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 . Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 2 and 4 are objected to because of the following informalities: the claims recite the words “Wi-Fi” and “4G/LTE” respectively, these acronyms should be defined (spelled out) at least in the first instances in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 6, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Speight (US20170111840).
Regarding claim 1, the cited reference Speight discloses an edge gateway node operating in conjunction with a mesh network (¶0086 discloses an edge router in a wireless communication system and ¶0005 discloses a directed mesh topology is one where a mesh network exists but there is at least one sink node which provides connectivity into the network. Within this context there are 3 types of devices: End nodes, Mesh routers, and Edge routers) comprising one or more mesh nodes (¶0007 discloses mesh router devices … Mesh routers are able to support routing in the mesh network), the edge gateway (¶0086 discloses an edge router in a wireless communication system) comprising: a radio configured for communication within the mesh network; one or more control circuits configured for one or both of controlling and processing of data (¶0058 discloses that wireless communication unit 225 may be configured to act as an edge router that acts as a gateway between WiFi™ and LTE™. In the illustrated uplink (UL) example data packets are received at WiFi™ antenna 303 over the WiFi (mesh) network 345 and transmitted via LTE™ antenna 302 on an LTE™ bearer 221, 222 to an LTE™ EPS. However, in a downlink (DL) mode of operation, wireless communication unit 225 will receive data packets on a LTE™ bearer 221, 222 on LTE™ network and transmit WiFi signals from WiFi™ antenna 303 over the WiFi (mesh) network 345 to a corresponding end node); and a communication module comprising one or more communication circuits configured to facilitateor support local communication with one or more local devices that are not part of the mesh network, and/or remote communication with one or more remote systems (¶0046 discloses that one or more in-coverage wireless communication units 225, which may be located towards the edge of LTE™ coverage range, may be selected to be (re-)configured with edge router functionality. In some examples, the edge router functionality may comprise setting up a mesh network supporting, say, WiFi™ communications. In some examples, the mesh network supporting, say, WiFi™ communications, may be used as a gateway to other out-of-coverage wireless communication units, such as wireless communication unit 245. In some examples, wireless communication unit 245 may be configured to operate solely with mesh network communications in order to communicate with the LTE™ EPC 204 via a single or multi-hop WiFi™ communication link to an edge router).
Regarding claim 2, the cited reference Speight discloses all limitations of claim 1. Speight further discloses wherein the communication module comprises a Wi-Fi access point component configured to handle wireless local network access (¶0007 discloses that mesh router devices are communication devices that communicate using mesh transport technology (typically WiFi™) to either an edge router. ¶0046 discloses that the edge router functionality may comprise setting up a mesh network supporting, say, WiFi™ communications).
Regarding claim 3, the cited reference Speight discloses all limitations of claim 1. Speight further discloses wherein the communication module comprises a cellular radio component configured to handle handling communication via cellular based connections (¶0058 discloses that the wireless communication unit 225 may be configured to act as an edge router that acts as a gateway between WiFi™ and LTE™. In the illustrated uplink (UL) example data packets are received at WiFi™ antenna 303 over the WiFi (mesh) network 345 and transmitted via LTE™ antenna 302 on an LTE™).
Regarding claim 4, the cited reference Speight discloses all limitations of claim 3. Speight further discloses wherein the cellular radio component comprises 4G/LTE radio (¶0058 discloses that the wireless communication unit 225 may be configured to act as an edge router that acts as a gateway between WiFi™ and LTE™).
Regarding claim 6, the cited reference Speight discloses all limitations of claim 1. Speight further wherein the one or more communication circuits are configured to set up and use local network based communication with the one or more local devices, using one or more local wired and/or wireless connections via the communication module (¶0007 discloses that the Mesh router devices are communication devices that communicate using mesh transport technology (typically WiFi™) to either an edge router or another mesh router. ¶0008 further discloses that Edge routers not only manage the mesh network and communicate with either end nodes or mesh routers, but also provide routing into the wider IP network, typically a cellular network or the public internet via a backhaul link, thereby linking the mesh network to the cellular network and routing traffic between the two technologies).
