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 .
This is a Non-final action for application number 18/081,865 in response to an amendment filed on 11/06/2025; the original application filed on 12/15/2022.
Claims 1-14 currently pending and have been considered below.
Claims 1 and 13 are independent claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ arguments with respect to claims 1-14 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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 and 3-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pruden et al. (US 2018/0048691 A1) in view of Karlsson et al. (US 2018/0027465 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 13, a method for wireless communication between a router in a moving vehicle and a stationary communication server outside the moving vehicle through at least one external mobile network on at least one link, the method, performed in at least one of the stationary communication server and the router, comprising:
providing a first output buffer and a second output buffer, [Pruden et al., Figure 8, wherein four different out put buffers are provided, See paragraph 61],
receiving data packets of a data stream to be transferred on said at least one link, [Figure 4, Ref # 410-420, At step 410, in some instances, the system may receive a request to transmit a content item. The request may be a packet from a downstream requesting device 330 requesting that the system supply a content item from a storage location, (Pruden et al., Paragraph 32)],
determining whether said data stream is of a data type belonging to a set of prioritized data types, [Figure 4, Ref # 415-425, The system may consult a database to determine if the media type or data type of the content item matches a media type or data type flagged in the database for priority treatment (i.e., a buffer priority should be assigned for the content item), (Pruden et al., Paragraph 37)],
selecting, in case it has been determined that the data stream is of a data type belonging to the set of prioritized data types, the first output buffer for said data packets, [Figure 8, Ref # 805 or 820, the system may determine that the content item comprises streaming video, review the database for how to handle streaming video, and determine that streaming video should receive higher priority based on a database entry, (Pruden et al., Paragraph 37)],
selecting, in case it has been determined that the data is of a data type not belonging to the set of prioritized data types, the second output buffer for said data packets, [Figure 8, Ref # 820, the system may determine that the content item comprises a text file, review the database for how to handle text files, and determine that text files should not receive any priority treatment based on a database entry. In some instances, a lack of an entry may indicate that no priority treatment should be taken. If no priority treatment should be taken, the system may transmit the content item without taking further action as in step 440. If priority treatment should be taken, the system may proceed to step 42, (Pruden et al., Paragraph 37)],
and transferring the data packets to the selected output buffer, for subsequent transmission of the data packets on said at least one link, [If the content item was flagged for priority treatment in step 420, the system may transmit the content item using the buffer queues that are appropriate for the content item as determined in step 425, (Pruden et al., Paragraph 42)],
Pruden et al. fails to explicitly teach a router in a moving vehicle and a stationary communication server outside the moving vehicle through at least one external mobile network on at least one link,
Karlsson et al. teaches wireless communication between a mobile router in a moving vehicle, such as a train, and one or several external server(s) via at least two types of external wireless networks, a first external wireless network type comprising a plurality of trackside base stations, (Karlsson et al., Paragraph 12),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Pruden et al. by including a router in a moving vehicle and a stationary communication server outside the moving vehicle through at least one external mobile network on at least one link, (Karlsson et al., Paragraph 12), in order to improve communications with moving vehicles, and in particular trains, allowing increased capacity, capacity utilization, quality and/or cost-efficiency, (Karlsson et al., Paragraph 9).
Regarding claim 3, the method of claim 1, wherein the data types of the prioritized data types are further assigned a priority value, and wherein the first buffer is operated as a priority queue in which data packets of a data type with higher priority rank are served prior to data packets of a data type of a lower priority rank, [Pruden et al., Figure 8].
Regarding claim 4, the method of claim 1, wherein at least two links are provided, wherein data packets from the first and second buffers are transmitted on different links, [The data streams may then be forwarded on one or several links to and from a dedicated external server, which may be referred to as an aggregation server or gateway. The different links thereby form a single virtual link between the router and the gateway, (Pruden et al., Paragraph 41)].
Regarding claim 5, the method of claim 1, wherein the determining if the data stream has a data type belonging to the set of prioritized data types comprises determining at least one of a destination, a size and a pattern of the data stream, and using this for identification of a data type, [The size or frequency of packets may also be used to determine a media type or data type, (Pruden et al., Paragraph 35)].
Regarding claim 6, the method of claim 1, wherein the set of prioritized data types does not include video data streams, [Figure 8, Ref # 805, 820].
Regarding claim 7, the method of claim 1, wherein the set of prioritized data types includes at least one of a voice-over-IP (VOIP) data stream, a transaction data stream, an authentication data stream and a VPN data stream, [Figure 8, Ref # 805, 820].
Regarding claim 8, the method of claim 1, wherein data packets are transmitted from the first and second output buffers with essentially the same output rate, [Figure 8, Output on same bitrate].
Regarding claim 9, the method of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth for each data stream being sent through the second buffer is restricted to a maximum bandwidth value, [a high definition video stream may have a bandwidth that is usually between 8 MB/s and 12 MB/s. If the system detects a content item being transmitted with a bandwidth in that range, it may determine that the content item is a high definition video stream, (Pruden et al., Paragraph 35)].
Regarding claim 10, the method of claim 1, wherein the stationary communication server is an aggregation server, arranged to aggregate data packets of a stream transmitted on different links, and wherein at least one of the first and second buffer is arranged to transmit data packets on at least two simultaneously useable links, [The data streams may then be forwarded on one or several links to and from a dedicated external server, which may be referred to as an aggregation server or gateway. The different links thereby form a single virtual link between the router and the gateway, (Karlsson et al., Paragraph 41)].
Regarding claim 11, the method of claim 1, wherein data streams of data types belonging to the set of prioritized data types have lower amounts of data, and requires lower bandwidth, compared to data streams of data types not belonging to the set of prioritized data types, [The device may also determine any other performance metric values as may be appropriate. For example, performance metrics may comprise bandwidth, latency, jitter, and/or other networking performance characteristics, (Pruden et al., Paragraph 49)].
Regarding claims 12 and 14, the method wherein the moving vehicle is a train and wherein the wireless communication system is a train wireless communication system, [a wireless communication between a mobile router in a moving vehicle, such as a train, and one or several external server(s) via at least two types of external wireless networks, a first external wireless network type comprising a plurality of trackside base stations, (Karlsson et al., Paragraph 12)].
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pruden et al. (US 2018/0048691 A1) in view of Karlsson et al. (US 2018/0027465 A1) and further in view of Gentle et al. (US 2008/0151921 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Pruden et al. teaches a system may receive a request to transmit a content item. The request may be a packet from a downstream requesting device 330
requesting that the system supply a content item from a storage location, (Pruden et al., Paragraph 32),
The modified Pruden et al. fails to explicitly teach that at least one of the first and second buffer functions as a queue, wherein data packets placed first in the queue will be transmitted first, in accordance with a first in, first out (FIFO) principle,
Gentle et al. teaches that in In most applications the receive buffer 336 is a First-In-First-Out or FIFO buffer that stores voice codewords before playout and removes timing jitter from the incoming packet sequence, (Gentle et al., Paragraph 44),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Pruden et al. by including that at least one of the first and second buffer functions as a queue, wherein data packets placed first in the queue will be transmitted first, in accordance with a first in, first out (FIFO) principle, (Gentle et al., Paragraph 44), in order to efficiently manage transmission bandwidth and/or receive buffer latency, (Gentle et al., Paragraph 6).
Conclusion
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/SHUKRI TAHA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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