Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The Office Action is in response to claims filed on 8/29/2024 where claims 1-20 are pending and ready for examination.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/6/2024 and 6/9/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
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.
Claims 1 and 20 are rejected under 35 USC 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lurie (US 2019/0324450), Published 10/24/2019
Regarding claim 1, Lurie discloses a method of controlling an in-vehicle network, the method comprising:
receiving, by a first node in a vehicle, a first controller area network (CAN) signal from a first sensor of the first node through CAN communication (Lurie; Lurie teaches Bus Guardian devices (nodes) are connected to their respective sensors and the connection is facilitated by a CAN communications thus providing for the realization of CAN signals;
see e.g. Fig. 1 illustrating BG 134 receiving a CAN signal from a sensor 144 ;
see e.g. [0044] “... BGs 134 and 136 may be connected to the sensor 144 and 146 ...”
see e.g. [0044] “... via the appropriate communication channel (e.g., ethernet, CANbus, LINbus, etc.) ...”
The Examiner notes CAN signals are inherently present to realize the communications detailed above.);
;
converting, by the first node, the first CAN signal into a first Ethernet signal with priority information varying depending on a vehicle status(Lurie; Lurie teaches the protocol translation between CAN signals and Ethernet and where the transmission is based on a priority of the network in the vehicle;
The Examiner notes Applicant’s specification relates vehicle status to network attributes at the vehicfle
See e.g. [0032] “... During the scheduled time segments, the nodes may transmit their respective data during their respective pre-allocated timeslots. During the unscheduled time segments, the nodes (which may or may not have scheduled time segments) may transmit data based on the respective priority values assigned to the nodes. Based on current driving conditions (e.g., vehicle speed, pedestrian density, or any other condition that may require shorter response time), the gap between the scheduled time periods of each node may be reduced to make transmission bandwidth more readily available. This may be achieved in several ways. In particular embodiments, the length of the transmission cycle may be shortened and both the scheduled and unscheduled time segments within the cycles decrease proportionally. In particular embodiments, the transmission cycle length may be shortened by decreasing the unscheduled time segments without changing the respective lengths of the scheduled time segments. In particular embodiments, the network may be dynamically configured for connecting the nodes with different transmission schedule ...”.
See e.g. [0043] “... The following is an example list of non-limiting functions that may be performed by a bus guardian: ... (6) adhering to assigned communication schedule(s)/segment(s) and/or priority, (7) translating packets received from two or more physically redundant networks (e.g., two ethernet networks) into one or more physically non-redundant networks (e.g., a controller area network (CAN) bus) ...”
See e.g. [0120] FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components of an example bus guardian 132. As depicted, the bus guardian 132 includes a communication element 1302, ... For example, the communication element 1302 may receive packets on two ethernet networks and send out packets on one or more of an ethernet, a CAN bus, or a LIN bus. The communication element 1302 may transmit to and/or receive packets from two or more ethernet switches (e.g., as shown in FIG. 1), a peer bus guardian) ...”; and
transmitting, by the first node, the converted first Ethernet signal to a second node in the vehicle through Ethernet communication (Lurie; Subsequent to the conversion the signal may be transmitted to a peer BG(i.e. second node);
see e.g. [0120] “... The communication element 1302 may transmit to and/or receive packets ... , a peer bus guardian ...”
see e.g. Fig.13 illustrating transmittal of signal between peer BGs.
Regarding claim 20, Lurie discloses an in-vehicle network comprising:
a first node (Lurie; Lurie teaches a plurality of Bus Guardian devices (i.e. nodes) which comprises a first node
see e.g. Fig. 1 illustrating Bus Guardian 134
see e.g. [0029] “The BGs may be further connected to other components such as sensors and actuators. In particular embodiments, one or more components (e.g., sensors, actuators, cameras, BGs, or computers) in the network may be referred as a node, ); and
a second node (Lurie; Lurie teaches a plurality of Bus Guardian devices (i.e. nodes) which comprises a second node;
see e.g. [0029] “The BGs may be further connected to other components such as sensors and actuators. In particular embodiments, one or more components (e.g., sensors, actuators, cameras, BGs, or computers) in the network may be referred as a node,
see e.g. Fig. 1 illustrating Bus Guardian 136)),
wherein the first node is configured to:
receive a first controller area network (CAN) signal from a first sensor of the first node through CAN communication (Lurie; ; Lurie teaches Bus Guardian devices (nodes) are connected to their respective sensors and the connection is facilitated by a CAN communications thus providing for the realization of CAN signals;
see e.g. Fig. 1 illustrating BG 134 receiving a CAN signal from a sensor 144 ;
see e.g. [0044] “... BGs 134 and 136 may be connected to the sensor 144 and 146 ...”
