DETAILED ACTION
This Communication is a First Action on the Merits (FAOM). Claims 1-20, as originally filed, are pending and have been considered as follows.
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 § 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by SHAH et al (2021/0149836 A1).
As per Claims 1, 12 and 20, Shah teaches a computer network and method for network data communication, comprising: at an initiator subsystem, generating a data stream including a series of n transaction requests for delivery to two or more target subsystems via a network fabric (Figure 1 – References 102, 130, 132, 134 and 136; Page 1, Paragraph [0017]; Page 2, Paragraph [0019]; Page 4, Paragraph [0038]); at the initiator subsystem, transmitting each of the series of n transaction requests over the network fabric to the two or more target subsystems (Page 2, Paragraph [0019]).
(Note: In paragraph [0017], Shah describes an initiator subsystem [i.e. master] generating a data stream that is transmitted to two or more target subsystems [i.e. plurality of slaves] via a network fabric. Shah indicates transactions may be request transactions or response transaction and may be write requests and/or read requests. In paragraph [0019], Shah describes a network-on-chip [NoC – i.e. network fabric] shown in Figure 1)
Shah also teaches at an initiator aggregation controller communicatively coupled with the initiator subsystem, for a first (n – 1) transaction requests of the series of n transaction requests, transmitting (n – 1) preliminary request responses to the initiator subsystem (Page 2, Paragraphs [0020], [0021] and [0025] – Page 2, Paragraph [0027]).
(Note: In paragraph [0020], Shah describes a broadcast adapter [BA] connected to a request/response [i.e. transaction] network. In paragraphs [0021] and [0022], Shah describes the BA receiving and duplicating request transactions [i.e. data stream]. In paragraph [0027], Shah describes how on the response portion the BA performs response aggregation and combines all responses that correspond into one duplicate request packet into a single packet using a combination function which is then sent back through the BA. This effectively results the dropping of all the duplicate requests and the consolidating into one single response that transmitted)
Shah further teaches at the initiator aggregation controller, receiving, via the network fabric, target-specific aggregated responses to the data stream corresponding to each of the two or more target subsystems (Page 2, Paragraph [0025] – Page 2, Paragraph [0027]). (Note: In paragraph [0026], Shah indicates the NoC includes a special range of addresses that identifies BAs and standard address ranges for each target or slave. The duplicated transactions are sent by an initiating BA to a receiving BA which then sends the duplicated transaction to a specified target/slave device [i.e. receiving, via the network fabric, target-specific aggregated responses to the data stream corresponding to each of the two or more target subsystems)
Shah additionally teaches at the initiator aggregation controller, upon receiving the target-specific aggregated responses corresponding to each of the two or more target subsystems, transmitting an aggregated stream response to the initiator subsystem as described above (Page 2, Paragraph [0025] – Page 2, Paragraph [0027]). (Note: Claim 20 differs from Claim 1 in that Claim 1 is an initiator subsystem while Claim 20 is directed to a target subsystem. Claim 1 is directed the transmission of requests; and Claim 20 is directed to the receipt of those transmitted requests)
As per Claims 4 and 15, Shah teaches wherein the initiator aggregation controller includes two or more initiator adapters corresponding to two or more network ports over which the initiator subsystem transmits the series of n transaction requests as described in Claim 1.
As per Claims 7, 8, 18 and 19, Shah teaches dropping a first (n – 1) transaction responses generated by the target subsystem in response to the first n – 1 transaction requests of the series of n transaction requests; and upon receiving an nth transaction response from the target subsystem in response to an nth transaction request of the series of n transaction requests, transmitting a target-specific aggregated response to the initiator aggregation controller as described in Claim 1.
As per Claim 10, Shah teaches wherein the initiator subsystem, the initiator aggregation controller, and the two or more target subsystems are implemented as subcomponents of a network-on-chip (NoC) system as described above.
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) 2, 3, 13 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SHAH et al (2021/0149836 A1) in view of BRUCE et al (2018/0189097 A1).
