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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang CN107800814 herein Huang in view of Wu et al. CN112165432 herein Wu.
Per claim 1, Huang discloses: allocating, a network address for a guest virtual machine (VM) of the computing device, wherein the network address is externally accessible from an external network coupled to the computing device; (¶0045-47; The step S110 may include: responding to the virtual creation request information, querying a floating IP address list; and selecting a currently available floating IP address whose use status is unused from the floating IP address list."; see also D4 for a definition of "floating IP address) receiving, from the guest VM, an indication that the guest VM is using the network address, wherein the network address as used by the guest VM matches the network address as exposed by the host operating system on the external network; (¶0078-80; After the binding of the target IP address and the created virtual machine, the use status of the target IP address in the floating IP address is changed to used) receiving, from the external network, a network transmission directed to the network address; and responsive to the indication that the guest VM is using the network address, transferring, by a processing device, the network transmission to the guest VM(¶0078-80; After the binding of the target IP address and the created virtual machine, the use status of the target IP address in the floating IP address is changed to used; the examiner notes that the floating IP address by definition is dynamically allocated between the primary and a guest VM based on availability to ensure continuation of traffic).
Huang does not specifically disclose: allocating, by a host operating system of a computing device.
However, Wu discloses: allocating, by a host operating system of a computing device (¶0002; Generally, if an external PC wants to access the virtual machine created in the OpenStack host, you need to bind a floating IP address (that is, an external IP address) to the virtual machine, so that the external can communicate with the bound floating IP address to access the virtual machine, as shown in Figure 1." The host operating system runs openstack to assign floating IP addresses to the multiple virtual machines).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Huang and Wu’s virtual machine creation to save floating point IP addresses (Abstract).
Per claim 2, Huang discloses: sending, by the host operating system, a list of a plurality of free addresses to the guest VM, the list of the plurality of free addresses comprising the network address (¶0045-47; The step S110 may include: responding to the virtual creation request information, querying a floating IP address list; and selecting a currently available floating IP address whose use status is unused from the floating IP address list."; see also D4 for a definition of "floating IP address.).
Per claim 3, Huang discloses: receiving an indication that the guest VM is no longer utilizing the network address; receiving, from the external network, a second network transmission directed to the network address; and responsive to the indication that the guest VM is no longer utilizing the network address, discarding, by the processing device, the second network transmission (¶0078;use status field, which is used to indicate whether the corresponding floating IP address is in a used state or an unused state…. ¶0098; The update unit here can also correspond to the processor or processing circuit, and can be used to update the floating IP address list stored in the storage medium in the virtual machine deployment device, so that the correctness of the floating IP address status determined by the virtual).
Per claim 4, Huang discloses: allocating, by the host operating system, a plurality of network addresses to the guest VM, the plurality of network addresses comprising the network address, each of the plurality of network addresses configured to be externally accessible from an external network coupled to the computing device; and sending, by the host operating system, the plurality of network addresses to the guest VM (¶0045-47; The step S110 may include: responding to the virtual creation request information, querying a floating IP address list; and selecting a currently available floating IP address whose use status is unused from the floating IP address list."; see also D4 for a definition of "floating IP address; the examiner notes that the claim merely requires that the plurality of network addresses are allocated to the VM via the floating IP. Therefor at any given time the floating IP is allocated to an address of the plurality of address corresponding to a guest VM.).
Per claim 5, Huang discloses: wherein the plurality of network addresses is a first plurality of network addresses, and wherein the method further comprises: receiving a request from the guest VM for additional network addresses; allocating, by the host operating system, a second plurality of network addresses to the guest VM, each of the second plurality of network addresses configured to be externally accessible from an external network coupled to the computing device; and sending, by the host operating system, the second plurality of network addresses to the guest VM (¶0045-48; The step S110 may include: responding to the virtual creation request information, querying a floating IP address list; and selecting a currently available floating IP address whose use status is unused from the floating IP address list."; see also D4 for a definition of "floating IP address; the examiner notes that the claim merely requires that the plurality of network addresses are allocated to the VM via the floating IP. Therefor at any given time the floating IP is allocated to an address of the plurality of address corresponding to a guest VM.).
Per claim 6, Huang discloses: comparing a number of network addresses allocated to the guest VM to an address threshold, wherein the allocating, by the host operating system, the second plurality of network addresses to the guest VM is performed in response to determining that the number of network addresses allocated to the guest VM does not exceed the address threshold (¶0057-59; selecting the target IP address based on at least one of the network load rate, available transmission rate, the ration of the number of configured virtual machines to the number of configurable virtual machines, and application service attributes. Selecting a currently available floating IP address in the physical network with the lowest load rate as the target IP.).
Per claim 7, Huang discloses: wherein the network address comprises a port number, and wherein the port number as utilized by the guest VM matches the port number as exposed by the host operating system on the external network (¶0045-48; The step S110 may include: responding to the virtual creation request information, querying a floating IP address list; and selecting a currently available floating IP address whose use status is unused from the floating IP address list."; see also D4 for a definition of "floating IP address; the examiner notes that port numbers are known in the .).
Huang does not specifically disclose: a port number for the guest VM.
However, WU discloses: a port number for the guest VM (¶0025; establishing a mapping relationship between the OpenStack host iptables DNAT port and the ports of the multiple OpenStack virtual machines created by the OpenStack host).
Claims 8-14 are the system claims corresponding to the method claims method and are rejected under the same reasons set forth in connection with the rejection of claims 1-7.
Claims 15-20 are the CRM claims corresponding to the method claims method and are rejected under the same reasons set forth in connection with the rejection of claims 1-7.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/10/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The applicant argues: Huang does not specify which entity sets the use status of the target IP address in the floating IP address. Contrary to the claim requirement that the indication be received "from the guest VM," Huang in fact teaches that the setting of the use status of the target IP address is performed by a "virtual machine deployment device." Specifically, Huang teaches:
"In this embodiment, the virtual machine deployment device maintains a list of floating IP addresses. The list of floating IP addresses includes at least floating IP addresses, and optionally, the list of floating IP addresses also includes a use state field, and the use state field is used to indicate whether the corresponding floating IP address is in use or unused. Therefore, the determining unit 110 can go to the list of floating IP addresses and read the unused currently available floating IP addresses" (emphasis added). Huang, [0096].
In these teachings, Huang discloses that the "use state" (or "use status" depending on translation) is a field associated with a floating IP address in a list that is maintained by the virtual machine deployment device. In other words, Huang expressly teaches that it is the "virtual machine deployment device," rather than a virtual machine itself, that sets the use status to be "used." Because Huang is silent about any involvement of a virtual machine in the setting of the use state field of a floating IP address, Huang fails to teach or suggest the claim features at issue, which require an indication be received "from the guest VM" to indicate the use of the network address.
The examiner respectfully disagrees and asserts that claim merely requires an indication of use by the guest VM. The indication in the claim is broadly recited and is qualified by binding and use of the address thus transferring transmission to the guest VM. Therefore, Huang’s teaching of a virtual creation request, selecting and binding the floating IP address clearly meet the claim requirements set forth by the claim.
Remark
Examiner respectfully requests, in response to this Office action, support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line number(s) in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist Examiner in prosecuting the application.
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 BABOUCARR FAAL whose telephone number is (571)270-5073. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:30 EST.
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BABOUCARR . FAAL
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2138
/BABOUCARR FAAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2138