DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This action is in response to the communication filed on 12/04/2025. Claims 1, 3-5, 7-12 and 15 are pending in this application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 10/06/2025 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 12/04/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues:
a.
Applicant states that “Although there is a description that the total communication traffic exceeds the threshold (Mizuno), there is no description of notifying a service server related to a corresponding service provider of communication traffic excess together with the total communication traffic or requesting a selected in-vehicle device to restrict communication as recited in amended independent Claims 1, 5 and 12 of Applicant's claimed disclosure (Reply, p. 19).”
a.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Mizuno teaches calculating the accumulated traffic between communication terminal apparatuses and a center apparatus and saving the calculated communication traffic information corresponding to preset communication traffic thresholds into a database in the center apparatus, therefore notifying the center apparatus (¶ 0084). Therefore, Mizuno teaches the step of “notifying” as recited in the claims 1, 5 and 12.
Response to Amendment
The claim interpretation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) is now withdrawn in view of the amendments.
The claim rejections to claims 1-4 under 35 U.S.C. 101 are now withdrawn in view of the amendments.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to independent claims 1, 5 and 12 have been considered but are moot based on the new grounds of rejection necessitated by Applicant’s amendments. Specifically, the arguments present that Oishi fails to provide for the amended steps of dividing application programs into a plurality of groups provided by a different service provider (Reply, pp. 15-17), where the rejection below now relies on Oishi and Raleigh to teach this subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 3-5, 7-12 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “communication traffic excess” in line 27. The limitation “communication traffic excess” is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “communication traffic excess” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. For examination purpose, “communication traffic excess” will read as “excess communication traffic exceeding a predetermined value”. Correspondingly, the limitation “the communication traffic excess” recited in line 8 of claim 3 will read as “the excess communication traffic.”
Claim 5 recites the limitation “communication traffic excess” in line 43. The limitation “communication traffic excess” is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “communication traffic excess” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. For examination purpose, “communication traffic excess” will read as “excess communication traffic exceeding a predetermined value”. Correspondingly, the limitation “the communication traffic excess” recited in line 8 of claim 7 will read as “the excess communication traffic.”
Claim 12 recites the limitation “communication traffic excess” in line 19. The limitation “communication traffic excess” is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “communication traffic excess” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. For examination purpose, “communication traffic excess” will read as “excess communication traffic exceeding a predetermined value”.
Claim 15 recites the limitation “a request” in line 1. It is unclear to the examiner if the limitation refers to the step of “request” cited in claim 1. For examination purpose, “a request” will read as “the request.”
The dependent claims of the above rejected claims are rejected due to their dependencies.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 1, 3-5, 7-9, 11-12 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayers (US 20200329460 A1, published 10/15/2020; hereinafter Ayers), in view of Heilpern et al. (US 20180054493 A1, published 02/22/2018; hereinafter Heilpern), in view of Oishi et al. (US 20220295136 A1, priority dated 03/12/2021; hereinafter Oishi), in view of Raleigh et al. (US 20220360461 A1, priority dated 08/13/2020; hereinafter Raleigh), and in further view of Mizuno (US 20230052248 A 1, priority dated 04/03/2020; hereinafter Mizuno).
For Claim 1, Ayers teaches a management server (Ayers exemplifies a remote computing system in FIG. 1; ¶ 0019 “… For each application of the applications, the onboard computing device(s) can determine, from amongst multiple different and distinct interface identifiers (e.g., addresses, ports, links, and/or the like), an identifier associated with the application and can communicate, based at least in part on such identifier, data associated with the application and destined for a remotely located computing system (e.g., a server, vehicle-management platform, and/or the like) towards the remotely located computing system …”; ¶ 0039 “… Referring to FIG. 1, environment 100 can include autonomous vehicle 10, one or more networks 106, and one or more remotely located computing systems 108 …”) comprising:
at least one of (i) a circuit and (ii) a processor with a memory storing computer program code executable by the processor, the at least one of the circuit and the processor configured to cause the management server (Ayers, FIG. 2; ¶ 0056 “… computing system 70 can include one or more processor(s) 210, one or more communication interfaces 212, and memory 214 (e.g., one or more hardware components for storing executable instructions, data, and/or the like) …”) to:
wirelessly communicate with a plurality of in-vehicle devices that are respectively mounted on a plurality of different vehicles (Ayers exemplifies the remote computing system communicating with a plurality of computing devices onboarding a plurality of vehicles in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and ¶ 0040, ¶ 0041, ¶ 0042, ¶ 0051), wherein each of the plurality of in-vehicle devices is configured to execute a plurality of application programs (Ayers, ¶ 0041), and each of the plurality of application programs has application identification data for identifying each of the plurality of application programs (Ayers teaches the identifiers associated with the applications, FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3; ¶ 0040 “… Autonomous vehicle 10 can include one or more sensors 124, computing system 102, and one or more vehicle controls 126 …”; ¶ 0041 “… Computing system 102 can include one or more computing devices 104. Computing device(s) 104 can include circuitry configured to perform one or more operations, functions, and/or the like described herein …”; ¶ 0042 “… Computing system 102 can be physically located onboard autonomous vehicle 10, and computing system(s) 108 can be distinct and/or remotely located from autonomous vehicle 10. Network(s) 106 (e.g., wired networks, wireless networks, and/or the like) can interface autonomous vehicle 10 (e.g., computing system 102, computing device (s) 104, and/or the like) with computing system(s) 108 …”; ¶ 0051 “… Referring to FIG. 2, as previously indicated, environment 100 can include autonomous vehicle 10, network(s) 106, and computing system(s) 108. Environment 100 can also include autonomous vehicle(s) 20 and/or 30, and/or computing device(s) 40, 50, and/or 60 …”; ¶ 0056 “… computing system 70 can include one or more processor(s) 210, one or more communication interfaces 212, and memory 214 (e.g., one or more hardware components for storing executable instructions, data, and/or the like). Communication interface(s) 212 can enable computing system 70 to communicate with autonomous vehicle 10 (e.g., computing system 102, computing device(s) 104, and/or the like), autonomous vehicle(s) 20 and/or 30, computing device(s) 40, 50, and/or 60, computing system(s) 80 and/or 90, and/or the like …”; ¶ 0062 “… At (304), for each application of the applications, computing system 102 can determine, from amongst multiple different and distinct interface identifiers (e.g., addresses, ports, links, and/or the like), an identifier associated with the application and can communicate (e.g., via the communication at (302), and/or the like), based at least in part on such identifier, data associated with the application and destined for computing system 80 towards computing system 80 …”);
acquire a communication traffic according to execution of each of the plurality of application programs from each of the plurality of in-vehicle devices (Heilpern, FIGS 1-4; ¶ 0023 “… The application detector 124 receives network consumption data for processes executing on the mobile device 104, and identifies applications for the processes by analyzing the network consumption data … the application detector 124 provides reports, usage data, or aggregated network consumption data to the AM server 120 which provides this information to a mobile device 104. The data repository 122 stores data associated with application monitoring including network consumption data received from the mobile device 104, and usage data generated from aggregating the network consumption data for applications over time. In some embodiments, the application detector 124 is integrated with the AM server 120 …”; ¶ 0024 “… the mobile device 104 executes applications that communicate with application systems 108 via the network 106, and communicates with the AM system 102 to report network consumption data via the network 106 …”; ¶ 0025 “… Although a single mobile device 104 is shown in FIG. 1, the environment may include any number of mobile devices 104a-n (n being nth device), i.e., one or more mobile devices (generally 104) …”; ¶ 0043 “… The application detector 124 determines 410 application strings associated with the applications. The application may be associated with application strings that can be used to identify particular applications. The application strings may include an application name string for each application, a package name string for the packages of each application, and a category string for each application. In some embodiments, the application strings may further include key word strings that application providers associate with the application, such as in the application's description in an application store …”);
total the communication traffic for each application identification data; and calculate an application communication traffic (Heilpern, FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3; ¶ 0023 “… The application detector 124 generates usage data for applications executing on the mobile device 104 by aggregating network consumption data associated with applications over time …”; ¶ 0038 “… The application detector 124 associates 310 an application with a process by analyzing the network consumption data … The application detector 124 determines 315 usage data for the application based on aggregating the network consumption data associated with the application over time …”), …
Ayers and Heilpern are analogous art because they are both related to managing applications running on network devices.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use calculating the application usage from the network traffic techniques of Heilpern with the system of Ayers to determine the amount of data being generated by various application and system activities on network devices (Heilpern ¶ 0019).
