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 .
This is a response to U.S. Patent Application No. 18/223,373 filed on 07/18/2023 in which Claims 1 – 20 were presented for Examination.
Status of the Claims
Claims 1 – 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/102(a)(2) and Claims 6 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103.
Examiner Note
The Examiner cites particular columns, line numbers and/or paragraph numbers in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the Applicant(s). Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the Applicant fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 01/26/2024 and 08/16/2024 have been entered and considered by the examiner.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
The use of the term “Verizon”, which is a trade name or mark used in commerce, has been noted in this application. The term should be accompanied by the generic terminology; furthermore the term should be capitalized wherever it appears or, where appropriate, include a proper symbol indicating use in commerce such as ™, SM , or ® following the term.
Although the use of trade names and marks used in commerce (i.e., trademarks, service marks, certification marks, and collective marks) are permissible in patent applications, the proprietary nature of the marks should be respected and every effort made to prevent their use in any manner which might adversely affect their validity as commercial marks.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claims 1 – 8, 10 – 15 and 17 – 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1, line 2 recites the term “process control field device” which lacks antecedent basis.
Claims 1 and 7 recite the term "and/or", which is selective language, the examiner suggests using either the "and" term or the "or" term, otherwise the claim should be worded in a more clearer fashion to claim both terms.
For the purpose of this examination the examiner is selecting the "or" term from this selective language.
Claims 2 – 8 recite “a process control device according to claim 1”, however, since each of the claims is referring to parent claim 1. Each of the claims should recite “The process control device according to claim 1” to avoid antecedent basis problems.
Claims 10 – 15 recite “an industrial process control or automation system according to…” However, each of the claims is referring to a previously recite industrial process control or automation system. Accordingly, each of the claims should recite “The industrial process control or automation system according to…” to avoid antecedent basis problems.
Claim 13 , further recites “…according to claim A+1 or claim A+2”, however, this appear to be a typographical error. Furthermore, this claim appear to be repeated (see claim 11). For purposes of examination, the examiner is interpreting the claim as dependent Claim of Claim 10.
Claims 17 – 20 recite “a method according to claim 16…”, however, since each of the claims is referring to parent claim 16. Each of the claims should recite “The method according to claim 16” to avoid antecedent basis problems.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 – 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Dong et al. (US 2014/0344269) (hereinafter, Dong) (cited in IDs dated 01/26/2024).
Regarding Claim 1, Dong teaches a process control device for use in an industrial process control or automation system of an industrial process plant (See Dong’s par 0051, 0054 and 0056), the process control field device comprising:
(i) a sensor configured to measure a parameter of a process in the industrial process plant and to output to a controller in the industrial process plant the parameter measured, and/or (ii) a control element configured to perform an action in the industrial process plant according to an input received from the controller in the industrial process plant (Dong in par 0019, teaches that network-enabled sensor devices enable capturing and communicating observation and measurement data collected from physical environments. A sensor may be defined as a device that detects or measures a physical property and records, indicates, or otherwise responds to it. For example, sensors may detect light, motion, temperature, magnetic fields, gravity, humidity, moisture, vibration, pressure, electrical fields, sound, and other aspects of an environment. Sensory data may include observations of an environment or measurement data, as well as time, location, and other descriptive attributes to help make the data meaningful. Dong in par 0052, further teaches that a machine-to-machine (M2M) service platform 22 provides services such as management and monitoring of M2M terminal devices 18 and M2M gateway devices 14. The M2M service platform 22 may also collect data and convert the data such that it is compatible with different types of M2M applications 20. Dong in par 0055, further teaches that the M2M device 30 may include a processor 32, a transceiver 34, a transmit/receive element 36, a speaker/microphone 38, a keypad 40, a display/touchpad 42, non-removable memory 44, removable memory 46, a power source 48, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 50, and other peripherals 52. Dong in par 0063, further teaches that the processor 32 may further be coupled to other peripherals 52, which may include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality and/or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the peripherals 52 may include an accelerometer, an e-compass, a satellite transceiver or a sensor. Dong in par 0056, further teaches that the processor 32 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the M2M device 30 to operate in a wireless environment), and
an embedded device identifier, unique to the process control field device and associated with one or more of: an owner of the process control field device, a plant location of the process control field device, a country or geographical or geopolitical region, and a device tag (Dong in par 0030, teaches that the device identifier used in DeviceID field 126 may be a barcode or RFID tag, MAC address, a Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN), or the like. Dong in 0031 and Fig. 4, further teaches that the embedded semantic name may also include a device identifier of the sensor, along with the type of the sensory data, the geohash tag of the location of the sensor, and the time that the sensory data was sensed. The sensor may provide the embedded semantic names to a gateway along with the associated sensory data or separate from the associated sensory data).
