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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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 final rejection. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 08/10/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 08/10/2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 5, 7, 9-11, 15, 17, and 19-20 have been amended. Claims 2-3 and 12-13 are previously cancelled. Claims 4, 8, 14, and 18 have been cancelled. Claims 1, 5-7, 9-11, 15-17, and 19-20 are pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 08/10/2026 have been fully considered but are not persuasive.
Main Argument
Applicant argues “For example, claim 1 recites, among other things, ‘for each ACK packet received during the time window duration the transmit window module increases the transmit window duration; and ... if, at the end of the time window duration, all the bytes sent during that time window duration are not acknowledged, then the transmit window module reduces the transmit window duration for a next time window.’ Applicant respectfully submits that neither Aweva or Jin disclose or suggest at least these features.
Similarly, claim 11 recites, among other things, ‘the transmit window duration is increased for each ACK packet received by the ACK packet receiver; and ... the transmit window duration is decreased if a predetermined number of ACK packets are not received by the ACK packet receiver.’ Applicant respectfully submits that neither Aweva or Jin disclose or suggest at least these features.”
Reply, Examiner respectfully disagrees.
At least [Col. 1, lines 34-40, and Col. 11, lines 40-41] of Aweva teach a window size (duration) is increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement and the window is incremented based on number of ACK packets received. Due to the window being incremented/decremented based on packet acknowledgement, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to reduce the transmit window size (duration) based on not receiving an acknowledgement for each byte and packet that was transmitted.)
Therefore, Aweva teaches the limitations “for each ACK packet received during the time window duration the transmit window module increases the transmit window duration; and ... if, at the end of the time window duration, all the bytes sent during that time window duration are not acknowledged, then the transmit window module reduces the transmit window duration for a next time window” of claim 1, as well as the limitations ‘the transmit window duration is increased for each ACK packet received by the ACK packet receiver; and ... the transmit window duration is decreased if a predetermined number of ACK packets are not received by the ACK packet receiver’ of claim 11.
Applicant is reminded that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See in re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR international Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 5-7, and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
For claim 1, the phrase "IF" renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
For claims 5-7 and 9-10, they are rejected due to their dependence on rejected independent claim 1.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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, 5, 7, 9-11, 15, 17, and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aweva et al. (US 6894974 B1), hereinafter Aweva, in view of Jin et al. (US 20110216650 A1), hereinafter Jin.
For claim 1, As is best understood b the examiner in light of the 112(b) rejection above,
Aweva teaches a computer-based adaptive scheduler for adaptively scheduling the flow of packets in a network (Col. 12, line 61, includes a packet scheduler), the adaptive scheduler comprising
a set of computer-based instructions to cause a processor (Col. 6, lines 56-59, instruction for directing processor) to carry out functions comprising:
a queue communication module (Col. 3, lines 39, 43-38, queue monitor adjusts rate ACK signals are sent) that communicates with a queue of packets queued to be sent over the network;
an ACK packet receiver module that communicates with an ACK packet receiver on the network and receives information related to the number of ACK packets received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 4, lines 55-58, receiver receives packet and adjusts window);
a transmit window module that communicates with a packet transmitter (Col. 4, line 3, FIG. 1 ref# 10 and 16, includes a transmitter) on the network Col. 3, lines 7-10, instructions for processor to control packet transmission rate) and receives information related to the number of bytes that can be transmitted on the network (Col. 4, lines 32-35 and Col. 5, lines 8-10, term “packet” interpreted as quantum of data including byte, window size determines number of packets transmitted) and sets a transmit window duration for a packet in the queue to be transmitted on the network (Col. 5, lines 9-13, window size and transmission rate set) and schedules the transmission of the packet in the queue on the network by the packet transmitter (Col. 10, lines 41-44, current rate used to transmit packet );
wherein the transmit window module is a deficit counter that returns either a positive or negative integer based on the information related to the number of bytes that can be transmitted on the network ([In at least COL 5, lines 24-37,] and [COL. 12, lines 19-26] an ACK pacing apparatus (38) for adapting an acknowledgment pacing rate “r” at which acknowledgement packets are transmitted. This rate “r” is based on a measured queue parameter and its relation to a target value. The measured queue parameter may be the queue occupancy. If the measured queue parameter is less than a target value, the rate “r” is increased to make aggressive use of the queue. Inversely, when the measured queue parameter is greater than a target value, the rate “r” is decreased to reduce the burden on the queue, implying that the value of the measure queue parameter acts as a counter that affects the rate “r” at which packets are sent to the queue. The goal is to adapt “r” so the magnitude of the error signal represented by the equation in line 22 is minimized. The variables in T and q(n), as used in equations throughout this disclosure, can be represented in bytes. Since T is the target queue occupancy, a comparison of the measured queue parameter to the target queue occupancy T, as is used to determine the rate “r”, could be used as a representation of the information related to the number of bytes that can be transmitted on the network); and
wherein the transmit window module is invoked to schedule a packet in the queue for transmission on the network by the packet transmitter when the deficit counter returns a positive integer ([In at least COL. 13, lines 7-39 and FIG. 7] the ACK pacing apparatus (38) continuously monitors a HOLTag of each packet in a queue, the HOLTag representing the time at which an ACK packet should be transmitted. Whenever the time TNow becomes greater than or equal to the HOLTag.sub.i, the corresponding ACK packet from class “i” is scheduled to be transmitted from its queue to the transmitter); and
wherein for each ACK packet received during the time window duration the transmit window module increases the transmit window duration (at least [COL. 1, lines 34-40] window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement and [COL. 11, lines 40-41] window incremented based on number of ACK packets received); and
wherein if, at the end of the time window duration, all the bytes sent during that time window duration are not acknowledged, then the transmit window module reduces the transmit window duration for a next time window (Col. 1, lines 34-40, and Col. 11, lines 40-41, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement, window incremented based on number of ACK packets received. Due to the window being incremented/decremented based on packet acknowledgement, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to reduce the transmit window size (duration) based on not receiving an acknowledgement for each byte and packet that was transmitted.).