Ayers-Heilpern does not explicitly teach, but Oishi teaches wherein the at least one of the circuit and the processor (Oishi exemplifies a management server 3 and a carrier system 6 communicating with service providers 8 in FIG. 1) is further configured to wirelessly communicate with a service server related to each of a plurality of service providers (Oishi, FIG. 1, FIG. 2; ¶ 0035 “… As shown in FIG. 1, a communication management system 1 includes: on-vehicle communication devices 2 mounted on respective vehicles 5; and a management server 3 away from the vehicles 5 and configured to manage the on-vehicle communication devices 2. The communication management system 1 provides various services with different contents from different providers via the on-vehicle communication devices 2 to the vehicles 5, and manages the communications between the vehicles 5 and service providers 8 that provide occupant services …”),
the plurality of application programs are divided into a plurality of groups, each of the plurality of groups is provided by a … service provider among the plurality of service providers (Oishi teaches that the management server manages various services/applications provided by different service providers and each service application provided by a service provider is assigned a dedicated port for data communications; FIGS. 1-4; ¶ 0072 “… FIG. 3A shows the operation of port registration in which the management server 3 receives requests for port registration from the service providers 8. Here, the following will be described as an example of port registration by the service providers 8. A service provider 8A registers a dedicated port Ps1 for a voice search service, and a dedicated port Ps2 for a streaming service. A service provider 8B registers a dedicated port Ps3 for an Internet radio, and a dedicated port Ps4 for providing surrounding information …”; ¶ 0078 “… The identification flag information 361 is associated with service identification information and assignment information. For example, the service identification information includes: a company name and/or a brand name identifying one of the service providers 8, and/or a service name identifying the service itself provided by the service provider 8. The assignment information indicates a transmission source port (i.e., a dedicated port Ps) assigned for each of the service identification information …”; ¶ 0079 “… Referring back to FIG. 3A, in the next step S33, the management server 3 notifies the carrier system 6 of the fact that the data communications for the voice search service by the service provider 8A are made via the dedicated port Ps1 and the data communications for the streaming service are made via the dedicated port Ps2 …”), and
the at least one of the circuit and the processor is further configured to total a corresponding application communication traffic for each of the plurality of groups to calculate a total communication traffic for each of the plurality of groups (Oishi teaches accumulating the data traffic incurred for a service application provided by each service provider, FIGS 1-4; ¶ 0098 “… A computing unit 63 of the carrier system 6 accumulates the data traffic for the request from the on-vehicle communication device 2 to the service provider 8A and the data traffic for the response from the service provider 8A to the on-vehicle communication device 2. The storage unit 68 stores the accumulated data as the traffic used by the dedicated port Ps1, that is, data traffic B1 used for the voice search service (step S25) …”), and …
Oishi and Ayers-Heilpern are analogous art because they are both related to managing applications running on network devices.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the accumulating the data traffic between a network device and a service provider techniques of Oishi with the system of Ayers-Heilpern to divide the data traffic based on the respective services/applications provided by different service providers (Oishi ¶ 0008).
Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi teaches the situation when each service application is provided by a different service provider, but does not explicitly teach the situation when more than one service applications are provided by a service provider and are divided into the same group, i.e. each of the plurality of groups which may comprise more than one application programs is provided by a different service provider.
However, Raleigh teaches calculating total amount of communications data for a given destination (e.g. a service provider), therefore Raleigh teaches calculating a total communication traffic for each of the plurality of groups which may comprise more than one application programs is provided by a different service provider (Raleigh, ¶ 0241 “… correlation techniques are applied by the service controller to compare two different service usage measures as described above based on one or more of the following: total amount of data (e.g., bytes for file transfers, sessions, and/or other measures), amount of data per unit time, total number of accesses, number of accesses per unit time or frequency of accesses, accesses during a time interval (e.g., peak time), accesses during a network busy state, access requests, and individual versus group transmissions at a point in time ( e.g., each for a given set of destinations or destinations and traffic types) …”).
Raleigh and Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi are analogous art because they are both related to computing network communications.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the computing service usage measures techniques of Raleigh with the system of Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi to monitor the bandwidth and network capacity usage of the consumers (Raleigh ¶ 0002).
Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh does not explicitly teach, but Mizuno teaches notify a service server related to a corresponding service provider among the plurality of service providers of excess communication traffic exceeding a predetermined value together with the total communication traffic (Mizuno discloses calculating the accumulated communication traffic between communication terminal apparatuses and a center apparatus, and saving related calculation information into a database in the center apparatus; FIG. 1, FIG. 3; ¶ 0036 “… The first communication traffic threshold is a threshold for communication traffic between each of the plurality of communication terminal apparatuses 2 and the center apparatus 10. For example, the first communication traffic threshold is an upper limit value of total communication traffic for one month for communication between each of the plurality of communication terminal apparatuses 2 and the center apparatus 10 …”; ¶ 0071 “… At step S003, the remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 sets a value equal to a first communication traffic threshold as a second communication traffic threshold. The remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 sets a difference between the second communication traffic threshold and the value of past communication traffic as a remaining communication capacity. The remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 causes the remaining communication capacity to be stored into the database 11 …”; ¶ 0084 “… The center apparatus 10 is provided with the past communication traffic calculation unit 13, the remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 and the communication traffic monitoring unit 16. The past communication traffic calculation unit 13 calculates past communication traffic which is an accumulative value of traffic of communication received from a communication terminal apparatus 2. The past communication traffic calculation unit 13 calculates a remaining communication capacity by using information about a first communication traffic threshold set by an operator and information about the past communication traffic. If communication traffic required for transmission of first transmitted information is larger than the remaining communication capacity, the communication traffic monitoring unit 16 creates second transmitted information by dividing the first transmitted information. Communication traffic to transmit the second transmitted information does not exceed the remaining communication capacity. After that, the communication traffic monitoring unit 16 transmits the second transmitted information to the corresponding communication terminal apparatus 2 …”) or
request a selected in-vehicle device among the plurality of in-vehicle devices to restrict communication (Examiner notes that the step of “request” modifies an alternative that for which Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno is not applied, and thus is not required for the embodiment that is being addressed).