As per Claims 2 and 13, Shah teaches the method and computer network of Claims 1 and 12; but does not teach at the initiator subsystem, marking an nth transaction request of the series of n transaction requests as being a last transaction request of the data stream. However, Bruce teaches marking an nth transaction request of the series of n transaction requests as being a last transaction request of the data stream (Figure 9A – Reference 920; Page 6, Paragraph [0132]; Page 7, Paragraph [0137]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and computer network taught by Shah with the method and computer network taught by Bruce to combine multiple small responses into a single larger packet in an effort to reduce the overall amount of data as well as the number of packets to be transmitted thereby optimizing bandwidth usage.
As per Claims 3 and 14, the combination of Shah and Bruce teaches transmitting a transaction quantity indication over the network fabric that indicates a quantity of the n transaction requests in the data stream. (Note: In paragraph [0057], Bruce describes transaction regulation being performed by a transaction issuing device. In paragraphs [0059] and [0064], Bruce indicates transaction limits may be adjusted based on the number of transactions compared to established threshold levels. In order to make a determination as to whether the system is in a healthy state a transaction quantity indication has to be utilized in order to be able to make a comparison to the threshold)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and computer network taught by Shah with the method and computer network taught by Bruce to combine multiple small responses into a single larger packet in an effort to reduce the overall amount of data as well as the number of packets to be transmitted thereby optimizing bandwidth usage.
Claim(s) 5, 6, 16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SHAH et al (2021/0149836 A1) in view of Das Sharma et al (2021/0119730 A1)
As per Claims 5 and 16, Shah teaches the method and computer network of Claims 1 and 12; but does not teach wherein the initiator aggregation controller maintains a table corresponding to the data stream, the table including fields indicating whether target-specific aggregated responses have been received from each of the two or more target subsystems, and a field indicating whether an error was reported by the two or more target subsystems.
However, Das Sharma teaches a table corresponding to the data stream, the table including fields indicating whether target-specific aggregated responses have been received from each of the two or more target subsystems, and a field indicating whether an error was reported by the two or more target subsystems (Figure 5 – Reference 518; Page 7, Paragraphs [0073] and [0075]; Page 12, Paragraph [0143]).
(Note: In paragraph [0143], Das Sharma describes memory space transactions as including one or more read and/or write requests to transfer data to and/or from a memory mapped location. In paragraph [0073], Das Sharma describes a receiver subsystem including an error log that is populated with detected errors. Incorporating the error log into the system described by Shah creates a reporting structure that allows for the recited table)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and computer network taught by Shah with the method and computer network taught by Das Sharma to minimize the number of packets or messages requiring individual handling [i.e. routing/processing] through aggregation which significantly reduces network overhead and reduces congestion leading to smoother data flow and faster data transfer.
As per Claims 6 and 17, the combination of Shah and Das Sharma teaches wherein a target-specific aggregated response corresponding to a target subsystem of the two or more target subsystems indicates that an error was reported by the target subsystem in response to a transaction request of the series of n transaction requests as described in Claim 5.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method and computer network taught by Shah with the method and computer network taught by Das Sharma to minimize the number of packets or messages requiring individual handling [i.e. routing/processing] through aggregation which significantly reduces network overhead and reduces congestion leading to smoother data flow and faster data transfer.
Claim(s) 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over SHAH et al (2021/0149836 A1) in view of CODDINGTON et al (2022/0210046 A1).
As per Claim 11, Shah teaches the method of Claim 1; but does not teach wherein the data stream is a multicast stream. However, Coddington teaches wherein the data stream is a multicast stream (Page 4, Paragraph [0042] and [0048]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method taught by Shah with the method taught by Coddington to provide a comprehensive high-level view of operations, trends and patterns that would be difficult to discern from individual data points which allows for informed data driven decision making and faster analysis.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 9 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. FRANK et al (2023/0133723 A1), Tolchinsky et al (2022/0365896 A1), Mehta et al (9,632,828 B1) and Johnson (9,378,049 B1). Each of these describes systems and methods of aggregating transaction responses in data communication systems.
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KHARYE POPE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2693
/KHARYE POPE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693