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 .
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 1-13, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Subramanian (US Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0089594), and further in view of Thinguldstad (US Patent No. 7,885,549).
Regarding claim 1, Subramanian teaches a method comprising:
detecting, by a processing system (Fig. 1 items 170, 180, 0190, Paragraphs 0032-0035 network operator’s integrated servers) in a communications service provider access network, network traffic from an endpoint device (Paragraph 0062 HTTP GET request) connected to an optical network terminal (Fig. 1 item 140, Paragraph 0029 item 140 as ONT) for which a fiber service has been discontinued (Paragraphs 0011, 0055 unknown subscriber with no service), wherein the network traffic has been rerouted by a network gateway (Paragraphs 0011, 0047, 0055, 0062 rerouting to service portal);
delivering, by the processing system to the endpoint device, information associated with at least one communication service plan that is available to a customer site associated with the optical network terminal; receiving, by the processing system, a selection of the at least one communication service plan from the endpoint device (Paragraphs 0034-0035, 0047, 0064-0065);
configuring, by the processing system, a customer policy for the customer site in accordance with the selection (Paragraph 0066); and
delivering, by the processing system, the customer policy to the network gateway with an instruction to replace a default policy associated with the customer site with the customer policy (Paragraph 0034-0035, 0056, 0066 subscriber specific service profile replacing default profile) (Paragraphs 0008-0016, 0025-0068 for complete details).
Subramanian teaches fiber optic backbone, but Subramanian does not explicitly teach fiber broadband service.
However, in the similar field, Thinguldstad teaches optical network terminal (Fig. 7 item 740) connecting to fiber broadband gateway (Fig. 7 item 700 items 720, 725) providing broadband services (col. 1 ll. 13-35, col. 8 ll. 19-col. 9 ll. 32).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to modify Subramanian to include optical network terminal connecting to fiber broadband gateway providing fiber broadband services as taught by Thinguldstad in order to “offer cost-effective, end-to-end solutions that are capable of delivering a combination of high-demand services” (Thinguldstad, col. 1 ll. 22-24).
Regarding claim 2, Subramanian teaches wherein the network traffic is directed toward a core network to which the communications service provider access network is connected (Fig. 1, Paragraphs 0025-0032), and the default policy causes the broadband network gateway to reroute the network traffic to the processing system (Paragraphs 0047, 0055 default profile routing to service portal only).
Regarding claim 3, Subramanian teaches wherein a replacement of the default policy with the customer policy will cause the broadband network gateway to process future network traffic from the optical network terminal in accordance with the customer policy (Paragraphs 0056-0057, 0066 normal session based on service plan).
Regarding claim 4, Subramanian teaches wherein the future network traffic that is directed toward the core network will be permitted to proceed to the core network without rerouting to the processing system (Paragraphs 0056-0057, 0066 normal session based on service plan).
Regarding claim 5, Subramanian teaches wherein the processing system is part of a dedicated application server that serves as a self-service web portal for subscribing to and establishing service according to the at least one communication service plan (Paragraphs 0032-0035).
Regarding claim 6, Subramanian teaches wherein the at least one communication service plan is one of a plurality of communication service plans for which information is delivered to the endpoint device (Paragraphs 0034-0035, 0041, 0065).
Regarding claim 7, Subramanian teaches wherein the at least one communication service plan is a fiber service plan (Paragraph 0056 bandwidth limit and charging information i.e. price), and Thinguldstad teaches providing fiber broadband service (col. 8 ll. 19-67).
Regarding claim 8, Subramanian teaches wherein the information includes a data rate and a price (Paragraph 0056 bandwidth limit and charging information i.e. price).
Regarding claim 9, Subramanian teaches wherein the at least one communication service plan is associated with at least one of: a streaming media service, a television service (Paragraphs 0027), or a telephone service (Paragraphs 0025-0026).
Regarding claim 10, Subramanian teaches wherein the information includes at least one service parameter and a price (Paragraph 0056 bandwidth limit and charging information i.e. price).
Regarding claim 11, Subramanian teaches wherein the at least one service parameter includes at least one of: a data rate (Paragraphs 0041, 0056 bandwidth limit), whether advertisements are to be included, or a number of devices permitted to be connected to the at least one communication service plan.