Mizuno and Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh are analogous art because they are both related to managing network communication traffic.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the adjusting communication traffic techniques of Mizuno with the system of Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh to “prevent total communication traffic between a center apparatus and the communication terminal apparatus from exceeding a set threshold” (Mizuno ¶ 0007).
For Claim 3, Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno teaches the management server according to claim 1, wherein the at least one of the circuit and the processor is configured to determine whether the calculated total communication traffic exceeds a set upper limit value for each of the plurality of groups, and notify the service server related to the corresponding service provider among the plurality of service providers of the excess communication traffic when determining that the total communication traffic of any of the plurality of groups exceeds the set upper limit value (Mizuno discloses calculating the accumulated communication traffic between communication terminal apparatuses and a center apparatus, and saving related calculation information into a database in the center apparatus; FIG. 1, FIG. 3; ¶ 0036 “… The first communication traffic threshold is a threshold for communication traffic between each of the plurality of communication terminal apparatuses 2 and the center apparatus 10. For example, the first communication traffic threshold is an upper limit value of total communication traffic for one month for communication between each of the plurality of communication terminal apparatuses 2 and the center apparatus 10 …”; ¶ 0071 “… At step S003, the remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 sets a value equal to a first communication traffic threshold as a second communication traffic threshold. The remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 sets a difference between the second communication traffic threshold and the value of past communication traffic as a remaining communication capacity. The remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 causes the remaining communication capacity to be stored into the database 11 …”; ¶ 0084 “… The center apparatus 10 is provided with the past communication traffic calculation unit 13, the remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 and the communication traffic monitoring unit 16. The past communication traffic calculation unit 13 calculates past communication traffic which is an accumulative value of traffic of communication received from a communication terminal apparatus 2. The past communication traffic calculation unit 13 calculates a remaining communication capacity by using information about a first communication traffic threshold set by an operator and information about the past communication traffic. If communication traffic required for transmission of first transmitted information is larger than the remaining communication capacity, the communication traffic monitoring unit 16 creates second transmitted information by dividing the first transmitted information. Communication traffic to transmit the second transmitted information does not exceed the remaining communication capacity. After that, the communication traffic monitoring unit 16 transmits the second transmitted information to the corresponding communication terminal apparatus 2 …”). See motivation to combine for claim 1.
For Claim 4, Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno teaches the management server according to claim 3, wherein the selected in-vehicle device has installed a group determined to have the total communication traffic exceeding the set upper limit value among the plurality of groups (Mizuno discloses calculating the accumulated communication traffic between communication terminal apparatuses and a center apparatus which exceeds a communication traffic threshold; FIG. 1; ¶ 0036 “… The first communication traffic threshold is a threshold for communication traffic between each of the plurality of communication terminal apparatuses 2 and the center apparatus 10. For example, the first communication traffic threshold is an upper limit value of total communication traffic for one month for communication between each of the plurality of communication terminal apparatuses 2 and the center apparatus 10 …”; ¶ 0084 “… The center apparatus 10 is provided with the past communication traffic calculation unit 13, the remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 and the communication traffic monitoring unit 16. The past communication traffic calculation unit 13 calculates past communication traffic which is an accumulative value of traffic of communication received from a communication terminal apparatus 2. The past communication traffic calculation unit 13 calculates a remaining communication capacity by using information about a first communication traffic threshold set by an operator and information about the past communication traffic. If communication traffic required for transmission of first transmitted information is larger than the remaining communication capacity, the communication traffic monitoring unit 16 creates second transmitted information by dividing the first transmitted information. Communication traffic to transmit the second transmitted information does not exceed the remaining communication capacity. After that, the communication traffic monitoring unit 16 transmits the second transmitted information to the corresponding communication terminal apparatus 2 …”). See motivation to combine for claim 1.
