Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The Office Action is in response to claims filed n 7/10/2024 where claims 1-8.10-11. and 13-22 are pending and ready for examination.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Chan (US 20170359447) in view of Uthaman (US 11,641,410)
Regarding claim 1. Chan discloses a method for scheduling a content delivery network (CDN) domain name, the method being implemented at a client and comprising:
determining, in response to a resource obtaining request of the client, a first CDN domain name indicated by the resource obtaining request (Chan; Chan ([0032]) discloses a DNS look-up reply which necessarily results from a DNS request thereby determining a first domain name in response to the request;
see e.g. [0032] “... the identified host name and IP address of an address record DNS look-up reply ...”);
determining a target domain name set including the first CDN domain name (Chan; Chan compares identified host names to domain names in DNNTs, which constitute a set of domain names, and selects domain names from that set corresponding to the identified host name, thereby determining a domain name set including the identified domain name;
[0031] At decision block 103, the one or more host names which are identified at functional block 102 is then compared to domain names in the DNNTPs received at functional block 101. If a host name contains one or more domain names used in one or more DNNTPs, the host name is then used for creating one or more IPPs at functional block 104. For example, host names “smtp.example.com”, “www.example.com”, “video example.com”, “audio.01.example.com” and “movie.europe.example.com” all contain the domain name “example.com” and if “example.com” is used in a DNNTP, the one or more IP addresses of these host names are then used for created IPPs at functional block 104. If the host name does not contain a domain name used in any of the DNNTPs, then no IPP in relation to the host name is created at functional block 106.);
selecting a second CDN domain name from the target domain name set according to availability weights of respective CDN domain names in the target domain name set (Chan; Chan teaches using domain names as traffic destination parameters and applying decision algorithms , including weight balance ([0022]). Weight balance refers to selecting or distributing traffic among candidate destinations based on assigned weights. Accordingly, the reference teaches selecting among domain-associated candidates based on weight; Chan then compares identified host names to domain names and, upon a match, creates IP-based policies for the matching domain, thereby selecting a domain associated destination for routing (see e.g. [0031], [0032], Fig. 1); and
transmitting the resource obtaining request to a first server corresponding to the second CDN domain name, and receiving resource information fed back by the first server (Chan, As Chan determines a domain-name based destination corresponding to a selected domain name ([0031], [0032] it would have been obvious to transmit the resource obtaining request to a first server corresponding to the selected (second CDN) domain name, and to receive resource information fed back from the first server, as this merely fulfills the request using the selected domain-name based destination)
As evidence of the rationale above Uthaman discloses:
transmitting the resource obtaining request to a first server corresponding to the second CDN domain name, and receiving resource information fed back by the first server (Uthaman;
Uthaman (Fig. 1) discloses transmitting the resource obtaining request form the client electronic device 106 to a first server, namely POP content cache server(s) 124A-125N. corresponding to the second CDN domain name, and receiving resource information fed back by the first server, namely distribution data objects 132A-132N provided by the POP content cache server(s))
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Uthaman’s CDN network. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in delivering resources.
Regarding claim 10, claim 10 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 1 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale,
Regarding claim 11, claim 11 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 1 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale,
Claims 2 , 13,and 20 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Raj (US 20210099415)
Regarding claim 2, Chan in view of Uthaman disclose The method of claim 1, wherein determining, in response to a resource obtaining request of the client, a first CDN domain name indicated by the resource obtaining request comprises (Per Independent claim 1), Chan does not expressly disclose:
in response to the resource obtaining request initiated by a main thread of the client, calling a background thread of the client to determine the first CDN domain name indicated by the resource obtaining request.
However in analogous art Raj discloses:
a main thread of a client calling a background thread of the client to perform domain name determination (Raj; Raj ([0011]); Fig. 4) discloses a main thread of a client calling a background thread of the client to perform domain name determination;
[0011] In an embodiment, performing, by the mobile device, the DNS lookup over the IPv4 and the IPv6, based on the DNS query-pattern of a plurality of DNS queries for a plurality of services of the at least one application includes creating, by the mobile device, two operation threads each of which is dedicated to the IPv6 and the IPv4 socket management separately, and performing, by the mobile device, the DNS lookup over the IPv4 using a first operation thread of the two operation threads and the DNS lookup over the IPv6 using a second operation thread of the two operation threads based on the DNS query-pattern of the plurality of DNS queries for the plurality of services of the at least one application.
