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 Objections
Claims 1, 8 and 16 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1, line 4: “the gateway” lacks of clarity. It is not clear which one of the multiple gateways.
Claim 1, line 15: “decapsulated data a respective’ should read as “decapsulated data sent by a respective”.
Claim 1, lines 6-15: “wherein the ASN apparatus is configured to send an ASN transport unit (ATU) encapsulated by the ASN apparatus to one or more of the in-vehicle service node …. receive decapsulated data a respective gateway” lacks of clarity. If encapsulated data is sent to service node, then how could decapsulated data is received by a service node? Examiner interprets that if gateway switches data to a service node, the gateway would decapsulate the data and send to a service node; if gateway switches data from a service node to another gateway, ASN apparatus would encapsulate data and send to another gateway.
Claim 8 line 8: “another gateway” lacks of clarity since there is no mention of any gateway before this. Should add modifier such as “associated with a gateway” to ASN apparatus.
Claim 8 line 12: “another gateway” lacks of clarity since it is not clear how it is relates to the “another gateway” in line 8.
Claim 16 line 3: “another gateway” lacks of clarity since there is no mention of a gateway before this.
Claim 16 line 7: “another gateway” lack of clarity since it is clear how this is related to the “another gateway” in line 3.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lengyel et al. (US 20240422027 A1), hereinafter “Lengyel”, in view of Yang et al. (US 20240223676 A1), hereinafter “Yang”.
Per claim 1, 8 and 16:
Regarding claim 1, Lengyel teaches ‘An in-vehicle communication system, comprising: multiple gateways’ (Lengyel: [0004]: “a vehicle communication system comprises: Ethernet gateways”; [FIG.1]: four “Ethernet gateway” => “110A” – “110D”); ‘connected through a bus’ (Lengyel: [0004]: “each of the Ethernet gateways … is coupled to multiple buses”; [0025]: “Examples of automotive bus protocols include, but are not limited to, Local Interconnect Network (LIN), Controller Area Network (CAN), and CAN Flexible Data-Rate (CAN-FD)”); ‘an in-vehicle service node, a controller, or an in-vehicle networked terminal connected to the gateway’ (Lengyel: [0004]: “multiple buses for respective subsystems having electronic control units (ECUs) communicating using respective automotive bus protocols”; [0011]: “controllers and actuators”; [0024]: “systems that can be controlled by one or more ECUs include … an engine or other motor (e.g., the inverter of an electric motor); a battery pack or battery modules of an electric vehicle; a thermal system; an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) or sensors thereof; or a vehicle infotainment system”);
‘wherein an automotive slice network (ASN) apparatus is disposed in each gateway of the multiple gateways’ (Lengyel: [FIG.1]: “Gateway function”; [0022]: “The Ethernet gateway 110C includes gateway function component … performs encapsulation and decapsulation”; [0005]: “Each of the VLANs has a dedicated physical port on a corresponding one of the Ethernet gateways”, ethernet slice network (VLAN));
‘wherein the ASN apparatus is configured to send an ASN transport unit (ATU) encapsulated by the ASN apparatus to one or more of the in-vehicle service node, the controller, or the in-vehicle networked terminal through a physical interface that is on the gateway and that is divided based on a slot rule’ (Lengyel: [FIG.2]: CAN bus: {Preamble … “Payload” -> “ID RTR IDE DLC Data”}, transport unit encapsulated by gateway function; [0042]: “Ethernet gateways 110A-110D that encapsulates the CAN frame 204 can then forward the Ethernet frame 208 to another of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D. That recipient can then in turn forward the Ethernet frame 208 to another recipient, and/or can decapsulate the Ethernet frame 208 and restore a version of the CAN frame 204 that at least contains the information corresponding to the ID, RTR, IDE, DLC, and DATA fields of the CAN frame”; [0034]: “the Ethernet gateway 110C for decapsulation and forwarding to the ECUs 118E-118F. For example, the LIN message from the ECU 118A can be delivered to all other ECUs in the same VLAN”; [0040]: “Encapsulation and decapsulation can be applied to messages according to any of multiple different automotive bus protocols. Here, a CAN frame 204 and a LIN frame 206 are used as examples”; [0029]: “each of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D connects multiple different buses together, and can rout traffic from one bus to another, or to another of the Ethernet gateways”). However, Lengyel fails to expressly teach ‘that is divided based on a slot rule’;
