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 .
1. This is in response to communication filed on 11/05/25 in which claims 1-20 are pending.
Response to Arguments
2. Applicant's arguments have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments discloses “Gredler fails to teach each and every element of independent claims 1, 6, and 11 because Gredler fails to disclose a method for reducing flooding as recited in independent claims 1, 6, and 11”.
In response to applicant's argument that “Gredler fails to disclose a method for reducing flooding”, Applicant’s representative is respectfully reminded that a recitation of the intended use of the claimed invention must result in a structural difference between the claimed invention and the prior art in order to patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art. If the prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use, then it meets the claim.
Furthermore, Applicant’s representative argues that “Gredler does not disclose a network node that establishes an EBGP session with a set of RRs of the BGP-SPF domain for exchanging routing information and then sending a BGP-LS-SPF Link NLRI indicating the link change in a BGP update message over the eBGP session to a subset of the set of RRs according to a flooding behavior that determines which RRs are in the subset of the set of RRs”.
However, Gredler clearly teaches “the link state information for multiple interior gateway protocol (IGP) routing domains is shared between external components using the exterior gateway protocol, such as BGP” (See abstract). Furthermore, Gredler clearly teaches wherein since Gredler clearly teaches wherein “ each BGP speaker 8 may execute an exterior routing protocol (e.g., the Border Gateway Protocol) to encode the link state information and communicate the link state information consumers 4A, 4B external to IGP routing domains 10. In this example, BGP speaker 6 aggregates link state information learned from BGP speakers and communicates the link state information using BGP to consumer 4A. BGP speaker 6 may, for example, be a router or route reflector that communicates routing information via the BGP protocol” (See col. 6, lines 7-15). One with ordinary skill in the art can confidently conclude that the disclosure of Gredler teaches wherein Route Reflector (RR) such as BGP speakers are responsible for exchanging routing information through an External session as recited in claim 1.
Furthermore, Gredler clearly teaches wherein “ an exterior gateway routing protocol executing on a router (e.g., a BGP process) can retrieve the path information as part of the link state information retrieved from link state databases of an interior routing domain and distribute the path information to a consumer external to the routing domain, either directly or via a peer BGP Speaker (e.g., a dedicated Route Reflector)” (See col. 5, lines 38-44). One with ordinary skill in the art can confidently conclude that Gredler clearly teaches wherein then sending a BGP-LS-SPF Link NLRI indicating the link change in a BGP update message over the eBGP session to a subset of the set of RRs according to a flooding behavior that determines which RRs are in the subset of the set of RRs since the teaching of Gredler recites link state information are distribute through dedicated route reflector (See col. 5, lines 38-44).
Applicant’s representative argues that “Gredler does not disclose the various aspects related to the flooding behavior as recited in the dependent claims such as, but not limited to, receiving flooding behavior instructions indicating the flooding behavior that determines which RRs are in the subset of the set of RRs as recited dependent claim 2”. However, Gredler teaches wherein “Segment Routing utilizes this information within an IGP domain to advertise path information as part of the link-state IGP information that is flooded throughout the IGP domain so as to support path-based packet steering” (See col. 5, lines 17-45).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
3. 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 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.
4. Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S Patent No. 9,660,890 to Gredler.
a. As per claim 1, Gredler teaches a method, implemented by a network node, for reducing flooding in a Border Gateway Protocol-Shortest Path First (BGP-SPF) domain (See col , the method comprising: establishing an external BGP (EBGP) session with a set of route-reflectors (RRs) of the BGP-SPF domain for exchanging routing information (See col. 5, lines 56-67 and col. 11, lines 41-50); determining a link change corresponding to a link of the network node (See col. 16, lines 37-42; and sending a BGP Link-State SPF (BGP-LS-SPF) Link Network Layer Reachability Information (NLRI) indicating the link change in a BGP update message over the eBGP session to a subset of the set of RRs according to a flooding behavior that determines which RRs are in the subset of the set of RRs (See col. 5, lines 38-45, an exterior gateway routing protocol executing on a router (e.g., a BGP process) can retrieve the path information as part of the link state information retrieved from link state databases of an interior routing domain and distribute the path information to a consumer external to the routing domain, either directly or via a peer BGP Speaker (e.g., a dedicated Route Reflector)).
b. As per claim 2, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches further comprising: receiving flooding behavior instructions indicating the flooding behavior that determines which RRs are in the subset of the set of RRs See col. 5, lines 38-45; and configuring the flooding behavior on the network node (See col. 5, lines 38-45).
c. As per claim 3, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches further comprising receiving the flooding behavior instructions from a RR in the set of RRs, wherein the RR is a leader RR in the BGP-SPF domain (See col. 6, lines 6-15).
d. As per claim 4, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches further comprising: receiving the flooding behavior instructions encoded in a Node Flood Type-Length-Value (TLV); and decoding the Node Flood TLV to determine the flooding behavior (See col. 13, lines 6-60).
e. As per claim 5, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches further comprising: assigning the network node to a group of network nodes in the BGP-SPF domain based on the flooding behavior instructions; and communicating the BGP-LS-SPF Link NLRI indicating the link change to the subset of the set of RRs designated for the group (See col. 12, lines 47-67).