Regarding claim 12, Subramanian teaches wherein the at least one communication service plan is associated with a set of preconfigured parameters that govern how traffic from the optical network terminal is to be processed (Paragraphs 0041, 0056, 0064 based on bandwidth limit of the plan determined by residential gateway capabilities parameters).
Regarding claim 13, Subramanian teaches wherein the configuring comprises configuring the customer policy to process traffic from the optical network terminal in a manner that satisfies the set of preconfigured parameters (Paragraphs 0041, 0056, 0064 bandwidth limit of the plan satisfying the residential gateway capabilities parameters).
Regarding claim 19, Subramanian teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing system in a communications service provider access network, the processing system including at least one processor, cause the processing system to perform operations (Paragraphs 0036-0042, 0068-0069), the operations comprising:
detecting network traffic from an endpoint device (Paragraph 0062 HTTP GET request) connected to an optical network terminal (Fig. 1 item 140, Paragraph 0029 item 140 as ONT) for which a fiber service has been discontinued (Paragraphs 0011, 0055 unknown subscriber with no service), wherein the network traffic has been rerouted by a network gateway (Paragraphs 0011, 0047, 0055, 0062 rerouting to service portal);
delivering, to the endpoint device, information associated with at least one communication service plan that is available to a customer site associated with the optical network terminal; receiving a selection of the at least one communication service plan from the endpoint device (Paragraphs 0034-0035, 0047, 0064-0065);
configuring a customer policy for the customer site in accordance with the selection (Paragraph 0066); and
delivering the customer policy to the network gateway with an instruction to replace a default policy associated with the customer site with the customer policy (Paragraph 0034-0035, 0056, 0066 subscriber specific service profile replacing default profile) (Paragraphs 0008-0016, 0025-0068 for complete details).
Subramanian teaches fiber optic backbone, but Subramanian does not explicitly teach fiber broadband service.
However, in the similar field, Thinguldstad teaches optical network terminal (Fig. 7 item 740) connecting to fiber broadband gateway (Fig. 7 item 700 items 720, 725) providing broadband services (col. 1 ll. 13-35, col. 8 ll. 19-col. 9 ll. 32).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to modify Subramanian to include optical network terminal connecting to fiber broadband gateway providing fiber broadband services as taught by Thinguldstad in order to “offer cost-effective, end-to-end solutions that are capable of delivering a combination of high-demand services” (Thinguldstad, col. 1 ll. 22-24).
Regarding claim 20, Subramanian teaches a device comprising: a processing system in a communications service provider access network, the processing system including at least one processor; and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations (Paragraphs 0036-0042, 0068-0069), the operations comprising:
detecting network traffic from an endpoint device (Paragraph 0062 HTTP GET request) connected to an optical network terminal (Fig. 1 item 140, Paragraph 0029 item 140 as ONT) for which a fiber service has been discontinued (Paragraphs 0011, 0055 unknown subscriber with no service), wherein the network traffic has been rerouted by a network gateway (Paragraphs 0011, 0047, 0055, 0062 rerouting to service portal);
delivering, to the endpoint device, information associated with at least one communication service plan that is available to a customer site associated with the optical network terminal; receiving a selection of the at least one communication service plan from the endpoint device (Paragraphs 0034-0035, 0047, 0064-0065);
configuring a customer policy for the customer site in accordance with the selection (Paragraph 0066); and
delivering the customer policy to the network gateway with an instruction to replace a default policy associated with the customer site with the customer policy (Paragraph 0034-0035, 0056, 0066 subscriber specific service profile replacing default profile) (Paragraphs 0008-0016, 0025-0068 for complete details).
Subramanian teaches fiber optic backbone, but Subramanian does not explicitly teach fiber broadband service.
However, in the similar field, Thinguldstad teaches optical network terminal (Fig. 7 item 740) in fiber broadband optical network (Fig. 7 item 700) providing broadband services (col. 1 ll. 13-35, col. 8 ll. 19-col. 9 ll. 32).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to modify Subramanian to include optical network terminal connecting to fiber broadband gateway providing fiber broadband services as taught by Thinguldstad in order to “offer cost-effective, end-to-end solutions that are capable of delivering a combination of high-demand services” (Thinguldstad, col. 1 ll. 22-24).
Claims 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Subramanian and Thinguldstad as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Park (US Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0161688).
