system ([0008], A method … for handling power management in virtual machine environments are described. Power management operations performed by the guest operating system in the multiple virtual machines may be emulated a virtual machine monitor (VMM)) comprising one or more controllers ([0016], Computer system 100 may be implemented to support virtual machine environment which may include virtual machine monitor (VMM) 125 and computer system platform 110) and at least two virtual machines hosted on one of the one or more controllers wherein each virtual machine (Fig. 1, Virtual Machines 132, 142, 152; [0019], The VMM 125 may present abstraction of one or more VMs 132, 142, 152) has a local power state (Fig. 2, Power State info 211, 212, 213; [0022], Each of the VMs 132, 142, 152 may have its own local power management policy), the method comprising:
receiving a vehicle parameter signal indicative of a requested global power state of the vehicle control system ([0033], At block 404, the power management policy 210 may be accessed to determine the global power management policy and current power state information of the VMs in the system);
determining, based on the received vehicle parameter signal, a respective commanded local power state for each virtual machine ([0024], FIG. 2, is a block diagram that illustrates an example of a power management policy to handle power management policy to handle power management commands from the virtual machines, in accordance with one embodiment. To facilitate the conflicting power management commands from the different VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may retain control over the hardware resources. For one embodiment, the VMM 125 may trap the power management commands from the VMs 132, 142, 152 and handle the commands based on a power management policy 210);
…, updating a current local power state of each virtual machine of the respective commanded local power state therefor ([0028], For one embodiment, responsive to the power management commands from a VM, the VMM 125 may make all necessary modification to the hardware resources to reduce the power consumption of the computer system 100. For example, when the VMM 125 traps the power management commands from the VM 132 and the VMM 125 recognizes that the other VMs 142, 152 are already in the low power state as indicated by their respective power state information 212, 213, the VMM 125 may proceed to place the processor 110 into a low power consumption state … Thus, depending on how the power management policy 210 is implemented and the current operating state of each of the VMs 132, 142, 152, the VMM 125 may perform various combinations of operations to accommodate the power management commands from each of the VMs 132, 142, and 152); and
However, Zimmer may not teach that the control system and parameter signals are a vehicle control system and a vehicle parameter signals.
Dong teaches a vehicle control system ([0017], In embodiments, an in-vehicle system computing platform having a hypervisor to host one or more virtual machines) … vehicle parameter signal ([0004], However, from a power consumption perspective, the in-vehicle system (including the underlying computing platform) must be powered off, when the engine of the vehicle is turned off (Key off); [0005], For some computing platforms, suspend to persistent storage device may meet power requirement, but there is requirement to have certain functionalities available in seconds when the engine of the vehicle is turned on (Key On) (signals of vehicle power states described))
Rationale to claim 1 applied here.
Zimmer reasonably teaches a global power management policy for handling power management commands from the plurality of virtual machines. Dong reasonably teaches power management methods for in-vehicle systems. However, the combination does not explicitly teach that a global power state is updated to the control system to reflect the current global power state.
Pandya teaches updating a current global power state of the vehicle control system to the requested global power state once each respective current local power state has been updated (Fig. 3A, 301 Full Power transitions to 305 Extended Mode from 303 Key off signal event; Col. 7, lines 2-9, In the illustrative embodiment of FIG. 3A, the vehicle may be a battery electric vehicle. The vehicle may be operating at full power 301 and all modules and devices may be active including the cellular communication module. Upon the vehicle trigger a key off 303, the vehicle will exit the full power state and the battery may no longer supply current to all the modules (Examiner notes: the extended mode global power state suspends all local modules)
Rationale to claim 1 applied here.
Pingili teaches receiving a keep alive message from a first virtual machine of the at least two virtual machines ([0083], The method 1070, shown in FIG. 10C, can be performed, for example, by a smart phone executing an SMS/MMS application in communication with an SMS/MMS service provider. At 1072, a keep-alive communication is received from the keep-alive service. In the example, the phone receives a keep-alive communication from the keep-alive service.);
incrementing a counter and starting a timer in response to receiving the keep alive message ([0046], FIG. 3 is a first timing diagram showing the operation of exemplary timers with expiration windows. A timer having an expiration window (expiration window timer) can expire at any time between its associated minimum expiration time and maximum expiration time; [0068], Coordination of Keep-Alive Timers; [0069], In another aspect of the disclosed technologies, keep-alive timers can be coordinated to reduce mobile computing device power consumption. A mobile computing device in communication with a cloud-based service provider can operate a keep-alive timer to maintain a communication link between the device and the service provider; [0070], A mobile computing device can operate multiple keep-alive timers having timer characteristics as disclosed herein. For example, keep-alive timers can have expiration windows that allow the mobile computing device to service multiple keep-alive timers simultaneously);
responsive to determining that the keep alive message has been cleared or the timer has expired ([0049], At time t1, Timer A expires and the mobile computing device transitions from the low-power state 330 to an active state 340 to check for new email messages. In response to detecting the expiration of Timer A, the mobile computing device determines whether the current time, t1, occurs within the expiration windows 310, 320 of Timers B and C. As t1 occurs within expiration window 310, Timer B is determined to have expired and the mobile computing device executes the tasks associated with Timer B. That is, the mobile computing device checks for new SMS/MMS messages from the SMS/MMS service. Thus, the tasks associated with Timers A and B are executed within the same active state. After the tasks associated with Timers A and B are completed, the mobile computing device can transition from the active state 340 to the low-power state 345)
Examiner notes: It would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to recognize that claim 22 is being substantially recited again as a method for the system of claim 1.
