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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendments filed on April 4th, 2026 have been entered.
Claims 1, 8, 11, 19, 20, and 23 have been amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on April 4th, 2026 have been considered, but they are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection, as presented in this office action.
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.
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 1-5, 8-9, 11-14, 18-20 and 22-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hegde et al. (Pub. No. US 2020/0351182), hereinafter Hegde; in view of Tang (JP 2021064968A); and further in view of Choudhury et al. (Patent No. US 8,971,173), hereinafter Choudhury.
Claim 1. Hegde discloses a method comprising:
selecting, by an access node and for a client device, a first primary gateway and a first standby gateway from a list of gateways associated with a gateway cluster (See Parag. [0013-0014]; connected controller (e.g., a wireless controller, such as an access point (AP)) (an access node) determines, based on information provided by the new anchored device (client device), the appropriate anchor controller, and selects a BG (gateway) of the cluster to anchor the new anchored device to. The connected controller uses a characteristic of the new anchored device, such as a hash of a portion of the MAC address of the new anchored device, to look up a BG assignment from a bucketmap (selecting from a list of gateways associated with a gateway cluster). The connected controller may be able to access multiple bucketmaps or multiple sections of the bucketmap to select different assignments (such as assignment to a primary anchor controller (first primary gateway) and assignment to a secondary anchor controller (a first standby gateway)) … The connected controller may then send requests and/or commands to the new anchored device and to the assigned BG(s) to establish a tunnel between the new anchored device and its assigned BG(s) (first primary gateway and a first standby gateway). See Parag. [0015]; High availability can be achieved in a clustered scenario by assigning secondary anchor controllers (first standby gateway) and establishing independent tunnels between an anchored device and the primary and secondary anchor controllers. Then, when a BG fails, the anchored device can quickly failover to the secondary anchor controller using the heretofore idle secondary user tunnel. See also Parag. [0029] and Fig. 1);
forwarding, by the access node, traffic from the client device to the first primary gateway (See Parag. [0013]; New client devices, such as laptops, mobile devices, IoT devices, etc., may anchor to a controller and transceive data with the wider network through a tunnel (e.g. a user tunnel) established between the new client device and the anchor controller; the user tunnel is established between an intermediary network infrastructure device (e.g. an access point) and the anchor controller. See Parag. [0065]; A network infrastructure device (access node) is a device that receives network traffic and forwards the network traffic to a destination);
receiving, by the access node, a policy, wherein the policy is based on a change in a set of parameters associated with the gateway cluster (See Parag. [0018]; network orchestrator gathers operating health information for each branch gateway of the cluster, including, for example, process memory consumption, process memory leaks, central processing unit (CPU) load, CPU spinlock, CPU scheduling errors, process spinlock, fan status, device temperature, and power supply unit (PSU) status. The network orchestrator then compares each parameter of the operating health information to a set of thresholds. See also Parag. [0019-0021]; Each operating health class may trigger certain actions, including remapping one or more bucketmaps for user anchoring … bucketmaps may be transmitted to the access points for client device assignment (a policy based on a change in a set of parameters associated with the gateway cluster). See Parag. [0022]; if a branch gateway is added to the red class, indicating imminent device failure (change in a set of parameters associated with the gateway cluster), an updated bucketmap may be generated for the secondary user tunnels for existing devices connected to the cluster, excluding the now-red-class branch gateway… APs anchored to a now-red-class branch gateway may be instructed to switch over); and
base on the policy:
selecting, by the access node, the second primary gateway for the client device; redirecting, by the access node, traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway (See Parag. [0022-0021]; certain relevant bucketmaps may be transmitted to the access points for client device assignment … APs anchored to a now-red-class branch gateway may be instructed to switch over to their respective secondary AP tunnels. See also Parag. [0015]; High availability can be achieved in a clustered scenario by assigning secondary anchor controllers and establishing independent tunnels between an anchored device and the primary and secondary anchor controllers. Then, when a BG fails, the anchored device can quickly failover to the secondary anchor controller using the heretofore idle secondary user tunnel).
