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 .
Status of Claims
This action is responsive to the application filed on October 16, 2024. Claims 1-5 were presented, and are pending examination.
Drawings
The drawings filed on October 16, 2024 are accepted.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities. N and K should be defined as positive integer in the claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-5 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.
Claim 1 recite the limitation “an initial candidate route number (K)”. This limitation is ambiguous. It is not clear whether it is one candidate route or K number of candidate routes.
Dependent claims 2-5 inherit the same ambiguity.
Examiner’s Note about the Format of 35 U.S.C. 102/103 Rejections
Generally, limitations of a claim are reproduced identically and followed by examiner’s explanation with citation from prior art in Italic enclosed by a parenthesis, (), for each limitation. In examiner’s explanation, the mapping of the key elements of a limitation to the disclosed elements of prior art is shown by stating the disclosed element immediately followed by the claimed element inside a parenthesis. Specific quotation from prior art is delineated with quotation mark, ““. If primary art fails to teach a limitation or part of the limitation, the limitation or the part of the limitation is placed inside double square brackets, [[ ]], for better understandability, and appropriate secondary art(s) is/are applied later addressing the deficiency of the primary art.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chuang et al. (European Patent Document No. EP 3869752 A1), hereinafter, Chuang.
Regarding claim 1:
Chuang teaches:
A method performed in a control apparatus of an industrial automation system, the method comprising (Fig. 1 shows CNC 120 (control apparatus)):
an initial input step of receiving inputs of network topology, a specification of N traffic flows, and an initial candidate route number (K) (Paragraph 50 discloses various input parameters to an algorithm for route optimization. Paragraph 0051 discloses the input parameters are graph G of network topology (network topology), number of stream S (N traffic flows), and Z number of candidate path (candidate route number) as stated “In detail, G represents a graph of a network topology of the TSN network, S represents all of the new streams, S' represents all of the current streams, and |S U S'| represents a number of all of the new streams and the current streams. λ.sub.k represents a kth stream, SP(λ.sub.k) represents a shortest path for the kth stream, Z represents a number of candidate paths for the kth stream, and CandRP [λ.sub.k] [z] represents a zth candidate path for the kth stream. S.sub.TSN and S TSN ʹ represent all of TSN stream(s) comprised in the new streams and all of TSN stream(s) comprised in the current streams, respectively. Note that a new stream may be a TSN stream or an AVB stream, and a current stream may be a TSN stream or an AVB stream.”. Fig. 4 shows receiving information about first stream and second stream topology, first plurality of links . Paragraph 0010 discussed various types of traffic streams and paragraph 0011 and 0012 discloses specification of various traffic streams. Paragraph 0014 discusses topology of the network. );
a candidate route generation step of generating a candidate route set including K candidate route for each traffic flow using the specification of N traffic flows (paragraph 0020 discloses determining first plurality of candidate paths (candidate route set) as stated “Step 404: Determine a first plurality of candidate paths for the first stream according to a first plurality of lengths of a first plurality of links of a network topology of the TSN network.”. Also see paragraph 0055);
a routing step of determining an optimized route of each traffic flow based on a remaining bandwidth of entire links that belong to a set of valid routes and entire candidate routes of each traffic flow (paragraph 0020 discloses determining a first routing path (optimized route) as stated “Step 406: Select a first routing path for transmitting the first stream from the first plurality of candidate paths”. Paragraph 0025 discloses the first routing path is determined accordingly to bandwidth capacity as stated “In one example, the CNC selects the first routing path from the first plurality of candidate paths according to a plurality of bandwidth capacities associated with the first plurality of candidate paths.”. Also see paragraphs 0057 and 0058); and
a scheduling step of determining a gate control list of switches on a message transmission instant and a route for each traffic flow based on the optimized route and the specification of each of all N traffic flows (paragraph 0020 discloses configuring the bridge as states “Step 408: Configure at least one first bridge passed by the first routing path for the first stream in the TSN network”. Also see paragraph 0059. Paragraph 0025 discloses configuring include determining gate control list as stated “In one example, the step of configuring the at least one first bridge comprises configuring (e.g., controlling) a plurality of priority queues of the at least one first bridge (e.g., GCL assignment).”. Also see paragraph 0009 stating “The TAS controls gates for frame delivery based on a gate control list (GCL).”).
As to claim 2, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Chuang teaches all the limitations of claim 1 as shown above.
Chuang further teaches wherein the routing step is characterized in determining a route in which a value of a function where a time and remaining bandwidth required for a message to be transmitted from a caller device to a listener device without interruption are parameters is maximized as the optimized route (paragraph 0025 discloses the first routing path is determined accordingly to bandwidth capacity. Paragraph 0053 discloses optimizing cost function to determine optimal route).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 but would be allowable if overcome the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection and rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAMAL M HOSSAIN whose telephone number is (571)270-3070. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30-5:30 M-F.
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April 23, 2026
/KAMAL M HOSSAIN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2444
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