DETAILED ACTION
The non-final office action is responsive to the filing of U.S. Patent Application 18780,352 on 07/22/2024. Claims 1-20 are pending; claims 1-20 are rejected.
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 01/15/2025 was filed before the mailing date of the non-final office action. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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, 3, 5, 7-8, 11, 13,15, and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent 9,419,921 B1 to Anderson (hereinafter Anderson) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2015/0063102 A1 to Mestery et al. (hereinafter Mestery).
As to claim 1, Anderson teaches a method for managing network address translation (NAT) in a virtualized environment (Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving an outbound packet from a virtual machine executing on the data processing apparatus, the packet having header information including a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address, a destination port, a source IP address, and a source port, and wherein the source IP address and source port are associated with the virtual machine; selecting a different port than the source port from a plurality of ports associated with the virtual machine; changing the source port in the header information to the selected port; and sending the modified packet to an external network by way of a gateway that is configured to change the source IP address of the packet to an IP address of the gateway before routing the packet to its destination, Anderson, Abstract), the method comprising:
maintaining a list of allocated replacement IP address and port number pairs by a NAT agent on a host machine (An association is created between the IP address (e.g. claimed “allocated replacement IP address”) for the selected VM, the source IP address (SIP) of the packet, the source port (SP) of the packet, and the DP (e.g. claimed “port number”) of the packet. In some implementations, the association is stored in table 614. When new packets are received, the IP mapper 602 checks the table to determine if the combination of SIP, SP and DP is associated with an IP address for a VM. The IP address of the selected VM is put in place of the destination IP address (DIP) of the packet and the packet is sent to the network stack 606 where it will transmitted to the selected VM over the internal network 116, re1, Col. 9, Line 35 to Col. 10, Line 30);
assigning a replacement IP address and port number pair to a tenant VM on the host machine for accessing a machine (The gateway 120 routes traffic between the external network 122 and the internal network 116 by changing source or destination address information in packet headers so that the address space of the internal network 116 is hidden behind the IP address of the gateway 120… Packets arriving at the gateway from the internal network 116 and bound for the external network 122 have their IP source address changed from that of a VM (e.g., 10.0.0.46) to an external address assigned to the gateway 120 on the external network 122 (e.g., 209.118.196.1), Anderson, Col. 8, Line 60 to Col. 9, Line 34; Col. 11, Line 35 to Col. 11, Line 63);
storing a mapping of the replacement IP address and port number pair to the tenant VM's actual IP address and port number (re1, Col. 9, Line 35 to Col. 10, Line 30);
performing source NAT (SNAT) on packets sent from the tenant VM to the machine (The gateway 120 routes traffic between the external network 122 and the internal network 116 by changing source or destination address information in packet headers so that the address space of the internal network 116 is hidden behind the IP address of the gateway 120… Packets arriving at the gateway from the internal network 116 and bound for the external network 122 have their IP source address changed from that of a VM (e.g., 10.0.0.46) to an external address assigned to the gateway 120 on the external network 122 (e.g., 209.118.196.1), Anderson, Col. 8, Line 60 to Col. 9, Line 34; Col. 11, Line 35 to Col. 11, Line 63); and
performing destination NAT (DNAT) on packets sent from the The gateway 120 routes traffic between the external network 122 and the internal network 116 by changing source or destination address information in packet headers so that the address space of the internal network 116 is hidden behind the IP address of the gateway 120. In particular, packets arriving at the gateway 120 from the external network 122 and bound for the internal network 116 have their IP datagram destination address changed from that of the gateway 120 (e.g., 209.118.196.1) to the IP address of a VM (e.g., 10.0.0.46), Anderson, Col. 8, Line 60 to Col. 9, Line 34; Col. 11, Line 35 to Col. 11, Line 63).
Anderson does not explicitly disclose the machine being service VM.
Mestery discloses implementing a service VM on a host (the central controller 110 instantiates service VM 550 on a specific host. In this example, a router VM is instantiated on host 510(2). The router 550 is assigned an IP address and may be configured as a default gateway for Tenant 1. Router 550 is provisioned with routing information in order to properly route traffic for Tenant 1. A VXLAN tunnel 560 is created between host 510(1) and host 510(2). Using flow programming, traffic from VMs 520(1) and 520(2) on host 510(1) is programmed with flow rules to be sent into the VXLAN tunnel 560 to host 510(2). Traffic from VM 520(2) on host 510(2) is programmed with flow rules to be sent directly to router 550 using path 570. Service X is now available to Tenant 1. In this example, router 550 is multi-tenant aware and can route traffic for Tenant 2 VM1 using path 575, Mestery, [0040]-[0042]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to instantiate a service VM on a host with tunnel techniques as taught by Mestery to modify the method of Anderson in order to deliver layer 2 and layer 3 network services or functions, e.g., firewalls, load balancers, network accelerators, etc.
