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 .
General Remarks
This communication is considered fully responsive to Applicant’s application filed on 05/21/2024.
Application filed: 05/21/2024
Applicant’s PgPUB: 2025/0365227
Claims:
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claims 1, 12 and 19 are independent.
IDS:
New IDS:
IDS filed 10/20/2025 has been considered.
IDS filed 05/21/2024 has been considered.
Related Cases:
European Patent Application No. EP 4 654 536 A1 filed 05/14/2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 12-14 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0318961 A1 to Devarajan et al. (“Devarajan”).
As to claim 1, Devarajan discloses:
a method of operating a network device (Fig.1, Switch, 102), comprising:
detecting a first host device (Fig.1, Host, 110) being communicatively coupled to a first interface of the network device (Fig.1, Switch, 102) (Abstract – Devarajan discusses a switch (i.e., network device) contributing the authentication of a host device which denotes the host device being coupled to the switch);
identifying a first host profile identifier corresponding to a first class of devices to which the first host device belongs (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.); and
advertising, to one or more additional network devices, network reachability information for the first host device, wherein the network reachability information for the first host device comprises at least the first host profile identifier associated with the first host device (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network, and when BGP update message advertisements are shared between access switches, they also receive role information associated with particular host devices.).
As to claim 2, Devarajan discloses:
method of claim 1, and
further comprising:
detecting a second host device being communicatively coupled to a second interface of the network device (Fig.1, Switch, 102) (Abstract – Devarajan discusses a switch (i.e., network device) contributing the authentication of a host device which denotes the host device being coupled to the switch); and
identifying a second host profile identifier corresponding to a second class of devices, different than the first class of devices, to which the second host device belongs (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.).
As to claim 3, Devarajan discloses:
method of claim 2, and
further comprising:
applying a first network policy to the first host device based on a first set of administrative parameters corresponding to the first host profile identifier (¶0014 – Devarajan teaches However, different host devices connecting to the network may be subjected to different network policies depending on their role information. Network policies may include rules, permissions, conditions, and settings that define which host devices are authorized to connect to the network and the circumstances under which different host devices are allowed to connect to the network.); and
applying a second network policy to the second host device based on a second set of administrative parameters, different than the first set of administrative parameters, corresponding to the second host profile identifier (¶0014 – Devarajan teaches However, different host devices connecting to the network may be subjected to different network policies depending on their role information. Network policies may include rules, permissions, conditions, and settings that define which host devices are authorized to connect to the network and the circumstances under which different host devices are allowed to connect to the network.).
As to claim 12, Devarajan discloses:
a method of operating a network device, comprising:
determining whether a first host device communicatively coupled to the network device is part of a first class of end hosts or a second class of end hosts(Abstract – Devarajan discusses a switch (i.e., network device) contributing the authentication of a host device which denotes the host device being coupled to the switch; ¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.);
determining whether a second host device communicatively coupled to the network device is part of the first class of end hosts or the second class of end hosts(Abstract – Devarajan discusses a switch (i.e., network device) contributing the authentication of a host device which denotes the host device being coupled to the switch; ¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.);
in response to determining that the first host device is part of the first class of end hosts, applying a first set of control plane parameters to the first host device (¶0014 – Devarajan teaches However, different host devices connecting to the network may be subjected to different network policies depending on their role information. Network policies may include rules, permissions, conditions, and settings that define which host devices are authorized to connect to the network and the circumstances under which different host devices are allowed to connect to the network.); and
in response to determining that the second host device is part of the second class of end hosts, applying a second set of control plane parameters, different than the first set of control plane parameters, to the second host device (¶0014 – Devarajan teaches However, different host devices connecting to the network may be subjected to different network policies depending on their role information. Network policies may include rules, permissions, conditions, and settings that define which host devices are authorized to connect to the network and the circumstances under which different host devices are allowed to connect to the network.).
As to claim 13, Devarajan discloses:
method of claim 12, and
further comprising:
identifying, for the first host device, a first host profile identifier corresponding to the first class of end hosts (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.); and
identifying, for the second host device, a second host profile identifier corresponding to the second class of end hosts (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.).
As to claim 14, Devarajan discloses:
method of claim 13, and
further comprising:
advertising, to one or more peer network devices, the first host profile identifier for the first host device (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network, and when BGP update message advertisements are shared between access switches, they also receive role information associated with particular host devices.); and
advertising, to the one or more peer network devices, the second host profile identifier for the second host device (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network, and when BGP update message advertisements are shared between access switches, they also receive role information associated with particular host devices.).
