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 .
Status of Claims
The following is a non-final, first action on the merits, in response to application filed November 30, 2023. Claims 1-20, are currently pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-8, 10-12, 14-19, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Raleigh et al (hereinafter Raleigh) (US 2022/0360461) in view of Zhang et al (hereinafter Zhang) (US 2017/0134290).
Regarding claim 1, 8, 15, Raleigh discloses a method, comprising:
receiving, by a device, control traffic that includes a plurality of provisioning events associated with a network (in an embodiments is disclosed techniques provided for implementing a service usage control policy to differentially control network services traffic based on a network busy state for an activity, a group of activities, or for a service class including provisioning event to enable a Quality of Service for one or more service activities associated with a network element) (paras. 0059, 0077, 0092);
identifying, by the device, provisioning events, of the plurality of provisioning events, that are associated with a service (determining whether one or more of the links in a possible QoS channel are available, e.g., based on network capacity and transmission quality, to provision the necessary level of QoS for a requested QoS channel, …. a QoS request is initiated by a device, a user, an application, and/or a network element/function) (paras. 0077, 0092). Raleigh does not expressly show calculating, by the device, a quantity of the provisioning events that are associated with the service;
determining, by the device, whether the quantity of the provisioning events satisfies a quantity threshold; and
selectively: providing, by the device, the quantity of the provisioning events to network devices that provide the service to subscribers based on the quantity of the provisioning events failing to satisfy the quantity threshold, or
calculating, by the device, a remaining quantity of the provisioning events that are associated with the service based on the quantity of the provisioning events satisfying the quantity threshold. Zhang in a similar field of endeavor discloses traffic control method and apparatus associated with a network
calculating, by the device, a quantity of the provisioning events that are associated with the service (a total quantity of the service associated with a network as service messages sending quantity) (paras. 0043, 0045);
determining, by the device, whether the quantity of the provisioning events satisfies a quantity threshold (the front-end network element performs traffic control on the service messages of the different type according to the quantity of the service messages of the different type to be received in the current period) (paras. 0043, 0067); and selectively:
providing, by the device, the quantity of the provisioning events to network devices that provide the service to subscribers based on the quantity of the provisioning events failing to satisfy the quantity threshold (an obtained quantity or adjustment quantity of service messages of the different type to be received in a current period is different, so that a front-end network element may perform differential traffic control on the service messages of the different type according to the quantity or the adjustment quantity of the service messages of the different type to be received in the current period for resources that needs to be consumed for processing) (paras. 0011, 0015). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention apply calculating a quantity of that are associated with the service and determine whether the quantity satisfies a quantity threshold of Zhang with the provisioning events associated with a network perform traffic control for the benefit of provide load sharing (provisioning) network elements properly processes the service message (events). One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so to provide increase network resource utilization and a service success rate. Raleigh in view of Zhang discloses above limitations, except limitation recited in the alternate, “or”
calculating, by the device, a remaining quantity of the provisioning events that are associated with the service based on the quantity of the provisioning events satisfying the quantity threshold. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify provisioning of events to satisfy the quantity meeting the threshold disclosed by Raleigh in view of Zhang since it was known in the art that by doing so would help provisioning of network services. As to the limitation per claim 15,
cause another device to be added for the remaining quantity of the provisioning events; and cause the other device to provide the remaining quantity of the provisioning events to the network devices that provide the service to the subscribers, the limitation is analyzed as recited in see claim 2 and rejected.
Regarding claim 2, Raleigh in view of Zhang discloses limitation noted above. Raleigh further discloses causing another device to be added for the remaining quantity of the provisioning events; and causing the other device to provide the remaining quantity of the provisioning events to the network devices that provide the service to the subscribers (enabling operators to intelligently add additional resources to certain areas when necessary (e.g., offloading data traffic onto femto cells or WiFi hotspots and adding more network resources), to differentially control network service usage, and/or to differentially charge for network service usage based on, for example, a network busy state, for protecting network capacity) (para. 0053).
Regarding claims 3, 10, 16, Raleigh in view of Zhang discloses limitation noted above. Raleigh further discloses Raleigh wherein the other device is a proxy unified data management device of the network (para. 0218).
Regarding claims 4, 17, Raleigh in view of Zhang discloses limitation noted above. Raleigh further discloses identifying provisioning events, of the plurality of provisioning events, that are not associated with the service; and providing the provisioning events that are not associated with the service to network devices that provide one or more other services to subscribers (other devices such as proxy devices) (paras. 0053, 0218).
Regarding claims 6, 18, Raleigh in view of Zhang discloses limitation noted above. Raleigh further discloses wherein the service is a combined security service that includes security as a service, a threat protection service, and a firewall service (para. 0106).
Regarding claims 7, 19, Raleigh in view of Zhang discloses limitation noted above. Raleigh further discloses receiving the control traffic that includes the plurality of provisioning events associated with the network from one or more interfaces provided between the network devices (a given activity can be assigned by a device service processor according to a pre-defined QoS policy rules table (e.g., QoS activity table), or can be determined by a service controller based on information reported by the device, or can be requested by an application through a QoS application interface (e.g., QoS API), or can be determined by the nature of incoming traffic) (para. 0088).
Regarding claim 11, Raleigh in view of Zhang discloses limitation noted above. Raleigh further discloses wherein the control traffic that includes the plurality of provisioning events is generated by a provisioning system for the network (para. 0077).
Regarding claim 12, Raleigh in view of Zhang discloses limitation noted above. Raleigh further discloses wherein the network is a fourth generation core network or a fifth generation core network (para. 0071).
Regarding claim 14, Raleigh in view of Zhang discloses limitation noted above. Raleigh further discloses wherein the quantity of the provisioning events that are associated with the service is based on a quantity of subscribers to the service (para. 0012).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 1, 8, 15, rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1, 8, 15, recite the limitation "control traffic" in line 2, 3, 5, respectively. As best understood in view of the confusing language "control traffic" taken as control traffic information There is insufficient clarity for this limitation in the claim. Claims 2-7, 9-14, 16-20, are dependent claims, rejected by virtue of their dependence to claims noted above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
NPL:
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Overall Network Aspects and Functions, Traffic Control and Congestion Control in B-ISDN, ITU-T Recommendation I.371, pp. 1-27 (Mar. 1993).
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/QUTBUDDIN GHULAMALI/
Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 2632.
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