Hegde doesn’t explicitly disclose the traffic as both a control traffic and a data traffic; the policy designating: a subset of the gateways for a particular type of control operation, the subset of the gateways designated by the policy comprising the first primary gateway, and a second primary gateway for the client device; and wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway; and after the selecting of the second primary gateway for the client device, redirecting, by the access node, the data traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway, and forwarding, by the access node, the control traffic of the particular type of control operation from the client device to the first primary gateway.
However, Tang discloses:
the traffic as both a control traffic and a data traffic (See Parag. [0050]; “data in the control plane” and “data in the user plane”);
the policy designating:
a subset of the gateways for a particular type of control operation, the subset of the gateways designated by the policy comprising the first primary gateway, and a second primary gateway for the client device (See Parag. [0003]; The multiple (double) connection of the terminal device includes one main connection and one or more auxiliary connections. The main connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the main network access device (the first primary gateway), and the auxiliary connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the auxiliary network access device (a second primary gateway). The data in the control plane of the terminal device is transmitted by the main connection, and the data in the user plane of the terminal device is divided into two paths and transmitted simultaneously by the two connections in order to improve the data throughput of the user plane, or is transmitted by the main connection. In order to reduce the load of network access, user data is transmitted by the auxiliary network access device. Therefore, in order to improve the data throughput of the user plane and reduce the load on the main network access device, a method for establishing an auxiliary connection is required); and
based on the policy:
selecting, by the access node, the second primary gateway for the client device; and after the selecting of the second primary gateway for the client device, redirecting, by the access node, the data traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway, and forwarding, by the access node, the control traffic of the particular type of control operation from the client device to the first primary gateway (See Parag. [0050]; The data in the control plane (the control traffic) of the terminal device 130 can be transmitted by the main connection, the data in the user plane (the data traffic) of the terminal device can be transmitted simultaneously by the main connection and the auxiliary connection, and can be transmitted only by the auxiliary connection. See Parag. [0003]; The main connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the main network access device (the first primary gateway), and the auxiliary connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the auxiliary network access device (a second primary gateway)).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the policy, taught by Hegde, to designate a subset of the gateways for a particular type of control operation, the subset of the gateways designated by the policy comprising the first primary gateway, and a second primary gateway for the client device; and based on the policy: after the selecting of the second primary gateway for the client device, redirecting, by the access node, the data traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway, and forwarding, by the access node, the control traffic of the particular type of control operation from the client device to the first primary gateway, as taught by Tang. This would be convenient to improve the data throughput of the user plane and reduce the load on the main network access device (Tang, Parag. [0003]).
Hegde in view of Tang doesn’t explicitly disclose wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway.
However, Choudhury discloses wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway (See Col. 11 lines 33-46; A primary forwarding gateway designated for a VLAN can be configured to serve as an anchoring point for the VLAN. The anchoring information associated with the VLAN can be synced from the primary forwarding gateway to (i.e., mirrored to) the secondary forwarding gateway designated for the VLAN).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Hegde in view of Tang, to include wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway, as taught by Choudhury. This would be convenient such that the secondary forwarding gateway can take over the anchoring functionality of the VLAN from the primary forwarding gateway, such that data transmission associated with the VLAN is not interrupted (Choudhury, Col. 11 lines 33-46).
Claim 2. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the method of claim 1,
Hegde further discloses wherein the set of parameters indicates one or more of: a traffic load of a gateway, a number of client devices served by the gateway, a processing response time for traffic, or a processor utility level of the gateway (See Parag. [0018]; network orchestrator gathers operating health information for each branch gateway of the cluster, including, for example, process memory consumption, process memory leaks, central processing unit (CPU) load, CPU spinlock, CPU scheduling errors, process spinlock, fan status, device temperature, and power supply unit (PSU) status. The network orchestrator then compares each parameter of the operating health information to a set of thresholds).
