DETAILED ACTION
In response to communications filed 01/21/2026.
Claims 10 and 17 are canceled.
Claims 21 and 22 are added.
Claims 1-9, 11-16 and 18-22 are pending for examination.
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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 22 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Claim 22 teaches assessing RF performance by executing a constellation status protocol between a router on the vehicle and the secondary satellite network to determine the secondary satellite network is stable. Examiner has been unable to locate prior art that reasonably, either singularly or in combination with cited references, would result in a proper rejection that would have anticipated or made obvious the subject matter in claim 22 including all of the limitations of claim 1 and any intervening claims with proper motivation at or before the time it was effectively filed.
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.
Claims 1-9, 11-16 and 18-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chari et al. (US 2020/0259556 A1) in view of Stanwood et al. (US 2023/0216581 A1) hereinafter “Chari” and “Stanwood” respectively.
Regarding Claim 1, Chari teaches A method, comprising:
determining, by a device (Chari: paragraph 0057 & Fig. 4, satellite terminal), a path of travel of a vehicle (Chari: paragraph 0037, vehicle traveling route; see also paragraph 0050, obtained information may include current or predicted conditions of the vehicle or mobile platform, e.g., a current or predicted location of the vehicle, a current or predicted travel direction, speed, and/or trajectory of the vehicle);
obtaining, by the device, telemetry data associated with different locations along the path of travel (Chari: paragraph 0050, obtained information may include information that is indicative of current or future weather and other environmental conditions or factors, and/or that is indicative of any other current or predicted conditions which may affect communications between the vehicle and the various satellites);
computing, by the device and based on the telemetry data, a communication strategy (Chari: paragraph 0049, command the one or more transceivers to utilize the antenna array to establish a respective communicative connection with each target satellite) whereby the vehicle switches from using a first transceiver (Chari: paragraph 0096, first transceiver utilizes a first air interface corresponding to the respective spatial channel of the first target satellite) to communicate with a primary satellite network (Chari: paragraph 0096, said first target satellite) to using a second transceiver (Chari: paragraph 0096, second transceiver of the one or more transceivers utilizes a second air interface that corresponds to the second target satellite) to communicate with a secondary satellite network (Chari: paragraph 0096, said second target satellite), wherein the communication strategy specifies a make-before-break strategy comprising establishing a data communication channel with the secondary satellite network (Chari: paragraphs 0016, 0017, 0020 & 0031, make then break technique or soft handoff to establish a subsequent physical channel to a second satellite (due to active communications link to a particular satellite being sub-optimal)); and
causing, by the device, the vehicle to communicate according to the communication strategy (Chari: paragraph 0049, 0061 & Fig. 4, said command the one or more transceivers to utilize the antenna array to establish a respective communicative connection with each target satellite).
Although Chari teaches a make then break technique to establish a channel with a second satellite due to an active communication link being sub-optimal, Chari fails to explicitly teach confirming that the data communication channel with the secondary satellite network is stable before making a routing change from the connection to the primary satellite network. However, Stanwood from an analogous art similarly teaches a mobile station (when moving at a high velocity) is handed over to another satellite (i.e. LEO2 or LEO3) when it is determined to be more stable than a current satellite (i.e. LEO1) to maximize stability and signal quality (Stanwood: paragraphs 0131-0134).
Therefore, 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 make then break technique of Chari to include determining and/or confirming signal quality of a communication with a target satellite as taught by Stanwood so as to reduce unnecessary handovers and maintain the most optimal connection for the vehicle.
Regarding Claim 2, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein the telemetry data includes satellite constellation orbit data for the primary satellite network and the secondary satellite network (Chari: paragraph 0050 & Fig. 1, current or predicted network availability of respective satellite networks and/or constellations).
Regarding Claim 3, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein the telemetry data includes topographic data of terrain associated with the projected path of the vehicle (Chari: paragraph 0050, current or predicted angles of observation, and/or a current or predicted trajectory of the vehicle, therefore identifying distance between vehicle and satellite and/or terrain).
Regarding Claim 4, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein the telemetry data includes earth weather data associated with the projected path of the vehicle (Chari: paragraph 0050, obtained information may include information that is indicative of current or future weather and other environmental conditions or factors).
Regarding Claim 5, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein the telemetry data includes space weather data (Chari: paragraph 0016, atmospheric information).
Regarding Claim 6, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein the telemetry data includes Internet performance data (Chari: paragraph 0050, respective current or predicted characteristics of the various spatial channels (e.g., traffic characteristics, bandwidth, usability, quality of service, channel data load, etc.)).