Regarding Claim 2, Dong teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 1. Dong further teaches:
wherein the embedded device identifier is associated with an owner of the process control field device (Dong in par 0030, teaches that the device identifier used in DeviceID field 126 may be a barcode or RFID tag, MAC address, a Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN), or the like).
Regarding Claim 3, Dong teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 1. Dong further teaches:
wherein the embedded device identifier is associated with a specific process plant (Dong in par 0030, teaches that the device identifier used in DeviceID field 126 may be a barcode or RFID tag, MAC address, a Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN), or the like). Dong in par 0034, further teaches that a step 144, gateway 142 builds an entry to store the stream of sensory data that will be received from sensor 141. As shown, in this example, the sensor information may include the device identifier of the sensor, location of the sensor, and type of sensing the sensor supports, among other things. The type label (e.g., 1 or 2 in Table 3) shows the type of the published data. The corresponding MD5 of the type is retrieved from the device information. At step 146, sensor 141 publishes sensory data to gateway 142, which may include the sensory data value (e.g. temperature), the time when the sensory data is sensed (e.g., noon), the location of the sensor (e.g., longitude and latitude), the device identifier of the sensor (e.g., MAC address), and the type label (e.g., 1).
Regarding Claim 4, Dong teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 1. Dong further teaches:
wherein the embedded device identifier is associated with a country, geographical region, or geopolitical region in which the process control device is authorized to operate (Dong in par 0031 and Fig. 5, teaches that a At step 135, a geohash tag of a location of the sensor that produced the sensory data is determined. At step 137, an embedded semantic name of the sensory data is constructed based on the type of the sensory data, the geohash tag of the location of the sensor, and the time that the sensory data was sensed. Dong in par 0040, further teaches that gateway 174 (or another computing device), as the collector of the sensory data from sensor 171, sensor 172, and sensor 173, may aggregate the sensory data and consolidate the semantic name for the aggregated data over different fields (e.g., location, device identifier, type, or the like) in the names. Gateway 172 may have a policy to average sensor readings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The average sensory readings for Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens may have a location identifier of "New York City" or a single representative geohash that has the first few common letters (e.g., "gpced") of several sensor geohashes)
Regarding Claim 5, Dong teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 1. Dong further teaches:
wherein the embedded device identifier is associated with a device configuration corresponding to the process control device (Dong in par 0034, further teaches that table 3 shows an example of some sensor information that may be received and stored in the sensor entry built by the gateway at step 144. As shown, in this example, the sensor information may include the device identifier of the sensor, location of the sensor, and type of sensing the sensor supports, among other things. At step 145, gateway 142 sends a message in response to the device registration to sensor 141, which includes the labels of the types, if there is more than one type supported by sensor 141).
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 6 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dong in view of Mansfield (US 2022/0128982) (hereinafter, Mansfield) (cited in IDS dated 01/26/2024).