Claim 3. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the method of claim 2,
Hegde further discloses wherein the policy is generated in response to a parameter of the set of parameters reaching a threshold (See Parag. [0018]; The network orchestrator compares each parameter of the operating health information to a set of thresholds… See Also Parag. [0019]; Each threshold is associated with an operating health class of a set of operating health classes. Operating health classes categorize the health of each branch gateway… See Parag. [0020]. See Parag. [0021]; Each operating health class may trigger certain actions, including remapping one or more bucketmaps for user anchoring…).
Claim 4. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the method of claim 1,
Hegde further discloses wherein the access node is one of: an access switch or a wireless access point (AP), and wherein the access node wirelessly couples to the client device (See Parag. [0013-0014]; connected controller (e.g., a wireless controller, such as an access point (AP))).
Claim 5. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the method of claim 1,
Hegde further discloses:
wherein the list of gateways is indicated in a bucket map published by a leader gateway of the gateway cluster (See Parag. [0021]; certain relevant bucketmaps (list of gateways) may be transmitted to the access points for client device assignment. See Parag. [0054]; FIG. 5 is an illustration of an example leader branch gateway of a cluster of branch gateways of a SD-WAN. As previously mentioned, actions and operations described in this disclosure can be executed on a leader branch gateway, and
wherein the selecting of the first primary gateway comprises: applying a binary logical operation to an identifier of the client device to determine an index; and determining that the first primary gateway corresponds to the index in the bucket map (See Parag. [0013-0014]; connected controller determines, based on information provided by the new anchored device (client device), the appropriate anchor controller, and selects a BG of the cluster to anchor the new anchored device to. The connected controller uses a characteristic of the new anchored device, such as a hash of a portion of the MAC address of the new anchored device (an identifier of the client device), to look up a BG assignment from a bucketmap. See Parag. [0030]; a bucketmap may include primary anchor controller assignments for each hashed final byte of a new device's MAC address).
Claim 8. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the method of claim 1,
Hegde in view of Tang doesn’t explicitly disclose wherein the state of the second primary gateway synchronized with the state of the first primary gateway comprises a virtual local area network (VLAN) mapping associated with the client device.
However, Choudhury discloses wherein the state of the second primary gateway synchronized with the state of the first primary gateway comprises a virtual local area network (VLAN) mapping associated with the client device (See Col. 11 lines 33-46; A primary forwarding gateway designated for a VLAN can be configured to serve as an anchoring point for the VLAN. The anchoring information associated with the VLAN can be synced from the primary forwarding gateway to (i.e., mirrored to) the secondary forwarding gateway designated for the VLAN).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Hegde in view of Tang, to include wherein the state of the second primary gateway synchronized with the state of the first primary gateway comprises a virtual local area network (VLAN) mapping associated with the client device, as taught by Choudhury. This would be convenient such that the secondary forwarding gateway can take over the anchoring functionality of the VLAN from the primary forwarding gateway, such that data transmission associated with the VLAN is not interrupted (Choudhury, Col. 11 lines 33-46).
Claim 9. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the method of claim 1,
Hegde discloses the method further comprising applying, by the access node, a selection mechanism to the subset of gateways to determine the second primary gateway, wherein the selection mechanism is based on one of: a hash function applied to an identifier of the client device, or a priority value associated with a respective gateway of the subset of gateways (See Parag. [0014]; The connected controller uses a characteristic of the new anchored device, such as a hash of a portion of the MAC address of the new anchored device (a hash function applicable to the identifier of the client device), to look up a BG assignment from a bucketmap. The connected controller may be able to access multiple bucketmaps or multiple sections of the bucketmap to select different assignments (such as assignment to a primary anchor controller and assignment to a secondary anchor controller)).
