Appeal No. 2006-0697
Reexamination 90/006,402
The Rejections on Appeal
Claims 1-7, 10-13 and 16-17 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Chan in view of Tanenbaum.
Claims 8, 14, and 18-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Chan, Tanenbaum and Smith.
Claims 9 and 15 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable
over Chan, Tanenbaum and Bales.
The Invention
The invention is directed to a fiber optic data transmission method and apparatus
for transmitting data packets which include header and tail information from one
subscriber station to another subscriber station. There are three levels of routing
devices placed in a matrix of fiber optic cables, which together shunt the data packets to
the intended destination throughout the fiber optic cable matrix. The first level of routing
device is called an intelligent communication platform (ICP); the second is called an
intelligent line module (ILM); and the third is called an intelligent routing card (IRC). An
interface device called a data processor line card is located at the first subscriber station
and is capable of forming data packets with head and tail information. A second data
processor line card is located at the second subscriber station. The ICP connects to the
data processor line card of the first subscriber station, receives a data transmission
packet therefrom, determines the appropriate route for sending that packet, and shunts
the packet onto an appropriate fiber optic line to an ILM. The ILM is coupled to an IRC
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