As to claim 18, Devarajan discloses:
method of claim 12, and
further comprising:
determining whether a third host device communicatively coupled to the network device is part of the first class of end hosts, the second class of end hosts, or a third class of end hosts (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.); and
in response to determining that the third host device is part of the third class of end hosts, applying a third set of control plane parameters, different than the first and second sets of control plane parameters, to the third host device (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.).
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 4 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0318961 A1 to Devarajan et al. (“Devarajan”) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0287817 A1 to Yamaguchi (“Yamaguchi”).
As to claim 4, Devarajan discloses:
method of claim 3,
Yamaguchi discloses what Devarajan does not expressly disclose.
Yamaguchi discloses:
wherein:
the first class of devices corresponding to the first host profile identifier comprises wired end host devices (¶0064, ¶0070 – Yamaguchi teaches The identification information 210 includes "identifier", "class", "IP address" and "model name". The "identifier" stores a number for identifying each device included in the first network device N1. The "class" stores information for identifying the class of each device (e.g., specified device, wired router, wireless router, access point) included in the first network device N1); and
the second class of devices corresponding to the second host profile identifier comprises wireless end host devices (¶0064, ¶0070 – Yamaguchi teaches The identification information 210 includes "identifier", "class", "IP address" and "model name". The "identifier" stores a number for identifying each device included in the first network device N1. The "class" stores information for identifying the class of each device (e.g., specified device, wired router, wireless router, access point) included in the first network device N1).
Devarajan and Yamaguchi are analogous arts because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to passing device information.
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate device type information as discussed in Yamaguchi with passing host device information between network devices as discussed in Devarajan by adding the functionality of Yamaguchi to the system/method of Devarajan in order to replicate a setting for network connection from a first network device to a second network device (Yamaguchi, ¶0008).
As to claim 17, Devarajan discloses:
method of claim 12,
Yamaguchi discloses what Devarajan does not expressly disclose.
Yamaguchi discloses:
wherein:
determining that the first host device is part of the first class of end hosts comprises determining that the first host device is a wired end host (¶0064, ¶0070 – Yamaguchi teaches the identification information 210 includes "identifier", "class", "IP address" and "model name". The "identifier" stores a number for identifying each device included in the first network device N1. The "class" stores information for identifying the class of each device (e.g., specified device, wired router, wireless router, access point) included in the first network device N1); and
determining that the second host device is part of the second class of end hosts comprises determining that the first host device is a wireless end host (¶0064, ¶0070 – Yamaguchi teaches The identification information 210 includes "identifier", "class", "IP address" and "model name". The "identifier" stores a number for identifying each device included in the first network device N1. The "class" stores information for identifying the class of each device (e.g., specified device, wired router, wireless router, access point) included in the first network device N1).
The suggestion/motivation and obviousness rejection is the same as in claim 4.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0318961 A1 to Devarajan et al. (“Devarajan”) in view of U.S. Patent No. 11,398,927 B1 to Malhotra et al. (“Malhotra”).
As to claim 5, Devaranjan discloses:
method of claim 3,
Malhotra discloses what Devarajan does not expressly disclose.
Malhotra discloses:
wherein the network reachability information for the first host device further comprises a sequence number associated with the first host device, and wherein the sequence number indicates a number of mobility events taken by the first host device (Fig. 1, col. 8 ll. 13-24 – Malhotra teaches the value of the sequence number for the first mobility event for the local MAC and/or IP address of the customer edge device is assumed to be 0.)
Devarajan and Malhotra are analogous arts because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to EVPN.
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate sequence numbers as discussed in Malhotra with passing host device information between network devices as discussed in Devarajan by adding the functionality of Malhotra to the system/method of Devarajan in order to update host route for data path convergence (Malhotra, col. 1 ll. 19-23).
Claims 6-9, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0318961 A1 to Devarajan et al. (“Devarajan”) in view of U.S. Patent No. 11,398,927 B1 to Malhotra et al. (“Malhotra”) in further view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0120033 A1 to Gorrepati et al. (“Gorrepati”).
As to claim 6, Devarajan and Malhotra discloses:
method of claim 5,
Gorrepati discloses what Devarajan and Malhotra does not expressly disclose.