Regarding claim 17, the claim is drawn to a method performing substantially the same features of the method of claim 1. Therefore, the claim is subject to the same rejection as claim 1.
Claims 1 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Howard et al (US20090055625).
Regarding claim 1, the cited reference Howard discloses an edge gateway node operating in conjunction with a mesh network (See Fig. 2 and 5 which disclose block diagrams which include a gateway 24 and 107 associated with cluster 10 and HCAS 80 ( including plurality of processing nodes)) comprising one or more mesh nodes (See Fig. 2 and 5 which disclose plurality of nodes), the edge gateway (See Fig. 2 and 5 which disclose gateway 24 and 107) comprising: a radio configured for communication within the mesh network; one or more control circuits configured for one or both of controlling and processing of data (See Fig. 2 and ¶0058 discloses that the gateway 24 that provides an interface to cluster 10. Gateway 24 typically provides one or more interfaces—such as a network interface 30); and a communication module comprising one or more communication circuits configured to facilitate or support local communication with one or more local devices that are not part of the mesh network, and/or remote communication with one or more remote systems (¶0067 and Fig. 2 shows application 28 and remote host 26 connected to gateway node 24 through network interface 30…gateway 24 enables communication between parallel application 28, running on host 26, and individual processing nodes 15 within cluster 10).
Regarding claim 17, the claim is drawn to a method performing substantially the same features of the method of claim 1. Therefore, the claim is subject to the same rejection as claim 1.
Claims 1-3, 7, 10, 12, and 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Barna et al (US20170111979).
Regarding claim 1, the cited reference Barna discloses an edge gateway node operating in
conjunction with a mesh network (¶0005 discloses that the wireless device control system also includes a wireless gateway) comprising one or more mesh nodes, the edge gateway (¶0019 discloses site system 14 may generally include at least a gateway … and one or more devices 26, or device nodes, which are configured to communicate over a mesh network 28) comprising: a radio configured for communication within the mesh network; one or more control circuits configured for one or both of controlling and processing of data (¶0019 discloses site system 14 may generally include …one or more devices 26, or device nodes, which are configured to communicate over a mesh network 28… The gateway 24 may also include an operations module 32 for processing and/or communicating instructions); and a communication module comprising one or more communication circuits configured to facilitate or support local communication with one or more local devices that are not part of the mesh network, and/or remote communication with one or more remote systems (¶0019 discloses that the gateway 24 may include a communications module 30 that facilitates communication between the mesh network 28, or other wireless network, and the WAN network 20 or 22. As such, the gateway 24 may facilitate communication between the devices 26 of the site system 14 and the server system 12. The gateway 24 may also include an operations module 32 for processing and/or communicating instructions received from the server system 12.... The operations module 32 may also receive and/or process information from the devices 26. That is, the gateway 24 may run applications locally while also interfacing across the mesh network 28 for WAN connectivity to the server system 12).
Regarding claim 2, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 1. Barna further discloses wherein the communication module comprises a Wi-Fi access point component configured to handle wireless local network access (¶0020 discloses that the gateway 24 may communicate with the server system 12 via cellular).
Regarding claim 3, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 1. Barna further discloses wherein the communication module comprises a cellular radio component configured to handle handling communication via cellular based connections (¶0020 discloses that the gateway 24 may communicate with the server system 12 via cellular).
Regarding claim 7, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 1. Barna further discloses wherein the one or more communication circuits are configured to enable cloud based communication, with a cloud network, using one or more connections via the communication module (¶0019 discloses that the gateway 24 may include a communications module 30 that facilitates communication between the mesh network 28, or other wireless network, and the WAN network 20 or 22. As such, the gateway 24 may facilitate communication between the devices 26 of the site system 14 and the server system 12. The gateway 24 may also include an operations module 32 for processing and/or communicating instructions received from the server system 12.... The operations module 32 may also receive and/or process information from the devices 26. That is, the gateway 24 may run applications locally while also interfacing across the mesh network 28 for WAN connectivity to the server system 12 where ¶0018 discloses that the server system 12 may be cloud-based).