Regarding Claim 6, Dong teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 1. Dong further teaches:
wherein the process control device is communicatively connected to the industrial process control or automation system (Dong in par 0050, further teaches that the communication network 12 may comprise other networks such as a core network, the Internet, a sensor network, an industrial control network, a personal area network, a fused personal network, a satellite network, a home network, or an enterprise network for example. Dong in par 0051 and Fig. 10A, further teaches that each of the M2M gateway devices 14 and M2M terminal devices 18 are configured to transmit and receive signals via the communication network 12 or direct radio link),
However, Dong does not specifically disclose and wherein the industrial process control or automation system comprises a compute fabric executing a plurality of microservices cooperating to control the industrial process control or automation system.
Mansfield teaches collecting real time manufacturing data from a factory having multiple machines therein using internet-of-things (IoT) connectivity, comprising: at least one gateway comprising at least one server, the at least one gateway receiving data from the multiple machines; at least one machine communications module (MCM) that applies to the received data at least factory, enterprise, and analytics applications, and which outputs command and control information from the applications to the at least one gateway to directly control operations of the multiple machines (See Mansfield’ s Abstract). Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches he Factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0057, further teaches that the gateway provides several service container microservices. The Web Administrator is a secure web portal that allows administrators to see gateway status, provision services and configure/edit service tables.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to utilize the teachings as in Mansfield with the teachings as in Dong to provide microservices in Dong as disclosed in Mansfield. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method to analyze manufacturing data in real time, thus having significant positive effect on manufacturing costs, quality and time to market (See Mansfield’s par 0004 and 0065).
Regarding Claim 7, Dong teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 1. Dong further teaches:
wherein the process control device is communicatively connected to the industrial process control or automation system (Dong in par 0050, further teaches that the communication network 12 may comprise other networks such as a core network, the Internet, a sensor network, an industrial control network, a personal area network, a fused personal network, a satellite network, a home network, or an enterprise network for example. Dong in par 0051 and Fig. 10A, further teaches that each of the M2M gateway devices 14 and M2M terminal devices 18 are configured to transmit and receive signals via the communication network 12 or direct radio link),
However, Dong does not specifically disclose and wherein the industrial process control or automation system comprises:
a compute fabric executing a first plurality of microservices cooperating to control the industrial process control or automation system; and
a second plurality of microservices cooperating to control one or more other industrial process control and/or automation systems.
Mansfield teaches collecting real time manufacturing data from a factory having multiple machines therein using internet-of-things (IoT) connectivity, comprising: at least one gateway comprising at least one server, the at least one gateway receiving data from the multiple machines; at least one machine communications module (MCM) that applies to the received data at least factory, enterprise, and analytics applications, and which outputs command and control information from the applications to the at least one gateway to directly control operations of the multiple machines (See Mansfield’ s Abstract). Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches he Factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0057, further teaches that the gateway provides several service container microservices. The Web Administrator is a secure web portal that allows administrators to see gateway status, provision services and configure/edit service tables.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to utilize the teachings as in Mansfield with the teachings as in Dong to provide microservices in Dong as disclosed in Mansfield. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method to analyze manufacturing data in real time, thus having significant positive effect on manufacturing costs, quality and time to market (See Mansfield’s par 0004 and 0065).
Regarding Claim 8, Dong teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 1.
However, Dong does not specifically disclose wherein the process control device is configured to, upon connection to a compute fabric, communicate the embedded device identifier to a microservice of the compute fabric.
Mansfield teaches collecting real time manufacturing data from a factory having multiple machines therein using internet-of-things (IoT) connectivity, comprising: at least one gateway comprising at least one server, the at least one gateway receiving data from the multiple machines; at least one machine communications module (MCM) that applies to the received data at least factory, enterprise, and analytics applications, and which outputs command and control information from the applications to the at least one gateway to directly control operations of the multiple machines (See Mansfield’ s Abstract). Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches he Factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0057, further teaches that the gateway provides several service container microservices. The Web Administrator is a secure web portal that allows administrators to see gateway status, provision services and configure/edit service tables.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to utilize the teachings as in Mansfield with the teachings as in Dong to provide microservices in Dong as disclosed in Mansfield. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method to analyze manufacturing data in real time, thus having significant positive effect on manufacturing costs, quality and time to market (See Mansfield’s par 0004 and 0065).
