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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on the previous set of references applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Instead, the rejection relies upon the combination of the prior references in view of Narayanan et al. (US 20190097839 A1) which covers the elements related to hardware-based packet replication. (Narayanan, ¶0012)
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.
1. Claims 1-2, 4, 6-8, 14, and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bansal et al. (US 20200053008 A1) in view of Narayanan et al. (US 20190097839 A1), Zheng et al (US 20180255463 A1) and CH (US 20210144091 A1).
Claim 1 Bansal teaches a device, comprising:
a processor; (FIG. 1, ¶0022, processor 102)
a network interface controller configured to provide access to a network; (¶0027, a network interface module, for example an NIC or network interface controller) and
a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, (FIG. 1, ¶0022, memory 104) wherein the memory comprises a redundancy management logic that is configured to:
classify a plurality of packets of a traffic stream (FIG. 4, ¶0031 and ¶0044, packets 435) into at least a first category or a second category; (¶0045, classifying the packets into at least one of a plurality of control plane partitions)
transmit a first set of packets of the classified plurality of packets to the first data plane and a second data plane; (FIG. 4, ¶0056, transmitting a first set of packets (415B) to a first data plane, via association 423, and to a second data plane, via association 424)
transmit the second set of packets to the first data plane and to the second data plane. (FIG. 4, ¶0056, transmitting a second set of packets (415C) to a first data plane, via association 425, and to a second data plane, via association 425)
However, Bansal does not explicitly teach replicate, using a hardware-based replicator, a first set of packet of the classified plurality of packets to generate a replicated first set of packets;
wherein the second data plane is maintained in a hot standby state;
sampling a second set of packets of the classified plurality of packets based on a sampling rate; and
transmitting the sampled second set of data packet to a second data plane.
From a related technology, Narayanan teaches replicate, using a hardware-based replicator, a first set of packet to generate a replicated first set of packets. (¶0012, using hardware infrastructure to perform packet replication)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed inventions to modify the teachings of Bansal to incorporate the teachings of Narayanan that provide an alternate means of packet replication by using existing hardware infrastructure that would more efficiently utilize network resources.
However, Bansal in view of Narayanan does not explicitly teach wherein the second data plane is maintained in a hot standby state;
sampling a second set of packets of the classified plurality of packets based on a sampling rate; and
transmitting the sampled second set of data packet to a second data plane.
From a related technology, Zheng teaches a data plane is maintained in a hot standby state. (¶0034, maintaining a data plane in a hot standby configuration)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of the Bansal in view of Narayanan to incorporate hot standby state for data planes in order to enable flexible configuration for high availability schemes. (Zheng, ¶0034)
However, Bansal in view of Narayanan and Zheng does not explicitly teach sampling a second set of packets of the classified plurality of packets based on a sampling rate; and
transmitting the sampled second set of data packet to a second data plane.
From a related technology, CH teaches sampling a second set of packets of the plurality of packets based on a sampling rate; (¶0060, sampling data packets) and
transmitting a sampled second set of data packet to a second data plane. (¶0060, sending the sampled data packets to a data plane node)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Bansal in view of Narayanan to incorporate the sampling techniques utilized in CH in order to more effectively utilize network resources.
Claim 2 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, and further teaches wherein the first set of packets is classified into the first category. (Bansal, ¶0045, classifying a first set of packets into a first category comprising packets handled by a first partition)
Claim 4 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, and further teaches wherein the second set of packets is classified into the second category. (Bansal, ¶0045, classifying a second set of packets into a second category comprising packets handled by a second partition)
Claim 6 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, and further teaches wherein the plurality of packets are packets received by the device. (Bansal, ¶0031, wherein the load balancer received the network traffic comprising the plurality of packets)
Claim 7 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, and further teaches wherein the plurality of packets is associated with a traffic stream. (Bansal, ¶0031, wherein the load balancer received the network traffic associated with its component plurality of packets)
Claim 8 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, and further teaches wherein the first data plane is an active data plane, and the second data plane is a standby data plane. (Bansal, ¶0056, wherein the first data plane is the primary or active data plane, and the second data plan operates as a backup or standby plane in case of failure of the first plane)
Claim 14 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, and further teaches wherein the redundancy management logic is further configured to perform packet forwarding. (FIG. 2, ¶0035, performing packet forwarding from the Source 201 to appropriate Tenant 206)
Claim 15 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 14, and further teaches wherein the redundancy management logic is further configured to:
receive a first set of processed packets from the first data plane and a second set of processed packets from the second data plane; (Bansal, ¶0056, receiving the packets from the first data plane and the second data plane)
discard the second set of processed packets; (Examiner interprets discarding as no- usage, i.e. not transmitting of a set of processing packets) and
forward the first set of processed packets to one or more corresponding destinations. (Bansal, FIG. 4, ¶0043, forwarding packets to corresponding destinations 410)
Claim 16 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH and Banerjee teaches Claim 15, and further teaches wherein the redundancy management logic is further configured to:
transmit, to the second data plane, the second set of packets based on a failure in the first data plane; (Bansal, ¶0056, transmitting packets to the second plane based on failure in the first data plane)
receive a set of processed packets from the second data plane; (Bansal, ¶0056, receiving the packets from the second data plane) and
forward the set of processed packets received from the second data plane to one or more corresponding destinations. (Bansal, FIG. 4, ¶0043, forwarding packets to corresponding destinations 410)
Claim 17 Bansal teaches a device, comprising:
a plurality of data planes, comprising at least a first data plane and a second data plane; (FIG. 4, Data Planes 422(n), ¶0045, a load balancer comprising multiple data planes)
a processor; (FIG. 1, ¶0022, processor 102)
a network interface controller configured to provide access to a network; (¶0027, a network interface module, for example an NIC or network interface controller) and
a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, (FIG. 1, ¶0022, memory 104) wherein the memory comprises a redundancy management logic that is configured to:
classify a plurality of packets into at least a first category or a second category; (¶0045, classifying the packets into at least one of a plurality of control plane partitions)
transmit a first set of packets of the classified plurality of packets to the first data plane and the second data plane; (FIG. 4, ¶0056, transmitting a first set of packets (415B) to a first data plane, association 423, and to a second data plane, association 424)
transmit the second set of packets to the first data plane and to the second data plane. (FIG. 4, ¶0056, transmitting a second set of packets (415C) to a first data plane, association 425, and to a second data plane, association 425)
However, Bansal does not explicitly teach replicate, using a hardware-based replicator, a first set of packet of the classified plurality of packets to generate a replicated first set of packets;
a data plane is maintained in a hot standby state;
sampling a second set of packets of the classified plurality of packets based on a sampling rate; and
transmitting a sampled second set of data packet to a second data plane
From a related technology, Narayanan teaches replicate, using a hardware-based replicator, a first set of packet to generate a replicated first set of packets. (¶0012, using hardware infrastructure to perform packet replication)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed inventions to modify the teachings of Bansal to incorporate the teachings of Narayanan that provide an alternate means of packet replication by using existing hardware infrastructure that would more efficiently utilize network resources.
However, Bansal does not explicitly teach a data plane is maintained in a hot standby state;
sampling a second set of packets of the classified plurality of packets based on a sampling rate; and
transmitting a sampled second set of data packet to a second data plane
From a related technology, Zheng teaches a data plane is maintained in a hot standby state. (¶0034, maintaining a data plane in a hot standby configuration)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of the Bansal to incorporate hot standby state for data planes in order to enable flexible configuration for high availability schemes. (Zheng, ¶0034)
However, Bansal in view of Zheng does not explicitly teach sampling a second set of packets of the classified plurality of packets based on a sampling rate; and
transmitting a sampled second set of data packet to a second data plane.
From a related technology, CH teaches sampling a second set of packets of the plurality of packets based on a sampling rate; (¶0060, sampling data packets) and
transmitting a sampled second set of data packet to a second data plane. (¶0060, sending the sampled data packets to a data plane node)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Bansal in view of Zheng to incorporate the sampling techniques utilized in CH in order to more effectively utilize network resources.
Claim 18 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 17, and further teaches wherein the first data plane is an active data plane and the second data plane is a standby data plane. (Bansal, FIG. 4, ¶0056, wherein a first data plane is used as the primary or active data plane and a second data plane is used as a backup or standby data plane)
Claim 19 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 18, and further teaches wherein the second data plane is configured to operate as the active data plane based on a failure of the first data plane, (Bansal, FIG. 4, ¶0056, wherein the backup plane operates in case of a failure of another data plane) and wherein the redundancy management logic is further configured to transmit the second set of packets to the second data plane. (FIG. 4, ¶0056, transmitting a second set of packets (415C) to a second data plane, via association 425)
Claim 20 is taught by Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH as described for Claim 1.
2. Claims 3, 5, 9, 11 and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bansal et al. (US 20200053008 A1) in view of Narayanan et al. (US 20190097839 A1), Zheng et al (US 20180255463 A1, CH (US 20210144091 A1) and in further view of Banerjee et al. (US 20070140132 A1).
