DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to an application filed 07/27/2023, wherein claims 1-11 and 13-20 are pending and ready for an examination.
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 03/08/2024, 08/07/2024 and 11/14/20224 was filed before the mailing date of the Non final action on 01/13/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1, 3-7, 9, 11, 13-16 and 18-20 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims1, 3-6, 8-9, 11-14, 16-17 and 19-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12086625 B2. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims are identical as can be seen from the table below.
Instant Application # 18360680
US Patent 12086625 B2
1, 9 and 16, a method, a computing device and a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:
communicatively coupling a first physical port of a network virtualization device (NVD) included in a datacenter to a first top-of-rack (TOR) switch and a second TOR switch;
communicatively coupling a second physical port of the NVD to a network interface card (NIC) associated with a host machine;
receiving, by the NVD, a packet from the host machine via the second physical port of the NVD;
determining, by the NVD, a particular TOR, from a group including the first TOR and the second TOR, for communicating the packet; and
transmitting, by the NVD, the packet to the particular TOR to facilitate communication of the packet to a destination host machine.
1, 9, and 17, a method, a computing device and a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:
communicatively coupling a first physical port of a network virtualization device (NVD) included in a datacenter to a first top-of-rack (TOR) switch and a second TOR switch;
communicatively coupling a second physical port of the NVD with a network interface card (NIC) associated with a host machine, the second physical port providing a first logical port and a second logical port for communications between the NVD and the NIC;
receiving, by the NVD, a packet from the host machine via the first logical port or the second logical port;
determining, by the NVD, a particular TOR, from a group including the first TOR and the second TOR, for communicating the packet; and
transmitting, by the NVD, the packet to the particular TOR to facilitate communication of the packet to a destination host machine.
3, 11, 18 and 20, the method and a computing device and a non-transitory computer readable medium of claims 1, 9 and 16, wherein the first physical port of the NVD is associated with a first IP address, a second IP address, a first MAC address, and a second MAC address.
3, 11 and 19, the method, a computing device and a non-transitory computer readable medium of claims 1, 9 and 17, wherein the first physical port of the NVD is associated with a first IP address, a second IP address, a first MAC address, and a second MAC address.
4 and 13, the method and a computing device of claims 1 and 9, wherein the second physical port of the NVD is associated with a first overlay IP address, and a first overlay MAC address.
4, 12 and 20, the method, a computing device and a non-transitory computer readable medium of claims 1, 9 and 17, wherein the second physical port of the NVD is associated with a first overlay IP address, a second overlay IP address, a first overlay MAC address, and a second overlay MAC address.
5 and 14, the method and a computing device of claims 1 and 9, wherein the destination host machine is a remote host machine included in a customer on-premises network.
5 and 13, the method and a computing device of claims 1 and 9, wherein the destination host machine is a remote host machine included in a customer on-premises network.
6, 15 and 19, the method, and a computing device and a non-transitory computer readable medium of claims 1, 9 and 16, wherein the host machine includes a plurality of virtual machines that are executed on the host machine, each of which is associated with a logical interface, and wherein the packet originates from a first virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines and is transmitted to the NVD via the logical interface associated with the first virtual machine.
6 and 14, the method and a computing device of claims 2 and 10, wherein the host machine includes a plurality of virtual machines, each of which is associated with a logical interface, and wherein the packet originating from the virtual machine is transmitted to the NVD via the logical interface associated with the virtual machine.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
executing by the NVD, a flow hashing operation to select one of the first TOR and the second TOR for communicating the packet to the destination host machine.
8 and 16, the method and the computing device of claims 1 and 9, further comprising: executing by the NVD, a flow hashing operation to select one of the first TOR and the second TOR for communicating the packet to the destination host machine.
