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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on October 19, 2023, January 18, 2024, and September 5, 2024 were filed 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
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 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 1-8 and 10-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Non-patent Literature entitled, “IEEE Std 802.1AX-2020 - Link Aggregation” (hereinafter “802.1AX”).
Regarding claim 1, 802.1AX teaches: An apparatus (Figure 6-3 – Link Aggregation Sublayer Block Diagram), comprising: at least one processor (Figure 6-3 e.g., LACP Parser/Multiplexor), and at least one non-transitory memory (Figure 6-3 e.g., LACP Parser/Multiplexor)storing instructions that, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: obtain an identification of a data traffic for an antenna (p. 90/333 Port Conversation ID); associate the obtained identification to a first network identification (p. 90/333 a frame field (e.g., a VLAN identifier); assign the first network identification and a second network identification to the data traffic (p. 326/333 IEEE Std 802.1Q-2018 - E.1 DRNI on VLAN Bridges); perform load balancing for the data traffic (8.2.5 Distribution based on Flow Hash) using a hash algorithm (p. 90/333 (e.g., a hash algorithm that reduces the contents of specified fields to a 12-bit integer)), wherein the hash algorithm obtains input based on the first network identification (p. 151/333, When the Algorithm Identifier indicates that the Service ID mapping table is not used, the Conversation ID is the same value as the least significant 12 bits of the Service ID (i.e., the same value as the Flow Hash).); and transmit the data traffic using link aggregation, wherein the link aggregation is active mode link aggregation (p. 54/333 Active or passive participation in LACP is controlled by LACP_Activity, an administrative control associated with each Aggregation Port, that can take the value Active LACP or Passive LACP.) utilized in fronthaul (p. 22/333Aggregation Port: A Service Access Point in an Aggregation System that provides access to a single Aggregation Link.).
Regarding claim 2, 802.1AX teaches: wherein the identification of a data traffic for an antenna is one of the following: an extended antenna-carrier identification, antenna-carrier identification, and radio over the Ethernet flow ID (8.2.1 Distribution based on C-VLAN Identifier (C-VID) 8.2.2 Distribution based on S-VLAN Identifier (S-VID) 8.2.3 Distribution based on Backbone Service Instance Identifier (I-SID) 8.2.4 Distribution based on Traffic Engineering Service Instance Identifier (TE-SID) 8.2.5 Distribution based on Flow Hash).
Regarding claim 3, 802.1AX teaches: wherein the data traffic is uplink data traffic or downlink data traffic (The contents of 802.1Q-2022 are inherent in 802.1AX, 802.1Q-2022 teaches: p. 141/2163 Each downlink relay port (DRP) shall be capable of attaching to one or more VSIs. Each URP shall be capable of attaching its ER to the LAN connecting to an EVB Bridge, or in the case where a Port-mapping S-VLAN component is present, to an internal LAN (6.14) connecting the URP to a S-channel Access Port (CAP).).
Regarding claim 4, 802.1AX teaches: associate the obtained identification to the first network with deriving the first network identification from the obtained identification (p. 150/333, when distribution is based on the C-VLAN Identifier, the Service ID is the 12-bit VLAN Identifier contained in the C-VLAN tag within the frame (IEEE Std 802.1Q-2018 Figure 9-1, p. 151/333 When distribution is based on the S-VLAN Identifier, the Service ID is the 12-bit VLAN Identifier contained in the S-VLAN tag within the frame (IEEE Std 802.1Q-2018 Figure 9-1).).
Regarding claim 5, 802.1AX teaches: wherein the first network identification comprises an identification for an inner virtual local area network (p. 150/333 8.2.1 Distribution based on C-VLAN Identifier (C-VID)) and the second network identification comprises an identification for an outer local area network (p. 151/333 8.2.2 Distribution based on S-VLAN Identifier (S-VID)).
Regarding claim 6, 802.1AX teaches: wherein the second network identification indicates one virtual local area network (S-VLAN Identifier (S-VID)) for at least one of one distribute unit U or C plane (p. 151/333, 8.2.2 Distribution based on S-VLAN Identifier (S-VID)).
Regarding claim 7, 802.1AX teaches: wherein the first network identification is a source user datagram protocol field, and wherein the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform the load balancing using equal cost multipath forwarding based on a source user data protocol port, or based on an internet protocol version 6 flow label (The contents of 802.1Q-2022 are inherent in 802.1AX, 802.1Q-2022 teaches: p. 162/2163 The second approach, ECMP, spreads traffic by employing multiple equal cost paths with a single VID. p. 1624/2163 44.2 Support for Flow Filtering Flow filtering support enables Bridges to distinguish frames belonging to different client flows and to use this information in the forwarding process.).
Regarding claim 8, 802.1aX teaches: wherein the apparatus is further caused to associate the second network identification with the obtained identification (p. 151/333 8.2.2 Distribution based on S-VLAN Identifier (S-VID) When distribution is based on the S-VLAN Identifier, the Service ID is the 12-bit VLAN Identifier contained in the S-VLAN tag within the frame (IEEE Std 802.1Q-2018 Figure 9-1). The Service ID of a frame that does not contain a S-VLAN tag in the initial octets of the mac_service_data_unit is defined as 0. When the Algorithm Identifier indicates that the Service ID mapping table is not used, the Conversation ID is the same value as the Service ID (i.e., the same value as the S-VID).).