For Claim 5, Ayers teaches a vehicle network system (Ayers, FIG. 1; ¶ 0039 “… Referring to FIG. 1, environment 100 can include autonomous vehicle 10, one or more networks 106, and one or more remotely located computing systems 108 …”) comprising:
a plurality of in-vehicle devices respectively mounted on a plurality of different vehicles (Ayers exemplifies a plurality of computing devices onboarding a plurality of vehicles in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and ¶ 0040, ¶ 0041, ¶ 0042, ¶ 0051; ¶ 0040 “… Autonomous vehicle 10 can include one or more sensors 124, computing system 102, and one or more vehicle controls 126 …”; ¶ 0041 “… Computing system 102 can include one or more computing devices 104. Computing device(s) 104 can include circuitry configured to perform one or more operations, functions, and/or the like described herein …”; ¶ 0042 “… Computing system 102 can be physically located onboard autonomous vehicle 10, and computing system(s) 108 can be distinct and/or remotely located from autonomous vehicle 10. Network(s) 106 (e.g., wired networks, wireless networks, and/or the like) can interface autonomous vehicle 10 (e.g., computing system 102, computing device (s) 104, and/or the like) with computing system(s) 108 …”; ¶ 0051 “… Referring to FIG. 2, as previously indicated, environment 100 can include autonomous vehicle 10, network(s) 106, and computing system(s) 108. Environment 100 can also include autonomous vehicle(s) 20 and/or 30, and/or computing device(s) 40, 50, and/or 60 …”); and
a management server (Ayers exemplifies a remote computing system in FIG. 1),
wherein each of the plurality of in-vehicle devices includes at least one of (i) a first circuit and (ii) a first processor with a first memory storing first computer program code executable by the first processor, the at least one of the first circuit and the first processor configured to cause each in-vehicle device (Ayers, FIG. 2; ¶ 0053 “… Computing device 40 can include circuitry configured to perform one or more operations, functions, and/or the like described herein. For example, computing device 40 can include one or more processor(s) 202, one or more communication interfaces 204, and memory 206 (e.g., one or more hardware components for storing executable instructions, data, and/or the like) …”) to:
wirelessly communicate with the management server (Ayers exemplifies the remote computing system communicating with a plurality of computing devices onboarding a plurality of vehicles in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and ¶ 0040, ¶ 0041, ¶ 0042, ¶ 0051; also ¶ 0053 “… computing device 40 can include one or more processor(s) 202, one or more communication interfaces 204, and memory 206 (e.g., one or more hardware components for storing executable instructions, data, and/or the like). Communication interface (s) 204 can enable computing device 40 to communicate with autonomous vehicle 10 (e.g., computing system 102, computing device(s) 104, and/or the like), autonomous vehicle(s) 20 and/or 30, computing device(s) 50, and/or 60, computing system(s) 108 …”);
install and execute a plurality of application programs, wherein each of the plurality of application programs has application identification data identifying each of the plurality of application programs (Ayers, ¶ 0019 “… For each application of the applications, the onboard computing device(s) can determine, from amongst multiple different and distinct interface identifiers (e.g., addresses, ports, links, and/or the like), an identifier associated with the application and can communicate, based at least in part on such identifier, data associated with the application and destined for a remotely located computing system (e.g., a server, vehicle-management platform, and/or the like) towards the remotely located computing system …”; ¶ 0053 “… Memory 206 can include (e.g., store, and/or the like) instructions 208, which, when executed by processor(s) 202, can cause computing device 40 to perform one or more operations, functions, and/or the like described herein …”); …, and
the management server includes at least one of (i) a second circuit and (ii) a second processor with a second memory storing second computer program code executable by the second processor, the at least one of the second circuit and the second processor configured to cause the management server (Ayers, FIG. 2; ¶ 0056 “… computing system 70 can include one or more processor(s) 210, one or more communication interfaces 212, and memory 214 (e.g., one or more hardware components for storing executable instructions, data, and/or the like) …”) to:
wirelessly communicate with the plurality of in-vehicle devices (Ayers exemplifies communication interface(s) 212 in the remote computing system in FIG. 2; ¶ 0056 “… computing system 70 can include one or more processor(s) 210, one or more communication interfaces 212, and memory 214 (e.g., one or more hardware components for storing executable instructions, data, and/or the like). Communication interface(s) 212 can enable computing system 70 to communicate with autonomous vehicle 10 (e.g., computing system 102, computing device(s) 104, and/or the like), autonomous vehicle(s) 20 and/or 30, computing device(s) 40, 50, and/or 60, computing system(s) 80 and/or 90, and/or the like …”); …
Ayers does not explicitly teach, but Heilpern teaches each of the plurality of in-vehicle devices to measure a communication traffic according to execution of each of the plurality of application programs by the application execution unit for each application identification data (Heilpern, FIGS 1-4; ¶ 0024 “… the mobile device 104 executes applications that communicate with application systems 108 via the network 106, and communicates with the AM system 102 to report network consumption data via the network 106 …”; ¶ 0025 “… Although a single mobile device 104 is shown in FIG. 1, the environment may include any number of mobile devices 104a-n (n being nth device), i.e., one or more mobile devices (generally 104) …”; ¶ 0028 “… The mobile operating system 202 may provide a Virtual Private Network (vpn) layer that allows network traffic of the device 104 to be monitored by the traffic monitor 206. The traffic monitor 206 generates network consumption data for processes, which may be associated with Process IDs. For each instance of network consumption data, the operating system may provide the Process ID, or the traffic monitor 206 may generate a Process ID …”); and
transmit, to the management server, communication information in which each measured communication traffic is associated with the application identification data (Heilpern, FIGS 1-4; ¶ 0028 “… The traffic monitor 206 provides the network consumption data to the AM application 208, or to the application detector 124 …”), …
the management server to acquire communication information from the plurality of in-vehicle devices (Heilpern, Heilpern, FIGS 1-4; ¶ 0023 “… The application detector 124 receives network consumption data for processes executing on the mobile device 104, and identifies applications for the processes by analyzing the network consumption data … the application detector 124 provides reports, usage data, or aggregated network consumption data to the AM server 120 which provides this information to a mobile device 104. The data repository 122 stores data associated with application monitoring including network consumption data received from the mobile device 104, and usage data generated from aggregating the network consumption data for applications over time. In some embodiments, the application detector 124 is integrated with the AM server 120 …”; ¶ 0043 “… The application detector 124 determines 410 application strings associated with the applications. The application may be associated with application strings that can be used to identify particular applications. The application strings may include an application name string for each application, a package name string for the packages of each application, and a category string for each application. In some embodiments, the application strings may further include key word strings that application providers associate with the application, such as in the application's description in an application store …”);
total the communication traffic for each application identification data, and calculate an application communication traffic (Heilpern, FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3; ¶ 0023 “… The application detector 124 generates usage data for applications executing on the mobile device 104 by aggregating network consumption data associated with applications over time …”; ¶ 0038 “… The application detector 124 associates 310 an application with a process by analyzing the network consumption data … The application detector 124 determines 315 usage data for the application based on aggregating the network consumption data associated with the application over time …”).
