Detailed Office 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 .
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 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.
Request for Continued Examination
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.
Applicant's submission filed on 15 December 2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 3, 5, 7-13, and 16-17 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 3, 5, and 7-13
Claims 1, 3, 5, 7-12, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cisco (Data Center Multi-Tier Model Design, 14 May 2008; “Cisco”) in view of Kewitsch et al. (2010/0220953; “Kewitsch-2010”), further in view of Mei et al. (2010/0279519; “Mei”), further in view of Marr et al. (2014/0025843; “Marr”), and further in view of Schares et al. (A reconfigurable interconnect fabric with optical circuit switch and software optimizer for stream computing systems, OTuA1.pdf, OSA/OFC/NFOEC 2009; “Schares”).
Regarding independent claim 1, Cisco discloses in figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text, network topology embodiments comprising modular multi-tier campus networks characterized by campus core units positioned ‘above’ aggregation units which, in turn, are positioned above access units; trunk lines connect aggregation switches, . Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text. Cisco, Path Selection in the Presence of Service Modules (“In a service module-enabled design, you might want to tune the routing protocol configuration so that a primary traffic path is established towards the active service modules in the Aggregation 1 switch and, in a failure condition, a secondary path is established to the standby service modules in the Aggregation 2 switch. This provides a design with predictable behavior and traffic patterns, which facilitates troubleshooting. Also, by aligning all active service modules in the same switch, flows between service modules stay on the local switching bus without traversing the trunk between aggregation switches.
Cisco – Figures 2-1, 2-4 and 2-5
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Cisco – Selected Text
The aggregation layer, with many access layer uplinks connected to it, has the primary responsibility of aggregating the thousands of sessions leaving and entering the data center. The aggregation switches must be capable of supporting many 10 GigE and GigE interconnects while providing a high-speed switching fabric with a high forwarding rate. The aggregation layer also provides value-added services, such as server load balancing, firewalling, and SSL offloading to the servers across the access layer switches.
The aggregation layer switches carry the workload of spanning tree processing and default gateway redundancy protocol processing. The aggregation layer might be the most critical layer in the data center because port density, over-subscription values, CPU processing, and service modules introduce unique implications into the overall design.
Traffic Flow in the Data Center Aggregation Layer
The aggregation layer connects to the core layer using Layer 3-terminated 10 GigE links. Layer 3 links are required to achieve bandwidth scalability, quick convergence, and to avoid path blocking or the risk of uncontrollable broadcast issues related to trunking Layer 2 domains.
The traffic in the aggregation layer primarily consists of the following flows:
•Core layer to access layer—The core-to-access traffic flows are usually associated with client HTTP-based requests to the web server farm. At least two equal cost routes exist to the web server subnets. The CEF-based L3 plus L4 hashing algorithm determines how sessions balance across the equal cost paths. The web sessions might initially be directed to a VIP address that resides on a load balancer in the aggregation layer, or sent directly to the server farm. After the client request goes through the load balancer, it might then be directed to an SSL offload module or a transparent firewall before continuing to the actual server residing in the access layer.
•Access layer to access layer—The aggregation module is the primary transport for server-to-server traffic across the access layer. This includes server-to-server, multi-tier traffic types (web-to-application or application-to-database) and other traffic types, including backup or replication traffic. Service modules in the aggregation layer permit server-to-server traffic to use load balancers, SSL offloaders, and firewall services to improve the scalability and security of the server farm.
The path selection used for the various flows varies, based on different design requirements.
These differences are based primarily on the presence of service module sand by the access layer topology used.
Further regarding claim 11, Kewitsch-2010 discloses in figures 1, 12-A, and 12-B, and related figures and text, for example, Kewitsch-2010 -Selected Text, embodiments of modular systems for controllably switching optical signal carrying physical links among a variable plurality of optical fibers, the systems comprising: a physical link sorting module “all-fiber cross-connect switching system,” shown but not labeled in figure 1, the sorting module including optical fibers that carry different ones of a plurality of separate input optical signals to different optical fiber outputs, the sorting module being constructed and adapted to respond individually to first command signals to interweave different physical links therein to selected ones of the optical fiber outputs. See Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28.
Kewitsch-2010 - Figure 1
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Kewitsch-2010 - Figures 12-A and 12-B.
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Kewitsch-2010 – Selected Text
[0043] The all-fiber cross-connect switching system disclosed in this invention is illustrated in the partial cutaway, perspective view of FIG. 1. This system is characterized by 100's to 1000's of flexible fiber interconnection lines or strands 21 suspended between two planes and intermixing within a circuit expansion volume 108 in the system interior. The placement, ordering and subsequent physical reconfiguration of strands is based on relationships derived from the Theory of Knots and Braids. Topological algorithms uniquely describe the dynamic nature of strand boundary conditions during the reconfiguration process.
