DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as "configured to" or "so that"; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step for”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim element is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) (pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph). The presumption that 35 U.S.C. 112(f) (pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph) is invoked is rebutted when the function is recited with sufficient structure, material, or acts within the claim itself to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step for”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim element is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) (pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph). The presumption that 35 U.S.C. 112(f) (pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph) is not invoked is rebutted when the claim element recites function but fails to recite sufficiently definite structure, material or acts to perform that function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “first communication execution unit”, “determination unit”, “second communication execution unit” in claims 1, 8. A review of the specification appears to show that the following is the corresponding structure: Fig.3 and paragraph [0040-0041], “the vehicle control unit 53 includes function blocks … These function blocks are implemented by the CPU 530 executing program code stored in the non-transitory tangible storage medium”, wherein CPU 530 executing functions defined for first communication execution unit and determination unit.
Fig 5 and paragraph [0065], “Various functions of the microcomputer are implemented by the CPU 230 executing a program stored in a non-transitory tangible storage medium”, wherein CPU 230 executing function defined for second communication execution unit.
Fig.6 and paragraph [0066-0082], disclose the method that the communication unit 24 performs short-range wireless communication with the vehicle device 4 via the portable antenna 21 and the portable transceiver 22 using a communication method conforming to BLE.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 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 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.
Claims 1- 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over STITT et al. (US 20190213145 A1, hereinafter STITT) in view of BLE_5.0 et al. (Bluetooth Specification Version 5.0, hereinafter BLE_5.0).
Claim 1: STITT teaches A vehicle device used in a communication system, the communication system including a first communication device (Fig. 1, element vehicle, Fig. 2, element 30) and a second communication device (Fig.1, element 10, Fig. 2, element 10), which perform a wireless communication with one another in bidirectional manner ([0051], “As shown in FIGS. 1-2, the portable device 10 may communicate with the communication gateway 29 of the vehicle 30 via the communication link 50 … The communication link 50 may be a Bluetooth communication link as provided for and defined by the Bluetooth specification. As an example, the communication link 50 may be a BLE communication link. Alternatively, the communication link 50 may be a Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi direct communication link”, [0041], “The PEPS system includes a sensor network that is configured to find existing connections between the portable device and the vehicle and to measure the timing and signal characteristics of the communication between the portable device and the vehicle … The PEPS system is also configured to perform a cryptographic operation to prevent an unauthorized device from executing a replay attack on the communication link between the vehicle and the portable device”),
the vehicle device being mounted on a vehicle and corresponding to the first communication device included in the communication system (Fig. 1, element 29, Fig. 5, element 29, [0042], “a PEPS system 1 is provided within a vehicle 30 and includes a communication gateway 29, a plurality of sensors 31A-31J (collectively referred to as sensors 31), and a control module 20”), the vehicle device comprising:
a main antenna performing signal transmitting and signal receiving (Fig. 2, element 19, Fig. 4, element 19, [0044], “The control module 20 may also include a link authentication module 22 that authenticates a portable device 10 for communication via communication link 50”, [0055], “The control module 20 and, more specifically, the communication gateway 29, can establish a secure communication connection, such as communication link 50, with the portable device 10 ”, [0060], “the communication gateway 29 includes the wireless communication chipset 41 connected to an antenna 19 to receive BLE signals”, [0061], “The application 47 may include code corresponding to modifications outside of the Bluetooth specification to enable the wireless communication chipset 41 to inspect timestamped data transmitted and received by the wireless communication chipset 41”,[0062], “The Bluetooth protocol stack 48 is configured to output timing signals for the timestamps of transmission and reception events to the application 47 and/or a digital PIN output of the wireless communication chipset 41”, [0051], “As shown in FIGS. 1-2, the portable device 10 may communicate with the communication gateway 29 of the vehicle 30 via the communication link 50 … The communication link 50 may be a Bluetooth communication link as provided for and defined by the Bluetooth specification”);