see e.g. [0044] “... via the appropriate communication channel (e.g., ethernet, CANbus, LINbus, etc.) ...”
The Examiner notes CAN signals are inherently present to realize the communications detailed above.);
convert the first CAN signal into a first Ethernet signal with priority information varying depending on a vehicle status (Lurie; Lurie teaches the protocol translation between CAN signals and Ethernet and where the transmission is based on a priority of the network in the vehicle;
The Examiner notes Applicant’s specification relates vehicle status to network attributes at the vehicfle
See e.g. [0032] “... During the scheduled time segments, the nodes may transmit their respective data during their respective pre-allocated timeslots. During the unscheduled time segments, the nodes (which may or may not have scheduled time segments) may transmit data based on the respective priority values assigned to the nodes. Based on current driving conditions (e.g., vehicle speed, pedestrian density, or any other condition that may require shorter response time), the gap between the scheduled time periods of each node may be reduced to make transmission bandwidth more readily available. This may be achieved in several ways. In particular embodiments, the length of the transmission cycle may be shortened and both the scheduled and unscheduled time segments within the cycles decrease proportionally. In particular embodiments, the transmission cycle length may be shortened by decreasing the unscheduled time segments without changing the respective lengths of the scheduled time segments. In particular embodiments, the network may be dynamically configured for connecting the nodes with different transmission schedule ...”.
See e.g. [0043] “... The following is an example list of non-limiting functions that may be performed by a bus guardian: ... (6) adhering to assigned communication schedule(s)/segment(s) and/or priority, (7) translating packets received from two or more physically redundant networks (e.g., two ethernet networks) into one or more physically non-redundant networks (e.g., a controller area network (CAN) bus) ...”
See e.g. [0120] FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components of an example bus guardian 132. As depicted, the bus guardian 132 includes a communication element 1302, ... For example, the communication element 1302 may receive packets on two ethernet networks and send out packets on one or more of an ethernet, a CAN bus, or a LIN bus. The communication element 1302 may transmit to and/or receive packets from two or more ethernet switches (e.g., as shown in FIG. 1), a peer bus guardian) ...”; and
transmit the converted first Ethernet signal to the second node through Ethernet communication (Lurie; Subsequent to the conversion the signal may be transmitted to a peer BG(i.e. second node);
see e.g. [0120] “... The communication element 1302 may transmit to and/or receive packets ... , a peer bus guardian ...”
see e.g. Fig.13 illustrating transmittal of signal between peer BGs)
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 2 and 9 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Lurie in view of Hoffleit (US 2023/0110907)
Regarding claim 2, Jurie discloses The method of claim 1, Lurie does not expressly disclose wherein the priority information includes a priority code point (PCP) value.
However in analogous art Hoffleit discloses
wherein the priority information includes a priority code point (PCP) value (Hoffleit;
see e.g. [0070] “The transmit elements 16 take the form of FIFOs which are shared by DMA channels 45. In some cases, the transmit elements 16 may have priority levels, for example, in Ethernet, a priority code point (PCP) can be used to define eight priority queues for different traffic classes. ...”)
