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 .
This Office Action is a response to communications dated 12/11/2023. Claims 1-20 are pending in the application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements filed 12/11/2023 and 10/23/2024 comply with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609. They have been considered and placed in the application file.
Claim Objections
Claims 13 and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities:
As per claim 13, line 3, “claim 2.14.” should be changed to --claim 2.--.
As per claim 14, line 1, “(New)” should be changed to --14. (New)--.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 6-10, 16, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ge (US 2016/0057004).
Regarding claim 1, in accordance with Ge reference entirety, Ge teaches a packet forwarding method (para [0036] and thereinafter: “Communication module 110 may use an incoming data packet label … that will be forwarded through a MPLS network along the same label switched path (LSP) … .”), comprising:
looking up an ingress label of a packet to be forwarded in a current label forwarding table corresponding to a current time slice or current topology in a case that the packet to be forwarded is acquired (para [0037]: "Upon receipt of a data packet, at least a portion of the modified MPLS label (e.g., Bit 32) may be used by communication module 110 to determine whether the packet includes first category information or second category information. The category allows the establishment of an appropriate LSP through the worksite or across worksites. Because the modified MPLS label value will determine the appropriate label switch routing, the category for a packet may be determined prior to the data packet entering an ingress LSR (e.g., communication module 110).");
looking up the ingress label in a target label forwarding table corresponding to a target time slice or target topology in a case that the ingress label is not found in the current label forwarding table (para [0041]: “Upon receipt of a data packet, the modified MPLS label included in the packet header may be used by communication module 110 as an index to determine a next hop on the LSP … .” Moreover; para [0042]: “If the destination machine address is not associated with communication module's machine (Step 414, NO), the communication module may determine whether the destination address is listed on a switching table accessible by the communication module (Step 416). For instance, if communication module 110 determines that the data packet is to be forwarded to another work machine within a workgroup, communication module 110 may utilize a proactive MPLS routing protocol to forward data packets within a workgroup … .”); and
forwarding the packet to be forwarded according to an egress label corresponding to the ingress label in the target label forwarding table in a case that the ingress label is found in the target time slice (para [0042]: “If the destination machine address is not associated with communication module's machine (Step 414, NO), the communication module may determine whether the destination address is listed on a switching table accessible by the communication module (Step 416). For instance, if communication module 110 determines that the data packet is to be forwarded to another work machine within a workgroup, communication module 110 may utilize a proactive MPLS routing protocol to forward data packets within a workgroup. The packet may then be forwarded along a LSP to a next communication module (acting as a next LSR). In order to effectively forward type I information, each node (e.g., work machine) in the ad-hoc network may proactively maintain, using a switching table, routes to destinations within a local neighborhood. As used herein, a local neighborhood may be defined as a collection of nodes whose minimum distance in hops from the node in question is no greater than a parameter (zone radius or cluster radius). Each node may be aware of all node neighbors by broadcasting routing updates periodically. Since the broadcasting is performed within a local zone rather than across the whole network, network capacity may be saved to transfer other information. However, each node may define its own workgroup or neighbors, workgroup members may change from time to time (e.g., as a work machine travels from one worksite to another). Thus, communication module 110 may also be configured to access a label lookup table including information for members within a defined group (e.g., a worksite) as the join or leave the workgroup. Each packet to be forwarded using the proactive routing process may then be assigned a label number and the switching may be performed after examination of the label assigned to the packet. If the destination the destination address is listed on a switching table (Step 418, YES), communication module 110 may perform a label switch (e.g., swap the incoming message label for an outgoing message label) to route the message to the destination address (Step 420). In some embodiments, the switching of data occurs at layer 2.5, rather than layer 3 (e.g., the IP layer). The switching is fast when a short lookup table is used. Although the communication module 110 may not have address tables that cover the ad hoc network in its entirety, most first category information may be effectively handled or forwarded due to the time and distance characteristics of first category information.”).
