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 .
This Office Action is in response to Application filed on April 07, 2023 in which claims 1-23 are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on April 07, 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 1-13 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.
Claims 1 and recites the limitation "said modules" in line 13. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 2-8 are at least rejected for their dependencies, directly or indirectly, on the rejected claim 1. They are therefore rejected for the same reason stated in paragraph above.
Claims 9 and recites the limitation "said modules" in line 16. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 10-13 are at least rejected for their dependencies, directly or indirectly, on the rejected claim 9. They are therefore rejected for the same reason in paragraph above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 14 and 17-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chen US Publication No. 2023/0030344.
Regarding claim 14, Chen discloses “a method comprising: reading a tag of a tag field of a segment routing header of a data packet received at a node along a communication pathway, the communication pathway described in a segment list in the segment routing header” (See Abstract, Paragraph 0011; Figure 5, describing (500) involves obtaining (530) the compressed segment identifiers (SIDs) (cSIDs) corresponding to the some of the SIDs by the first node, where each cSID comprises unique consecutive data units of a corresponding SID, and where the unique consecutive data units correspond to a second number of data units. segment routing header (SRH) having a flag field with a first sub-field, a tag field with a second sub-field and a third sub-field, and a segment list by the first node is generated (550), where the first sub-field comprises a value of the first number, where the second sub-field comprises a value of the second number, where the third sub-field comprises a pointer to one of the cSIDs, and where the segment list includes the cSIDs. The SRH is added (570) to the packet by the first node. The packet is forwarded (590) with the SRH to a third node in the SR network domain by the first node); “identifying from the tag an attribute set comprising one or more in-band telemetry attributes to be collected from the node” (Figures 3-4, Paragraphs 0057-0061); and “writing the in-band telemetry attributes of the attribute set to a location of a current segment address of a segment list of the segment routing header, the current segment address corresponding to the node” (Figure 4, Paragraph 0060).
As per claim 17, Chen discloses “wherein the tag in the tag field comprises one of a plurality of tags for the communication pathway, each of the plurality of tags corresponding to an attribute set of in-band telemetry attributes to be collected from the node, wherein the attribute sets corresponding to the plurality of tags comprising a total set of in-band telemetry data to be collected from the node” (See Abstract, Paragraph 0011; Figure 5, describing (500) involves obtaining (530) the compressed segment identifiers (SIDs) (cSIDs) corresponding to the some of the SIDs by the first node, where each cSID comprises unique consecutive data units of a corresponding SID, and where the unique consecutive data units correspond to a second number of data units. segment routing header (SRH) having a flag field with a first sub-field, a tag field with a second sub-field and a third sub-field, and a segment list by the first node is generated (550), where the first sub-field comprises a value of the first number, where the second sub-field comprises a value of the second number, where the third sub-field comprises a pointer to one of the cSIDs, and where the segment list includes the cSIDs. The SRH is added (570) to the packet by the first node. The packet is forwarded (590) with the SRH to a third node in the SR network domain by the first node).
As per claim 18, Chen discloses “wherein a number of tags for the plurality of tags is
determined based on a size of the total set of in-band telemetry data divided by a
size of locations in the segment list and/or wherein an ingress node adds a first tag
of the plurality of tags to a first packet in a flow of packets traversing the
communication pathway, and adds subsequent tags of the plurality of tags to subsequent packets in the communication pathway up to a last tag in the plurality
of tags and wherein the ingress node repeats adding tags in a same sequence to
additional packet until a last packet of the flow of packets is sent by the ingress node” (See Abstract, Paragraph 0011; Figure 5, describing (500) involves obtaining (530) the compressed segment identifiers (SIDs) (cSIDs) corresponding to the some of the SIDs by the first node, where each cSID comprises unique consecutive data units of a corresponding SID, and where the unique consecutive data units correspond to a second number of data units. segment routing header (SRH) having a flag field with a first sub-field, a tag field with a second sub-field and a third sub-field, and a segment list by the first node is generated (550), where the first sub-field comprises a value of the first number, where the second sub-field comprises a value of the second number, where the third sub-field comprises a pointer to one of the cSIDs, and where the segment list includes the cSIDs. The SRH is added (570) to the packet by the first node. The packet is forwarded (590) with the SRH to a third node in the SR network domain by the first node).
