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 .
Response to Arguments
Claim Objections
Claim 13 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 13 recites “third topology”, but there are no “second topology” recited in the claim nor anywhere in the parent claims.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-3, 6-10 and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Sahin (US 2022/0338279).
Regarding claim 1, Sahin describes a method performed by a management server (fig. 1, mesh (management) server 103 comprising communication manager 640 in a maritime vessel), comprising:
obtaining topology information about at least part of a topology of a network comprising multiple maritime vessels fig. (fig. 1 + 11D and para. 97-104 & 106 especially para. 104, vessels each being network devices (ND) having a network element (NE) 1170 in a maritime vessel has control plane that uses centralized control plane with distributed protocols with other vessels for topology discovery of all vessels (same as instant application par. 97 reciting centralized or distributed management server). The control plane is in the ND being a router which store routing information in the forwarding tables 1134A-R & controls how data is to be routed, para. 84).
determining, for one or more target maritime vessels of the network, configuration information for service addressing or packet routing, based on the topology information; and sending the configuration information for service addressing or packet routing to the one or more target maritime vessels (fig. 11D & para. 100, centralized approach 1174 includes network controller 1178 that generates reachability & forwarding information in the centralized plane 1176 from topology discovery. The centralized control plane 1176 that determines the reachability within the network & distributes (sends) the forwarding (configuration) information to other NEs 1170A-H (= vessels in fig. 1)).
Regarding claim 2, Sahin describes:
wherein the configuration information for service addressing can allow the one or more target maritime vessels to address services related to one or more different maritime vessels (para. 100, the forwarding (configuration) information sent to other NEs 1170A-H (= vessels) enables access of a remote service (address services) via terrestrial network over the maritime mesh network, para. 5 or abstract).
Regarding claim 3, Sahin describes:
wherein obtaining the topology information comprises:
obtaining initial topology information about the topology of the network when the topology of the network is initially formed;
wherein determining the configuration information for service addressing comprises:
determining service addressing configurations for the multiple maritime vessels based on the initial topology information; and
wherein the service addressing configurations are sent to the multiple maritime vessels (fig. 1 & para. 98, across the network comprising vessels, topology discovery is used for generating reachability and forwarding information across the Nes 1170A-H (service addressing configurations sent across the network)).
Regarding claim 6, Sahin describes:
wherein the configuration information for service addressing that can allow a target maritime vessel to address a service related to a different maritime vessel comprises: a retrieval condition related to the different maritime vessel; and an address of the service which corresponds to the retrieval condition (para. 91, each vessel is a ND/NE/router with IP router functionality, forwarding packets on basis of destination IP address, to deliver data to remote service. The forwarding process in ND comprises receiving that data on the physical NIs 1116 and forwarding that data out the appropriate ones of the physical NIs 1116 based on the forwarding table(s) 1134A-R = (i.e. routing/forwarding table lookup) (retrieval condition), para. 84).
Regarding claim 7, Sahin describes:
wherein the retrieval condition related to the different maritime vessel comprises:
identification information of a network equipment (NE) which provides the service and is located at or serves the different maritime vessel (para. 91, each vessel is a ND/NE/router with IP router functionality, forwarding packets on basis of destination IP address (identification information of NE), to deliver data to remote service).
Regarding claim 8, Sahin describes:
wherein the retrieval condition related to the different maritime vessel further comprises one or more of: an interface supported by the network equipment (NE) (para. 117, network interface of the ND/NE in a vessel); and
an indicator indicating whether or not the different maritime vessel is directly connected to the target maritime vessel in the topology of the network (the forwarding of the comprises a hop count (para. 40), & by definition if positive, not yet connected to target (destination)).
Regarding claim 9, Sahin describes:
wherein the address of the service is an Internet protocol, IP, related address or a domain name address (para. 91, each vessel is a ND/NE/router with IP router functionality, forwarding packets on basis of destination IP address (identification information of NE), to deliver data to remote service).
Regarding claim 13, Sahin describes:
wherein a number of the one or more target maritime vessels is more than one, and the configuration information for packet routing can allow a packet to be routed along a path of the more than one target maritime vessel to a different maritime vessel (para. 36, the method setup/configuration enables wireless communication system to relay data traffic (packet) from 1 maritime vessel to another in a mesh network toward destination).
Regarding claim 14, Sahin describes:
wherein obtaining the topology information comprises:
obtaining third topology information about a part of the topology of the network, wherein the part of the topology is formed by the path and the different maritime vessel;
wherein determining the configuration information for packet routing comprises:
determining packet routing rules for the more than one target maritime vessel based on the third topology information; and
wherein the packet routing rules are sent to the more than one target maritime vessel (fig. 11D & para. 100, centralized approach 1174 includes network controller 1178 that generates reachability & forwarding information in the centralized plane 1176 from topology discovery (third topology information) based on next hop selection process (para. 51). The centralized control plane 1176 determines the reachability (rules) within the network & distributes (sends) the forwarding (configuration) information to other NEs 1170A-H (= vessels in fig. 1)).