[0044] Reconfigurable fiber connections are made internal to the expansion volume 108, between a two-dimensional array of reconfigurable input terminals 170 and an intermediate, substantially one-dimensional array or convergence backbone 41 bounding the interconnect volume. The suspended fiber lines 21 therebetween follow substantially straight-line paths and define a three-dimensional arrangement of vectors directed towards the one-dimensional array 41 which is located at an intermediate plane, beyond which the fiber lines 21 exit contiguously to a modular arrangement of substantially identical, stacked buffer modules 40 housing of a group of say, 48 strands. Internal to modules 40, strand buffer or length storage elements 42 provide slight tensioning, parallel to the vectors and adequate to maintain taut fiber lines 21 in addition to retaining excess slack in the fiber lines. The tension force produced by storage elements 42 on each fiber line lies substantially parallel to the vector defining the three dimensional orientation of each fiber line.
[0045] As a result of the spatially coherent arrangement of strand interconnections, physically non-blocking, automated and software-driven reconfiguration is accomplished by linking the two-dimensional array of input terminals 170 with taut flexible fiber optic circuits 21, or strands, spanning the switch's cross-connect volume 108 and extending from a one-dimensional array of guides at the intermediate optical switch backbone 41. Contiguous fiber optic lines 21 pass through ordered guides at the backbone 41, to a plurality of self-tensioning and slack retention means 42 within multi-fiber interconnect modules 40.
[0046] A typical optical cross-connect system in accordance with this example occupies a 19 or 23-inch wide rack and in this example contains up to 1008 input by 1008 output ports, or more. Switch terminals in array 170 can be added in fixed increments ranging from 12 to 48, for example, by installing additional flexible circuit modules 40 above any previously installed modules in the flexible fiber circuit expansion volume. The output fibers from the buffer modules 40 may be spliced to one or more multi-fiber cables 123, or terminated directly at an array of connector terminals.
[0047] In the particular example of FIG. 1, the lower section of the switch volume is substantially comprised of the reconfiguration volume 108. In general, the reconfiguration volume 108 may lie at the top, bottom, side or central section of the system 100. A central portion of the upper section is clear of obstructions to enable the robotic actuator to move, extend and park within this section while being unencumbered by the suspended fibers below. The bottom-most section (see FIG. 12B) beneath the input terminal array 170 includes at least one row of translatable docking ports or parking ports in a docking module (215 in FIG. 12B) to facilitate exchange of fiber lines 21 between and under the populated terminals. The polished fiber end-face of a connector can be cleaned prior to insertion at terminal array 170 by use of an integrated fiber end-face cleaning module (not shown in FIG. 1) which may be integrated within the interconnect transport mechanism 405. The cleaning module may comprise a fiber cleaning fabric ribbon in spooled form and a drive mechanism which automatically moves the fabric relative to the end-face, thereby cleaning the fiber end-faces in a non-wearing fashion.
[0048] This cross-connect system 100 is comprised of a combination of interchangeable modules to provide desirable characteristics of modularity, scalability and versatility (FIGS. 12A and 12B). As shown in these figures, by way of example, the modules include a multiplicity of stacked flexible fiber optic circuit modules 40 populating an input connector array 110, a robotic module 202 coupled to the interconnection transport mechanism 405 a controller module 70, a docking module 215, vertical cable guides 216 and output patch-panels 217. For further details as to system geometry and operation, reference can be made to the above-referenced patent application Ser. No. 12/196,262.
[0057] Reconfiguration is initiated by a user or external software client by entering a simple reconfiguration command, reading in a file containing a series of reconfiguration instructions, or via a standard interface protocol such as TL1 or SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). The server or controller system 70 (FIG. 1) processes these commands, based on the current state of the database of interconnection vectors, to compute the required multi-step, Braid theory-based reconfiguration process. Thereafter, the motion of interconnection transport mechanism 405 is initiated. The multifunctional gripper 50 disengages and moves a specified fiber line, in a fashion synchronized with the programmed, independent translation of each row comprising the two dimensional array of terminals 170 along the x axis. Fiber lines retain substantially straight-line paths for any number of arbitrary reconfigurations. The vector undergoing reconfiguration maintains a proper orientation relative to surrounding vectors such that entanglement is avoided for any potential reconfiguration.
[0058] In the cross-connect system disclosed here, input terminals are connected to output fibers through internal connections that are robotically reconfigured. A reconfiguration of one port first requires that if the internal destination port 58 is currently occupied by a connector 34, this connector must be vacated to make room for the new fiber connection. This process makes temporary use of a holding, docking or parking port, for example, within docking module 215 below the flexible circuit modules 40 (FIG. 12B). If the destination port is not vacant, the port reconfiguration is preceded by the step of moving any fiber strand 21 within the destination port to an empty terminal 58 (FIG. 17B). In general, the number of internal input terminals 58 will be larger than the number of output fibers 81 (FIG. 1) because of the addition of docking and/or parking ports.
