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 .
This Office action is in response to the preliminary amendment filed on 02/22/2024. Claims 1-15 have been cancelled, and new claims 16-31 have been added.
Claims 16-31 are presented for examination.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 02/22/2024 is compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 22-23 and 28-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
i. Claims 22 and 28 recite the limitation "the synchronized first time" in lines 1-2. There
is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is uncertain whether "the synchronized first time" refers to “a first synchronized time” in claim 16, line 4.
ii. Claims 23 and 29 recite the limitation "the synchronized second time" in lines 1-2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is uncertain whether "the synchronized second time" refers to “a second synchronized time” in claim 16, line 5.
iii. Claim 26, line 2, it is not clear what “ASIL” stands for (i.e., Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL)?).
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.
Claims 16, 24 and 30-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rayner (US 2007/0030810 A1), in view of HOFFLEIT et al. (US 2021/0258136 A1).
As to claims 16 and 30-31, Rayner discloses the invention as claimed, including a method for monitoring a time synchronization distributed via a network switch to be used in a communication network (Fig. 1; ¶0035, “a network operator to find out if paths the customer has been allocated have been altered, in particular where the start and end points of the paths are located sufficiently far away for clocks at the start and end locations of the paths to be synchronized”), the method comprising:
receiving a first synchronized time (i.e., arrival time, transit time) at a first port (Fig. 1, 36a) of the network switch (Fig. 1, 18) (¶0012; ¶0015, “a receiving station which is connectable to a plurality of paths, each path having a transit time associated therewith for data transport along that path”; ¶0023, “The reading stage 52 is configured to compare the arrival time of a marker in one stream with the arrival time of the corresponding positioned marker in the other stream”; ¶0030, “the receiving stage 52 of the receiving station 18 is provided with a clock stage 64 for recording the time at which marked packets are received…if S1 is the "time" at which a previously null packet in the first stream is marked or stamped, A2 is the time at which that packet is received at the receiving station 18”; ¶0033, “the difference in arrival time can be used indirectly, in which case a first quantity (A1-S1) and a second quantity (A2-S2) are each evaluated”);
receiving a second synchronized time (i.e., arrival time, transit time) at a second port (Fig. 1, 36B) of the network switch (Fig. 1, 18) (¶0012; ¶0015, “a receiving station which is connectable to a plurality of paths, each path having a transit time associated therewith for data transport along that path”; ¶0023, “The reading stage 52 is configured to compare the arrival time of a marker in one stream with the arrival time of the corresponding positioned marker in the other stream”; ¶0030, “the receiving stage 52 of the receiving station 18 is provided with a clock stage 64 for recording the time at which marked packets are received…likewise S2 and A2 are the times at which a corresponding packet is stamped and received respectively in the second stream, then the processing stage calculates respective values for (S1-S2) and (A1-A2)”; ¶0033, “the difference in arrival time can be used indirectly, in which case a first quantity (A1-S1) and a second quantity (A2-S2) are each evaluated”);
comparing the first synchronized time to the second synchronized time (¶0015, “the network station having means for: monitoring the difference between the transit time of a first path and the transit time of a second path such that a change in the difference between the transit times of the two paths can be detected”; ¶0030, “A processing stage 66 is provided for determining the difference in the transit times between marked packets that have travelled along the first path and the transit time of packets that have travelled along the second path. Thus, if S1 is the "time" at which a previously null packet in the first stream is marked or stamped, A2 is the time at which that packet is received at the receiving station 18, and likewise S2 and A2 are the times at which a corresponding packet is stamped and received respectively in the second stream, then the processing stage calculates respective values for (S1-S2) and (A1-A2). The processing stage 66 then calculates the difference between the respective values for (S1-S2) and (A1-A2)”; ¶0033, “configured to determine the difference between the transit times of corresponding markers along the two paths by using the difference in arrival times A1, A2 of the markers. The difference in arrival time can be used directly, in which case the quantity (A1-A2) is evaluated”); and
outputting a control signal for a result of the comparing in which a difference between the first synchronized time and the second synchronized time exceeds a predefined threshold (¶0024, “If the difference in the transit times of corresponding markers exceeds a threshold value, the reading stage is configured to generate an alarm signal to alert the customer that a path may have changed”; ¶0025, “The threshold value beyond which an alarm is generated will preferably be chosen in dependence on the fluctuations (either expected or measured) in the difference in transit times of corresponding markers in the two paths”; ¶0032, “determine the difference D between the transit times along the two paths: i.e. to determine the value D=|(A1-A2)-(S1-S2)|=|(A1-S1)-(A2-S2)| for corresponding markers (vertical bars indicating the modulus of the quantity between the bars); to determine if D exceeds a threshold value; and, if D exceeds the threshold value for a predetermined number of consecutive pairs of corresponding markers, to generate an alarm signal”).
