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 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, 2, 5-12 and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schindler et al., US Patent Application Publication no. 2012/0120306 [Schindler]1, in view of Diab et al., US Patent Application no. 2008/0005600 [Diab].
Regarding claims 1, 11 and 20, Schindler discloses a system for power scheduling, comprising:
one or more processors; a tangible computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors [paragraph 0043], cause the one or more processors to:
receive a request from a powered device to schedule one or more power slots for delivery of additional power from power sourcing equipment to the powered device, the request including a requested amount of additional power, a requested time, and a requested duration, the additional power being an amount of power above a base level of power being supplied to the powered device [a PD communicates its power requirements to a PSE. The power requirements include a desired schedule (i.e. time and duration) of modes for the PD. The modes include implementing a first mode implementing a first feature that consumes a first amount of power (baseline power) and a second mode implementing an additional feature that consumes a higher amount of power (additional power), paragraphs 0017-0018, 0027 and 0032];
determine an availability of the amount of additional power at the requested time and for the requested duration [power is allocated to PDs based on a maximum power supply capacity for a given time slot and the desired schedules of power modes received from the PDs, paragraph 0034]; and
enable the additional power to be supplied to the powered device from the power sourcing equipment [the PSE supplies allocated power to the PDs in each time slot, paragraph 0035].
Schindler discloses PSE that receives power allocation schedule requests from PDs and allocates power to the PDs in time slots based on the requests and availability of power during each time slot. Schindler does not disclose the specific details of communications between the PSE and PDs that occur during a power allocation process. Like Schindler, Diab discloses a PoE system which includes a PSE that allocates power to PDs based on power requests from the PDs and power supply availability. Diab further discloses that the PSE, in response to a power allocation request from a PD, communicates an amount of allocated power to each PD and then supplies the allocated power to the PD upon receiving a confirmation from the PD that the allocated amount of power is acceptable [paragraphs 0052-0053]. Since it was known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to communicate power allocation amounts to powered devices and waiting for confirmations from the powered devices before actually providing the allocated power to the powered devices, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the Diab teachings into the Schindler PoE system in order to improve system performance and reliability by ensuring that an amount of power allocated to a powered device is acceptable before actually providing the power to the powered device [Diab, paragraphs 0052-0053].
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Schindler further discloses storing data for the requested amount of additional power, the requested time, and the requested duration in a power schedule table in combination with a device ID for the powered device and one or more allotted time slots corresponding to the requested time and the requested duration [a schedule of assigned power allocations to the various PDs for various time slots is stored in memory, paragraph 0034].
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Schindler further discloses determining, by the processor at the network device, a priority for the request from the powered device, in response to the powered device being identified as a trusted device [every PD has an associated priority and power is allocated based on the priorities, paragraphs 0034, 0037 and 0038].
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Schindler further discloses reallotting, by the processor at the network device, the one or more power slots to the powered device making the request based on the powered device having a higher priority than a prior powered device having previously been assigned the one or more power slots, and assigning the prior powered device a different one or more power slots, such that the one or more power slots become available for the powered device [changing a power allocation schedule by downgrading a lower priority device to a lower power allocation when a higher priority device requests power, paragraph 0037].
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Schindler further discloses that the requested time is a current time, and in response to a maximum power budget of the power sourcing equipment being presently exceeded, further comprising allotting, by the processor at the network device, a next time slot to the powered device in response to the request, and terminating power being used by another powered device having a lower priority than the powered device in the next time slot, and reallotting the power to a future time slot, such that the next time slot becomes available for the powered device [changing a power allocation schedule by downgrading a lower priority device to a lower power allocation when a higher priority device requests power, paragraph 0037].
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Schindler further discloses receiving, by the processor at the network device, requests from a plurality of powered devices to schedule one or more power slots for delivery of additional power from the power sourcing equipment to the plurality of powered devices, and optimizing an overall power budget for the power sourcing equipment based on a priority of each powered device of the plurality of powered devices and the availability of time slots identified using a power schedule table [every PD has an associated priority and power is allocated based on the priorities and a schedule of assigned power allocations to the various PDs for various time slots stored in memory, paragraphs 0034, 0037 and 0038].
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Schindler further discloses that the requested time is a tentative time and further comprising scheduling, by the processor at the network device, additional time slots for additional powered devices based at least in part on the tentative time [power is allocated based on desired power schedules of PDs and may be updated as PD device needs change, paragraphs 0032, 0034 and 0037-0038].
Regarding claim 10, Schindler further discloses that the response indicates availability at a different time and further comprising transmitting, by the processor at the network device, additional time slots for the different time to the powered device [while it is not necessary that all of the PDs operate in high-power mode simultaneously, in one embodiment, the power allocation may change over time, allowing, for example, one PD to operate in high-power mode at one time while a second PD operates in low-power mode at the same time, but at a later time for the power allocations (and thus the corresponding modes of operation) of those two devices to switch, paragraphs 0019 and 0029].
Claims 3 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schindler et al., US Patent Application Publication no. 2012/0120306 [Schindler]2, and Diab et al., US Patent Application no. 2008/0005600 [Diab], in view of Roy et al., US Patent Application Publication no. 2021/0091966 [Roy].
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Schindler and Diab, as described above, disclose communicating power requests from PDs to a PSE. Schindler and Diab do not disclose how those communications are performed. Like Schindler and Diab, Roy discloses a PoE system in which power requests are communicated from PDs to a PSE. Specifically, Roy discloses that the power requests are defined in Type, Length, Value (TLV) data strings in one or more Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) frames transmitted by the PD [paragraphs 0045 and 0067]. Since it was known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use TLV data strings in one or more LLDP frames to communicate power requests in PoE systems, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the Roy teachings into the Schindler and Diab PoE system by using known TLV data strings in one or more LLDP frames to facilitate communication of the power requests.
Claims 4 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schindler et al., US Patent Application Publication no. 2012/0120306 [Schindler]3, and Diab et al., US Patent Application no. 2008/0005600 [Diab], in view of Sherman et al., US Patent Application Publication no. 2023/0050964 [Sherman].
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Schindler and Diab, as described above, disclose a PoE system that includes a PSE that provides power to PDs. Schindler and Diab do nto disclose that the PoE system includes wireless charging enabled PDs that communicate using access points. Like Schindler and Diab, Sherman discloses a PoE system includes a PSE that communicates and provides power to PDs. Specifically, Sherman discloses that the PoE system includes an internal unit that provides power to an external unit battery using a wireless power transmitter [paragraphs 0016-0022]. The PoE system also includes an internal short-range transceiver that allows for data communication between the external unit and a PoE controller [paragraphs 0016-0022 and 0025]. Since PoE systems including wireless charging enabled PDs that communicate using access points were known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply the Schindler and Diab power provision teachings to known PoE systems including wireless charging enabled PDs that communicate using access points in order to allow for more flexible provision of power from the PSE to the PDs.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Olarig et al., US Patent Application Publication no. 2021/0026428 discloses negotiating delivery of boost power to powered devices at different times.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAUL B YANCHUS III whose telephone number is (571)272-3678. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.
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/PAUL B YANCHUS III/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2115 June 22, 2026
1 Schindler was cited in the 6/7/24 IDS.
2 Schindler was cited in the 6/7/24 IDS.
3 Schindler was cited in the 6/7/24 IDS.
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