[0122] Systems in accordance with the invention are intended to provide capacity for many thousands of optical fibers, each of which must be free of excessive stressing as well as excessive bending when manipulated. Controllable tension of variable length optical fibers is uniquely provided by reels in accordance with the applicant's previously issued U.S. Pat. No. 7,315,681 entitled "Fiber Optic Rotary Coupling and Devices". That teaching of reels for tensioned feeding and retraction of optical fiber elements is generally applicable herein, but even though it is a compact combination of low elevation, the present system imposes spatial demands which make it highly desirable that the reel devices and their geometry be substantially further compressed. This is accomplished in accordance with the invention by the modular construction of FIGS. 16A and 16B, which incorporates reel assemblies of very low height and by reel configurations as depicted in FIGS. 18A-18D.
[0123] The modular construction is shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B and comprises a number (four) of stacked take-up reels 42, each in a separate partial housing of low height (0.4 inches or less), and each, in this example, comprising one reel 42 in a four high stack of reels distributed in a 4.times.3 planar configuration, as shown in FIG. 16B. The optical fibers extending from each of the individual reels 42 feed into a fiber backbone 41 as described above and in the previously referenced parent applications and from there are distributed outwardly into an open interconnect volume 108 leading to individual connector terminals 110. Each module includes a rigid printed circuit board substrate 84 on which forty-eight take-up reels 42 reside, each feeding their fiber 21 a different connector terminal 110, the terminals 110 being accessible from the exterior. Fibers 21 are individually routed from reels 42 through a series of low friction fiber guides 92 that suspend the fibers passing therethrough and direct them potentially through 90 degree bends, while presenting negligible friction to the fibers sliding within. The fiber guides 92 are positioned across the printed circuit board substrate 84 to route all moving input fibers to the central fiber backbone location 41. As described below in connection with FIG. 21, the connector terminals 110 connect outwardly to exterior optical fibers in the system harness. Within the open interconnect volume 108, the gripper mechanism heretofore described can penetrate through the three-dimensional matrix of strands to seize a particular optical fiber at a chosen address, remove it and interweave it through the columns and rows, in accordance with the invention. As depicted in FIGS. 16A and 16B, this compact module is of less than 1.6 inches height, so that a significant number of modules can be added as needed and stacked within the equipment rack.
[0124] Methods and systems to achieve intelligent and automated fault recovery are also disclosed herein, as shown generally in FIG. 20. Data and procedures used in the execution of a deterministic, multi-state port reconfiguration process is recorded in real-time during the process to provide a detailed log file 209 record of the steps being effected. Should a power failure or other fault or failure occur to interrupt the reconfiguration process, the saved log file is restored to reveal the exact point in the reconfiguration process where the fault occurred. For robustness, the log file is typically saved to a mirrored or redundant memory device at the same time.
[0125] In a particular example of the fault recovery process, the reconfiguration is restarted in a simulation mode following interruption. That is, the controller steps through the reconfiguration process without executing the actual processes, such as actuation of the gripper. The saved log file is compared to the simulation log file line-by-line during process simulation, which should match on a line-by-line basis until the point of failure. Once the simulation process reaches the final entry in the saved log file, the process has returned to the point at which it had halted. At this point, the process exits the simulation mode and proceeds with the execution of the actual process.
Claim 1. In a system for interweaving a selected strand within a spatially coherent multiplicity of strands suspended in an interconnection volume between a planar two-dimensional matrix of input terminals disposed in rows and columns, and a spaced apart ordered single axis distribution of strand output terminals in which each input terminal has a unique two-dimensional address, with the strands between the input and output terminals defining three-dimensional vectors, and in which system a strand transport mechanism interweaves a selected strand adjacent the two-dimensional matrix to a different target input terminal in the matrix along a computed trajectory; the rows of terminals in the matrix being incrementally movable in the row direction; a method for providing a trajectory for reconfiguration of a selected strand between different input terminals without entangling the selected strand with other strands in the multiplicity, the method comprising the steps of: transporting a selected strand in alternating columnar directions through the multiplicity of strands; calculating a weaving code for laterally incrementally moving individual rows of the two-dimensional matrix of terminals in timed relation to the columnar position of the strand being transported; providing lateral incremental movements of selected rows of strands in the two-dimensional distribution according to the calculated weaving code, in timed relation to the columnar position of the strand being transported; transporting the selected strand along successive columns of the matrix in alternating senses parallel to the single axis dimension, relative to the matrix, and repeating the columnar transporting in alternating directions and timed lateral incremental movements of selected rows until a final input address is reached.