Claim 11. Hegde discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed cause a system comprising an access node of a network to: (See Parag. [0013]; network infrastructure device (e.g. an access point). Note: An access point is a networking hardware device)
select, by the access node for a client device, a first primary gateway and a first standby gateway from a list of gateways associated with a gateway cluster (See Parag. [0013-0014]; connected controller (e.g., a wireless controller, such as an access point (AP)) (an access node) determines, based on information provided by the new anchored device (client device), the appropriate anchor controller, and selects a BG (gateway) of the cluster to anchor the new anchored device to. The connected controller uses a characteristic of the new anchored device, such as a hash of a portion of the MAC address of the new anchored device (an identifier of the client device), to look up a BG assignment from a bucketmap (selecting from a list of gateways associated with a gateway cluster). The connected controller may be able to access multiple bucketmaps or multiple sections of the bucketmap to select different assignments (such as assignment to a primary anchor controller (first primary gateway) and assignment to a secondary anchor controller (a first standby gateway)) … The connected controller may then send requests and/or commands to the new anchored device and to the assigned BG(s) to establish a tunnel between the new anchored device and its assigned BG(s) (first primary gateway and a first standby gateway). See Parag. [0015]; High availability can be achieved in a clustered scenario by assigning secondary anchor controllers (first standby gateway) and establishing independent tunnels between an anchored device and the primary and secondary anchor controllers. Then, when a BG fails, the anchored device can quickly failover to the secondary anchor controller using the heretofore idle secondary user tunnel. See also Parag. [0029] and Fig. 1);
forward, by the access node, traffic from the client device to the first primary gateway (See Parag. [0013]; New client devices, such as laptops, mobile devices, IoT devices, etc., may anchor to a controller and transceive data with the wider network through a tunnel (e.g. a user tunnel) established between the new client device and the anchor controller; the user tunnel is established between an intermediary network infrastructure device (e.g. an access point) and the anchor controller. See Parag. [0065]; A network infrastructure device (access node) is a device that receives network traffic and forwards the network traffic to a destination);
receive, at the access node, a policy, wherein the policy is based on a change in a set of parameters associated with the gateway cluster (See Parag. [0018]; network orchestrator gathers operating health information for each branch gateway of the cluster, including, for example, process memory consumption, process memory leaks, central processing unit (CPU) load, CPU spinlock, CPU scheduling errors, process spinlock, fan status, device temperature, and power supply unit (PSU) status. The network orchestrator then compares each parameter of the operating health information to a set of thresholds. See also Parag. [0019-0021]; Each operating health class may trigger certain actions, including remapping one or more bucketmaps for user anchoring … bucketmaps may be transmitted to the access points for client device assignment (a policy based on a change in a set of parameters associated with the gateway cluster). See Parag. [0022]; if a branch gateway is added to the red class, indicating imminent device failure (change in a set of parameters associated with the gateway cluster), an updated bucketmap may be generated for the secondary user tunnels for existing devices connected to the cluster, excluding the now-red-class branch gateway… APs anchored to a now-red-class branch gateway may be instructed to switch over); and
based on the policy:
select, by the access node, the second primary gateway for the client device; and redirect, by the access node, the traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway (See Parag. [0022]; APs anchored to a now-red-class branch gateway may be instructed to switch over to their respective secondary AP tunnels. See also Parag. [0015]; High availability can be achieved in a clustered scenario by assigning secondary anchor controllers and establishing independent tunnels between an anchored device and the primary and secondary anchor controllers. Then, when a BG fails, the anchored device can quickly failover to the secondary anchor controller using the heretofore idle secondary user tunnel).
Hegde doesn’t explicitly disclose the traffic as both a control traffic and a data traffic; the policy designating: a subset of the gateways for a particular type of control operation, the subset of the gateways designated by the policy comprising the first primary gateway, and a second primary gateway for the client device; and wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway; and after the selecting of the second primary gateway for the client device, redirect, by the access node, the data traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway, and forward, by the access node, the control traffic of the particular type of control operation from the client device to the first primary gateway.
