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 .
2. This is the initial office action based on the application filed on November 09, 2023, which claims 1-26 are presented for examination. Claims 27-74 have been canceled.
Status of Claims
3. Claims 1-26 are pending, of which claims, of which claim 1 and 14 are in independent form.
Priority
4. This application is a 371 of PCT/IB2022/054499 05/13/2022
PCT/IB2022/054499 has PRO 63/188,812 05/14/2021
The Office's Note:
5. The Office has cited particular paragraphs / columns and line numbers in the reference(s) applied to the claims above for the convenience of the Applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim(s), other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the Applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the cited passages as taught by the prior art or relied upon by the Examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
6. Information disclosure statement filed on 12/21/2023 has been reviewed and considered by Examiner.
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.
7. Claim 1 and claim 14 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. Limitation “'to execute at least a job action associated with a software upgrade' used in the independent claims is vague and unclear because it does not specify if and by which technical features it concerns an actual software upgrade, and therefore leaves the reader in doubt as to the meaning of the technical features to which it refers or how these are technically implemented, thereby rendering the definition of the subject-matter of said claims unclear.
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.
8. Claims 1-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mahajan (US 20210055947) and further in view of Ramachandran (US 20080005733, herein after Ramachandran – IDS of record).
Claim 1 is rejected, Mahajan teaches a first network node configured to communicate at least with a second network node, the first network node comprising processing circuitry configured to (Mahajan, abstract and summary):
control at least a software version associated with at least a fourth network node by sending a job request that causes the second network node to execute at least a job action associated with a software upgrade for at least the fourth network node (Mahajan, US 20210055947, fig. 2 and para [0020-0023], FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a resilience improvement system 200 according to some embodiments. In particular, the system 200 includes a container-orchestration system server 210 that executes an upgrade process 220. The container-orchestration system server 210 may, according to some embodiments, automatically determine an appropriate upgrade path for an application service. Fig. 3 and para [0027-0033], At S330, the system may automatically execute a search algorithm on the plurality of tuples to determine an upgrade path from a source version to a target version for the application service. According to some embodiments, each tuple in a configmap comprises a target version identifier and a Boolean indicating if an additional task needs to be performed in connection with the upgrade process. According to some embodiments, the configmap defines a tree data structure and the algorithm search comprises a breadth-first search algorithm, such as the ones described with respect to FIGS. 5 and 6. At S340, the system may automatically upgrade the application service in accordance with the determined upgrade path (e.g., to a new, target version number) . Fig. 1 and para [0018], The master 120 may also include an API server 122 that communicates with developer/operator devices 110 to provide an internal and/or external interfac to a container-orchestration system such as KUBERNETES®. The API server 122 may process and validate Representational State Transfer (“REST”) requests and update the state of the API objects in etcd 128. The master 120 may further include a scheduler 126 (e.g., a pluggable component that selects a node for an unscheduled pod based on resource availability) and a control manager 124 reconciliation loop that drives an actual cluster state toward a desired cluster state, communicating with the API server 122 to create, update, and delete managed resources (pods, service endpoints, etc.). Para [0019], the system 100 may further include nodes 130, 150 (also referred to as “workers” or “minions”). For example, a first node 130 may include multiple pods 132 representing machines where containers are deployed (and each pod might be associated with one or more containers). The first node 130 may also include a Kubelet 134 the runs the state of the node 130, ensuring that all containers on the node 130 are healthy (e.g., it may start, stop, and/or maintain application containers organized into pods as directed by the master 120). According to some embodiments, each node 130, 150 may also include a Kube-proxy and/or load balancer that supports the service abstraction along with other networking operation in connection with users. That that containers reside inside the pods 134, 154. The container is the lowest level of a microservice that holds the running application, libraries, and/or dependencies..).
