D8 4TAILED 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 Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KAKINADA (US 20190150134 A1) in view of Doshi (US 20220224776 A1).
For claim 1, KAKINADA discloses a device, comprising: a processing system including a processor; and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations (FIG. 3a discloses a network with a plurality of devices, such as controller 310, or AP/CBSD/gateway 314, or combination of 310 and 314), comprising:
analyzing a plurality of devices at a premises in communication with a network for providing network services to the plurality of devices, the plurality of devices associated with a network subscriber according to a subscription plan specifying a first bandwidth, the plurality of devices having a priority order determined by the network subscriber (Abstract “… the controller dynamically allocates (i) spectrum within the area or venue within CBRS bands, and (ii) MSO users or subscribers to CBRS bands or IoT bands (e.g., public ISM) bands to maximize connectivity and performance. In another variant, the controller cooperates with a provisioning server to implement a client device application program or “app” on an end user IoT device which enables inter-RAT connectivity.”, “[0103] The term “Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)” refers without limitation to any type of electronic equipment located within a customer's or subscriber's premises and connected to or in communication with a network.” and [0233] “… This can also be applied to for instance a higher priority or service tier vs. a lower tier; the higher tier may be allocated available bandwidth (at least to a prescribed degree or value) before bandwidth is allocated to the lower tier, so as to ensure the connectivity for the higher tier devices is sufficient. …”);
creating an outage plan comprising actions to manage provision of the network services for each of the plurality of devices respectively according to the priority order ([0261] “… Utility companies need real-time monitoring of the grid, so they can make immediate decisions based on load, outages and other interruptions (and hence can be considered a “high priority” application in certain cases). …”);
implementing the outage plan responsive to an occurrence of an outage in the network services for the plurality of devices by performing the actions for each of the plurality of devices respectively ([0261] “… Utility companies need real-time monitoring of the grid, so they can make immediate decisions based on load, outages and other interruptions (and hence can be considered a “high priority” application in certain cases). …”), the actions comprising:
in accordance with a gateway (FIG. 3b, a premises gateway/hub 360, or FIG. 3a, AP/CBSD/gateway 314) being available for the premises and the plurality of devices including a smartphone, facilitating network connectivity for at least a portion of the plurality of devices (“[0265] Such system can also be used as a “reverse 911” system of sorts, such as where the CBRS infrastructure can push data or messaging, via the CBSD(s) 314, to correlated user devices, such as those maintained in the MSO subscriber database. For instance, MSO subscribers working in an affected office building can be immediately warned or alerted via their mobile devices (e.g., LTE-U/LAA-enabled smartphones) of an impending event or evacuation notice, either in place or in parallel with licensed spectrum or other modalities. So, for example, workers in an underground infrastructure facility could receive notifications or alerts via the local CBSD 314a on their smartphones, ”) using the gateway and the smartphone as a mobile hotspot (“[0008] … A user may generally access the network at a “hotspot,” a physical location at which the user may obtain access by connecting to modems, routers, APs, etc. that are within wireless range.”);
in accordance with the gateway being available for the premises and the plurality of devices not including a smartphone, facilitating network connectivity for at least a portion of the plurality of devices using the gateway and another device as a mobile hotspot, wherein the other device is provided by a provider of the network services (FIG. 3a and the associated text, such as “[0259] As a first example, the methods and apparatus described herein to provide users or subscribers (or their proxies) with an ability to track pallets or other modular freight or shipping containers. Being able to track pallets or other containers to determine, e.g., the location and/or condition of goods is highly desirable for any number of reasons, and can be readily leveraged using LTE—U/LAA or any other unlicensed technologies which are suited to these requirements. …”);
in accordance with the gateway for the premises not being available, facilitating network connectivity for at least a portion of the plurality of devices by transferring an authentication token to a predetermined device of the plurality of devices to serve as a backup gateway for the premises (“[0142] The centralized media server(s) 321, 304 located in the headend 307 may also be replaced with or used in tandem with (e.g., as a backup) to hub media servers (not shown) in one alternative configuration. …”); and
modifying the subscription plan for a duration of the outage to specify a second bandwidth less than the first bandwidth (“[0233] … This can also be applied to for instance a higher priority or service tier vs. a lower tier; the higher tier may be allocated available bandwidth (at least to a prescribed degree or value) before bandwidth is allocated to the lower tier, so as to ensure the connectivity for the higher tier devices is sufficient. Alternatively, the goal may be more equitable distribution of resources (i.e., radio/backhaul/core resources) among different users, access networks, partners and/or different types of services (e.g., QoS versus non-QoS, time-sensitive versus non-time sensitive, etc.), logic to balance the resources across the different IoT end user network, etc. may be employed. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 9,730,143 to Gormley, et al. issued Aug. 8, 2017 and entitled “Method and apparatus for self organizing networks;” U.S. Pat. No. 9,591,491 to Tapia issued Mar. 7, 2017 entitled “Self-organizing wireless backhaul among cellular access points;” and U.S. Pat. No. 9,730,135 to Rahman issued Aug. 8, 2017, entitled “Radio access network resource configuration for groups of mobile devices,” each of the foregoing incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, for exemplary SON implementations useful with various aspects of the present disclosure.”).
