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 .
1. Claims 1-2, 5, 7-9, 12-13, 15-17, and 20 are currently pending in this application.
Claims 1-2, 5, 7-9, 12, and 15 are amended as filed on 12/05/2023.
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 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) 1, 7-9, 12-13, 16-17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rondeau (Pre-Grant Publication No. US 2018/0375721 A1), hereinafter Rondeau, in view of Mishra et al. (Pre-Grant Publication No. US 2016/0285968 A1), hereinafter Mishra, and in further view of Chandra et al. (Patent No. US 9,252,970 B2), hereinafter Chandra.
2. With respect to claims 1 and 12, Rondeau taught a method for Internet Protocol address allocation in a distributed antenna system (0006), the distributed antenna system comprising a host and multiple slaves connected to the host (0006, where the master unit is the host and the one or more remote devices are the slaves. See also 0037, the host numbers implicitly teaches the presence of a host), and the method comprising: configuring one or more port numbers for one or more communication ports of the host (0036, where the configuring is assigning an IP address based on the assigned port number in accordance with the applicant’s specification 0062, where the expansion unit techniques also apply to the remote antennas in accordance with 0046); wherein the next slave comprises any slave except the first slave (0048, where the different network interfaces teaches the different port numbers); and determining an IP address of a corresponding slave according to a network segment number of the host and the address number of the slave (0047).
However, Rondeau did not explicitly state that the address assignment was with respect to multi-level slave devices. On the other hand, Mishra did teach that the address assignment was with respect to multi-level slave devices (0006, the unique addresses). Both of the systems of Rondeau and Mishra are directed towards managing slave devices that are connected to hosts/masters and therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the effective filing of the invention, to modify the teachings of Rondeau, to utilize different level slave devices, as taught by Mishra, in order to more efficiently manage slave devices.
However, Rondeau did not explicitly state using, by a first-level slave directly connected to the host, the port number of a port, to which the a first-level slave is connected, of the host as an address number of the first-level slave, and configuring, by the first-level slave, unique port numbers for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the first-level slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the first-level slave based on the address number of the first-level slave; using, by a next-level slave directly connected to a previous-level slave, the port number of a port, to which the a-next-level slave is connected, of the previous-level slave as an address number of the next-level slave, and configuring, by the next-level slave, unique a-port numbers, for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the next-level slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the next-level slave based on the address number of the next-level slave, wherein the next-level slave comprises any slave except the first-level slave.
On the other hand, Chandra did teach using, by a first-level slave directly connected to the host, the port number of a port, to which the a first-level slave is connected, of the host as an address number of the first-level slave, and configuring, by the first-level slave, unique port numbers for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the first-level slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the first-level slave based on the address number of the first-level slave; using, by a next-level slave directly connected to a previous-level slave, the port number of a port, to which the a-next-level slave is connected, of the previous-level slave as an address number of the next-level slave, and configuring, by the next-level slave, unique a-port numbers, for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the next-level slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the next-level slave based on the address number of the next-level slave, wherein the next-level slave comprises any slave except the first-level slave (13:51 to 14:13, where the port assignment is completed for each level, which would include the host level. See also, the hosts of 12:19-51).
Both of the systems of Rondeau and Chandra are directed towards systems for configuring networks and therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the effective filing of the invention, to modify the teachings of Rondeau, to utilize assigning port numbers based on level topology, as taught by Chandra, in order to provide an efficiently running system that was contemporary to the time of the invention.
3. As for claim 7, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Rondeau taught acquiring IP addresses of a plurality of slaves (0037); and acquiring topological locations of the plurality of slaves according to the IP addresses of the plurality of slaves (0037, where this teaches the assignment of IP address and the topological addressing is taught by Mishra: 0053, where the Cartesian addresses are topological addresses).
4. As for claim 8, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 7. In addition, Mishra taught reading topological locations of the plurality of slaves managed by the host; generating a topological structure diagram of the distributed antenna system according, to the topological locations; and configuring a route jumping function of the host and the plurality of slaves, so as to acquire graphical user interfaces corresponding to the plurality of slaves according to the topological structure diagram (0053, where the cartesian coordinate addresses effectuates a route-hoping addressing system).
5. With respect to claim 9, Rondeau taught a method for Internet Protocol address allocation in a distributed antenna system, the distributed antenna system (0037) comprising a host and multiple levels of slaves connected to the host (00374), and the method comprising: allocating an address number and one or more port numbers to a designated slave (0037); allocating, according to a port number of the designated slave, an address number and one or more port numbers to a next slave of the designated slaves (0037); and determining IP addresses of the designated slave and the next slave according to a network segment number of the host, the address number of the designated slave and the address number of the next slave (0047 & 0048).
