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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group 1, claims 1-6, 12 and 13 in the reply filed on 07/13/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 7-11 and 14 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 are 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.
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 12 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over IEEE 802.1AS-2020, Timing and Synchronization for Time-Sensitive Applications, approved 30 January 2020 herein 802.1AS, in view of CN 102158335 A (as witnessed by the attached translation) herein Nanjing.
Claim 1, 802.1AS discloses a transfer apparatus, including two or more communication ports, that performs time synchronization through a network (Section 11.1.3, time-aware system), the transfer apparatus comprising: processing circuitry to (Section 10.2.12.3, the state machine causes time-synchronization information to be sent to the MD entity; Section 11.2.19.4, the state machine sends Pdelay_Req messages and computes propagation time on the attached PTP Link, thus processing circuitry):
identify from data received from each communication port, a message for delay measurement, a time source notification message, and a time notification message (Section 11.3.2.1, the event message class contains Sync and Pdelay_Req; Section 10.3.11.3, the state machine receives Announce information from the MD entity of the same PTP Port; Section 11.2.14.3, the state machine receives Sync and Follow_Up messages and places the time-synchronization information in an MDSyncReceive structure);
retain for each communication port, priority information of a time source, the priority information including reliability of time notified by the time source stored in the time source notification message received for each communication port and information that identifies and apparatus of the time source (Section 10.3.10.11, portPriority is the portPriorityVector for the PTP Port; Section 10.3.16.2.1, item b), the grandmasterldentity and grandmasterClockQuality fields of the Announce message are set equal to the corresponding components of the messagePriorityVector), and manage for each communication port, reception or non-reception of the time source notification message and a change in priority information (Section 10.3.10.4, infols takes the values Received, Mine, Aged, or Disabled, and is Aged when announce receipt timeout has occurred; Section 10.3.12.2.1, rcvlnfo returns SuperiorMasterlnfo, lnferiorMasterlnfo, or RepeatedMasterlnfo from a comparison of the messagePriorityVector to the portPriorityVector);
select as a slave port, the communication port with highest priority information among priority information of the time source managed in each communication port and priority information of the transfer apparatus including information that identifies the transfer apparatus (Section 10.3.13.2.4, item b), the gmPriorityVector is chosen as the best of the set consisting of the systemPriorityVector for this PTP Instance and the gmPathPriorityVector for each PTP Port; item f) 5), where the gmPriorityVector is now derived from the portPriorityVector, selectedState is set to SlavePort), and recognize as a master apparatus, an apparatus that is the time source corresponding to the slave port selected through the priority information (Section 10.3.9.21, gmPriority is the current gmPriorityVector for the PTP Instance);
periodically deliver the time source notification message, received in the slave port, that stores time source information having the master apparatus as the time source, to the communication port other than the slave port (Section 10.3.7.2, item c), where the PTP Port state is MasterPort, Announce information is transmitted to the MD entity when an announce interval has elapsed; Section 10.3.16.2.1, items a) and b), the messagePriorityVector is set to the masterPriorityVector and the grandmasterldentity field is set from the messagePriorityVector, thus the grandmaster information received at the slave port is delivered from the master ports);
manage for each communication port, reception or non-reception of the time notification message that stores time information (Section 10.7.3.1, syncReceiptTimeout tells a slave port the number of sync intervals to wait without receiving synchronization information, and the condition of not receiving for that number of intervals is sync receipt timeout; Figure 10-4, syncReceiptTimeoutTime is computed per port);
execute, in a case where either one of the reception state of the time source notification message and the reception state of the time notification message received from the slave port changed, either guarding for a certain period of time delivery of the time notification message to the communication port other than the slave port (Figure 10-8, on currentTime greater than or equal to syncReceiptTimeoutTime and not synclocked the state machine enters SYNC_RECEIPT_TIMEOUT, where txMDSync is not invoked; Section 10.2.12.3, the state machine causes time-synchronization information to be sent to the MD entity if this PTP Port is a MasterPort) or removing the guard for a certain period of time, delivery of the time notification message to the communication port other than the slave port;
measure a propagation delay by transmitting and receiving a message either between the master apparatus and the transfer apparatus or between an adjacent apparatus and the transfer apparatus (Section 11.1.2, propagation delay on a full-duplex point-to-point (PTP) Link is measured using peer-to-peer delay mechanism; Equation 11-1, D equals the quantity t4 minus t1 less the quantity t3 minus t2, divided by two);
in a case where there is no reception guard for the time notification message of the slave port when managing time in the transfer apparatus, synchronize time of the transfer apparatus with time of the master apparatus based on the time notification message periodically received in the slave port and delivered from the master apparatus and information including delay time (Section 11.2.14.2.1, item f), upstreamTxTime is set equal to the syncEventlngressTimestamp for the most recently received Sync message, minus meanlinkDelay divided by neighborRateRatio; Section 11.1.3, the sum of preciseOriginTimestamp and correctionField gives the synchronized time); and
in a case where there is no delivery guard for the time notification message of the slave port, add information on a parameter that affects in terms of time by passing through the transfer apparatus, the time notification message received from the slave port, and deliver the time notification message to which the information is added to the communication port other than the slave port (Section 11.2.15.2.6, modifySync adds to the correctionField of the transmitted Sync message the quantity rateRatio times syncEventEgressTimestamp minus upstreamTxTime, which the NOTE identifies as the sum of the residence time and PTP Link propagation delay on the upstream PTP Link; Section 11.2.15.2.3, item a), followUpCorrectionField is set to the sum of the received followUpCorrectionField and that quantity).
802.1AS may not explicitly disclose execute, in a case where either one of a reception state of the time source notification message and a reception state of the time notification message received in each communication port changed, either guarding for a certain period of time reception of the time notification message from a target communication port that is the communication port of which the reception state changed or removing the guard for reception of the time notification message from the target communication port.
