DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims status
2. Based on the Response to Restriction Requirement filed on February 04, 2026, applicant elects, to prosecute Group I, as claims 1-10 without traverse. Claims 11-20 have been withdrawn and cancelled. Therefore, claims 1-10 are pending for examination.
Drawings
3. The Examiner contends that the drawings submitted on November 28, 2023 are acceptable for examination proceedings.
Information Disclosure Statement
4. The Examiner has considered the reference(s) listed on the Information Disclosure Statements submitted on November 28, 2023.
Election/Restrictions By Original Presentation
5. Newly submitted claims 21-25 directed to an invention that is independent or distinct from the invention originally claimed for the following reasons:
Claims for election by original presentation are grouped as following and directed by 35 U.S.C. 121:
I. Claims 1-10, 26-28 drawn to a device and a method creating/establishing network reachability on a layer 3 internet protocol underlay network between a subscriber access point and a first broadband network gateway (BNG) and between the subscriber access point and a second BNG; mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to a first EVPN VPWS tunnel for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the first BNG; and communicating subscriber VLAN data over the first EVPN VPWS tunnel with the first BNG, classified in H04L12.
II. Claims 21-25, drawn to a non-transitory machine-readable medium establishing, via internal BGP (iBGP) Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) route reflection, a first EVPN Virtual Private Wire Service (VPWS) head-end (HE) layer 2 tunnel between the access aggregation device and the first BNG and a second EVPN VPWS HE layer 2 tunnel between the access aggregation device and the second BNG; receiving, via the iBGP EVPN route reflection, a first advertisement from the first BNG identifying a first Ethernet Virtual Interface (EVI) as reachable and including a primary indicator, and a second advertisement from the second BNG identifying the first EVI as reachable and including a backup indicator; selecting the first BNG for subscriber traffic based on the primary indicator and the backup indicator; mapping subscriber VLAN traffic associated with a VLAN at the access aggregation device to the first EVPN VPWS HE layer 2 tunnel; and communicating the subscriber VLAN traffic over the first EVPN VPWS HE layer 2 tunnel with the first BNG, classified in H04L29.
The inventions are independent or distinct, each from the other because:
Inventions of Group I and Group II are related as subcombinations disclosed as usable together in a single combination. The subcombinations are distinct if they do not overlap in scope and are not obvious variants, and if it is shown that at least one subcombination is separately usable. In the instant case, subcombination Group I has separate utility such as a method creating/establishing network reachability on a layer 3 internet protocol underlay network between a subscriber access point and a first broadband network gateway (BNG) and between the subscriber access point and a second BNG; mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to a first EVPN VPWS tunnel for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the first BNG; and communicating subscriber VLAN data over the first EVPN VPWS tunnel with the first BNG, and subcombination Group II has separate utility such as establishing, via internal BGP (iBGP) Ethernet Virtual Private Network (EVPN) route reflection, a first EVPN Virtual Private Wire Service (VPWS) head-end (HE) layer 2 tunnel between the access aggregation device and the first BNG and a second EVPN VPWS HE layer 2 tunnel between the access aggregation device and the second BNG; receiving, via the iBGP EVPN route reflection, a first advertisement from the first BNG identifying a first Ethernet Virtual Interface (EVI) as reachable and including a primary indicator, and a second advertisement from the second BNG identifying the first EVI as reachable and including a backup indicator; selecting the first BNG for subscriber traffic based on the primary indicator and the backup indicator; mapping subscriber VLAN traffic associated with a VLAN at the access aggregation device to the first EVPN VPWS HE layer 2 tunnel; and communicating the subscriber VLAN traffic over the first EVPN VPWS HE layer 2 tunnel with the first BNG. See MPEP § 806.05(d).
The examiner has required restriction between subcombinations usable together. Where applicant elects a subcombination and claims thereto are subsequently found allowable, any claim(s) depending from or otherwise requiring all the limitations of the allowable subcombination will be examined for patentability in accordance with 37 CFR 1.104. See MPEP § 821.04(a). Applicant is advised that if any claim presented in a continuation or divisional application is anticipated by, or includes all the limitations of, a claim that is allowable in the present application, such claim may be subject to provisional statutory and/or nonstatutory double patenting rejections over the claims of the instant application.
