DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Applicant(s) Response to Office Action
The response filed on 12/29/2025 has been entered and made of record.
Response to Amendment/Remarks
Claims 1-6, 9, and 11-14 have been amended. Claims 1-16 remain pending in the application.
Examiner remarks have been fully considered. Applicant’s remarks are moot in light of new grounds of rejection necessitated by applicant’s amendments. Applicant articulates how the amendments to claims 1 and 9 overcome the Li rejection. These remarks are moot in light of new grounds of rejection necessitated by applicant’s amendments. Applicant makes no specific remarks how the remaining teachings differentiate from the claim language except for a statement that the cited art does not teach the remaining references.
Examiner’s Note – Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-8 and 15-16 overcome the prior art and would otherwise be allowable if incorporated into the base claim along with any intervening claims.
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 of this title, 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.
Claim(s) 1-6 and 9-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li (US 2014/0215047 A1) in view of Lathi (US 2015/0058989 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 9, Li teaches:
“A flood attack defense method (Li, ¶ 44 teaches processor. Li, ¶ 55 further teaches implementation with a memory and medium), wherein the method comprises: receiving, by a first node, a first packet from a second node, wherein the first packet includes a source internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) address of a data packet, and the source IPv6 address of the data packet is a next-hop address in a routing table or a forwarding table of the first node (Li, ¶ 6-7, 27-33 and Table 2 teaches receiving a an IPV6 response from a neighbor solicitation and learning the information for an entry on the neighbor cache table); and establishing, by the first node, a first neighbor cache entry, wherein a destination IPv6 address included in the first neighbor cache entry is the source IPv6 address of the data packet (Li, ¶ 34, 41 and Table 2 teaches storing the entry on the cache table with the next neighbor information);
and a first aging time (Li, ¶ 34, 41 and Table 2 teaches storing the entry on the cache table with the next neighbor information including age)”.
Li does not, but in related art, Lathi teaches:
“a first neighbor cache table that table that includes a first neighbor cache entry (Lathi, ¶ 8 and 110 teaches multiple neighbor cache tables with entries);
and wherein the first neighbor cache entry further includes a first MAC address, a first state (Lathi, ¶ 8, 21, and 110 teaches neighbor cache entries with MAC address and state information. Lathi, ¶ 89 teaches a stale timer to determine how long an entry has been in the table)”.
Before applicant’s earliest effective filing it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Li and Lathi, to modify the priority neighbor cache system of Li to include the next hop neighbor prioritization scheme with a table of Lathi. The motivation to do so constitutes applying a known technique to known devices and/or methods ready for improvement to yield predictable results.
Regarding claims 2 and 10, Li in view of Lathi teaches:
“The method according to claim 1 (Li and Lathi teaches the limitations of the parent claims as discussed above), wherein the establishing, by the first node, the first neighbor cache entry includes: preferentially overwriting, by the first node, a second neighbor cache entry with the first neighbor cache entry, wherein a destination IPv6 address comprised in the second neighbor cache entry (Li, ¶ 41 teaches overwriting the lowest priority cache table entry with the current entry when the current entry is higher the lowest value. Li, ¶ 29-30 teaches examples of the priority scheme) is not the next-hop address in the routing table or the forwarding table of the first node (Lathi, ¶ 75-85 teaches a neighbor cache prioritization scheme where next hop address is higher than most other types of table entries)”.
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Li in view of Lathi teaches:
“The method according to claim 2 (Li and Lathi teaches the limitations of the parent claims as discussed above), wherein a first area that is in the first node and that stores a neighbor cache entry is fully occupied (Li, ¶ 41 the cache is full), the first area is the neighbor cache table, the neighbor cache entry in the first area includes a destination IPv6 address, and the second neighbor cache entry is comprised included in the first area; and the preferentially overwriting, by the first node, a second neighbor cache entry with the first neighbor cache entry includes: changing, by the first node, the second neighbor cache entry to the first neighbor cache entry (Li, ¶ 41 teaches overwriting the lowest priority cache table entry with the current entry when the current entry is higher the lowest value. Li, ¶ 29-30 teaches examples of the priority scheme)”.
Regarding claims 4 and 12, Li in view of Lathi teaches:
“The method according to claim 3 (Li and Lathi teaches the limitations of the parent claims as discussed above), wherein the storing the neighbor cache entry in the first area further includes storing the first aging time (Li, Table 2 depicts the age), and wherein the second neighbor cache entry is a neighbor cache entry in which the first aging time is a shortest aging time in the first area (Lathi, ¶ 80-85 teaches prioritizing delayed entries over stale entries)”.
Regarding claims 5 and 13, Li in view of Lathi teaches:
“The method according to claim 3 (Li and Lathi teaches the limitations of the parent claims as discussed above), wherein a second area that is in the first node and that stores a neighbor cache entry is fully occupied, the second area is a neighbor cache table, the neighbor cache entry in the second area includes priority information and a destination IPv6 address, and the second neighbor cache entry is comprised included in the second area (Li, ¶ 41 teaches overwriting the lowest priority cache table entry with the current entry when the current entry is higher the lowest value. Li, ¶ 29-30 teaches examples of the priority scheme); and the preferentially overwriting, by the first node, the second neighbor cache entry with the first neighbor cache entry includes: changing, by the first node, the second neighbor cache entry to the first neighbor cache entry, wherein priority information included in the second neighbor cache entry is lower than priority information included in a third neighbor cache entry in the second area (Li, ¶ 41 teaches overwriting the lowest priority cache table entry with the current entry when the current entry is higher the lowest value. Li, ¶ 29-30 teaches examples of the priority scheme), and a destination IPv6 address included in the third neighbor cache entry is the next-hop address in the routing table or the forwarding table of the first node (Lathi, ¶ 75-85 teaches a neighbor cache prioritization scheme where next hop address is higher than most other types of table entries)”.
Regarding claims 6 and 14, Li in view of Lathi teaches:
“The method according to claim 5, wherein the storing the second neighbor cache entry in the second area further includes storing a second aging time, wherein the second neighbor cache entry is a neighbor cache entry in which the second aging time is a shortest in the second area (Lathi, ¶ 80-85 teaches prioritizing delayed entries over stale entries)”.
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.
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/STEPHEN T GUNDRY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2435