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, 4-13, 19-23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Calciu et al. US Publication No. 2023/0246957 in view of Chen US Publication No. 2023/0030344.
Regarding claim 1, Calciu et al. disclose “an apparatus comprising: an attribute module configured to identify an attribute set comprising one or more in-band telemetry attributes to be collected from the node; and a telemetry write module configured to write the in-band telemetry attributes of the attribute set to a location of a current segment address of a segment list of the segment routing header, the current segment address corresponding to the node, wherein at least a portion of said modules comprise one or more of hardware circuits, programmable hardware circuits and executable code, the executable code stored on one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media” (Figures 1-4; Paragraphs 0009-0012; 0048-0086). It is noted however, Calciu et al. did not specifically detail the aspects of “a tag reader module configured to read a tag of a tag field of a segment routing header of a data packet received at a node along a communication pathway, the communication pathway described in a segment list in the segment routing header” as recited in the instant claim 1. On the other hand, Chen discloses “a tag reader module configured to read a tag of a tag field of a segment routing header of a data packet received at a node along a communication pathway, the communication pathway described in a segment list in the segment routing header” (See Abstract, Paragraph 0011; Figure 5, describing (500) involves obtaining (530) the compressed segment identifiers (SIDs) (cSIDs) corresponding to the some of the SIDs by the first node, where each cSID comprises unique consecutive data units of a corresponding SID, and where the unique consecutive data units correspond to a second number of data units. segment routing header (SRH) having a flag field with a first sub-field, a tag field with a second sub-field and a third sub-field, and a segment list by the first node is generated (550), where the first sub-field comprises a value of the first number, where the second sub-field comprises a value of the second number, where the third sub-field comprises a pointer to one of the cSIDs, and where the segment list includes the cSIDs. The SRH is added (570) to the packet by the first node. The packet is forwarded (590) with the SRH to a third node in the SR network domain by the first node). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have incorporated the tag module teachings of Chen in the apparatus of Calciu et al. because they are from the same field of endeavor. Such combination would have enhanced the versatility of Calciu et al. by enabling it to simplify the routing management.
As per claim 4, Chen discloses “wherein the tag in the tag field comprises one of a
plurality of tags for the communication pathway, each of the plurality of tags
corresponding to an attribute set of in-band telemetry attributes to be collected
from the node, wherein the attribute sets corresponding to the plurality of tags
comprising a total set of in-band telemetry data to be collected from the node” (See Abstract, Paragraph 0011; Figure 5, describing (500) involves obtaining (530) the compressed segment identifiers (SIDs) (cSIDs) corresponding to the some of the SIDs by the first node, where each cSID comprises unique consecutive data units of a corresponding SID, and where the unique consecutive data units correspond to a second number of data units. segment routing header (SRH) having a flag field with a first sub-field, a tag field with a second sub-field and a third sub-field, and a segment list by the first node is generated (550), where the first sub-field comprises a value of the first number, where the second sub-field comprises a value of the second number, where the third sub-field comprises a pointer to one of the cSIDs, and where the segment list includes the cSIDs. The SRH is added (570) to the packet by the first node. The packet is forwarded (590) with the SRH to a third node in the SR network domain by the first node).
As per claims 5-8, Calciu et al. disclose “wherein a number of tags for the plurality of tags is determined based on a size of the total set of in-band telemetry data divided by a size of locations in the segment list”; wherein an ingress node adds a first tag of the plurality of tags to a first packet in a flow of packets traversing the communication pathway, and adds subsequent tags of the plurality of tags to subsequent packets in the communication pathway up to a last tag in the plurality of tags and wherein the ingress node repeats adding tags in a same sequence to additional packet until a last packet of the flow of packets is sent by the ingress node”; “wherein the attribute set is sized to fit in the location of the current segment address”; “wherein the in-band telemetry attributes of the attribute set comprise a hop latency, ingress queue occupancy, egress queue occupancy, Egress Interface Tx Utilization, buffer occupancy, ingress queue number, and/or egress queue number” (Figures 1-10 and corresponding text).