Restriction for examination purposes as indicated is proper because all the inventions listed in this action are independent or distinct for the reasons given above and there would be a serious search and/or examination burden if restriction were not required because one or more of the following reasons apply:
i. The inventions have acquired a separate status in the art in view of their different classification;
ii. The inventions have acquired a separate status in the art due to their recognized divergent subject matter;
iii. The inventions require a different field of search (e.g., searching different classes/subclasses or electronic resources, or employing different search strategies or search queries);
iv. The prior art applicable to one invention would not likely be applicable to another invention;
v. The inventions are likely to raise different non-prior art issues under 35 U.S.C. 101 and/or 35 U.S.C. 112, first paragraph.
Applicant is advised that the reply to this requirement to be complete must include (i) an election of a invention to be examined even though the requirement may be traversed (37 CFR 1.143) and (ii) identification of the claims encompassing the elected invention.
The election of an invention may be made with or without traverse. To reserve a right to petition, the election must be made with traverse. If the reply does not distinctly and specifically point out supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election shall be treated as an election without traverse. Traversal must be presented at the time of election in order to be considered timely. Failure to timely traverse the requirement will result in the loss of right to petition under 37 CFR 1.144. If claims are added after the election, applicant must indicate which of these claims are readable upon the elected invention.
Should applicant traverse on the ground that the inventions are not patentably distinct, applicant should submit evidence or identify such evidence now of record showing the inventions to be obvious variants or clearly admit on the record that this is the case. In either instance, if the examiner finds one of the inventions unpatentable over the prior art, the evidence or admission may be used in a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) of the other invention.
Applicant is reminded that upon the cancellation of claims to a non-elected invention, the inventorship must be corrected in compliance with 37 CFR 1.48(a) if one or more of the currently named inventors is no longer an inventor of at least one claim remaining in the application. A request to correct inventorship under 37 CFR 1.48(a) must be accompanied by an application data sheet in accordance with 37 CFR 1.76 that identifies each inventor by his or her legal name and by the processing fee required under 37 CFR 1.17(i).
Since applicant has received an action on the merits for the originally presented invention, this invention has been constructively elected by original presentation for prosecution on the merits. Accordingly, claims 21-25 are withdrawn from consideration as being directed to a non-elected invention. See 37 CFR 1.142(b) and MPEP § 821.03.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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 of this title, 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.
7. Claims 1-10 and 26-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2024/0214243 A1), hereinafter “Zhang” in view of Poscher et al. (US 2018/0026814 A1), hereinafter “Poscher” in view of Natu et al. (US 2017/0093834 A1), hereinafter “Natu”.
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses a device (Figs. 1-2, 4, designated forwarder election method and device), comprising:
a processing system including a processor (Figs. 6-7); and a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations (Figs. 6-7, hardware structure of an apparatus according to current application), the operations comprising:
receiving a first advertisement of Ethernet Virtual Interface (EVI) reachability (Fig. 4, paragraphs [0064], [0066], [0076], [0082], [0092], PE1 may generate an ES route A, where the ES route A includes ESI3 valid for BD1 and an IP address of PE1) from the first BNG (Fig. 4, first broadband network gateway);
receiving a second advertisement of EVI reachability (Fig. 4, paragraphs [0064], [0066], [0076], [0082], [0092], PE2 may generate an ES route B, where the ES route A includes ESI3 valid for BD1 and an IP address of PE2) from the second BNG (Fig. 4, second broadband network gateway);
selecting the first BNG as a primary path (Fig. 4, paragraphs [0083], [0091], [0092], if a first priority is higher than a second priority, PE1 is elected as the DF, and PE2 is elected as the NDF) for subscriber Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) traffic for one or more subscriber devices (Fig. 4, paragraphs [0083], [0091], [0092], priority information of an ESI is added to the ES route sent by the PE, and the DF is preferentially determined based on the priority information).