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Regarding claim 9, Lurie in view of Hoffleit disclose the method of claim 2, wherein the first node stores a PCP table having PCP values respectively corresponding to : a first vehicle status and a first CAN signal transmission period range; the first vehicle status and a second CAN signal transmission period range; a second vehicle status and the first CAN signal transmission period range; and the second vehicle status and the second CAN signal transmission period range.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to store transmission period ranges corresponding to different vehicle statuses in a table structure including all combinations of first and second vehicle statuses with first and second CAN signal transmission period ranges, because Lurie teaches distinct scheduled and unscheduled transmission period ranges and priority based transmission behavior associated with transmitting nodes (Fig. 6A, [0077]). In view of this teaching, one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that organizing these transmission period ranges and associated status conditions in a structured table would enable predictable and efficient determination and application of the appropriate transmission period based on the vehicle status and transmission conditions, and would represent a straightforward implementation of Luries disclosed priority dependent transmission scheduling.
Because Lurie already teaches multiple transmission period ranges and priority dependent transmission behavior, implementing all combinations of status and transmission period ranges in a table would have been a predictable and logical extension of Lurie’s disclosed scheduling framework..
Furthermore since Lurie teaches multiple transmission ranges and priority based transmission timing, organizing thee known transmission period ranges in association with different vehicle statuses in a table would have been an obvious matter of design choice and optimization (MPEP 2144.04, which recognizes that selecting and organizing known ranges or values to achieve predictable operation would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi (US 20220150089)
Regarding claim 3, Lurie In view of Hoffleit disclose the method of claim 2, Lurie does not expressly disclose wherein the first node stores a PCP table having PCP values respectively corresponding to:
a first vehicle status and a first CAN identifier (ID) range; the first vehicle status and a second CAN ID range; a second vehicle status and the first CAN ID range; and the second vehicle status and the second CAN ID range.
However in analogous art Kurachi discloses:
a first vehicle status and a first CAN identifier (ID) range; the first vehicle status and a second CAN ID range; a second vehicle status and the first CAN ID range; and the second vehicle status and the second CAN ID range
The Examiner notes vehicle status as indicated in claim 1 is associated with network specific priority
(Kurachi;
see e.g. [0046] In the message in compliance with the CAN communication standard, identification information called a CAN ID is stored in the top region of a message called an arbitration field. The CAN ID is information indicating the type and so on of data included in the message and indicating the priority of the message. The CAN ID indicates a message with a lower numerical value having a higher priority. If the multiple ECUs 2 simultaneously attempt to transmit messages to the CAN bus 3, arbitration processing based on the value of the CAN ID stored in the arbitration field of each message is performed by each of the ECUs 2 in the CAN communication system. As a result of the arbitration processing, one message having the highest priority is allowed to be transmitted while the transmissions of the rest of the messages need to be held on standby. The CAN ID is a static value decided by a designer at the stage of designing or the like of the vehicle 1, the communication system or the ECU 2...”
A person of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to store, at the first node, a table that associates CAN identifier ranges with corresponding handling parameters (e.g., priority/PCP values tied to a vehicle communication status), because Hoffleit teaches that CAN arbitration depends on the relative numeric value of CAN IDs (“lower” IDs transmit before “higher” IDS) and that CAN IDs are designer assigned. In practice, designer-assigned message sets are deployed in functional groupings (e.g. safety/controls versus noncritical body/infotainment) and grouping, and grouping by contiguous ranges numeric ranges provides a predictable table and efficient way to classify large sets of messages without storing an entry for every individual identifier. Using ranges reduces memory and lookup consistent behavior when additional messages are added within the same functional class, thereby implementing the taught priority-based arbitration in a scalable manner while preserving deterministic messaging treatment under varying vehicle communication conditions (.e., vehicle status)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Claims 4 – 6, 8 and 17 -18 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in further view of Kang (US 20160323283)
Regarding claim 4, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi disclose the method of claim 3, Lurie does not expressly disclose further comprising receiving, by the first node, the vehicle status from a network manager of a third node in the vehicle.
However in analogous art Kang disclose
further comprising receiving, by the first node, the vehicle status from a network manager of a third node in the vehicle (Kang;
see e.g. [0093] [0093] The priority administrator 521 may include a network traffic manager 521-1, a power consumption manager 521-2, a thing access manager 521-3, a service access manager 521-4, an update period manager 521-5, and a duration time manager 521-6. However, exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept are not limited thereto.
