DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/27/24 has been acknowledged and considered by the examiner.
Examiner Comment
The examiner recommends filing a written authorization for Internet communication in response to the present action. Doing so permits the USPTO to communicate with Applicant using Internet email to schedule interviews or discuss other aspects of the application. Without a written authorization in place, the USPTO will not respond via Internet email to any Internet correspondence which contains information subject to the confidentiality requirement as set forth in 35 U.S.C. 122. The preferred method of providing authorization is by filing form PTO/SB/439, available at: https://www.uspto.gov/patent/forms/forms. See MPEP § 502.03 for other methods of providing written authorization.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-4, 6-11, 13-17, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over YE (U.S. 2025/0119377 A1) in view of Li et al. (U.S. 2021/0250281 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 15, YE discloses a method comprising:
receiving, at a network node of a network deploying segment routing, a data packet, wherein an IPv6 header of the data packet includes a source specific function associated with a source address of the data packet, a destination specific function associated with a destination address of the data packet (see YE; paragraphs 0049, 0051 and 0122; YE discloses a gateway device, i.e. “network node”, receiving a packet with an IPv6 header. The IPv6 header includes a function in the destination IPv6 address, i.e. “a destination specific function associated with a destination address of the data packet”, and function in the source IPv6 address, i.e. “a source specific function associated with a source address of the data packet”);
executing, by the network node, the source specific function for the data packet (see YE; paragraphs 0058, 0059 and 0122; YE discloses receiving the packet and executing a function in destination address and a function in the source address, i.e. “source specific function”, in which the functions can be the same).
While YE discloses a “source specific function”, as discussed above, YE does not explicitly disclose determining, at the network node, whether a source flag in an End node address of the network node is set; and upon determining that the source flag is set, extracting, by the network node, the source specific function.
In analogous art, Li discloses determining, at the network node, whether a source flag in an End node address of the network node is set (see Li; paragraphs 0077, 0137, 0197 and 0200; Li discloses source routing information at a network node and determining flag values corresponding to a destination address, i.e. “…an end node address”, for a packet. It is determined the flag value is set to a specific value, e.g. 1, i.e. “a source flag…is set”, other than the default value 0); and
upon determining that the source flag is set, extracting, by the network node, the source specific function (see Li; paragraphs 0092, 0197, 0199 and 0200; Li discloses a function field is used to indicate to a network node to perform the corresponding function. For example, when the flag value is 1, i.e. “upon determining that the source flag is set”, implementing, at the network node, a segment routing policy, i.e. “extracting, by the network node, the source specific function”. The examiner notes that according to the applicant’s specification, the source-specific function can be a policy-based access control for segment routing; see applicant’s specification as filed; paragraph 0088).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine YE and Li because they both disclose features of packet processing in segment routing, and as such are within the same environment.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the feature of determining flag values as taught by Li into the system of YE in order to provide the benefit of allowing function operations (see YE; paragraph 0122) to correspond to flag values to better distinguish what functions operations, e.g. network performance calculation or packet forwarding (see Li; paragraph 0092, 0197 and 0200) should be done.
Further, YE discloses the additional limitations of claim 8, one or more memories having computer-readable instructions stored therein (see YE; paragraph 0196; YE discloses a machine-readable storage medium storing executable instructions); and one or more processors configured to execute the computer-readable instructions (see YE; paragraph 0196; YE discloses the instructions executed by a processor).
Further, YE discloses the additional limitations of claim 15, one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computer-readable instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a network device (see YE; paragraph 0198; YE discloses machine-readable storage medium with executable instructions).
Regarding claims 2 and 9, YE and Li disclose all the limitations of claims 1 and 8, as discussed above, and further the combination of YE and Li clearly discloses wherein the source flag is set if a value associated with the source flag is 1 (see Li; paragraphs 0077, 0197 and 0200; Li discloses source routing information, such as, the flag value being a specific value of 1, i.e. “…a value associated with the source flag is 1”).
The prior art used in the rejection of the current claim is combined using the same motivation as was applied in claims 1 and 8.
