Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 2/11/2026 has been entered.
Claims 1, 6, 8, 13, 15, and 20 have been amended. Claims 1-21 are subject to examination.
Acknowledgement is made to the Applicant’s amendment to claims 6, 13, and 20 to obviate the previous 112(b) rejection to claims 6, 13, and 20. The previous 112(b) rejection to claims 6, 13, and 20 is hereby withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the independent claims 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 Objections
Claims 1, 8, and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding Claims 1 and 8, the claims each recite the limitation “wherein the MAC layer performs for downstream messages ...” However, for the sake of clarity it is recommended that this be amended to read: “wherein the MAC layer performs: [new line] for downstream messages ...”
Regarding Claim 15, the claim recites the limitation “perform operations comprising for downstream messages ...” However, for the sake of clarity it is recommended that this be amended to read: “perform operations comprising: [new line] for downstream messages ...”
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-4, 7-11, 14-18, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thubert et al. (US 2020/0120070 A1, hereinafter “Thubert”) in view of Zhang et al. (US 2020/0374208 A1, hereinafter “Zhang”).
Regarding Claim 1, Thubert teaches a method of performing collision avoidance in a time slotted, channel hopping (TSCH) communications network (Thubert: TSCH is widely used in industrial wireless sensor networks ... to reduce idle listening and collisions in packet transmission, see paragraph [0059]) comprising:
controlling message addressing and channel access utilizing a media access control (MAC) layer, wherein the MAC layer performs for downstream messages, allocating specific timeslots for downstream messages being communicated downstream from a border router to a destination node (Thubert: the MAC preprocessor 107 splits the time into time slots ... the scheduling information includes time slot information corresponding to a time slot counter called an absolute slot number (ASN), see paragraphs [0060]-[0062]; the time slots are assigned to a particular RAT, see paragraph [0029]; the MAC preprocessor 605 transmits the packet downstream to the first device 607 operating according to the first RAT ... In some embodiments, the transmission packet is transmitted via unicast ... the transmission packet is tied to a particular time slot, see paragraphs [0076]-[0077]).
While Thubert teaches assigning a transmission channel for downstream messages as a function of both a TSCH absolute slot number and a destination node identification (Thubert: In some embodiments, the scheduling function also uses the ASN and/or a receiver MAC address to compute a channel frequency, see paragraph [0064]), it does not explicitly teach:
assigning a transmission channel for downstream messages pseudorandomly;
for broadcast messages, allocating specific timeslots to broadcast messages and assigning a transmission channel for broadcast messages; and
transmitting each message using the allocated timeslot and assigned channel.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Zhang teaches assigning a transmission channel pseudorandomly (Zhang: A network device executing time slotted channel hopping can be configured for transmitting radio signals at an allocated fixed-length timeslot and a corresponding allocated frequency channel according to a prescribed “schedule” that allocates a frequency channel according to a prescribed pseudo-random sequence, see paragraph [0004]);
for broadcast messages, allocating specific timeslots to broadcast messages and assigning a transmission channel for broadcast messages (Zhang: a second subset of the fixed-length timeslots are allocated for broadcast/multicast transmission of broadcast/unicast data packets to multiple neighboring network devices at a selected broadcast frequency channel, see paragraph [0004]); and
transmitting each message using the allocated timeslot and assigned channel (Zhang: A field area network can deploy within the time slotted channel hopping schedule a combination of a unicast schedule and a broadcast schedule, where a first subset of the fixed-length timeslots are allocated for unicast transmissions of unicast data packets by selected network devices (at respective allocated frequency channels), and a second subset of the fixed-length timeslots are allocated for broadcast/multicast transmission of broadcast/unicast data packets to multiple neighboring network devices at a selected broadcast frequency channel, see paragraph [0004]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Thubert to include the features as taught by Zhang above in order to avoid interference from neighboring devices (Zhang: see paragraph [0004]).
Regarding Claim 2, Thubert-Zhang teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a downstream message type to enable allocating timeslots to downstream messages (Thubert: In some embodiments, a transmission packet includes ... scheduling information for downstream transmission packets related to a particular protocol, see paragraph [0077]).
Regarding Claim 3, Thubert-Zhang teaches the method of claim 1.
Zhang further teaches identifying a broadcast message type to enable allocating specific timeslots to broadcast messages (Zhang: a second subset of the fixed-length timeslots are allocated for broadcast/multicast transmission of broadcast/unicast data packets, see paragraph [0004]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Zhang is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 1.
Regarding Claim 4, Thubert-Zhang teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising providing a specific channel offset to configure a timeslot to select a transmission channel (Thubert: the scheduling information also includes transmission information such as a channeloffset for the packet, which is used by a scheduling function to compute a channel frequency, see paragraph [0064]).
Zhang further teaches a channel offset to configure a timeslot to select a transmission channel on a pseudo-random basis (Zhang: A network device executing time slotted channel hopping can be configured for transmitting radio signals ... according to a prescribed “schedule” that allocates a frequency channel according to a prescribed pseudo-random sequence, see paragraph [0004]; The TSCH schedule 42 can encompass a prescribed number of frequency channel offsets over timeslots, see paragraph [0041]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Zhang is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 1.
