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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/29/2025; the submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
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) 1,2, 5-9, 11, 12, 15, 16, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US-20140328190-A1 to Lord et al., from hereon Lord in view of US-20130114402-A1 to Ould-Brahim et al., from hereon Ould-Brahim and US-20250175413-A1 to Purdin et al., from hereon Purdin.
Regarding claim 1 Lord teaches a method, comprising: establishing, by an access device communicatively coupled to a local area network (LAN) and to an aggregation device in a service provider network (Fig. 7 and Fig. 19, P.112 discloses the access device in an environment with connection via LAN and WAN communication), layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via a main network service (P. 36 discloses the support of access devices of application-layer services in an environment (mainly driven by cloud services) where these services are supported on an infrastructure as illustrated on Fig. 2); but does not teach…subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network, determining, by the access device, that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network; and attempting, by the access device, to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using a backup network service.
Ould-Brahim teaches…subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network, determining, by the access device, that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network (P. 39, CLM 5 discloses the determining by the access device that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity also described as bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD));
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Lord by incorporating the teachings of Ould-Brahim because the method and device allow for various modes of Layer-3 (L3) connection monitoring allowing fast detection and connection as well as pinpointing the location (Ould-Brahim , Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Purdin teaches…and attempting, by the access device, to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using a backup network service (Fig 2, P. 69 discloses… method 230 and method 250 presented in FIG. 1, FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, FIG. 2C, FIG. 2D and FIG. 3. For example, virtualized communication network 300 can facilitate in whole or in part establishing a service overlay using layer 2 EVPN VPWS tunnels over a layer 3 transport network to connect a subscriber network access aggregation point to redundant broadband network gateway devices. Furthermore, P. 95 further discloses… establishing a service overlay using layer 2 EVPN VPWS tunnels over a layer 3 transport network to connect a subscriber network access aggregation point to redundant broadband network gateway devices. One gateway is designated as primary and used for subscriber data communication. In the event of a network failure, the redundant or backup gateway is automatically placed into service, all transparently to the subscriber access point).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Lord by incorporating the teachings of Purdin because the method and device allow for various modes of configuration of monitoring and detecting service interruption on layer 3 services using layer 2 services (Purdin, Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Regarding claim 2 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 1, Purdin teaches..wherein establishing the layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via the main network service further comprises establishing the layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via the main network service during an initialization phase of the access device (Fig. 2B, P.49, discloses the initialization … method 230 may be used to initialize communication between the access aggregation device 206 (also referred to as access aggregation device 206) and the first broadband gateway BNG-A 222 as a primary gateway and the second broadband gateway BNG-B 224 as the secondary gateway… to ensure reliable service).
Regarding claim 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: prior to attempting, by the access device, to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service, altering, by the access device, a configuration option to cause the access device to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service during an initialization phase; and wherein attempting, by the access device, to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service further comprises causing, by the access device, the access device to re-enter the initialization phase.
Regarding claim 4 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 3, wherein causing, by the access device, the access device to re-enter the initialization phase comprises causing, by the access device, the access device to reboot.
Regarding claim 5 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 1, Lord teaches…wherein the access device is communicatively coupled to the LAN via a LAN port of the access device and is communicatively coupled to the service provider network via a WAN port of the access device (P.105 ).
Regarding claim 6 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 1, Purdin teaches…wherein the access device comprises a cable modem or an optical network unit (P. 19).
Regarding claim 7 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 1, Lord teaches…further comprising: accessing, by the access device, telemetry data; and prior to determining, by the access device, that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network, sending, by the access device, the telemetry data via the main network service (P.106, Note: Purdin also teaches…P. 63, and Ould-Brahim Fig. 3 ).
Regarding claim 8 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 7, Lord teaches…wherein the telemetry data comprises one or more of: an upstream channel frequency used by the access device to send data to the aggregation device, a downstream channel frequency used by the access device to receive data from the aggregation device , round-trip latency times between the access device and one or more wireless computing devices communicatively coupled to the LAN and the access device (P. 112), packet count information that identifies an aggregate quantity of packets transmitted by a computing device communicatively coupled to the LAN, and a DOCSIS latency that identifies a latency between the access device and the aggregation device.
Regarding claim 9 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 1, Lord teaches…wherein subsequently determining, by the access device, that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network further comprises accessing, by a command and control agent executing on the access device, configuration data that identifies whether connectivity to a command and control controller in the service provider network exists (P.37-38 ).