Aweva does not explicitly teach a time window module that adaptively sets a time window duration for which the ACK packet receiver module will wait for ACK packets to be received by the ACK packet receiver.
However, Jin teaches a time window module that adaptively sets a time window duration for which the ACK packet receiver module will wait for ACK packets to be received by the ACK packet receiver ([0010] transceiver for receiving ACK packets, [FIG. 2] receive window control module, [0044-0048] the receive window module controls the dynamically generated receive window which uses RTT(t) as the time for a corresponding ACK to travel back to the transceiver).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Aweva for scheduling the flow of packets in a network with the method of Jin for using a time window module to adaptively set a time window duration for the ACK packets to be received to save power and reduce the chance of congestion by controlling the packet flow.
For claim 5, Aweva and Jin teach claim 1.
Aweva further teaches wherein the transmit window duration is increased by a discrete quantum for a first ACK packet received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 1, lines 34-40, and Col. 11, lines 40-41, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement, window incremented based on number of ACK packets received, quantum is a unit of measurement).
For claim 7, Aweva and Jin teach claim 1.
Aweva further teaches wherein the transmit window duration is increased by a predetermined amount proportional to the amount of ACK packets received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 1, lines 34-40, and Col. 11, lines 40-41, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement, window incremented based on number of ACK packets received).
For claim 9, Aweva and Jin teach claim 1.
Aweva further teaches wherein the transmit window duration is decreased by a discrete quantum if a predetermined number of ACK packets are not received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 1, lines 34-40, and Col. 11, lines 40-41, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement, window incremented based on number of ACK packets received, quantum is a unit of measurement).
For claim 10, Aweva and Jin teach claim 1.
Aweva further teaches wherein the transmit window duration is decreased by an amount proportional to the number of ACK packets received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 1, lines 34-40, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement).
For claim 11,
Aweva teaches a computer-based method for adaptively scheduling the flow of packets in a network (Col. 2, lines 37-40, and FIG. 7, method for controlling packet transmission), the method comprising a set of computer-based instructions to cause a processor to carry out functions comprising (Col. 3, lines 8-9, instruction for processor to carry out method):
communicating with a queue of packets queued to be sent over the network (Col. 5, lines 20-23 and Col. 7, line 6, communication with data queue, q monitor block 84);
communicating with an ACK packet receiver on the network to receive information related to the number of ACK packets received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 4, 55-57 and Col. 5, lines 1-2, receiver receives packet, number of transmitted packets determined by sliding window);
communicating with a packet transmitter on the network to receive information related to the number of bytes (Col. 4, lines 32-35, term “packet” interpreted as quantum of data including byte) that can be transmitted on the network (Col. 5, lines 8-10, window size determines number of packets transmitted);
applying a transmit window duration (Col. 10, lines 41-43, rate value r used as time value) and schedule to transmit packets on the network (Col. 5, lines 10-12, window size and transmission rate set);
…based at least in part on whether all packets sent in a previous time window were acknowledged (Col. 1, lines 34-40, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement); and
wherein the transmit window duration is set based on a deficit counter that returns either a positive or negative integer based on the information related to the number of bytes that can be transmitted on the network ([In at least COL 5, lines 8-37,] and [COL. 12, lines 19-26] an ACK pacing apparatus (38) for adapting an acknowledgment pacing rate “r” at which acknowledgement packets are transmitted. This rate “r” is based on a measured queue parameter and its relation to a target value. The measured queue parameter may be the queue occupancy. If the measured queue parameter is less than a target value, the rate “r” is increased to make aggressive use of the queue. Inversely, when the measured queue parameter is greater than a target value, the rate “r” is decreased to reduce the burden on the queue, implying that the value of the measure queue parameter acts as a counter that affects the rate “r” at which packets are sent to the queue. The goal is to adapt “r” so the magnitude of the error signal represented by the equation in line 22 is minimized. The variables in T and q(n), as used in equations throughout this disclosure, can be represented in bytes. Since T is the target queue occupancy, a comparison of the measured queue parameter to the target queue occupancy T, as is used to determine the rate “r”, could be used as a representation of the information related to the number of bytes that can be transmitted on the network); and
wherein the time window is set based at least in part on expected bandwidth rate (Col. 12, lines 27-34 and Col 13, lines 4, 5, ack pacing rate set based on bandwidth); and
wherein the transmit window duration is increased for each ACK packet received by the ACK packet receiver (at least [COL. 1, lines 34-40] window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement and [COL. 11, lines 40-41] window incremented based on number of ACK packets received); and
wherein the transmit window duration is decreased if a predetermined number of ACK packets are not received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 1, lines 34-40, and Col. 11, lines 40-41, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement, window incremented based on number of ACK packets received).