f. As per claim 6, Gredler teaches a method, implemented by a route reflector (RR), for reducing flooding in a Border Gateway Protocol-Shortest Path First (BGP-SPF) domain, the method comprising: establishing an external BGP (EBGP) session with network nodes of the BGP-SPF domain for exchanging routing information (See col. 11, 41-50);
configuring a flooding behavior for the network nodes (See col. 5, lines 16-36); 3
and sending a BGP update message to the network node, wherein the BGP update message indicates the flooding behavior (See col. 19, 29-41, FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating an example controller 300 in accordance with this disclosure. In this example, controller 300 provides an operating environment for topology module 302, path computation element 304, path provisioning module 306 and network services applications 309. In addition, controller 300 executes an extend exterior gateway protocol (e.g., BGP-TE 308) by which controller 300 sends and receives routing messages carrying topology information for multiple routing domains 324, wherein the routing messages conform to the exterior gateway protocol but also encode link state data specifying path information in the form of segment routing information for IPG path segments internal to the IPG routing domains).
g. As per claim 7, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches further comprising communicating a priority of the RR to become a leader of the BGP-SPF domain (See col. 5, lines 38-45).
h. As per claim 8, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches encoding a priority of the RR to become a leader of the BGP-SPF domain in a Leader Priority Type-Length-Value (TLV) (See col. 13, lines 39-67 and col. 14, lines 1-8) ; and communicating the Leader Priority TLV to the network nodes and other RRs of the BGP-SPF domain (See col. 5, lines 38-45). .
i. As per claim 9, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches, further comprising: receiving priorities of other RRs of the BGP-SPF domain to become a leader of the BGP-SPF domain; determining that a priority of the RR is a highest priority relative to the priorities of the other RRs in the BGP-SPF domain; and configuring the RR as the leader of the BGP-SPF domain based on the determination (See col. 2, lines 47-63).
j. As per claim 10, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches wherein the flooding behavior instructs the network nodes to send information indicating a link change to only particular RRs of the BGP-SPF domain change (See col. 5, lines 38-45, an exterior gateway routing protocol executing on a router (e.g., a BGP process) can retrieve the path information as part of the link state information retrieved from link state databases of an interior routing domain and distribute the path information to a consumer external to the routing domain, either directly or via a peer BGP Speaker (e.g., a dedicated Route Reflector)).
k. As per claim 11, Gredler teaches a method, implemented by a network node, for reducing flooding in a Border Gateway Protocol-Shortest Path First (BGP-SPF) domain, the method comprising: obtaining a flooding topology (FT) of the BGP-SPF domain, wherein the FT is a sub-network topology that connects all nodes of a real network topology (RT) of the BGP-SPF domain; determining a link change corresponding to a link of the network node (See col. 5, lines 16-37 and col. 15, lines 11-23, (120) In this way, each router advertises 1-hop LSPs for each link within IGP domain 84, where each 1-hop LSP terminates at the next hop router along the link. As such, using segment routing within IGP domain 84, each router R1-R6 advertises its labels within IGP domain 84 as separate IGP segment identifiers and binds the labels with a forwarding equivalence class (FEC) associated with the destination. Each router R1-R6 floods the advertised labels such that each router maintains a TE database having link state information for IGP domain 84 including the segment routing, i.e., the IGP path segments associated with the 1-hop labels) and sending a BGP update message to network nodes that are directly connected to the network node on the FT, wherein the BGP update message comprises Network Layer Reachability Information (NLRI) indicating the link change (See col. 5, lines 38-45, an exterior gateway routing protocol executing on a router (e.g., a BGP process) can retrieve the path information as part of the link state information retrieved from link state databases of an interior routing domain and distribute the path information to a consumer external to the routing domain, either directly or via a peer BGP Speaker (e.g., a dedicated Route Reflector)).
l. As per claim 12, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches further comprising: obtaining the FT from a leader node of the BGP-SPF domain; receiving a node index mapping from the leader node (See ; and decoding an encoding of the FT using the node index mapping to obtain the FT (See col. 17, lines 21-33).
m. As per claim 13, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches further comprising: receiving updates to the FT from the leader node, wherein the updates comprise at least one of new connections or removed connections; and modifying the FT based on the updates change (See col. 5, lines 38-45, an exterior gateway routing protocol executing on a router (e.g., a BGP process) can retrieve the path information as part of the link state information retrieved from link state databases of an interior routing domain and distribute the path information to a consumer external to the routing domain, either directly or via a peer BGP Speaker (e.g., a dedicated Route Reflector)).
n. As per claim 14, Gredler teaches the claimed invention as described above. Furthermore, Gredler teaches wherein the new connections are encoded in a first Paths Type-Length-Value (TLV), wherein the first Paths TLV is included in a Multiprotocol Reachable Link Network Layer Reachability Information (MP_REACH_NLRI) path attribute, wherein the removed connections are encoded in a second Paths TLV, and wherein the second Paths TLV is included in a Multiprotocol UnReachable Link Network Layer Reachability Information (MP_REACH_NLRI) path attribute (See col. 6, lines 37-47 and col. 7, lines 23-39).
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 15-20 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
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Publication No. 2017/0366444 to Ansari et al teaches Scaled Inter-Domain Metric for Link State Protocols.
7. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DJENANE BAYARD whose telephone number is (571)272-3878. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, John Follansbee can be reached at (571)272-3964. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/DJENANE M BAYARD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2444