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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 9th August 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
========== ========== ==========
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)(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.
Claims 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 16, 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nagata et al (US 8,185,616 B2).
Claim 1 (similarly Claims 7 and 8). Nagata shows a band calculation device (fig. 1: network management device 10) comprising a processor (fig. 1: control unit 14) configured to execute operations comprising: receiving an input of topology information associated with a relay network, path information associated with the relay network, and traffic information associated with the relay network (col. 10 lines 2-8: inputting the bandwidth information of the access link serving as the link for establishing the connection of the individual user site 100 to the relay node N and the user information such as a piece of information indicating the relay node to which the user site is connected via the access link, etc.), wherein the relay network includes the nodes and the links, the links connect the nodes, the relay network relays data transmitted and received between a plurality of communication bases (col. 10 lines 13-17: the topology acquisition unit acquires the topology information of the network across which the communications between the user sites are relayed, from the topology information database in the storage unit), the topology information indicates ports of nodes as a part of a relay network, connection destination ports of the ports, and links connecting the ports, and the connection destination ports (col. 10 lines 19-23: in the network management device 10, the route designing unit obtains the communication relay ports and the communication non-relay ports on the basis of the user information and the topology information, and also obtains upper limits of the communication relay ports), the path information indicates primary paths that relay the data when a failure does not occur, paths including backup paths that relay the data when the failure occurs in the primary path, and via transmission ports that are the ports for transmitting the data in the paths (col. 10 lines 27-38: the network management device 10 outputs (transmits), based on a result of the route design, the setting information containing the information showing the communication relay ports and the communication non-relay ports with respect to the respective relay nodes N and the information showing the upper limits of the communication bands of the communication relay ports to the respective relay nodes N… each of the relay devices that have received the setting information updates, based on the setting information, the VLANID-to-queue mapping table and the queue transfer rate table of each port, and makes the setting to relay the user traffic along the route; col. 10 lines 60-63: a port 1 is capable of transferring a frame having the VLANID “A” with respect to the node 1 and an output rate (a communication band) thereof is 20 Mbps at the maximum), and, the traffic information indicates the port and traffic statistic value of the port, respectively (col. 10 line 56 – col. 11 line 2: it is assumed that A is a VLANID allocated to the user information containing the information and that the result of having made the route design based on the user information… a port 1 is capable of transferring a frame having the VLANID “A” with respect to the node 1 and an output rate (a communication band) thereof is 20 Mbps at the maximum… if an Ether frame having a frame tag that defines the VLANID “A” is reached at a speed (e.g. 25 Mbps) exceeding 20 Mbps from the user site 100, the node 1 discards extra 5 Mbps in the output queue of the output port 1… though there is none of the description about the port 2 of the node 1, that the frame having the VLANID “A” is untransferable to the port 2); and calculating a band of a link of the relay network on the basis of the topology information, the path information, and the traffic information (col. 13 line 67 – col. 14 line 2: the route designing unit calculates totally six patterns of shortest route trees on the basis of the topology information).
Claim 2 (similarly claims 13 and 18). Nagata shows the band calculation device according to claim 1, wherein the calculating further comprises: calculating a primary band that is a traffic volume of information transmitted by the via transmission port of the primary path when the failure does not occur based on the path information and the traffic information (col. 12 line 22-36: the triangles 101 through 103 represent the user sites, and the squares N1 through N3 denote the relay nodes N assigned by way of the route along which this user traffic (VLAN) is forwarded within the relay network… it is presumed that the site 101 subscribes 50 M as an access link band, the site 102 subscribes 20 M, and the site 103 subscribes 20 M. Herein, the port for relaying the traffic via a link 1-3 and a link 2-3 is a bandwidth allocating target… the state of the processing flag as employed in the algorithm is expressed by putting a mark “X” on the relay node and the processing flag is set to 1 in the relay nodes N with the mark “X,” while the processing flag is set to 0 in the nodes with none of the mark “X”), calculating a backup band that is a traffic volume of information transmitted by the via transmission port of a backup path having a transmission side port of the primary path as a via transmission port when the failure occurs (col. 12 lines 37-39: there are selected the relay nodes with the processing flag being 0 and having a minimum number of relay links where the bands are not yet set), and calculating a band of the link based on the primary band and the backup band (col. 12 lines 41-47: if there are a plurality of candidates, one of them is selected in the sequence from the smallest in ID value), 50 M as the total sum of the bands of other links is set in the link 1-3, and the processing flag of the relay node N1 is set to 1… then, there are still the nodes with the processing flag being 0).
Claim 5 (similarly claim 16). Nagata shows the band calculation device according to claim 1, wherein when the relay network relays data transmitted and received between three or more communication bases (fig, 1: base points 100), the calculating further comprises: calculating a band candidate of the port for each transmission of the data between the two communication bases on the basis of the path information of each combination of two communication bases (col. 17 lines 36-46: for extracting the relay nodes N possible of becoming the site accommodation nodes the operator may manually input the nodes possible of becoming the site accommodation nodes into the acquired topology information, and the nodes that have already accommodated other user sites are designated by identifying and automatically inputting them, whereby there may be retained the topology information with an addition of an element (a candidate for the site accommodation node) that is possible or impossible of becoming the site accommodation node when accepting the user information), calculating a total band candidate of the port on the basis of a band candidate of the port calculated for each transmission of the data between the two communication bases (col. 12 lines 37-51: total sum of the bands in relay nodes), and calculating a band of the link on the basis of the total band candidate (see above).
Claim 6 (similarly claim 17). Nagata shows the band calculation device according to claim 1, the processor further configured to execute operations comprising: dividing virtually the relay network into sub-networks (col. 5 lines 9-14: the route designing unit, if the network is managed in a way that divides the network into sub-domains, carries out the route design after excluding, from the design object, nodes belonging to the sub-domains including none of the relay nodes connecting to the user sites via the access link and also all the links connected thereto), wherein each subnetwork includes a node group having a plurality of nodes configured redundantly with each other and another node group having a plurality of nodes directly connected from the nodes included in the node group and configured redundantly with each other (col. 19 lines 1-8: the relay network might be dealt with in a way that hierarchizes the network… the nodes surrounded with a dotted line is dealt with as one sub-domain wherein the relay nodes N1, N4 are defined as a sub-domain 1, the relay node N2 is defined as a sub-domain 2, the relay nodes N3, N6 are defined as a sub-domain 3, and the relay nodes N5, N7, N8 are defined as a sub-domain 4), wherein the calculating further comprises: calculating a sub-link band that is a band of the link for each of the sub-networks, and calculating a band of the link of the relay network on the basis of the sub-link bands (col. 19 lines 28-31: there may be created a table in which belonging sub-domain IDs and site accommodation candidates, which are contained in the topology information, are associated with each other).
========== ========== ==========
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 19 and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
---------- ---------- ----------
Conclusion
The prior art made of record is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
1. Oyman et al, US 2021/0006614 A1: a method for adaptive streaming mechanisms for distribution of point cloud content wherein the point cloud content may include immersive media content in a dynamic adaptive streaming over hypertext transfer protocol (DASH) format.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Xavier Szewai Wong whose telephone number is 571.270.1780. The examiner can normally be reached on 11:30 am - 8:30 pm Mon to Fri.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached on 571.270.1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/XAVIER S WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415 5th September 2025