)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Raj’s thread scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting increased efficiencies of resolving DNS requests and receiving resources.
Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Raj disclose:
in response to the resource obtaining request initiated by a main thread of the client, calling a background thread of the client to determine the first CDN domain name indicated by the resource obtaining request (The combined solution provides for processing a client request using a main thread that invokes a background thread to perform domain name determination):
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Uthaman’s CDN network. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in delivering resources
Regarding claim 13, claim 13 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 2 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale,
Regarding claim 20, claim 20 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 2 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale,
Claims 3, 14, and 21 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Ouyang (US 2020/0382423)
Regarding claim 3, Chan in view of Uthaman disclose the method of claim 1, wherein determining a target domain name set including the first CDN domain name comprises:
searching a plurality of previously generated CDN domain name sets for the first CDN domain name (Per Independent Claim 1), and
determining the target domain name set as a CDN domain name set in which the first CDN domain name is found (Per Independent claim 1); and
wherein the plurality of CDN domain name sets are generated by:
generating initialized availability weights of respective available CDN domain names, and generating CDN domain name sets corresponding to respective target resources according to the availability weights (The combined solution provides for generating initialized availability weights m, as the availability weights must be established prior to being applied for domain name selection).
The combined solution does not expressly disclose:
obtaining, with a periodicity of preset duration, a plurality of available CDN domain names that match target resources corresponding to target pages loaded by the client;
However in analogous art Ouyang discloses:
Obtaining with a periodicity of preset duration, a plurality of available CDN domain names (Ouyang [0048], [0050] teaches periodically requesting and updating DNS/domain mapping information over detection periods, thereby obtaining available domain names at preset intervals
0048] In this embodiment, after a process of adjusting the load weight value in the current detection period is completed, the adjusted load weight value may be taken as the load weight value of the resource server after the current detection period. Specifically, if the adjusted load weight value is within a range of the load weight value, it indicates that the adjusted load weight value is relatively reasonable and thus the adjusted load weight value may be taken as the load weight value of the resource server after the current detection period. However, if the adjusted load weight value is greater than an upper limit value of the specified range of the load weight value, it indicates that the adjusted load weight value in accordance with the preset adjustment amplitude is too large. At this time, the upper limit value of the specified range of the load weight value may be taken as the load weight value of the resource server after the current detection period. On the contrary, if the adjusted load weight value is less than the lower limit value of the specified range of the load weight value, it indicates that the adjusted load weight value in accordance with the preset adjustment amplitude is too small. At this time, the lower limit value of the specified range of the load weight value may be taken as the load weight value of the resource server after the current detection period.
)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ouyang’s scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of DNS processing.
Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Ouyang disclose:
obtaining, with a periodicity of preset duration, a plurality of available CDN domain names that match target resources corresponding to target pages loaded by the client (The combined solution applies Ouyang’s periodic DNS information acquisition to Chan’s CDN domain name selection framework, thereby providing period retrieval of available domain names corresponding to client-requested resources)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Uthaman’s CDN network. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in delivering resources
Regarding claim 14, claim 14 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 3 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale,
Regarding claim 21, claim 21 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 3 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale,
Claims 4, 15, and 22 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Lee (US 20120110113)
Regarding claim 4. Chan in view of Uthaman disclose the method of claim 1, Chan does not expressly disclose wherein selecting a second CDN domain name from the target domain name set according to availability weights of respective CDN domain names in the target domain name set comprises:
generating a corresponding number of selection units for each CDN domain name in the target domain name set according to the availability weights;
randomly extracting one target selection unit from the selection units; and
determining the second CDN domain name as a CDN domain name corresponding to the target selection unit.