Regarding claim 9, Calciu et al. disclose “an apparatus comprising: a telemetry receiver module configured to receive, at an ingress node, telemetry instructions from a network controller, the telemetry instructions comprising an attribute set comprising one or more in-band telemetry attributes to be collected from nodes along a communication pathway from the ingress node to an egress node by data packets of a source routing packet flow traversing the communication pathway; wherein at least a portion of said modules comprise one or more of hardware circuits, programmable hardware circuits and executable code, the executable code stored on one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media” (Figures 1-4; Paragraphs 0009-0012; 0048-0086); and “a packet transmission module configured to transmit the data packet to a destination IP address of a next node in the communication pathway, the destination IP address corresponding to a segment address from a segment list in the segment routing header of the data packet” (Figure 2, Component 206; Figure 3, Component 206; Figure 4, component 206; Figure 4, Component 206 and Paragraph 0068 describing a transmit module 206 configured to transmit the data packet to a next node based on the address of the next node. The transmit module 206 reads the address in the destination field in the data packet header to determine where the data packet is to be transmitted. The address in the destination field may be an IP address or a node identifier. In some embodiments, the transit module 206 places the data packet in a queue of a port connected to the next node 110). It is noted however, Calciu et al. did not specifically detail the aspects of “a tag field module configured to write a tag to a tag field of a segment routing header of a data packet of the source routing packet flow, the tag corresponding to the attribute set” as recited in the instant claim 9. On the other hand, Chen discloses “a tag field module configured to write a tag to a tag field of a segment routing header of a data packet of the source routing packet flow, the tag corresponding to the attribute set” (See Abstract, Paragraph 0011; Figure 5, describing (500) involves obtaining (530) the compressed segment identifiers (SIDs) (cSIDs) corresponding to the some of the SIDs by the first node, where each cSID comprises unique consecutive data units of a corresponding SID, and where the unique consecutive data units correspond to a second number of data units. segment routing header (SRH) having a flag field with a first sub-field, a tag field with a second sub-field and a third sub-field, and a segment list by the first node is generated (550), where the first sub-field comprises a value of the first number, where the second sub-field comprises a value of the second number, where the third sub-field comprises a pointer to one of the cSIDs, and where the segment list includes the cSIDs. The SRH is added (570) to the packet by the first node. The packet is forwarded (590) with the SRH to a third node in the SR network domain by the first node). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have incorporated the tag module teachings of Chen in the apparatus of Calciu et al. because they are from the same field of endeavor. Such combination would have enhanced the versatility of Calciu et al. by enabling it to simplify the routing management.
As per claim 10 et al. disclose “wherein the attribute set comprises a total attribute set, the total attribute set comprising a plurality of in-band telemetry attributes with a size larger than a size of a location in the segment list and further comprising an attribute division module configured to divide the total attribute set into a plurality of attribute sets; a tag assignment module configured to assign a tag to each of the plurality of attribute sets; and/or an ingress telemetry module configured to write in-band telemetry attributes associated with the tag to a Type Length Value objects field of the segment routing header of the data packet” (Figure 1-10 and corresponding text).
As per claim 11, Chen discloses “a rolling tag module configured to write a tag corresponding to each of the plurality of attribute sets to the tag field of the segment routing header of subsequent data packets of the source routing packet flow in a rolling sequence prior to transmitting the data packets of the source routing packet flow to a next node” (Figures 1-8 and corresponding text).
As per claims 12-13, Chen discloses “wherein the rolling tag module comprises:
an in-band telemetry (“INT”) counter module configured to increment an INT counter in response to determining that the data packet is part of the source routing packet flow; and an INT limit module configured to determine if the INT counter is greater z than or equal to an INT limit, the INT limit corresponding to a : es number of the plurality of attribute sets, a ay wherein the tag field module is further configured to write a tag to the tag np q j field of the segment routing header, the tag corresponding to the INT 2 “e counter after incrementing by the INT counter module”; wherein the rolling tag module further comprises: a new flow module configured to determine if the data packet is of a new source routing packet flow; and an INT counter reset module configured to reset the INT counter to zero in response to the new flow module determining that the data packet is of a new source routing packet flow and in response to the INT limit module determining that the INT counter is greater than or equal to the INT limit, wherein the tag field module is configured to write a tag to the tag field corresponding to an INT counter value of zero” (Figures 1-8 and corresponding text).