The Office would like to use prior art Ramachandran to back up Mahajan to further teach limitation
a second network node (Ramachandran, fig. 1 and para [0050-0055], The subscriber would then determine a need for updating the client device and provide the central server with the update package file which provides a means for updating the firmware or software on the client device. The central server is adapted with software to then select appropriate local servers for this supplied update. The central server in the preferred mode compresses the update package file and converts to an appropriate format understandable by local server determined to receive it. The central server then transmits the update package file to one or a plurality of local servers over a data transmission network, in communication with the local server. Upon receipt of the update package, it is partially or totally decompressed if it is compressed and then analyzed for the proper target client devices for the update package. The Office notes that “local server” is a second network node. )
It would have obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effecting filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of cited references. Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art before the effecting filling date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate Ramachandran into Mahajan to communicate an update package including one or a combination of software updates and firmware updates. Update instructions for an electronic device is communicated from a central server to a local server. The update package and the update instructions are stored on the local server. The update instructions are executed to install one or a combination of software updates and firmware updates upon the electronic device, when the electronic device is determined to be in communication with the local server. as suggested by Ramachandran (See abstract and summary).
Claim 2 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 1, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: deploy a first job controller configured to perform the control of at least the software version, the deployed first job controller being one of a first type and a second type (Mahajan, para [0048-0051], Referring to FIG. 9, a table is shown that represents the configmap 900 that may be stored at the apparatus 800 according to some embodiments. The table may include, for example, entries identifying upgrade path information that have been recorded by the system. The table may also define fields 902, 904, 906, 908, 910 for each of the entries. The fields 902, 904, 906, 908, 910 may, according to some embodiments, specify: a map identifier 902, a version 904, and tuples 906, 908, 910. The configmap 900 may be created and updated, for example, based on information received from an operator or administrator. Para [0018], a control manager 124 reconciliation loop that drives an actual cluster state toward a desired cluster state, communicating with the API server 122 to create, update, and delete managed resources (pods, service endpoints, etc.).).
Claim 3 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 2, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 2, wherein the first job controller is a Radio Software Upgrade Job Controller, RSUJC (Mahajan, para [0004], A container-orchestration system server may trigger, by an operator object deployed as a controller for the application service, an upgrade process.).
Claim 4 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 2, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 2,wherein the first network node is further configured to communicate with a third network node, the third network node being a management system, the first network node further comprising a communication interface configured to (Mahajan, fig. 7 and para [0043]):
receive a request associated with the software upgrade from the third network node, the request causing the deployment of the first job controller (Mahajan, fig. 7 and para [0043], In some cases, an operator or administrator may monitor and/or adjust parameters associated with embodiments described herein. For example, FIG. 7 illustrates an interactive Graphical User Interface (“GUI”) display 700 that might display information about a system according to some embodiments. The display 700 includes a graphic representation 710 of elements of a system (e.g., a container orchestration system server, a configmap, etc.). Selection of portions of the graphic representation 710 (e.g., by touchscreen or computer mouse pointer 720) may result in the display of additional information about an element and/or allow an operator to adjust a parameter associated with the system. Similarly, selection of an “Upgrade” icon 730 may also let the user perform a software upgrade process for the container orchestration system (e.g., to see how various upgrade paths are evaluated, determine system performance parameters, etc.).); and
the processing circuitry is further configured to update a plurality of logs associated with the job action(Mahajan, fig. 7 and para [0043-0044], The output device(s) 850 may comprise, for example, a display (e.g., a display screen) a speaker, and/or a printer (e.g., to provide upgrade process status to an operator, summary analytic reports, troubleshooting information, etc.). Ramachandran, para [0040], FIG. 5 shows a log agent which is integrated to a dashboard application which provides user-friendly reports and graphical information).