However, Tang discloses:
the traffic as both a control traffic and a data traffic (See Parag. [0050]; “data in the control plane” and “data in the user plane”);
the policy designating:
a subset of the gateways for a particular type of control operation, the subset of the gateways designated by the policy comprising the first primary gateway, and a second primary gateway for the client device (See Parag. [0003]; The multiple (double) connection of the terminal device includes one main connection and one or more auxiliary connections. The main connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the main network access device (the first primary gateway), and the auxiliary connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the auxiliary network access device (a second primary gateway). The data in the control plane of the terminal device is transmitted by the main connection, and the data in the user plane of the terminal device is divided into two paths and transmitted simultaneously by the two connections in order to improve the data throughput of the user plane, or is transmitted by the main connection. In order to reduce the load of network access, user data is transmitted by the auxiliary network access device. Therefore, in order to improve the data throughput of the user plane and reduce the load on the main network access device, a method for establishing an auxiliary connection is required); and
based on the policy:
select, by the access node, the second primary gateway for the client device; and after the selecting of the second primary gateway for the client device, redirect, by the access node, the data traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway, and forward, by the access node, the control traffic of the particular type of control operation from the client device to the first primary gateway (See Parag. [0050]; The data in the control plane (the control traffic) of the terminal device 130 can be transmitted by the main connection, the data in the user plane (the data traffic) of the terminal device can be transmitted simultaneously by the main connection and the auxiliary connection, and can be transmitted only by the auxiliary connection. See Parag. [0003]; The main connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the main network access device (the first primary gateway), and the auxiliary connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the auxiliary network access device (a second primary gateway)).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the policy, taught by Hegde, to designate a subset of the gateways for a particular type of control operation, the subset of the gateways designated by the policy comprising the first primary gateway, and a second primary gateway for the client device; and based on the policy: after the selecting of the second primary gateway for the client device, redirecting, by the access node, the data traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway, and forwarding, by the access node, the control traffic of the particular type of control operation from the client device to the first primary gateway, as taught by Tang. This would be convenient to improve the data throughput of the user plane and reduce the load on the main network access device (Tang, Parag. [0003]).
Hegde in view of Tang doesn’t explicitly disclose wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway.
However, Choudhury discloses wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway (See Col. 11 lines 33-46; A primary forwarding gateway designated for a VLAN can be configured to serve as an anchoring point for the VLAN. The anchoring information associated with the VLAN can be synced from the primary forwarding gateway to (i.e., mirrored to) the secondary forwarding gateway designated for the VLAN).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Hegde in view of Tang, to include wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway, as taught by Choudhury. This would be convenient such that the secondary forwarding gateway can take over the anchoring functionality of the VLAN from the primary forwarding gateway, such that data transmission associated with the VLAN is not interrupted (Choudhury, Col. 11 lines 33-46).
Claim 12. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11,
Hegde further discloses wherein the set of parameters indicates one or more of: a traffic load of a gateway, a number of client devices served by the gateway, or a processor utility level of the gateway (See Parag. [0018]; network orchestrator gathers operating health information for each branch gateway of the cluster, including, for example, process memory consumption, process memory leaks, central processing unit (CPU) load, CPU spinlock, CPU scheduling errors, process spinlock, fan status, device temperature, and power supply unit (PSU) status. The network orchestrator then compares each parameter of the operating health information to a set of thresholds), and wherein the policy is generated in response to a parameter of the set of parameters reaching a threshold (See Parag. [0019]; Each threshold is associated with an operating health class of a set of operating health classes. Operating health classes categorize the health of each branch gateway… See Parag. [0020]. See Parag. [0021]; Each operating health class may trigger certain actions, including remapping one or more bucketmaps for user anchoring…).
Claim 13-14 is taught by Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury as described for claims 4-5, respectively.
Claim 18 is taught by Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury as described for claims 9.
Claim 19 is taught by Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury as described for claims 8.
