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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Response to Amendment
Regarding the interpretation of claim 7 for invoking 112(f) for reciting “a decoupling module configured to”, “a matching module configured to” and “an evaluation module configured to”. Applicant has amended the claim to excluding the recitation of each of those phrases, therefore, the interpretation of claim 7 as invoking 112(f) is withdrawn.
Regarding the rejection claims 10 and 16-20 under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter, applicant has amended the claims to include “non-transitory storage medium”, therefore, the rejection of the claim(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101 is withdrawn.
Regarding the rejection of claim(s) 7-8, under 112(a) and 112(b), the claims have been amended to exclude the following phrases “a decoupling module configured to”, “a matching module configured to” and “an evaluation module configured to”. Therefore, the rejection of the claim(s) under 112(a) and 112(b) is withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/15/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments (Examiner emphasis – Bold)
Argument 1: (Summary of pages 12-13)
…Applicant argues that Wu fails to disclose or suggest the use of an "encoding vector" to characterize the network requirement feature of a service block. It is noted that Wu's approach is to classify resource requirements and assign them to blocks ([0051] of Wu), but does not teach representing these requirements as vectors, nor any encoding or transformation into a vector space. Clearly, Wu's resource requirements are handled as scalar values or sets (e.g., CPU usage, bandwidth, as described in Wu's [0048]), not as encoding vectors.
Response:
Examiner respectfully disagrees.
In particular, while applicant claimed the limitation of an “encoding vector”, applicant’s written description discloses this feature but fails to provide an explicit definition of the claimed “encoding vector”. In paragraph [0012-0019] of applicant’s written description, applicant discloses a first and second encoding vectors as network requirement feature of the service block that characterizes a feature relationship between the candidate path and all the service blocks. This feature is also used for the selection of a candidate path in all of the paths leading to each service block. Consistent with applicant’s written description and based on the broadest reasonable interpretation of applicant’s claims, Wu’s discloses bandwidth, delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost as network requirement features of each service block and may be used to characterizes a feature relationship between the candidate path and all the service blocks. In [0058] Wu discloses collecting a network topology information 1200, collecting metric information of link 1201, then using Constrained Shortest Path First (CSPF) routing algorithm to reach a usable path of each server set 1202. in the field of common metric can be bandwidth, delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost, to complicate the routing algorithm can be based on the plurality of metric to select a route. Therefore, based on the current recitation of the claims, bandwidth, delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost, reasonably disclose the features of the claimed “encoded vector”.
Argument 2: (Summary pages 13-14)
…Applicant argues Wu does not disclose calculating any distance between encoding vectors. Wu's resource allocation is based on matching requirements and available resources, and spiral search algorithms (Wu's [0048]-[0051]; FIG. 10), but not on vector distance calculations. There is no mention of any vector distance metrics between service block and path representations. It is noted that Wu's matching is based on threshold checks and cost calculations (Wu's [0048]-[0051]), not vector distances. Also, Wu fails to disclose any selection of paths based on a distance between encoding vectors or any threshold applied to such a distance.
Response:
Examiner respectfully disagrees.
See detailed response to argument 1.
Furthermore, as indicated above route length is one of the encoded vectors disclosed by Wu in [0058]. The route length is any vector metrics between service blocks and path representations, and may be included cost calculation of all of the paths towards a service block from which an optimal path is selected. Fig. 4, [0053] when a client terminal 180 sends a service request to a data center network, the data center transmits the first service request 410, load balancer 100 receives service request 410, calculating the optimal server/path/distance combination of the service request, forwarding the session information in the session table 231, and informs the relative switch configuring forwarding path 411 of the service request. In [0053] Wu discloses that responsive to a client’s request which includes network and service requirements, a path is selected that satisfies the requirements of the request and load balancer 100 along the path of the selection to the selected server 120 sends the service request 413, 414 is selected to provide the service of the server 120. Since Constrained Shortest Path First (CSPF) algorithm is used to determine an optimal path, a shortest/distance threshold is applied in the selection of an optimal path. Therefore, Wu discloses the invention as claimed.
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) 1,3-7,9-10,12-15, and 17- 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Wu et al. (CN 103259739 A)[translation provided].