at least one sub-antenna (Fig. 2, element 31A/B… J, Fig. 3, element 43, 31) different from the main antenna (Fig. 2,element 19, Fig. 4, element 19, 29), and the at least one sub-antenna performing signal transmitting and signal receiving (Fig. 2, element 31A/B…J, Fig. 3, [0054], “each of the sensors 31 includes a wireless communication chipset 41 connected to an antenna system 43. The wireless communication chipset 41 may be a BLE communication chipset”, [0058], “when the BLE communication protocol is used, the sensors 31 receive BLE signals using the antenna system 43…the sensors 31 may communicate with each other and/or communicate with the communication gateway 29 via the vehicle interface 45”, [0056], “ the sensors 31 themselves can determine a location of the portable device 10 or distance to the portable device 10 based on the measured information and can communicate the location or distance to the control module 20”, [0061], “the communication gateway 29 may be configured to receive the data from each of the sensors 31 via the vehicle interface 45”, [0046], “In response to the sensors 31 receiving the information from the connection information distribution module 24 via the vehicle interface 45 and the sensors 31 being synchronized with the communication gateway 29, The sensors 31 may locate and follow, or eavesdrop on, the communication link 50”, [0065], “In response to the control module 20 receiving the AoA measurements from the sensors 31, the control module 20 may determine the location of the portable device 10”), wherein a communication frame of the wireless communication, which is transmitted in a first direction from the first communication device to the second communication device, is paired with a communication frame of the wireless communication, which is transmitted in a second direction from the second communication device to the first communication device (Fig. 9, packet 908 pair with packet 912, packet 916 pair with packet 928 or packet 924, packet 936 pair with packet 940, [0087], “At 908, the control algorithm 900 receives, using the CVM 14, a first message packet of a first packet pair from the PaaK module 49. At 912, the control algorithm 900 transmits, using the CVM 14, a second message packet of the first packet pair to the Paak module 49 on a first communication channel (e.g., one of BLE channels 1-39)”, [0088], “receives, using the CVM 14, a first message packet of a second packet pair… transmits, using the CVM 14, a second message packet of the second packet pair to the PaaK module 49”, [0089], “receives, using the CVM 14, a first message packet of an additional packet pair … transmits, using the CVM 14, the second message packet of the additional packet pair to the PaaK module 49”, Fig.10, element 1008, 1012, [0090], disclose generating a series of bits based on the current communication channel of the connection interval when processing steps 912, 928, 936, or 940 in Fig. 9 );
a first communication execution unit generating first direction information, which indicates a communication direction is the first direction, and transmitting the communication frame, which includes the generated first direction information, via the main antenna (Fig. 9, element 908,916, 936, [0051], “the portable device 10 may communicate with the communication gateway 29 of the vehicle 30 via the communication link 50 … The communication link 50 may be a Bluetooth communication link as provided for and defined by the Bluetooth specification”, Fig. 6, element 141, [0078], “the message
packet 140 may include a preamble portion 142 (8 bits), an access address portion 144 (32 bits), a protocol data unit portion 146 (536 bits) … The protocol data unit portion 146 may include a header portion 150 (16 bits), which includes logical link identifier (LLID) bits, a next expected sequence number (NESN) bit, a sequence number (SN) bit, a more data (MD) bit … The MD bit may indicate whether the portable device
10 intends to send additional message packets 140 while the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 communicate via communication link 50”, wherein a header portion and/or access address portion is reading as first direction information, [0076], “if the validation module 132 determines that the nonce bytes 109-1, 109-2 match and the MAC comparator module 130 determines that the MAC bytes 111-1, 111-2 match … the validation module 132 may be configured to generate a reconstructed message packet
141, which includes all of the contents of the message packet 140 except for the tone byte 113”, [0085], “At 854, the control algorithm 800 provides, using the PaaK module 49, the reconstructed message packet 141 to the communication gateway 29, establishes the communication link 50”), wherein the first direction information corresponds to communication direction information, which is included in the paired communication frame and indicates the communication direction of communication frame;
and a determination unit determining whether a transmission source of the communication frame is the second communication device (Fig. 6, element 132, Fig. 8, [0083], “a control algorithm 800 for establishing the communication link 50 between the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 is shown”. [0076], “if the validation module 132 determines that the nonce bytes 109-1, 109-2 match and the MAC comparator module 130 determines that the MAC bytes 111-1, 111-2 match, the validation module 132 may be configured to generate a reconstructed message packet 141, which includes all of the contents of the message packet 140 except for the tone byte 113”, wherein determination is based on whether nonce bytes and MAC bytes match), wherein the second communication device is a portable device (Fig. 1, element 10, Fig. 2, element 10, [0051], “the portable device 10 may communicate with the communication gateway 29 of the vehicle 30 via the communication link 50. Without limitation, the portable device 10 may be, for example, any Bluetooth-enabled communication device … communication link 50 may be a BLE communication link”),
the second communication device includes: a transmission reception antenna performing signal transmitting and signal receiving (Fig. 2, element 13, 0051], “the portable device 10 may communicate with the communication gateway 29 of the vehicle 30 via the communication link 50. Without limitation, the portable device 10 may be, for example, any Bluetooth-enabled communication device … communication link 50 may be a BLE communication link. Alternatively, the communication link 50 may be a Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi direct communication link”, [0052], “The portable device 10 may include a wireless communication chipset 11 connected to an antenna 13 … Based on the application code 12 and using the wireless communication chipset 11 and the antenna 13, the
portable device 10 may be configured to execute various instructions corresponding to , for example, authentication of the communication link 50, transmission of location and/or velocity information obtained by a global navigation satellite system (e.g., GPS) sensor or accelerometer of the portable device 10”);