See e.g. [0095] The network traffic manager 521-1 may determine (or estimate) the bandwidth budget of a channel for each IoT device and/or each cluster type using the resource budget history information stored in the analysis DB 530-1 of the memory 530, and may manage or control the bandwidth according to the determination result.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have understood that such network managers inherently operate by distributing their determinations to participating nodes because otherwise network control nodes could ot be implemented.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kang’s network manager. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of managing network resources.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Regarding claim 5, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in further view of Kang disclose the method of claim 4 further comprising
receiving, by the network manager, data for vehicle status determination from at least one node in the vehicle (It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that in order for the network traffic matter to manage and control bandwidth budgets for network device, the network manager must receive operational data from at least one of the nodes participating in the network. A bandwidth budget necessarily effects the operational state and communication requirements of individual nodes, and such information originates from those nodes themselves. Therefore receiving data from nodes constitute an inherent and necessarily prerequisite to enabling the network traffic manager to perform its disclosed bandwidth management function; Kang [0093], [0095]); and
determining, by the network manager, the vehicle status based on the data for vehicle status determination (It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that determining bandwidth budgets based on received network data constitutes determining a status of the network and its participating nodes, since bandwidth allocation reflects current operational conditions and communication requirements. Bandwidth budgets inherently represent network operational status parameters used to control node communication behavior).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Regarding claim 6, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in further view of Kang disclose the method of claim 5, wherein the data for vehicle status determination includes information on at least one of driving speed, weather, time, or driving road conditions (Lurie;
See e.g. [0032] “... vehicle sped ...”)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Regarding claim 8, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in further view of Kang disclose the method of claim 4, comprising
retrieving, by the first node, a PCP value for the first CAN signal from the PCP table based on whether the received vehicle status corresponds to the first vehicle status or the second vehicle status and based on whether a CAN ID of the first CAN signal belongs to the first CAN ID range or the second CAN ID range (It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art for the first node to retrieve a PCP value from a stored table based on vehicle status and CAN ID range because Kurachi teaches classifying CAN signals based on CAN ID ranges and operational vehicle status ([0046]), and Hoffleit ([0070]) teaches storing and assigning corresponding PCP values to signals based on priority classification,. In view of these teachings one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to retrieve the PCP value corresponding to the classified vehicle status and CAN ID range in order to ensure that the signal priority is consistently applied during subsequent network handling) ; and
converting, by the first node, the first CAN signal into the first Ethernet signal with the retrieved PCP value (It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art because Hoffleit teaches assigning PCP values to Ethernet signaling to control network transmission priority, and Lurie teaches converting CAN signals for transmission over ethernet-based vehicle networks. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to use the retrieved PCP value during conversion in order to preserve the priority classification of the CAN signal within the Ethernet communication environment..
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Regarding claim 17, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in further view of Kang disclose The method of claim 5, wherein the first node comprises:
a CAN transceiver configured to transmit and receive the first CAN signal to and from the first sensor(Per independent claim 1 (Lurie) a CAN transceiver is necessarily present to vacillate the transmission and reception of packets over the CAN infrastructure )
a controller area network to Ethernet (CAN2ETH) converter configured to convert the first CAN signal to the first Ethernet signal (Per Independent claim 1 (Lurie) a converter is necessarily present to facilitate the conversion of packets from CAN to Ethernet);
an Ethernet transceiver configured to transmit the first Ethernet signal to the second node (Per Independent claim 1 (Lurie) an Ethernet transceiver is necessarily present to facilitate the conversion of packets from CAN to Ethernet the transmission and reception of packets); and
a PCP database (DB) storing the PCP table (It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to store the PCP table in a database because storing lookup tables, priority values or protocol information in database provides for increased efficiencies in managing network communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to implement the PCP table of using a database in order to facilitate reliable storage and retrieval of PCP values during CAN-to Ethernet signal conversion which is a predictable and routine implementation choice involving the use of known database techniques for their desired purpose).