Consequently, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Cisco by incorporating embodiments of Kewitsch-2010’s systems for controllably switching optical signal carrying physical links among a variable plurality of optical fibers; because the resulting fiber-based systems would facilitate designing, fabricating, and deploying scalable, modular, plug-and-play, and intelligent cross-connect networks. Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Mie, paragraph [0003] (“A network patching system is typically used to interconnect the various communication lines within a closet, computer room or data center. In a conventional network patching system, the communication lines are terminated within a closet or cabinet in an organized manner via one or more patch panels mounted on a rack or frame. Multiple ports are included in the patch panel, typically in some type of organized array. Each of the different ports is connected with a communications line. In small patching systems, all communications lines may terminate on the patch panels of the same rack or cabinet. In larger patching systems, multiple racks or cabinets may be used, wherein different communications lines terminate on different racks or cabinets. Interconnections between the various communications lines are made by connecting patch cords to the ports. By selectively connecting the various communications lines with patch cords, any combination of communications lines can be interconnected.”).
Mie – Figures 12-18
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Mie – Selected Text
[0003] A network patching system is typically used to interconnect the various communication lines within a closet, computer room or data center. In a conventional network patching system, the communication lines are terminated within a closet or cabinet in an organized manner via one or more patch panels mounted on a rack or frame. Multiple ports are included in the patch panel, typically in some type of organized array. Each of the different ports is connected with a communications line. In small patching systems, all communications lines may terminate on the patch panels of the same rack or cabinet. In larger patching systems, multiple racks or cabinets may be used, wherein different communications lines terminate on different racks or cabinets. Interconnections between the various communications lines are made by connecting patch cords to the ports. By selectively connecting the various communications lines with patch cords, any combination of communications lines can be interconnected.
[0051] FIGS. 12-18 illustrate different interconnection arrangements in which the assemblies 10, 110 and similar devices may be effectively utilized. Turning first to FIG. 12, the interconnection of a data center 50 is shown. Connection of a core switch 51 with a server 52 can be achieved via an assembly 10 connected with patch cords 54, 56. A similar interconnection scheme is shown in FIG. 13, in which a core switch 61 is connected with a server 62. In this scheme, an assembly 10 is connected with the server 62 via patch cords 64 (one of which is shown in FIG. 13). The assembly 10 is then connected via patch cords 66 with another assembly 10' that lacks one connector unit 23; instead, on that end the cable 22 is broken out into its individual cable subunits 24, each of which is attached via a … plug 68 to the core switch 61 to form a data center 60.
[0052] Turning now to FIG. 14, a data center 70 that serves different architecture schemes is shown. A core switch 71 is connected via trunk cables 72a, 72b to aggregation switches 73a, 73b. The trunk cables 72a, 72b may be configured as the cable 22 above with a 24-pair plug 34 on each end. The aggregation switch 73a is connected to a server 74a with an assembly 10 via … patch cords 76, 78. This arrangement is suitable for Middle of Rack (MoR) and End of Rack (EoR) architectures. The aggregation switch 73b is connected to a server 74b via an assembly 10' that is connected with an assembly 10 via patch cords 75; the assembly 10 is then connected to the server 74b via patch cords 77. This arrangement is suitable for modular, scalable data center topologies and architectures and is also known as a cross-connection scheme.
[0053] Turning now to FIG. 15, a data center 80 exhibits two different Top of Rack (ToR) architecture schemes. A core switch 81 is connected via trunk cables 82a, 82b (of the configuration described above for cables 72a, 72b) to two ToR switches 83a, 83b. The ToR switch 83a is connected to a plurality of servers 84a via patch cords 85. The ToR switch 83b is connected to a plurality of servers 84b via an assembly 10 (which may connect to the switch 83b via a plug 34 … and patch cords 87.
[0054] Referring now to FIG. 16, a horizontal cross-connect system 90 is shown therein. An access switch 91 is connected to an assembly 10', which in turn is connected to a patch panel 92 with patch cords 97. The patch panel 92 is then connected via patch cords 93 to [plug receptors] 94, which are then connected to workstations 95 with patch cords 96. FIG. 17 shows a similar arrangement 90', but includes an assembly 10 between the assembly 10' and a consolidation point 97. The consolidation point 97 is then connected to the [plug receptors] 94 with patch cords 93.
[0055] FIG. 18 illustrates an assembly 200 in which multiple assemblies 110, 110' can be interconnected in a concatenated fashion via intervening extension trunk cables of the construction of the cables 23, 123. A core switch 202 is connected to a breakout cable 204 of the same construction as the cables 123 with the exception that on one end the terminating connector is replaced with … plugs 204a attached to each of the cable subunits. The breakout cable 204 is connected to two extension trunk cables 206, 208. The construction of the extension trunk cables 206, 208 are identical: they have a plug 134 and a [plug receptor] 138 on opposite ends of the cable 122. The extension trunk cable 208 is connected to a housing 148 at the opposite end through a [plug receptor] 138. Thus, the length of an assembly 110 is effectively increased through the use of the extension trunk cables 206, 208. The [plug receptors] of the housing 148 are connected to the [plug receptors] of another assembly 110' via patch cords 210. The assembly 110' has two extension trunk cables 212, 123''. The extension trunk cable 123'' connects with housing 148'' through a [plug receptor] 138. The use of extension trunk cables 212, 123'' effectively lengthens the assembly 110'. The [plug receptors] of the housing 148'' are then connected to the [plug receptors] of a server 62 via patch cords 214.