Regarding claim 10 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 1, wherein attempting, by the access device, to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service comprises: entering, by the access device, an initialization phase of the access device; accessing a configuration option; determining, based on the configuration option, to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service; and initiating, by the access device, the backup network service to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network.
Regarding claim 11 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 1, Lord teaches…wherein the aggregation device comprises a cable modem termination system or an optical line terminal (P.50 ).
Regarding claim 12 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 1, Lord teaches…further comprising: in response to establishing layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via the main network service, initiating, by the access device, a main network service telemetry process from a plurality of telemetry processes (P. 37).
Regarding claim 13 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 12, further comprising: subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via the backup network service, initiating, by the access device, a backup telemetry process in lieu of the main network service telemetry process.
Regarding claim 14 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the method of claim 13, further comprising: subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via the backup network service, continuously monitoring, by the access device, availability of a command and control controller in the service provider network; determining, by the access device, that the command and control controller in the service provider network has become available; and in response to determining, by the access device, that the command and control controller in the service provider network has become available, attempting to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the main network service.
Regarding claim 15 Lord teaches…an access device, comprising: a memory; and one or more processor devices operable to (P. 27 discloses… an apparatus; a system; a composition of matter; a computer program product embodied on a computer readable storage medium; and/or a processor, such as a processor configured to execute instructions stored on and/or provided by a memory coupled to the processor): establish layer 3 connectivity with a service provider network via a main network service(P. 36 discloses the support of access devices of application-layer services in an environment (mainly driven by cloud services) where these services are supported on an infrastructure as illustrated on Fig. 2); but does not teach…subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network, determine that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network; and attempt to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using a backup network service.
Ould-Brahim teaches… subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network, determine that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network(P. 39, CLM 5 discloses the determining by the access device that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity also described as bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Lord by incorporating the teachings of Ould-Brahim because the method and device allow for various modes of Layer-3 (L3) connection monitoring allowing fast detection and connection as well as pinpointing the location (Ould-Brahim , Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Purdin teaches…and attempt to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using a backup network service(Fig 2, P. 69 discloses… method 230 and method 250 presented in FIG. 1, FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, FIG. 2C, FIG. 2D and FIG. 3. For example, virtualized communication network 300 can facilitate in whole or in part establishing a service overlay using layer 2 EVPN VPWS tunnels over a layer 3 transport network to connect a subscriber network access aggregation point to redundant broadband network gateway devices. Furthermore, P. 95 further discloses… establishing a service overlay using layer 2 EVPN VPWS tunnels over a layer 3 transport network to connect a subscriber network access aggregation point to redundant broadband network gateway devices. One gateway is designated as primary and used for subscriber data communication. In the event of a network failure, the redundant or backup gateway is automatically placed into service, all transparently to the subscriber access point).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Lord by incorporating the teachings of Purdin because the method and device allow for various modes of configuration of monitoring and detecting service interruption on layer 3 services using layer 2 services (Purdin, Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Regarding claim 16 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the access device of claim 15, Lord teaches…wherein the access device comprises a cable modem or an optical network unit (P.50 ).
Regarding claim 17 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the access device of claim 15, wherein to attempt to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service, the one or more processor devices are further operable to: enter an initialization phase of the access device; access a configuration option; determine, based on the configuration option, to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service; and initiate the backup network service to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network.
Regarding claim 18 Lord, Ould-Brahim and Purdin teach the access device of claim 15, Lord teaches…wherein the one or more processor devices are further operable to: in response to establishing layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via the main network service, initiate a main network service telemetry process from a plurality of telemetry processes (P. 37).
Claim(s) 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US-20250175413-A1 to Purdin et al., from hereon Purdin in view of .US-20140328190-A1 to Lord et al., from hereon Lord and US-20130114402-A1 to Ould-Brahim et al., from hereon Ould-Brahim.
Regarding claim 19 Purdin teaches…a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes executable instructions operable to cause one or more processor devices of an access device to (clm 11 discloses…non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising: creating layer 2 Ethernet Virtual Private Network Virtual Private Wire Service (EVPN VPWS) overlays on a layer 3 internet protocol underlay network to provide network access to a service provider network for a subscriber access point; establishing first network reachability between the subscriber access point and a first Broadband Network Gateway (BNG); establishing second network reachability between the subscriber access point and a second Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) ): establish layer 3 connectivity with a service provider network via a main network service; (clm 11 discloses…non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising: creating layer 2 Ethernet Virtual Private Network Virtual Private Wire Service (EVPN VPWS) overlays on a layer 3 internet protocol underlay network to provide network access to a service provider network for a subscriber access point; establishing first network reachability between the subscriber access point and a first Broadband Network Gateway (BNG); establishing second network reachability between the subscriber access point and a second Broadband Network Gateway (BNG)),but does not teach… determine that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network; and attempt to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using a backup network service.