As to claim 3, Anderson-Mestery discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a tunnel between the host machine of the tenant VM and the host machine of the service VM for forwarding packets (Mestery, [0040]-[0042]). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to instantiate a service VM on a host with tunnel techniques as taught by Mestery to modify the method of Anderson-Mestery in order to deliver layer 2 and layer 3 network services or functions, e.g., firewalls, load balancers, network accelerators, etc.
As to claim 5, Anderson-Mestery discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising encapsulating packets for tunneling by the uplink on the host machine (Anderson, Col. 6, Line 50 to Col. 7, Line 23).
As to claim 7, Anderson-Mestery discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising generating a log entry when the replacement IP address and port number pair is assigned, reclaimed, or expired (re1, Col. 9, Line 35 to Col. 10, Line 30).
As to claim 8, Anderson-Mestery discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the uplink to perform packet encapsulation based on the destination IP address and port number in the packet header (Anderson, Col. 6, Line 50 to Col. 7, Line 23).
As to claims 11, 13,15, and 17-18, the same reasoning applies mutatis mutandis to the corresponding non-transitory machine readable medium (hereinafter CRM) claims 11, 13,15, and 17-18 (Note: “computer readable medium”, disclosed by Anderson in Col. 12, Line 15-67 and Fig 10, reads on claimed CRM). Accordingly, claims 11, 13,15, and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anderson in view of Mestery.
Claims 2, 6, 9-10, 12, 16, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anderson modified by Mestery as applied to claims 1 and 11 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0054762 A1 to Asveren (hereinafter Asveren).
As to claims 2 and 12, Anderson-Mestery substantially discloses a method/non-transitory machine readable medium (hereinafter CRM) as set forth in of claims 1 and 11 above.
Anderson-Mestery does not explicitly disclose wherein the NAT agent at predetermined intervals examines active sessions to determine whether to reclaim replacement IP address and port number pairs.
Asveren discloses a NAT at predetermined intervals examines active sessions to determine whether to reclaim replacement IP address and port number pairs (The binding maps the static, private IP address of the client device to a temporary public IP address selected by the NAT device from a pool of reusable IP addresses. Because the NAT device has a finite number of reusable IP addresses, a binding created by a NAT device is also associated with a timeout value. If no packets that use the binding are received by the NAT within the timeout window, then the binding is removed from the NAT device and the temporary IP address is returned to the pool for future use, Asveren, [0005]-[0012], [0021]-[0023], [0026]-[0032]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to create binding with timeout as taught by Asveren to modify the method/CRM of Anderson-Mestery in order to prevent unsolicited inbound communications from reaching client devices that are located behind them in the network.
As to claims 6 and 16, Anderson-Mestery substantially discloses a method/non-transitory machine readable medium (hereinafter CRM) as set forth in of claims 1 and 11 above.
Anderson-Mestery does not explicitly disclose wherein the replacement IP address and port number pair expire after a predetermined timeout period.
Asveren discloses a replacement IP address and port number pair expire after a predetermined timeout period (The binding maps the static, private IP address of the client device to a temporary public IP address selected by the NAT device from a pool of reusable IP addresses. Because the NAT device has a finite number of reusable IP addresses, a binding created by a NAT device is also associated with a timeout value. If no packets that use the binding are received by the NAT within the timeout window, then the binding is removed from the NAT device and the temporary IP address is returned to the pool for future use, Asveren, [0005]-[0012], [0021]-[0023], [0026]-[0032]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to create binding with timeout as taught by Asveren to modify the method/CRM of Anderson-Mestery in order to prevent unsolicited inbound communications from reaching client devices that are located behind them in the network.
As to claims 9 and 19, Anderson-Mestery substantially discloses a method/non-transitory machine readable medium (hereinafter CRM) as set forth in of claims 1 and 11 above.