Ayers and Heilpern are analogous art because they are both related to managing applications running on network devices.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use calculating the application usage from the network traffic techniques of Heilpern with the system of Ayers to determine the amount of data being generated by various application and system activities on network devices (Heilpern ¶ 0019).
Ayers-Heilpern does not explicitly teach, but Oishi teaches wherein the at least one of the second circuit and the second processor (Oishi exemplifies a management server 3 and a carrier system 6 communicating with service providers 8 in FIG. 1) is further configured to wirelessly communicate with a service server related to each of a plurality of service providers (Oishi, FIG. 1, FIG. 2; ¶ 0035 “… As shown in FIG. 1, a communication management system 1 includes: on-vehicle communication devices 2 mounted on respective vehicles 5; and a management server 3 away from the vehicles 5 and configured to manage the on-vehicle communication devices 2. The communication management system 1 provides various services with different contents from different providers via the on-vehicle communication devices 2 to the vehicles 5, and manages the communications between the vehicles 5 and service providers 8 that provide occupant services …”),
the plurality of application programs are divided into a plurality of groups, each of the plurality of groups is provided by a … service provider among the plurality of service providers (Oishi teaches that the management server manages various services/applications provided by different service providers and each service application provided by a service provider is assigned a dedicated port for data communications; FIGS. 1-4; ¶ 0072 “… FIG. 3A shows the operation of port registration in which the management server 3 receives requests for port registration from the service providers 8. Here, the following will be described as an example of port registration by the service providers 8. A service provider 8A registers a dedicated port Ps1 for a voice search service, and a dedicated port Ps2 for a streaming service. A service provider 8B registers a dedicated port Ps3 for an Internet radio, and a dedicated port Ps4 for providing surrounding information …”; ¶ 0078 “… The identification flag information 361 is associated with service identification information and assignment information. For example, the service identification information includes: a company name and/or a brand name identifying one of the service providers 8, and/or a service name identifying the service itself provided by the service provider 8. The assignment information indicates a transmission source port (i.e., a dedicated port Ps) assigned for each of the service identification information …”; ¶ 0079 “… Referring back to FIG. 3A, in the next step S33, the management server 3 notifies the carrier system 6 of the fact that the data communications for the voice search service by the service provider 8A are made via the dedicated port Ps1 and the data communications for the streaming service are made via the dedicated port Ps2 …”), and
the at least one of the second circuit and the second processor is further configured to total a corresponding application communication traffic for each of the plurality of groups to calculate a total communication traffic for each of the plurality of groups (Oishi teaches accumulating the data traffic incurred for a service application provided by each service provider, FIGS 1-4; ¶ 0098 “… A computing unit 63 of the carrier system 6 accumulates the data traffic for the request from the on-vehicle communication device 2 to the service provider 8A and the data traffic for the response from the service provider 8A to the on-vehicle communication device 2. The storage unit 68 stores the accumulated data as the traffic used by the dedicated port Ps1, that is, data traffic B1 used for the voice search service (step S25) …”), and …
Oishi and Ayers-Heilpern are analogous art because they are both related to managing applications running on network devices.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the accumulating the data traffic between a network device and a service provider techniques of Oishi with the system of Ayers-Heilpern to divide the data traffic based on the respective services/applications provided by different service providers (Oishi ¶ 0008).
Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi teaches the situation when each service application is provided by a different service provider, but does not explicitly teach the situation when more than one service applications are provided by a service provider and are divided into the same group, i.e. each of the plurality of groups which may comprise more than one application programs is provided by a different service provider.
However, Raleigh teaches calculating total amount of communications data for a given destination (e.g. a service provider), therefore Raleigh teaches calculating a total communication traffic for each of the plurality of groups which may comprise more than one application programs is provided by a different service provider (Raleigh, ¶ 0241 “… correlation techniques are applied by the service controller to compare two different service usage measures as described above based on one or more of the following: total amount of data (e.g., bytes for file transfers, sessions, and/or other measures), amount of data per unit time, total number of accesses, number of accesses per unit time or frequency of accesses, accesses during a time interval (e.g., peak time), accesses during a network busy state, access requests, and individual versus group transmissions at a point in time ( e.g., each for a given set of destinations or destinations and traffic types) …”).
