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 .
New Examiner of Record
Please note the new examiner of record.
Detailed Action
Claims 1-20 are pending in this Office Action.
Claims 1, 8, 15, and 20 are amended.
No claims are new or cancelled.
Oath and Declaration
The oath and declaration submitted 1/22/26 is entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements filed on 10/28/25 has been considered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed in the amendment filed 11/20/2025, have been fully considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection. The reasons set forth below.
REMARKS
Applicant has presented amendments the independent claims clarifying that the ACK includes a count of OOO packets. The examiner has produced new art that addresses the feature in a multipath OOO packet retransmission system.
Examiner Encouraged Amendments
Due to the maturity of OOO packet processing, the examiner encourages applicant to include features from specification paras 37 (the details of the subportion of the ACK), 45, 46 (the algorithms and how the derived windows is determined), and 58 (details of the parsed PHV).
Applicant’s invention as claimed:
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)(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.
(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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 20240422094 by Papamichael et al.
1. (Currently Amended) A transmitter, comprising:
circuitry configured to:
transmit packets to a receiver using multipathing and according to a congestion window (Papamichael: page 1, para 9-10);
receive at least one acknowledgement (ACK) from the receiver, the ACK comprising an out-of-order (OOO) packet count indicating a total number of a plurality of OOO packets that the receiver has received from the transmitter (Papamichael: pages 1-2, para 10-11; count can be sent back); and
upon determining the OOO packet count satisfies a threshold, retransmit one or more packets to the receiver, wherein the threshold is dynamically adjusted based on the congestion window (Papamichael: page 2, para 12-14).
2. (Original) The transmitter of claim 1, wherein the ACK further comprises a subportion of a packet tracking bitmap maintained by the receiver, wherein the packet tracking bitmap comprises bit values corresponding to respective packet sequence numbers (PSNs) (Papamichael: page 2, para 11; highest packet sequence number; page 7, para 77; page 9, para 88; vector).
3. (Original) The transmitter of claim 2, wherein the bit values indicate whether a corresponding packet transmitted by the transmitter has been received at the receiver, wherein the transmitter is configured to use the bit values to determine which packets should be retransmitted to the receiver and which have already been received by the receiver (Papamichael: page 2, para 11; highest packet sequence number; page 7, para 77).
4. (Original) The transmitter of claim 3, wherein one of the bit values in the packet tracking bitmap is a highest PSN (HPSN) indicating an OOO packet with the highest PSN, wherein the transmitter does not retransmit any packets that have already been sent to the receiver with PSNs greater than the HPSN (Papamichael: pages 89, para 81-88).
5. (Original) The transmitter of claim 4, wherein one of the bit values in the packet tracking bitmap is an expected PSN (EPSN) indicating a next packet the receiver is expecting to receive from the transmitter, wherein the transmitter only retransmits packets that are between the EPSN and the HPSN and have bit values indicating the transmitted packets have not been received by the receiver (Papamichael: pages 89, para 81-90).
6. (Original) The transmitter of claim 1, wherein the threshold is a maximum of either a metric derived from the congestion window or a minimum floor value (Papamichael: pages 29, para 13-14).
7. (Original) The transmitter of claim 1, wherein the congestion window is reduced when there is more network congestion between the transmitter and the receiver and increased when there is less congestion between the transmitter and the receiver (Papamichael: pages 9-10, para 91-94).
Claims 8-14 are rejected as being substantially similar to claims 1-7 above.
Claims 15-19 are rejected as being substantially similar to claims 1-7 above.
Claim 20 is rejected as being substantially similar to claim 1 above.
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
U. S. Patent No. 7835273 issued to Sin.
U. S. Patent Publication No. 20240314203 issued to Hausauer et al.
U. S. Patent Publication No. 20110090853 issued to Chandramouli et al.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN R BRUCKART whose telephone number is (571)272-3982. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH: 7-6p.
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BENJAMIN R. BRUCKART
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2424
/BENJAMIN R BRUCKART/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2424
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