Regarding Claim 9. Dong teaches an industrial process control or automation system (See Dong’s par 0051, 0054 and 0056) comprising:
a plurality of process control elements, each comprising an embedded device identifier, unique to the process control element (Dong in par 0030, teaches that the device identifier used in DeviceID field 126 may be a barcode or RFID tag, MAC address, a Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN), or the like. Dong in 0031 and Fig. 4, further teaches that the embedded semantic name may also include a device identifier of the sensor, along with the type of the sensory data, the geohash tag of the location of the sensor, and the time that the sensory data was sensed. The sensor may provide the embedded semantic names to a gateway along with the associated sensory data or separate from the associated sensory data. Dong in par 0056, further teaches that the processor 32 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the M2M device 30 to operate in a wireless environment);
a discovery service [executing as a microservice on a compute fabric], the discovery service operable to discover each of the embedded device identifiers and to cross-reference each embedded device identifier with information about the respective process control element (Dong in par 0033, and Fig. 6, teaches that at step 143, a device registration request may be sent from sensor 141 to gateway 142. In the registration request, sensor 141 may inform the gateway 142 of its location, device identifier, and its supported type(s), for example. The location may be in the form of a geohash, a longitude and latitude, a civic location, a specific physical address, or the like. If the location information is not in the form of a geohash, gateway 142 may be responsible for converting the received location to the format of a geohash tag (or another desired location format). Sensor 141 may move from one location to another location, and may re-register with gateway 142 to indicate a location change. The type of sensing that the sensor 141 performs may also be included in the registration request at step 143, which may be stored in the MD5 format by gateway 142. Sensor 141 may support more than one type of sensing (e.g., temperature and humidity). Gateway 142 may assign a label to each type of sensing performed by sensor 141 (e.g., temperature has label of 1, while humidity has label of 2).
However, Dong does not specifically disclose that the discovery service is executing as a microservice on a compute fabric.
Mansfield teaches collecting real time manufacturing data from a factory having multiple machines therein using internet-of-things (IoT) connectivity, comprising: at least one gateway comprising at least one server, the at least one gateway receiving data from the multiple machines; at least one machine communications module (MCM) that applies to the received data at least factory, enterprise, and analytics applications, and which outputs command and control information from the applications to the at least one gateway to directly control operations of the multiple machines (See Mansfield’ s Abstract). Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches he Factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0057, further teaches that the gateway provides several service container microservices. The Web Administrator is a secure web portal that allows administrators to see gateway status, provision services and configure/edit service tables.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to utilize the teachings as in Mansfield with the teachings as in Dong to provide microservices in Dong as disclosed in Mansfield. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method to analyze manufacturing data in real time, thus having significant positive effect on manufacturing costs, quality and time to market (See Mansfield’s par 0004 and 0065).
Regarding Claim 10, Dong in view of Mansfield teaches he limitations contained in parent Claim 9. Mansfield further teaches:
further comprising an access control service executing as a microservice on the compute fabric and configured to enable or disable each of the plurality of process control elements, according to the information, received from discovery service, about the respective process control element (Mansfield teaches that a machine communications module (MCM) that applies to the received data at least factory, enterprise, and analytics applications, and which outputs command and control information from the applications to the at least one gateway to directly control operations of the multiple machines (See Mansfield’s Abstract). Mansfield in par 0050, further teaches that the Machine Connectivity Module (MCM) may provide the unique connectivity requirements of each machine and a common data message queuing interface. The MCM may be a 2-way module—i.e., it collects data from the machine as well as sends command and control information. The MCM may be unique to each machine vendor/model/version. Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches that factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0065, further teaches that the gateway may use modular microservice containers to virtualize all operations. IP virtualization enable significant flexibility for integrating new SMT machine operation without the need for re-compiling the system).