Regarding Claim 7, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein the telemetry data includes non-terrestrial network performance data (Chari: paragraph 0050, respective current or predicted characteristics of the various spatial channels (e.g., traffic characteristics, bandwidth, usability, quality of service, channel data load, etc.)).
Regarding Claim 8, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein the projected path of the vehicle is determined based on at least one of shipping routing, journey plans, or live traffic data for the vehicle (Chari: paragraph 0037, i.e. vehicle is traveling en route between ports).
Regarding Claim 9, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein the projected path of the vehicle is determined based on at least one of air-traffic control data or a flight plan for the vehicle (Chari: paragraph 0035, vehicle represented as an aircraft).
Regarding Claim 11, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches running application performance probes across the primary satellite network and the secondary satellite network to collect the telemetry data (Chari: paragraph 0020, probe other channels to other satellites to find a subsequent link that may be utilized in lieu of the current active communications link).
Regarding Claim 12, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein the telemetry data includes advertised radio frequency (RF) performance data resulting from execution of a constellation status protocol between a router on the vehicle and each of the primary satellite network and the secondary satellite network (Chari: paragraphs 0050 & 0059, respective current or predicted characteristics of the various spatial channels (e.g., traffic characteristics, bandwidth, usability, quality of service, channel data load, etc.), and/or other current or predicted conditions of other aspects corresponding to the various satellite communications networks).
Regarding Claim 13, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches utilizing a digital twin to repeatedly model updated communication strategies based on updated telemetry data (Chari: paragraph 0055, monitor the conditions by continuing to receive and/or otherwise obtain information that is indicative of updates to the conditions); and
communicating an updated communication strategy as the communication strategy to a router of the vehicle (Chari: paragraph 0055, based on the updated condition information, determine that an additional or alternate link to a different satellite via a different spatial channel).
Regarding Claim 14, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches causing the primary satellite network to communicate data to the secondary satellite network according to the communication strategy (Chari: paragraph 0061, instructing one or more transceivers to establish a respective communicative connection with each satellite included in the plurality of target satellites).
Regarding Claim 15, Chari teaches A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored (Chari: paragraph 0048, computer readable medium) thereon that, when executed by a processor on a computer (Chari: paragraph 0049, computer-readable instructions executable by controllers), cause the computer to perform a method comprising:
determining a path of travel of a vehicle (Chari: paragraph 0037, vehicle traveling route; see also paragraph 0050, obtained information may include current or predicted conditions of the vehicle or mobile platform, e.g., a current or predicted location of the vehicle, a current or predicted travel direction, speed, and/or trajectory of the vehicle);
obtaining telemetry data associated with different locations along the path of travel (Chari: paragraph 0050, obtained information may include information that is indicative of current or future weather and other environmental conditions or factors, and/or that is indicative of any other current or predicted conditions which may affect communications between the vehicle and the various satellites);
computing, based on the telemetry data (Chari: paragraph 0050, said obtained information), a communication strategy (Chari: paragraph 0049, command the one or more transceivers to utilize the antenna array to establish a respective communicative connection with each target satellite) whereby the vehicle switches from using a first transceiver Chari: paragraph 0096, first transceiver utilizes a first air interface corresponding to the respective spatial channel of the first target satellite) to communicate with a primary satellite network (Chari: paragraph 0096, said first target satellite) to using a second transceiver (Chari: paragraph 0096, second transceiver of the one or more transceivers utilizes a second air interface that corresponds to the second target satellite) to communicate with a secondary satellite network (Chari: paragraph 0096, said second target satellite), wherein the communication strategy specifies a make-before-break strategy comprising establishing a data communication channel with the secondary satellite network (Chari: paragraphs 0016, 0017, 0020 & 0031, make then break technique or soft handoff to establish a subsequent physical channel to a second satellite (due to active communications link to a particular satellite being sub-optimal)); and
causing the vehicle to communicate according to the communication strategy (Chari: paragraph 0049, 0061 & Fig. 4, said command the one or more transceivers to utilize the antenna array to establish a respective communicative connection with each target satellite).
Although Chari teaches a make then break technique to establish a channel with a second satellite due to an active communication link being sub-optimal, Chari fails to explicitly teach confirming that the data communication channel with the secondary satellite network is stable before making a routing change from the connection to the primary satellite network. However, Stanwood from an analogous art similarly teaches a mobile station (when moving at a high velocity) is handed over to another satellite (i.e. LEO2 or LEO3) when it is determined to be more stable than a current satellite (i.e. LEO1) to maximize stability and signal quality (Stanwood: paragraphs 0131-0134).
Therefore, 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 make then break technique of Chari to include determining and/or confirming signal quality of a communication with a target satellite as taught by Stanwood so as to reduce unnecessary handovers and maintain the most optimal connection for the vehicle.