[0056] In some embodiments, the trunk cables 123' are supplied in different lengths (such as multiples of 10 meters), and the breakout and extension trunk cables 204, 206, 212, 123'' are supplied in prime number meter lengths, such that virtually any typical desired length of cable can be created by inserting a combination of extension trunk cables at the end of the main trunk cable 123' or the breakout cable 204. As such, two pieces of equipment can be easily and rapidly interconnected with a cable assembly of a desired length. Of course, the cables may be supplied in non-prime number lengths as well in other embodiments.
[0057] Those skilled in this art will recognize that, through the use of assemblies of the types described above, technicians can interconnect equipment in a "plug-and-play" fashion, and can do so with cables that have on either end (a) a housing with [plug receptors] mounted therein, (b) [plug receptors] "broken out" from the cable, or (c) a suitable connector ( [plug receptor] or plug) that can mate with a mating connector of another multi-subunit cable, which can provide the technician with the flexibility to interconnect equipment in almost any desired manner. Also, the "plug-and-play" arrangement should ensure the technician that the desired level of performance (e.g., Category 6A) is achievable with these components.
[0058] In some embodiments, it may be desirable to include "intelligent infrastructure system" features to the assemblies 10, 110 to enable the tracking of connections between different pieces of equipment. An intelligent infrastructure system can be implemented in a number of ways, including out-of-band communication, a dedicated control channel, RFID, Serial ID, mechanical sensors or other unique identification in the terminations and ports, and other known methods of tracking patching connections. In additional embodiments, intelligent tracking may be performed for each subunit of the above-described cables.
[0059] Moreover, the trunk and extension cables of the present invention may be employed in a system in which the cables and their [plug receptors] /plugs themselves plug directly into panels and equipment (e.g., core switches, servers and the like), rather than requiring … connectors for interconnection. Such an arrangement can produce a system with much higher performance. For example, if the prior-described systems were "10G" systems when using a 16-pair cable, use of such panels and equipment may produce a "40G" system with a 16-pair cable.
Further regarding claim 11, Marr discloses in figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text, embodiments of networks characterized by linking modules having like numbers of optical fibers in variably determinable paths between inputs and outputs, for example, sorting module 402 (shown as “Transpose Box” 402 in Marr’s figure 4; Marr’s paragraph [0040] discloses ‘ports’ 1-48 for connecting to cables and “switches … connected only to the appropriate port on the transpose box 402”); a plurality of sorting modules 906 and 922 (called ”network transpose boxes” in Marr, Abstract) connected by switch/port 924 (Marr’s figure 9(b)); sorting modules configured such that particular interconnect module of a sorting module has substantially identical number of other interconnects as the other interconnect modules of that sorting module; configuring sorting modules 906 and 922 for connecting up to a particular set of devices (called upper tier switches 902 and lower tier switches in Marr, paragraph [0068]; and shown in Marr’s figure 9(b) as upper switches 902 and switches 904 for sorting module 906 and 920 on sorting module 922); the step of connecting each particular sorting module to a particular set of devices, the set comprising user (non-sorting module) devices, with each particular set of devices being unique to the sorting module to which the devices are connected. (disclosed, for Marr’s figure 3, as “each of the twenty-four upper tier switches 404 must be connected to each of the forty-eight lower tier switches 406” in Marr’s paragraph [0040]). Marr, paragraph [0068] (“As the network scales, the additional transpose boxes ( and other components) can be added as needed. Such an approach also can be used to connect two separate fabrics …”); Marr, paragraph [0041] (“In some cases, other types of cables (e.g., octopus cables, multi-ended cables, cables with multiple cores, etc.) or combinations of cables ( e.g., bundles of similar or different cables) can be used as well, while still obtaining a significant reduction in the amount of cabling and/or number of connections. In one specific example, an uplink cable to a transpose box might have 12 individual port connectors on one end (with two fibers each), and a 24 core trunk cable and a single 24-way connector at the transpose end. Many other variations are possible as well within the scope of the various embodiments.”). Marr, Abstract (“The deployment and scaling of a network of electronic devices can be improved by utilizing one or more network transpose boxes. Each transpose box can include a number of connectors and a meshing useful for implementing a specific network topology. When connecting devices of different tiers in the network, each device need only be connected to at least one of the connectors on the transpose box. The meshing of the transpose box can cause each device to be connected to any or all of the devices in the other tier as dictated by the network topology. When changing network topologies or scaling the network, additional devices can be added to available connectors on an existing transpose box, or new or additional transpose boxes can be deployed in order to handle the change with minimal cabling effort.”).
Marr - Figure 9(b).