‘wherein the ATU is obtained by encapsulating data of a respective in-vehicle service based on a physical layer coding rule’ (Lengyel: [0040]: “Encapsulation and decapsulation can be applied to messages according to any of multiple different automotive bus protocols. Here, a CAN frame 204 and a LIN frame 206 are used as examples”; [FIG.2]: CAN bus: “Payload” -> “ID RTR IDE DLC Data”, LIN bus: “Payload” -> “ID Data”; [0034]: “the ECU 118A can use a standard LIN transceiver to generate a LIN message that reaches the Ethernet gateway 110D. The Ethernet gateway 110D can encapsulate the LIN message … the LIN message from the ECU 118A can be delivered to all other ECUs in the same VLAN”; [0004]: “subsystems having electronic control units (ECUs)”, encapsulate messages from vehicle subsystems based on bus protocol (physical layer coding rule));
‘wherein the in-vehicle service node, the controller, or the in-vehicle networked terminal is configured to: receive decapsulated data a respective gateway’ (Lengyel: [0034]: “the Ethernet gateway 110C for decapsulation and forwarding to the ECUs 118E-118F. For example, the LIN message from the ECU 118A can be delivered to all other ECUs in the same VLAN”; subsystems corresponding to ECUs would receive the decapsulated data);
‘send, to a respective gateway, data corresponding to a respective in-vehicle service of the in-vehicle service node, the controller, or the in-vehicle networked terminal’ (this is optional).
Yang in the same field of endeavor teaches ‘that is divided based on a slot rule’ (Yang: [FIG.5]; [0002]: “In the existing Ethernet technology, in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network, a fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS), so as to bear small-particle services”; [0004]: “Each Fg-BU contains 7 bytes of overheads and 1560 bytes of payloads”; [0005]: “For a 5 Gbps transmission bandwidth, one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots (Sub-Slot), each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) includes 65 bytes … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use”; divide transmission bandwidth into fine granularity-basic unit (slot)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 8, Lengyel teaches ‘An automotive slice network (ASN) apparatus’ (Lengyel: [FIG.1]: “Ethernet gateway” -> “Gateway function”; [0022]: “The Ethernet gateway 110C includes gateway function component … performs encapsulation and decapsulation”; [0005]: “Each of the VLANs has a dedicated physical port on a corresponding one of the Ethernet gateways”, ethernet slice network (VLAN)); ‘comprising: at least one processor’ (existence of processor for ethernet gateway (apparatus) is implied); ‘one or more memories’ (existence of memory for ethernet gateway (apparatus) is implied); ‘coupled to the at least one processor and configured to store instructions for execution by the at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the instructions to facilitate performance of the following by the apparatus’ (these are implied);
‘receiving, through a physical interface of a bus, an ASN transport unit (ATU) from another gateway’ (Lengyel: [FIG.2]: LIN bus: {Preamble …“Payload” -> “ID Data”}, transport unit encapsulated by gateway function);
‘decapsulating the ATU based on a physical layer coding rule to obtain data’ (Lengyel: [0040]: “Encapsulation and decapsulation can be applied to messages according to any of multiple different automotive bus protocols. Here, a CAN frame 204 and a LIN frame 206 are used as examples”, decapsulate based on bus protocol (physical coding rule); [0005]: “Ethernet gateways is further configured to decapsulate the received communication from the Ethernet packet and forward the communication according to an applicable one of the respective automotive bus protocols”; [0029]: “each of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D connects multiple different buses together, and can rout traffic from one bus to another”; [0034]: “The Ethernet gateway 110D can encapsulate the LIN message within an Ethernet packet, label the packet with a VLAN tag, and forward the tagged packet toward the Ethernet gateway 110A. The Ethernet gateway 110A, in turn, may or may not alter the received Ethernet packet but will forward a communication to one or more recipients. For example, the Ethernet gateway 110A forwards the packet to the Ethernet gateway 110B”, to forward ATU received from LIN bus to CAN bus, gateway would need to alter the packet by decapsulating LIN bus payload to extract messages and encapsulating into CAN bus payload to send over CAN bus).
‘sending, to a to-be-encapsulated ATU, a data part that is in the data and that is to be sent to another gateway’ (discussed in element above);
‘encapsulating the to-be-encapsulated ATU based on the physical layer coding rule to obtain an encapsulated ATU’ (Lengyel: [FIG.2]: CAN bus: {Preamble … “Payload” -> “ID RTR IDE DLC Data”});
‘sending, through the physical interface, the encapsulated ATU to a gateway connected to a current gateway’ (Lengyel: [0034]: “the Ethernet gateway 110A forwards the packet to the Ethernet gateway 110B”).
