DETAILED ACTION
This Communication is a First Action on the Merits (FAOM). Claims 1-20, as originally filed, are pending and have been considered as follows.
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 .
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) 1-9 and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al (2023/0070701 A1) in view of VASSEUR et al (2023/0164045 A1).
As per Claims 1 and 19, Wang teaches a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium (Figure 3 – Reference 312; Page 11, Paragraphs [0085] and [0086]; Page 19, Paragraphs [0192] – [0194]) comprising instructions that upon execution cause a network device to: receive first indicators of performances of a plurality of network paths from the network device to the computing environments (Figure 1A – References 110A-I; Page 3, Paragraphs [0025], [0032] and [0033]; Page 12, Paragraphs [0096] – [0098]).
(Note: In paragraphs [0025], [0032] and [0323], Wang describes network devices as including packet-based routers in accordance with a software defined networking [SDN] controller. In paragraphs [0096] – [0098], Wang describes indicators of performances of a plurality of network paths as including bandwidth, number of error packets, jitter, latency or loss)
Wang teaches aggregate the first indicators and second indicators to produce aggregate indicators of performances of the network paths (Figure 3 – Reference 318; Page 12, Paragraph [0092]); and select, at the network device based on the aggregate indicators, a selected network path of the plurality of network paths for communication of data through the network device between a client and a computing environment of the plurality of computing environments (Page 4, Paragraph [0039]; Page 5, Paragraph [0048]; Page 7, Paragraph [0061]; Page 8, Paragraph [0065]).
(Note: In paragraph [0092], Wang describes aggregated path data [i.e. bandwidth, number of error packets, jitter, latency or loss] being used to determine success or failure associated with service provider reachability, physical interface operation and/or logical path performance. The Examiner is finding service provider reachability and physical interface operation are directly tied to performance within computing environments)
Wang does not teach receiving second indicators of performances of a plurality of computing environments. However, Vasseur teaches receiving second indicators of performances of a plurality of computing environments (Page 1, Paragraph [0017]; Page 4, Paragraph [0042]; Page 7, Paragraph [0074]).
(Note: In paragraph [0017], Vasseur describes the monitoring physical and environmental conditions within different environments – energy/power consumption, resource consumption [e.g. water/gas], temperature, pressure, vibration as well as resource constraints such as energy, memory, computational speed and bandwidth)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and method taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and method taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claims 2 and 17, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches wherein the instructions upon execution cause the network device to: for each respective network path of the plurality of network paths: compute a baseline based on measured values of a metric representative of the performance of the respective network path, and compute the second indicator of the performance of the respective network path based on the baseline.
(Note: In paragraph [0098], Wang describes a WAN link health SLE metric engine that determines a baseline for a performance metric [e.g. jitter, latency and/or loss] of a logical path based on path data and then determines a failure state associated with the path based on that metric [i.e. second indicator of the performance of the respective network path based on the baseline])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and system taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and system taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claims 3 and 18, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches computing a standard deviation of the measured values of the metric relative to the baseline, wherein the second indicator of the performance of the respective network path is based on the standard deviation. (Note: In paragraph [0108], Wang describes the calculation of averages and standard deviation for measurements across the network paths)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and system taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and system taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claim 4, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches wherein the metric is selected from among a bandwidth utilization of the respective network path, a jitter of the respective network path, a latency of the respective network path, or a packet loss of the respective network path as described in Claims 1 and 2 above.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claim 5, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches wherein the metric is a first metric and the baseline is a first baseline, and wherein the instructions upon execution cause the network device to: compute a second baseline based on measured values of a second metric representative of the performance of the respective network path, wherein the second indicator of the performance of the respective network path is further based on the second baseline.