Gorrepati discloses:
wherein:
the first set of administrative parameters comprises a first mobility event count threshold (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)); and
the second set of administrative parameters comprises a second mobility event count threshold different than the first mobility event count threshold (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)).
Devarajan, Malhotra and Gorrepati are analogous arts because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to VPNs.
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate sequence number comparison as discussed in Gorrepati with sequence numbers as discussed in Malhotra with passing host device information between network devices as discussed in Devarajan by adding the functionality of Gorrepati to the system/method of Devarajan and Malhotra in order to help prevent network attacks (Gorrepati, ¶0003).
As to claim 7, Devarajan, Malhotra and Gorrepati discloses:
method of claim 6, and
Gorrepati disclose:
wherein:
the first set of administrative parameters further comprises a first mobility event duration threshold (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)); and
the second set of administrative parameters comprises a second mobility event duration threshold (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)).
The suggestion/motivation and obviousness rejection is the same as in claim 6.
As to claim 8, Devarajan, Malhotra and Gorrepati discloses:
method of claim 6, and
Gorrepati disclose:
further comprising:
comparing the sequence number associated with the first host device to the first mobility event count threshold (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)).
The suggestion/motivation and obviousness rejection is the same as in claim 6.
As to claim 9, Devarajan, Malhotra and Gorrepati discloses:
method of claim 8, and
Gorrepati disclose:
further comprising:
in response to determining that the sequence number associated with the first host device is equal to the first mobility event count threshold, disconnecting the first host device from the network device, blocking traffic from the first host device, or dropping traffic from the first host device (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)).
The suggestion/motivation and obviousness rejection is the same as in claim 6.
As to claim 15, Devarajan, Malhotra and Gorrepati discloses:
method of claim 14, and
Gorrepati discloses:
further comprising:
advertising, to the one or more peer network devices, a first sequence number for the first host device, wherein the first sequence number is used to track a cumulative number of times that the first host device has roamed among the network device and the one or more peer network devices within a first period of time (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)); and
advertising, to the one or more peer network devices, a second sequence number for the second host device, wherein the second sequence number is used to track a cumulative number of times that the second host device has roamed among the network device and the one or more peer network devices within a second period of time (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)).
The suggestion/motivation and obviousness rejection is the same as in claim 6.
As to claim 16, Devarajan, Malhotra and Gorrepati discloses:
method of claim 15, and
Gorrepati discloses:
further comprising:
comparing the first sequence number to a threshold in the first set of control plane parameters (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)); and
comparing the second sequence number to a threshold in the second set of control plane parameters (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)).
The suggestion/motivation and obviousness rejection is the same as in claim 6.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0318961 A1 to Devarajan et al. (“Devarajan”) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0010782 A1 to Jensen (“Jensen”).
As to claim 10, Devarajan discloses:
method of claim 1,
wherein identifying the first host profile identifier corresponding to the first class of devices to which the first host device belongs comprises mapping the first interface to the first class of devices (¶0020 – Jensen teaches mapping a phone of a particular device types to a port (i.e., interface)).
Devarajan and Jensen are analogous arts because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to networking.
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate device-port mapping as discussed in Jensen with passing host device information between network devices as discussed in Devarajan by adding the functionality of Jensen to the system/method of Devarajan in order to demonstrate mapping between data elements such as device types and ports (Jensen, ¶0020).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0318961 A1 to Devarajan et al. (“Devarajan”) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0213155 A1 to Bickhart et al. (“Bickhart2”).
As to claim 11, Devarajan discloses:
method of claim 1,
Bickhart2 discloses what Devarajan does not expressly disclose.
Bickhart2 discloses:
wherein identifying the first host profile identifier corresponding to the first class of devices to which the first host device belongs comprises identifying the first host profile identifier using a Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) (¶0020, (¶0021 – Bickhart2 teaches use of LLDP).
Devarajan and Bickhart2 are analogous arts because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to EVPN.
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate LLDP as discussed in Bickhart2 with passing host device information between network devices as discussed in Devarajan by adding the functionality of Bickhart2 to the system/method of Devarajan in order to facilitate learning between devices (Bickhart2, ¶0021).
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0318961 A1 to Devarajan et al. (“Devarajan”) in view of U.S. Patent No. 11,088,871 B1 to Lin et al. (“Lin”).