Lengyel does not expressly teach, but Yang teaches ‘wherein the physical interface is an interface divided based on a slot rule’ (Yang: [FIG.5]; [0002]: “In the existing Ethernet technology, in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network, a fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS), so as to bear small-particle services”; [0004]: “Each Fg-BU contains 7 bytes of overheads and 1560 bytes of payloads”; [0005]: “For a 5 Gbps transmission bandwidth, one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots (Sub-Slot), each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) includes 65 bytes … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use”; divide transmission bandwidth into fine granularity-basic unit (slot)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 16, claim 16 recites the method implemented by the apparatus according to claim 8 (see rejection of claim 8 above).
Regarding claim 2, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the system according to claim 1 (discussed above).
Combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches ‘wherein the gateway is configured to send, on demand based on the ASN apparatus determining that multiple pieces of data in data obtained by the ASN apparatus through decapsulation are data to be used by the gateway, the multiple pieces of data to the in-vehicle service node, the controller, or the in-vehicle networked terminal connected to the gateway’ (Lengyel: [0042]: “one of the Ethernet gateways … That recipient can then in turn forward the Ethernet frame 208 to another recipient, and/or can decapsulate the Ethernet frame 208 and restore a version of the CAN frame 204 that at least contains the information corresponding to the ID, RTR, IDE, DLC, and DATA fields of the CAN frame”; [0045]: “one of the Ethernet gateways … That recipient can then in turn forward the Ethernet frame 210 to another recipient, and/or can decapsulate the Ethernet frame 210 and restore a version of the LIN frame 206 that at least contains the information corresponding to the ID and data fields of the LIN frame”; [0034]: “The Ethernet gateway 110B can exit the traffic to the physical wire of the ECUs 118C-118D (including decapsulation into a LIN message) … the LIN message from the ECU 118A can be delivered to all other ECUs in the same VLAN”. Yang: [0035]: “FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the format of an Fg-BU frame”; [0005]: “one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use. j Fg-BU frames constitute a multiple frame”; [0006]: “Each sub-slot carries 8 64B/66B blocks from a customer service”; [FIG.6]: “MFI”; [0007]: “multiple frame indication (MFI)”; [0121]: “extracts the Fg-BU multiple frame for processing”, multiple pieces of data);
‘wherein the gateway is further configured to: based on the gateway receiving the multiple pieces of data, encapsulate the multiple pieces of data into an ATU by using the ASN apparatus, and send the ATU to another gateway’ (Lengyel: [FIG.2]: CAN bus: “Payload” -> “ID RTR IDE DLC Data”, LIN bus: “Payload”-> “ID Data”, transport unit; [0041]-[0042]: “any of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D that receives the CAN frame 204 (e.g., from a VLAN having CAN-based ECUs) can encapsulate the CAN frame … The one of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D that encapsulates the CAN frame 204 can then forward the Ethernet frame 208 to another of the Ethernet gateways”; [0044]-[0045]: “any of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D that receives the LIN frame 206 (e.g., from a VLAN having LIN-based ECUs) can encapsulate the LIN frame … The one of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D that encapsulates the LIN frame 206 can then forward the Ethernet frame 210 to another of the Ethernet gateways”. Yang: [0005]: “one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use”; [0006]: “Each sub-slot carries 8 64B/66B blocks from a customer service”; [FIG.6]: “MFI”; [0007]: “multiple frame indication (MFI)”; [FIG.5]: “Overhead”, “Payload”; encapsulate multiple customer services data into transport unit).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of Fg-BU MFI with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (Yang: [0002]: “enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network”).
Per claim 3, 9 and 17:
Regarding claim 3, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the system according to claim 2 (discussed above).
