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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/05/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment/Remarks
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 01/21/2026.
Claims 1-20 are pending and are examined in this office action.
Claims 1 , 11, have been amended.
No new claim has been added and no claim has been canceled.
Response to Arguments
Regarding Independent claim 1 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102, Applicant's arguments, see “establishing, by the SD-WAN edge router, a Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) tunnel configured to provide dynamic path selection between the SD-WAN edge router and the SD-WAN gateway..” on pages 9-1, filed on 01/21/2026, with respect MAYYA have been fully considered but are moot, over the limitations of “establishing, by the SD-WAN edge router, a Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) tunnel configured to provide dynamic path selection between the SD-WAN edge router and the SD-WAN gateway.” Said limitations are newly added to the amended Claim 1 and have been addressed in instant office action, as shown in section 35 USC 103 rejection below, with remapping with previously cited prior art SPRAGGINS, and newly identified prior art teachings from newly found MAYYA et al. (US 20170126564 A1; hereinafter as “MAYYA”), thus rendering said Applicant’s arguments moot.
Regarding all dependent claims: the applicant alleges that all dependent claims are allowable since they depend from all the independent claims above. The examiner respectfully disagrees in view of the above explanation of independent claims. Thus the rejection is deemed proper.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SPRAGGINS et al. (US 20200067831 A1; hereinafter as “SPRAGGINS”) in view of MAYYA et al. (US 20170126564 A1; hereinafter as “MAYYA”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to SPRAGGINS unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 1, SPRAGGINS teaches, A method for deploying a Software-Defined Private Mobile Network (SD-PMN) for an entity in a particular geographic area (==Campus 1 or Campus N in fig. 4) ( see fig. 4 software define network which connect Campus 1 campus 2 et with could computer in fig. 4): [0091]-[0095];
, the method comprising:
for each physical location in a set of physical locations within the particular geographic area (==Campus 1… Campus N in Fig. 4 ), deploying a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) customer premise appliance (==Intelligent Edge On-Premise Function with SW-WAN control function);
establishing, via a Radio Access Network (RAN) (==RAN in Fig. 4), a set of connections between each SD- WAN customer premise appliance (==Intelligent Edge On-Premise Function with SW-WAN control function) and at least one physical access point in a set of physical access points deployed in the particular geographic area (see fig. 5: “The method 500 is performed by a mobile gateway implemented on one or more processors, e.g., the mobile gateway 106 of FIG. 1. The mobile gateway can be, e.g., an SBC configured for controlling telecommunications control plane signaling at an edge between an on-premises access network and a remote system comprising a centralized controller. ”: [0108]; “establishing, using an on-premises telecommunications network core of the mobile gateway, mobile data sessions for a plurality of mobile user devices and enabling communication between the mobile user devices through the on-premises telecommunications network core (502). The method 500 includes establishing, using a software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) controller, an SD-WAN overlay network for connecting the mobile user devices to an external telecommunications network (504). ”{109]; “the on-premises telecommunications core can, in some examples, include a 5G core comprising an access management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), and a user plane function (UPF). Then, the method 500 can include collaborating, using the SD-WAN controller, with the SMF to manage mobile connectivity control and policy. ”: [0113]).
wherein each physical access point has a connection to a central aggregation point comprising a User Plane Function (UPF) and the SD-WAN customer premise appliance that connect the physical access points to an SD-WAN Point of Presence (SD-WAN PoP) (==Campus 2 with Intelligent Edge Platform);
( “ In some examples, the on-premises telecommunications core 108 includes a 5G core comprising an access management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), and a user plane function (UPF). The SD-WAN controller 110 can be configured to collaborate with the SMF to manage mobile connectivity control and policy.”: [0031]; see fig. 1C Telecommunication Core with UPF function, see fig. 1B Telecommunication Core with PGW, SGW (==SD-WAN Edge Router)) : [0032]-0034]; “the UPF 144 is configured to support packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, quality of service (QoS) handling. In some examples, the UPF 144 is configured to act as an external session point of interconnect and an anchor point for radio access mobility. ”: [0043]; “Deployment of centralized functions for a core network of a telecommunications network can be deployed in centralized locations, e.g., on a cloud computing system. User plane functions or even entire core networks can be deployed in mobile network operator (MNO) data centers or MNO customer data centers. The systems illustrated in FIG. 3 can be used to leverage the intelligent edge capabilities to deliver traffic optimally across the edge and the core. ”: [0073]; “ The mobile user device can use any S/PGW-U to reach a destination. For example, the following scenarios are possible: [0100] Device data flows through the ran to the S/PGW-U at campus 1 where it terminates to the local LAN [0101] Device data flows through the ran to the S/PGW-U at campus 1 where it terminates to the Internet of Things (IoT) CS via the S/PG-U in the oracle cloud utilizing the IE tunnel between campus 1 and the cloud [0102] Device data flows through the ran to the S/PGW-U at campus 1 where it terminates to campus 2 via the S/PGW-U located there utilizing the tunnel between campus 1 and campus 2”[0099]);