With regard to claim 25, Zimmer teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instruction that, when executed by a processor, cause performance of the method of Claim 22 ([0012], For example, in some embodiments, the present invention may be provided as a computer program product or software which may include a machine or computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which may be used to program a computer (or other electronic devices) to perform a process according to the present invention. In other embodiments, steps of the present invention might be performed by specific hardware components that contain hardwired logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware components).
With regard to claim 26, Dong teaches the vehicle control system as claimed in Claim 1 comprised in a vehicle ([0001], The present disclosure relates to the field of computer-assisted or autonomous driving (CA/AD). More particularly, the present disclosure relates to power off and power on method and apparatus for in-vehicle systems).
Rationale to claim 1 applied here.
Claims 6 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zimmer in view of Dong in view of Pandya in view of Pingili as applied to claim 5 above, and further in view of Diab Pub. No. US2011/0307716 A1 (hereinafter Diab 716).
With regard to claim 6, Diab 716 teaches wherein the power manager is configured to output the second output signal to transition the vehicle control system to the requested global power state ([0049], Fig. 3 shows system 300 having GCPM 180 (global control policy manager) coupled to virtual machine power managers (VMPM) 310A-B. VMPMs 310A-B are shown coupled to respective VMs 120A-B, each of which are coupled to respective switches 160A-B; [0052] In an embodiment, GCPM 180 can also send configuration instructions (output signal of global power state) to network components (VMs 120A-B) through VMPMs 310A-B)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Diab 716 with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili in order to provide a system that teaches propagation of the global power state through the system using the power manager. The motivation for applying Diab 716 teaching with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili teaching is to provide a system that allows for a centralized, consistent control over power transitions among multiple interconnected components, such that enables reprogramming hardware policies of new components in accordance to the system (Diab 716, [0026]-[0027]). Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili and Diab 716 are analogous art directed towards hypervisor-specific management. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Diab 716 with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili to teach the claimed invention in order to provide centralized power management control of components.
With regard to claim 8, Diab 716 teaches wherein the power manager is configured to receive the vehicle parameter signal and to send a global power state signal to the virtual machine manager indicating the requested global power state ([0051], VMPMs 310A-B, in an embodiment, collect and relay ECE information associated with switches 160A-B to VMM 320 in order to improve ECE in system 300. In another embodiment, VMPMs 310A-B collect ECE information from network components and use collected information to generate configuration instructions for VMM 320).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Diab 716 with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili in order to provide a system that teaches the power manager to receiving and relaying global power information to the virtual machine manager. The motivation for applying Diab 716 teaching with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili teaching is to provide a system that allows for the virtual machine manager to become aware of the power state of different components, enabling the virtual machine manager to make improvements to energy consumption of the system (Diab 716, [0050]-[0051]). Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili, and Diab 716 are analogous art directed towards hypervisor-specific management. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Diab 716 with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili to teach the claimed invention in order to provide virtual machine energy management visibility.
Claims 7 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zimmer in view of Dong in view of Pandya in view of Pingili in view of Diab 716 as applied to claim 6 and 8 above, and further in view of Diab Pub. No. US 2011/0307715 (hereinafter Diab 715).
With regard to claim 7, Diab 716 teaches wherein the power manager is configured to output the second output signal after the virtual machine manager is configured to output the second output signal ([0052] In an embodiment, GCPM 180 can also send configuration instructions (output signal of global power state) to network components (VMs 120A-B) through VMPMs 310A-B)
Diab 715 teaches after the virtual machine manager notifies the power manager that the at least two virtual machines are in the respective local power states ([0073], Virtualized system optimization can benefit from a two way routing/switching of information by embodiments to VMM 110 from VMPM 190 and from VMM 110 to VMPM 190. As noted above, because VMPM 190 and VMM 110 can share access to PPD 395, both components can share information via this central repository. For example, VMPM 190 can gather power characteristics and/or control policy information about network components, and store them in PPD 395 for analysis by VMM 110 to support routing/switching decisions).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Diab 715 with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili, and Diab 716 in order to provide a system that teaches output of second signal after the notification of the power manager of the local power states of virtual machines aggregated by the virtual machine manager. The motivation for applying Diab 715 teaching with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili, and Diab 716 teaching is to provide a system that allows for a feedback loop related to energy conservation be established between the power manager and virtual machines, enabling iterative continuous improvement of the energy consumption and efficiency in the system (Diab 715, [0059]). Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili, Diab 716, and Diab 715 are analogous art directed towards energy efficient computing. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Diab 715 with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili, and Diab 716 to teach the claimed invention in order to provide iterative improvement of energy consumption and efficiency.
