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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending for examination in instant application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2/11/2024 is/are 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
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(s) 1-4, 9-11 and 14-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song et al. (Pub. No.: US 2015/0169351 A1), hereinafter “Song” in view of Nagakura et al. (Pub. No.: US 2016/0285682 A1), hereinafter “Nag”.
As to claim 1. Song discloses, a method (Song, Abstract) comprising:
receiving a first packet from a second network device, wherein the first packet comprises a media access control (MAC) address and a first management virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier, wherein the first MAC address is of a terminal device connected to the second network device through a first port of the second network device, and wherein the first management VLAN identifier indicates a second management VLAN configured for the first port (Song, [0035], [0036], the core layer device comprises forwarding information that includes a VLAN ID of a VLAN where the VM locates and the port of the access layer device through which the access layer device connects the physical server where the VM is hosted on”); and
establishing, based on the first packet, a first association relationship between the MAC address, the first management VLAN identifier, and a first logical port, wherein the first logical port is located on the first network device and corresponds to the first port (Song, [0036], [0037], table-1, an association relation according to table 1 is established between the Mac address, the VLAN ID and a port located on the core layer device.).
Song however is silent to disclose explicitly, a management VLAN identifier.
Nag discloses a similar concept in the same field of endeavor including, a management VLAN identifier (Nag, [0015], The switch apparatus comprises a VLAN setting management unit that sets VLAN information in the plurality of ports and manages the VLAN information set in the plurality of ports.).
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the instant application it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art to incorporate the teachings of “Nag” into those of Song to provide a switch apparatus that includes: a plurality of ports; a VLAN setting management unit that sets VLAN information in the plurality of ports and manages the VLAN information set in the plurality of ports; and a VLAN setting unit that, when VLAN information to be added to an output packet specified in control information received from a predetermined control apparatus is not set in an output port for the output packet, instructs the VLAN setting management unit to set VLAN information specified in the control information in a corresponding output port.
As to claim 2. The combined system of Song and Nag discloses the invention substantially including, wherein the second network device is a remote access module (Song, [0054]).
As to claim 3. The combined system of Song and Nag discloses the invention substantially including, configuring the first management VLAN identifier for the first logical port (Nag, [0011], A VLAN ID (Virtual Local Area Network Identifier) is sometimes assigned to each port of a switch apparatus); and
establishing a second association relationship between the first management VLAN identifier and the first logical port (Nag, [0028], The switch apparatus 10 comprises a plurality (N number) of ports 104, a VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) setting management unit 107 that sets VLAN information for each of the ports 104 and manages the VLAN information set in each of the ports.).
As to claim 4. The combined system of Song and Nag discloses the invention substantially including, further comprising sending the first management VLAN identifier to the second network device to configure a second management VLAN identifier corresponding to the first port as the first management VLAN identifier (Song, [0088], Then, leaf1 encapsulates a next-hop header for the Ethernet packet. In the next-hop header, a source MAC address is the MAC address of leaf1, a destination MAC address is the MAC address of core1, and a VLAN ID is an ID of a designated VLAN.).
As to claim 9. Is rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 1 above.
As to claim 10. Is rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 2 above.
As to claim 11. Is rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 3 above.
As to claim 14. Is rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 1 above.
As to claim 15. Is rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 3 above.
As to claim 16. Is rejected for same rationale as applied to claim 4 above.
Examiner note: Claims 5-8, 12-13 and 17-20 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see the attached PTO-892.
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/Tauqir Hussain/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2446