Regarding Claim 7, Thubert-Zhang teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the message destination identification is the MAC ID of the destination node (Thubert: the scheduling function also uses the ASN and/or a receiver MAC address to compute a channel frequency, see paragraph [0064]).
Regarding Claim 8, Thubert teaches apparatus for performing collision avoidance in a time slotted, channel hopping (TSCH) communications network comprising at least one processor and at least one non-transient computer readable medium for storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the apparatus to perform operations (Thubert: a device includes one or more processors, a non-transitory memory, and one or more programs; the one or more programs are stored in the non-transitory memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors and the one or more programs include instructions for performing or causing performance of any of the methods described herein, see paragraph [0019]).
Regarding all other limitations of claim 8, the limitations are substantially the same as the limitations of claim 1, and are therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding Claims 9-11 and 14, the limitations of claims 9-11 and 14 are substantially the same as the limitations of claims 2-4 and 7, and claims 9-11 and 14 are therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding Claim 15, Thubert teaches a non-transient computer readable medium for storing instructions for performing collision avoidance in a time slotted, channel hopping (TSCH) communications network, wherein at least one processor, when executing the instructions, creates a media access control layer to perform operations (Thubert: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium has stored thereon instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the device to perform or cause performance of any of the methods described herein, see paragraph [0019]).
Regarding all other limitations of claim 15, the limitations are substantially the same as the limitations of claim 1, and are therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding Claims 16-18 and 21, the limitations of claims 16-18 and 21 are substantially the same as the limitations of claims 2-4 and 7, and claims 16-18 and 21 are therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Claims 5, 12, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thubert-Zhang in view of Hanley et al. (US 2020/0374208 A1, hereinafter “Hanley”) and Song (US 2015/0334209 A1).
Regarding Claim 5, Thubert-Zhang teaches the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly teach segregating messages into specific message type queues, wherein the message type queues comprise a broadcast message type queue, a downstream message type queue, and a normal message type queue.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Hanley teaches segregating messages into specific message type queues, wherein the message type queues comprise a broadcast message type queue and a normal message type queue (Hanley: parent devices may have unicast message queues building for individual LE devices while the LE devices are in sleep states ... the broadcast messages are stored in a broadcast message queue, see paragraphs [0021]-[0022]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Thubert-Zhang to include the features as taught by Hanley above in order to reduce the need for repeated transmissions (Hanley: see paragraph [0006]).
Thubert-Zhang-Hanley does not explicitly teach a downstream message type queue.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Song teaches a downstream message type queue (Song: the method may further include ... enqueuing a packet of a downstream direction in a downstream queue, see paragraph [0018]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Thubert-Zhang-Hanley to include the features as taught by Song above in order to minimize the need for re-transmission (Song: see paragraph [0013]).
Regarding Claims 12 and 19, the limitations of claims 12 and 19 are substantially the same as the limitations of claim 5, and claims 12 and 19 are therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Claims 6, 13, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thubert-Zhang in view of Vijayasankar et al. (US 2018/0376437 A1, hereinafter “Vijayasankar”) and Chung et al. (US 11,039,342 B1, hereinafter “Chung”) and.
Regarding Claim 6, Thubert-Zhang teaches the method of claim 1.
While Thubert teaches assigning the transmission channel for downstream messages using both the ASN and the MAC address of the destination node (Thubert: the scheduling function also uses the ASN and/or a receiver MAC address to compute a channel frequency, see paragraph [0064]), it does not explicitly teach, assigning the transmission channel using the equation:
channel = F [H (dMACid concat ASN) mod NbChannels]
where dMACid denotes the MAC ID of the destination node, ASN is a sequential count of timeslots, NbChannels is a number of physical channels, mod is a modulo operator, H() is a hash function used to generate a pseudo randomly distributed output value and F[] is a bijective function mapping an integer comprised between 0 and NbChannels into a physical channel.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Vijayasankar teaches assigning the transmission channel using a hash function that takes the MAC address of the destination node as input to generate a pseudo randomly distributed output value (Vijayasankar: The channel hopping sequence is based on a direct hash channel function (DH1CF) ... which generates a pseudo-random sequence of channels based on the extended address of the node, see paragraph [0006]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Thubert-Zhang to include the features as taught by Vijayasankar above in order to generate a channel sequence unique to each node (Vijayasankar: see paragraph [0006]).
Additionally, Chung teaches assigning the transmission channel using a bijective function that depends on modulo operation with the ASN and number of channels (Chung: A corresponding channel is selected using a function F[ ] that refers to a channel lookup table by performing a modulo operation on the number of available channels. ch=F[(ASN+channeOffset) % numChannel], see col. 1 lines 51-55, eq. 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Thubert-Zhang-Vijayasankar to include the features as taught by Chung above in order to implement stable slot reservation (Chung: see col. 1 lines 28-29).
Regarding Claims 13 and 20, the limitations of claims 13 and 20 are substantially the same as the limitations of claim 6, and claims 13 and 20 are therefore rejected for the same reasons.
Conclusion
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/P.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/SHARMIN CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416
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