Claim 3 Bansal in view of Zheng and CH teaches Claim 2, but does not explicitly teach wherein the first set of packets is classified into the first category in response to a determination that the first set of packets are control packets.
From a related technology, Banerjee teaches packets are classified into a first category in response to a determination that the packets are control packets. (¶0002, determining the packets are control packets, wherein control packets comprises a first category)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the ordinary skill in the art to modify the teachings of Bansal in view of Zheng and CH to further incorporate the techniques used by Banerjee to distinguish between particular types of packets in order to more effectively manage network resources.
Claim 5 Bansal in view of Zheng and CH teaches Claim 4, but does not explicitly teach wherein the second set of packets is classified into the second category in response to a determination that the second set of packets are data packets.
From a related technology, Banerjee teaches packets are classified into a second category in response to a determination that the packets are data packets. (¶0002, determining the packets are data packets, wherein data packets comprises a second category)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the ordinary skill in the art to modify the teachings of Bansal in view of Zheng and CH to further incorporate the techniques used by Banerjee to distinguish between particular types of packets in order to more effectively manage network resources.
Claim 9 Bansal in view of Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, but does not explicitly teach wherein a dynamic state of an Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) protocol is maintained in the second data plane based on the first set of packets.
From a related technology, Banerjee teaches wherein a dynamic state of an Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) protocol is maintained in the second data plane based on the first set of packets. (¶0028, wherein the OAM protocol is maintained based on the received data plane packets)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the ordinary skill in the art to modify the teachings of Bansal in view of Zheng and CH to further incorporate the techniques used by Banerjee to distinguish between particular types of packets in order to more effectively manage network resources.
Claim 11 Bansal in view of Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, but does not explicitly teach wherein at least one packet of the plurality of packets is classified into one of the first category or the second category based on a Media Access Control (MAC) address associated with the at least one packet.
From a related technology, Banerjee teaches at least one packet of a plurality of packets is classified into one of the first category or the second category based on a Media Access Control (MAC) address associated with the at least one packet. (¶0002, wherein the slow protocol determines packets into a first category or second category, i.e. data packets or control packets, ¶0029, wherein the slow protocol is based upon MAC information)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the ordinary skill in the art to modify the teachings of Bansal in view of Zheng and CH to further incorporate the techniques used by Banerjee to distinguish between particular types of packets in order to more effectively manage network resources.
3. Claims 10 and 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bansal et al. (US 20200053008 A1) in view of Narayanan et al. (US 20190097839 A1), Zheng et al (US 20180255463 A1, CH (US 20210144091 A1) and in further view of Gallant et al. (US 20150222939 A1).
Claim 10 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, but does not explicitly teach wherein at least one packet of the plurality of packets is classified into one of the first category or the second category based on at least one of:
an Internet Protocol precedence value, differentiated services code point (DSCP) value, or a class of service (CoS) value associated with the packet.
From a related technology, Gallant teaches packets classified into at least one of: an Internet Protocol precedence value, differentiated services code point (DSCP) value, or a class of service (CoS) value associated with the packet. (¶0023, wherein data is classified as a term of service value, i.e. a class of server value)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bansal in view of Zheng and CH to incorporate the teachings of Gallant in order to improve the data processing and more efficiently utilize network resources.
Claim 12 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, but does not explicitly teach wherein to transmit the first set of packets to the second data plane, the redundancy management logic is further configured to:
replicate the first set of packets of the classified plurality of packets; and
transmit the replicated first set of packets to the second data plane.
From a related technology, Gallant teaches replicate a set of packets; (¶0029, replicating packets) and
transmit the replicated set of packets to a data plane. (¶0029, transmitting the data packets to the data plane)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bansal in view of Zheng and CH to incorporate the teachings of Gallant in order to improve the data processing and more efficiently utilize network resources.
Claim 13 Bansal in view of Narayanan, Zheng and CH teaches Claim 1, but does not explicitly teach wherein to sample the second set of packets, the redundancy management logic is further configured to:
replicate the second set of packets of the classified plurality of packets; and
sample the replicated second set of packets based on the sampling rate.
From a related technology, Gallant teaches replicate a set of packets; (¶0029, replicating packets) and
sample the replicated set of packets based on the sampling rate. (¶0044, sampling the packets based upon a sampling rate)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bansal in view of Zheng and CH to incorporate the teachings of Gallant in order to improve the data processing and more efficiently utilize network resources.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER PALACA CADORNA whose telephone number is (571)270-0584. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00-7:00.
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/CHRISTOPHER P CADORNA/Examiner, Art Unit 2444
/JOHN A FOLLANSBEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2444
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