Claim Objections
Claims 13-20 are objected to because of the following informalities: due to claim 12 is missing, claims 13-20 are objected because they are not properly numbered. The applicant is required to correct this deficiency by providing proper and consecutive numbering for all claims. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, fourth paragraph:
Subject to the following paragraph [i.e., the fifth paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112], a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends. Claims 18 and 20 recites the similar limitation and claim 20 must be amended to properly further limit the claim from which it depends. Claim 20 recites “The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first physical port of the NVD is associated with a first IP address, a second IP address, a first MAC address, and a second MAC address.” without introducing additional limitations or combining features to further limit the claims Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 6-7, 9-10, 15-17 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Power et al. (US 20200186460 A1), hereinafter “Power”.
With respect to claims 1, 9 and 16, Power discloses a method, a computing device comprising: a processor (¶0022); and a memory including instructions that, when executed with the processor (¶0022), cause the computing device to, at least, a non-transitory computer readable medium storing specific computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor (¶0022 and ¶0176), cause a computer system to perform operations comprising:
communicatively coupling a first physical port of a network virtualization device (NVD) included in a datacenter to a first top-of-rack (TOR) switch and a second TOR switch (Fig. 2, ¶0022, ¶0069, teaches, 8 lane Xpoint as coupling a first physical port and QSFP as NVD…FIG. 1 illustrates a data center 100 that configured to provide computing resources to users 100 a, 100 b, or 100 c (which may be referred herein singularly as “a user 100” or in the plural as “the users 100”… operation 701 illustrates communicatively coupling a plurality of servers to at least two top of rack (TOR) switches, wherein fig.2 teaches Tier-0 TOR shown on the left as first TOR and Tier-0 TOR on the right side as second TOR);
communicatively coupling a second physical port of the NVD to a network interface card (NIC) associated with a host machine (Fig. 2, ¶0055, teaches the link between FPGA and QSFP as second physical port, and FPGA and Ethernet controller as network interface…CPU as host machine… the server may be configured to only send/receive on one of its QSFP's dual physical interfaces at a time);
receiving, by the NVD, a packet from the host machine via the second physical port of the NVD (Fig. 2, ¶0038-¶0039 , teaches the CPU (i.e. host machine), link between FPGA and QSFP (i.e. second physical port) and QSFP (i.e. NVD)… routes to a particular server may be consolidated into a single 2-member equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) group. One ECMP member is a device port that connects to the Normal (active) Tier-0. The other ECMP member is a device port that connects to that server's Protect (backup or passive) Tier-0 …traffic (i.e. packet) redirection mechanism is to create an ECMP group with only one member. This 1-way ECMP serves as a common path for all traffic destined to a particular server);
determining, by the NVD, a particular TOR, from a group including the first TOR and the second TOR, for communicating the packet (¶0018 and ¶0036, teaches this PHY may provide a cross-point switch capability that can rearrange traffic at OSI model Layer 1 (physical layer). These PHY devices may be used in a networking chassis to rearrange traffic around extracted or failing card slots. In an embodiment, the PHY devices can be repurposed to operate inside a server's Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable (QSFP)-based DAC cable to rearrange traffic across two different ToR network elements…The server may initiate a fail-over to the alternate path when the currently-active path link degrades below tolerance. On a per-server basis, the active ToR may initiate a fail-over to divert traffic to the standby ToR port if the signal from the server degrades below a predetermined threshold. If the active ToR determines that a reset or power upset is imminent, then it may switch all servers away to the peer ToR); and
transmitting, by the NVD, the packet to the particular TOR to facilitate communication of the packet to a destination host machine (¶0039, teaches traffic (i.e. packet) redirection mechanism is to create an ECMP group with only one member. This 1-way ECMP serves as a common path for all traffic destined to a particular server).
With respect to claims 2, 10 and 17, Power discloses the method, the computing device and the non-transitory computer readable medium of claims 1, 9 and 16, wherein the first TOR is different than the second TOR, and wherein the first TOR and the second TOR are included in a rack of the datacenter (Power, Fig. 1 and Fig.2 and ¶0047, teaches a rack may support a random mix of servers selecting between the alternative and the normal ToR…Tier-0 TOR shown on the left as first TOR and Tier-0 TOR on the right side as second TOR…The two Tier-0s that support a rack of servers may have a mix of active/standby state on a per-server basis).