Rayner does not specifically disclose a communication network of an automated vehicle.
However, HOFFLEIT discloses monitoring a time synchronization distributed via a network switch to be used in a communication network of an automated vehicle (Fig. 2; Fig. 5; ¶0035, “a vehicle containing a time-sensitive network”; ¶0036, “a car server which includes a system-on-a-chip (SoC) and a plurality of switches providing Ethernet links, the SoC and switches having generalised Precision Time Protocol (gPTP) controllers and the switches connected to the SoC by peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) links”; ¶0053, “a vehicle 1 is shown which includes a time-sensitive network 2. The time-sensitive network 2 complies with IEEE 802.1AS which specifies a profile for using IEEE 1588-2008 for time synchronization”; ¶0059, “As the car network 2 is time-sensitive, all the Ethernet connections 7 should have the same notion of time. IEEE 802.1AS is employed which uses a transparent clock involving clock forwarding. IEEE 802.1AS provides a mechanism on an Ethernet link to synchronise clocks”; ¶0065, “a switch, includes a first, receiver-side link (labelled “A”) and a second, transmitter-side link (“B”) and a local gPTP unit which includes the gPTP timer. The first port A is also referred to as the “slave port” and the second port B is also referred to as the message port. The slave port A receives messages from a grandmaster GM (not shown), in particular Sync and Follow_Up. The Follow_Up message contains the transmission time (Tm) of a Sync message according to grandmaster's clock”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Rayner to include monitoring a time synchronization distributed via a network switch to be used in a communication network of an automated vehicle, as taught by HOFFLEIT because it would improve the automated vehicle reliability and reduce the synchronization error by identifying the communication latency (HOFFLEIT; ¶0065-¶0069).
As to claim 24, Rayner discloses the method according to claim 16, wherein the comparing is carried out by at least one of the network switch and an external control unit (¶0015, “the network station having means for: monitoring the difference between the transit time of a first path and the transit time of a second path such that a change in the difference between the transit times of the two paths can be detected”; ¶0024, “If the difference in the transit times of corresponding markers exceeds a threshold value, the reading stage is configured to generate an alarm signal to alert the customer that a path may have changed”; ¶0025, “The threshold value beyond which an alarm is generated will preferably be chosen in dependence on the fluctuations (either expected or measured) in the difference in transit times of corresponding markers in the two paths”; ¶0030, “A processing stage 66 is provided for determining the difference in the transit times between marked packets that have travelled along the first path and the transit time of packets that have travelled along the second path. Thus, if S1 is the "time" at which a previously null packet in the first stream is marked or stamped, A2 is the time at which that packet is received at the receiving station 18, and likewise S2 and A2 are the times at which a corresponding packet is stamped and received respectively in the second stream, then the processing stage calculates respective values for (S1-S2) and (A1-A2). The processing stage 66 then calculates the difference between the respective values for (S1-S2) and (A1-A2)”; ¶0032, “determine the difference D between the transit times along the two paths: i.e. to determine the value D=|(A1-A2)-(S1-S2)|=|(A1-S1)-(A2-S2)| for corresponding markers (vertical bars indicating the modulus of the quantity between the bars); to determine if D exceeds a threshold value; and, if D exceeds the threshold value for a predetermined number of consecutive pairs of corresponding markers, to generate an alarm signal”; ¶0033, “configured to determine the difference between the transit times of corresponding markers along the two paths by using the difference in arrival times A1, A2 of the markers. The difference in arrival time can be used directly, in which case the quantity (A1-A2) is evaluated”).