and
using the established set of connections to provide a private mobile networking service for the particular geographic area ( “The SD-WAN controller 110 can be configured for establishing a tunnel over a data communications network with a remote system comprising a services gateway. Then, the mobile gateway 106 can be configured for exchanging controlling signaling with the remote system over the tunnel to establish the mobile data sessions. ”: [0029]; “The intelligent edge overlay can use various types of networks, e.g., MPLS, broadband Internet, and 4G/LTE networks to implement a secure control plane, e.g., for exchanging control messages. The mobile gateway 302 communicates with a remote system via a gateway, which can be referred to as an intelligent edge services gateway 304. The remote system can be, e.g., a cloud computing system including a cloud controller function 306. ”: [0082]; “ The method 500 includes providing quality of service (QoS) and route optimization for the mobile user devices using the SD-WAN overlay network (506). Providing QoS and route optimization for the mobile user devices using the SD-WAN overlay network can include prioritizing the mobile data sessions and re-routing the mobile data sessions over the SD-WAN overlay network to maintain QoS according to prioritizing the mobile data sessions.”: 0111]-[0112]).
While SPRAGGINS teaches, using the established set of connections to provide a private mobile networking service for the particular geographic area; SPRAGGINS does not expressively disclose:
wherein the SD-WAN customer premise appliance comprises an SD-WAN edqe router, wherein the SD-WAN PoP comprises an SD-WAN gateway; and
establishing, by the SD-WAN edge router, a Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) tunnel configured to provide dynamic path selection between the SD-WAN edge router and the SD-WAN gateway.
MAYYA, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
wherein the SD-WAN customer premise appliance comprises an SD-WAN Edqe router (Software define network with Edge Device in ENTRIPRISE A or ENTERPRISE B in Fig. 2: “ Edge device (==Edge Router) can be a device that provides an entry point into enterprise or service provider core networks. An edge device can be software running in a virtual machine (VM) located in a branch office and/or customer premises.)”: [0022]-[0025], Fig. 2: ),
wherein the SD-WAN PoP comprises an SD-WAN gateway (see fig. 2 GATWAY 204 in is SD-WAN Gateway “ Edge tunnel initialization can configure, gateway 204. Edge devices 208 A-B can communicate QoS information to gateway 204 so they have information on how to treat network traffic. Implementing versioning in the flow header can ensures that gateway 204 have the correct QoS information.”: [0048]); and
establishing, by the SD-WAN edge router (==Edge Device in Fig. 2), a Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) tunnel configured to provide dynamic path selection between the SD-WAN edge router and the SD-WAN gateway (==Gateway in Fig. 2) ( Edge Device and gateway can automatically negotiate IPSec tunnels (==dynamic path selection ) along side velocloud Multipath Protocol (VCMP) tunnels (==DMPO tunnels) in preparation for transmission of secure traffic: “ When VPN is enabled on Orchestrator 302, each edge device can be informed that its subnets are reachable over VPN and each edge device can update its gateways with this information. When VPN is disabled on Orchestrator 302, each edge device can be informed that its subnets are not reachable over VPN. The edge device can update gateway 304 accordingly.”: [0054]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of SPRAGGINS to include the above recited limitations as taught by MAYYA. The suggestion/motivation would be to add or remote any gateways without restarts and/or loss of connectivity assuming at least one gateway is connected at all times.: (MAYYA; [0055]).
Regarding claim 2, SPRAGGINS in view of MAYYA teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, SPRAGGINS teaches, wherein function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), and a user plane function (UPF). The SD-WAN controller can be configured to collaborate with the SMF to manage mobile connectivity control and policy. ”: [0013]; 4G, 5G network access : [0060]).
Regarding claim 3, SPRAGGINS in view of MAYYA teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, SPRAGGINS teaches, wherein the set of connections comprise one of a Long Term Evolution (LTE} connection, a fourth generation (4G1 connection, and a fifth generation (5G connection via a Citizens Broadband Radio Service(CBRS
Regarding claim 4, SPRAGGINS in view of MAYYA teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, SPRAGGINS teaches, wherein the entity comprises a municipality, the particular geographic area comprises a geographic area occupied by the municipality, and the set of physical locations comprises a set of homes within the geographic area occupied by the municipality (see fig. 4: Campus 1, Campus 2, : [0099]; “As shown in FIG. 3, one or more mobile gateways can be deployed at various on-premises locations, such as data centers, campuses, branches, and remote sites. FIG. 3 illustrates a mobile gateway 302 as an intelligent edge on-premise function, which can be implemented on the system 100 of FIG. 1. ”:[0081]).