Claim 20. Hegde discloses [a]n access node comprising:
a hardware processor; a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions executable on the hardware processor to (See Parag. [0013]; network infrastructure device (e.g. an access point). Note: An access point is a networking hardware device):
select, for a client device, a first primary gateway and a first standby gateway from a list of gateways associated with a gateway cluster (See Parag. [0013-0014]; connected controller (e.g., a wireless controller, such as an access point (AP)) (an access node) determines, based on information provided by the new anchored device (client device), the appropriate anchor controller, and selects a BG (gateway) of the cluster to anchor the new anchored device to. The connected controller uses a characteristic of the new anchored device, such as a hash of a portion of the MAC address of the new anchored device (an identifier of the client device), to look up a BG assignment from a bucketmap (selecting from a list of gateways associated with a gateway cluster). The connected controller may be able to access multiple bucketmaps or multiple sections of the bucketmap to select different assignments (such as assignment to a primary anchor controller (first primary gateway) and assignment to a secondary anchor controller (a first standby gateway)) … The connected controller may then send requests and/or commands to the new anchored device and to the assigned BG(s) to establish a tunnel between the new anchored device and its assigned BG(s) (first primary gateway and a first standby gateway). See Parag. [0015]; High availability can be achieved in a clustered scenario by assigning secondary anchor controllers (first standby gateway) and establishing independent tunnels between an anchored device and the primary and secondary anchor controllers. Then, when a BG fails, the anchored device can quickly failover to the secondary anchor controller using the heretofore idle secondary user tunnel. See also Parag. [0029] and Fig. 1);
forward, by the access node, traffic from the client device to the first primary gateway (See Parag. [0013]; New client devices, such as laptops, mobile devices, IoT devices, etc., may anchor to a controller and transceive data with the wider network through a tunnel (e.g. a user tunnel) established between the new client device and the anchor controller; the user tunnel is established between an intermediary network infrastructure device (e.g. an access point) and the anchor controller. See Parag. [0065]; A network infrastructure device (access node) is a device that receives network traffic and forwards the network traffic to a destination);
receive, at the access node, a policy, wherein the policy is based on a change in a set of parameters associated with the gateway cluster (See Parag. [0018]; network orchestrator gathers operating health information for each branch gateway of the cluster, including, for example, process memory consumption, process memory leaks, central processing unit (CPU) load, CPU spinlock, CPU scheduling errors, process spinlock, fan status, device temperature, and power supply unit (PSU) status. The network orchestrator then compares each parameter of the operating health information to a set of thresholds. See also Parag. [0019-0021]; Each operating health class may trigger certain actions, including remapping one or more bucketmaps for user anchoring … bucketmaps may be transmitted to the access points for client device assignment (a policy based on a change in a set of parameters associated with the gateway cluster). See Parag. [0022]; if a branch gateway is added to the red class, indicating imminent device failure (change in a set of parameters associated with the gateway cluster), an updated bucketmap may be generated for the secondary user tunnels for existing devices connected to the cluster, excluding the now-red-class branch gateway… APs anchored to a now-red-class branch gateway may be instructed to switch over), and
based on the policy:
select the second primary gateway for the client device; redirect, by the access node, the traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway (See Parag. [0022]; APs anchored to a now-red-class branch gateway may be instructed to switch over to their respective secondary AP tunnels. See also Parag. [0015]; High availability can be achieved in a clustered scenario by assigning secondary anchor controllers and establishing independent tunnels between an anchored device and the primary and secondary anchor controllers. Then, when a BG fails, the anchored device can quickly failover to the secondary anchor controller using the heretofore idle secondary user tunnel).
Hegde doesn’t explicitly disclose the traffic as both a control traffic and a data traffic; the policy designating: a subset of the gateways for a particular type of control operation, the subset of the gateways designated by the policy comprising the first primary gateway, and a second primary gateway for the client device; and wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway; and after the selecting of the second primary gateway for the client device, redirect, by the access node, the data traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway, and forward, by the access node, the control traffic of the particular type of control operation from the client device to the first primary gateway.
