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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
1. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/10/2025 has been considered by Examiner and made of record in the application file.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
2. 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.
3. Claims 1 and 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ray Partha Pratim et al. (“SDN/NFV architectures for edge-cloud oriented IoT: A systematic review", Computer Communications, Elsevier Science Publishers BV, Vol. 169, 28 January 2021, pages 129-153; hereinafter, “Partha”, provided by the Applicant’s IDS filed on 09/10/2025).
Consider claim 1, Partha teaches a distributed, disrupted, disconnected and denied D4 enabled satellite configured for D4 operations in a mesh network of D4 enabled satellites, the D4 enabled satellite comprising: virtual network functions (VNFs) (Fig. 16, page 143, Section 8.3. Hybrid satellite-cellular architecture); a network virtual function orchestrator (NFVO) (Fig. 16, page 143, Section 8.3. Hybrid satellite-cellular architecture); and a software defined network (SDN) controller configured for secure VNF-VNF or VNF-ground communications (Fig. 16, page 143, Section 8.3. Hybrid satellite-cellular architecture).
Consider claim 5, Partha further teaches wherein identifying the parent controller includes the SDN controller receiving respective communications from controllers that are active controllers, known seed controllers, and are unknown to the satellite (page 144, Section 9.5. Community network management).
Consider claim 6, Partha further teaches wherein identifying the parent controller includes updating a list of active peers and lapsed peers based on the received respective communications (page 146, Section 9.10. Upgradation of legacy networking).
Consider claim 7, Partha further teaches wherein the ranking includes discarding any identified parent controllers that are invalid (page 137, Section 5.3. Intent-based management architecture).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claims 2-4, 8-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Partha in view of Luo (U.S PAT. 3,162,813).
Consider claim 2, Partha teaches all limitations of claim 1.
Partha does not explicitly show that wherein the SDN controller is configured to identify parent controllers based on a ranking of candidate controllers resulting in identified parent controllers.
In the same field of endeavor, Luo teaches wherein the SDN controller is configured to identify parent controllers based on a ranking of candidate controllers resulting in identified parent controllers (Fig. 5, page 5 [0040]-[0045]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to use, wherein the SDN controller is configured to identify parent controllers based on a ranking of candidate controllers resulting in identified parent controllers, as taught by Luo, in order to provide a parent node selection method and a network node such that Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN) can rapidly and stably form a balanced wireless mesh network.
Consider claim 3, Luo further teaches wherein identifying the parent controller includes discovering which controllers are potential parent satellites resulting in identified potential parent satellites (page 5 [0040]-[0045]).
Consider claim 4, Luo further teaches wherein the SDN controller is further configured to advertise itself to the identified potential parent satellites (page 6 [0057]-[0059]).
Consider claim 8, Luo further teaches wherein the ranking is based on a number of child controllers associated with the identified parent controllers (page 5 [0040]-[0045]).
Consider claim 9, Luo further teaches wherein the SDN controller is configured to communicate a selected SDN controller of the identified potential parent controllers based on the ranking (page 5 [0040]-[0045]).
Consider claim 10, Partha teaches a system comprising a mesh network of distributed, disrupted, disconnected and denied D4 enabled satellite configured for D4 operations, each of the D4 enabled satellite comprising: virtual network functions (VNFs) (Fig. 16, page 143, Section 8.3. Hybrid satellite-cellular architecture); a network virtual function orchestrator (NFVO) (Fig. 16, page 143, Section 8.3. Hybrid satellite-cellular architecture); and a software defined network (SDN) controller configured for secure VNF-VNF or VNF-ground communications (Fig. 16, page 143, Section 8.3. Hybrid satellite-cellular architecture).
Partha does not explicitly show that the SDN controller is configured to identify parent controllers based on a ranking of candidate controllers resulting in identified parent controllers and select a parent controller of the parent controllers that ranks highest.
In the same field of endeavor, Luo teaches the SDN controller is configured to identify parent controllers based on a ranking of candidate controllers resulting in identified parent controllers and select a parent controller of the parent controllers that ranks highest (Fig. 5, page 5 [0040]-[0045] i.e., The network node obtains a candidate rank of the network node corresponding to each candidate parent node to select rank highest).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to use, the SDN controller is configured to identify parent controllers based on a ranking of candidate controllers resulting in identified parent controllers and select a parent controller of the parent controllers that ranks highest, as taught by Luo, in order to provide a parent node selection method and a network node such that Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN) can rapidly and stably form a balanced wireless mesh network.
Consider claim 11, the previous rejections of claim 3 apply mutatis mutandis to corresponding claim 11.
Consider claim 12, the previous rejections of claim 4 apply mutatis mutandis to corresponding claim 12.
Consider claim 13, the previous rejections of claim 5 apply mutatis mutandis to corresponding claim 13.
Consider claim 14, the previous rejections of claim 6 apply mutatis mutandis to corresponding claim 14.
Consider claim 15, the previous rejections of claim 7 apply mutatis mutandis to corresponding claim 15.
Consider claim 16, the previous rejections of claim 8 apply mutatis mutandis to corresponding claim 16.
Consider claim 17, the previous rejections of claim 9 apply mutatis mutandis to corresponding claim 17.
Consider claim 18, Partha teaches a non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations for distributed, disrupted, disconnected and denied (D4) enabled satellite operations in a mesh network of D4 enabled satellites, the operations comprising: managing, by a network virtual function orchestrator (NFVO) and based on a communication from the parent controller, services provided by virtual network functions (VNFs) (Fig. 16, page 143, Section 8.3. Hybrid satellite-cellular architecture); executing, by the VNFs, the services indicated by the NFVO (Fig. 16, page 143, Section 8.3. Hybrid satellite-cellular architecture); and communicating, by a software defined network (SDN) controller, results of executing the services to a device on the ground (Fig. 16, page 143, Section 8.3. Hybrid satellite-cellular architecture).
Partha does not explicitly show that identifying, by a software defined network (SDN) controller, parent controllers based on a ranking of candidate controllers resulting in identified parent controllers; and selecting, by the SDN controller, a parent controller of the parent controllers that ranks highest.
In the same field of endeavor, Luo teaches identifying, by a software defined network (SDN) controller, parent controllers based on a ranking of candidate controllers resulting in identified parent controllers (Fig. 5, page 5 [0040]-[0045]); and selecting, by the SDN controller, a parent controller of the parent controllers that ranks highest (Fig. 5, page 5 [0040]-[0045] i.e., The network node obtains a candidate rank of the network node corresponding to each candidate parent node to select rank highest).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to use, identifying, by a software defined network (SDN) controller, parent controllers based on a ranking of candidate controllers resulting in identified parent controllers; and selecting, by the SDN controller, a parent controller of the parent controllers that ranks highest, as taught by Luo, in order to provide a parent node selection method and a network node such that Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN) can rapidly and stably form a balanced wireless mesh network.
Consider claim 19, Luo further teaches wherein the operations further comprise discovering, by the SDN controller, which controllers are potential parent satellites resulting in identified potential parent satellites (page 5 [0040]-[0045]).
Consider claim 20, Luo further teaches wherein the operations further comprise, advertising, by the SDN controller, the machine to the identified potential parent satellites as a potential parent controller (page 6 [0057]-[0059]).
Conclusion
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Pan Yuwen can be reached on (571) 272-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/TUAN H NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649