Anderson-Mestery does not explicitly disclose wherein the NAT agent is configured to claim replacement IP address and port number pairs by marking them as available in a pool for reassignment.
Asveren discloses a NAT is configured to claim replacement IP address and port number pairs by marking them as available in a pool for reassignment (The binding maps the static, private IP address of the client device to a temporary public IP address selected by the NAT device from a pool of reusable IP addresses. Because the NAT device has a finite number of reusable IP addresses, a binding created by a NAT device is also associated with a timeout value. If no packets that use the binding are received by the NAT within the timeout window, then the binding is removed from the NAT device and the temporary IP address is returned to the pool for future use, Asveren, [0005]-[0012], [0021]-[0023], [0026]-[0032]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to create binding with timeout as taught by Asveren to modify the method/CRM of Anderson-Mestery in order to prevent unsolicited inbound communications from reaching client devices that are located behind them in the network.
As to claims 10 and 20, Anderson-Mestery substantially discloses a method/non-transitory machine readable medium (hereinafter CRM) as set forth in of claims 1 and 11 above.
Anderson-Mestery does not explicitly disclose wherein the NAT agent maintains a counter for active sessions, and decrements the counter upon the expiration of a session.
Asveren discloses a NAT maintains a counter for active sessions, and decrements the counter upon the expiration of a session (The binding maps the static, private IP address of the client device to a temporary public IP address selected by the NAT device from a pool of reusable IP addresses. Because the NAT device has a finite number of reusable IP addresses, a binding created by a NAT device is also associated with a timeout value. If no packets that use the binding are received by the NAT within the timeout window, then the binding is removed from the NAT device and the temporary IP address is returned to the pool for future use, Asveren, [0005]-[0012], [0021]-[0023], [0026]-[0032]. Note: timeout value is a counter, the system may decreases timeout value. When the value reaches zero, the binding expires).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to create binding with timeout as taught by Asveren to modify the method/CRM of Anderson-Mestery in order to prevent unsolicited inbound communications from reaching client devices that are located behind them in the network.
Claims 4 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anderson modified by Mestery as applied to claims 1 and 11 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0044636 A1 to Koponen et al. (hereinafter Koponen).
As to claims 4 and 14, Anderson-Mestery substantially discloses a method/non-transitory machine readable medium (hereinafter CRM) as set forth in claims 1 and 11 above.
Anderson-Mestery does not explicitly disclose wherein the NAT agent intercepts ARP requests for the replacement IP address of the tenant VM and responds with a replacement MAC address.
Koponen discloses the NAT agent intercepts ARP requests for a replacement IP address of a tenant VM and responds with a replacement MAC address (if the last LDPS was an L3 router and hence the attachment is a physical L3 subnet, the attachment point, in some embodiments, resolves the destination IP address by using ARP before sending the packet out. In that case, the source MAC address would be egress specific and not the logical MAC interface address in case of a VIF. In other embodiments, resolving the destination IP address by using ARP is performed during the second step by the L3 logical router, Koponen, [0010]-[0012]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to change MAC address as taught by Koponen to modify the method of Anderson-Mestery in order to resolve the destination IP address.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-18 of U.S. Patent No. 12,047,304 B2 (hereinafter P304). Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other.
Claim 1of the Instant Application
Claim 1 of P304
A method for managing network address translation (NAT) in a virtualized environment, the method comprising:
For a multi-tenant datacenter, a method of forwarding packets from tenant machines executing on a host computer to a set of service machines, the method comprising:
maintaining a list of allocated replacement IP address and port number pairs by a NAT agent on a host machine;
at the host computer: receiving a packet sent by a particular machine of a particular tenant, the particular machine executing on the host computer in the multi-tenant datacenter;
determining that the packet is directed to a service machine, wherein the service machine receives and processes packets from machines in the multi-tenant datacenter belonging to a plurality of different tenants, wherein at least two of the tenants have machines with overlapping network addresses;
based on the determination that the packet is directed to the service machine, replacing in a header of the packet a first network address and port number pair identified as a source network address and port number pair with a second network address and port number pair selected from a plurality of replacement network address and port number pairs maintained by a set of controllers and provided to the host computer,
assigning a replacement IP address and port number pair to a tenant VM on the host machine for accessing a service VM;
based on the determination that the packet is directed to the service machine, replacing in a header of the packet a first network address and port number pair identified as a source network address and port number pair with a second network address and port number pair selected from a plurality of replacement network address and port number pairs maintained by a set of controllers and provided to the host computer,
storing a mapping of the replacement IP address and port number pair to the tenant VM's actual IP address and port number;
based on the determination that the packet is directed to the service machine, replacing in a header of the packet a first network address and port number pair identified as a source network address and port number pair with a second network address and port number pair selected from a plurality of replacement network address and port number pairs maintained by a set of controllers and provided to the host computer,
performing source NAT (SNAT) on packets sent from the tenant VM to the service VM; and
replacing in a header of the packet a first network address and port number pair identified as a source network address and port number pair with a second network address and port number pair selected from a plurality of replacement network address and port number pairs maintained by a set of controllers and provided to the host computer, the first network address and port number pair associated with the particular machine of the particular tenant and the second network address and port number pair used to ensure that the service machine is able to differentiate between machines of different tenants with overlapping network addresses; and forwarding the packet with the second network address and port number pair to the service machine.