However, Rondeau did not explicitly state determining a designated slave of the multiple levels of slaves. On the other hand, Mishra did teach determining a designated slave of the multiple levels of slaves (0006, the unique addresses, where the different slaves levels can be seen in 0053). Both of the systems of Rondeau and Mishra are directed towards managing slave devices that are connected to hosts/masters and therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the effective filing of the invention, to modify the teachings of Rondeau, to utilize different level slave devices, as taught by Mishra, in order to more efficiently manage slave devices.
However, Rondeau did not explicitly state in a case where the designated slave is the first-level slave, using, by a first-level slave directly connected to the host, the port number of a port, to which the a first-level slave is connected, of the host as an address number of the first-level slave, and configuring, by the first-level slave, unique port numbers for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the first-level slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the first-level slave based on the address number of the first-level slave; in a case where the designated slave is not the first-level slave, acquiring, by the designated slave, a port number of a port, to which the designated slave is connected, of a previous-level slave of the designated slave; using, by the designated slave, the port number of the port, to which the designated slave is connected, of the previous-level slave of the designated slave as an address number of the designated slave, and configuring, by the designated slave, unique a-port numbers for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the designated slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the designated slave based on the address number of the designated slave; using, by a next-level slave of the designated slave directly connected to a previous-level slave, the port number of a port, to which the a-next-level slave is connected, of the previous-level slave as an address number of the next-level slave, and configuring, by the next-level slave, unique a-port numbers, for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the next-level slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the next-level slave based on the address number of the next-level slave, wherein the next-level slave comprises any slave except the first-level slave.
On the other hand, Chandra did teach in a case where the designated slave is the first-level slave, using, by a first-level slave directly connected to the host, the port number of a port, to which the a first-level slave is connected, of the host as an address number of the first-level slave, and configuring, by the first-level slave, unique port numbers for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the first-level slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the first-level slave based on the address number of the first-level slave; in a case where the designated slave is not the first-level slave, acquiring, by the designated slave, a port number of a port, to which the designated slave is connected, of a previous-level slave of the designated slave; using, by the designated slave, the port number of the port, to which the designated slave is connected, of the previous-level slave of the designated slave as an address number of the designated slave, and configuring, by the designated slave, unique a-port numbers for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the designated slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the designated slave based on the address number of the designated slave; using, by a next-level slave of the designated slave directly connected to a previous-level slave, the port number of a port, to which the a-next-level slave is connected, of the previous-level slave as an address number of the next-level slave, and configuring, by the next-level slave, unique a-port numbers, for respective ones of one or more communication ports of the next-level slave respectively according to an order of the one or more communication ports of the next-level slave based on the address number of the next-level slave, wherein the next-level slave comprises any slave except the first-level slave (13:51 to 14:13, where the port assignment is completed for each level, which would include the host, first-level, next-level, and nth-level slaves).
Both of the systems of Rondeau and Chandra are directed towards systems for configuring networks and therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the effective filing of the invention, to modify the teachings of Rondeau, to utilize assigning port numbers based on level topology, as taught by Chandra, in order to provide an efficiently running system that was contemporary to the time of the invention.
6. As for claim 13, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 1. In addition, Rondeau taught a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, in which a data processing program is stored, and the data processing program is used for enabling a computer to execute the method according to claim 1 (0050).
7. As for claim 16, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 7. In addition, Chandra taught when the topological location of a slave is updated, acquiring, by the host, an updated topological location of the slave. (7:24-34).
8. As for claim 17, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 2. In addition, Rondeau taught a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, in which a data processing program is stored, and the data processing program is used for enabling a computer to execute the method according to claim 2 (0050).
9. As for claim 20, it is rejected on the same basis as claim 5. In addition, Rondeau taught a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, in which a data processing program is stored, and the data processing program is used for enabling a computer to execute the method according to claim 5 (0050).
Claim(s) 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rondeau, in view of Mishra, and in further view of Chandra, and in further view of Official Notice.
10. As for claim 2, Rondeau did not explicitly state acquiring, by the host, a type of an IP address according to the network segment number of the host of the distributed antenna system, where the Class-A IP address consists of a 1-byte network address and a 3-byte address of the host, the Class-B IP address consists of a 2-byte network address and a 2-byte address of the host, and the Class-C IP address consists of a 3-byte network address and a 1-byte address of the host. However, the examiner gives official notice that the addresses could be a plurality of different byte sizes and therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the effective filing of the invention, to modify the teachings of Rondeau, to utilize specific byte sizes, as the byte sizes of the addresses is based on the protocols and formatting that is utilized for the system.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 15 are allowable over the prior-art.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claim(s) 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.
Conclusion
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/JOSEPH L GREENE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2452