Regarding claim 1, Wu discloses a multi-path routing (load balancing routes) method oriented to supercomputing user experience quality, (Wu [0010] discloses a load balancing method for resource allocation to perform load balancing in a data center network) comprising:
decoupling (dividing service into multiple service blocks), according to a preset rule (server resource requirement and network transmission resource requirement) (Wu, [0009-0010] discloses a server resource requirement and network transmission resource requirement of the service, where the service divided into multiple service blocks),
a service with a path to be planned into at least one service block and acquiring a network requirement feature of each service block (Wu [0009] acquiring a combination of idle server resources and idle network resources corresponding to each resources block, the service block to which the service request belongs is identified, and the combination of the idle server resources and the idle network transmission resources is allocated to the service request on the basis of the corresponding relationship between the service block and the resource block. These requirements are used to plan each service path);
acquiring, a multi-path (each of servers 120 to 125 has one or more paths 140, 141) set between the network nodes (plurality of intermediate switching nodes 111, 112, 114, 115, 116 connect to the server 120 to 125) for the service according to the network requirement feature of each service block, all paths between network nodes of the path to be planned a network feature of each of all the paths (Wu [0009-0010; 0048] discloses an acquisition of server resource requirement and network transmission resource requirement of the service for each/all load balancing paths. Each service hosted by each server 120 and 125 has one or more paths 140, 141 and also include a plurality of intermediate switching nodes 111, 112, 114, 115, 116 connect to the server 120 to 125), and
inputting the network feature of each path in the multi-path set and the network requirement features of all the service blocks into a preset matching degree evaluation function to acquire a network path between the network nodes for the service (Wu, figs. 9 &10, discloses a search algorithm which uses input of the server resource requirement and network transmission resource requirement of the resource block to search for matching available server/path combination and service requirement set, the second step shown in FIG. 11 in the available set of screening out the best server/path combination. searching the specific process of the set of available server/path combination);
wherein the step of acquiring the multi-path set between the network nodes for the service according to the network requirement feature of each service block, all the paths between the network nodes of the path to be planned, and the network feature of each of all the paths (Wu [0009-0010; 0048] discloses an acquisition of server resource requirement and network transmission resource requirement of the service for each/all load balancing paths. Each service hosted by each server 120 and 125 has one or more paths 140, 141 and also include a plurality of intermediate switching nodes 111, 112, 114, 115, 116 connect to the server 120 to 125), comprises:
determining, according to the network requirement feature of the service block, a first encoding vector (bandwidth) for characterizing the network requirement feature of the service block (Wu [0009-0010; 0048] after acquisition of server resource requirement and network transmission resource requirement of the service for each/all load balancing paths, servers and bandwidth allocation for all paths is determined as a feature for each path);
calculating a distance between the first encoding vector of the service block (Wu, fig. 4, [0053] when a client terminal 180 sends a service request to a data center network, the data center transmits the first service request 410, load balancer 100 receives service request 410, calculating the optimal server/path/distance combination of the service request, forwarding the session information in the session table 231, and informs the relative switch configuring forwarding path 411 of the service request) and
a second encoding vector (delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost) of each of the paths respectively to acquire a corresponding distance between the service block and each path wherein the second encoding vector is configured for characterizing the network feature of the path (Wu [00058-0059], step 600, delay, route length, reliability, load and a communication cost are all vector that can serve as inputs used to characterize the features of each network path and variables used to calculate an optimal path in a multi-path load balancing network);
selecting, from all the paths, at least one path whose distance is less than a preset distance threshold to acquire a candidate path between the network nodes for the service block (Wu, fig. 4, [0053] in response to a client’s request which includes network and service requirements, a path is selected that satisfies the requirements of the request and load balancer 100 along the path of the selection to the selected server 120 sends the service request 413, 414 is selected to provide the service of the server 120);
determining, according to the first encoding vectors (bandwidth) of all the service blocks and the second encoding vector (delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost) of the candidate path, feature matching degrees between the candidate path and all the service blocks in a plurality of preset dimensions (Wu, [0053-0054] each time load balancer 100 receives service request 410, from a client terminal 180, the load balancer calculates the optimal server/path combination of the service request based on a combination of bandwidth, delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost of all available paths to the server hosting the service); and
determining the candidate paths whose feature matching degree meets a preset requirement as the multi-path set between the network nodes for the service (Wu, fig. 4, [0053] in response to a client’s request which includes network and service requirements, a path is selected that satisfies the requirements of the request and load balancer 100 along the path of the selection to the selected server 120 sends the service request 413, 414 is selected to provide the service of the server 120).