performing destination NAT (DNAT) on packets sent from the service VM to the tenant VM.
replacing in a header of the packet a first network address and port number pair identified as a source network address and port number pair with a second network address and port number pair selected from a plurality of replacement network address and port number pairs maintained by a set of controllers and provided to the host computer, the first network address and port number pair associated with the particular machine of the particular tenant and the second network address and port number pair used to ensure that the service machine is able to differentiate between machines of different tenants with overlapping network addresses; and forwarding the packet with the second network address and port number pair to the service machine.
Claims 1 of the instant application is obviously disclosed by patent claim 1 in that claim 1 of the patent contains all the limitations of claims 1 of the instant application. Claim 1 of the instant application therefore is not patently distinct from the earlier patent claim and as such is unpatentable for obvious-type double patenting.
As to claims, 2-20, claims 1-18 of P304 obviously disclose all limitation in claims 2-20 of the instant application. Accordingly, claims 2-20 of the instant application are not patently distinct from the earlier patent claims and as such are unpatentable for obvious-type double patenting.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-14 of U.S. Patent No. 11,477,131 B2 (hereinafter P131). Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other.
Claim 1of the Instant Application
Claim 1 of P131
A method for managing network address translation (NAT) in a virtualized environment, the method comprising:
For a multi-tenant datacenter, a method of forwarding packets from tenant machines executing on a host computer to a set of one or more service machines used by a plurality of tenants, the method comprising:
maintaining a list of allocated replacement IP address and port number pairs by a NAT agent on a host machine;
at the host computer: receiving a packet sent by a first machine of a first tenant that executes on the host computer; determining that the packet should be processed by the set of service machines that are used by the plurality of tenants; based on the determination that the packet should be processed by the set of service machines,
removing the second network address from the plurality of candidate replacement source network addresses as the second network address is being used to forward the packet of the first machine of the first tenant to the set of service machines; determining that a session between the first machine and a service machine in the set of service machines has ended; and re-assigning the second network address to the plurality of replacement candidate network addresses.
assigning a replacement IP address and port number pair to a tenant VM on the host machine for accessing a service VM;
replacing a first network address identified as a source network address in a header of the packet with a second network address, said replacing comprising selecting the second network address from a plurality of candidate replacement source network addresses provided to the host computer by a set of one or more controllers, wherein each of the plurality of candidate replacement source network addresses is unique across the plurality of tenants in order to prevent the set of service machines from receiving different packets from different tenants with a common source network address and to ensure that the set of service machines is able to differentiate between different machines of different tenants as it is possible for different machines of tenants to share a common source network address; forwarding the packet with the second network address to the set of service machines;
storing a mapping of the replacement IP address and port number pair to the tenant VM's actual IP address and port number;
said replacing comprising selecting the second network address from a plurality of candidate replacement source network addresses provided to the host computer by a set of one or more controllers, wherein each of the plurality of candidate replacement source network addresses is unique across the plurality of tenants in order to prevent the set of service machines from receiving different packets from different tenants with a common source network address and to ensure that the set of service machines is able to differentiate between different machines of different tenants as it is possible for different machines of tenants to share a common source network address; forwarding the packet with the second network address to the set of service machines;
performing source NAT (SNAT) on packets sent from the tenant VM to the service VM; and
replacing a first network address identified as a source network address in a header of the packet with a second network address, said replacing comprising selecting the second network address from a plurality of candidate replacement source network addresses provided to the host computer by a set of one or more controllers, wherein each of the plurality of candidate replacement source network addresses is unique across the plurality of tenants in order to prevent the set of service machines from receiving different packets from different tenants with a common source network address and to ensure that the set of service machines is able to differentiate between different machines of different tenants as it is possible for different machines of tenants to share a common source network address; forwarding the packet with the second network address to the set of service machines;
performing destination NAT (DNAT) on packets sent from the service VM to the tenant VM.
