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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Species II (claims 8-20) in the reply filed on 1/30/2026 is acknowledged. There is no reason given for the traversal. Thus, the traversal is not found persuasive.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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) 8-27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Singh et al. (US Pub. No. 2019/0149472).
Regarding claims 8, 15, and 21, Singh discloses a method network device (figure 2) comprising processing circuitry (see figure 2) a non-transitory computer-readable storage device (figure 2 system memory 240) in a network device, the non- transitory computer-readable storage device having stored thereon computer executable instructions (figure 2 program instructions 245), which when executed, cause the network device configured to:
receive a data packet comprising an IP address (paragraphs 27 and 48: IPv6 packet); and
sequentially process the data packet at each lookup table in a plurality of lookup tables (see figure 4 segment evaluation stages 440, 450, 460…; paragraph 59) including:
search the lookup table using (1) a portion of the IP address of the data packet that is selected based on the lookup table being searched (paragraphs 49, 50 and 59: segment 532 is selected based on segment evaluation stage/table 440, segment 534 is selected based on segment evaluation stage/table 450, segment 536 is selected based on segment evaluation stage/table 460) and (2) an index value contained in a matched entry found in a previously searched lookup table (paragraphs 60 and 61: match indication 442 for stage 450, match indication 452 for stage 460, etc.); and
perform any actions associated with a matched entry found in the lookup table (paragraphs 60: produce match indication for the subsequent stage).
Regarding claims 9 and 27, all limitations of claims 8 and 21 are disclosed above. Singh further teaches processing the data packet in a forwarding engine for egress to a next hop device (see figure 4 next hop pointer lookup; paragraphs 21 and 22).
Regarding claim 10, all limitations of claim 8 are disclosed above. Singh further teaches the IP address is segmented in equal-sized portions (see figure 5: 32 bits segments and paragraph 50).
Regarding claims 11, 17, and 23, all limitations of claims 8, 15, and 21 are disclosed above. Singh further teaches the IP address is an IPv6 address (see figure 5: 32 bits segments of IPv6 destination address, and paragraph 50).
Regarding claims 12, 18, and 24, all limitations of claims 8, 15, and 21 are disclosed above. Singh further teaches the IP address is of a first kind, the method further comprising receiving a second data packet comprising an IP address of a second kind and searching at least a first lookup table among the plurality of lookup tables using the entirety of the second IP address (figure 5 and paragraph 51: IPv6 and IPv4 at 32 bits).
Regarding claims 13, 19, 25, all limitations of claims 8, 15, 21 are disclosed above. Singh further teaches wherein the IP address is of a first kind, the method further comprising receiving a second data packet comprising an IP address of a second kind and searching only a first lookup table using the entirety of the second IP address (figure 5 and paragraph 51: IPv6 and IPv4 at 32 bits which only need one lookup table/stage).
Regarding claims 14, all limitations of claims 8 are disclosed above. Singh further teaches searching said each lookup table further comprises using the data contained in the matched entry found in the previously searched lookup table and data contained in another matched entry found in another previously searched lookup table (see figure 5: stages 450, 460, and 470 each has three data/arrows, one is match indication from previous search table, and another data/arrow comes from another previously searched lookup table, elements 424 and 432 for stage 450).
Regarding claims 16 and 22, all limitations of claims 15 and 21 are disclosed above. Singh further teaches the IP address is segmented in equal-sized portions (see figure 5 and paragraph 51), wherein a unique segment of the IP address is used in the search of said each lookup table (paragraph 59).
Regarding claims 20 and 26, all limitations of claims 18 are disclosed above. Singh further teaches wherein an IP address of the first kind is an IPv6 address and an IP address of the second kind is an IPv4 address (paragraphs 50 and 51).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Chawla et al. (US Pat. No. 8,090,805) discloses method for performing cascaded lookups to forward packets.
Du et al. (US Pat. No. 8,879,555) teaches method for forwarding packets by obtaining addresses of the packet using a preset forwarding information base entry.
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/TITO Q PHAM/ Examiner, Art Unit 2466
/FARUK HAMZA/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2466