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Consequently, in view of Marr’s embodiments of like modules, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Cisco in view of Kewitsch-2010 and further in view of Mie’s embodiments of reconfigurable multi-tier network fabrics to disclose: method of incrementally scaling a system of cross-connect units in a multi-tier arrangement of network topology managers (NTMs), said multi-tier arrangement of NTMs including a first tier of one or more first-tier NTMs and a second tier of one or more second-tier NTMs, each first-tier NTM having a plurality of user ports and a plurality of trunk ports, and each of said second-tier NTMs having a plurality of trunk ports, the method to provide a given number of user interconnections between user ports of said first tier NTMs, the method comprising: (A) for each particular network topology manager (NTM) of a plurality of NTMs in said first tier of said multi-tier arrangement: (A)(1) connecting up to a particular set of K devices to user ports of said particular NTM in said first tier, such that any device in said particular set can interconnect directly with any other device connected to said particular NTM, said particular NTM comprising a plurality of interconnect modules, each module having a substantially identical number of interconnects; And (B) installing trunk line interconnections between trunk ports of said plurality of NTMs in said first tier to trunk ports of a number of NTMs in said second tier of said multi-tier arrangement, wherein sufficient trunk line interconnections are installed to create inter-NTM interconnections required to support the given number of user interconnections between user ports of said first tier NTMs, and for any first user interconnection of said given number of interconnections to connect to any second user interconnection of said given number of interconnections, wherein each NTM in the second tier supports about 100 inter-NTM interconnections, and wherein each NTM in the second tier supports about 50 inter-NTM interconnections, wherein K is about 500; Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; because the resulting embodiments and related metghods would facilitate deploying incrementally scalable network of devices; Marr, Abstract; while facilitating would facilitate designing, fabricating, and deploying scalable, modular, plug-and-play, and intelligent cross-connect networks; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1, 12-A, and 12-B, and related figures and text, for example, Kewitsch-2010 -Selected Text, amenable to reconfiguration while data is flowing. Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text (“a dynamic routing mechanism … reconfigures a stream to use the appropriate network transport, while data is flowing on the stream… a new component called the Transport Manager reconfigures the network fabric and notifies the central orchestrator to change the links”)
Schares – Figure 1 and 3.
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Schares – Selected Text
1. Introduction. System S is a highly scalable distributed computer system designed to process enormous quantities of streaming data in real time. A central orchestrator is responsible for scheduling, dispatching and tracking the status of each job. An optimizing algorithm known as SODA [6] (Scheduling Optimizer for Distributed Applications) decides on the amount of computing and networking resources to allocate to each kernel and balance the overall performance of the application, based on the underlying infrastructure state. A second component known as the Stream Processing Core (SPC) runs on the nodes; it manages the kernels and the stream connections between them. To integrate the OCS interconnection fabric into System S and better meet the communication needs for kernels and streams, we have developed several new software capabilities highlighted in Fig. 1. First, an extension to SODA allows it to consider link options and redefine appropriate fabric topologies. Specifically, SODA makes both network link assignment decisions and kernel-to-kernel transport decisions, in addition to its traditional kernel-to- node assignments. Second, a dynamic routing mechanism in the SPC reconfigures a stream to use the appropriate network transport, while data is flowing on the stream. Third, a new component called the Transport Manager reconfigures the network fabric and notifies the central orchestrator to change the links used by kernels when SODA makes these link assignment changes.
5. Conclusion. We demonstrate to our knowledge the first implementation of an OCS network in a data center-scalable streaming system, using a 3D-MEMS optical switch and a new software control and scheduling framework. Three clusters of blade servers, each with 10-Gb/s Ethernet edge switches and single-mode optical transceivers, are interconnected by a commercial MEMS-based optical switch. A new software optimizing scheduler adapts the physical interconnect topology in response to system needs, matching logical flow graphs by reconfiguring the OCS. We develop a scalable and effective routing algorithm that fully utilizes all active links in a topology. The per-port cost of 3D-MEMS switches has rapidly decreased as the technology matured, and we expect OCS fabrics to become very promising for computer systems with the advent of low-cost single-mode WDM transceiver technologies [8-9].
