DETAILED ACTION
This action is a response to an application filed on 7/3/24 in which claims 1-15 are pending.
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 § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 7-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by No-wait Packet Scheduling for IEEE Time-sensitive Networks (TSN), by Frank D
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rr etc., herein D
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rr.
As to claim 1, D
u
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rr teaches a computer-implemented method for scheduling data transmissions by devices in a communications network, wherein the data transmissions by the devices in the communications network periodically repeat themselves, wherein a respective period of the data transmissions represents a data transmission cycle, wherein the data transmission cycle repeats itself for at least a number of cycles, the method comprising the following steps:
determining, for each individual device of the devices as a sending device, timing information which is indicative of a duration of a data transmission by the sending device to each respective receiving device during the data transmission cycle (D
u
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rr page 4 column 1
d
i
,
j
t
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a
n
s
defines the transmission delay for each transmission operation Oi,j of flow Fi)
determining a schedule defining at least start times for the data transmissions by the devices in the data transmission cycle by:
determining an initial transmission order of the devices in the data transmission cycle, providing a procedure which uses a transmission order and the timing information as input and which outputs a feasible schedule and a total duration of the data transmission cycle for the feasible schedule, wherein the procedure generates the feasible schedule to satisfy one or more data transmission constraints imposed by the communications network and/or the devices, performing the procedure using the initial transmission order and the timing information as input, iteratively adjusting the initial transmission order and performing the procedure to obtain an adjusted schedule with an adjusted transmission order which minimizes the total duration of the data transmission cycle (D
u
¨
rr page 6 5.2 sequencing problem the sequencing algorithm creates a total ordering of flows in the set to minimize the resulting makespan ((total duration) which is a function of the starting times (see Definition 1 (page 4 second column)) of the schedule, an initial solution is generated and iteratively processed by selecting the best solution that does not violate certain criterion); and
outputting scheduling data defining the adjusted schedule (D
u
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rr page 6 algorithm 1 return (Span and schedule) and algorithm 2 bestOrder page 8 algorithm 3 return sched)
As to claim 13, D
u
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rr teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium on which are stored data representing a computer program, the computer program including instructions for scheduling data transmissions by devices in a communications network, wherein the data transmissions by the devices in the communications network periodically repeat themselves, wherein a respective period of the data transmissions represents a data transmission cycle, wherein the data transmission cycle repeats itself for at least a number of cycles, the instructions, when executed by a processor system, causing the processor system to perform the following steps (D
u
¨
rr 6.2 executed on a processor with memory):
determining, for each individual device of the devices as a sending device, timing information which is indicative of a duration of a data transmission by the sending device to each respective receiving device during the data transmission cycle (D
u
¨
rr page 4 column 1
d
i
,
j
t
r
a
n
s
defines the transmission delay for each transmission operation Oi,j of flow Fi)
determining a schedule defining at least start times for the data transmissions by the devices in the data transmission cycle by:
determining an initial transmission order of the devices in the data transmission cycle, providing a procedure which uses a transmission order and the timing information as input and which outputs a feasible schedule and a total duration of the data transmission cycle for the feasible schedule, wherein the procedure generates the feasible schedule to satisfy one or more data transmission constraints imposed by the communications network and/or the devices, performing the procedure using the initial transmission order and the timing information as input, iteratively adjusting the initial transmission order and performing the procedure to obtain an adjusted schedule with an adjusted transmission order which minimizes the total duration of the data transmission cycle (D
u
¨
rr page 6 5.2 sequencing problem the sequencing algorithm creates a total ordering of flows in the set to minimize the resulting makespan ((total duration) which is a function of the starting times (see Definition 1 (page 4 second column)) of the schedule, an initial solution is generated and iteratively processed by selecting the best solution that does not violate certain criterion); and
outputting scheduling data defining the adjusted schedule (D
u
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rr page 6 algorithm 1 return (Span and schedule) and algorithm 2 bestOrder page 8 algorithm 3 return sched)
As to claim 14, D
u
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rr teaches a scheduling system: comprising:
a processing subsystem configured to schedule data transmissions by devices in a communications network, wherein the data transmissions by the devices in the communications network periodically repeat themselves, wherein a respective period of the data transmissions represents a data transmission cycle, wherein the data transmission cycle repeats itself for at least a number of cycles, the processing subsystem configured to:
determine, for each individual device of the devices as a sending device, timing information which is indicative of a duration of a data transmission by the sending device to each respective receiving device during the data transmission cycle (D
u
¨
rr page 4 column 1
d
i
,
j
t
r
a
n
s
defines the transmission delay for each transmission operation Oi,j of flow Fi)
determine a schedule defining at least start times for the data transmissions by the devices in the data transmission cycle by:
determining an initial transmission order of the devices in the data transmission cycle, providing a procedure which uses a transmission order and the timing information as input and which outputs a feasible schedule and a total duration of the data transmission cycle for the feasible schedule, wherein the procedure generates the feasible schedule to satisfy one or more data transmission constraints imposed by the communications network and/or the devices, performing the procedure using the initial transmission order and the timing information as input, iteratively adjusting the initial transmission order and performing the procedure to obtain an adjusted schedule with an adjusted transmission order which minimizes the total duration of the data transmission cycle (D
u
¨