KAKINADA is silent but Doshi, in the same field of endeavor of network communication, discloses that the gateway is a residential gateway (RG) (“[0273] … a gateway device (e.g., Residential Gateway, Wireline 5G Access Network, Wireline 5G Cable Access Network, Wireline BBF Access Network, and the like) …”). KAKINADA also teach bandwidth adjust bandwidth according to network operation status (“[0033] … The prioritized list may be dynamically updated based on real-time performance feedback or other new or updated information (e.g., updated prioritization rules), which, in turn, facilitates dynamic rebalancing the usage of the various content delivery sources. For example, as the performance of a particular content delivery source begins to suffer or the available bandwidth associated with a particular content delivery source decreases, that content delivery source may be lowered on the priority list, resulting in an updated priority list, which, in turn, may be pushed to various media players, thereby influencing future utilization of the content delivery sources.”). OOSA would have been motivated to apply the residential gateway of Doshi above to the gateway by KAKINADA to yield a predictable result of serving residential clients.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to OOSA before the effective filing date of the application to combine KAKINADA and Doshi for the benefit of serving residential clients ([0273] of Doshi).
Claim 12 is rejected because it is a claim of method being performed by the device of claim 1 and has the same subject matter.
Claim 17 is rejected because it is a claim of non-transitory machine-readable medium included in the device claim 1 and has the same subject matter.
As to claims 2, 13 and 18. KAKINADA in view of Doshi discloses claims 1, 12 and 17, KAKINADA discloses: wherein the other device is a wireless device external to the premises (FIG. 3a, wherein other device, such as client 306 or IoT device 309, is a wireless device external to the premises).
As to claim 3, KAKINADA and Doshi discloses claim 1, wherein the RG has a modem associated therewith (FIG. 3a, wherein RG 314 has a cable modem 313 associated with it).
As to claims 4, 14 and 19. KAKINADA in view of Doshi discloses claims 1, 12 and 17, KAKINADA discloses: wherein the outage comprises loss of a fiber-optic link to the premises, reduced network bandwidth available at the premises, congestion on the network, or a combination thereof (“[0070] FIG. 3a is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplary hybrid fiber network configuration useful with various aspects of the present disclosure.” and ([0261] “…they can make immediate decisions based on load, outages and other interruptions (and hence can be considered a “high priority” application in certain cases). …”).
As to claims 5, 15 and 20. KAKINADA in view of Doshi discloses claims 1, 12 and 17, KAKINADA discloses: wherein the operations further comprise dynamically updating, responsive to the occurrence of the outage, a list of the plurality of devices, the list indicating an availability of each of the plurality of devices and the priority order (“[0049] The present disclosure addresses the foregoing needs by providing, inter alia, methods and apparatus for dynamically controlling access to and utilization of quasi-licensed spectrum (such as for example that of CBRS) to provide IoT device connectivity within a prescribed service area, application, or apparatus.” and ([0261] “…they can make immediate decisions based on load, outages and other interruptions (and hence can be considered a “high priority” application in certain cases). …” in view of the parent claims, which discloses the outage, a list of the plurality of devices, the list indicating an availability of each of the plurality of devices and the priority order).