Regarding claim 18, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in further view of Kang disclose The method of claim 17, wherein the Ethernet transceiver is configured to receive the determined vehicle status from the[[a]] network manager as an Ethernet signal (The combined solution provides for receiving network priority data (i.e. vehicle status) information from Kang’s network manager over the Ethernet network explicitly taught by Lurie)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in further view of Kang and in further view of Yerramalli (US 20190104416 )
Regarding claim 7, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in further view of Kang disclose the method of claim 5, Lurie does not expressly disclose further comprising transmitting, by the network manager, the determined vehicle status to all nodes in the vehicle
However Yerramalli discloses:
transmitting, by the network manager, the determined vehicle status to all nodes in the vehicle (Yerramalli;
see e.g. [0104] “... Device 805 may be an example of or include the components of wireless device 610, or a base station 105 as described herein. Device 805 may include components for bi-directional voice and data communications including components for transmitting and receiving communications, including bandwidth parts configuration manager 815 ...”
see e.g. “[0095] Bandwidth parts configuration manager 630 may configure one or more parameters associated BW parts in shared spectrum. In some examples, the bandwidth parts configuration manager 630 may configure each BW part to match a system requirement of the interferers in the coverage area. In other examples, the bandwidth parts configuration manager 630 may configure multiple downlink BW parts and uplink BW based on measurements at the UE and at the base station, respectively. The downlink BW parts may be the same or different from the uplink BW parts. In still other examples, the bandwidth parts configuration manager 630 may configure multiple BW parts with one or more coresets including common search space and UE-specific search space. In some other examples, bandwidth parts configuration manager 630 may configure an LBT procedure based on the type of scheduling that is used to schedule UE “
see e.g. [0097] “[0097] Transmitter 640 may transmit the configuration of bandwidth parts to UEs or other base stations in the coverage area. In some examples, the transmitter 640 may transmit at a reduced power level for a BW part independent of the other BW parts.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to ne of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Yerramilla’s scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of managing networks.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Claims 11 - 16 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi in view of Luo US 20210266651
Regarding claim 11, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi disclose the method of claim 3, Lurie does not expressly disclose wherein the first node is configured to
transmit the first Ethernet signal with a first PCP value to the second node through a first-class queue; and
transmit the first Ethernet signal with a second PCP value to the second node through a second-class queue.
However in analogous art Luo discloses:
First and second class queues (Luo teaches priority based queues which provides one of ordinary skill in the art the ability to implement queues with relative classes to each other;
See e.g. 0116] It should be noted that a priority of each queue is controlled by using a queue scheduling algorithm, and link layer priorities (for example, related stipulations in the 802.1Q protocol), upper-layer content (for example, information such as terms of service (TOS) fields, source addresses, destination addresses, source ports, or destination ports), or the like are used to distinguish between packet priorities. The queue scheduling algorithm and the priority distinguishing method are not specifically limited in this application.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to incorporate Luo’s priority queues. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in further view of Luo disclose:
transmit the first Ethernet signal with a first PCP value to the second node through a first-class queue (The combined solution (per dependent claim 3) provides for transmittal of the first Ethernet Signal with a first PCP value using a first class queue (i.e. highest priority); and
transmit the first Ethernet signal with a second PCP value to the second node through a second-class queue (The combined solution (per dendent claim 3) provides for transmittal of the first Ethernet Signal with a second PCP value using a second class queue (i.e. lower priority).