Claim 5 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 1, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node Claim 1,wherein the fourth network node is a radio unit having a radio interface and a local storage with a capacity for storing radio unit software, the radio unit software having a radio unit software version (Mahajan, fig. 1 and para [0019], The system 100 may further include nodes 130, 150 (also referred to as “workers” or “minions”). For example, a first node 130 may include multiple pods 132 representing machines where containers are deployed (and each pod might be associated with one or more containers). The first node 130 may also include a Kubelet 134 the runs the state of the node 130, ensuring that all containers on the node 130 are healthy (e.g., it may start, stop, and/or maintain application containers organized into pods as directed by the master 120). According to some embodiments, each node 130, 150 may also include a Kube-proxy and/or load balancer that supports the service abstraction along with other networking operation in connection with users. That that containers reside inside the pods 134, 154. The container is the lowest level of a microservice that holds the running application, libraries, and/or dependencies.).
Claim 6 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 1, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 1,wherein the job request is any one of a create job request, a start job request, stop job request, and a delete job request, the create job request includes creating a job record associated with a job within an inventory, the start job request includes starting the job to make the job active within the second network node (16b), the stop job request includes stopping the job to make the job inactive within the second network node (16b), and the delete job request includes deleting the job from the second network node and removing from the inventory the job record associated with the job (Mahajan, para [0039-0040], The operator, using the configmap, may then spawn a job using an image coded to version number 1.2 and update the backing service instance as appropriate. Para [0018], a control manager 124 reconciliation loop that drives an actual cluster state toward a desired cluster state, communicating with the API server 122 to create, update, and delete managed resources (pods, service endpoints, etc.).).
Claim 7 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 1, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 1,wherein the job action is any one of a load software precheck, a load software action, an activate software pre-check, an activate software action, and an activate software post-check, the load software precheck including performing a software compatibility precheck at least on thefourth network node before one of downloading and activating a new software, the load software action including downloading a new software version at least to the fourth network node (16d), the activate software pre-check including performing a precheck at least on the fourth network node before activating the new software, the activate software action including activating the new software at least on the fourth network node (16d), the activate software post-check including performing a post-check at least on the fourth network node after activating the new software (Mahajan para [0030], Note that database versions might not always be compatible with previous versions, and additional steps may be required to complete the upgrade process. This information could be hard-coded in the operator code, but such an approach may not be desirable because it can change with every version. For some source and target version situations, only a deployment of a new image may be required. In other situations, however, an upgrade procedure may need to be performed and/or an intermediate version upgrade may be required. Manually determining an appropriate upgrade path can be a manual, time-consuming, and error prone process—especially when there are a substantial number of services, potential upgrade steps, etc. It may therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods to automatically determine an upgrade path for an application service associated with a container-orchestration system in an accurate and efficient manner. Para [0027], At S330, the system may automatically execute a search algorithm on the plurality of tuples to determine an upgrade path from a source version to a target version for the application service. According to some embodiments, each tuple in a configmap comprises a target version identifier and a Boolean indicating if an additional task needs to be performed in connection with the upgrade process.).
Claim 8 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 1, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 1,wherein the second network node includes a deployed job engine, the deployed job engine being a Radio Software Upgrade Job Engine, RUSJE, of the second type (Mahajan, fig. 2 and para [0020-0023], FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a resilience improvement system 200 according to some embodiments. In particular, the system 200 includes a container-orchestration system server 210 that executes an upgrade process 220. The container-orchestration system server 210 may, according to some embodiments, automatically determine an appropriate upgrade path for an application service.).
Claim 9 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 2, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 2, wherein the first type is a k8s Job running on a workload cluster, and the second type is a k8s Deployment running on a workload cluster (Mahajan, para [0039-0040], The operator, using the configmap, may then spawn a job using an image coded to version number 1.2 and update the backing service instance as appropriate. Para [0025], The illustration 400 of FIG. 4 includes a production deployment 410 attached to four resources (e.g., application and/or backing services): MySQL 420, an outbound email service 430, an Amazon S3 440, and twitter 450. Note that services (like a database service) might be managed by the systems administrator who deployed the application's runtime or a third-party.).