and a second communication execution unit generating second direction information, which indicates the communication direction is the second direction, and transmitting the communication frame, which includes the generated second direction information (Fig. 6, element 141, Fig. 7 A/B … G, Fig. 8, [0076], “ the validation module 132 may be configured to generate a reconstructed message packet 141, which includes all of the contents of the message packet 140 except for the tone byte 113”, [0078], “the message packet 140 may include a preamble portion 142 (8 bits), an access address portion 144 (32 bits), a protocol data unit portion 146 (536 bits), and a cyclical redundancy check portion 148 (24 bits)… The protocol data unit portion 146 may include a header portion 150 (16 bits) … a next expected sequence number (NESN) bit, a sequence number (SN) bit … The MD bit may indicate whether the portable device 10
intends to send additional message packets 140 while the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 communicate via communication link 50”, wherein a header portion and/or access address portion is reading as second direction information. Fig.9, element 912, 928, 924), in response to a signal including the first direction information being received via the transmission reception antenna,
and the determination unit determines that the transmission source of the communication frame is the second communication device (Fig. 6, element 132, [0076], “if the validation module 132 determines that the nonce bytes 109-1, 109-2 match and the MAC comparator module 130 determines that the MAC bytes 111-1, 111-2 match, the validation module 132 may be configured to generate a reconstructed message packet 141, which includes all of the contents of the message packet 140 except for the tone byte 113”, wherein determination is based on whether nonce bytes and MAC bytes match) when the communication frame received by the at least one sub-antenna includes the second direction information ([0077], “the message packets 140 may either be an advertising BLE packet or a data BLE packet, and a communication channel in which the message packet 140 is transmitted or received may vary based on the type of message packet (e.g., advertising BLE packets are only transmitted on channels 37-39 of the BLE communication protocol)”, [0054], “each of the sensors 31 includes a wireless communication chipset 41 connected to an antenna system 43. The wireless communication chipset 41 may be a BLE communication chipset”, [0058], “when the BLE communication protocol is used, the sensors 31 receive BLE signals using the antenna system 43…the sensors 31 may communicate with each other and/or communicate with the communication gateway
29 via the vehicle interface 45”, [0061], “the communication gateway 29 may be configured to receive the data from each of the sensors 31 via the vehicle interface 45”, [0046], “In response to the sensors 31 receiving the information from the connection information distribution module 24 via the vehicle interface 45 and the sensors 31 being synchronized with the communication gateway 29, The sensors 31 may locate and follow, or eavesdrop on, the communication link 50”), which corresponds to the communication direction information and indicates that the communication direction is the second direction.
However, STITT does not explicitly teach wherein the first direction information corresponds to communication direction information, which is included in the paired communication frame and indicates the communication direction of communication frame;
the communication direction is the second direction second direction information in response to a signal including the first direction information being received via the transmission reception antenna.
the determination unit determines the second communication, which corresponds to the communication direction information and indicates that the communication direction is the second direction.
BLE_5.0, from the same or similar field of endeavor, teaches wherein the first direction information corresponds to communication direction information, which is included in the paired communication frame and indicates the communication direction of communication frame (Page 2587, section 2.4, Page 2648, section 4.5.9, “For each connection the Link Layer has two parameters, transmitSeqNum and nextExpectedSeqNum, each one bit in size. The transmitSeqNum parameter is used to identify packets sent by the Link Layer. The nextExpectedSeqNum parameter is used by the peer to either acknowledge the last Data Channel PDU sent, or to request resending of the last Data Channel PDU sent”, wherein nextExpectedSeqNum is serving as the similar function as pairing. Page 1726, section 2.1, Page 1765-1766, section 4.14 and 4.15, disclose packet format for creating channel request and response, wherein source CID is serving as the first direction information, and “channel request packet” and “channel response packet” is properly interpreted as paired frames);
second direction information in response to a signal including the first direction information being received via the transmission reception antenna (Page 1726, section 2.1, Page 1766, section 4.15, “Destination CID represents the channel endpoint on the device receiving the request and sending the response … The result field indicates the outcome of the Create Channel Request. The result value of 0x0000 indicates success”, wherein the combination of “destination CID” and “Result” fields are serving as the second direction information in response to a signal including the first direction information being received).
the determination unit determines the second communication, which corresponds to the communication direction information and indicates that the communication direction is the second direction (Page 1726, section 2.1, Page 1766, section 4.15, “Thus, the Destination CID represents the channel endpoint on the device receiving the request and sending the response … The SCID field contains the channel endpoint on the device receiving this Response packet … The result field indicates the outcome of the Create Channel Request. The result value of 0x0000 indicates success”).