replacing a first network address identified as a source network address in a header of the packet with a second network address, said replacing comprising selecting the second network address from a plurality of candidate replacement source network addresses provided to the host computer by a set of one or more controllers, wherein each of the plurality of candidate replacement source network addresses is unique across the plurality of tenants in order to prevent the set of service machines from receiving different packets from different tenants with a common source network address and to ensure that the set of service machines is able to differentiate between different machines of different tenants as it is possible for different machines of tenants to share a common source network address; forwarding the packet with the second network address to the set of service machines;
Claims 1 of the instant application is obviously disclosed by patent claim 1 in that claim 1 of the patent contains all the limitations of claims 1 of the instant application. Claim 1 of the instant application therefore is not patently distinct from the earlier patent claim and as such is unpatentable for obvious-type double patenting.
As to claims, 2-20, claims 1-14 of P131 obviously disclose all limitation in claims 2-20 of the instant application. Accordingly, claims 2-20 of the instant application are not patently distinct from the earlier patent claims and as such are unpatentable for obvious-type double patenting.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-18 of U.S. Patent No. 9,794,186 B2 (hereinafter P186). Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other.
Claim 1of the Instant Application
Claim 1 of P186
A method for managing network address translation (NAT) in a virtualized environment, the method comprising:
A method for coordinating distributed network address translation (NAT) in a network within which a plurality of logical networks are implemented, the logical networks comprising a plurality of tenant logical networks and a set of logical networks, each logical network in the set comprising a set of service virtual machines (VMs) for access by VMs of the tenant logical networks, the method comprising:
maintaining a list of allocated replacement IP address and port number pairs by a NAT agent on a host machine;
defining, by a controller server within said network, a plurality of replacement network address and port number pairs, each pair for uniquely identifying a VM across the plurality of the tenant logical networks; and
assigning a replacement IP address and port number pair to a tenant VM on the host machine for accessing a service VM;
sending, to at least one host that is hosting a VM of a tenant first logical network for which access is requested to the service VMs of a second logical network in the set of logical networks, (i) a set of replacement network address and port number pairs from the plurality of replacement network address and port number pairs, and (ii) a set of rules identifying the VM of the tenant first logical network as a VM that requires a replacement of source network address and source port number for accessing the service VMs of the second logical network,
storing a mapping of the replacement IP address and port number pair to the tenant VM's actual IP address and port number;
sending, to at least one host that is hosting a VM of a tenant first logical network for which access is requested to the service VMs of a second logical network in the set of logical networks, (i) a set of replacement network address and port number pairs from the plurality of replacement network address and port number pairs, and (ii) a set of rules identifying the VM of the tenant first logical network as a VM that requires a replacement of source network address and source port number for accessing the service VMs of the second logical network,
performing source NAT (SNAT) on packets sent from the tenant VM to the service VM; and
wherein a replacement network address and port number pair sent to a host is for the host to replace, based on said set of rules, a source network address and a source port number with the replacement network address and port number pair in a packet that is destined from the VM of the tenant first logical network to a service VM of the second logical network.
performing destination NAT (DNAT) on packets sent from the service VM to the tenant VM.
wherein a replacement network address and port number pair sent to a host is for the host to replace, based on said set of rules, a source network address and a source port number with the replacement network address and port number pair in a packet that is destined from the VM of the tenant first logical network to a service VM of the second logical network.
Claims 1 of the instant application is obviously disclosed by patent claim 1 in that claim 1 of the patent contains all the limitations of claims 1 of the instant application. Claim 1 of the instant application therefore is not patently distinct from the earlier patent claim and as such is unpatentable for obvious-type double patenting.
As to claims, 2-20, claims 1-18 of P186 obviously disclose all limitation in claims 2-20 of the instant application. Accordingly, claims 2-20 of the instant application are not patently distinct from the earlier patent claims and as such are unpatentable for obvious-type double patenting.
Conclusion
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/RUOLEI ZONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2449 1/23/2026