Regarding Claim 11, Dong in view of Mansfield teaches he limitations contained in parent Claim 10. Mansfield further teaches:
wherein the access control service enables or disables each process control element according to (i) the information, received from the discovery service, about the respective process control element and (ii) the process control or automation system in which the process element is operating (Mansfield teaches that a machine communications module (MCM) that applies to the received data at least factory, enterprise, and analytics applications, and which outputs command and control information from the applications to the at least one gateway to directly control operations of the multiple machines (See Mansfield’s Abstract). Mansfield in par 0050, further teaches that the Machine Connectivity Module (MCM) may provide the unique connectivity requirements of each machine and a common data message queuing interface. The MCM may be a 2-way module—i.e., it collects data from the machine as well as sends command and control information. The MCM may be unique to each machine vendor/model/version. Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches that factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0065, further teaches that the gateway may use modular microservice containers to virtualize all operations. IP virtualization enable significant flexibility for integrating new SMT machine operation without the need for re-compiling the system).
Regarding Claim 12, Dong in view of Mansfield teaches he limitations contained in parent Claim 11. Mansfield further teaches:
further comprising an access control service executing as a microservice on the compute fabric and configured to enable or disable an ability of each of the plurality of process control element to operate on the compute fabric, according to the information, received from discovery service, about the respective process control element (Mansfield teaches that a machine communications module (MCM) that applies to the received data at least factory, enterprise, and analytics applications, and which outputs command and control information from the applications to the at least one gateway to directly control operations of the multiple machines (See Mansfield’s Abstract). Mansfield in par 0050, further teaches that the Machine Connectivity Module (MCM) may provide the unique connectivity requirements of each machine and a common data message queuing interface. The MCM may be a 2-way module—i.e., it collects data from the machine as well as sends command and control information. The MCM may be unique to each machine vendor/model/version. Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches that factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0065, further teaches that the gateway may use modular microservice containers to virtualize all operations. IP virtualization enable significant flexibility for integrating new SMT machine operation without the need for re-compiling the system).
Regarding Claim 13, Dong in view of Mansfield teaches he limitations contained in parent Claim 10.
wherein the access control service enables or disables each process control element according to (i) the information, received from the discovery service, about the respective process control element and (ii) the process control or automation system in which the process element is operating (Mansfield teaches that a machine communications module (MCM) that applies to the received data at least factory, enterprise, and analytics applications, and which outputs command and control information from the applications to the at least one gateway to directly control operations of the multiple machines (See Mansfield’s Abstract). Mansfield in par 0050, further teaches that the Machine Connectivity Module (MCM) may provide the unique connectivity requirements of each machine and a common data message queuing interface. The MCM may be a 2-way module—i.e., it collects data from the machine as well as sends command and control information. The MCM may be unique to each machine vendor/model/version. Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches that factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0065, further teaches that the gateway may use modular microservice containers to virtualize all operations. IP virtualization enable significant flexibility for integrating new SMT machine operation without the need for re-compiling the system).
Regarding Claim 14, Dong in view of Mansfield teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 9. Dong further teaches:
wherein the plurality of process control elements comprises a plurality process control field devices (Dong in par 0039, and Fig. 8, teaches that location 175 contains a plurality of communicatively connected sensors that include sensor 171, sensor 172, and sensor 173. Sensor 172 and sensor 173 are intermediate nodes between sensor 171 and gateway 174. Gateway 174 is communicatively connected to area 175 and discovery server 178 via network 176. Dong in par 0056, further teaches that the processor 32 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the M2M device 30 to operate in a wireless environment).
Regarding Claim 15, Dong in view of Mansfield teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 9. Mansfield further teaches:
wherein the plurality of process control elements comprises a plurality process control microservices executing on the compute fabric (Mansfield teaches collecting real time manufacturing data from a factory having multiple machines therein using internet-of-things (IoT) connectivity, comprising: at least one gateway comprising at least one server, the at least one gateway receiving data from the multiple machines; at least one machine communications module (MCM) that applies to the received data at least factory, enterprise, and analytics applications, and which outputs command and control information from the applications to the at least one gateway to directly control operations of the multiple machines (See Mansfield’ s Abstract). Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches he Factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0057, further teaches that the gateway provides several service container microservices. The Web Administrator is a secure web portal that allows administrators to see gateway status, provision services and configure/edit service tables).