Regarding claim 3, Wu discloses the multi-path routing method oriented to supercomputing user experience quality according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining, according to the first encoding vectors of all the service blocks and the second encoding vector of the candidate path, the feature matching degrees between the candidate path and all the service blocks in the plurality of preset dimensions (Wu, fig. 4, [0053] in response to a client’s request which includes network and service requirements, a path is selected that satisfies the requirements of the request and load balancer 100 along the path of the selection to the selected server 120 sends the service request 413, 414 is selected to provide the service of the server 120) comprises:
constructing a feature vector configured to characterize a feature relationship between the candidate path and all the service blocks by using the first encoding vectors of all the service blocks and the second encoding vector of the candidate path (Wu, [0053-0054] each time load balancer 100 receives service request 410, from a client terminal 180, the load balancer calculates the optimal server/path combination of the service request based on a combination of bandwidth, delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost of all available paths to the server(s) hosting the service); and
determining the feature matching degrees between the candidate path and all the service blocks according to the feature vector and by using a pre-established classification model (Wu, fig. 4, [0053] in response to a client’s request which includes network and service requirements, a path is selected that satisfies the requirements of the request and load balancer 100 along the path of the selection to the selected server 120 sends the service request 413, 414 is selected to provide the service of the server 120).
Regarding claim 4, Wu discloses the multi-path routing method oriented to supercomputing user experience quality according to claim 3, wherein the step of constructing the feature vector configured to characterize the feature relationship between the candidate path and all the service blocks by using the first encoding vectors of all the service blocks and the second encoding vector of the candidate path (Wu, [0053-0054] each time load balancer 100 receives service request 410, from a client terminal 180, the load balancer calculates the optimal server/path combination of the service request based on a combination of bandwidth, delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost of all available paths to the server(s) hosting the service) comprises:
combining the first encoding vectors of all the service blocks and the second encoding vector of the candidate path into a multi-dimensional vector (Wu, fig. 11, [0093-0095] discloses a best server/path combination calculation based on requested service resource requirements. In step 1102 of calculating the combination of resource consumption cost, the calculation method shown in FIG. 13. assuming that the requested service resource requirement of the resource requirement for server is Cr, Br, server by the network bandwidth is currently available capacity of the combination of CA, the path currently available bandwidth is BA, the resource consumption cost LBc = Cr/CA + Br/BA); and
determining the multi-dimensional vector as the feature vector configured to characterize the feature relationship between the candidate path and all the service blocks, wherein a dimension of the feature vector is a sum of dimensions of the first encoding vectors and the second encoding vector (Wu [0095] In step 1103 checking the combination of resource consumption cost is less than the current minimum resource consumption cost, if less than the minimum resource consumption cost, then going to step the server/path combination set is currently the best choice, and the resource consumption cost is set as the current minimum resource consumption cost 1104).
Regarding claim 5, Wu discloses the multi-path routing method oriented to supercomputing user experience quality according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining, according to the network requirement feature of the service block, the first encoding vector for characterizing the network requirement feature of the service block (Wu, [0053-0054] each time load balancer 100 receives service request 410, from a client terminal 180, the load balancer calculates the optimal server/path combination of the service request based on a combination of bandwidth, delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost of all available paths to the server(s) hosting the service) comprises:
ranking (paths are ranked based on cost), according to different priorities of the network requirement features of the service blocks, the network requirement features of the service blocks to acquire a first network feature sequence (Wu [0095] In step 1103 checking the combination of resource consumption cost is less than the current minimum resource consumption cost, if less than the minimum resource consumption cost, then going to step the server/path combination set is currently the best choice, and the resource consumption cost is set as the current minimum resource consumption cost 1104) ;
sequentially determining feature values of respective network features in the first network feature sequence; and constructing, according to the feature values of the respective network features in the first network feature sequence, the first encoding vector for characterizing the service block (Wu [0095] In step 1103 checking the combination of resource consumption cost is less than the current minimum resource consumption cost, if less than the minimum resource consumption cost, then going to step the server/path combination set is currently the best choice, and the resource consumption cost is set as the current minimum resource consumption cost 1104, otherwise, skipping the combination. then the server/exists in the route set in one server/path combination in checking step 1105, if so, calculating the resource consumption cost same process according to 1102 to 1104, and setting the current minimal resource consumption cost and the current best server/path combination, until the available all server/path combination server/path in the set of all check is finished, at this time, clearing said usable server/path set, and setting the current best choice as the service request distributed by the server and path).