However, Tang discloses:
the traffic as both a control traffic and a data traffic (See Parag. [0050]; “data in the control plane” and “data in the user plane”);
the policy designating:
a subset of the gateways for a particular type of control operation, the subset of the gateways designated by the policy comprising the first primary gateway, and a second primary gateway for the client device (See Parag. [0003]; The multiple (double) connection of the terminal device includes one main connection and one or more auxiliary connections. The main connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the main network access device (the first primary gateway), and the auxiliary connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the auxiliary network access device (a second primary gateway). The data in the control plane of the terminal device is transmitted by the main connection, and the data in the user plane of the terminal device is divided into two paths and transmitted simultaneously by the two connections in order to improve the data throughput of the user plane, or is transmitted by the main connection. In order to reduce the load of network access, user data is transmitted by the auxiliary network access device. Therefore, in order to improve the data throughput of the user plane and reduce the load on the main network access device, a method for establishing an auxiliary connection is required); and
based on the policy:
select, by the access node, the second primary gateway for the client device; and after the selecting of the second primary gateway for the client device, redirect, by the access node, the data traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway, and forward, by the access node, the control traffic of the particular type of control operation from the client device to the first primary gateway (See Parag. [0050]; The data in the control plane (the control traffic) of the terminal device 130 can be transmitted by the main connection, the data in the user plane (the data traffic) of the terminal device can be transmitted simultaneously by the main connection and the auxiliary connection, and can be transmitted only by the auxiliary connection. See Parag. [0003]; The main connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the main network access device (the first primary gateway), and the auxiliary connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the auxiliary network access device (a second primary gateway)).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the policy, taught by Hegde, to designate a subset of the gateways for a particular type of control operation, the subset of the gateways designated by the policy comprising the first primary gateway, and a second primary gateway for the client device; and based on the policy: after the selecting of the second primary gateway for the client device, redirecting, by the access node, the data traffic from the client device to the second primary gateway, and forwarding, by the access node, the control traffic of the particular type of control operation from the client device to the first primary gateway, as taught by Tang. This would be convenient to improve the data throughput of the user plane and reduce the load on the main network access device (Tang, Parag. [0003]).
Hegde in view of Tang doesn’t explicitly disclose wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway.
However, Choudhury discloses wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway (See Col. 11 lines 33-46; A primary forwarding gateway designated for a VLAN can be configured to serve as an anchoring point for the VLAN. The anchoring information associated with the VLAN can be synced from the primary forwarding gateway to (i.e., mirrored to) the secondary forwarding gateway designated for the VLAN).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Hegde in view of Tang, to include wherein a state of the second primary gateway is synchronized with a state of the first primary gateway, as taught by Choudhury. This would be convenient such that the secondary forwarding gateway can take over the anchoring functionality of the VLAN from the primary forwarding gateway, such that data transmission associated with the VLAN is not interrupted (Choudhury, Col. 11 lines 33-46).
Claim 22. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the method of claim 1,
Hegde discloses the method further comprising, detecting, by the access node, a second client device; sending, by the access node and based on the list of gateways, a message indicating the presence of the second client device to the first primary gateway (See Parag. [0013]; when a new anchored device, such as a client device or an access point, joins a branch of a SD-WAN, the anchored device requires connections with a branch gateway (BG) for use of at least two services provided by the BG … New client devices that are connected to network infrastructure device, such as an access point, may be assigned an anchor controller by the access point, which retains one or more bucketmaps for assigning anchor controllers to client devices. The subsequently established user tunnels may pass through the access point to the destination anchor controller. See also Parag. [0036]); and
forwarding, by the access node and based on the policy, traffic from the second client device to the second primary gateway (See Parag. [0022]; APs anchored to a now-red-class branch gateway may be instructed to switch over to their respective secondary AP tunnels. See also Parag. [0015]; High availability can be achieved in a clustered scenario by assigning secondary anchor controllers and establishing independent tunnels between an anchored device and the primary and secondary anchor controllers. Then, when a BG fails, the anchored device can quickly failover to the secondary anchor controller using the heretofore idle secondary user tunnel).