Lengyel does not expressly teach, but Yang teaches ‘wherein the physical interface divided based on the slot rule is a physical interface whose bandwidth is divided based on a slot quantity’ (Yang: [0002]: “in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network, a fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS), so as to bear small-particle services”; [0005]: “For a 5 Gbps transmission bandwidth, one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots (Sub-Slot), each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) includes 65 bytes … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use”);
‘wherein the slot quantity is based on the bandwidth of the physical interface of the bus’ (Yang: [0035]: “FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the format of an Fg-BU frame”; [0005]: “For a 5 Gbps transmission bandwidth, one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … the bandwidth of each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) is 10 Mbps”, each Fg-BU frame for 5 Gbps bus would be bandwidth of 240 Mbps, quantity of Fg-BU (slot) = 5000 Mbps / 240 = 28 Fg-BU; With 10Mbps per sub-slot, for a 100 Mbps Bus, number of sub-slot = 100/10 = 10, a Fg-BU for 100 Mbps bus would have (at most) 10 sub-slot, the number of Fg-BU for 100Mbps bus would be 100/100 = 1); ‘an overhead of an encapsulation unit’ (Yang: [FIG.5]: “Overhead”); ‘a minimum bandwidth granularity for carrying a service’ (Yang: [0005]: “each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) includes 65 bytes … the bandwidth of each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) is 10 Mbps”; [0002]: “small-particle services”, minimal unit is a sub-slot with bandwidth of 10Mbps).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of Fg-BU with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 9, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the apparatus according to claim 8 (discussed above).
Lengyel does not expressly teach, but Yang teaches ‘wherein the physical interface divided based on the slot rule is a physical interface whose bandwidth is divided based on a slot quantity’ (Yang: [0002]: “in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network, a fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS), so as to bear small-particle services”; [0005]: “For a 5 Gbps transmission bandwidth, one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots (Sub-Slot), each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) includes 65 bytes … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use”);
‘wherein the slot quantity is based on the bandwidth of the physical interface of the bus’ (Yang: [0035]: “FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the format of an Fg-BU frame”; [0005]: “For a 5 Gbps transmission bandwidth, one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … the bandwidth of each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) is 10 Mbps”, each Fg-BU frame (slot) for a 5 Gbps bus would be bandwidth of 240 Mbps, quantity of Fg-BU (slot) = 5000 / 240 = 28; With 10Mbps per sub-slot, for a 100 Mbps bus, number of sub-slot = 100/10 = 10, a Fg-BU for 100 Mbps bus would have (at most) 10 sub-slot, the number of Fg-BU for 100Mbps bus would be 100/100 = 1); ‘an overhead of an encapsulation unit’ (Yang: [FIG.5]: “Overhead”); ‘a minimum bandwidth granularity for carrying a service’ (Yang: [0005]: “each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) includes 65 bytes … the bandwidth of each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) is 10 Mbps”; [0002]: “small-particle services”, minimal unit is a sub-slot with bandwidth of 10Mbps).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of Fg-BU with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 17, claim 17 recites the method implemented by the apparatus according to claim 9 (see rejection of claim 9 above).
Per claim 4, 10 and 18:
Regarding claim 4, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the system according to claim 1 (discussed above).
Combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches ‘wherein the gateway is configured to transmit, through a slot on the physical interface, an ATU comprised in a multiframe to another gateway connected to the gateway’ (Lengyel: [FIG.1]; [FIG.2]: CAN bus: “Payload” -> “ID RTR IDE DLC Data”; transport unit; [0042]: “The one of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D that encapsulates the CAN frame 204 can then forward the Ethernet frame 208 to another of the Ethernet gateways”. Yang: [FIG.5]: “overhead”, “payload”; [FIG.6]: “MFI”; multiframe transport unit; [0002]: “in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network, a fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer”);
‘wherein a quantity of ATUs in the multiframe is based on the bandwidth of the physical interface’ (Yang: [0005]: “For a 5 Gbps transmission bandwidth, one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … j Fg-BU frames constitute a multiple frame … the bandwidth of each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) is 10 Mbps”, each Fg-BU frame for 5 Gbps bus would be bandwidth of 240 Mbps, quantity of Fg-BU (slot) = 5000 Mbps / 240 = 28 Fg-BU; With 10Mbps per sub-slot, for a 100 Mbps Bus, number of sub-slot = 100/10 = 10, a Fg-BU for 100 Mbps bus would have (at most) 10 sub-slot, the number of Fg-BU for 100Mbps bus would be 100/100 = 1”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of multiframe Fg-BU with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 10, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the apparatus according to claim 8 (discussed above).
Combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches ‘sending, through a slot on the physical interface, an ATU comprised in a multiframe to the gateway connected to the current gateway’ (Lengyel: [FIG.1]; [FIG.2]: CAN bus: “Payload” -> “ID RTR IDE DLC Data”; transport unit; [0042]: “The one of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D that encapsulates the CAN frame 204 can then forward the Ethernet frame 208 to another of the Ethernet gateways”. Yang: [FIG.5]: “overhead”, “payload”; [FIG.6]: “MFI”; multiframe transport unit; [0002]: “in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network, a fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer”);
‘wherein a quantity of ATUs in the multiframe is based on the bandwidth of the physical interface’ (Yang: [0005]: “For a 5 Gbps transmission bandwidth, one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … j Fg-BU frames constitute a multiple frame … the bandwidth of each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) is 10 Mbps”, each Fg-BU frame for 5 Gbps bus would be bandwidth of 240 Mbps, quantity of Fg-BU (slot) = 5000 Mbps / 240 = 28 Fg-BU; With 10Mbps per sub-slot, for a 100 Mbps Bus, number of sub-slot = 100/10 = 10, a Fg-BU for 100 Mbps bus would have (at most) 10 sub-slot, the number of Fg-BU for 100Mbps bus would be 100/100 = 1””).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of multiframe Fg-BU with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 18, claim 18 recites the method implemented by the apparatus according to claim 10 (see rejection of claim 10 above).
Per claim 5, 11 and 19:
Regarding claim 5, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the system according to claim 4 (discussed above).
Combination of Lengyel and Yang ‘wherein the ATU comprises multiple ASN packet data units (APDUs)’ (Lengyel: [FIG.2]: “Payload” -> “ID RTR IDE DLC DATA”, transport unit. Yang: [0005]: “one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use. j Fg-BU frames constitute a multiple frame”, multiple Fg-BU frames);
‘a respective APDU of the multiple APDUs is formed by an overhead (OH) and a slot payload that carries data’ (Yang: [0005]: “Overhead”, “Payload”; [0035]: “FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the format of an Fg-BU frame”);
‘wherein data carried by the slot payload corresponds to a respective in-vehicle service, and the data is transmitted through a slot that is on the physical interface and that corresponds to the in-vehicle service corresponding to the data’ (Lengyel: [0004]: “a vehicle communication system … multiple buses for respective subsystems having electronic control units (ECUs) communicating using respective automotive bus protocols”; [0024]: “systems that can be controlled by one or more ECUs include … an engine or other motor (e.g., the inverter of an electric motor); a battery pack or battery modules of an electric vehicle; a thermal system; an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) or sensors thereof; or a vehicle infotainment system”. Yang: [0002]: “in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network, a fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS), so as to bear small-particle services”; [0005]: “one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use”);
‘wherein the OH is formed by a reserved part’ (Yang: [0036]: “FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the format of the overheads of the Fg-BU frame”; [FIG.6]: “Res”); ‘a multiframe indication’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “MFI”; [0007]: “multiple frame indication (MFI)”), ‘message content’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “GCC” (General Communication Channel) channel data), ‘a type indication’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “Flag=00” => {“Client ID”, Sub-slot ID, “Res”}, “Flag=11” => {“GCC”}); ‘a cyclic redundancy check code’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “CRC”);
‘wherein the multiframe indication indicates a sequence number of an ATU corresponding to an APDU to which the OH belongs in the multiframe’ (Yang: [0004]: “A multiple frame indication (Multiple Frame Indication, MFI) has a length of 6 bits and is used for indicating the serial number of each basic unit of a multiple frame”);
‘wherein the message content is for carrying message data’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “GCC”);
‘the type indication indicates a type of content carried in the reserved part’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “Flag=00” => {“Client ID”, “Sub-slot ID”, “Res”}, “Flag=11” => {“GCC”} => indicate the “Res” carries “GCC” channel data).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of Fg-BU with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 11, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the apparatus according to claim 8 (discussed above).