While Zhang implicitly refers to “establishing Ethernet Virtual Private Network Virtual Private Wire Service (EVPN VPWS) Headend (HE) layer 2 termination between the subscriber access point and the first BNG and between the subscriber access point and the second BNG; mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to a first EVPN VPWS tunnel for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the first BNG; and communicating subscriber VLAN data over the first EVPN VPWS tunnel with the first BNG”, Poscher from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses establishing Ethernet Virtual Private Network Virtual Private Wire Service (EVPN VPWS) Headend (HE) layer 2 termination (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0013], [0045], [0049], [0052], [0065]-[0066], [0084], layer 2 tunnel-layer-2 VPN) between the subscriber access point (Figs. 1, 4-5, CE/VALNs) and the first BNG (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0013], [0045], [0049], [0052], [0065]-[0066], [0084], first and second BNGs) and between the subscriber access point (Figs. 1, 4-5, CE/VALNs) and the second BNG (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0013], [0045], [0049], [0052], [0065]-[0066], [0084], first and second BNGs);
mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to a first EVPN VPWS tunnel (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0015], [0068], [0087], 1st connections mapped to one or each of 2nd connections) for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the first BNG (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0015], [0068], [0087], first connection 123 towards the CE 120 is mapped to the second connection 125 towards the third BNG 112); and
communicating subscriber VLAN data (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0015], [0078]-[0080], PPPoE Active Discovery Initiation (PADI) packet on the VLAN) over the first EVPN VPWS tunnel with the first BNG (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0015], [0078]-[0080], point-to-point session (or an Internet Protocol over Ethernet, IPoE, session)).
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 provide “establishing Ethernet Virtual Private Network Virtual Private Wire Service (EVPN VPWS) Headend (HE) layer 2 termination between the subscriber access point and the first BNG and between the subscriber access point and the second BNG; mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to a first EVPN VPWS tunnel for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the first BNG; and communicating subscriber VLAN data over the first EVPN VPWS tunnel with the first BNG” as taught by Poscher, in the system of Zhang, so that it would provide optimal redundancy solution in terms of cost efficiency and flexibility for realizing redundancy when the access node is connected to the BNG using a layer-2 connection in a transport network, point-to-point or point to multipoint links (Poscher, paragraph [0004]).
While Zhang in view of Poscher implicitly refer to “creating network reachability on a layer 3 internet protocol underlay network between a subscriber access point and a first broadband network gateway (BNG) and between the subscriber access point and a second BNG”, Natu from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses creating network reachability on a layer 3 internet protocol underlay network (Figs. 1, 4, paragraphs [0027], [0031], [0055], A-PEs 36 and N-PEs 30 may execute the BGP protocol to exchange BGP messages for MAC address signaling/learning as well as for access topology and VPN endpoint discovery with respect to EVPN 26) between a subscriber access point (Figs. 1, 4, paragraphs [0027], [0031], [0055], A-PE and N-PE) and a first broadband network gateway (BNG) (Figs. 1, 4, paragraphs [0027], [0031], [0055], first and second BNGs) and between the subscriber access point (Figs. 1, 4, paragraphs [0027], [0031], [0055], A-PE and N-PE) and a second BNG (Figs. 1, 4, paragraphs [0027], [0031], [0055], first and second BNGs).
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 provide “creating network reachability on a layer 3 internet protocol underlay network between a subscriber access point and a first broadband network gateway (BNG) and between the subscriber access point and a second BNG” as taught by Natu, in the combined system of Zhang and Poscher, so that it would provide delivering security and policy control within layer two (L2) networks relate to subscriber typically contracts with any of a number of Internet service provider (ISP) networks connected to the metro transport network (Natu, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang in view of Poscher and Natu disclose the device according to claim 1.