With respect to claims 6, 15 and 19, Power discloses the method, the computing device and the non-transitory computer readable medium of claims 1, 9 and 16, wherein the host machine includes a plurality of virtual machines that are executed on the host machine, each of which is associated with a logical interface, and wherein the packet originates from a first virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines and is transmitted to the NVD via the logical interface associated with the first virtual machine (Power, ¶0002, teaches each server may host a number of virtual machines and other resources, ¶0023, teaches Data center 100 may include servers 116 a, 116 b, and 116 c (which may be referred to herein singularly as “a server 116” or in the plural as “the servers 116”) that provide computing resources available as virtual machines 118 a and 118 b (which may be referred to herein singularly as “a virtual machine 118” or in the plural as “the virtual machines 118”), ¶0055, teaches the server may be configured to only send/receive on one of its QSFP's dual physical interfaces (i.e. logical interface) at a time. Traffic that is shunted to the new path (to work around a failure) may be discarded at the Server/ToR interface until the new interface Links-Up).
With respect to claim 7, Power discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising:
executing by the NVD, a flow hashing operation to select one of the first TOR and the second TOR for communicating the packet to the destination host machine (Power, ¶0034, teaches a rack may support a random mix of servers selecting between the alternative and the normal ToR, ¶0038, teaches routes to a particular server may be consolidated into a single 2-member equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) group. One ECMP member is a device port that connects to the Normal (active) Tier-0. The other ECMP (i.e. flow hashing operation) member is a device port that connects to that server's Protect (backup or passive) Tier-0. The ECMP setup may automatically divert traffic to the Protect Tier-0 if the Normal Tier-0 fails).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 3-5, 11, 13-14, 8 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Power in view of Brar et al. (US 2021/0377166 A1), hereinafter “Brar”.
With respect to claims 3, 11 and 18, Power discloses the method, the computing device and the non-transitory computer readable medium of claims 1, 9 and 16. However, Power remain silent on wherein the first physical port of the NVD is associated with a first IP address, a second IP address, a first MAC address, and a second MAC address.
Brar discloses wherein the first physical port of the NVD is associated with a first IP address, a second IP address, a first MAC address, and a second MAC address (¶0116, teaches an NVD may comprise multiple physical ports that enable it to be connected to one or more host machines and to one or more TOR switches, ¶0149, teaches while L3 works with IP addresses (i.e. first and second IP addresses), L2 works with MAC addresses (i.e. first and second MAC addresses). MAC addresses are unique identifiers for the network adapter present in each device. IP addresses are a layer of abstraction higher than MAC addresses).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Power’s system with the first physical port of the NVD is associated with a first IP address, a second IP address, a first MAC address, and a second MAC address of Brar, in order to provide redundant paths in case of link failure (Brar, ¶0035).
With respect to claims 4 and 13, Power discloses the method and the computing device of claims 1 and 9. However, Power remain silent on wherein the second physical port of the NVD is associated with a first overlay IP address, and a first overlay MAC address.
Brar disclose wherein the second physical port of the NVD is associated with a first overlay IP address, and a first overlay MAC address (¶0074, teaches in FIG. 1, a compute instance C1 is part of Subnet-1 via a VNIC associated with the compute instance. Likewise, compute instance C2 is part of Subnet-1 via a VNIC associated with C2. In a similar manner, multiple compute instances, which may be virtual machine instances or bare metal instances, may be part of Subnet-1. Via its associated VNIC, each compute instance is assigned a private overlay IP address and a MAC address. For example, in FIG. 1, compute instance C1 has an overlay IP address of 10.0.0.2 and a MAC address of M1 (i.e. first overlay IP address and first overlay Mac address), while compute instance C2 has an private overlay IP address of 10.0.0.3 and a MAC address of M2. Each compute instance in Subnet-1, ¶0116, teaches an NVD may comprise multiple physical ports that enable it to be connected to one or more host machines and to one or more TOR switches).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Power’s system with the second physical port of the NVD is associated with a first overlay IP address, and a first overlay MAC address of Brar, in order to identify and forward overlay traffic that enters or leaves through that port (Brar, ¶0117).