Regarding claim 19, Calciu et al. disclose “a method comprising: receiving, at an ingress node, telemetry instructions from a network controller, the telemetry instructions comprising an attribute set comprising one or more in-band telemetry attributes to be collected from nodes along a communication pathway from the ingress node to an egress node by data packets of a source routing packet flow traversing the communication pathway” (Figures 1-4; Paragraphs 0009-0012; 0048-0086); and “transmitting the data packet to a destination IP address of a next node in the communication pathway, the destination IP address corresponding to a segment address from a segment list in the segment routing header of the data packet” (Figure 2, Component 206; Figure 3, Component 206; Figure 4, component 206; Figure 4, Component 206 and Paragraph 0068 describing a transmit module 206 configured to transmit the data packet to a next node based on the address of the next node. The transmit module 206 reads the address in the destination field in the data packet header to determine where the data packet is to be transmitted. The address in the destination field may be an IP address or a node identifier. In some embodiments, the transit module 206 places the data packet in a queue of a port connected to the next node 110). It is noted however, Calciu et al. did not specifically detail the aspects of “writing a tag to a tag field of a segment routing header of a data packet of the source routing packet flow, the tag corresponding to the attribute set” as recited in the instant claim 19. On the other hand, Chen discloses “writing a tag to a tag field of a segment routing header of a data packet of the source routing packet flow, the tag corresponding to the attribute set” (See Abstract, Paragraph 0011; Figure 5, describing (500) involves obtaining (530) the compressed segment identifiers (SIDs) (cSIDs) corresponding to the some of the SIDs by the first node, where each cSID comprises unique consecutive data units of a corresponding SID, and where the unique consecutive data units correspond to a second number of data units. segment routing header (SRH) having a flag field with a first sub-field, a tag field with a second sub-field and a third sub-field, and a segment list by the first node is generated (550), where the first sub-field comprises a value of the first number, where the second sub-field comprises a value of the second number, where the third sub-field comprises a pointer to one of the cSIDs, and where the segment list includes the cSIDs. The SRH is added (570) to the packet by the first node. The packet is forwarded (590) with the SRH to a third node in the SR network domain by the first node). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have incorporated the tag module teachings of Chen in the apparatus of Calciu et al. because they are from the same field of endeavor. Such combination would have enhanced the versatility of Calciu et al. by enabling it to simplify the routing management.
As per claims 20, 22-23, Calciu et al. disclose “wherein the attribute set comprises a total attribute set the total attribute set comprising a plurality of in-band telemetry attributes with a size larger than a size of a location in the segment list and further comprising: dividing the total attribute set into a plurality of attribute sets; assigning a tag to each of the plurality of attribute sets; and/or writing in-band telemetry attributes associated with the tag to a Type Length Value objects field of the segment routing header of the data packet”; “incrementing an in-band telemetry (“INT”) counter in response to determining that the data packet is part of the source routing packet flow; determining if the INT counter is greater than or equal to an INT limit, the INT limit corresponding to a number of the plurality of attribute; and/or determining that the INT counter is greater than or equal to the INT limit; and writing a tag to the tag field corresponding to an INT counter value of zero”; “determining if the data packet is of a new source routing packet flow; resetting the INT counter to zero in response to determining that the data packet is of a new source routing packet flow and in response to determining that the INT counter is greater than or equal to the INT limit; and writing a tag to the tag field corresponding to an INT counter value of zero” (Figures 1-8 and corresponding text).
As per claim 21, Chen discloses “writing a tag corresponding to each of the plurality of attribute sets to the tag field of the source routing header of subsequent data packets of the source routing packet flow in a rolling sequence prior to transmitting the data packets of the source routing packet flow to a next node” (Figures 1-10 and corresponding text).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 15-16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 2-3 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art of record failed to show “a segment address module configured to, prior to the telemetry write module writing the in-band telemetry attributes to the location of the current segment address, extract a next segment address from the segment list of a next node in the communication pathway and to write the next segment address to a destination internet protocol (“IP”) address, wherein the next segment address of the segment list corresponds to a segments left of a segments left field; a counter decrement module configured to decrement the segments left in the segment routing header in response to the telemetry write module writing the in-band telemetry attributes; and a packet processing module configured to, in response to the counter decrement module decrementing the segments left, forward the data packet to a next node corresponding to the next segment address in response to the segments left being greater than zero and to process the data packet in response to the segments left being zero”. These claimed features would render the independent claims allowable over the prior art of record if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claims (the independent claims) and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/FRANTZ COBY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
August 27, 2025