Poscher further discloses the operations further comprise: selecting the second BNG as a secondary path for subscriber Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) traffic for one or more subscriber devices, wherein the first BNG and the second BNG are operated by a network service provider to provide network access to the one or more subscriber devices at an access node in communication with the subscriber access point (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0025]-[0026], [0054]-[0055], [0088], [0094], re-mapping e triggered by establishing one of the first connections, by an unavailability or maintenance status of the second connection previously mapped to the one of the first connections, by an unavailability or maintenance status of the corresponding one of the BNGs, and/or by an availability of one or more further BNGs in the pool; failure any one of the BNGs having second connection).
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 provide “the operations further comprise: selecting the second BNG as a secondary path for subscriber Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) traffic for one or more subscriber devices, wherein the first BNG and the second BNG are operated by a network service provider to provide network access to the one or more subscriber devices at an access node in communication with the subscriber access point” as taught by Poscher, in the combined system of Zhang and Natu, so that it would provide optimal redundancy solution in terms of cost efficiency and flexibility for realizing redundancy when the access node is connected to the BNG using a layer-2 connection in a transport network, point-to-point or point to multipoint links (Poscher, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 3, Zhang in view of Poscher and Natu disclose the device according to claim 1.
Poscher further discloses the operations further comprise: detecting a failure of the layer 3 internet protocol underlay network, the failure affecting the network access to the one or more subscriber devices; and mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to a second EVPN VPWS tunnel for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the second BNG for redundancy with the first BNG in the network access to the one or more subscriber devices (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0054]-[0055], [0088], network level redundancy is the capability of the device 120, e.g., the PE router, to detect that a serving BNG pool member, i.e., one of the BNGs 112 which second connection 125 is mapped to one or more of the first connections 123, is out of service and to re-distribute traffic of the one or more first connections 123 to other BNG pool members).
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 provide “the operations further comprise: detecting a failure of the layer 3 internet protocol underlay network, the failure affecting the network access to the one or more subscriber devices; and mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to a second EVPN VPWS tunnel for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the second BNG for redundancy with the first BNG in the network access to the one or more subscriber devices” as taught by Poscher, in the combined system of Zhang and Natu, so that it would provide optimal redundancy solution in terms of cost efficiency and flexibility for realizing redundancy when the access node is connected to the BNG using a layer-2 connection in a transport network, point-to-point or point to multipoint links (Poscher, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 4, Zhang in view of Poscher and Natu disclose the device according to claim 1.
Poscher further discloses the operations further comprise: detecting a network failure, the network failure affecting the network access to the one or more subscriber devices; receiving, from the second BNG, an updated advertisement of reachability; selecting the second BNG as the primary path for the subscriber VLAN traffic for the one or more subscriber devices; mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to a second EVPN VPWS tunnel for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the second BNG; and communicating further subscriber VLAN data over the second EVPN VPWS tunnel with the second BNG (Figs. 1, 4-5, paragraphs [0025]-[0026], [0054]-[0055], [0088], [0094], re-mapping e triggered by establishing one of the first connections, by an unavailability or maintenance status of the second connection previously mapped to the one of the first connections, by an unavailability or maintenance status of the corresponding one of the BNGs, and/or by an availability of one or more further BNGs in the pool; failure any one of the BNGs having second connection).
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 provide “the operations further comprise: detecting a network failure, the network failure affecting the network access to the one or more subscriber devices; receiving, from the second BNG, an updated advertisement of reachability; selecting the second BNG as the primary path for the subscriber VLAN traffic for the one or more subscriber devices; mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to a second EVPN VPWS tunnel for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the second BNG; and communicating further subscriber VLAN data over the second EVPN VPWS tunnel with the second BNG” as taught by Poscher, in the combined system of Zhang and Natu, so that it would provide optimal redundancy solution in terms of cost efficiency and flexibility for realizing redundancy when the access node is connected to the BNG using a layer-2 connection in a transport network, point-to-point or point to multipoint links (Poscher, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 5, Zhang discloses the receiving, from the second BNG, an updated advertisement of reachability comprises: receiving the updated advertisement of reachability in response to a signaling of EVPN Ethernet Segment loss of reachability of the first BNG signaled to the second BNG, wherein the first BNG and the second BNG are in data communication through a core network of a network service provider (Figs. 1-2, 4, paragraphs [0095]-[0097], If a link between BNG12 and PE1 also fails, and PE1 perceives that PE1 cannot forward the traffic from PE3 to the BNG in BD1, PE1 sends a route withdrawal message to PE2; After receiving the route withdrawal message, PE2 deletes a route corresponding to ESI3, and then re-performs DF election; Because this case is in a dual-homing scenario, and PE2 has only its own ES route that includes ESI3, after the DF election, PE2 is determined as an active DF; In addition, PE1 becomes the NDF).