With respect to claims 5 and 14, Power discloses the method and the computing device of claims 1 and 9. However, Power remain silent on wherein the destination host machine is a remote host machine included in a customer on-premises network.
Brar discloses wherein the destination host machine is a remote host machine included in a customer on-premises network (¶0082, teaches a Dynamic Routing Gateway (DRG) 122 may be added to or be associated with customer VCN 104 and provides a path for private network traffic communication between customer VCN 104 and another endpoint, where the another endpoint (i.e. remote host machine) can be the customer's on-premise network 116, a VCN 108 in a different region of CSPI 101, or other remote cloud networks 118 not hosted by CSPI 101. Customer on-premise network 116 may be a customer network or a customer data center built using the customer's resources. Access to customer on-premise network 116 is generally very restricted. For a customer that has both a customer on-premise network 116 and one or more VCNs 104 deployed or hosted in the cloud by CSPI 101, the customer may want their on-premise network 116 and their cloud-based VCN 104 to be able to communicate with each other, see ¶0127 and ¶0129).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Power’s system with the destination host machine is a remote host machine included in a customer on-premises network of Brar, in order to forward to a next hop that facilitates communication of the packet to its intended destination endpoint and the destination must be remote to justify the use of the overlay tunnel (Brar, ¶0129).
With respect to claim 8, Power discloses the method of claim 1. However, Power remain silent on wherein the NIC associated with the host machine has a single overlay IP address, and a first packet transmitted by the destination host machine and intended for the NIC associated with the host machine included in the datacenter is reachable via the first TOR and/or the second TOR.
Brar discloses wherein the NIC associated with the host machine has a single overlay IP address, and a first packet transmitted by the destination host machine and intended for the NIC associated with the host machine included in the datacenter is reachable via the first TOR and/or the second TOR (Brar, ¶0061, teaches this private overlay IP address is assigned to the VNIC that is associated with the compute instance when the compute instance is created and used for routing traffic to and from the compute instance, ¶0111, teaches two separate physical network paths to and from physical switch network 318 to host machine 302: a first path traversing TOR switch 314 to NVD 310 to host machine 302, and a second path traversing TOR switch 316 to NVD 312 to host machine 302. The separate paths provide for enhanced availability (referred to as high availability) of host machine 302. If there are problems in one of the paths (e.g., a link in one of the paths goes down) or devices (e.g., a particular NVD is not functioning), then the other path may be used for communications to/from host machine 302, ¶0116, teaches a smartNIC as shown in FIG. 2, an NVD may comprise multiple physical ports that enable it to be connected to one or more host machines and to one or more TOR switches, ¶0182, teaches the first NVD determines that the first frame is to be transmitted via all ports of the network interface card based on the second MAC address).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Power’s system with wherein the NIC associated with the host machine has a single overlay IP address, and a first packet transmitted by the destination host machine and intended for the NIC associated with the host machine included in the datacenter is reachable via the first TOR and/or the second TOR of Brar, in order to improve fault tolerance and availability and avoid traffic loss when a TOR or link fails (Brar, ¶0051 and ¶0152).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US20220206908A1 teaches a Network Virtualization Device (NVD) executes a set of Virtual Network Interface Cards (VNICs). The set of VNICs includes a first VNIC that forwards packets for a set of one or more packet flows. The NVD stores a first VNIC-related information that includes information identifying a first set of one or more packet flows and associated state information The NVD in response to determining that the state information for the first VNIC is to be synchronized with another NVD, identifies a first backup NVD for the first VNIC, wherein the first backup NVD is a backup for the first VNIC, and communicates to the first backup NVD, a portion of the state information stored by the NVD for the first VNIC.
US20190014049A1 teaches network traffic is monitored. Available bandwidth of a switch is determined using the network traffic. A host that is connected to a port of the switch is assigned to a workload domain based on the available bandwidth of the switch and expected bandwidth for the workload domain.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GOLAM MAHMUD whose telephone number is (571)270-0385. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8.00-5.00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Umar Cheema can be reached at 5712703037. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GOLAM MAHMUD/ Examiner, Art Unit 2458