(Note: In paragraph [0068], Wang describes a WAN link health SLE metric engine that is responsible for constantly monitoring the health condition of system network paths. In order to be able to reliably diagnosis real-time conditions [i.e. path performance degradation, weak or unstable interface signal strength, etc.]. This requires the calculation of multiple baselines at various points in time to evaluate the performance relative to that period’s baseline)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claims 6 and 20, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches computing the baseline using a machine learning model that receives as input the measured values of the metric. (Note: In paragraphs [0026] and [0057], Wang describes the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to determine and evaluate network path parameters)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and method taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and method taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claim 7, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches send probe packets along the plurality of network paths; obtain measured values of a metric representative of the performances of the plurality of network paths based on the probe packets; and derive the second indicators based on the measured values of the metric (Vasseur: Page 5, Paragraph [0057]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claim 8, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches wherein the instructions upon execution cause the network device to: compute the first indicator of the performance of a first computing environment of the plurality of computing environments based on a metric relating to one or more of power usage or energy efficiency of the first computing environment as described above.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claim 9, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches computing the first indicator of the performance of a first computing environment of the plurality of computing environments based on a metric relating to one or more of a bandwidth factor, a reliability, a throughput, a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) efficiency, a greenness measure, a security measure, or a financial impact measure of the first computing environment as described above.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claim 14, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches wherein the selected network path is associated with a metric that satisfies a threshold profile for a data flow of the client. (Note: In paragraphs [0096] and [0097[ Wang describes the use of a bandwidth threshold and an error threshold associated with client data flows)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claim 15, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches wherein the first indicators are based on multiple performance metrics associated with each of the plurality of computing environments, and the second indicators are based on multiple performance metrics associated with each of the plurality of network paths as described in Claim 1.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
As per Claim 16, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches a non-transitory storage medium comprising instructions as described in Claim 1. Wang also teaches a hardware processor (Figure 3 – Reference 306; Page 11, Paragraph [0083]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and system taught by Wang with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and system taught by Vasseur to dynamically adjust network resources so that if an outage occurs traffic may be automatically rerouted to reduce downtime and eliminate the need for manual reconfiguration of individual devices.
Claim(s) 10-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al (2023/0070701 A1) in view of VASSEUR et al (2023/0164045 A1) as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of GUPTA et al (2022/0255900 A1).
As per Claim 10, the combination of Wang and Vasseur teaches the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of Claim 1; but does not teach identifying priorities associated with a plurality of clients, wherein the selected network path is for the client associated with a higher priority than another client of the plurality of clients. However, Gupta teaches identifying priorities associated with a plurality of clients, wherein the selected network path is for the client associated with a higher priority than another client of the plurality of clients (Page 7, Paragraphs [0054] – [0056]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang and Vasseur with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Gupta to ensure that clients who are engaged in critical business tasks are able to have access the bandwidth necessary to be able to have the required speed and computing power to perform tasks required by an enterprise.
As per Claim 11, the combination of Wang, Vasseur and Gupta teaches wherein the selected network path is a first selected network path for communication of data of a set of clients, and wherein the aggregate indicators determine a selection, at the network device based on the aggregate indicators, a second selected network path of the plurality of network paths for communication of data through the network device between the set of clients and the computing environment (Page 7, Paragraphs [0054] – [0056]).
(Note: In paragraphs [0054] – [0056], Gupta describes determining priority based on bandwidth consumption differentiating between critical and non-critical applications. The Examiner is considering a minimum of two different paths where at least one network path is utilized for critical applications and a second network path is utilized for non-critical applications)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang and Vasseur with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Gupta to ensure that clients who are engaged in critical business tasks are able to have access the bandwidth necessary to be able to have the required speed and computing power to perform tasks required by an enterprise.
As per Claim 12, the combination of Wang, Vasseur and Gupta teaches wherein the second indicator of the performance of the first selected network path has a first value, and the second indicator of the performance of the second selected network path has a second value, and wherein the network device is to apportion data from the set of clients to the computing environment across the first selected network path and the second selected network path according to a ratio based on the first value and the second value.
(Note: In paragraphs [0056] and [0057], Gupta describes determining priority based on bandwidth consumption differentiating between critical and non-critical applications. Gupta also describes a bandwidth score where 70% of bandwidth is dedicated to critical application and 30% is allocated to non-critical applications which when combined make up 100% of bandwidth. The use of a percentage inherently teaches a ratio)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang and Vasseur with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Gupta to ensure that clients who are engaged in critical business tasks are able to have access the bandwidth necessary to be able to have the required speed and computing power to perform tasks required by an enterprise.
As per Claim 13, the combination of Wang, Vasseur and Gupta teaches wherein the first value is based on a first standard deviation of a metric of the performance of the first selected network path, and the second value is based on a second standard deviation of a metric of the performance of the second selected network path. (Note: Thew calculation of standard deviation is taught by the prior art and is incorporated in the calculations as described above)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Wang and Vasseur with the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium taught by Gupta to ensure that clients who are engaged in critical business tasks are able to have access the bandwidth necessary to be able to have the required speed and computing power to perform tasks required by an enterprise.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Vasseur et al (2023/0171181 A1), Pasupathy et al (2020/0382387 A1), Garcarz et al (11,546,290 B1), Evans et al (2019/0036780 A1), Evans et al (2019/0036816 A1), Vasseur et al (2023/0008106 A1). Each of these describes systems and methods of routing communications within packet-based networks.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHARYE POPE whose telephone number is (571)270-5587. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8AM - 4PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ahmad Matar can be reached at 571-272-7488. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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KHARYE POPE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2693
/KHARYE POPE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693