As to claim 19, Devarajan discloses:
a method of operating a network, comprising:
with a first edge device, detecting a host device being communicatively coupled to an interface of the first edge device (Fig.1, Switch, 102) (Abstract – Devarajan discusses a switch (i.e., network device) contributing the authentication of a host device which denotes the host device being coupled to the switch);
identifying a host profile identifier corresponding to a class of end hosts to which the host device belongs (¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.);
applying a network policy to the host device based on a set of control plane parameters corresponding to the host profile identifier (¶0031 – Devarajan teaches use of role manager to add a role identifier in a route advertisement message of the host device based on the role information. The role identifier indicative of network policies to be implemented for the host device and associated with the host device upon authentication. The route advertisement message may be a BGP EVPN type 2 route indicative of a mapping between an IP address and MAC address of the host device. Control plane information between the switches 102 may be exchanged using the BGP EVPN routes. Such a BGP EVPN route including MAC address to IP address mapping for a host device is referred to as a BGP EVPN type 2 route.).
Lin discloses what Devarajan does not expressly disclose.
Lin and Devarajan discloses:
with the first edge device, advertising the host profile identifier and a sequence number associated with the host device to at least a second edge device (Fig. 4, col. 1 ll.22-51 – Lin teaches a first edge device receiving from a second edge device, device information which includes sequence number and MAC address; ¶0016 – Devarajan teaches The present disclosure describes techniques of incorporating host device role information (i.e., profile ID) within BGP update message advertisements to share the role information (i.e., profile ID) among access switches in a VXLAN network; ¶0014 – Devarajan teaches The role information is indicative of a group or category of host device users. Network policies applied to each the host device may be determined based on such role information. Examples of roles may include, Guest, Student, Employee, Sales, Leadership, etc.); and
Devarajan and Lin are analogous arts because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to EVPN.
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate passing of data between devices such as sequence numbers as discussed in Lin with passing host device information between network devices as discussed in Devarajan by adding the functionality of Lin to the system/method of Devarajan in order to pass information necessary to inform a network device when a device leaves another network device (Lin, col. 1 ll. 22-51).
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0318961 A1 to Devarajan et al. (“Devarajan”) in view of U.S. Patent No. 11,088,871 B1 to Lin et al. (“Lin”) in further view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0220515 A1 to Jain et al. (“Jain”) in further view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0120033 A1 to Gorrepati et al. (“Gorrepati”).
As to claim 20, Devarajan and Lin discloses:
method of claim 19,
Jain discloses what Devarajan and Lin do not expressly disclose.
Jain discloses:
further comprising:
in response to the host device roaming from the first edge device to the second edge device, detecting the host device being communicatively coupled to an interface of the second edge device and incrementing the sequence number (¶0027 – Jain teaches prior to the roaming point, incrementing a sequence number counter and a packet number counter for queued data units at the first access point; and sending the sequence number counter and the packet number counter to the second access point after the incrementing.); and
Devarajan, Lin and Jain are analogous arts because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to client mobility.
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate sequence number modification as discussed in Jain with passing of data between devices such as sequence numbers as discussed in Lin with passing host device information between network devices as discussed in Devarajan by adding the functionality of Lin to the system/method of Devarajan in order to improve roaming and switching between devices (Jain, ¶0042).
Gorrepati discloses what Devarajan, Lin and Jain do not expressly disclose.
Gorrepati discloses:
with the second edge device, determining whether to remove the host device from the network or limit traffic from the host device based on a comparison of the incremented sequence number with a threshold in the set control plane parameters (¶0085 – Gorrepati teaches the receiving nodes can reject or drop the packet if the adjusted sequence number is less than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if incremented) or if the adjusted sequence number is greater than an expected sequence number value or threshold number (e.g., if decremented)).
Devarajan, Lin, Jain and Gorrepati are analogous arts because they are from the same field of endeavor with respect to mobile communications.
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate sequence number comparisons as discussed in Gorrepati with sequence number modification as discussed in Jain with passing of data between devices such as sequence numbers as discussed in Lin with passing host device information between network devices as discussed in Devarajan by adding the functionality of Gorrepati to the system/method of Devarajan, Lin and Jain in order to help prevent network attacks (Gorrepati, ¶0003).
Conclusion
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/TAYLOR A ELFERVIG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445