DETAILED ACTION
This communication is response to the application filed 05/22/2024. Claims 1-20 are pending and presented for examination.
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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 1 and 12, the term “pod” is unclear and vague. It is unclear whether pod as claimed is “Point of Delivery” or any other pod. Thus, the claim term is unclear and renders the claim indefinite.
Regarding claims 1 and 12, the term “N6 chain” is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The “N6 chain” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. It is unclear what is the difference between the “N6 chain” and “N6 service chains” recited in claims 3 and 14.
Regarding claim 1, the claim does not recite any element that “notify a SMF to stop allocating the disables pod” and “setting a status of unavailable for the disabled pod”. The claim is therefore unclear as to the relationship between the associated element (e.g., notifying a SMF and setting a status of unavailable) and the rest of the claims.
Regarding claims 2-11 and 13-20, they are also rejected since they depend(s) on rejected base claim.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 12,532,255 to Delos Reyes et al. discloses dynamic network function. COP 318 may receive the request execute the tear-down procedure (arrows 570a-e) for one or more of NSSF 320, PCF 308, AMF 302, SMF 304, and/or UPF 306. COP 318 may decommission worker nodes, delete microservice pods, and remove namespaces (block 575). After successful decommissioning, COP 318 may notify 580 NF management unit 150. which may then confirm deletion 590 to the operator associated with input 130. All or some of the deleted NF resources may be returned to a pool and made available to the cluster's resources.
US 12,452,689 to Weber, Jr. et al. discloses network interface verification and method for remediating failures identified through ping operations. For completeness, FIG. 9 also further shows another graphical user interface 900 that substantially parallels graphical user interfaces 500, 600, 700, and 800, except that graphical user interface 900 corresponds to the N6 Left/Right Service Chain interface. Graphical user interface 900 may further include a headline 952, a header section 954, columns 902-912, and rows 914-950. Graphical user interface 900 may also further differ from previous graphical user interfaces that are discussed above due to the fact that row 950 within graphical user interface 900 further specifies an overall pass rate (i.e., 99.432% in row 950) for a total set of health check tests or pinging operations (i.e., a total number of 1,234 pinging operations as indicated at 950).
US 10,785,094 to Thubert discloses a plurality of PODs is formed in a software defined networking (SDN) fabric, each POD comprising a plurality of leaf nodes and connected to a plurality of spine nodes in a spine layer of the SDN fabric. One of the plurality of PODs is designated as a super POD and link state information is provided for the entire fabric to the super POD by sending northbound advertisements in the fabric to the super POD. A disconnection is identified between a leaf node in the SDN fabric and a particular one of the spine nodes in the spine layer, based on the link state information provided to the super POD. The disconnection is repaired between the leaf node and the particular spine node in the spine layer.
US 12,506,690 to Ying et al. discloses a a method for implementing a logical router of a logical network at a first Pod executing on a first node of a Kubernetes cluster to implement data message forwarding for the logical router. The method receives a data message for processing by the logical router. The method determines that the data message requires layer 7 (L7) service processing at the logical router. The method selects a second Pod from multiple Pods that perform L7 service for the logical router. Each of the Pods executes on a different node of the cluster. The method forwards the data message to the second Pod via a layer 2 (L2) construct that connects the first and second Pods.
US 2025/0220507 to Mishra et al. discloses treatment of user traffic with multiple LAN Services and Single Charging. A network configuration for multiple N6/SGi LANs that are used to treat a given UE traffic. A system is configured for traffic routing and handling when a given session is to be treated by services offered in multiple N6-LANs. Load balancing for user traffic to different available servers if configured on N6 interface is provided. A health check mechanism of the available servers on the N6 interface is provided.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RASHEED GIDADO whose telephone number is (571)270-7645. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8AM-5PM EST.
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, Ricky Ngo can be reached at 571-272-3139. 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.
/RASHEED GIDADO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
Prosecution Insights