Regarding claim 5, SPRAGGINS in view of MAYYA teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, SPRAGGINS teaches, wherein the connection between each physical access point and the central aggregation point comprises a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) 500 includes establishing, using the SD-WAN controller, a tunnel over a data communications network with a remote system comprising a services gateway, and exchanging controlling signaling with the remote system over the tunnel to establish the mobile data sessions.
[0111] The method 500 includes providing quality of service (QoS) and route optimization for the mobile user devices using the SD-WAN overlay network (506). Providing QoS and route optimization for the mobile user devices using the SD-WAN overlay network can include prioritizing the mobile data sessions and re-routing the mobile data sessions over the SD-WAN overlay network to maintain QoS according to prioritizing the mobile data sessions. ”:[0110]-[0111]).
Regarding claim 6, SPRAGGINS in view of MAYYA teaches the invention of claim 5 as set forth above. Further, SPRAGGINS teaches, wherein the set of physical access points (i) receive data message traffic from the SD-WAN customer premise appliances as radio waves, (ii) convert the received radio waves to bits and bytes , and (iii) encapsulate the converted bits and bytes to send to the UPF via the GTP tunnel (“ SD-WAN controller is configured for establishing a tunnel over a data communications network with a remote system comprising a services gateway, and the mobile gateway is configured for exchanging controlling signaling with the remote system over the tunnel to establish the mobile data sessions. ”: [0010]; “The SD-WAN controller 110 can be configured for establishing a tunnel over a data communications network with a remote system comprising a services gateway. Then, the mobile gateway 106 can be configured for exchanging controlling signaling with the remote system over the tunnel to establish the mobile data sessions. ”:[0029]).
Regarding claim 7, SPRAGGINS in view of MAYYA teaches the invention of claim 6 as set forth above. Further, SPRAGGINS teaches, wherein upon receiving the encapsulated bits and bytes from the set of physical access points, the UPF decapsulates the encapsulated bits and bytes and forwards the data message traffic as Internet Protocol (IP) data message to the SD-WAN edge router at the central aggregation point ( “In some examples, the on-premises telecommunications core comprises a 5G core comprising an access management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), and a user plane function (UPF). The SD-WAN controller can be configured to collaborate with the SMF to manage mobile connectivity control and policy. ”: [0013]; “The UPF 144 is configured to support packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, quality of service (QoS) handling. In some examples, the UPF 144 is configured to act as an external session point of interconnect and an anchor point for radio access mobility. ”{0043]).
Regarding claim 8, SPRAGGINS in view of MAYYA teaches the invention of claim 7 as set forth above. Further, MAYYA teaches, wherein the SD-WAN edge router forwards the IP data message traffic to the SD-WAN gateway located at the SD-WAN PoP the Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) tunnel established by the SD- WAN edge router between the SD-WAN edge router and the SD-WAN gateway ([0054]-[0056]).
Regarding claim 9, SPRAGGINS in view of MAYYA teaches the invention of claim 8 as set forth above. Further, SPRAGGINS teaches, wherein the SD-WAN PoP further comprises a control plane for the SD-PMN ( “ the mobile gateway comprises a session border controller (SBC). The SBC can be configured for controlling telecommunications control plane signaling at an edge between an on-premises access network and a remote system comprising a centralized controller. ”:[0009]; “ the mobile gateway 106 is a session border controller (SBC) or includes an SBC. For example, an SBC can be configured for controlling telecommunications control plane signaling at an edge between an on-premises access network and a remote system comprising a centralized controller. The SBC can enable service providers to deliver real-time communications services across Internet Protocol (IP) network borders by offering functions for security, interoperability, reliability and quality, regulatory compliance, and revenue/cost optimization. ”:[0028]).
Regarding claim 10, SPRAGGINS in view of MAYYA teaches the invention of claim 8 as set forth above. Further, SPRAGGINS teaches, wherein the SD-WAN PoP provides optimized Internet connectivity for the SD-PMN (“the SD-WAN orchestrator 308 maintains connections to SD-WAN edges and SD-WAN gateways to identify the operational states of SD-WAN tunnels across different WANs. For examples, the SD-WAN orchestrator 308 can retrieve QoS performance metrics for each SD-WAN tunnel or from each device. The SD-WAN orchestrator 308 can the use the metrics, e.g., for traffic shaping. ”: [0087]).
Regarding claim 11-20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claims 1-10.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to M MOSTAZIR RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4785. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am-5:00pm PST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/M Mostazir Rahman/Examiner, Art Unit 2411
/DERRICK W FERRIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2411