DETAILED ACTION
Claims 33-40 are pending in this application; claims 1-20 are cancelled and claims 21-32 are withdrawn.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Note: Applicant elected Group III Claim 33-40 without traverse in response to restriction requirement on 11/04/2025.
Oath/Declaration
The applicant’s oath/declaration has been reviewed by the examiner and is found to conform to the requirements prescribed in 37 C.F.R. 1.63.
Priority
This application is a continuation of 17/594,745 filed on 10/28/2021 and became U.S. Patent # 12,034,633; 17/594,745 is a 371 of PCT/CN2020/123218 filed on 10/23/2020 which claiming provisional applications of PCT/US2020/024253 62/852,289 filed on 05/23/2019; PCT/US2020/024253 62/852,203 filed on 05/23/2019 and PCT/US2020/024253 62/852,273 filed on 05/23/2019.
Drawings
The applicant’s drawings submitted are acceptable for examination purposes.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
(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) 33-40 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Bshara et al. (US 10,284,460 A1).
Regarding claim 33, Song teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by a switch via a network, an application data flow packet that comprises an application data flow packet header and an application data flow packet length (receive a network packet 120 at a packet processor (corresponding to switches 110a-110h) that include original packet 120, where original packet include different layer header L2-L4 headers and maximum length or size of network packet see Bshara: Fig.6 step 610; Col.10 lines 34-44; Col.12 lines 42-50);
in response to receiving the application data flow packet, determining that a trace flag is set in the application data flow packet header or when the application data flow packet length is greater than a threshold, the trace flag identifying that the application data flow packet comprises trace data (in response to receive the network packet, determine tracing is enabled for the network packet, the modified packet include trace data “A determination as to whether tracing is enabled for the network packet may be made, as indicated at 620. For example, an indicator may be included in the network packet itself which identifies that tracing is enabled for the network packet” see Bshara: Fig.6 steps 620-630; Fig.2; Col.16 lines 34-38);
adding, by the switch, a tracer packet to an end of the application data flow packet (The network packet may be modified to include trace information, as indicated at 640, such that the trace information is ignored when determining forwarding decisions for the network packet and adding to end of original packet see Bshara: Fig.6 step 640; Co.17 lines 17-20; Fig.1; Fig.4); and
routing the application data flow packet to a next hop in the network with the tracer packet (As indicated at 660, the network packet may then be sent according to the forwarding decision see Bshara: Fig.6 step 660; Fig.1).
Regarding claim 34, Bshara taught the method of claim 33 as described hereinabove. Bshara further teaches wherein the threshold is based on a sum of a length of the application data flow packet, a length of the trace data, or a size of a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) (the sufficient space for trace information based on sufficient space available and the size of trace information see Bshara: Fig.6 step 630; Col.16 lines 51-62 ).
Regarding claim 35, Bshara taught the method of claim 33 as described hereinabove. Bshara further teaches wherein the tracer packet comprises instructions to trigger copying of telemetry information related to the switch to pre-defined fields in the tracer packet (copy network packet in order to provide trace information to a monitoring system “For instance, networking device 110h may be an edge router that traps or logs a copy of network packet 120 in order to provide the trace information included in network packet 120 to a monitoring system or other component that removes the trace information from network packet 120 for analysis” see Bshara: Col.6 lines 13-18).
Regarding claim 36, Bshara taught the method of claim 35 as described hereinabove. Bshara further comprising: upon copying the telemetry information to the pre-defined fields in the tracer packet, routing the application data flow packet containing the tracer packet to the next hop in the network (the hardware of the networking device itself may strip the trace may strip or remove trace information from network packet 120 and provide it to another component for analysis (e.g., a switch or other packet processor may modify the network packet to remove the trace information utilizing dedicated circuitry before sending, dropping, or accepting the packet see Bshara: Col.6 lines 18-29).
Regarding claim 37, Bshara taught the method of claim 33 as described hereinabove. Bshara further comprising: upon determining that the trace data is identified in the application data flow packet, applying a Quality of Service (QoS) policy (modified packet that include trace data and been schedule using scheduler 360 (scheduler that schedule network packet) and routing decision “Network packets that have passed through ingress pipeline 302 may be scheduled or released from packet buffer 330 for modification, reassembly and egress as part of egress pipeline 30” see Bshara: Fig.1; Col. 11 line 64 – Col.12 line 14).
Regarding claim 38, Bshara taught the method of claim 33 as described hereinabove. Bshara further comprising: separating the tracer packet from the application data flow packet (original packet 410 and tracing information 420-424 are separate see Bshara: Fig.4) .
Regarding claim 39, Bshara taught the method of claim 33 as described hereinabove. Bshara further comprising: extracting and collecting the trace data from the tracer packet; and analyzing the trace data (the packet processor or packet processing pipeline may remove or extract the trace information in the hardware before providing the trace information to a controller or other system or component for analysis see Bshara: Col.18 lines 7-14).
Regarding claim 40, Bshara taught the method of claim 33 as described hereinabove. Bshara further teaches wherein regular processing of the application data flow packet continues to receive application data flow packets at an egress port of the switch (If tracing is not enabled, then as indicated by the negative exit from 620, then forwarding of the network packet may continue without including trace information see Bshara: Fig.6 steps 620, 650-660).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GUANG W LI whose telephone number is (571)270-1897. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Thursday 7AM-5PMET.
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GUANG W. LI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2478
January 5, 2026
/GUANG W LI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478