rr page 6 5.2 sequencing problem the sequencing algorithm creates a total ordering of flows in the set to minimize the resulting makespan ((total duration) which is a function of the starting times (see Definition 1 (page 4 second column)) of the schedule, an initial solution is generated and iteratively processed by selecting the best solution that does not violate certain criterion); and
output scheduling data defining the adjusted schedule (D
u
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rr page 6 algorithm 1 return (Span and schedule) and algorithm 2 bestOrder page 8 algorithm 3 return sched)
As to claim 15, D
u
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rr teaches a communications network, comprising:
a scheduling system including a processing subsystem configured to schedule data transmissions by devices in a communications network, wherein the data transmissions by the devices in the communications network periodically repeat themselves, wherein a respective period of the data transmissions represents a data transmission cycle, wherein the data transmission cycle repeats itself for at least a number of cycles, the processing subsystem configured to:
determine, for each individual device of the devices as a sending device, timing information which is indicative of a duration of a data transmission by the sending device to each respective receiving device during the data transmission cycle (D
u
¨
rr page 4 column 1
d
i
,
j
t
r
a
n
s
defines the transmission delay for each transmission operation Oi,j of flow Fi)
determine a schedule defining at least start times for the data transmissions by the devices in the data transmission cycle by:
determining an initial transmission order of the devices in the data transmission cycle, providing a procedure which uses a transmission order and the timing information as input and which outputs a feasible schedule and a total duration of the data transmission cycle for the feasible schedule, wherein the procedure generates the feasible schedule to satisfy one or more data transmission constraints imposed by the communications network and/or the devices, performing the procedure using the initial transmission order and the timing information as input, iteratively adjusting the initial transmission order and performing the procedure to obtain an adjusted schedule with an adjusted transmission order which minimizes the total duration of the data transmission cycle (D
u
¨
rr page 6 5.2 sequencing problem the sequencing algorithm creates a total ordering of flows in the set to minimize the resulting makespan ((total duration) which is a function of the starting times (see Definition 1 (page 4 second column)) of the schedule, an initial solution is generated and iteratively processed by selecting the best solution that does not violate certain criterion); and
output scheduling data defining the adjusted schedule (D
u
¨
rr page 6 algorithm 1 return (Span and schedule) and algorithm 2 bestOrder page 8 algorithm 3 return sched)
As to claim 2, D
u
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rr teaches the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, further comprising using a machine learning model to iteratively adjust the initial transmission order and to perform the procedure to obtain the schedule with the adjusted transmission order (D
u
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rr page 6 5.2 sequencing problem the sequencing algorithm creates a total ordering of flows in the set to minimize the resulting makespan ((total duration) which is a function of the starting times (see Definition 1 (page 4 second column)) of the schedule, an initial solution is generated and iteratively processed by selecting the best solution that does not violate certain criterion);
As to claim 7, D
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rr teaches the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the procedure includes determining a minimal feasible start time for a data transmission from a respective sending device as: (i) an integer multiple of an input accuracy parameter and/or (ii) an internal accuracy parameter, subject to the shifting not violating the one or more data transmissions constraints ((D
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rr section 5.1 start time is 0)
As to claim 8, D
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rr teaches the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein: the initial transmission order of the devices is determined in form of an initial schedule for the devices in the data transmission cycle; the procedure uses a schedule as input and outputs a feasible schedule and the total duration of the data transmission cycle for the feasible schedule, wherein the procedure includes iteratively shifting the schedule by an earliest start time in the schedule and scaling the schedule in time using a scaling parameter until a feasible schedule is obtained; the procedure is performed using the initial schedule as input; and the initial schedule is iteratively adjusted using the procedure to obtain an adjusted schedule which minimizes the total duration of the data transmission cycle (D
u
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rr page 6 5.2 sequencing problem the sequencing algorithm creates a total ordering of flows in the set to minimize the resulting makespan ((total duration) which is a function of the starting times (see Definition 1 (page 4 second column)) of the schedule, an initial solution is generated and iteratively processed by selecting the best solution that does not violate certain criterion and 5.2.2. iteratively process in the neigborhood (shifting));
As to claim 9, D
u
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rr teaches the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the timing information by recording the duration of the data transmissions in the communications network (Find this in Durr)
As to claim 10, D
u
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rr teaches the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, further comprising sending the scheduling
data to the devices to configure the devices with the schedule (D
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rr page 6 algorithm 1 return (Span and schedule) and algorithm 2 bestOrder page 8 algorithm 3 return sched)
As to claim 11, D
u
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rr teaches the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the devices include one or more sensors which are configured to transmit sensor data in each data transmission cycle (D
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rr page 1 section 1 introduction sensors capture values and transmit)
As to claim 12, D
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rr teaches the computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the communications network includes one of or a combination of a wireless network and a wired network (D
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rr page 1 used in Ethernet technologies)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-6 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AYANAH S GEORGE whose telephone number is (571)272-8880. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hassan Phillips can be reached at 572-272-3940. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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AYANAH S. GEORGE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2467
/AYANAH S GEORGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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