DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-20 are pending for examination in instant application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/8/2024 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: claim 11 recites “routing mod”. In light of specification examiner will read it as “routing mode”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Interpretation
The independent claims 1, 8 and 9 are written in alternative form to which examiner need only to show one of a “first gateway handover mode”, “second gateway handover mode”, “third gateway handover mode” or “fourth gateway handover mode”.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 6-10 and 14-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Spitaels et al. (Pub. No.: US 2005/0245431 A1), hereinafter “Spi” in view of Kainuma et al. (JP 2014175771 A), hereinafter “Kai”.
As to claim 1. Spi discloses, a gateway handover method (Spi, Abstract), comprising:
monitoring a communication state of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) connected to a gateway to be monitored (Spi, [0017], the device further comprises a switch that allows a user to select at least one of a plurality of forwarding modes that may be implemented by the network communication device.);
in a case that a communication failure occurs in the ISP connected to the gateway to be monitored, selecting a repeater having a backup gateway function as a new gateway (Spi, [0031], the network device may select a forwarding mode based on attributes of the network that are detected or otherwise received by the network device. Also see [0012]); and
in response to a gateway handover operation, selecting a preset gateway handover mode for gateway handover (Spi, [0031], the network device may select a forwarding mode based on attributes of the network that are detected or otherwise received by the network device.);
wherein at least one gateway handover mode comprises at least one of a first gateway handover mode, a second gateway handover mode, a third gateway handover mode and a fourth gateway handover mode, the preset gateway handover mode is one of the at least one gateway handover mode (Spi, [0040], The network device may also include one or more buttons or switches that allow the user to select a particular configuration. Once the user selects a configuration, the network device may use operating parameters associated with the selected configuration.);
the first gateway handover mode comprises:
controlling the gateway to be monitored to restart and enter a relay mode, and controlling the new gateway to restart and enter a routing mode;
the second gateway handover mode comprises: in cases where a original data flow logic of an internal network is maintained unchanged, adding a process of controlling the gateway to be monitored to forward a traffic for accessing a external network to the new gateway for processing, and a process of controlling the new gateway to forward a traffic returned by the external network to the gateway to be monitored for processing;
the third gateway handover mode comprises:
controlling the gateway to be monitored to broadcast information about the new gateway for which information configuration has been completed, so that a client transmits the traffic for accessing the external network to the new gateway;
the fourth gateway handover mode comprises: changing a Intellectual Property(IP) of the gateway to be monitored and a IP of the new gateway, and turning on a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server of the new gateway while turning off a DHCP server of the gateway to be monitored.
Spi however is silent to disclose, the first gateway handover mode comprises:
controlling the gateway to be monitored to restart and enter a relay mode, and controlling the new gateway to restart and enter a routing mode.
Kai discloses a similar concept in the same field of endeavor, the first gateway handover mode comprises:
controlling the gateway to be monitored to restart and enter a relay mode, and controlling the new gateway to restart and enter a routing mode (Kai, page.2, lines 33-36, a wireless LAN router according to the present invention includes: a wireless slave device under its control as a wireless LAN access point; a wireless LAN router that is a request destination determined by the WAN-side control means as the transmission destination of the request message; Wireless relay means for transferring the frame interposed between the requester and the requester wireless LAN router in the infrastructure mode while the requester wireless LAN router establishes the alternative connection established by the requester.).
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art to incorporate the teachings of “Kai” into those of “Spi” to provide a technique for automatically setting a detour route using radio when a WAN (Wide Area Network) side line is not connected, and in particular, interconnects its own WAN side line and a wireless LAN (Local Area Network). The present invention relates to a detour route using a wireless LAN router.
As to claim 2. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the first gateway handover mode specifically comprises:
disconnecting the gateway to be monitored, the new gateway, and other repeaters in a networking from the client (Kai, page.2, lines 37-39, while the communication between the wireless LAN router that has been disconnected from the WAN-side line and the wireless slave unit is maintained in the infrastructure mode);
controlling the gateway to be monitored to restart and enter the relay mode, and controlling the new gateway to restart and enter the routing mode (Kai, page.2, lines 38-39, the disconnected wireless LAN router is externally connected. The wireless LAN router can be used as an alternative WAN side line.); and
establishing a connection of the gateway to be monitored, the new gateway and the other repeaters with the client (Kai, page.2, lines 40-43, when the alive monitoring means determines that the communication is established, the alternative destination holding means transmits a predetermined flag in a beacon to the outside by wireless broadcast and receives the flag from the outside In this case, the substitution destination holding unit stores the transmission source address of the flag as the wireless communication address, and the WAN side control unit acquires the wireless communication address stored in the substitution destination holding unit.).
As to claim 3. Claim 3 further limits an alternative of claim 1. Since Spi in view of Kai discloses a first gateway handover mode, all of the limitations of claim 3 have been met.
As to claim 4. Claim 4 further limits an alternative of claim 1. Since Spi in view of Kai discloses a first gateway handover mode, all of the limitations of claim 4 have been met.
As to claim 5. Claim 5 further limits an alternative of claim 1. Since Spi in view of Kai discloses a first gateway handover mode, all of the limitations of claim 5 have been met.
