Detailed Action
1. This Office Action is responsive to the Amendment filed 01/21/2026. Claims 1, 5, 11-12, 14, 29 and 31 have been amended. Claims 10, 15-28, 30 and 33-34 have been cancelled. Claims 1-9, 11-14, 29 and 31-32 are presented for examination. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
3. Claims 1-9, 11-14, 29 and 31-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoshiuchi et al. (US 2013/0010621 A1), in view of Zhang et al. (US hereinafter “Yoshiuchi” and “Zhang” correspondingly.
4. As to claim 1, Yoshiuchi teaches a network path determining method, applied to a router, and comprising:
receiving, by a router, a data transmission request, wherein the data transmission request comprising a destination address (i.e., headers [of data format 602 received by the terminal side gateway 2] are arranged in order of the outermost layer which is a MAC layer and a PHY layer header, e.g., an 802.15.4 header [which inherently includes a source address, a destination address], as in Fig. 8) and delay information, and the delay information indicating a delay duration allowed by the data transmission request (i.e., after receiving the data, data delay header is first detected … and an afterward extended payload bit stores a new delay time/threshold) (Yoshiuchi, [0104] and [0110]);
selecting, by the router based on the destination address and the delay information, a data transmission path for reaching the destination address and with a time delay less than or equal to the delay duration (i.e., when the data is received by the terminal side gateway, the delay threshold demanded by the data and the delay threshold in the stored initial routing table are compared, and if the delay request is satisfied, a corresponding routing table is directly used, and if not, a request containing the [delay] threshold is sent to the control apparatus to obtain a new routing table… After the comparison, any route exceeding the [delay] threshold request is deleted from the routing table, and the routes satisfying the request are held. If the number of routes at this time is 1, the route priority serial number of the route is set to 1, and the route information is sent to the terminal side gateway, i.e., the route is selected as the transmission path to the main gateway 7) (Yoshiuchi, [0100] and [0113]); and
sending the data transmission path to a user equipment (UE) that initiates the data transmission request (i.e., After receiving the gateway routing tables, the terminal side gateway 2 stores them in its memory. Then, the terminal network side is updated [with the routing tables, i.e., the data transmission path]) (i.e., (Yoshiuchi, [0119-0121]).
Yoshiuchi does not explicitly teach “the data transmission path is carried in an information packet to be sent by the UE”.
In an analogous art, Zhang teaches “the data transmission path is carried in an information packet to be sent by the UE” (i.e., information related to the user data transmission path is transmitted (in the form of data packets during transmission) from the source transmission node to the destination reception node and includes at least the following information: identification information of the path such as path ID, the identification information and/or address information of the nodes by which the data passes sequentially, when the data is transmitted in the path) (Zang, [0121-0123]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Zhang, into Yoshiuchi’s to achieve “the data transmission path is carried in an information packet to be sent by the UE” to enable the source transmission node to indicate/update the optimal transmission path to all the nodes by which the data passes sequentially, when the data is transmitted via the path to the destination reception node.
5. As to claim 2, Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the data transmission path comprises an address of at least one router passed through for reaching the destination address (i.e., the optimum data transmission route from the terminal side gateway 2 to the main gateway 7 comprises an address of at least one transfer gateway 3-6) (Yoshiuchi, Fig. 1, [0056-0057]).
6. As to claim 3, Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the data transmission request further comprises a source address (i.e., headers [of data format 602 received by the terminal side gateway 2 from the terminal 1] are arranged in order of the outermost layer which is a MAC layer and a PHY layer header, e.g., an 802.15.4 header [which inherently includes a source address, a destination address] and followed by a 1 byte of delay header containing a demanded delay threshold, as shown in the lower half of Fig. 8); and selecting the data transmission path comprises: selecting, based on the source address, the destination address and the delay information, the data transmission path for reaching the destination address from the source address (i.e., …After the comparison, any route exceeding the [delay] threshold request is deleted from the routing table, and the routes satisfying the request are held. If the number of routes at this time is 1, the route priority serial number of the route is set to 1, and the route information is sent to the terminal side gateway, i.e., the route is selected as the transmission path to the main gateway 7) (Yoshiuchi, [0100] and [0113]).