However in analogous art Lee discloses:
generating a corresponding number of selection units for each CDN domain name (Lee [0004] teaches associating weight values with servers and allocating election based on those weights;
[0004] In general, regarding a clustered application architecture, a load balancer or a domain name server (DNS) uses a load balancing algorithm appropriate for a service characteristic, that is, a scheduling method based on a round robin, least connection, hash, or weight value method to balance a load so that the load may not be heavily provided to a specific lower cache server in a cache cluster, and to request contents from a random cache server.);
randomly extracting one target selection unit from the selection units (Lee ([0004]) teaches generating a random number and selecting a server based on the random value within weighted ranges); and
determining the second CDN domain name based on the extracted selected unit (Lee ([0004]) teaches selecting a server corresponding to the weighted/random selection outcome).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Lee’s scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of DNS processing.
Chan in view of Uthaman and in further vie of Lee disclose:
generating a corresponding number of selection units for each CDN domain name in the target domain name set according to the availability weights (The combined solution per Lee provides for generating a particular number of selection units according to availability of weights);
determining the second CDN domain name as a CDN domain name corresponding to the target selection unit (The combined solution per Lee provides for determination with respect to the target selection unit)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Uthaman’s CDN network. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in delivering resources
Regarding claim 15, claim 15 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 4 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 22, claim 22 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 4 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Claims 5 and 16 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Hao (US 2020/0344208)
Regarding claim 5. Chan in view of Uthaman disclose the method of claim 1, wherein selecting a second CDN domain name from the target domain name set according to availability weights of respective CDN domain names in the target domain name set comprises:
setting, when the request mode indicated by the resource obtaining request is a specified domain name selection mode, the first CDN domain name as the second CDN domain name (The combined solution per Independent claim 1).
Hao discloses:
Random domain name selection (Hao; Hao ([0044]) teaches that DNS query request may be used to select a server in a random manner, thereby confirming that requests may be processed using random selection
[0044] Optionally, the step of sending the query request for querying the domain name of the server to the DNS includes: sending the query request to the DNS, where the query request is used for the DNS to select the IDGW according to the domain name of the server in a random or alternate manner)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Hao’s scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of DNS processing.
Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Hao disclose:
selecting the second CDN domain name from the target domain name set according to the availability weights of respective CDN domain names in the target domain name set when a request mode indicated by the resource obtaining request is a random domain name selection mode (The combined solution per Hao provides for selecting servers using a random weighted distribution in response to client requests. Under BRI, such processing corresponds to handling the request according to a random name selection mode);
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Uthaman’s CDN network. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in delivering resources
Regarding claim 16, claim 16 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 5 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale
Claims 6-7 and 17- 18 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Hao and in further view of Charmarajanagara (US 11,005, 929) hereinafter referred to as Chamara
Regarding claim 6. Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Hao disclose the method of claim 5, Chan does not expressly disclose further comprising:
lowering an availability weight of the second CDN domain name by a first preset threshold when the first server fails to feed back resource information within a first preset duration, and
re-selecting the second CDN domain name from the target domain name set.
Chamara discloses:
availability weights (Chamara teaches dynamically changing weights of servers when a load threshold is exceeded, including assigning a weight of zero of servers that no longer have resources available, thereby lowering an availability eight by a threshold. Chamara further teaches that such changes occur after the condition persists for a predetermined period of time, corresponding to a preset duration)
see e.g. Column 6, Lines 35 – 44 “ In this embodiment, DNS server 200 dynamically changes the weights of BGP routes associated with the servers that exceed their corresponding load threshold by lowering the weight of those routes (e.g., changing the weight to zero “0”). In other embodiments, DNS server 200 may instead increase the weight assigned to servers with remaining capacity so that their BGP route weights are greater than the BGP route weights of the servers without capacity. For example, weights associated with the BGP routes may have a value from 0 up to 65535”)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Chamara’s scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of DNS processing.
Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Hao and in further view of Chamara disclose:
lowering an availability weight of the second CDN domain name by a first preset threshold when the first server fails to feed back resource information within a first preset duration (The combined solution per Chamara provides for adjusting the weights based on thresholds within preset thresholds.