Claim 10 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 4, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 4, wherein the first network node is any one of: configured based at least in part on a file; instantiated by the third network node (16c); a standalone job controller; and running within one of the second network node and the third network node (Mahajan, Fig. 1 and para [0018], The master 120 may also include an API server 122 that communicates with developer/operator devices 110 to provide an internal and/or external interfac to a container-orchestration system such as KUBERNETES®. The API server 122 may process and validate Representational State Transfer (“REST”) requests and update the state of the API objects in etcd 128. The master 120 may further include a scheduler 126 (e.g., a pluggable component that selects a node for an unscheduled pod based on resource availability) and a control manager 124 reconciliation loop that drives an actual cluster state toward a desired cluster state, communicating with the API server 122 to create, update, and delete managed resources (pods, service endpoints, etc.).).
Claim 11 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 10, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 10, wherein the file is Cloud Service Archive, CSAR (Mahajan, para [0023], Note that any number of container-orchestration system servers 210 could be included in the system 200. Moreover, various devices described herein might be combined according to embodiments of the present invention. For example, in some embodiments, the container-orchestration system server 210 and an operator/administrator workstation might be co-located and/or may comprise a single apparatus. Moreover, the functions described herein might be implemented in a cloud-based environment and/or by a service provider (e.g., performing services for one or more enterprises, departments, or businesses). Ramachandran, para [0070], Data store 150 is provided to store the update package files which would be communicated to the local server 102 at appropriate time i.e., when the update is initiated either by local server 102 or by central server user. It is used to store the archival of the logs of local servers, logs of central servers, previous update package files and update packages files yet to be updated to local clients.).
Claim 12 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 2, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 2, wherein the first job controller is any job controller of a plurality of job controllers and is running on anyone of an element manager and a cloud management system(Mahajan, para [0048-0051], Referring to FIG. 9, a table is shown that represents the configmap 900 that may be stored at the apparatus 800 according to some embodiments. The table may include, for example, entries identifying upgrade path information that have been recorded by the system. The table may also define fields 902, 904, 906, 908, 910 for each of the entries. The fields 902, 904, 906, 908, 910 may, according to some embodiments, specify: a map identifier 902, a version 904, and tuples 906, 908, 910. The configmap 900 may be created and updated, for example, based on information received from an operator or administrator.).
Claim 13 is rejected for the reasons set forth hereinabove for claim 1, Mahajan and Ramachandran teach the first network node of Claim 1,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the first network node to: subscribe to notifications by receiving and collecting information about a progress, a state and error conditions associated at least with the job action for at least the fourth network node(Mahajan, fig. 7 and para [0043-0044], The output device(s) 850 may comprise, for example, a display (e.g., a display screen) a speaker, and/or a printer (e.g., to provide upgrade process status to an operator, summary analytic reports, troubleshooting information, etc.). Ramachandran, para [0040], FIG. 5 shows a log agent which is integrated to a dashboard application which provides user-friendly reports and graphical information.).
As per claim 14, this is the method claim to system claim 1. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above.
As per claim 15, this is the method claim to system claim 2. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above
As per claim 16, this is the method claim to system claim 3. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above.
As per claim 17, this is the method claim to system claim 4. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above
As per claim 18, this is the method claim to system claim 5. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above.
As per claim 19, this is the method claim to system claim 6. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above
As per claim 20, this is the method claim to system claim 7. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above.
As per claim 21, this is the method claim to system claim 8. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above
As per claim 22, this is the method claim to system claim 9. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above.
As per claim 23, this is the method claim to system claim 10. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above
As per claim 24, this is the method claim to system claim 11. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above.
As per claim 25, this is the method claim to system claim 12. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above
As per claim 26, this is the method claim to system claim 13. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reasons as above.
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUY KHUONG THANH NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7139. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 0800-1630.
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/DUY KHUONG T NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2199