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 .
Status of Claims
This action is in response to application filed on 7/11/2024.
Claims 1-20 have been examined and are pending with this action.
Priority
Examiner acknowledges that the Applicant claims a priority benefit of PCT/CN2024/100227 filed on 6/19/2024.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 7/11/2024 and these drawings are accepted.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/28/2024, 1/17/2025, 10/30/2025 & 7/7/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 of this title, 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 should not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 6, 8-11 & 14-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (CN 113014347 A) in view of Michael (US 20180076949 A1).
INDEPENDENT:
As per claim 1, Chen a method (Chen: “a server time synchronization method.”), comprising: in a group of servers (Chen: “the first server 102 and the second server 104 may be implemented using an independent server or a server cluster consisting of a plurality of servers.”), : the servers attempting to perform timing synchronization based on a first group of timing signals sent via a first path (Chen: “when the server needs to perform time synchronization, it needs to firstly obtain the target time deviation between the main server and the slave server, in the process of obtaining the time deviation firstly needs to obtain one parameter of the calculated target time deviation.”),
Chen does not explicitly disclose disruption of communication.
Michael however discloses wherein the first comprises a first connection and based on disruption of communications by the first connection between servers in the group of servers (Michael: “communication systems become faster, by transmitting larger amounts of data per unit time interval, propagation delays between transmitting and receiving transceivers become more relevant. For example, an optical fiber of 2 m in length can introduce more than 10 nanoseconds (nsec) of propagation delay.”), , the servers attempting to perform timing synchronization based on a second group of timing signals sent via a second path, wherein the second path does not traverse the first connection (Michael: [Fig 6A with multiple signal paths ] & “such systems need to determine the propagation delay (time taken for messages to propagate between devices) and component delays. A Component delay includes the time taken for messages to traverse within devices, and also includes processing delays of devices.”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Chen in view of Michael to figure out disruption of communication. One would be motivated to do so to for determining the propagation delay for a signal to traverse an optical fiber between two transceiver (Michael).
Claims 8 and 14 are rejected based on rationale provided for claim 1.
As per claim 6 Chen/Michael discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the servers attempting to perform timing synchronization based on a first group of timing signals sent via a first path comprises a server of the servers generating a timing signal of the first group of timing signals and adjusting a clock signal based on the generated timing signal and a second timing signal of the first group of timing signals (Chen: “he step of adjusting the time of the slave server based on the filtered first time deviation set comprises: selecting the maximum target time deviation from the first time deviation set after filtering, as the second adjusting time deviation; and adjusting the time of the slave server based on the second adjustment time offset.”).
Claims 8-11 & 13-17 are rejected based on rationale provided above.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (CN 113014347 A) in view of Michael (US 20180076949 A1) and in further view of Akhtar (US 20230345393 A1).
As per claim 2 Chen/Michael discloses the discloses the method of claim 1 (Chen: “the first server 102 and the second server 104 may be implemented using an independent server or a server cluster consisting of a plurality of servers.”), comprising:
Chen does not explicitly disclose the offloading.
Akhtar however discloses a central processing unit (CPU) offloading generation of a timing signal of the first group of timing signals to a microcontroller (Akhtar: “coordinating the off-load and/or handoff of calls from one network to the other network and the generation and sharing of synchronization information between wireless base stations of different networks & connection manager to coordinate offloading of traffic between the second service provider's network and the first service provider's network”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Chen in view of Akhtar to figure out offloading of data. One would be motivated to do so to Dual SIM Dual subscription (DSDS) capability/functionality can be used to provide synch (Akhtar).
Claims 5, 7, 12, 18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (CN 113014347 A) in view of Michael (US 20180076949 A1) and in further view of MYOUNG (KR 20220063585 A).
As per claim 5 Chen/Michael discloses the method of claim 1 (Chen: “the first server 102 and the second server 104 may be implemented using an independent server or a server cluster consisting of a plurality of servers.”)
Chen does not explicitly disclose the signals comprises a first group of pulses.
MYOUNG however discloses wherein the first group of timing signals comprises a first group of pulses generated based on processor-executed instructions and a network timing source and the second group of timing signals comprises a second group of pulses generated based on processor-executed instructions and a network timing source (MYOUNG: “The first reference time signal Cs1 and the second reference time signal Cs2 include a PPS signal and a frequency signal. The optical transmission device 310 provided in the plurality of regional headquarters 11 receives the power reference time S1 and performs time synchronization with the time server 400 provided in the plurality of regional headquarters 11,”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Chen in view of Akhtar to figure out pulses relevant to signal. One would be motivated to do so to to enhance a power grid time synchronization system (MYOUNG).
As per claim 7 Chen/Michael discloses the method of claim 1, (Chen: “the first server 102 and the second server 104 may be implemented using an independent server or a server cluster consisting of a plurality of servers.”)
Chen does not explicitly disclose the PPS signal.
MYOUNG however discloses wherein: the first group of timing signals comprises at least one pulse per second (PPS) signal and the second group of timing signals comprises at least one PPS signal (MYOUNG: “the power reference time S1 generated by the power reference time generator 100 may be in the form of an analog signal having a frequency of 1 PPS (Pulse Per Second) or 10 Mhz.,”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Chen in view of Akhtar to figure out pulses relevant to signal. One would be motivated to do so to to enhance a power grid time synchronization system (MYOUNG).
As per claim 20 Chen/Michael discloses the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 (Chen: “the first server 102 and the second server 104 may be implemented using an independent server or a server cluster consisting of a plurality of servers.”)
Chen does not explicitly disclose the switch
MYOUNG however discloses wherein the network interface device comprises one or more of: a network interface controller (NIC), a remote direct memory access (RDMA)-enabled NIC, SmartNIC, router, switch, forwarding element, infrastructure processing unit (IPU), or data processing unit (DPU) (MYOUNG: “The first reference time signal Cs1 and the second reference time signal Cs2 include a PPS signal and a frequency signal. The first switch & pulse distribution amplifier 159a receives the PPS signal included in the first reference time signal Cs1 ”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Chen in view of Akhtar to figure out pulses relevant to signal. One would be motivated to do so to to enhance a power grid time synchronization system (MYOUNG).
Claims 12 and 18 are rejected based on rationale provided for claims 5 and 7.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3-4 and 19 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes:
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/SIBTE H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2449
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