Regarding claim 10, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 7. Barna further discloses wherein the one or more communication circuits are configured to adaptively process data for communication to the one more remote systems and the one or more local devices (¶0019 discloses that the gateway 24 may facilitate communication between the devices 26 of the site system 14 and the server system 12. The gateway 24 may also include an operations module 32 for processing and/or communicating instructions received from the server system 12…The operations module 32 may also receive and/or process information from the devices 26).
Regarding claim 12, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 1. Barna further discloses wherein the one or more control circuits are configured to process data obtained within the mesh network (¶0019 discloses that the gateway 24 may facilitate communication between the devices 26 of the site system 14 and the server system 12. The gateway 24 may also include an operations module 32 …receive and/or process information from the devices 26).
Regarding claim 15, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 1. Barna further discloses wherein the one or more mesh nodes comprise at least one sensor (Fig. 1 item 40).
Regarding claim 16, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 1. Barna
further discloses wherein the one or more mesh nodes comprise at least one data generation element (Fig. 1 disclose item 40 which is a sensor. The sensor is used to collect/generate data).
Regarding claim 17, the claim is drawn to a method performing substantially the same features of the method of claim 1. Therefore, the claim is subject to the same rejection as claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Speight (US20170111840), in view of Lo et al (US20150295602).
Regarding claim 5, the cited reference Speight discloses all limitations of claim 1. Speight further discloses the one or more communication circuits is configured to support or control communication via the (¶0058 discloses that wireless communication unit 225 may be configured to act as an edge router that acts as a gateway between WiFi™ and LTE™. In the illustrated uplink (UL) example data packets are received at WiFi™ antenna 303 over the WiFi (mesh) network 345 and transmitted via LTE™ antenna 302). However, Speight does not explicitly teach the communication module comprises or is coupled to a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna and using MIMO antenna for communication.
In an analogous art Lo teaches the communication module comprises or is coupled to a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna and using MIMO antenna for communication (¶0021 discloses that the communication modules 110 and 120 may comprise a plurality of hardware devices and software and firmware modules for performing RF signal conversion and processing, baseband signal conversion and processing and digital signal conversion and processing. The CPU 150 is coupled to the communication modules 110 and 120 for controlling the operations thereof. The antenna module 160 may comprise a plurality of antennas for transmitting the RF signals generated by the communication modules 110 and 120 and receiving the RF signals for the corresponding communication modules 110 and 120. The antenna module 160 may also be implemented as Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna module for transmitting and receiving a plurality of RF signal streams).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective fillingdate of the claimed invention to incorporate the method of Lo to provide very high data rate by simultaneously transmitting multiple independent data streams on the same wireless channel.
Claims 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Barna et al (US20170111979), in view of Gupta et al (US20190327312).
Regarding claim 8, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 7. However, Barna does not explicitly teach wherein the one or more communication circuits are configured to set up and use virtual private network (VPN) based communication with the cloud network.
In an analogous art Gupta teaches wherein the one or more communication circuits are configured to set up and use virtual private network (VPN) based communication with the cloud network (¶0035 discloses that the private network 102 can also include an edge device 105 configured to interface with the cloud computing system 110 via one or more VPN connections 106… the edge device 105 can be configured to implement a secure communications protocol. In one example, the edge device 105 can include a router configured to implement IPsec protocol to provide data confidentiality, data integrity, and data authentication between the edge device 105 and one or more instances 114 a and 114 b of a VPN gateway 114 via VPN connections 106 a and 106 b).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to incorporate the method of Gupta to secure communications in communication network.
Claims 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Barna et al (US20170111979), in view of Verma et al (US20230124136).
Regarding claim 9, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 7. However, Barna does not explicitly teach wherein the one or more communication circuits are configured to communicate mesh-related data with at least one remote system via the cloud based routing.
In an analogous art Verma teaches wherein the one or more communication circuits are configured to communicate mesh-related data with at least one remote system via the cloud based routing (¶0095 discloses route the data packets to the cloud-based service 406 using a cloud-based routing protocol).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to incorporate the method of Verma to manage the firewall policies and effectively consolidate the network traffic without undue burden on the enterprise network and the gateways.