Regarding claim 2, in addition to features recited in base claim 1 (see rationales discussed above), Ge also teaches before acquiring a packet to be forwarded, further comprising: calculating (determine) a topological path (next hop on the LSP) corresponding to each time slice, all time slices having a mapping relationship (address associated with module), and each time slice corresponding to one topological path (para [0041]: "Upon receipt of a data packet, the modified MPLS label included in the packet header may be used by communication module 110 as an index to determine a next hop on the LSP. For instance, upon receiving or generating a data packet, communication module 110 may first determine whether the destination machine address (e.g., MAC/ID number) is the address of the machine associated with communication module 110 (Step 404). Since communication module 110 may be implemented by stand-alone machine gateway equipment, the media access control address (MAC) of the machine might not be bundled with machine ID. It is preferable for communication module 110 to use unique machine ID specified in the modified MPLS label to determine machine address. If the destination machine address is associated with the source communication module's machine (Step 406, YES), a decapsulation process may be performed on the received message (Step 408) to retrieve the packet payload. Following the decapsulation process, the packet may be sent to a conversion module (Step 410) of the work machine for further processing, whereby the communication sequence ends (Step 412)"); and obtaining a label forwarding path corresponding to each time slice according to the topological path (para [0042]: "If the destination machine address is not associated with communication module's machine (Step 414, NO), the communication module may determine whether the destination address is listed on a switching table accessible by the communication module (Step 416). For instance, if communication module 110 determines that the data packet is to be forwarded to another work machine within a workgroup, communication module 110 may utilize a proactive MPLS routing protocol to forward data packets within a workgroup. The packet may then be forwarded along a LSP to a next communication module (acting as a next LSR). In order to effectively forward type I information, each node (e.g., work machine) in the ad-hoc network may proactively maintain, using a switching table, routes to destinations within a local neighborhood. As used herein, a local neighborhood may be defined as a collection of nodes whose minimum distance in hops from the node in question is no greater than a parameter (zone radius or cluster radius). Each node may be aware of all node neighbors by broadcasting routing updates periodically. Since the broadcasting is performed within a local zone rather than across the whole network, network capacity may be saved to transfer other information. However, each node may define its own workgroup or neighbors, workgroup members may change from time to time (e.g., as a work machine travels from one worksite to another). Thus, communication module 110 may also be configured to access a label lookup table including information for members within a defined group (e.g., a worksite) as the join or leave the workgroup. Each packet to be forwarded using the proactive routing process may then be assigned a label number and the switching may be performed after examination of the label assigned to the packet. If the destination the destination address is listed on a switching table (Step 418, YES), communication module 110 may perform a label switch (e.g., swap the incoming message label for an outgoing message label) to route the message to the destination address (Step 420). In some embodiments, the switching of data occurs at layer 2.5, rather than layer 3 (e.g., the IP layer). The switching is fast when a short lookup table is used. Although the communication module 110 may not have address tables that cover the ad hoc network in its entirety, most first category information may be effectively handled or forwarded due to the time and distance characteristics of first category information.").
Regarding claim 3, in addition to features recited in base claim 1 (see rationales discussed above), Ge also teaches wherein looking up an ingress label of a packet to be forwarded in a current label forwarding table corresponding to a current time slice or current topology in a case that the packet to be forwarded is acquired: parsing a target label of the packet to be forwarded; determining the packet to be forwarded as a common packet or a satellite packet according to the target label of the packet to be forwarded; and looking up the ingress label from the current label forwarding table in a case that the packet to be forwarded is the satellite packet (para [0042]: "If the destination machine address is not associated with communication module's machine (Step 414, NO), the communication module may determine whether the destination address is listed on a switching table accessible by the communication module (Step 416). For instance, if communication module 110 determines that the data packet is to be forwarded to another work machine within a workgroup, communication module 110 may utilize a proactive MPLS routing protocol to forward data packets within a workgroup. The packet may then be forwarded along a LSP to a next communication module (acting as a next LSR). In order to effectively forward type I information, each node (e.g., work machine) in the ad-hoc network may proactively maintain, using a switching table, routes to destinations within a local neighborhood. As used herein, a local neighborhood may be defined as a collection of nodes whose minimum distance in hops from the node in question is no greater than a parameter (zone radius or cluster radius). Each node may be aware of all node neighbors by broadcasting routing updates periodically. Since the broadcasting is performed within a local zone rather than across the whole network, network capacity may be saved to transfer other information. However, each node may define its own workgroup or neighbors, workgroup members may change from time to time (e.g., as a work machine travels from one worksite to another). Thus, communication module 110 may also be configured to access a label lookup table including information for members within a defined group (e.g., a worksite) as the join or leave the workgroup. Each packet to be forwarded using the proactive routing process may then be assigned a label number and the switching may be performed after examination of the label assigned to the packet. If the destination the destination address is listed on a switching table (Step 418, YES), communication module 110 may perform a label switch (e.g., swap the incoming message label for an outgoing message label) to route the message to the destination address (Step 420). In some embodiments, the switching of data occurs at layer 2.5, rather than layer 3 (e.g., the IP layer). The switching is fast when a short lookup table is used. Although the communication module 110 may not have address tables that cover the ad hoc network in its entirety, most first category information may be effectively handled or forwarded due to the time and distance characteristics of first category information.").