Aweva does not explicitly teach setting a time window duration for which the ACK packet receiver module will wait for ack packets to be received by the ack packet receiver…
However, Jin teaches setting a time window duration for which the ACK packet receiver module will wait for ack packets to be received by the ack packet receiver based at least in part on whether all packets sent in a previous time window were acknowledged ([0010] transceiver for receiving ACK packets, [FIG. 2] receive window control module, [0044-0048] the receive window module controls the dynamically generated receive window which uses RTT(t) as the time for a corresponding ACK to travel back to the transceiver).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Aweva for scheduling the flow of packets in a network with the method of Jin for setting a time window duration for the ACK packets to be received to save power and reduce the chance of congestion by controlling the packet flow.
For claim 15, Aweva and Jin teach claim 11.
Aweva further teaches wherein the transmit window duration is increased by a discrete quantum for a first ACK packet received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 1, lines 34-40, and Col. 11, lines 40-41, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement, window incremented based on number of ACK packets received, quantum is a unit of measurement).
For claim 17, Aweva and Jin teach claim 11.
Aweva further teaches wherein the transmit window duration is increased by a predetermined amount proportional to the amount of ACK packets received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 1, lines 34-40, and Col. 11, lines 40-41, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement, window incremented based on number of ACK packets received).
For claim 19, Aweva and Jin teach claim 11.
Aweva further teaches wherein the transmit window duration is decreased by a discrete quantum if a predetermined number of ACK packets are not received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 1, lines 34-40, and Col. 11, lines 40-41, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement, window incremented based on number of ACK packets received, quantum is a unit of measurement).
For claim 20, Aweva and Jin teach claim 11.
Aweva further teaches wherein the transmit window duration is decreased by an amount proportional to the number of ACK packets received by the ACK packet receiver (Col. 1, lines 34-40, window size increased/decreased based on packet acknowledgement).
Claims 6 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aweva, in view of Jin, and further in view of Kwak et al. (US 20160345207 A1), hereinafter Kwak.
For claim 6, Aweva and Jin teach claim 5.
Aweva and Jin do not explicitly teach wherein the transmit window duration is increased by double the discrete quantum for a second ACK packet received by the ACK packet receiver.
However, Kwak teaches wherein the transmit window duration is increased by double the discrete quantum for a second ACK packet received by the ACK packet receiver (Para 0055, lines 2-6, “Therefore, when transmitting one packet and receiving the ACK signal for the packet, the transmitter may increase the window size twice to transmit two packets to the base station. Further, when receiving the ACK for the packet, the transmitter may again increase the window size twice to transmit four packets.”). A quantum is considered a unit of measure, such as a packet.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Aweva and Jin for the transmit window duration with the method of Kwak for a condition where the transmit window is increased to twice its size because doubling the window duration avoids exceeding a threshold value of the window duration (Kwak Para. 0056, lines 1-2).
For claim 16, Aweva and Jin teach claim 15.
Aweva and Jin do not explicitly teach wherein the transmit window duration is increased by double the discrete quantum for a second ACK packet received by the ACK packet receiver.
However, Kwak teaches wherein the transmit window duration is increased by double the discrete quantum for a second ACK packet received by the ACK packet receiver (Para 0055, lines 2-6, “Therefore, when transmitting one packet and receiving the ACK signal for the packet, the transmitter may increase the window size twice to transmit two packets to the base station. Further, when receiving the ACK for the packet, the transmitter may again increase the window size twice to transmit four packets.”). A quantum is considered a unit of measure, such as a packet.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Aweva and Jin for the transmit window duration with the method of Kwak for a condition where the transmit window is increased to twice its size because doubling the window duration avoids exceeding a threshold value of the window duration (Kwak Para. 0056, lines 1-2).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Benjamin T. Ranew whose telephone number is (571)272-2746. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman Abaza can be reached at (571) 270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BENJAMIN T. RANEW/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/AYMAN A ABAZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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