Regarding dependent claims 3, 5, 7-10, and 17, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Cisco in view of Kewitsch-2010, further in view of Mie, further in view of Marr, and further in view of Schares’ embodiments, as applied in the rejection of claim 1, to disclose:
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the maximum capacity of user interconnections is equal to 2,500. Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the maximum capacity of user interconnections is equal to 5,000. CisCisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some NTMs in the first tier are co-located. Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some NTMs in the first tier are co-located with at least some NTMs in the second tier. Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some NTMs in the first tier are located at distinct locations. Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some NTMs in the second tier are located at distinct locations. Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
17. The method of claim 1, wherein fiber modules and first tier to second tier fixed trunk line cables are installed in numbers to support x% of local user connections and (100-x)% in express connections to another NTM in said first tier. Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
because the resulting embodiments and related methods would facilitate deploying incrementally scalable network of devices; Marr, Abstract; while facilitating would facilitate designing, fabricating, and deploying scalable, modular, plug-and-play, and intelligent cross-connect networks; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1, 12-A, and 12-B, and related figures and text, for example, Kewitsch-2010 -Selected Text, amenable to reconfiguration while data is flowing. Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
Regarding claims 11 and 12, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Cisco in view of Kewitsch-2010, further in view of Mie, further in view of Marr, and further in view of Schares’ embodiments, as applied in the rejection of claims 1, 3, 5, 7-10, and 17, to disclose:
11. A method of incrementally deploying a fabric of passive, non-blocking fiber optic interconnects reconfigurable by one or more robots that provide an increasing number of user ports based on user capacity requirements using a multi-tiered system of network topology managers (NTMs), said system comprising one or more first tier NTMs, each first tier NTM having user ports and trunk ports, the method comprising: deploying an interconnect fabric within a single rack and at least 100 user ports, wherein the capacity to increase the number of user ports is maintained by configuring no more than half the ports of each of said one or more first tier NTMs as user ports, and reserving the remaining ports of each of said one or more first tier NTMs as trunk ports. Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: deploying (i) at least one additional NTM in said first tier and/or (ii) at least one additional NTM in a second tier. Cisco, figures 2-1, 2-4, and 2-5, and related figures and text, for example, Cisco – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1-24; abstract; paragraphs [0001]-[0033], [0036], [0038-[0039], [0042]-[0062], [0064]- [0075], [0080]-[0138], [0130]-[0134], [0136]-[0140]; and claims 1-9, 11, 14, 21, and 26-28; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Marr, figures 3, 4 and 9(b), and related text; Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
because the resulting embodiments and related methods would facilitate deploying incrementally scalable network of devices; Marr, Abstract; while facilitating would facilitate designing, fabricating, and deploying scalable, modular, plug-and-play, and intelligent cross-connect networks; Mie, figures 12-18, and related figures and text, for example, Mie – Selected Text; Kewitsch-2010, figures 1, 12-A, and 12-B, and related figures and text, for example, Kewitsch-2010 -Selected Text, amenable to reconfiguration while data is flowing. Schares, figures 1 and 3, and related figures and text, for example, Schares – Selected Text.
Claims 13 and 16
Claims 13 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cisco (Data Center Multi-Tier Model Design, 14 May 2008; “Cisco”) in view of Kewitsch et al. (2010/0220953; “Kewitsch-2010”), further in view of Mei et al. (2010/0279519; “Mei”), further in view of Marr et al. (2014/0025843; “Marr”), and further in view of Schares et al. (A reconfigurable interconnect fabric with optical circuit switch and software optimizer for stream computing systems, OTuA1.pdf, OSA/OFC/NFOEC 2009; “Schares”), as applied in the rejection of claims 1, 3, 5, and 7-12, and further in view of Kewitsch, Anthony Stephen (2008/0008430; “Kewitsch-2008”) and further in view of Melton et al. (2003/0044141; “Melton”).
Regarding claims 13 and 16, Cisco in view of Kewitsch-2010, further in view of Mie, further in view of Marr, and further in view of Schares’ embodiments, as applied in the rejection of claims 1, 3, 5, 7-12, and 17, do not explicitly disclose:
13. An NTM (network topology manager) device in which a robot reconfigures an interconnect comprised of two optical fibers, each with a core and cladding, coextensive within a single element, to increase a number of user ports supported by a single tier 1 NTM device by a factor of two, wherein the single element has an outer diameter of about 0.4 to 0.5 mm, and wherein the single element is terminated in a single connector with two adjacent cores.
16. The device of claim 13, wherein the two optical fibers have cladding outer diameters of 50 to 80 microns.
However, Kewitsch-2008 discloses in paragraph [0043], and related figures and text, cables comprising optical fibers with 80 micron diameters. Kewitsch-2008, paragraph [0043] (“The minimum fiber bend radius is 25 mm for unjacketed cables consisting of Corning SMF-28 fiber or its equivalents. In implementations with Corning Flex 1060 single mode bend insensitive fiber, the radius can be reduced to 10 mm. Cable manufacturers specify the minimum bend radius for cables under tension and long-term installation. The ANSI TIA/EIA-568B.3 standard specifies a bend radius of 25 mm under no pull load and 50 mm when subject to tensile loading up to the rated limit. Cables comprised of special bend insensitive fiber such as Corning Flex 1060, Lucent D5, Nufern 1550B-HP, or Sumitomo Pure Access or Pure Access-Ultra can withstand a bend radius of 7.5 to 10 mm without exhibiting increased insertion loss or mechanical failure. This is achieved by increasing the numerical aperture of the fiber to increase the guiding characteristics, and in some cases, by reducing the outer diameter of the cladding from 125 micron to 80 micron. Alternately, the constituent fibers making up the cable may include one or more strands of single mode (SM), multimode (MM), dispersion shifted (DS), non-zero dispersion shifted (NZDS), polarization maintaining (PM), photonic crystal (PC) or plastic optical fiber (POF). The typical wavelengths of operation for telecommunications applications include 850 nm, 1310 nm and 1550 nm (S, C, and L bands). The outer diameter of the bare fiber may be 80, 125, or 200 micron with an acrylate coating of 250 micron diameter, for example. The shape-retaining cable may further include a variety of different fiber types fusion spliced together to form a continuous length of fiber.”).