Regarding claim 26, Sadin describes a method performed by a first relay terminal device at a first maritime vessel (fig. 1, intermediate vessel), comprising:
receiving a data packet containing a protocol data unit, PDU, having a destination address; determining whether or not a destination network equipment corresponding to the destination address is directly reachable; and when determining that the destination network equipment is not directly reachable, transferring the data packet to a second relay terminal device at a second maritime vessel that is connected with the first maritime vessel (fig. 11A & 11D & para. 21 & 83, each intermediate vessel is a network device (ND)/network element (NE) comprising forwarding table to forward towards the target/destination or directly to the target/destination if it is the next hop in the mesh network).
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 12 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sadin as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Li (US 2023/0345242).
Regarding claim 12, Sahin fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the configuration information for service addressing takes a form of one or more domain name system, DNS, records.
Li also describes message forwarding (title), further describing:
configuration information for service addressing takes a form of one or more domain name system, DNS, records (para. 79, domain name cache (configuration) entry (record) includes, but are not limited to, the first network address, the address translation information, and the second network address, and may also include other fields according to actual needs (DNS cache)).
It would be obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the configuration information in message forwarding of Sahin to take a form of DNS records as in Li.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this enables a communication system that perform a cross-protocol domain addressing (Li, para. 39).
Regarding claim 18, Sadi describes a method performed by a management server in a network, wherein the network comprises a first maritime vessel and two or more second maritime vessels, each as a network device (ND)/network element (NE) (fig. 1 & para. 91),
the first maritime vessel acts as an anchor node transferring control plane, CP, traffic and/or user plane, UP, traffic for the two or more second maritime vessels (fig. 1, vessel assfirst ND to provide signaling/data traffic for vessels 2 & 3 in a mesh network).
Sadi fails to further explicitly describe:
determining, from the two or more second maritime vessels, a target second maritime vessel as a backup anchor node for substituting the anchor node; and sending, to the target second maritime vessel, available configuration information of the first maritime vessel that is required for acting as the anchor node.
Hampel also describes wireless communications (fig. 6), further describing:
determining, from the two or more second maritime vessels, a target second maritime vessel as a backup anchor node for substituting the anchor node (para. 31, relay nodes serving as base stations are selected for non-serving local anchor, para. 6); and sending, to the target second maritime vessel, available configuration information of the first maritime vessel that is required for acting as the anchor node (para. 79, base station as local anchor 610 initiates anchor-migration procedure (configuration information) to switch packet delivery to the new base station as the target (substituting) local anchor 112).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the vessels in Sahin to be selected as substituting anchor node as in Hampel.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this further improves wireless communications technologies and is applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies (Hampel, para. 4).
Regarding claim 19, Sadi and Li combined describe:
receiving, from the first maritime vessel, at least part of the configuration information of the first maritime vessel that is required for acting as the anchor node (para. 79, base station as local anchor 610 initiates anchor-migration procedure (configuration information) to switch packet delivery to the new base station as the target (substituting) local anchor 112).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5, 10-11 and 15-17 are 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.
Regarding claim 4, the prior art fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein obtaining the topology information comprises:
obtaining first topology information about the topology of the network at a first time; and
obtaining second topology information about the topology of the network at a subsequent second time, wherein there is a change between the two topologies of the network;
wherein determining the configuration information comprises: determining service addressing configuration updates for the one or more target maritime vessels, based on the first and second topology information; and wherein the service addressing configuration updates are sent to the one or more target maritime vessels.
The closest prior art, Mishra (US 2022/0239554) describing generation of topology graph & comparing with previous topology graph in identifying problematic node or link for an alert (fig. 4), and Vasseur (US 2013/0159550) describing analysis of current routing topology with a computed routing topology to determine whether to optimize a current routing topology (abstract), in combination with Sahin, fail to render the above features as a whole obvious.
Regarding claim 10, Sahin describes that the communication system of each maritime vessel relays data traffic as part of the mesh network received via its respective RAN 101 and retransmitted via its respective mobile network equipment 105 (para. 36), but fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the domain name address comprises: identification information of a relay terminal device located on the different maritime vessel; and a type of a network equipment which provides the service.
The closest prior art, Li describing domain address querying as part of message forwarding in communication system comprising translation from IPv4 to IPv6 (version conversion) enroute to the destination address, in combination with Sahin, fail to render the above additional features as a whole obvious.
Regarding claim 15, the prior art fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein the multiple maritime vessels comprise: a first set of maritime vessels each of which is provided with core network nodes; and a second set of maritime vessels each of which is provided with no core network nodes; and wherein control plane, CP, traffic and user plane, UP, traffic to/from the second set of maritime vessels are transferred by one or more anchor nodes in the first set of maritime vessels.
The closest prior art, Sahin describing each maritime vessel comprising set core network nodes (fig. 1), in combination with Li (US 2023/0345242) describing maritime communication between vessels (fig. 4A & abstract), in combination, fail to render the above features obvious.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Tang (US 2020/0344664) describing relay routing where central (anchor) node sends a routing table to the first relay node for latter data packet to be sent between source & destination node (fig. 3), Bryant (US 7885179) describing method of constructing a repair path around a non-available component in a data communications network (title), Hashemi (US 2020/0196219) describing system used to perform data transmission over a communication band that maintains a primary route for communication between the source and destination stations and at least one backup route, and Fallon (US 2015/0382278) describing generation of routing table for mesh network with adhoc connections.
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WARNER WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2469
/WARNER WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469