STITT and BLE_5.0 are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of wireless communication. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the system of STITT and the features of constructing first indication frame, second indication frame and pairing method, as taught by BLE_5.0, for the benefit for allowing transmitting device and receiving device picking up the channel (or logic link) with good link quality, thus the connection between two devices is robust and reliable (page 1766, section 4.15). The Link Layer acknowledgment and flow control scheme via transmitSeqNum and nextExpectedSeqNum is well known in the Bluetooth field (page 2648-2649).
Claim 8 is a method of claim 1, is analyzed and rejected according to claim 1.
Claim 9 is analyzed and rejected according to claim 1, and STITT further teaches a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium; and a processor, by executing program code stored in the computer-readable non-transitory storage medium ([0009], “a portable device that includes a processor that is configured to execute instructions stored in a nontransitory computer-readable medium”, [0010], “the method includes generating, using a processor of the peripheral device, second MAC bytes based on the shared secret key, wherein the processor of the peripheral device is configured to execute instructions stored in a nontransitory computer-readable medium”).
Claim 2: STITT teaches the vehicle device according to claim 1, further comprising: a strength detector detecting a reception strength of a signal received by the at least one sub-antenna (Fig. 3, [0055], “the sensors 31 can measure the received signal strength and determine a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value … the sensors 31 can determine other measurements of the signals received from the portable device 10, such as an angle of arrival, a time of arrival, a time difference of arrival”);
and a position specifying unit specifying a position of the second communication device based on the detected reception strength in response to the determination unit determining that the transmission source of the communication frame received by the at least one sub-antenna is the second communication device ([0056], “The sensors 31 can then communicate the measured information to the control module 20, which can then determine a location of the portable device 10 or a distance to the portable device 10 based on the measured information received from each of the sensors 31… the control module 20 can determine the location of the portable device 10 based on, for example, the patterns of the RSSI values for the various signals received from the portable device 10 by the various sensors 31”).
Claim 3: The combination of STITT and BLE_5.0 teaches the vehicle device according to claim 1, wherein the communication frames paired with one another is defined as a pair frame (STITT, Fig. 9, element 908 pair with 912, 916 pair with 928 or 924, 936 pair with 940), the communication direction information includes current pair frame information and next pair frame information (STITT, Fig. 7A/B …G, [0078], “The protocol data unit portion 146 may include a header portion 150 (16 bits), which includes logical link identifier (LLID) bits, , a next expected sequence number (NESN) bit, a sequence number (SN) bit … The NESN and SN bits may represent a sequence number for acknowledgment and flow control. The MD bit may indicate whether the portable device 10 intends to send additional message packets 140 while the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 communicate via communication link 50”, wherein SN is serving as current pair frame information, and NESN is serving as serving as next pair frame information),
the current pair frame information indicates the pair frame, which includes the communication frame to be transmitted, the next pair frame information indicates the pair frame, which includes the communication frame to be received next time (BLE_5.0, page 2587, section 2.4, page 2648, section 4.5.9, “For each connection the Link Layer has two parameters, transmitSeqNum and nextExpectedSeqNum, each one bit in size. The transmitSeqNum parameter is used to identify packets sent by the Link Layer. The nextExpectedSeqNum parameter is used by the peer to either acknowledge the last Data Channel PDU sent, or to request resending of the last Data Channel PDU sent”),
in the first communication device, the first communication execution unit generates, as the first direction information, the communication direction information in which the current pair frame information and the next pair frame information are equal to one another (BLE_5.0, page 2648, section 4.5.9, “The transmitSeqNum and nextExpectedSeqNum parameters shall be set to zero upon entering the Connection State”, page 2649, paragraph 3, “For each new Data Channel PDU that is sent, the SN bit of the Header shall be set to transmitSeqNum. If a Data Channel PDU is resent, then the SN bit shall not be changed”, Page 1765, section 4.14, “Once the channel has been configured, data packets flowing to the sender of the request shall be sent to this CID. Thus, the Source CID represents the channel endpoint on the device sending the request and receiving the response”),
and in the second communication device, the second communication execution unit generates, as the second direction information, the communication direction information in which the current pair frame information and the next pair frame information are different from one another (BLE_5.0, Page 2649, Fig. 4.39, paragraph 4, “Upon reception of a Data Channel PDU, the SN bit shall be compared to nextExpectedSeqNum. If the bits are different, then this is a resent Data Channel PDU, and nextExpectedSeqNum shall not be changed. If the bits are the same, then this is a new Data Channel PDU, and nextExpectedSeqNum may be incremented by one (see Section 4.5.9.1)”, Page 1767, section 4.16, “Move Channel request packets are sent to move an existing L2CAP channel from a physical link on one Controller to a physical link on another Controller”, wherein initiator CID is serving as the CID for the current pair frame, and Dest ID is serving as the CID for the next pair frame.). The motivation for combining STITT and BLE_5.0 regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 3.