Regarding claim12, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in view of Luo disclose the method of claim 11, wherein a transmission bandwidth of the first-class queue is wider than a transmission bandwidth of the second-class queue (It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to configure a first class queue to have a wider transmission bandwidth than a second class queue because Luo teaches that queues are assigned different priorities and are serviced using a queuing scheduling algorithm based on those priorities. A higher-priority queue necessarily receives preferential transmission opportunities, resulting in greater allocation of transmission resources over time relative to lower priority queues. Therefore configuring the higher priority queue would have been an obvious implementation choice to ensure timely delivery of higher priority traffic and to improve communication efficiency consistent with the priority based scheduling taught by Lurie).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmissio.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Regarding claim 13, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in view of Luo disclose The method of claim 11, comprising transmitting, by a fourth node, an emergency Ethernet signal to other nodes through the first-class queue.(It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to transmit emergency Ethernet Signal through the first class queue because Luo teaches that queues are assigned different priorities and are used to transmit data based on the urgency or priority of data. Lurie further recognizes emergency type conditions (see e.g. [0123] “... emergency ...”) requiring prompt communication. In view of these teachings, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to transmit emergency signals through the higher priority first class queue in order to ensure faster delivery and timely handling of critical information. )
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Regarding claim 14, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in view of Luo disclose the method of claim 13, wherein
the fourth node comprises a second sensor based on Ethernet configured to sense data necessary for safe operation of the vehicle (It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art for said feature because Lurie teaches an emergency stop button and emergency manual vehicle mode that allow the safety driver to take control of the vehicle in response to emergency conditions ([0123], [0130]). The emergency stop button is an input sensing device that detects driver activation and generates corresponding emergency control data necessary to ensure safe operation of the vehicle. One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that such emergency input sensing devices are integrated into vehicle communication networks and communicate their sensed data through network nodes, including ethernet-based vehicle networks, in order to coordinate safe vehicle variation.) and
wherein the second sensor is configured to generate the data necessary for the safe operation of the vehicle as the emergency Ethernet signal (It would have been obvious for said feature as Lurie teaches that activation of the emergency stop button results in generation of control instructions that affect vehicle operation ([0123], [0130]), and the combined references teach transmitting vehicle control and priority signals over Ethernet communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated t for said feature as an emergency ethernet signa through the first class queue in order to ensure rapid transmission and prompt response to emergency conditions, thereby improving vehicle safety and communication reliability.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Regarding claim 15, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi and in view of Luo disclose The method of claim 13, wherein the emergency Ethernet signal 15. Comprises
a first emergency Ethernet signal and a second emergency Ethernet signal (The combined solution per Lurie provides for emergency conditions such as activation of an emergency stop or maula override, generate control instructions and status information that must be communicated across vehicles systems ([0123], [0130]). Thus different emergency related information may be generated and transmitted as separate emergency Ethernet emergency signals in order to ensure proper coordination), and
wherein the fourth node is configured to:
transmit the first emergency Ethernet signal to the other nodes through the first-class queue (The combined solution per Luo provides for priority base queuing (i.e. first class); and
transmit the second emergency Ethernet signal to the other nodes through the second-class queue (The combined solution per Luo provides for priority base queuing (i.e. second class).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmision.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi in view of Luo and in further view of Potter (US 20220131839)
Regarding claim 16, Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kurachi in view of Luo disclose The method of claim 15, Luri does not expressly disclose wherein each of the first to fourth node is an electronic control unit (ECU) in the vehicle.
However in analogous art Potter discloses:
wherein each of the first to fourth node is an electronic control unit (ECU) in the vehicle (Potter;
[0059] The vehicle electronics 46 comprises a vehicle data processor 71, a vehicle data storage device 56, and a vehicle wireless communications device 58, a data port 48, a user interface 54, a vehicle data bus (e.g., controller area network (CAN) data bus an ISO bus, Ethernet, a sub-combination thereof or a combination thereof) 72, a first controller (i.e., a first ECU) 73, a second controller (i.e., a second ECU) 74 and a third controller (i.e., a third ECU) 75. While only three controllers are illustrated, it should be understood that the vehicle electronics 46 may include more or less than three controllers. Each of the controllers may provide a functionality of a machine (e.g., a vehicle or an implement) such as transmission control, individual nozzle control (on a sprayer), engine control, operator controls in the cab, hydraulic controls, row unit control on a planter, etc..)
Therefore it would have beenprima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Potter’s ECU element. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of managing system operations.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kurachi’s CAN IDs. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission.