Regarding Claim 16, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches configuring computation of the communication strategy to retain data communicated from the vehicle within geographical boundaries throughout its communication to its destination (Chari: paragraph 0052, store selection factors to select spatial channels to target satellites).
Regarding Claim 18, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches utilizing a digital twin to repeatedly model updated communication strategies based on updated telemetry data (Chari: paragraph 0055, monitor the conditions by continuing to receive and/or otherwise obtain information that is indicative of updates to the conditions); and
communicating an updated communication strategy as the communication strategy to a router of the vehicle (Chari: paragraph 0055, based on the updated condition information, determine that an additional or alternate link to a different satellite via a different spatial channel).
Regarding Claim 19, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches causing the primary satellite network to communicate data to the secondary satellite network according to the communication strategy (Chari: paragraph 0061, instructing one or more transceivers to establish a respective communicative connection with each satellite included in the plurality of target satellites).
Regarding Claim 20, Chari teaches An apparatus (Chari: paragraph 0057 & Fig. 4, satellite terminal), comprising:
one or more network interfaces (Chari: paragraph 0047 & Fig. 3, interfaces) to communicate with a network (Chari: paragraph 0025 & Fig. 1, satellite network);
a processor (Chari: paragraph 0047 & Fig. 3, controller) coupled to the one or more network interfaces and configured to execute one or more processes; and
a memory configured to store a process that is executable by the processor (Chari: paragraph 0048 & Fig. 3, memories), the process, when executed, configured to:
determine a path of travel of a vehicle (Chari: paragraph 0037, vehicle traveling route; see also paragraph 0050, obtained information may include current or predicted conditions of the vehicle or mobile platform, e.g., a current or predicted location of the vehicle, a current or predicted travel direction, speed, and/or trajectory of the vehicle);
obtain telemetry data associated with different locations along the path of travel (Chari: paragraph 0050, obtained information may include information that is indicative of current or future weather and other environmental conditions or factors, and/or that is indicative of any other current or predicted conditions which may affect communications between the vehicle and the various satellites);
compute, based on the telemetry data, a communication strategy (Chari: paragraph 0049, command the one or more transceivers to utilize the antenna array to establish a respective communicative connection with each target satellite) whereby the vehicle switches from using a first transceiver (Chari: paragraph 0096, first transceiver utilizes a first air interface corresponding to the respective spatial channel of the first target satellite) to communicate with a primary satellite network (Chari: paragraph 0096, said first target satellite) to using a second transceiver (Chari: paragraph 0096, second transceiver of the one or more transceivers utilizes a second air interface that corresponds to the second target satellite) to communicate with a secondary satellite network (Chari: paragraph 0096, said second target satellite), wherein the communication strategy specifies a make-before-break strategy comprising establishing a data communication channel with the secondary satellite network (Chari: paragraphs 0016, 0017, 0020 & 0031, make then break technique or soft handoff to establish a subsequent physical channel to a second satellite (due to active communications link to a particular satellite being sub-optimal)); and
cause the vehicle to communicate according to the communication strategy (Chari: paragraph 0049, 0061 & Fig. 4, said command the one or more transceivers to utilize the antenna array to establish a respective communicative connection with each target satellite).
Although Chari teaches a make then break technique to establish a channel with a second satellite due to an active communication link being sub-optimal, Chari fails to explicitly teach confirming that the data communication channel with the secondary satellite network is stable before making a routing change from the connection to the primary satellite network. However, Stanwood from an analogous art similarly teaches a mobile station (when moving at a high velocity) is handed over to another satellite (i.e. LEO2 or LEO3) when it is determined to be more stable than a current satellite (i.e. LEO1) to maximize stability and signal quality (Stanwood: paragraphs 0131-0134).
Therefore, 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 make then break technique of Chari to include determining and/or confirming signal quality of a communication with a target satellite as taught by Stanwood so as to reduce unnecessary handovers and maintain the most optimal connection for the vehicle.
Regarding Claim 21, Chari-Stanwood teaches the respective claim(s) as presented above and further teaches wherein confirming that the data communication channel with the secondary satellite network is stable comprises running application performance probes across the secondary satellite network (Stanwood: paragraph 0135, i.e. signal quality metrics indicating of a better signal when measured for communication links between mobile station and satellites, thus obtaining measurements across the channels of respective satellites). Examiner recites same reasoning to combine as presented in rejected claim 1.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to amended claims 1, 15 and 20 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAJEEB ANSARI whose telephone number is (571)270-5446. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10am to 2pm.
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/NAJEEB ANSARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2463
/ASAD M NAWAZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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