Raleigh and Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi are analogous art because they are both related to computing network communications.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the computing service usage measures techniques of Raleigh with the system of Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi to monitor the bandwidth and network capacity usage of the consumers (Raleigh ¶ 0002).
Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleign does not explicitly teach, but Mizuno teaches notify a service server related to a corresponding service provider among the plurality of service providers of excess communication traffic exceeding a predetermined value together with the total communication traffic (Mizuno discloses calculating the accumulated communication traffic between communication terminal apparatuses and a center apparatus, and saving related calculation information into a database in the center apparatus; FIG. 1, FIG. 3; ¶ 0036 “… The first communication traffic threshold is a threshold for communication traffic between each of the plurality of communication terminal apparatuses 2 and the center apparatus 10. For example, the first communication traffic threshold is an upper limit value of total communication traffic for one month for communication between each of the plurality of communication terminal apparatuses 2 and the center apparatus 10 …”; ¶ 0071 “… At step S003, the remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 sets a value equal to a first communication traffic threshold as a second communication traffic threshold. The remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 sets a difference between the second communication traffic threshold and the value of past communication traffic as a remaining communication capacity. The remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 causes the remaining communication capacity to be stored into the database 11 …”; ¶ 0084 “… The center apparatus 10 is provided with the past communication traffic calculation unit 13, the remaining communication capacity calculation unit 15 and the communication traffic monitoring unit 16. The past communication traffic calculation unit 13 calculates past communication traffic which is an accumulative value of traffic of communication received from a communication terminal apparatus 2. The past communication traffic calculation unit 13 calculates a remaining communication capacity by using information about a first communication traffic threshold set by an operator and information about the past communication traffic. If communication traffic required for transmission of first transmitted information is larger than the remaining communication capacity, the communication traffic monitoring unit 16 creates second transmitted information by dividing the first transmitted information. Communication traffic to transmit the second transmitted information does not exceed the remaining communication capacity. After that, the communication traffic monitoring unit 16 transmits the second transmitted information to the corresponding communication terminal apparatus 2 …”) or
request a selected in-vehicle device among the plurality of in-vehicle devices to restrict communication (Examiner notes that the step of “request” modifies an alternative that for which Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno is not applied, and thus is not required for the embodiment that is being addressed).
Mizuno and Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh are analogous art because they are both related to managing network communication traffic.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the adjusting communication traffic techniques of Mizuno with the system of Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh to “prevent total communication traffic between a center apparatus and the communication terminal apparatus from exceeding a set threshold” (Mizuno ¶ 0007).
For Claim 7, the claim is substantially similar to claim 3 and therefore is rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim 8, the claim is substantially similar to claim 4 and therefore is rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim 9, Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno teaches the vehicle network system according to claim 8, wherein the at least one of the first circuit and the first processor is configured to provide notification upon receiving a communication restriction request (Ayers discloses that the communication interfaces enables communicating data/request and the processors enables performing the operations; FIGS 1-4; ¶ 0053 “… Computing device 40 can include circuitry configured to perform one or more operations, functions, and/or the like described herein. For example, computing device 40 can include one or more processor(s) 202, one or more communication interfaces 204, and memory 206 (e.g., one or more hardware components for storing executable instructions, data, and/or the like). Communication interface(s) 204 can enable computing device 40 to communicate with autonomous vehicle 10 (e.g., computing system 102, computing device(s) 104, and/or the like), autonomous vehicle(s) 20 and/or 30, computing device(s) 50, and/or 60, computing system(s) 108, and/or the like. Memory 206 can include (e.g., store, and/or the like) instructions 208, which, when executed by processor(s) 202, can cause computing device 40 to perform one or more operations, functions, and/or the like described herein …”; Mizuno discloses saving the calculated communication information into a database in the center apparatus therefore notifying the center apparatus about the communication information update). See motivation to combine for claim 5.