Regarding Claim 16, Dong teaches a method in an industrial process control or automation system (See Dong’s par 0051, 0054 and 0056), the method comprising:
receiving, [at a first microservice executing in a compute fabric], from a process control element in the industrial process control or automation system, data indicative of a unique embedded device identifier corresponding to the process control element (Dong in par 0030, teaches that the device identifier used in DeviceID field 126 may be a barcode or RFID tag, MAC address, a Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN), or the like. Dong in 0031 and Fig. 4, further teaches that the embedded semantic name may also include a device identifier of the sensor, along with the type of the sensory data, the geohash tag of the location of the sensor, and the time that the sensory data was sensed. The sensor may provide the embedded semantic names to a gateway along with the associated sensory data or separate from the associated sensory data). Dong in par 0039, and Fig. 8, teaches that location 175 contains a plurality of communicatively connected sensors that include sensor 171, sensor 172, and sensor 173. Sensor 172 and sensor 173 are intermediate nodes between sensor 171 and gateway 174. Gateway 174 is communicatively connected to area 175 and discovery server 178 via network 176. Dong in par 0052, further teaches that a machine-to-machine (M2M) service platform 22 provides services such as management and monitoring of M2M terminal devices 18 and M2M gateway devices 14. The M2M service platform 22 may also collect data and convert the data such that it is compatible with different types of M2M applications 20. Dong in par 0056, further teaches that the processor 32 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the M2M device 30 to operate in a wireless environment);
looking up in a data structure, [by the first microservice], the unique embedded device identifier to determine information about the process control element (Dong in par 0047, further teaches at step 218, discovery server 205 matches the discovery ID received in step 216 to the sensory data by comparing the fields in the discovery ID with the fields of the embedded semantic names of the stored sensory data. Discovery server 205 looks at the specific fields (bytes) in the sensory data semantic name fields. The discovery server 205 may not need additional semantics information of the sensory data if a query matches the existing fields. The overhead (e.g., processing needed) of discovery server 205 in finding matching sensory data may be significantly less because of the embedded semantic naming. At step 220, an HTTP GET response message is sent to requesting client device 207. The payload of the HTTP GET response message has the matching sensory data names, which correspond to the request at step 216);
However, Dong does not specifically disclose that the gateway is associated with microservices. Accordingly, Dong does not specifically disclose receiving, at a first microservice executing in a compute fabric…; and determining, by the first microservice, from the information about the process control element, whether the process control element is authorized to operate in the process control or automation system.
Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches he Factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0057, further teaches that the gateway provides several service container microservices. The Web Administrator is a secure web portal that allows administrators to see gateway status, provision services and configure/edit service tables.
Mansfield in par 0055, further teaches that the Secure Communications Portal (SCP) handles all secure access to the enterprise LAN. Data being sent to an application is embedded within an HTTPS header. A security token is added to the header and the data is encrypted and sent to the application. The security token provides authentication and authorization credentials to the application. The application checks the token credentials and if valid will process the request. If the credentials are invalid the application will end the session with an HTTP 401 error code. The application can also pass command and control information to a machine through the SCP. The SCP decrypts the data and extracts the security token. The SCP validates the credentials and if valid the command is allowed. If the credentials are invalid the session is ended with a HTTP 401 error. Mansfield in par 0061, further teaches that the SCP side of the gateway is highly secure. All interfaces may utilize encryption, authentication and authorization for all outbound and inbound connections. The SCP and Web Administration portals may use HTTPS for encryption. For authentication and authorization, encrypted temporal tokens created may be used.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to utilize the teachings as in Mansfield with the teachings as in Dong to provide microservices in Dong as disclosed in Mansfield. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method to analyze manufacturing data in real time, thus having significant positive effect on manufacturing costs, quality and time to market (See Mansfield’s par 0004 and 0065).