Hegde doesn’t explicitly disclose forwarding data traffic.
However, Tang discloses forwarding data traffic from the second client device to the second primary gateway (See Parag. [0050]; The data in the control plane of the terminal device 130 can be transmitted by the main connection, the data in the user plane (the data traffic) of the terminal device can be transmitted simultaneously by the main connection and the auxiliary connection, and can be transmitted only by the auxiliary connection. See Parag. [0003]; The main connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the main network access device, and the auxiliary connection is the network connection between the terminal device and the auxiliary network access device (a second primary gateway)).
Claim 23 is taught by Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury as described for claims 8.
Claims 7, 10, and 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hegde et al. (Pub. No. US 2020/0351182), hereinafter Hegde; in view of Tang (JP 2021064968A); further in view of Choudhury et al. (Patent No. US 8,971,173), hereinafter Choudhury; and further in view of Srinivas et al. (Pub. No. US 2024/0073137), hereinafter Srinivas.
Claim 7. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the method of claim 1,
The combination doesn’t explicitly disclose wherein the policy designates the subset of the gateways for an authentication operation for the client device, and wherein the control traffic forwarded by the access node from the client device to the first primary gateway comprises control traffic for the authentication operation.
However, Srinivas discloses wherein the policy designates the subset of the gateways for an authentication operation for the client device, and wherein the control traffic forwarded by the access node from the client device to the first primary gateway comprises control traffic for the authentication operation (See Parag. [0054]; a control message (e.g., an authentication request)).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the policy, taught by Hegde, to designate the subset of the gateways for an authentication operation, as taught by Srinivas. This would be convenient to implementing a software-defined private mobile network (SD-PMN) for an entity (Srinivas, Parag. [0002]).
Claim 10. Hegde in view of Tang and Choudhury discloses the method of claim 1,
The combination doesn’t explicitly disclose wherein the policy designates the subset of the gateways for an intrusion detection operation, an intrusion prevention operation, or an anti-virus scanning operation for the client device, and wherein the control traffic forwarded by the access node from the client device to the first primary gateway comprises control traffic for the intrusion detection operation, the intrusion prevention operation, or the anti-virus scanning operation.
However, Srinivas discloses wherein the policy designates the subset of the gateways for an intrusion detection operation, an intrusion prevention operation, or an anti-virus scanning operation for the client device, and wherein the control traffic forwarded by the access node from the client device to the first primary gateway comprises control traffic for the intrusion detection operation, the intrusion prevention operation, or the anti-virus scanning operation (See Parag. [0039]; The security gateways 124 and 154 decapsulate the received encapsulated data message traffic, and depending on the traffic type (i.e., control traffic or dataplane traffic), forward the data message traffic as IP traffic to either their respective UPFs 126 and 156, or their respective AMFs/SMFs 128 and 158).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the combination, to include wherein the policy designates the subset of the gateways for an intrusion detection operation, an intrusion prevention operation, or an anti-virus scanning operation for the client device, and wherein the control traffic forwarded by the access node from the client device to the first primary gateway comprises control traffic for the intrusion detection operation, the intrusion prevention operation, or the anti-virus scanning operation, as taught by Srinivas. This would be convenient to implementing a software-defined private mobile network (SD-PMN) for an entity (Srinivas, Parag. [0002]).
Claim 16 is taught by Hegde in view of Tang, Choudhury, and Srinivas as described for claims 7.
Claim 17 is taught by Hegde in view of Tang, Choudhury, and Srinivas as described for claims 10.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Hua et al. (Patent No. US 11,102,058) – Related art in the area of network function recovery, (Abstract; Systems and methods described herein include receiving, from a first network function, a request to receive a notification when a second network function becomes available after a failure. A status update may be received from the second network function indicating that the second network function is available. It may be determined that the second network function is in a stable state. A notification may be sent, to the first network function, that the second network function is available along with an indication of a time period in which to switch from accessing a third network function to accessing the second network function).
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/Abdelbasst Talioua/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445
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