Regarding claim 6, Zhang discloses the receiving, from the second BNG, an updated advertisement of reachability comprises: receiving the updated advertisement of reachability in response to a signaling of loss of Broadband Gateway Protocol (BGP) reachability due to failure of the first BNG, wherein the primary path for the subscriber VLAN traffic is assigned a first local preference value and a secondary path for the subscriber VLAN traffic is assigned a second local preference value, wherein the first local preference value and the second local preference value are switched for the primary path and the secondary path when the second BNG is selected as the primary path for the subscriber VLAN traffic for the one or more subscriber devices (paragraphs [0091]-[0092], foregoing DF election rule may be a priority-based DF election rule; specifically, priority information of an ESI is added to the ES route sent by the PE, and the DF is preferentially determined based on the priority information).
Regarding claim 7, Zhang discloses the operations further comprise: receiving, from the first BNG, an updated advertisement of reachability, wherein the receiving the updated advertisement is reachability is responsive to resolution of the network failure and return to normal service; selecting the first BNG as the primary path for the subscriber VLAN traffic for the one or more subscriber devices; mapping a VLAN of the subscriber access point to the EVPN VPWS tunnel for transport of the subscriber VLAN traffic to the first BNG; and communicating future subscriber VLAN data over the first EVPN VPWS tunnel with the first BNG, reverting to an initial network condition (Figs. 1-2, 4, paragraph [0099], in a possible implementation, if communication through the foregoing link between BNG11 and/or BNG12 and PE1 recovers, PE1 regenerates the foregoing ES route A, and sends the ES route A to PE2).
Regarding claim 8, Zhang in view of Poscher and Natu disclose the device according to claim 1.
Natu further discloses the operations further comprise: advertising, by the subscriber access point, network reachability of the subscriber access point, the network reachability of the subscriber access point reflected by a route reflector of the layer 3 internet protocol underlay network to the first BNG and the second BNG; and mapping the VLAN of the subscriber access point to the first EVPN VPWS tunnel based on the network reachability of the subscriber access point (Figs. 1, 4, paragraphs [0027], [0031], [0055], A-PEs 36 and N-PEs 30 may execute the BGP protocol to exchange BGP messages for MAC address signaling/learning as well as for access topology and VPN endpoint discovery with respect to EVPN 26).
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 provide “the operations further comprise: advertising, by the subscriber access point, network reachability of the subscriber access point, the network reachability of the subscriber access point reflected by a route reflector of the layer 3 internet protocol underlay network to the first BNG and the second BNG; and mapping the VLAN of the subscriber access point to the first EVPN VPWS tunnel based on the network reachability of the subscriber access point” as taught by Natu, in the combined system of Zhang and Poscher, so that it would provide delivering security and policy control within layer two (L2) networks relate to subscriber typically contracts with any of a number of Internet service provider (ISP) networks connected to the metro transport network (Natu, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 9, Zhang discloses the operations further comprise: receiving, by the subscriber access point, a first advertisement from the first BNG, wherein the first advertisement advertises reachability of the first BNG, the reachability of the first BNG advertising a service instance at a first network address; and receiving, by the subscriber access point, a second advertisement from the second BNG, wherein the second advertisement advertises reachability of the second BNG, the reachability of the second BNG advertising a service instance at a second network address, wherein the service instance of the second BNG is the same as the service instance of the second BNG (Fig.4, paragraphs [0064], [0082], [0092], the figure illustrates an example in which PE1 can communicate with BD1 and BD2; BD1 may be a range covered by VLAN1, and BD2 may be a range covered by VLAN2; for example, both BNG11 and BNG12 that are in BD1 are connected to PE1, and BNG13 in BD2 is connected to PE1).