Combination of Lengyel and Yang ‘wherein the ATU comprises multiple ASN packet data units (APDUs)’ (Lengyel: [FIG.2]: “Payload” -> “ID RTR IDE DLC DATA”, transport unit. Yang: [0005]: “one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use. j Fg-BU frames constitute a multiple frame”, multiple Fg-BU frames);
‘the APDU is formed by an overhead (OH) and a slot payload that carries data’ (Yang: [0005]: “Overhead”, “Payload”; [0035]: “FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the format of an Fg-BU frame”);
‘wherein data carried by each slot payload corresponds to a respective in-vehicle service, and the data is transmitted through a slot that is on the physical interface and that corresponds to the in-vehicle service corresponding to the data’ (Lengyel: [0004]: “a vehicle communication system … multiple buses for respective subsystems having electronic control units (ECUs) communicating using respective automotive bus protocols”; [0024]: “systems that can be controlled by one or more ECUs include … an engine or other motor (e.g., the inverter of an electric motor); a battery pack or battery modules of an electric vehicle; a thermal system; an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) or sensors thereof; or a vehicle infotainment system”. Yang: [0002]: “in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network, a fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer (PCS), so as to bear small-particle services”; [0005]: “one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use”);
‘wherein the OH is formed by a reserved part’ (Yang: [0036]: “FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the format of the overheads of the Fg-BU frame”; [FIG.6]: “Res”); ‘a multiframe indication’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “MFI”; [0007]: “multiple frame indication (MFI)”); ‘message content’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “GCC” (General Communication Channel) channel data); ‘a type indication’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “Flag=00” => {“Client ID”, Sub-slot ID, “Res”}, “Flag=11” => {“GCC”}); ‘a cyclic redundancy check code’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “CRC”);
‘wherein the multiframe indication indicates a sequence number of an ATU corresponding to an APDU to which the OH belongs in the multiframe’ (Yang: [0004]: “A multiple frame indication (Multiple Frame Indication, MFI) has a length of 6 bits and is used for indicating the serial number of each basic unit of a multiple frame”);
‘wherein the message content is for carrying message data’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “GCC”);
‘the type indication indicates a type of content carried in the reserved part’ (Yang: [FIG.6]: “Flag=00” => {“Client ID”, “Sub-slot ID”, “Res”}, “Flag=11” => {“GCC”} => indicate the “Res” carries “GCC” channel data).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of Fg-BU with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 19, claim 19 recites the method implemented by the apparatus according to claim 11 (see rejection of claim 11 above).
Per claim 6, 12 and 20:
Regarding claim 6, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the system according to claim 5 (discussed above).
Lengyel teaches ‘wherein the bus is an Ethernet bus’ (Lengyel: [0004]: “the Ethernet gateway … is coupled to multiple buses”; [0025]: “Examples of automotive bus protocols include, but are not limited to, Local Interconnect Network (LIN), Controller Area Network (CAN), and CAN Flexible Data-Rate (CAN-FD)”, ethernet bus);
‘the ATU further comprises: a byte preamble’ (Lengyel: [0041]: “a preamble field”, IEEE 802.3 frame format has 7 Bytes of preamble);‘an end-of-frame delimiter (EFD)’ (Lengyel: [0040]: “an end-of-frame (EOF) field”); ‘an interframe gap’ (Lengyel: [0040]: “an inter-frame spacing (IFS) field”).
Regarding claim 12, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the apparatus according to claim 11 (discussed above).
Lengyel teaches ‘wherein the bus is an Ethernet bus’ (Lengyel: [0004]: “the Ethernet gateway … is coupled to multiple buses”; [0025]: “Examples of automotive bus protocols include, but are not limited to, Local Interconnect Network (LIN), Controller Area Network (CAN), and CAN Flexible Data-Rate (CAN-FD)”, ethernet bus);
‘the ATU further comprises: a byte preamble’ (Lengyel: [0041]: “a preamble field”, IEEE 802.3 frame format has 7 Bytes of preamble); ‘an end-of-frame delimiter (EFD)” (Lengyel: [0040]: “an end-of-frame (EOF) field”); ‘an interframe gap’ (Lengyel: [0040]: “an inter-frame spacing (IFS) field”).
Regarding claim 20, claim 20 recites the method implemented by the apparatus according to claim 12 (see rejection of claim 12 above).
Regarding claim 7, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the system according to claim 5 (discussed above).
Lengyel does not expressly teach, but Yang teaches ‘wherein the slot payload carries K pieces of 65B data, K is a positive integer, and each slot on the physical interface transmits K pieces of 65B data each time’ (Yang: [0005]: “For a 5 Gbps transmission bandwidth, one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots (Sub-Slot), each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) includes 65 bytes”, each Fg-BU (slot) for 5 Gbps bus carries 24 pieces of 65B data).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexible access a bearer network (Yang: [0002]: “enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network”).
Regarding claim 13, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the apparatus according to claim 11 (discussed above).
