Appeal 2007-0376 Application 10/280,259 BACKGROUND Appellants’ invention is directed to bi-directional communication among electrical modules in a motor vehicle. According to Appellants, different communication buses may be used for different purposes according to the importance of the communication (Specification 3). An understanding of the invention can be derived from a reading of exemplary independent claim 10, which is reproduced as follows: 10. A method of two-way digital communication between a plurality of nodes arranged at different respective positions in a vehicle, comprising the steps of: providing at least first and second serial communication busses interconnecting said nodes; separating said nodes into at least first and second groups wherein communication of nodes belonging to said first group is more critical for the operation of the vehicle than communication of the nodes in the second group; connecting said nodes of said first and second groups of nodes to said first and second communication busses, respectively; connecting each of said busses to a gateway node; and transferring digital information from a node within one bus to a node in another bus which is intended to receive said information, via the gateway node. The Examiner relies on the following reference in rejecting the claims: Berstis US 6,823,457 B1 Nov. 23, 2004 2Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013