Regarding claim 10, Zhang in view of Poscher and Natu disclose the device according to claim 1.
Natu further discloses a layer 3 internet protocol underlay network comprises: creating network reachability in a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network implementing an internal BGP (iBGP) layer 3 route reflector network accessible by the subscriber access point (Fig. 4, paragraph [0055], route reflector described in BGP route reflection).
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 provide “a layer 3 internet protocol underlay network comprises: creating network reachability in a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network implementing an internal BGP (iBGP) layer 3 route reflector network accessible by the subscriber access point” as taught by Natu, in the combined system of Zhang and Poscher, so that it would provide delivering security and policy control within layer two (L2) networks relate to subscriber typically contracts with any of a number of Internet service provider (ISP) networks connected to the metro transport network (Natu, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 26, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 27, Zhang in view of Poscher and Natu disclose the method according to claim 26.
Natu further discloses the establishing the layer 3 reachability comprises: establishing, by the processing system, the layer 3 reachability through a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) transport network (Fig. 4, paragraphs [0027], [0031], [0055], A-PEs 36 and N-PEs 30 may be connected by an MPLS LSP infrastructure or may be connected by an IP infrastructure in which case IP/GRE tunneling or other IP tunneling can be used to transport L2 communications through EVPN 26).
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 provide “the establishing the layer 3 reachability comprises: establishing, by the processing system, the layer 3 reachability through a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) transport network” as taught by Natu, in the combined system of Zhang and Poscher, so that it would provide delivering security and policy control within layer two (L2) networks relate to subscriber typically contracts with any of a number of Internet service provider (ISP) networks connected to the metro transport network (Natu, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 28, Zhang in view of Poscher and Natu disclose the method according to claim 27.
Natu further discloses the MPLS transport network implements an internal Border Gateway Protocol (iBGP) route reflector network, and wherein the establishing the plurality of EVPN VPWS layer 2 tunnels comprises: establishing, by the processing system, establishing the plurality of EVPN VPWS layer 2 tunnels using the iBGP route reflector network (Fig. 4, paragraph [0055], route reflector described in BGP route reflection).
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 provide “the MPLS transport network implements an internal Border Gateway Protocol (iBGP) route reflector network, and wherein the establishing the plurality of EVPN VPWS layer 2 tunnels comprises: establishing, by the processing system, establishing the plurality of EVPN VPWS layer 2 tunnels using the iBGP route reflector network” as taught by Natu, in the combined system of Zhang and Poscher, so that it would provide delivering security and policy control within layer two (L2) networks relate to subscriber typically contracts with any of a number of Internet service provider (ISP) networks connected to the metro transport network (Natu, paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 29, Zhang discloses the receiving the reachability advertisements comprises: receiving, by the processing system, Ethernet Virtual Interface (EVI) reachability advertisements from the first BNG and the second BNG (Fig. 4, paragraphs [0064], [0066], [0076], [0082], [0092], PE1 may generate an ES route A, where the ES route A includes ESI3 valid for BD1 and an IP address of PE1; PE2 may generate an ES route B, where the ES route A includes ESI3 valid for BD1 and an IP address of PE2).
Regarding claim 30, Zhang discloses the receiving the reachability advertisements comprises: receiving, by the processing system, a primary indicator associated with the first BNG and a backup indicator associated with the second BNG, and wherein the selecting the active BNG comprises selecting the first BNG based on the primary indicator and the backup indicator (Fig. 4, paragraphs [0083], [0091], [0092], if a first priority is higher than a second priority, PE1 is elected as the DF, and PE2 is elected as the NDF; priority information of an ESI is added to the ES route sent by the PE, and the DF is preferentially determined based on the priority information).
Conclusion
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SITHU KO whose telephone number is 571-272-8647. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Friday 8:30am-5:00pmEST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Edan Orgad can be reached on 571-272-7884. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SITHU KO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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