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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed in the Information Disclosure Statement(s) filed on 9/23/2024 have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form or PTO/SB/08A and 08B forms).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 4-6, 8-11, 19, 20, 22, 25-27, 31, 62 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Naguvanahalli et al. (US 2021/0341985, hereinafter “HP”).
Regarding claims 1, 31 and 62, HP discloses an upstream device of a data and power network (DPN) that includes at least one downstream device (Power over Ethernet, para. 0016, PSE 130, part of computing environment 100, including powered devices PD 150, Fig. 1) which is configured to allocate power to a given downstream device of the at least one downstream device, the upstream device comprising:
a non-transitory memory comprising instructions (functionality 400 of PSE implemented as instructions by one or more processors stored on computer readable storage medium, para. 0033, Fig. 4); and
one or more processors in communication with the memory (one or more processors, para. 0033), wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to:
ascertain a given role for the given downstream device, wherein the given role corresponds to a function within the DPN that has been selectively associated with the given downstream device (detecting at the PSE, first powered device PD is connected via a first Ethernet cable to a first port on the PSE and receiving at the PSE, first identification information from the first PD, steps 420, 430, Fig. 4; identification information comprises device type, para. 0043, and devices types include phone, lights, cameras, wireless access points, BLE beacons, para. 0001);
allocate an amount of power to the given downstream device by applying a role- based power allocation policy (assigning priority level to PD comparing identification information with a set of rules for prioritizing power distribution over ethernet, and determining based on priority that power can be supplied to the first PD, steps 440-450, Fig. 4, para. 0036-0039); and
cause the allocated amount of power to be distributed to the given downstream device (supplying power from the PSE to the PD, step 460, Fig. 4, par. 0039).
Regarding claim 2, HP further discloses wherein the role-based power allocation policy defines a collection of rules for prioritizing a plurality of roles and a power allocation algorithm, the plurality of roles including the given role (policy that species a set of rules for prioritizing power distribution over Ethernet for the computer network, 410, Fig. 4; policy species rules for assigning priority levels to the PDS 150 based on device types, para. 0017).
Regarding claim 4, HP further discloses wherein the collection of rules specifies constraints for prioritization of the roles relative to one another (para. 0042 – assigning second priority level to second PD, the second priority level, higher than the first priority level assigned to a first PD; priority level based on device type, para. 0043).
Regarding claim 5, HP further discloses wherein the collection of rules specifies at least one contextual factor on which prioritization of the roles depends (identification information includes both device type and present location of the PD, para. 0043; or time of day, para. 0044).
Regarding claim 6, HP further discloses the at least one contextual factor includes a temporal factor (time of day, para. 0044).
Regarding claim 8, HP further discloses retrieving the role-based power allocation policy from a non-transitory memory of the upstream device (PSE functionality by processor with computer readable storage medium, receives policy rules, para. 0033, 0034, Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 9, HP further discloses further comprising receiving the role-based power allocation policy from another device in the DPN via a policy discovery protocol (server 110 store policy 111, and pushes the policy 111 to PSEs 130, para. 0018, Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 10, HP further discloses wherein applying the role-based power allocation policy comprises prioritizing the plurality of roles in accordance with the collection of rules and carrying out the power allocation algorithm based on power needs of the given downstream device and on the plurality of roles as prioritized (see steps 410-460, Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 11, HP further discloses determining the power needs of a given downstream device (assigning priority to second PD, and determining power cannot be supplied to both first and second PD concurrently, para. 0042).
Regarding claim 19, HP further discloses wherein ascertaining the given roles for the given downstream devices is based on at least one contextual factor (identification information includes both device type and present location of the PD, para. 0043; or time of day, para. 0044).
Regarding claim 20, HP further discloses the given role for a given downstream device is selected from a plurality of potential roles based on the at least one contextual factor (priority is based on device type, location and time of day, para. 0013, 0044; and door locks at site 102N have critical priority, but only high priority at site 102a, para. 0023).
Regarding claim 22, HP further discloses receiving a power request from the given downstream device (receiving first identification information from the PD, step 430, Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 25, HP further discloses determining that the power available to the upstream device is insufficient to meet power needs of the at least one downstream device (abstract, para. 0046).
Regarding claim 26, HP further discloses the role-based power allocation policy is pre-set by an administrator (administrator configures policy 111, para. 0017).
Regarding claim 27, HP further discloses the upstream devices is a power sourcing equipment (PSE) (PSE 130, Fig. 1, Fig. 4, para. 0033).
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.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Naguvanahalli et al. (US 2021/0341985, hereinafter “HP”).
Regarding claim 3, HP does not expressly disclose the collection of rules specifies hard-coded prioritization of the roles. Rather, HP discloses a dynamically configurable prioritization scheme with updateable policy rules (para. 0013). However, it is implicit that a configurable scheme could be configured to be fixed, as well.
Therefore, it would have been an obvious matter of design choice to specify a fixed or hard-coded set of prioritization rules, since this is essentially the same as updating the system to not change a particular rule in the future, and can functionally be accomplished with the dynamically configurable scheme of HP, and does not make a functional difference compared to the claimed “hard-coded prioritization”.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 12-18, 23, 24, 28, 29 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kabbara et la. (US 2010/0171602) discloses PoE power allocation based on device types.
Vavilala (US 2018/0131182) also discloses PoE power allocation based on device types.
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/David S Huang/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631 1/9/2026