Claim 4: The combination of STITT and BLE_5.0 teaches the vehicle device according to claim 3, wherein the current pair frame information and the next pair frame information are indicated by numerical values (STITT, Fig. 7A/B …G, [0078], “The protocol data unit portion 146 may include a header portion 150 (16 bits), which includes logical link identifier (LLID) bits, , a next expected sequence number (NESN) bit, a sequence number (SN) bit … The NESN and SN bits may represent a sequence number for acknowledgment and flow control. The MD bit may indicate whether the portable device 10 intends to send additional message packets 140 while the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 communicate via communication link 50”, wherein SN is serving as current pair frame information, and NESN is serving as serving as next pair frame information).
Claim 5: The combination of STITT and BLE_5.0 teaches the vehicle device according to claim 3, wherein the current pair frame information and the next pair frame information each is represented by 0 or 1 (STITT, Fig. 7A/B …G, [0078], “The protocol data unit portion 146 may include a header portion 150 (16 bits), which includes logical link identifier (LLID) bits, , a next expected sequence number (NESN) bit, a sequence number (SN) bit … The NESN and SN bits may represent a sequence number for acknowledgment and flow control. The MD bit may indicate whether the portable device 10 intends to send additional message packets 140 while the portable device 10 and the communication gateway 29 communicate via communication link 50”, wherein SN is serving as current pair frame information, and NESN is serving as serving as next pair frame information
BLE_5.0, page 2587, section 2.4, page 2648, section 4.5.9, “For each connection the Link Layer has two parameters, transmitSeqNum and nextExpectedSeqNum, each one bit in size. The transmitSeqNum parameter is used to identify packets sent by the Link Layer. The nextExpectedSeqNum parameter is used by the peer to either acknowledge the last Data Channel PDU sent, or to request resending of the last Data Channel PDU sent”).
Claim 6: The combination of STITT and BLE_5.0 teaches the vehicle device according to claim 1, wherein the communication direction information is included in an unencrypted field of the communication frame (BLE_5.0, PAGE 2077, section 10.4, “The data signing is used for transferring authenticated data between two devices in an unencrypted connection. The data signing method is used by services that require fast connection set up and fast data transfer”, Page 2506, section 3.3.2, “AMP devices may choose to obtain the timebase of their peer through the timestamp field in 802.11 beacons and probe responses…After successful 802.11 (re)association, unencrypted security frames may be transmitted on the physical link”, Page 249, section 5.4.4, “Bluetooth LE supports the ability to send authenticated data over an unencrypted ATT bearer between two devices with a trusted relationship”).
The motivation for combining STITT and BLE_5.0 regarding to the claim 1 is also applied to claim 6.
Claim 7: The combination of STITT and BLE_5.0 teaches the vehicle device according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication between the first communication device and the second communication device is a wireless communication under Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth is a registered trademark) standard (STITT, [0051], “the portable device 10 may communicate with the communication gateway 29 of the vehicle 30 via the communication link 50 … The communication link 50 may be a Bluetooth communication link as provided for and defined by the Bluetooth specification. As an example, the communication link 50 may be a BLE communication link. Alternatively, the communication link 50 may be a Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi direct communication link”, [0054], “each of the sensors 31 includes a wireless communication chipset 41 connected to an antenna
system 43. The wireless communication chipset 41 may be a BLE communication chipset”, [0058], “when the BLE communication protocol is used, the sensors 31 receive BLE signals using the antenna system 43…the sensors 31 may communicate with each other and/or communicate with the communication gateway 29 via the vehicle interface
45”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892 form. The closest prior art reference is Aldana et al. (US 20200120458 A1, hereinafter Aldana), which describes methods and devices for vehicular radio communication.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YONGHONG ZHAO whose telephone number is (571)272-4089. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Friday 9:00 am - 5:00pm.
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/Y.Z./Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/NICHOLAS A JENSEN/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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