Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Spanier US 2014/0025321 A1.
Spanier teaches:
1. An apparatus comprising:
interface circuitry; [Fig. 1 24]
first instructions; [Fig. 1 20] and
programmable circuitry [Fig. 1 50] to at least one of instantiate or execute the first instructions to:
access a file [Fig. 13 1308 - protocol library accessed] in a request from a client device [Fig. 13 1302 request], the file including at least a second instruction [Fig. 13 1314 - protocol library creates internal data request] to retrieve device parameter data associated with at least one field device in a process control system; [Fig. 13 1302 data request query]
convert the at least the second instruction of the file from a first format [protocol] to a field device request in a second format [native]; [Fig. 13 1316 protocol library format converted to native database format]
cause access of a first device parameter value of the device parameter data in the at least one field device based on the field device request; [para. 0186, “The native database 1206 keeps its internal data up to date by receiving data from the data gathering process module 1208, which in turn uses the Modbus RTU communication protocol to retrieve data from the measuring unit 1010 of the IED 10. The data gathering process module 1208 sends periodic data queries to the measuring unit 1010 of the IED 10 on a regular interval basis.”]
query a database to retrieve a second device parameter value of the device parameter data; [Fig. 13 1318 native database retrieves data and returns] and
provide the first device parameter value and the second device parameter value to the client device. [Fig. 13 1320 data sent back]
Spanier teaches:
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the device parameter data includes at least one of a process control value, an alarm, status information, diagnostic information, an error message, or a device identifier associated with the at least one field device. [para. 0174, “The measuring unit 1010 is responsible for measuring and computing all the data values such as, for example, voltage, amperes, power, energy and harmonics. These values are made available to the network communication card 1033 via an internal interface which talks to Modbus RTU. As stated herein, it is envisioned that this could be any protocol or just values of data in memory. The network communication card 1033 at the other end, is responsible for gathering all usable data produced by the measuring unit 1010 and for keeping this data updated at near 1 second intervals.”]
Spanier teaches:
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the programmable circuitry is to send different values for the device parameter data to the client device continuously. [para. 0105, “In another embodiment, UPnP is employed to allow devices, such as meters, to notify the clients of what services they support, such as modbus, dnp, web, ftp, log download, and data streaming.”]
Spanier teaches:
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the programmable circuitry is to:
detect a change associated with the device parameter data; [para. 0118, “As such, GOOSE is known as a Publish-Subscribe message. With binary values, change detect is a False-to-True or True-to-False transition. With analog measurements, IEC 61850 defines a "deadband" whereby if the analog value changes greater than the deadband value, a GOOSE message with the changed analog value is sent.”] and
send changed device parameter data to the client device based on the change. [para. 0118, “A GOOSE message is a user-defined set of data that is "published" on detection of a change in any of the contained data items sensed or calculated by the IED. Any IED or device on the LAN or network that is interested in the published data can "subscribe" to the publisher's GOOSE message and subsequently use any of the data items in the message as desired.”]
Spanier teaches:
5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the detected change is a first detected change of multiple detected changes [para. 0118], wherein the programmable circuitry is to query the database for the multiple detected changes. [para. 0147-0149; data plus metadata stored in database for lookup]
Spanier teaches:
6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the programmable circuitry is to periodically query the database based on a time interval. [para. 0197, “In essence the database 1206 holds the data, its age, and its status (e.g., valid data in database 1206 are refreshed once per second from the data gathering module 408).”]
Spanier teaches:
7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the file includes parameter identifiers to be used to query the database for the multiple detected changes. [para. 0182, “At Step S1144, "Call to IEC 61850 data interface 1204", it is verified that if a reply to a user request requires data such as data which resides in the native database 1206 (e.g., voltages, currents, harmonics, etc.), it creates an internal data request to the IEC 61850 data interface 1204 in order to retrieve the needed data from native database 1206 before sending the reply through the network interface translator 1202.”]
Spanier teaches:
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the parameter identifiers are to be used to query the database concurrently with execution of the at least the second instruction. [para. 0181 data is retrieved from native database 1206 (Fig. 14) while polling of measurement device via data gathering module, steps 1409 and 1410 continues]
Spanier teaches:
9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second device parameter value of the device parameter data corresponds to a user-modifiable configuration parameter associated with the at least one field device. [para. 0176, “Most of the data is read only. However some data, for example, limits dead bands, and configuration data can be writable by the IEC 61850 routines 1203 only when parsing the file. So the configuration of such parameters can take place. Therefore, there is a write handler function linked to the IEC 61850 routines 1203 to be used when a parameter needs to be configured.”]
Regarding CRM claims 10-18 and method claims 19-20, these claims recite the storage of functions for apparatus above and the method for executing steps of the functions above and are rejected on the same grounds and rationale as corresponding claims above.
Conclusion
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/GARY COLLINS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2115
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