Lord teaches… establish layer 3 connectivity with a service provider network via a main network service(P. 36 discloses the support of access devices of application-layer services in an environment (mainly driven by cloud services) where these services are supported on an infrastructure as illustrated on Fig. 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Purdin by incorporating the teachings of Lord because the method and device allow for various modes collecting data from a plurality of devices tracking and making adjustments to parameters and transmitting to the devices optimized adjustments (Lord , Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Ould-Brahim teaches subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network …determine that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity to the service provider network; and attempt to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using a backup network service(P. 39, CLM 5 discloses the determining by the access device that the main network service has lost layer 3 connectivity also described as bidirectional forwarding detection (BFD);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Purdin by incorporating the teachings of Ould-Brahim because the method and device allow for various modes of Layer-3 (L3) connection monitoring allowing fast detection and connection as well as pinpointing the location (Ould-Brahim , Abs). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Regarding claim 20 Purdin, Lord, and Ould-Brahim teach the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, Pundin teaches…wherein to attempt to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service, the executable instructions are further operable to cause the one or more processor devices to: enter an initialization phase of the access device; access a configuration option; determine, based on the configuration option, to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service; and initiate the backup network service to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network ((Fig 2, P. 69 discloses… method 230 and method 250 presented in FIG. 1, FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, FIG. 2C, FIG. 2D and FIG. 3. For example, virtualized communication network 300 can facilitate in whole or in part establishing a service overlay using layer 2 EVPN VPWS tunnels over a layer 3 transport network to connect a subscriber network access aggregation point to redundant broadband network gateway devices. Furthermore, P. 95 further discloses… establishing a service overlay using layer 2 EVPN VPWS tunnels over a layer 3 transport network to connect a subscriber network access aggregation point to redundant broadband network gateway devices. One gateway is designated as primary and used for subscriber data communication. In the event of a network failure, the redundant or backup gateway is automatically placed into service, all transparently to the subscriber access point).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 10, 13, 17, and 21 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 main reason for objecting the claims under discussion is the inclusion of “the access device, a configuration option to cause the access device to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service during an initialization phase; and wherein attempting, by the access device, to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service further comprises causing, by the access device, the access device to re-enter the initialization phase”, “attempting, by the access device, to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service comprises: entering, by the access device, an initialization phase of the access device; accessing a configuration option; determining, based on the configuration option, to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service; and initiating, by the access device, the backup network service to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network”, “subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via the backup network service, initiating, by the access device, a backup telemetry process in lieu of the main network service telemetry process.”, “subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via the backup network service, continuously monitoring, by the access device, availability of a command and control controller in the service provider network; determining, by the access device, that the command and control controller in the service provider network has become available; and in response to determining, by the access device, that the command and control controller in the service provider network has become available, attempting to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the main network service”, “subsequent to establishing layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network via the backup network service, continuously monitoring, by the access device, availability of a command and control controller in the service provider network; determining, by the access device, that the command and control controller in the service provider network has become available; and in response to determining, by the access device, that the command and control controller in the service provider network has become available, attempting to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the main network service”, “to attempt to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service, the one or more processor devices are further operable to: enter an initialization phase of the access device; access a configuration option; determine, based on the configuration option, to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service; and initiate the backup network service to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network”, and “access device to establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service during an initialization phase; and wherein to attempt to re-establish layer 3 connectivity with the service provider network using the backup network service, the executable instructions are further operable to cause the one or more processor devices to cause the access device to re-enter the initialization phase” as the prior art of record in stand-alone form nor in combination read into the disclosed claims as supported by the specification. Furthermore, the nearest prior art such as US-10374887-B2 to Kerpez, US-20050021855-A1 to Wang, US-11381669-B2 to Cook, and US-20160182355-A1 to Traxler disclose service provider services and backup configuration and protective mechanism but are silent on updating configuration, re-establishing or re-initialization procedures or initiating only telemetry process in lieu of the main network service control (telemetry) service.
Claims 4 is objected (allowed) as they depend from an allowed claim.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO form PTO-892: US-10374887-B2 to Kerpez, US-11381669-B2 to Cook, to US-20160182355-A1 to Traxler, WO-2008095365-A1 to Zhang.
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/L.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2476
/AYAZ R SHEIKH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2476