Nanjing discloses execute, in a case where either one of a reception state of the time source notification message and a reception state of the time notification message received in each communication port changed, either guarding for a certain period of time reception of the time notification message from a target communication port that is the communication port of which the reception state changed (Pg. 10: 5-7, executing edge port protection, the edge port is Link down, the Link up is repeated after a certain time delay, and the edge port continues Link down if the announce message is continuously received) or removing the guard for reception of the time notification message from the target communication port. 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 802.1AS to include taking a port down for a certain time delay when that port receives an announce message it should not receive, as taught by Nanjing, so as to maintain the topology structure of the time synchronization network unchanged and solve the problems of low utilization rate of system resources and frequent network oscillation (Pg. 12: 3-10).
Claim 12, 802.1AS discloses a transfer apparatus, including two or more communication ports, that performs time synchronization through a network (Section 11.1.3, time-aware system), the transfer apparatus comprising:
processing circuitry to (Section 10.2.12.3, the state machine causes time-synchronization information to be sent to the MD entity; Section 11.2.19.4, the state machine sends Pdelay_Req messages and computes propagation time on the attached PTP Link, thus processing circuitry):
identify from data received from each communication port, a message for delay measurement, a time source notification message, and a time notification message (Section 11.3.2.1, the event message class contains Sync and Pdelay_Req; Section 10.3.11.3, the state machine receives Announce information from the MD entity of the same PTP Port; Section 11.2.14.3, the state machine receives Sync and Follow_Up messages and places the time-synchronization information in an MDSyncReceive structure);
retain for each communication port, priority information that is information stored in the time source notification message received for each communication port and information that includes information that identifies an apparatus of a time source and that indicates a priority of the time source (Section 10.3.10.11, portPriority is the portPriorityVector for the PTP Port; Section 10.3.16.2.1, item b), the grandmasterldentity and grandmasterPriority1 fields of the Announce message are set equal to the corresponding components of the messagePriorityVector), and manage for each communication port, reception or non-reception of the time source notification message and a change in priority information (Section 10.3.10.4, infols takes the values Received, Mine, Aged, or Disabled, and is Aged when announce receipt timeout has occurred; Section 10_3_12_2_1, rcvlnfo returns SuperiorMasterlnfo, lnferiorMasterlnfo, or RepeatedMasterlnfo from a comparison of the messagePriorityVector to the portPriorityVector); select as a slave port, the communication port with priority information with a highest priority among priority information of the time source managed in each communication port (Section 10.3.13.2.4, item f) 5), where the gmPriorityVector is now derived from the portPriorityVector, selectedState is set to SlavePort), and recognize as a master apparatus, an apparatus that is the time source corresponding to the slave port selected through the priority information (Section 10.3.9.21, gmPriority is the current gmPriorityVector for the PTP Instance);
periodically deliver the time source notification message, received in the slave port to the communication port other than the slave port (Section 10.3.7.2, item c), where the PTP Port state is MasterPort, Announce information is transmitted to the MD entity when an announce interval has elapsed);
manage for each communication port, reception or non-reception of the time notification message that stores time information (Section 10.7.3.1, syncReceiptTimeout tells a slave port the number of sync intervals to wait without receiving synchronization information, and the condition of not receiving for that number of intervals is sync receipt timeout; Figure 10-4, syncReceiptTimeoutTime is computed per port).
802.1AS may not explicitly disclose executes, in a case where either one of a reception state of the time source notification message and a reception state of the time notification message received in each communication port changed, either guarding for a certain period of time reception of the time notification message from a target communication port that is the communication port of which the reception state changed or removing the guard for reception of the time notification message from the target communication port.
Nanjing discloses executes, in a case where either one of a reception state of the time source notification message and a reception state of the time notification message received in each communication port changed, either guarding for a certain period of time reception of the time notification message from a target communication port that is the communication port of which the reception state changed (Pg. 10: 5-7, executing edge port protection, the edge port is Link down, the Link up is repeated after a certain time delay, and the edge port continues Link down if the announce message is continuously received) or removing the guard for reception of the time notification message from the target communication port. 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 802.1AS to include taking a port down for a certain time delay when that port receives an announce message it should not receive, as taught by Nanjing, so as to maintain the topology structure of the time synchronization network unchanged and solve the problems of low utilization rate of system resources and frequent network oscillation (Pg. 12: 3-10).
Claim 13, 802.1AS in view of Nanjing discloses the transfer apparatus of claim 12.
802.1AS discloses the processing circuitry executes, in a case where either one of the reception state of the time source notification message and the reception state of the time notification message received from the slave port changed, either guarding for a certain period of time delivery of the time notification message to the communication port other than the slave port (Figure 10-8, on currentTime greater than or equal to syncReceiptTimeoutTime and not synclocked the state machine enters SYNC_RECEIPT_TIMEOUT, where txMDSync is not invoked; Section 10.2.12.3, the state machine causes time-synchronization information to be sent to the MD entity if this PTP Port is a MasterPort) or removing the guard for a certain period of time, delivery of the time notification message to the communication port other than the slave port.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 10158442 B1 – Provided are systems and methods for a reliable precision time architecture in a network. In various implementations, the network can be configured with a first time synchronization tree, the first time synchronization tree providing a first network time to network devices in the network. Each network device can further synchronize to the first network time. The network can further be configured with a second time synchronization tree. The second time synchronization tree can provide a second network time to the network devices on the network. The network devices can also synchronize to the second network time. The network devices can further be configured to use the first network time as a current time.
Conclusion
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/Mehmood B. Khan/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
MEHMOOD B. KHAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2463
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