7. As to claim 4, Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 3, wherein the data transmission path comprises an address of at least one router passed through for reaching the destination address from the source address (i.e., the optimum data transmission route from the terminal side gateway 2 to the main gateway 7 comprises an address of at least one transfer gateway 3-6) (Yoshiuchi, Fig. 1, [0056-0057]).
8. As to claim 5. Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 2, wherein the time delay comprises: a processing delay, indicating a duration of data processing performed by the at least one router; and a transmission delay, indicating at least one of: a duration of reaching a first-hop router from a sender user equipment (UE), a duration of reaching a next-hop router from a previous-hop router, and a duration of reaching a receiver UE from a last-hop router (Yoshiuchi, Tables 3, 5-7 and [0133-0147]).
9. As to claim 6, Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 5, wherein selecting the data transmission path comprises: determining the transmission delay based on the delay duration and the processing delay; and determining the data transmission path based on the transmission delay and network topology information (Yoshiuchi, Tables 3, 5-7 and corresponding paragraphs [0133-0147]).
10. As to claim 7, Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 6, further comprising: generating the network topology information based on network information of the router and routing information of the router (gateway 2-6) (Yoshiuchi, [0141-0147]).
11. As to claim 8, Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 7, wherein the network information comprises at least one of: an address of a device connected to the router; or a transmission delay for reaching a device connected to the router; wherein the device comprises at least one of: the sender UE, the receiver UE and another router in a network where the router is located (i.e., Tables 6-7) (Yoshiuchi, [0141-0147]).
12. As to claim 9, Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 7, wherein the routing information comprises one of: a transmission delay between any two routers in a network where the router is located; or a processing delay of any one router in a network where the router is located (i.e., Table 5 shows data delay due to waiting to be processed at a gateway) (Yoshiuchi, [0141-0147]).
13. As to claims 11-14, claims 11-14 are method claims that recite similar limitations as of method claims 1-3 and 5 and do not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
14. As to claim 29, claim 29 is a corresponding communication device claim that recites similar limitations as of method claim 1 and does not contain any additional limitations with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale.
15. As to claim 31, Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 4, wherein the time delay comprises: a processing delay, indicating a duration of data processing performed by the at least one router; and a transmission delay, indicating at least one of: a duration of reaching a first-hop router from a sender user equipment (UE), a duration of reaching a next-hop router from a previous-hop router, and a duration of reaching a receiver UE from a last-hop router (Yoshiuchi, Tables 3, 5-7 and [0133-0147]).
16. As to claim 32, Yoshiuchi-Zhang teaches the method according to claim 8, wherein the routing information comprises one of: a transmission delay between any two routers in a network where the router is located; or a processing delay of any one router in a network where the router (i.e., terminal side gateway 2) is located (i.e., Table 5 shows data delay due to waiting to be processed at a gateway 3-6) (Yoshiuchi, [0141-0147]).
Response to Arguments
17. In the Remarks, Applicant argued in substance that
(A) “The cited paragraphs [0143]-[0147] of Yoshiuchi do not disclose these limitations. At most, Yoshiuchi discloses, in paragraph [0143], that the terminal side gateway 2 receives the gateway routing table (from control apparatus 8) and stores it in its memory. Yoshiuchi does not disclose sending any “data transmission path” to the terminal 1.” (see page 8 of the Remarks).
As to point (A), Examiner respectfully disagrees noting that, in paragraph [0143], Yoshiuchi does teach “After receiving the gateway routing table, the terminal side gateway 2 stores it in its memory. It updates the terminal side network [wherein the terminal 1 is a network entity of the terminal side network]” ([0143] and [0121]). Hence, Yoshiuchi does teach “sending a data transmission path to the terminal 1”, as claimed in the amended claim 1.
Conclusion
18. Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
19. Further references of interest are cited on Form PTO-892, which is an attachment to this Office Action.
20. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUANG N NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-3886.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, KAMAL B. DIVECHA, can be reached at (571) 272-5863. The fax phone number for the organization is (571) 273-8300.
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/QUANG N NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2441