Claims 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Barna et al (US20170111979), in view of Wang et al (US20240353521).
Regarding claim 11, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 10.However, Barna does not explicitly teach wherein the one or more control circuits are configured to adjust or throttle in real-time data based on communication related parameters, wherein the communication related parameters comprise one or both of bandwidth and latency.
In an analogous art Wang teaches wherein the one or more control circuits are configured to adjust or throttle in real-time data based on communication related parameters, wherein the communication related parameters comprise one or both of bandwidth and latency (¶0018 discloses the self-adjustment unit is further to dynamically configure and adjust the data processing based on the communication bandwidth).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to incorporate the method of Wang
Claims 13, 18, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Barna et al (US20170111979), in view of Ryan et al (US20220357743).
Regarding claim 13, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 12. However, Barna does not explicitly teach wherein the one or more control circuits are configured to fuse at least some of the data obtained within the mesh network.
In an analogous art Ryan teaches wherein the one or more control circuits are configured to fuse at least some of the data obtained within the mesh network (¶0072 discloses that multiple aerial vehicles may cooperate with one another, effectively forming a mesh network to share sensor data. Multiple sensor data from various sources and/or types may be fused. ¶0086 discloses that at least a portion of the sensor data from one or more sensors 110 a, 110 b, 110 c may be fused).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to incorporate the method of Ryan to use fusion method to remove redundant data and standardize data format.
Regarding claim 18, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 17. However, Barna does not explicitly teach wherein the local mesh network further comprises one or more sensors, wherein the mesh obtained data comprises sensory data, and further comprising obtaining at least some of the sensory data via the one or more sensors.
In an analogous art Ryan teaches wherein the local mesh network further comprises one or more sensors, wherein the mesh obtained data comprises sensory data, and further comprisingobtaining at least some of the sensory data via the one or more sensors (¶0086 discloses that Data from the one or more sensors 110 a, 110 b, 110 c and/or the flight controllers 126 a, 126 b, 126 c may be shared between the aerial vehicles in the aerial vehicle swarm 224 (e.g., functioning as a mesh network). At least a portion of the sensordata from one or more sensors 110 a, 110 b, 110 c may be fused).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to incorporate the method of Ryan to use fusion method to remove redundant data, unify data, and standardize data format.
Regarding claim 19, the cited reference Ryan further discloses comprising fusing at least portion of the sensory data (¶0086 discloses that at least a portion of the sensor data from one or more sensors 110 a, 110 b, 110 c may be fused).
Regarding claim 20, the cited reference Ryan further discloses further comprising fusing the at least portion of the sensory data in one or more of: the one or more sensors, one or more mesh nodes, the edge gateway, and one or more remote or local processing resources (¶0086 discloses that at least a portion of the sensor data from one or more sensors 110 a, 110 b, 110 c may be fused).
Claims 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Barna et al (US20170111979), in view of Naderi et al (US20230034179).
Regarding claims 13 and 14, the cited reference Barna discloses all limitations of claim 12. However, Barna does not explicitly teach wherein the one or more control circuits are configured to fuse at least some of the data obtained within the mesh network and wherein the one or more control circuits are configured to process at least some of the data using artificial intelligence (AI) based processing respectively.
In an analogous art Naderi teaches wherein the one or more control circuits are configured to fuse at least some of the data obtained within the mesh network and wherein the one or more control circuits are configured to process at least some of the data using artificial intelligence (AI) based processing (¶0076 discloses that the controller might run machine learning-based algorithms or fuses all the measurement data reported by the entire node array and matches the voltage patterns with a priori stored signatures).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective fillingdate of the claimed invention to incorporate the method of Naderi to maximize the capacity and efficiency of wireless collected data.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDELILLAH ELMEJJARMI whose telephone number is (571)270-1656. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri: 8AM-5PM EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yemane Mesfin can be reached on (571)272-3927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
Respectfully submitted,
/ABDELILLAH ELMEJJARMI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462