Regarding claim 14, it was well known not only to a person of ordinary skill in the art but known also to any general user of telecommunication services to make a plurality of a la carte selections of parameters, but Subramanian and Thinguldstad do not teach such commonly known function of a plurality of a la carte selections of parameters that govern how traffic from the network terminal is to be processed.
However, in the similar field of communication, Park teaches a plurality of a la carte selections of parameters that govern how traffic from the network terminal is to be processed (Paragraphs 0028-0029, 0036-0041).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to modify Subramanian and Thinguldstad to include a plurality of a la carte selections of parameters that govern how traffic from the network terminal is to be processed as taught by Park so that “the example user device 110 requests that the example application server 145 provide the requested application content (e.g., streaming video content) according to the selected service option (e.g., selected video resolution, bit rate, etc.).” (Park, Paragraph 0040).
Regarding claim 15, Park teaches wherein the configuring comprises parsing the selection for the selections of the parameters and configuring the customer policy to process traffic from the network terminal in a manner that satisfies the selections of the parameters (Paragraph 0038 extracting list of costs from messages).
Claims 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Subramanian and Thinguldstad as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Wang (US Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0367235).
Regarding claim 14, it was well known not only to a person of ordinary skill in the art but known also to any general user of telecommunication services to make a plurality of a la carte selections of parameters, but Subramanian and Thinguldstad do not teach such commonly known function of a plurality of a la carte selections of parameters that govern how traffic from the optical network terminal is to be processed.
However, in the similar field of communication, Wang teaches a plurality of a la carte selections of parameters that govern how traffic from the optical network terminal is to be processed (Paragraphs 0042, 0058).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to modify Subramanian and Thinguldstad to include a plurality of a la carte selections of parameters that govern how traffic from the optical network terminal is to be processed as taught by Wang so that “a user may pre-set different priorities of multiple wavelength channels in a PON port of an OLT and priorities of different ONUs of a corresponding client according to requirements of service configuration” (Wang, Paragraph 0042).
Regarding claim 15, Wang teaches wherein the configuring comprises parsing the selection for the selections of the parameters and configuring the customer policy to process traffic from the network terminal in a manner that satisfies the selections of the parameters (Paragraph 0043-046, 0049, 0059-0062, 0065, 0072-0077).
Claims 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Subramanian and Thinguldstad as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Bahl (US Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0083846).
Regarding claim 16, it was well known to a person of ordinary skill in the art to engage, by the processing system, a backend system needed to perform a process needed to establish service in accordance with the at least one communication service plan at the customer site (i.e. verifying subscribing user’s credit with third party credit agency), but Subramanian and Thinguldstad do not teach such commonly known function of engaging, by the processing system, a backend system needed to perform a process needed to establish service in accordance with the at least one communication service plan at the customer site.
However, in the similar field of communication, Bahl teaches engaging, by the processing system, a backend system needed to perform a process needed to establish service in accordance with the at least one communication service plan at the customer site (Paragraphs 0034, 0046-0047).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to modify Subramanian and Thinguldstad to include engaging, by the processing system, a backend system needed to perform a process needed to establish service in accordance with the at least one communication service plan at the customer site as taught by Bahl so that “The subscription server then creates an account for the user“ (Bahl, Paragraph 0046).
Regarding claim 17, Bahl teaches wherein the process needed to establish service comprises at least one of: a credit check for a user in whose name the communication service plan is to be established, a verification that the user resides at an address associated with the customer site, or a verification that hardware and software at the customer site is compatible with the at least one communication service plan (Paragraph 0046 “user sends the requested information, such as name, address, credit card, etc., to the subscription server at step 708. This information is sent securely to the charging sub-system in the GPRS network” (emphasis added). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to understand these information used for verifying user credentials as was well known even to a common person trying to establish any new utility service.).
Regarding claim 18, Bahl teaches wherein the configuring and the delivering the customer policy cannot proceed until the process needed to establish service has been completed (Paragraph 0046 “Once the secure channel is established, the user sends the requested information, such as name, address, credit card, etc., to the subscription server at step 708. This information is sent securely to the charging sub-system in the GPRS network. The subscription server then creates an account for the user in the HLR/AuC at step 710. The subscription server uses the HLR which uses proprietary calls to the AuC to get the user credentials, and it sends those credentials to the SmartCard attached to the user's equipment over the secure HTTPS channel at step 712.”).
Conclusion
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HEMANT PATEL
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2694
/HEMANT S PATEL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2694