The Examiner notes that because request handling and server responsiveness are evaluated on an ongoing basis, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been inclined to apply the weight adjustment only after the condition persists for a defined duration, as that the adjustment reflects an actual service condition rather than a monetary fluctuation. The combined solution therefore provides for a preset duration as a practical timing criterion for when to lower the weight) , and
re-selecting the second CDN domain name from the target domain name set (The combined solution per Chamara as Chamara further teaches that such changes occur after the condition persists for a predetermined period of time, corresponding to a preset duration. In response to the weight reduction, the system directs subsequent request to other servers, which under the broadest reasonable interpretation corresponds to re-selecting a CDN domain name).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Uthaman’s CDN network. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in delivering resources
Regarding claim 7. Chan in view of Uthaman and in further view of Hao and in further view of Chamara disclose The method of claim 6, wherein re-selecting the second CDN domain name from the target domain name set comprises:
adjusting the request mode indicated by the resource obtaining request to the specified domain name selection mode when the request mode indicated by the resource obtaining request is the random domain name selection mode, and re-selecting the second CDN domain name from the target domain name set (Under BRI switching between such mechanisms corresponds to adjusting the request mode from a random domain name selection mode to a specified domain name selection mode and the combined solution teaches selection of servers using both weighted and random selection mechanisms.) . and
selecting sequentially a CDN domain name with a non-zero availability weight that has not been selected from the target domain name set as the second CDN domain name when the request mode indicated by the resource obtaining request is the specified domain name selection mode (The combined solution per Chamara provides for servers with reduced or zero weights are excluded from selection, such that subsequent selection is performed among remaining servers with non-zero availability weights, corresponding to selecting a CDN domain that has not been previously selected).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Uthaman’s CDN network. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in delivering resources
Regarding claim 17, claim 17 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 6 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 18, claim 18 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 7 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Claims 8 and 19 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over Chan in view of Uthaman and further view of Ouyang
Regarding claim 8, Chan in view of Uthaman disclose the method of claim 1, Chan does not expressly disclose further comprising:
increasing availability weights lower than a preset maximum value by a second preset threshold after a second preset duration, and adjusting the increased availability weight beyond the preset maximum value to the preset maximum value.
However in analogous art Ouyang discloses:
increasing availability weights lower than a preset maximum value by a second preset threshold after a second preset duration, and adjusting the increased availability weight beyond the preset maximum value to the preset maximum value (Ouyang teaches adjusting load weight values of servers over tie based on detection periods and constraining such adjusted load weight values withing a specified range. Specifically, Ouyang discloses that a detection period an adjusted load weight value is used as the load weight value for a subsequent period, and when the adjusted load weight value exceeds an upper limit of a specified range, the upper limit value is used, thereby bounding the load weight value within a maximum range. Ouyang further discloses that when the adjusted load weight value is below a lower limit, the lower limit value is used, thereby normalizing the load weight value within defined limits. Further, Ouyang discloses that the adjusted load weight values are used by a DNS authoritative server to assign access requests to servers base on the load weight values, thereby applying the adjusted and bounded weights in a resource selection context)
[0048] In this embodiment, after a process of adjusting the load weight value in the current detection period is completed, the adjusted load weight value may be taken as the load weight value of the resource server after the current detection period. Specifically, if the adjusted load weight value is within a range of the load weight value, it indicates that the adjusted load weight value is relatively reasonable and thus the adjusted load weight value may be taken as the load weight value of the resource server after the current detection period. However, if the adjusted load weight value is greater than an upper limit value of the specified range of the load weight value, it indicates that the adjusted load weight value in accordance with the preset adjustment amplitude is too large. At this time, the upper limit value of the specified range of the load weight value may be taken as the load weight value of the resource server after the current detection period. On the contrary, if the adjusted load weight value is less than the lower limit value of the specified range of the load weight value, it indicates that the adjusted load weight value in accordance with the preset adjustment amplitude is too small. At this time, the lower limit value of the specified range of the load weight value may be taken as the load weight value of the resource server after the current detection period.
0086] a unit for sending a scheduling policy, configured to send a scheduling policy characterizing each adjusted load weight value to a DNS authoritative server after adjusting a load weight value of the each resource server under a target domain name is completed, so that an access request directed to the target domain name is assigned among the each resource server by the DNS authoritative server in accordance with the each load weight value characterized by the scheduling policy.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ouyang’s scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies of DNS processing.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Uthaman’s CDN network. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implementing a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in delivering resources
Regarding claim 19, claim 19 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 8 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to TODD L. BARKER whose telephone number is (571) 270 0257. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday, 7:30am to 5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner's supervisor Vivek Srivastava can be reached on (571) 272 7304.
/TODD L BARKER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2449