Regarding Claim 17, Dong in view of Mansfield teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 16. Dong further teaches:
wherein the process control element is a process control field device (Dong in par 0030, teaches that the device identifier used in DeviceID field 126 may be a barcode or RFID tag, MAC address, a Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN), or the like. Dong in 0031 and Fig. 4, further teaches that the embedded semantic name may also include a device identifier of the sensor, along with the type of the sensory data, the geohash tag of the location of the sensor, and the time that the sensory data was sensed. The sensor may provide the embedded semantic names to a gateway along with the associated sensory data or separate from the associated sensory data. Dong in par 0056, further teaches that the processor 32 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the M2M device 30 to operate in a wireless environment).
Regarding Claim 18, Dong in view of Mansfield teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 16. Mansfield further teaches:
wherein the process control element is a second microservice executing in the compute fabric (Mansfield in par 0053, further teaches he Factory Container Applications (FCA) are microservices that are responsible for directly interfacing with the various factory, enterprise or cloud applications. FCA's subscribe to one or more MQS topics and forward data to the Secure Communications Portal (SCP). The SCP forwards the messages to their respective application(s). Factory, enterprise or cloud applications can also send command and control data directly to machines through FCA's. Mansfield in par 0057, further teaches that the gateway provides several service container microservices. The Web Administrator is a secure web portal that allows administrators to see gateway status, provision services and configure/edit service tables).
Regarding Claim 19, Dong in view of Mansfield teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 16. Dong further teaches:
wherein the information about the process control element comprises one or more of: an owner of the process control element, a specified process plant associated with the process control element, a country or geographical or geopolitical region in which the process control element is authorized to operate, and a device tag (Dong in par 0030, teaches that the device identifier used in DeviceID field 126 may be a barcode or RFID tag, MAC address, a Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number (MSISDN), or the like. Dong in 0031 and Fig. 4, further teaches that the embedded semantic name may also include a device identifier of the sensor, along with the type of the sensory data, the geohash tag of the location of the sensor, and the time that the sensory data was sensed. The sensor may provide the embedded semantic names to a gateway along with the associated sensory data or separate from the associated sensory data. Dong in par 0040, further teaches that gateway 174 (or another computing device), as the collector of the sensory data from sensor 171, sensor 172, and sensor 173, may aggregate the sensory data and consolidate the semantic name for the aggregated data over different fields (e.g., location, device identifier, type, or the like) in the names).
Regarding Claim 20 Dong in view of Mansfield teaches the limitations contained in parent Claim 16. Mansfield further teaches:
wherein determining, from the information about the process control element, whether the process control element is authorized to operate in the process control or automation system comprises comparing the information about the process control element to information about the industrial process control or automation system, the information about the industrial process control or automation system comprising one or more of: an owner of the industrial process control or automation system, a location of the process control or automation system, and a plant identifier identifying the process control or automation system (Mansfield in par 0055, teaches that a security token is added to the header and the data is encrypted and sent to the application. The security token provides authentication and authorization credentials to the application. The application checks the token credentials and if valid will process the request. If the credentials are invalid the application will end the session with an HTTP 401 error code. The application can also pass command and control information to a machine through the SCP. The SCP decrypts the data and extracts the security token. The SCP validates the credentials and if valid the command is allowed. If the credentials are invalid the session is ended with a HTTP 401 error. Mansfield in par 0087, further teaches that the tokens are an encrypted data structures that include the applications authentication and authorization credentials, Time Alive, and a Nonce. The authentication credentials contain the resource id. The authorization credentials describe what resources the application can access. The IoT factory gateway server receives the token, decrypts it, validates the token security components, and if correct allows access to the IoT Factory Gateway services, machine data, and machine control).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/ARIEL MERCADO-VARGAS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2118