Claims 17-23 and 25-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rayner (US 2007/0030810 A1), HOFFLEIT et al. (US 2021/0258136 A1), further in view of Lim et al. (IEEE 802.1AS Time Synchronization in a switched Ethernet based in-Car Network, November 11, 2011, page 147-154).
As to claims 17-23, 25-26 and 28-29, Lim discloses wherein the first port is a slave port or a master port of the network switch (Fig. 1; Page 148, Section: III. TIME SYNCHRONIZATION BASED ON IEEE 802.1AS, “Master port—any port of a time-aware system which is the closest to the root from the view of a subsequent system in a spanning tree. The synchronization messages are transmitted along the spanning tree. Slave port—one port of a time-aware system which is the closest to the root of the spanning tree. At this port, synchronization messages are received”); wherein the second port is a slave port or a master port of the network switch (Fig. 1; Page 148, Section: III. TIME SYNCHRONIZATION BASED ON IEEE 802.1AS, “Master port—any port of a time-aware system which is the closest to the root from the view of a subsequent system in a spanning tree. The synchronization messages are transmitted along the spanning tree. Slave port—one port of a time-aware system which is the closest to the root of the spanning tree. At this port, synchronization messages are received”); wherein at least one of the first synchronized time and the second synchronized time is received from a time grandmaster of the communication network (Fig. 1; Page 148, Section: III. TIME SYNCHRONIZATION BASED ON IEEE 802.1AS, “where the root of the tree is mostly the grandmaster which distributes the synchronization information…Figure 1 shows an example result of a gPTP domain after the BMCA was performed, where all ports are assigned to a role. The synchronization tree is the spanning tree and the synchronization information is only transmitted from the master port to the slave port between two time-aware systems”); wherein at least one of the first synchronized time and the second synchronized time is sent from the network switch to time slave units of the communication network (Fig. 3; Pages 148-149, Section: B. Synchronization, “A time-aware system A sends a synchronization (Sync) messages by time-stamping the information at an egress port at time ts,A. Time-aware system B receives the message and timestamps it at an ingress port at time tr,B. After a Sync message is sent at a master port to time-aware system B, a Follow Up message is transmitted with the following information”); wherein sending the synchronized first time to the time slave units includes: sending a first synchronization message from the first port to a first one of the time slave units; sending a first follow-up message from the first port to the first one of the time slave units, the first follow-up message including a time of sending the first synchronization message (Fig. 3, Sync, Follow-Up; Pages 148-149, Section: B. Synchronization, “The synchronization information is distributed to the gPTP network by using two successive messages: Sync and Follow Up. These messages are sent periodically from each master ports which are received on the slave ports of the time-aware systems…A time-aware system A sends a synchronization (Sync) messages by time-stamping the information at an egress port at time ts,A. Time-aware system B receives the message and timestamps it at an ingress port at time tr,B. After a Sync message is sent at a master port to time-aware system B, a Follow Up message is transmitted with the following information”); receiving a first delay request from the first one of the time slave units via the first port in response to the first follow-up message (Fig. 2, Pdelay_Req; Pages 148-149, Section: B. Synchronization, “The residence time is the forwarding delay which is needed by a time-aware bridge to transmit a time synchronization to the next subsequent one (see Fig. 3). A propagation delay is the time taken by a transmitted message between two directly connected time-aware systems (see Fig. 3). This delay is measured in each port of every fullduplex point-to-point link by the peer delay mechanism which is based on a request-response approach (see Fig. 2)”); and sending a first delay reply including a time of receiving the first delay request from the first port to the first one of the time slave units (Fig. 2, Pdelay_Resp; Pages 148-149, Section: B. Synchronization, “This delay is measured in each port of every fullduplex point-to-point link by the peer delay mechanism which is based on a request-response approach (see Fig. 2). In a first step, the peer delay initiator starts the measurement by sending a Pdelay Req message while the responder replies with a Pdelay Resp message which contains the timestamp t2”); wherein the comparing is carried out by a software component of the network switch, and wherein the software component is checked by the external control unit during a start-up of the network switch, and a configuration of the network switch is checked by the external control unit during the start-up of the network switch (Page 150, Section: IV. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF IEEE 802.1AS: A. Requirements and Assumptions, “For a performance analysis of the IEEE 802.1AS protocol in a switched Ethernet based in-car network, there are some requirements and assumptions which are listed as follows”; Section: IV. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF IEEE 802.1AS: B. Metrics, “The following metrics are used to analyze the IEEE 802.1AS standard… It reflects the correct forwarding of a synchronization information and accumulated accuracy of a neighbor rate ratio. • Propagation delay—The propagation delay is measured to identify the influence of a network load to the peer delay mechanism and the convenience of an averaging filter”); wherein checking the at least one of the software component and the configuration is done in a safe context to ensure ASIL integrity (It is noted that onboard diagnostics (OBD) system supports functional safety by monitoring, detecting, and reporting faults in accordance with ASIL requirements; Abstract, “faster onboard diagnostics (OBD)”); wherein the receiving the synchronized first time includes: receiving a third synchronization message via the first port; receiving a third follow-up message via the first port, the third follow-up message including a time of sending the synchronization message (Fig. 3, Sync, Follow-Up; Pages 148-149, Section: B. Synchronization, “The synchronization information is distributed to the gPTP network by using two successive messages: Sync and Follow Up. These messages are sent periodically from each master ports which are received on the slave ports of the time-aware systems…A time-aware system A sends a synchronization (Sync) messages by time-stamping the information at an egress port at time ts,A. Time-aware system B receives the message and timestamps it at an ingress port at time tr,B. After a Sync message is sent at a master port to time-aware system B, a Follow Up message is transmitted with the following information”); sending a third delay request via the first port in response to the third follow-up message (Fig. 2, Pdelay_Req; Pages 148-149, Section: B. Synchronization, “The residence time is the forwarding delay which is needed by a time-aware bridge to transmit a time synchronization to the next subsequent one (see Fig. 3). A propagation delay is the time taken by a transmitted message between two directly connected time-aware systems (see Fig. 3). This delay is measured in each port of every fullduplex point-to-point link by the peer delay mechanism which is based on a request-response approach (see Fig. 2)”); and receiving a delay reply including a time of receiving the third delay request via the first port (Fig. 2, Pdelay_Resp; Pages 148-149, Section: B. Synchronization, “This delay is measured in each port of every fullduplex point-to-point link by the peer delay mechanism which is based on a request-response approach (see Fig. 2). In a first step, the peer delay initiator starts the measurement by sending a Pdelay Req message while the responder replies with a Pdelay Resp message which contains the timestamp t2”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Rayner to include limitations stated above, as taught by Lim because it would enhance the system by adding the time grandmaster of the communication network, thereby providing ultra-precise, synchronized time to other devices (Lim, Section: III. TIME SYNCHRONIZATION BASED ON IEEE 802.1AS; Section: IV. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF IEEE 802.1AS).
As to claim 27, Rayner discloses the method according to claim 24, wherein the external control unit is connected to the network switch via a dedicated port of the network switch (¶0020-¶0021, “The receiving station has a switching element 40 for selectively connecting one of the two paths 12a, 12b to an output 42 of the receiving station 18, such that the signal stream from the connected path can be passed to the customer's intended recipient. The signal stream received from the other path is normally redundant when both paths are operational. However, if a fault is detected in the connected path by a detector circuit 44 coupled to the switching element 40, the detector circuit generates a fault signal which causes the switching element 40 to selectively connect the output 42 of the receiving station 18 to the other (previously redundant) path”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
SAITO et al. (US 2013/0121347 A1), BOGENBERGER et al. (US 2019/0363815 A1), Shah et al. (US 2019/0245690 A1), Aldana (US 10,349,367 B2), Karthik et al. (US 2016/0359610 A1), DIARRA (US 2016/0301749 A1), Devineni et al. (US 10,084,559 B1), Park et al. (US 2017/0195982 A1), KOBAYASHI (US 2017/0088164 A1), control apparatus and control method of on-vehicle electronic equipment.
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/JUNGWON CHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454 February 4, 2026