Regarding claim 6, Wu discloses the multi-path routing method oriented to supercomputing user experience quality according to claim 5, wherein the step of constructing, according to the feature values of the respective network features in the first network feature sequence, the first encoding vector for characterizing the service block (Wu, [0053-0054] each time load balancer 100 receives service request 410, from a client terminal 180, the load balancer calculates the optimal server/path combination of the service request based on a combination of bandwidth, delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost of all available paths to the server(s) hosting the service) comprises:
inputting the feature values of the respective network features in the first network feature sequence into a trained vector conversion model (CSPF routing algorithm) (Wu [0058] In step 600, the load balancer pre-computed set reaches the usable path of each server. In fig. 12, network topology information 1200 is collected, collecting metric information of link 1201, then using CSPF routing algorithm and the collected information as input, the algorithm calculates the optimal path among the set of usable paths to reach each server set 1202); and
acquiring the first encoding vector outputted by the trained vector conversion model, wherein the trained vector conversion model is acquired by training with a plurality of positive samples (usable path of each server set 1202) and a plurality of negative samples (un-usable path of each server set 1201) (Wu [0058] In step 600, the load balancer pre-computed set reaches the usable path of each server. FIG. 12, network topology information 1200 is collected, collecting metric information of link 1201, then using CSPF routing algorithm to reach a usable path of each server set 1202. Common metric acquired from all paths can be bandwidth, delay, route length, reliability, load, a communication cost. Using these metrics, a communication cost using each of the usable paths to the server(s) hosting the service is computed).
Regarding claim 7, Wu discloses a multi-path routing apparatus oriented to supercomputing user experience quality, comprising: a processor, and a memory storing computer-readable instructions; the computer-readable instructions are configured to be processed by the processor and cause the processor to (Wu [0051] discloses a processing server comprising a memory unit storing instruction that when executed that the server processor cause the server to):
The rest of the limitations of claim 7, are rejected with rational similar to that of claim 1.
Regarding claim 9, Wu discloses a computer device, comprising a memory, a processor and a computer program, wherein the computer program is stored in the memory and configured to run on the processor, wherein when the processor executes the computer program, a computer (server) is allowed to execute the multi-path routing method oriented to supercomputing user experience quality according to claim 1 (Wu, fig. 1A [0048] discloses s system which includes a load balancer 100, 101, switching node such as switch 110 to 116, and a server 120 to 125, where the server may be a physical server device. The server includes memory storing instructions that when executed by one or more CPU/processors in the server, performs certain functions).
Regarding claim 10, Wu discloses a non-transitory storage medium, configured to store an instruction therein, wherein when reading the instruction, a computer is allowed to execute the multi-path routing method oriented to supercomputing user experience quality according to claim 1(Wu, fig. 1A [0048] discloses s system which includes a load balancer 100, 101, switching node such as switch 110 to 116, and a server 120 to 125, where the server may be a physical server device. The server includes memory storing instructions that when executed by one or more CPU/processors in the server, performs certain functions).
Regarding claim(s) 12-15 the claim is/are rejected with rational similar to that of claim(s) 3 and,4-6, respectively.
Regarding claim(s) 17- 20 the claim(s) is/are rejected with rational similar to that of claim 3 and 4- 6, respectively.
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 DIXON F DABIPI whose telephone number is (571)270-3673. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christopher L Parry, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-8328. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/D.F.D/ Examiner, Art Unit 2451
/Chris Parry/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2451