As to claim 6, KAKINADA in view of Doshi discloses claims 5, KAKINADA discloses: wherein the operations further comprise dynamically allocating, responsive to the occurrence of the outage and during the outage, bandwidth resources to the plurality of devices in accordance with the priority order (“[0049] The present disclosure addresses the foregoing needs by providing, inter alia, methods and apparatus for dynamically controlling access to and utilization of quasi-licensed spectrum (such as for example that of CBRS) to provide IoT device connectivity within a prescribed service area, application, or apparatus.” and ([0261] “…they can make immediate decisions based on load, outages and other interruptions (and hence can be considered a “high priority” application in certain cases). …” in view of the parent claims, which discloses the outage, a list of the plurality of devices, the list indicating an availability of each of the plurality of devices and the priority order).
As to claim 7, KAKINADA in view of Doshi discloses claims 5, KAKINADA discloses: wherein the list indicates primary devices of the plurality of devices and secondary devices of the plurality of devices, the primary devices having higher priority than the secondary devices, and wherein in accordance with the implementing the outage plan, the network connectivity is restored for one or more of the primary devices (FIG. 3a in view of (“[0233] … For example, if the goal at given instance is to push a larger amount of data (i.e., throughput) such as in the uplink direction (UL) from a network of connected IoT sensor devices, the IoT devices/hubs with better signaling may be chosen by the optimization logic to transact more data in an efficient manner (effectively “path of least resistance” logic). This can also be applied to for instance a higher priority or service tier vs. a lower tier; the higher tier may be allocated available bandwidth (at least to a prescribed degree or value) before bandwidth is allocated to the lower tier, …”).
As to claims 8 and 16, KAKINADA in view of Doshi discloses claims 7 and 12, KAKINADA discloses: wherein in accordance with the implementing the outage plan, one or more of the secondary devices is disabled for the duration of the outage (“[0233] … This can also be applied to for instance a higher priority or service tier vs. a lower tier; the higher tier may be available bandwidth (at least to a prescribed degree or value) before bandwidth is allocated to the lower tier, ...”, suggesting to OOSA that if no bandwidth available to be allocated, low tier services would not get any bandwidth, equivalent to disabling the services).
As to claim 9, KAKINADA in view of Doshi discloses claims 7, KAKINADA discloses: wherein the operations further comprise assigning one or more of the primary devices to a first frequency spectrum portion and assigning one or more of the secondary devices to a second frequency spectrum portion different from the first frequency spectrum portion (assigning different frequency spectrum portions to different services based on network service requirement is a design choice according to MPEP 2143(F), and therefore is obvious to OOSA).
As to claim 10, KAKINADA in view of Doshi discloses claims 1, KAKINADA discloses: wherein a device manager at the premises communicates with the processing system and with the plurality of devices, and wherein the implementing of the outage plan is discontinued in accordance with receiving an acknowledgement from a provider of the network services and from the device manager that the outage has been resolved (It is well known in the art that the outage recovery is included in the outage plan, and Examiner takes an official notice on this statement. For example, Reyes (US 20220156162 A1) discloses it and throughout the document, such as Abstract, or [0018]).
As to claim 11, KAKINADA in view of Doshi discloses claims 1, Doshi wherein the analyzing is performed using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and wherein the operations further comprise assessing, subsequent to the outage, performance of the plurality of devices using AI/ML (“[0290] The term “Internet of Things” or “IoT” at least in some embodiments refers to a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines capable of transferring data with little or no human interaction, and may involve technologies such as real-time analytics, machine learning and/or AI, …” in view of the parent claim). The motivation of combining KAKINADA and Doshi is “transferring data with little or no human interaction” ([0290] of Doshi).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANYE WU whose telephone number is (571)270-1665. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 8am-6pm.
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/JIANYE WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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