For Claim 11, Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno teaches the vehicle network system according to claim 5, wherein the at least one of the first circuit and the first processor is configured to measure the communication traffic (Heilpern, FIGS 1-4; ¶ 0024 “… the mobile device 104 executes applications that communicate with application systems 108 via the network 106, and communicates with the AM system 102 to report network consumption data via the network 106 …”; ¶ 0025 “… Although a single mobile device 104 is shown in FIG. 1, the environment may include any number of mobile devices 104a-n (n being nth device), i.e., one or more mobile devices (generally 104) …”; ¶ 0028 “… The mobile operating system 202 may provide a Virtual Private Network (vpn) layer that allows network traffic of the device 104 to be monitored by the traffic monitor 206. The traffic monitor 206 generates network consumption data for processes, which may be associated with Process IDs. For each instance of network consumption data, the operating system may provide the Process ID, or the traffic monitor 206 may generate a Process ID …”),
acquire a communication transmission destination, a communication type, and a vehicle state, and add the communication transmission destination, the communication type, and the vehicle state to the communication information (Heilpern exemplifies in FIG. 6 that the network consumption data comprises a communication transmission destination such as a “host” string and a communication type such as “HTTP”; FIGS 1-4, FIG. 6; ¶ 0028 “… The traffic monitor 206 provides the network consumption data to the AM application 208, or to the application detector 124 …”; ¶ 0050 “… The metadata includes detailed information of multiple network/socket connections made by a particular process or application. At any point, there can be multiple such network requests coming from the same process to the same or different hosts. Meta_data is a group of such network pulses grouped by host-post-user agent combination and aggregating in/out bytes, duration, activity, timestamp during a period of 1 to n seconds. …”; ¶ 0051 “… The ua parameter defines the user-agent string and the host parameter defines the host string, which may be used as the consumption data strings determined from the network consumption data 600. The host string may be a domain name service (DNS) or an Internet protocol (IP) address …”; Ayers discloses determining a vehicle state, and the vehicle state could supplement the network consumption data; FIGS 1-3; ¶ 0074 “… At (312), computing system 102 can determine, detect, identify, and/or the like one or more changes in a mode, state, context, and/or the like of autonomous vehicle 10. For example, over time the mode, state, context, and/or the like of autonomous vehicle 10 can change (e.g., specified travel can be completed, new travel can commence, one or more diagnostic routines can be initiated, and/or the like) …”) See motivation to combine for claim 5.
For Claim 12, the claim is substantially similar to claim 1 and therefore is rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim 15, Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno teaches the management server according to claim 1, wherein the request to restrict the communication includes limiting the communication traffic to a predetermined value or less and stopping the communication of a corresponding application program among the plurality of application programs (The instant claim modifies elements of claim 1 for which Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno is not relied upon, without requiring such elements to be applied. Accordingly, the instant claim is rejected for similar reasons as claim 1).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claim 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayers (US 20200329460 A1, published 10/15/2020; hereinafter Ayers), in view of Heilpern et al. (US 20180054493 A1, published 02/22/2018; hereinafter Heilpern, in view of Oishi et al. (US 20220295136 A1, priority dated 03/12/2021; hereinafter Oishi), in view of Raleigh et al. (US 20220360461 A1, priority dated 08/13/2020; hereinafter Raleigh), in view of Mizuno (US 20230052248 A1, priority dated 04/03/2020; hereinafter Mizuno), and in further view of Jung et al. (US 20130167219 A1, published 06/27/2013; hereinafter Jung).
For Claim 10, Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno teaches the vehicle network system according to claim 8. Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno does not explicitly teach, but Jung teaches wherein upon receiving a communication restriction request, the at least one of the first circuit and the first processor is configured to restrict communication even when receiving a communication request (Jung discloses preventing excessive traffic from a terminal apparatus to enter the network and exemplifies various function units to perform the preventing operations; FIG. 1, FIG. 5; ¶ 0085 “… If the anomalous traffic detection signal is generated, the terminal apparatus 100 generates a traffic block request signal for requesting blockage of the transmission packet (540). According to the traffic block request signal, the terminal apparatus 100 may prevent the transmission packet that generated the excessive traffic from being output from the terminal apparatus 100 to a network (550) …”).
Jung and Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno are analogous art because they are both related to managing network communication traffic.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the excessive traffic prevention techniques of Jung with the system of Ayers-Heilpern-Oishi-Raleigh-Mizuno to prevent excessive traffic from entering a network (Jung ¶ 0007).
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure is listed below, thank you:
i. Alcala et al. (US 20090016236 A1) teaches that analyzing traffic in a communications network includes sampling data packets at a plurality of network interconnection points, wherein sampling the data packets includes generating a plurality of sampled packet data in one or more standardized formats, converting the sampled packet data from the one or more standardized formats into a neutral format, and aggregating the sampled packet data in the neutral format from the plurality of network interconnection points. A system includes a communications node operable to sample data packets flowing through and generate sample packet data in a specified format, a collector node operable to convert the sampled packet data into a neutral format, the collector node further operable to map IP addresses of the sampled packet data to corresponding prefixes in a routing table; and an aggregator node operable to aggregate neutrally formatted sampled packet data from a plurality of collector nodes (Alcala, Abstract).
ii. Hart (US 20120051219 A1) teaches Methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, are described for applying service based on classification and grouping of traffic flows. The method includes receiving a traffic flow, and matching the traffic flow to classification groups. The matching includes determining a first event associated with the traffic flow, comparing attributes of the first event with entry criteria of the classification groups, and assigning the first event to one or more classification groups where the first event meets the entry criteria of the one or more classification groups. The method includes identifying one or more service definitions for the traffic flow based on the classification groups assigned to the traffic flow, reconciling the one or more service definitions for the traffic flow, and providing a service to the traffic flow based on the reconciled service definitions (Hart, Abstract).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/Z.D./Examiner, Art Unit 2444
/SCOTT B CHRISTENSEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2444