Combination of Lengyel and Yang ‘decapsulating a received first ATU to obtain at least one piece of first data’ (Lengyel: [0005]: “Ethernet gateways is further configured to decapsulate the received communication from the Ethernet packet and forward the communication according to an applicable one of the respective automotive bus protocols”; [0004]: “a vehicle communication system comprises: Ethernet gateways … a communication matrix in each of the Ethernet gateways, wherein each of the ECUs is specified as belonging to at least one of multiple virtual local area networks (VLANs), wherein a VLAN tag is included in each of the Ethernet packets”; [0024]: “systems that can be controlled by one or more ECUs include, but are not limited to, an engine or other motor (e.g., the inverter of an electric motor); a battery pack or battery modules of an electric vehicle; a thermal system; an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) or sensors thereof; or a vehicle infotainment system”, services for subsystems such as sensor, motor, etc. Yang: [0015]: “the receiving end extracting the Fg-BU frame for processing”);
‘obtaining an ingress service identifier based on an in-vehicle service corresponding to the first data’ (Lengyel: [0022]: “the Ethernet gateway 110C performs encapsulation and decapsulation of non-Ethernet messages into Ethernet packets; reads VLAN tags”, decapsulate the received data to obtain the VLAN tags (ingress service identifier). Yang: [0006]: “Each sub-slot carries 8 64B/66B blocks from a customer service”; [0007]: “sub-slot ID”, extract Fg-BU frame to obtain sub-slot ID associated with a given service (ingress service identifier));
‘wherein the first data is data carried by one slot payload’ (Yang: [FIG.5]: “Payload”; [0035]: “FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the format of an Fg-BU frame”; [0002]: “in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network, a fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer”, Fg-BU (slot) payload);
‘determining a corresponding egress service identifier based on the ingress service identifier’ (Lengyel: [0023]: “the communication matrix 114 can define the routing and delivery specifications regarding such messages regardless of their origin or ultimate destination within the communication system 100. As such, the communication matrix 114 can serve as a single-system definition that includes all routing information for the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D”; [0029]: “each of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D connects multiple different buses together, and can rout traffic from one bus to another, or to another of the Ethernet gateways 110A-110D, based on signal definitions in the communication matrix”; [0033]: “The Ethernet gateways 110A-110D can be configured (e.g., by the communication matrix 114) so that any communication that comes in on any physical wire from the LIN domain will be mapped to one or more VLANs”; determine output VLAN tag (egress service identifier) based on routing information. Yang: [0005]: “each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use””; [0007]: “sub-slot ID”; determine sub-slot ID of a given service for the Fg-BU to send (egress service identifier));
‘sending a first data part that is in the first data and that is to be sent to another gateway to a corresponding slot payload to a to-be-encapsulated ATU indicated by the egress service identifier corresponding to the first data, to obtain second data’ (Lengyel: [0034]: “The Ethernet gateway 110D can encapsulate the LIN message within an Ethernet packet, label the packet with a VLAN tag, and forward the tagged packet toward the Ethernet gateway 110A”, obtain the data to send based on the received service data and the output VLAN tag (egress service identifier). Yang: [FIG.5]: “Payload” of Fg-BU (slot); [0006]: “Each sub-slot carries 8 64B/66B blocks from a customer service”, obtain the data to send based on the service data and the sub-slot ID for a given service (egress service identifier));
‘encapsulating the second data in the to-be-encapsulated ATU based on the physical layer coding rule to obtain a second ATU’ (Lengyel: [0040]: “Encapsulation and decapsulation can be applied to messages according to any of multiple different automotive bus protocols. Here, a CAN frame 204 and a LIN frame 206 are used as examples”. Yang: [FIG.5]; [0002]: “fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer”);
‘sending, through a slot that is on the physical interface and that corresponds to an in-vehicle service corresponding to a piece of second data, the second ATU to the gateway connected to the current gateway’ (Lengyel: [FIG.1]: “Ethernet gateway” -> “Gateway function”; [0034]: “the Ethernet gateway 110A forwards the packet to the Ethernet gateway 110B according to the communication matrix”. Yang: [FIG.5]: “Payload” of Fg-BU (slot); [0002]: “fine granularity-basic unit (Fine granularity-basic unit, Fg-BU) is defined in an Ethernet Physical Coding Sublayer”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of Fg-BU with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 14, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the apparatus according to claim 13 (discussed above).
Combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches ‘based on determining, based on the ingress service identifier obtained based on the in-vehicle service corresponding to the first data, that multiple pieces of first data are data to be used by the current gateway, sending the multiple pieces of first data to an in-vehicle service node, a controller, or an in-vehicle networked terminal connected to the current gateway’ (Lengyel: [FIG.1]: “Ethernet gateway” -> “Gateway function”; [0024]: “systems that can be controlled by one or more ECUs include, but are not limited to, an engine or other motor (e.g., the inverter of an electric motor); a battery pack or battery modules of an electric vehicle; a thermal system; an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) or sensors thereof; or a vehicle infotainment system”, different kind of vehicle services such as sensor service, motor service; [0022]:“decapsulation of non-Ethernet messages into Ethernet packets; reads VLAN tags”, received VLAN (ingress service identifier); [0034]: “the Ethernet gateway 110C for decapsulation and forwarding to the ECUs 118E-118F. For example, the LIN message from the ECU 118A can be delivered to all other ECUs in the same VLAN”; [0024]: “systems that can be controlled by one or more ECUs include … an engine or other motor (e.g., the inverter of an electric motor); a battery pack or battery modules of an electric vehicle; a thermal system; an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) or sensors thereof; or a vehicle infotainment system”; send data to subsystems on the ECUs. Yang: [FIG.6]: “MFI”; [0005]: “one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots”; [0006]: “Each sub-slot carries 8 64B/66B blocks from a customer service”; [0007]: “sub-slot ID”, multiple pieces of data).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of Fg-BU with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (Yang: [0002]: “enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network”).
Regarding claim 15, combination of Lengyel and Yang teaches the apparatus according to claim 13 (discussed above).
Combination of Lengyel and Yang ‘based on third data from one or more of the in-vehicle service node, the controller, or the in-vehicle networked terminal connected to the current gateway being received’ (Lengyel: [FIG.1]: “Gateway function”; [0005]: “one of the Ethernet gateways is further configured to decapsulate the received communication from the Ethernet packet”; [0024]: “systems that can be controlled by one or more ECUs include … an engine or other motor (e.g., the inverter of an electric motor); a battery pack or battery modules of an electric vehicle; a thermal system; an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) or sensors thereof; or a vehicle infotainment system”, services for subsystems such as sensor, motor, etc. Yang: [0015]: “the receiving end extracting the Fg-BU frame for processing”; [0006]: “[0005]-[0006]: “one Fg-BU contains 24 sub-slots … Each sub-slot carries 8 64B/66B blocks from a customer service”; data for another service);
‘a slot payload corresponding to an in-vehicle service corresponding to the third data in the to-be-encapsulated ATU not carrying data’ (Yang: [0006]: “unused slots that are not allocated to the service”);
‘adding the third data to the slot payload corresponding to the in-vehicle service corresponding to the third data’ (Yang: [FIG.5]: “Payload”; [0005]: “each sub-slot (Sub-Slot) may be independently allocated to one customer for use”; add data from another service to the available sub-slots);
‘wherein a respective piece of the third data is carried by one slot payload’ (Yang: [FIG.5]: “Payload” of Fg-BU (slot));
‘encapsulating, based on the physical layer coding rule, the to-be- encapsulated ATU that carries the second data and the third data to obtain a third ATU’ (Lengyel: FIG2: CAN bus: {Preamble … “Payload” -> “ID RTR IDE DLC Data”}. Yang: [FIG.5]: “Overhead”, “Payload”);
‘sending the third ATU to the gateway connected to the current gateway’ (Lengyel: [FIG.1]; [0034]: “The Ethernet gateway 110D can encapsulate the LIN message within an Ethernet packet, label the packet with a VLAN tag, and forward the tagged packet toward the Ethernet gateway 110A).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Yang’s teaching of Fg-BU with that of Lengyel in order to enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network (Yang: [0002]: “enable services with different granularities to flexibly access a bearer network”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20240214122 A1 see [FIG.2]-[FIG.4], [0155]-[0179];
US 20240205074 A1 see [FIG.1], [0006]-[0063];
US 20240405965 A1 see [FIG.4]-[FIG.7], [FIG.10], [0082]-[0090];
US 20250024396 A1 see [FIG.5]-[FIG.7], [0047]-[0056];
US 20220247681 A1 see [FIG.5]-[FIG.10], [0084]-[0119];
US 20210160315 A1 see [FIG.1]-[FIG.5], [0010]-[0018];
US 20220021623 A1 see [0050];
CN 113014677 A (IDS cited) see [Page 3]-[Page 9].
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/G.F./Examiner, Art Unit 2462
/PETER CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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