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 Amendment filed on 12/23/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-7 and 21-35 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 12/23/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to applicant’s argument on pages 7-9 that Klotz (US PGPub 2007/0127389) fails to teach the limitations of claim 1, especially the limitation of “… identifying, based on a correlation of the information indicative of the data injected into the network with an effect caused to the network, the data injected into the network, wherein the effect is caused to the network by the data injected into the network; and …”, the examiner cannot concur with the applicant because of the reasons described below.
Applicant argues that Klotz fails to teach that the characteristics of either the degraded packet stream pattern or the injected packet stream pattern are compared to an effect caused to the network based on the injection of the packet stream pattern into the network in order to identify the injected packet stream pattern. Klotz is silent with respect to how the packet stream pattern is identified at the second test point in order to measure the characteristics of the degraded packet stream pattern (Applicant’s arguments on page 8).
On the contrary to the applicant’s arguments, the present claim 1 recites the method step of identifying the data injected into the network; and further step of determining one or more characteristics of the network based on the identification of the data injected into the network. The limitation of a correlation of the information indicative of the data injected into the network with an effect caused to the network is solely used to identify the data injected into the network, but the present claim is silent about how the correlation of the information indicative of the data injected into the network with an effect caused to the network is utilized for determining one or more characteristics of the network. The present claim specifies that the one or more characteristics of the network is solely determined based on the identification of the data injected into the network but does not require anything about the correlation of the information indicative of the data injected into the network with an effect caused to the network. Therefore, the applicant’s arguments are not persuasive, especially that Klotz fails to teach that the characteristics of either the degraded packet stream pattern or the injected packet stream pattern are compared to an effect caused to the network based on the injection of the packet stream pattern into the network in order to identify the injected packet stream pattern because nowhere of the present claim requires to compare either the degraded packet stream pattern or the injected packet stream pattern to an effect caused to the network to determine the characteristics.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-7 and 21-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Klotz (US PGPub 2007/0127389).
Regarding claims 1, 21, 26 and 31, Klotz teaches a method (Koltz, see abstract, The invention concerns a method, a network element and a computer program product for monitoring the quality of a real-time communication (9) in a packet network) comprising:
receiving, by a network device, information indicative of data injected into a network (Koltz, see paragraph 0037, The determined packet stream pattern 22 [corresponding to information indicative of data injected into a network] is distributed by the controller 10 as reference file to the test points 3, 4 [corresponding to a network device]. The test points 3, 4 store the received original packet stream pattern in a memory and access it from the memory when they need it later for transmission or comparison purposes.), wherein the network comprises a plurality of data streams associated with a plurality of individually encrypted data packets (Koltz, see paragraph 0016, preferred embodiment of the invention … is applied to media streams of a real-time application. The specifics of a real-time application such as real-time audio or video can be taken into consideration);
identifying, based on a correlation of the information indicative of the data injected into the network with an effect caused to the network, the data injected into the network, wherein the effect is caused to the network by the data injected into the network (Koltz, see paragraphs 0013 and 0017, The test points used in the quality monitoring are all kept synchronized in time. Then the packet stream pattern is injected at the first test point at defined times, preferably in a predefined schedule. The arrival time of the single packets of the degraded packet stream pattern arriving at the second test point is measured. The time of arrival of each single packet of the degraded packet stream pattern arriving one after another at the second test point and/or the sequence of arrival of the packets of the degraded packet stream pattern arriving one after another at the second test point are measured. The measured arrival times of the packets and/or the measured arrival sequence of the packets may be used as characteristics of the degraded packet stream pattern); and
determining, based on the identification of the data injected into the network, one or more characteristics of the network (Koltz, see paragraph 0048, The evaluation of the test, i.e., the analysis of the reference and the received signal can take place either in the probes 3, 4 or in the controller 10. Therefore, the probe or test point 4 which is a receiver has the functionality of evaluating the test results by analyzing the reference signal 22 and the received signal 23).
Regarding claim 2, Koltz teaches wherein the information indicative of the data injected into the network comprises one or more attributes of the injected data (Koltz, see paragraph 0030, The characteristics, e.g., time and sequence of arrival, of the signal packets received at the second probe 4 are registered).
Regarding claim 3, Koltz teaches wherein the injected data is a pulse signal comprising one or more attributes comprising one or more of a predetermined data size, a predetermined data frequency, a predetermined data pattern, a random data pattern, or a predetermined data injection interval (Koltz, see paragraph 0034, The packet stream pattern 22 is generated by transforming the media stream pattern 20 to a digital representation 21 of the media stream pattern 20, and encoding, packetising and compressing the digital representation 21 in compliance with the used packet transfer protocol).
Regarding claims 4, 23, 28 and 33, Koltz teaches wherein the plurality of data streams comprises one or more of: the injected data, one or more media streams, one or more video streams, one or more audio streams, or one or more data streams (Koltz, see paragraph 0016, preferred embodiment of the invention … is applied to media streams of a real-time application. The specifics of a real-time application such as real-time audio or video can be taken into consideration).
Regarding claims 5, 24, 29 and 34, Koltz teaches wherein the effect caused to the network comprises an increase in a data size of one or more data packets of the plurality of individually encrypted data packets (Koltz, see paragraph 0030, The characteristics, e.g., time and sequence of arrival, of the signal packets received at the second probe 4 are registered).
Regarding claims 6, 25, 30 and 35, Koltz teaches wherein the one or more characteristics comprise one or more of a network backlog, network congestion, or data packet loss (Koltz, see paragraph 0066, The method according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 provides a quality evaluation limited to the packet network. It takes into account the quality degradation caused by jitter, mis-sequencing and packet loss).
Regarding claim 7, Koltz teaches further comprising determining the one or more characteristics of the network during one or more time segments (Koltz, see paragraph 0015, the steps of injecting the packet stream pattern, receiving the degraded packet stream pattern, and determining characteristics of the degraded packet stream pattern are repeated or performed periodically. From the comparison results, statistics may be compiled. The statistics can help to find, e.g., temporal trends, peak values, mean values, or other statistical values, which may be used for a quality prediction of a real-time communication).
Regarding claims 22, 27 and 32, Koltz teaches wherein the injected data is a pulse signal comprising one or more attributes comprising one or more of a predetermined data size, a predetermined data frequency, a predetermined data pattern, a random data pattern, or a predetermined data injection interval, wherein the information indicative of the data injected into the network comprises the one or more attributes of the injected data (Koltz, see paragraph 0030, The characteristics, e.g., time and sequence of arrival, of the signal packets received at the second probe 4 are registered).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHONG G KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-0619. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri @ 9am - 5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas R. Taylor can be reached at 571-272-3889. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/CHRISTOPHER B ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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