Consequently, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Cisco in view of Kewitsch-2010, further in view of Mie, further in view of Marr, and further in view of Schares’ embodiments, as applied in the rejection of claims 1, 3, 5, 7-12, and 17, to disclose two optical fibers have cladding outer diameters of 50 to 80 microns; Kewitsch-2008, paragraph [0043]; because the resulting embodiments and related methods would facilitate designing, fabricating, and deploying optical fiber configurations with ‘properly balanced shape retention and bending radius characteristics.’ Kewitsch-2008, abstract (“In accordance with this invention, fiber optic cables are provided whose shape may be formed and retained while maintaining a limited bend radius. These features are produced by incorporating a compact compliant internal cable member into the cable structure. The compliant internal member consists not only of the fiber optic cable, but also of ductile and non-ductile elements. The ductile element is advantageously a tube or a wire which readily deforms to retain a given shape, and may be reshaped if desired. The non-ductile element, which resists sharp bending of the cable during shaping, comprises a substantially non-ductile elongated element disposed within the cable and configured to oppose excessively sharp bending along its length. Proper selection of the cross-sections and materials used in these elongated members produces a proper balance between shape retention and bending radius.”).
Further regarding claims 13 and 16, Melton discloses in figures 1, 2, 2B, and 4, and related figures and tables, embodiments of jumper cable 10 fiber ribbons 20 comprising, “at least two optical fibers 22 associated with at least flexible polymeric material, for example, a UV curable matrix 24;” Melton, paragraph [0019]; with a vertical span (Height) of 360 microns, or less. Melton, paragraphs [0005]-[0006]. And Melton discloses embodiments of fiber ribbons 20 terminating in multi-fiber ferrules 16 which may be attached to MTP connectors. Melton, paragraph [0032].
Consequently, in light of Melton’s multifiber ribbon embodiments, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to modify Cisco in view of Kewitsch-2010, further in view of Mie, further in view of Marr, and further in view of Schares’ embodiments, as applied in the rejection of claims 1, 3, 5, 7-12, and 17, and further in regard to Kewitsch-2008, to disclose:
13. An NTM (network topology manager) device in which a robot reconfigures an interconnect comprised of two optical fibers, each with a core and cladding, coextensive within a single element, to increase a number of user ports supported by a single tier 1 NTM device by a factor of two, wherein the single element has an outer diameter of about 0.4 to 0.5 mm, and wherein the single element is terminated in a single connector with two adjacent cores. Melton, figures 1, 2, 2B, and 4, and related figures and tables; Kewitsch-2008, paragraph [0043].
16. The device of claim 13, wherein the two optical fibers have cladding outer diameters of 50 to 80 microns. Melton, figures 1, 2, 2B, and 4, and related figures and tables; Kewitsch-2008, paragraph [0043].
because the resulting embodiments and related methods would facilitate designing, fabricating, and deploying optical fiber configurations with ‘properly balanced shape retention and bending radius characteristics;’ Kewitsch-2008, abstract; in connectorized optical circuits. Melton, figures 4 and 5, and paragraph [0046] (“[0046] The concepts of the present invention can be practiced in other forms. For example, an exemplary optical circuit 40 is illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. As described in conjunction with the embodiments of FIG. 1, optical circuit 40 includes at least one optical fiber 22 interposed between two substrates 54a,54b. Optical fibers 22 may be interposed between flexible polymeric substrates 54a,54b, for example, a Concours.TM. optical circuit available from USConec.RTM. of Hickory, N.C. However, optical fiber 22 may be used in a planar optical circuit having v-grooves or other suitable optical circuits. Ferrule 56 may be attached to an end 52 of optical fiber 22, however end 52 of fiber 22 may be unterminated for splicing, fusing or other connectorization. Optical circuit 40 can be used, for example, in 1.times.N splitters, optical switching, cross-connects, wavelength-division multiplexing or demultiplexing, compact ribbon to simplex fan-outs, and parallel optical interface applications. Additionally, optical circuit 40 may include other types of optical fibers, for example, multi-mode, pure-mode, erbium doped, LEAF.RTM. optical fiber available from Corning, Inc and/or polarization maintaining fiber.”).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER RADKOWSKI whose telephone number is (571)270-1613. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th 9-5. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Hollweg, can be reached on (571) 270-1739. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/PETER RADKOWSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874