Regarding claim 10, 802.1AX teaches: A method, comprising: obtaining an identification of a data traffic for an antenna (p. 90/333 Port Conversation ID); associating the obtained identification to a first network identification (p. 90/333 a frame field (e.g., a VLAN identifier); assigning the first network identification and a second network identification to the data traffic (p. 326/333 IEEE Std 802.1Q-2018 - E.1 DRNI on VLAN Bridges); performing load balancing for the data traffic (8.2.5 Distribution based on Flow Hash) using a hash algorithm (p. 90/333 (e.g., a hash algorithm that reduces the contents of specified fields to a 12-bit integer)), wherein the hash algorithm obtains input based on the first network identification (p. 151/333, When the Algorithm Identifier indicates that the Service ID mapping table is not used, the Conversation ID is the same value as the least significant 12 bits of the Service ID (i.e., the same value as the Flow Hash).); and transmitting the data traffic using link aggregation, wherein the link aggregation is active mode link aggregation (p. 54/333 Active or passive participation in LACP is controlled by LACP_Activity, an administrative control associated with each Aggregation Port, that can take the value Active LACP or Passive LACP.) utilized in fronthaul (p. 22/333Aggregation Port: A Service Access Point in an Aggregation System that provides access to a single Aggregation Link.).
Regarding claim 11, 802.1AX teaches: wherein the identification of a data traffic for an antenna is one of the following: an extended antenna-carrier identification, antenna-carrier identification, and radio over the Ethernet flow ID (8.2.1 Distribution based on C-VLAN Identifier (C-VID) 8.2.2 Distribution based on S-VLAN Identifier (S-VID) 8.2.3 Distribution based on Backbone Service Instance Identifier (I-SID) 8.2.4 Distribution based on Traffic Engineering Service Instance Identifier (TE-SID) 8.2.5 Distribution based on Flow Hash).
Regarding claim 12, 802.1AX teaches: associate the obtained identification to the first network with deriving the first network identification from the obtained identification (p. 150/333, when distribution is based on the C-VLAN Identifier, the Service ID is the 12-bit VLAN Identifier contained in the C-VLAN tag within the frame (IEEE Std 802.1Q-2018 Figure 9-1, p. 151/333 When distribution is based on the S-VLAN Identifier, the Service ID is the 12-bit VLAN Identifier contained in the S-VLAN tag within the frame (IEEE Std 802.1Q-2018 Figure 9-1).).
Regarding claim 13, 802.1AX teaches: wherein the first network identification comprises an identification for an inner virtual local area network (p. 150/333 8.2.1 Distribution based on C-VLAN Identifier (C-VID)) and the second network identification comprises an identification for an outer local area network (p. 151/333 8.2.2 Distribution based on S-VLAN Identifier (S-VID)).
Regarding claim 14, 802.1AX teaches: wherein the first network identification is a source user datagram protocol field, and wherein the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform the load balancing using equal cost multipath forwarding based on a source user data protocol port, or based on an internet protocol version 6 flow label (The contents of 802.1Q-2022 are inherent in 802.1AX, 802.1Q-2022 teaches: p. 162/2163 The second approach, ECMP, spreads traffic by employing multiple equal cost paths with a single VID. p. 1624/2163 44.2 Support for Flow Filtering Flow filtering support enables Bridges to distinguish frames belonging to different client flows and to use this information in the forwarding process.).
Regarding claim 15, 802.1aX teaches: A computer program tangibly embodied on a non-transitory programmable storage device comprising instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the following: obtain an identification of a data traffic for an antenna (p. 90/333 Port Conversation ID); associate the obtained identification to a first network identification (p. 90/333 a frame field (e.g., a VLAN identifier); assign the first network identification and a second network identification to the data traffic (p. 326/333 IEEE Std 802.1Q-2018 - E.1 DRNI on VLAN Bridges); perform load balancing for the data traffic (8.2.5 Distribution based on Flow Hash) using a hash algorithm (p. 90/333 (e.g., a hash algorithm that reduces the contents of specified fields to a 12-bit integer)), wherein the hash algorithm obtains input based on the first network identification (p. 151/333, When the Algorithm Identifier indicates that the Service ID mapping table is not used, the Conversation ID is the same value as the least significant 12 bits of the Service ID (i.e., the same value as the Flow Hash).); and transmit the data traffic using link aggregation, wherein the link aggregation is active mode link aggregation (p. 54/333 Active or passive participation in LACP is controlled by LACP_Activity, an administrative control associated with each Aggregation Port, that can take the value Active LACP or Passive LACP.) utilized in fronthaul (p. 22/333Aggregation Port: A Service Access Point in an Aggregation System that provides access to a single Aggregation Link.).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Publication No. 2023/0034500 (La Roche) related to providing enhanced capacity for tenants in a neutral host network via multi-connectivity
U.S. Publication No. 2023/0198914 (Ranjan) sending and receiving messages including training data using a multi-path packet spraying protocol
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/JAB/ Examiner, Art Unit 2643
/SAN HTUN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643