Regarding claims 3, 10 and 16, YE and Li disclose all the limitations of claims 1, 8 and 15, as discussed above, and further the combination of YE and Li clearly discloses executing, by the network node, the destination specific function after execution of the source specific function (see YE; paragraphs 0058, 0059 and 0122; YE discloses by the gateway device, i.e. “by the network node”, performing the function in the source address and then the function at the destination address, i.e. “the destination specific function after execution of the source specific function”).
Regarding claims 4, 11 and 17, YE and Li disclose all the limitations of claims 1, 8 and 15, as discussed above, and further the combination of YE and Li clearly discloses executing the destination specific function if the source flag is not set (see Li; paragraphs 0092, 0192 and 0200; Li discloses performing a corresponding function for the destination address, i.e. “executing the destination specific function”, when a flag value is set to default value 0, i.e. “source flag not set”).
The prior art used in the rejection of the current claim is combined using the same motivation as was applied in claims 1, 8 and 15.
Regarding claims 6, 13 and 19, YE and Li disclose all the limitations of claims 1, 8 and 15, as discussed above, and further the combination of YE and Li clearly discloses wherein the source specific function is a source ingress replication function, which when executed, implements distributed ingress replication of the data packet to a plurality of destination addresses (see Li; paragraphs 0137, 0196 and 0212; Li discloses a segment routing policy function is generated by an ingress node to distribute from other network nodes, i.e. “ingress replication”, on two paths, i.e. “a plurality of destination addresses”).
The prior art used in the rejection of the current claim is combined using the same motivation as was applied in claims 1, 8 and 15.
Regarding claims 7, 14 and 20, YE and Li disclose all the limitations of claims 1, 8 and 15, as discussed above, and further the combination of YE and Li clearly discloses wherein the source specific function is a role-based access control function that enables role specific policy implementation for the data packet (Li; paragraphs 0077, 0092, 0197, 0199 and 0200; Li discloses in the source routing information a function, i.e. “source specific function”, field is used to indicate to a network node to perform the corresponding function, such as, implementing a segment routing policy, i.e. “…enables role specific policy implementation for the data packet”).
The prior art used in the rejection of the current claim is combined using the same motivation as was applied in claims 1, 8 and 15.
Claims 5, 12 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over YE (U.S. 2025/0119377 A1) in view of Li et al. (U.S. 2021/0250281 A1), as applied to claims 1, 8 and 15 above, and further in view of Filsfils et al. (U.S. 2019/0288940 A1) (Applicant submitted prior art; see IDS filed on 06/27/24).
Regarding claims 5, 12 and 18, YE and Li disclose all the limitations of claims 1, 8 and 15, as discussed above. While, both YE and Li disclose a “source specific function”, as discussed above, the combination of YE and Li does not explicitly disclose wherein the source specific function is a per packet Reverse Path Forwarding function specifying a plurality of different types of Reverse Path Forwarding checks to be performed on the data packet.
In analogous art, Filsfils discloses wherein the source specific function is a per packet Reverse Path Forwarding function specifying a plurality of different types of Reverse Path Forwarding checks to be performed on the data packet (see Filsfils; paragraphs 0030, 0033, 0053 and 0076; Filsfils discloses segment routing packet policies and functions, i.e. “source specific function”, that include reverse reply path, i.e. “reverse path forwarding function”, for each packet. If a different segment routing policy is reflected in a packet, the reverse segment routing path will be created based on this different segment routing policy, i.e. “different types of Reverse Path Forwarding checks”).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine YE, Li and Filsfils because they all disclose features of packet processing in segment routing, and as such are within the same environment.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the feature of a reverse routing path as taught by Filsfils into the combined system of YE and Li in order to provide the benefit of efficiencies in communicating segment routing packets in a network (see Filsfils; paragraphs 0030 and 0033).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Gamage et al. (U.S. 2023/0171178 A1) discloses functions to be implemented by a node identified in a source filed of a IPv6 header.
Peng et al. (U.S. 2021/0273881 A1) discloses determining flag values in segment routing extensions.
Retana et al. (U.S. 2021/0243107 A1) discloses network functions to be executed at the source address.
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/A.A.C/Examiner, Art Unit 2458 02/21/26
/UMAR CHEEMA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2458