Therefore it would have been prima facie to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hoffleit’s PCP value. The motivation being the combined solution provides for incorporating a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of data transmission
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Lurie in view of Kang
Regarding claim 19, Lurie discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining whether a bandwidth required for transmission of the first Ethernet signal is capable of being secured on a transmission path between the first node and the second node based on the priority information on the first Ethernet signal (Lurie teaches allocating transmission opportunities baed on priority ans scheduling within transmission cycles, including scheduled and unscheduled transmission segments assigned to transmitting nodes (see e.g. Fig. 6A, [0077]). Because such priority based scheduling requires evaluating whether transmission oportunites are available for a given signal band on its priority, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to determine whether sufficient bandwidth is available along a transmission path for transmitting an ethernet signal based on its priority, as this is a predictable implementation of priority based transmission scheduling).;
based on that the bandwidth is capable of being secured, controlling the first Ethernet signal to be transmitted to the second node along the transmission path (Lurie; Lurie teaches transmitting data from nodes during scheduled transmission periods assigned based o priority (see e.g. Fig. 6A, [0077]) thereby controlling transmission based on the availability of scheduled transmission opportunities. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to transmit the Ethernet signal along the transmission path when sufficient band with is available, because transmitting data when transmission resources are available is an inherent and predictable result of priority bases scheduling); and
based on that the bandwidth is incapable of being secured, changing the transmission path to route through a third node and controlling the first Ethernet signal to be transmitted to the second node along the changed transmission path (Lurie teaches a communication network comprising multiple nodes transmitting data over the network (see e.g. Fig. 6A, [0077]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to route the Ethernet signal through an alternate node when sufficient bandwidth is unavailable on a direct transmission path in order to satisfy transmission requirements.)
As evidence of the rationale above Kang discloses
determining bandwidth required for transmission (Kang;
see e.g. [0093] [0093] The priority administrator 521 may include a network traffic manager 521-1, a power consumption manager 521-2, a thing access manager 521-3, a service access manager 521-4, an update period manager 521-5, and a duration time manager 521-6. However, exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept are not limited thereto.
See e.g. [0095] The network traffic manager 521-1 may determine (or estimate) the bandwidth budget of a channel for each IoT device and/or each cluster type using the resource budget history information stored in the analysis DB 530-1 of t)he memory 530, and may manage or control the bandwidth according to the determination result.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kan’s scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of allocating network resources.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kang
Regarding claim 10, Lurie in view of Hoffleit disclose the method of claim 9, comprising:
retrieving, by the first node, a PCP value for the first CAN signal from the PCP table based on whether the received vehicle status corresponds to the first vehicle status or the second vehicle status and based on whether a transmission period of the first CAN signal belongs to the first CAN signal transmission period range or the second CAN signal transmission period range (The combined teachings of Lurie and Hoffleit provide for retrieving a priority code point (PCP) value based on signal characteristics. Hoffleit teaches assigning and using PCP values to distinguish and prioritize traffic, thereby providing the PCP value corresponding to the singal conditions. The combined solutions therefore retrieves the appropriate PCP value per Hoffleits PCP assignment and usage.); and
converting, by the first node, the first CAN signal into the first Ethernet signal with the retrieved PCP value (Lurie teaches converting CAN signals into Ethernet Signals using a CAN-to-Ethernet conversion interface and transmitting the resulting Ethernet signal over the network . In view of Hoffleits’s teaching of assigning PCP values to Ethernet signals, the combined solution converts the CAN signals into an Ethernet signal incorporating the retrieved PCP value).
Lurie in view of Hoffleit does not expressly disclose:
receiving, by the first node, the vehicle status from a network manager of a third node in the vehicle;
Kang discloses:
Network manager(Kang;
see e.g. [0093] [0093] The priority administrator 521 may include a network traffic manager 521-1, a power consumption manager 521-2, a thing access manager 521-3, a service access manager 521-4, an update period manager 521-5, and a duration time manager 521-6. However, exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept are not limited thereto.
See e.g. [0095] The network traffic manager 521-1 may determine (or estimate) the bandwidth budget of a channel for each IoT device and/or each cluster type using the resource budget history information stored in the analysis DB 530-1 of t)he memory 530, and may manage or control the bandwidth according to the determination result.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Kan’s scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of allocating network resources.
Lurie in view of Hoffleit and in further view of Kang discloses:
receiving, by the first node, the vehicle status from a network manager of a third node in the vehicle (The combined solution provides for the network manager determining vehicle status information and transmitting that information to nodes, thereby allowing the first node to receive the vehicle status from the network manager);
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to TODD L. BARKER whose telephone number is (571) 270 0257. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday, 7:30am to 5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner's supervisor Vivek Srivastava can be reached on (571) 272 7304.
/TODD L BARKER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2449