As to claim 6. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein in the case that the communication failure occurs in the ISP connected to the gateway to be monitored, selecting the repeater having the backup gateway function as the new gateway (Kai, page.2, lines 37-39, while the communication between the wireless LAN router that has been disconnected from the WAN-side line and the wireless slave unit is maintained in the infrastructure mode) comprises:
in the case that the communication failure occurs in the ISP connected to the gateway to be monitored, controlling the gateway to be monitored to transmit failure information to repeaters in a networking (Spi, [0060], fig.2, device 201 may include one or more indicators 206 that indicate to one or more users 208 the status and/or configuration of device 201.);
controlling the repeaters in the networking to detect a network connectivity thereof (Spi, [0060], Device 201 may also include one or more switches 207 that may be used to configure device 201. In particular, a user may be permitted to select a particular forwarding mode used by device 201.); and
selecting the repeater having the backup gateway function as the new gateway according to the network connectivity of the repeaters (Spi, [0064], a network may be indicated as "trusted" or not, and there may be a particular data forwarding mode that is associated with a trusted or non-trusted network (e.g., a routing mode for use on non-trusted networks and bridging mode for use on trusted networks).).
As to claim 7. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein the method further comprises: in a case that it is detected that the communication in the ISP connected to the gateway to be monitored is restored to be normal, restoring the internal network to an initial state (Kai, page.3, lines 1-3, When the alive monitoring means determines that communication is resumed, it is also preferable that the wireless relay means stop forwarding the frame and resume sending to its own WAN side line. The requesting wireless LAN router automatically functions as a router after the communication is resumed, so that it can be restored without bothering the user.).
As to claims 8 and 9 are rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 1 above.
As to claim 10. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, detecting running state of the gateway to be monitored by monitoring a DNS domain name resolution request transmitted by a user and a response returned by the ISP according to the DNS domain name resolution request, or monitoring web page download status of the user (Spi, [0065], The network device may receive each request and respond with a web page that prompts the user to select an operating mode. A user, through a user interface 204 downloaded from device 201 (e.g., an interface of a browser program), selects the operating mode, and the operating mode is used in the networking device.).
As to claim 12. Claim 12 further limits an alternative of claim 1. Since Spi in view of Kai discloses a first gateway handover mode, all of the limitations of claim 12 have been met.
As to claim 13. Claim 13 further limits an alternative of claim 1. Since Spi in view of Kai discloses a first gateway handover mode, all of the limitations of claim 13 have been met.
As to claim 14. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, in a case that it is detected that the communication in the ISP connected to the gateway to be monitored is restored to be normal, showing a pop-up window, so that a restoration manner is selected by a user (Spi, [0017], and wherein the processor is adapted to receive, from the user, a selection of the at least two forwarding modes for use by the network communication device.).
As to claim 15. Is rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 2 above.
As to claim 16. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, control the gateway to be monitored to transmit network configuration information to the new gateway (Spi, [0046]); and
control the new gateway to perform the information configuration according to the network configuration information, so that the new gateway forwards, according to a NAT rule, the traffic for accessing the external network to the external network, and forward, to the internal network, the traffic returned by the external network according to the NAT rule (Spi, [0047]-[0048], RFC 2131).
As to claim 17. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, control the gateway to be monitored to transmit network configuration information to the new gateway, so that the new gateway performs the information configuration according to the network configuration information (Spi, [0049]);
after the new gateway completes the information configuration, control the gateway to be monitored to broadcast a DHCP message, wherein the DHCP message comprises information about the new gateway (Spi, [0051]); and
control other repeaters and the client to update the network configuration information thereof according to the DHCP message, so that the client transmits the traffic for accessing the external network to the new gateway (Spi, [0053]).
As to claim 18. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, control the gateway to be monitored to transmit a client information list to the new gateway, wherein the client information list is lease information of the client (Spi, [0050]);
change an IP address of the gateway to be monitored and an IP address of the new gateway, close the DHCP server of the gateway to be monitored, and start the DHCP server of the new gateway (Spi, [0070]);
control the new gateway to broadcast the IP address which is new and a MAC address thereof (Spi, [0052]).
As to claim 19. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, in the case that the communication failure occurs in the ISP connected to the gateway to be monitored, control the gateway to be monitored to transmit failure information to repeaters in a networking (Spi, [0039]);
control the repeaters in the networking to detect a network connectivity thereof (Spi, [0039); and
select the repeater having the backup gateway function as the new gateway according to the network connectivity of the repeaters (Spi, [0040]).
As to claim 20. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above including, wherein when executing the computer program, cause the processor further to: in a case that it is detected that the communication in the ISP connected to the gateway to be monitored is restored to be normal, restore the internal network to an initial state (Kai, page.3, lines 1-3, When the alive monitoring means determines that communication is resumed, it is also preferable that the wireless relay means stop forwarding the frame and resume sending to its own WAN side line. The requesting wireless LAN router automatically functions as a router after the communication is resumed, so that it can be restored without bothering the user.).
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Spitaels et al. (Pub. No.: US 2005/0245431 A1), hereinafter “Spi” in view of Kainuma et al. (JP 2014175771 A), hereinafter “Kai” and further in view of Vedula et al. (Pub. No.: US 2017/0118067 A1), hereinafter “Ved”.
As to claim 11. The combined system of Spi and Kai discloses the invention as in parent claim above. Spi and Kai however are silent to explicitly disclose, wherein an initial state of the gateway to be monitored is a routing mod, an initial state of all repeaters is a relay mode.
Ved discloses a similar concept in the same field of endeavor, wherein an initial state of the gateway to be monitored is a routing mod, an initial state of all repeaters is a relay mode (Ved, fig.3, [0043], pool of router in routing mode and pool of routers in backup/relay mode. Also see table-1.).
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art to incorporate the teachings of “Ved” into those of “Spi and Kai” to provide an approach for an efficient, cost effective and reliable gateway redundancy protocol that maximizes reliability and quality of service, while minimizing transitions between operational gateways and redundant backup gateways.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see the attached PTO-892.
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/Tauqir Hussain/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2446