Regarding claim 4, in addition to features recited in base claim 3 (see rationales discussed above), Ge also teaches before parsing a target label of the packet to be forwarded, further comprising: determining that the packet to be forwarded comprises the target label in a case that a first packet is obtained by parsing the packet to be forwarded; and determining that the packet to be forwarded does not comprise the target label in a case that the first packet is not obtained by parsing the packet to be forwarded (para [0042]: "If the destination machine address is not associated with communication module's machine (Step 414, NO), the communication module may determine whether the destination address is listed on a switching table accessible by the communication module (Step 416). For instance, if communication module 110 determines that the data packet is to be forwarded to another work machine within a workgroup, communication module 110 may utilize a proactive MPLS routing protocol to forward data packets within a workgroup. The packet may then be forwarded along a LSP to a next communication module (acting as a next LSR). In order to effectively forward type I information, each node (e.g., work machine) in the ad-hoc network may proactively maintain, using a switching table, routes to destinations within a local neighborhood. As used herein, a local neighborhood may be defined as a collection of nodes whose minimum distance in hops from the node in question is no greater than a parameter (zone radius or cluster radius). Each node may be aware of all node neighbors by broadcasting routing updates periodically. Since the broadcasting is performed within a local zone rather than across the whole network, network capacity may be saved to transfer other information. However, each node may define its own workgroup or neighbors, workgroup members may change from time to time (e.g., as a work machine travels from one worksite to another). Thus, communication module 110 may also be configured to access a label lookup table including information for members within a defined group (e.g., a worksite) as the join or leave the workgroup. Each packet to be forwarded using the proactive routing process may then be assigned a label number and the switching may be performed after examination of the label assigned to the packet. If the destination the destination address is listed on a switching table (Step 418, YES), communication module 110 may perform a label switch (e.g., swap the incoming message label for an outgoing message label) to route the message to the destination address (Step 420). In some embodiments, the switching of data occurs at layer 2.5, rather than layer 3 (e.g., the IP layer). The switching is fast when a short lookup table is used. Although the communication module 110 may not have address tables that cover the ad hoc network in its entirety, most first category information may be effectively handled or forwarded due to the time and distance characteristics of first category information.").
As per claims 6-9, the claims appear to call for an apparatus having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claims 1-4, respectively. Thus, they are anticipated by Ge for the same rationales applied to method claims 1-4 as above discussed.
As per claim 11, the claim appears to call for a computer program stored thereon a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claim 1. Thus, it is anticipated by Ge for the same rationales applied to method claim 1 as above discussed.
As per claim 12, the claim appears to call for an apparatus having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claim 1. Thus, it is anticipated by Ge for the same rationales applied to method claim 1 as above discussed.
As per claim 13, the claim appears to call for an apparatus having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claim 2. Thus, it is anticipated by Ge for the same rationales applied to method claim 2 as above discussed.
As per claim 14, the claim appears to call for an apparatus having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claim 3. Thus, it is anticipated by Ge for the same rationales applied to method claim 3 as above discussed.
As per claim 15, the claim appears to call for an apparatus having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claim 4. Thus, it is anticipated by Ge for the same rationales applied to method claim 4 as above discussed.
As per claim 17, the claim appears to call for a computer program stored thereon a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claim 2. Thus, it is anticipated by Ge for the same rationales applied to method claim 2 as above discussed.
As per claim 18, the claim appears to call for a computer program stored thereon a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claim 3. Thus, it is anticipated by Ge for the same rationales applied to method claim 3 as above discussed.
As per claim 19, the claim appears to call for a computer program stored thereon a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having limitations variously and essentially mirrored functional limitations of method claim 4. Thus, it is anticipated by Ge for the same rationales applied to method claim 4 as above discussed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 10, 16, and 20 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art of record, considered individually or in combination, appears to fail to fairly show or suggest a claimed invention of base claims 1 and 6 and further limits with novel and unobvious limitations of “wherein the looking up the ingress label in a target label forwarding table corresponding to a target time slice in a case that the ingress label is not found in the current label forwarding table comprises: waiting for M−1 time periods in a case that the target time slice is not found, each time period being a time slice, and M being the number of time slices in a cycle; looking up the target time slice after waiting for M−1 time periods; looking up the ingress label in the target label forwarding table in a case that the target time slice is found; and ending up forwarding of the packet to be forwarded in a case that the target time slice is not found,” structurally and functionally interconnected in a manner as claimed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Ge (US 2016/0057004).
Van Wambeke et al. (US 2019/0190821).
Yan et al., AN ADVANCED LEO SATELLITE NETWORK MODEL BASED ON MPLS-TP, IEEE, 5 pages, January 20, 2011.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FRANK DUONG whose telephone number is (571)272-3164. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00AM-3:30PM.
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/FRANK DUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474 December 29, 2025