With regard to claim 9, Diab 716 teaches … wherein the virtual machine manager is configured to determine the respective commanded local power state of each virtual machine based on the global power state signal ([0083], In the VMPM application example embodiments are described that illustrate systems and methods whereby VMM 710 and VMs 720A-B can receive information from system 700 components. This collect information can also be used by VMPM 715 to generate configuration instructions for VMM 710; [0086], In an embodiment, GCPM 780 can reconfigure control policies 765A-B if they are not optimized for the requirements of virtualized job 730. This reconfiguration of individual physical device control policies (775 A-B) to implement “global” GCP 785 is a feature of an embodiment).
However, the combination does not explicitly teach the remaining limitations.
Diab 715 wherein the virtual machine manager comprises a configuration file that maps the local power state of each virtual machine to the global power state of the vehicle control system (Fig. 7, 730 Generate configuration instructions based on the analyzing of the power information, 740 Send the configuration instructions to the VMM; [0028], As discussed herein, by collecting power information, analyzing the power information, generating configuration instructions and interacting with VMM 110, an embodiment VMPM 190 is designed to address many of these problems)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Diab 715 with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili and Diab 716 in order to provide a system that teaches output of second signal after the notification of the power manager of the local power states of virtual machines aggregated by the virtual machine manager. The motivation for applying Diab 715 teaching with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili and Diab 716 teaching is to provide a system that allows for a feedback loop related to energy conservation be established between the power manager and virtual machines, enabling iterative continuous improvement of the energy consumption and efficiency in the system (Diab 715, [0059]). Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili, Diab 716, and Diab 715 are analogous art directed towards energy efficient computing. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Diab 715 with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili, and Diab 716 to teach the claimed invention in order to provide iterative improvement of energy consumption and efficiency.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zimmer in view of Dong in view of Pandya in view of Pingili as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Watkins et al. Pub. No. US 2005/0075892 A1 (hereinafter Watkins).
With regard to claim 20, Watkins teaches wherein the at least two virtual machines comprise a telematics virtual machine, a software over the air virtual machine, and a diagnostics virtual machine ([0012], Telematics application programs 121 within the physical programming station contain specific functionality to be executed when the programs are active within the telematics units 102 … It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the programs 122 and 124 may be object code programs flashed in to memory in the telematics unit 102, or applets for running on a virtual machine in telematics unit 102, or any other form for controlling the function of telematics unit 102 in the modes described herein).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Watkins with the teachings of Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili in order to provide a system that teaches a plurality of virtual machines comprising telematic functionality. The motivation for applying Watkins teaching with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili teaching is to provide a system that allows for the combination known elements of telematic functionality on a virtual machine and the known elements of power management of virtual machines according to known methods to yield predictable results. Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, Pingili and Watkins are analogous art directed towards power management arrangements. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Watkins with Zimmer, Dong, Pandya, and Pingili to teach the claimed invention in order to provide power management of telematic virtual machines in a vehicle control system.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2010/0235662 A1
teaches
A server power manager and method for dynamic server power management are generally described herein. The server power manager is configured to implement one or more server management policies that identify target server power consumption and/or target functionality for the server system.
US 2018/0288167 A1
teaches
A network device may execute a software keep-alive process (SKAP) that enables the network device to continue to send keep-alive packets without interruption even during events such as a network operating system failover/switchover or an in-place system upgrade.
US 2020/0019230 A1
teaches
A hyper-converged computing system may include multiple computing nodes and a power management system. Each computing node may have a processor operating at a power state. Each computing node may receive a power budget from the power management system determine an instant power consumption in the node and determine whether the instant power consumption is approaching the power budget.
US 2021/0240512 A1
teaches
Vehicle Control Device, Vehicle Control Method and Storage Medium Storing Vehicle Control Program
US 8,892,710 B2
teaches
Keep alive management techniques are described. In one or more implementations, a keep alive interval is calculated by an operating system of the computing device. The keep alive interval is used to maintain one or more notifications channels between one or more applications of the computing device and a network.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IVAN A CASTANEDA whose telephone number is (571)272-0465. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:30AM-5:30PM EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Aimee Li can be reached at (571) 272-4169. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/I.A.C./Examiner, Art Unit 2195
/Aimee Li/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2195