CTNF 18/802,754 CTNF 90445 DETAILED ACTION Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/13/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim s 5, 6, 15, and 16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Double Patenting 08-33 AIA 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 claims at issue 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); and 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 a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b). The USPTO internet Web site contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit http://www.uspto.gov/forms/. The filing date of the application will determine what form should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to http://www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-I.jsp. Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-18 of U.S. Patent No. 12,095,650. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other and are claiming common subject matter, as follows in the Table below. As per the comparison table below, the independent Claims 1 and 10 in U.S. Patent No. 12,095,650 teaches all the limitation of independent Claims 1 in the instant application except an obvious variation of system and method. Instant Application US Patent 12,095,650 2) A method comprising: obtaining, by a device, path metrics for a network path used to convey application traffic for an online application; discretizing, by the device, the path metrics into labeled states; generating, by the device, state transition visualization data that represents the labeled states as nodes and transitions between the labeled states as edges connecting the nodes; and providing, by the device, the state transition visualization data for display, wherein the state transition visualization data being displayed comprises a 2-Dimensional plot with a plurality of nodes, each of which representing one of the labeled states, and a plurality of edges, each of which representing one of the transitions between the labeled states 1) A method comprising: obtaining, by a device, path metrics for a network path used to convey application traffic for an online application; discretizing, by the device, the path metrics into labeled states; generating, by the device, state transition visualization data that represents the labeled states as nodes and transitions between the labeled states as edges connecting the nodes; and providing, by the device, the state transition visualization data for display, wherein the state transition visualization data being displayed comprises a 3-Dimensional plot with a plurality of nodes, each of which representing one of the labeled states, a plurality of edges, each of which representing one of the transitions between the labeled states, and an indication of which nodes among the plurality of nodes represents a service level agreement violation, wherein axes of the 3-Dimensional plot comprise one or more of packet loss, delay, jitter, or throughput Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 1-4, 7-14, and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jain et al. (US PGPub 2020/0296011) in view of Isono et al. (USPGPub 2008/0123546) and further in view of Bishop (USPGPub 2017/0075693) . As per claim 1, a method comprising: obtaining, by a device, path metrics for a network path used to convey application traffic for an online application; (Jain, see paragraph [0004], These metrics are obtained by sending probe packets on the various links and analyzing the results of the transmission, where probe packets having the same size as the data packets in the data flow reasonably measure how the particular WAN link could handle the data flow) discretizing, by the device, the path metrics into labeled states; (Jain, see paragraph [0051], the kernel may generate forwarding information in the form of forwarding information bases 103A-103N (“FIBs 103”) based on the network topology represented in RIB 104, i.e., perform route resolution) generating, by the device, state transition visualization data that represents the labeled states as nodes and transitions between the labeled states as edges connecting the nodes; (Jain, see paragraph [0051], generates FIBs 103 in the form of radix or other lookup trees to map packet information (e.g., header information having destination information and/or a label stack) to next hops and ultimately to interface ports of IFCs 114 associated with respective forwarding units 112. Each of FIBs 103 may associate, for example, network destinations with specific next hops and corresponding IFCs 114. For MPLS-related traffic forwarding, FIBs 103 stores, for a given FEC, label information that includes an incoming label, an outgoing label, and a next hop for a packet. Control unit 82 may then program forwarding units 112 of data plane 85 with FIBs 103, which installs the FIBs within lookup ASICs 106) and Jain doesn’t explicitly teach providing, by the device, the state transition visualization data for display. In analogous art Isono teaches providing, by the device, the state transition visualization data for display (Isono, see paragraph [0010], measures the packet delay, jitter, data loss or the like, and displays the measured result on the monitor display, it measures the packet delay, jitter, data loss. …Also see (A), (B), and (C) in fig. 5). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to take the teaching of Isono and apply them on the teaching of Jain so that the user can recognize the deteriorate of the communications quality due to the influence from the traffic on the network based on the contents in the screen on the display (Isono, see paragraph [0009]). Jain-Isono doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the state transition visualization data being displayed comprises a 2-Dimensional plot with a plurality of nodes, each of which representing one of the labeled states, and a plurality of edges, each of which representing one of the transitions between the labeled states. In analogous art Bishop teaches wherein the state transition visualization data being displayed comprises a 2-Dimensional plot with a plurality of nodes, each of which representing one of the labeled states, and a plurality of edges, each of which representing one of the transitions between the labeled states (Bishop, see paragraph [0090], …which provides a representation of animated data visualizations implemented in a hierarchy of levels including states, triggers, state transitions , responsive actions, entity activity levels and variations among them over time, real-time event streams, trails of entity transitions from one state to another , and the sizes of the state types based on a number of entities belonging to a particular state type. Also see paragraph [0025], [0041]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to take the teaching of Bishop and apply them on the teaching of Jain-Isono as doing so would show state transitions activity levels and real time events. (Bishop, see paragraph [0090]). As per claim 2, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the method as in claim 1, wherein the path metrics comprise at least one of: packet loss, delay, jitter, or throughput. (Jain, see paragraph [0033], measure both one-way and two-way or round-trip metrics of network performance, such as path connectivity, path delay, packet jitter, packet loss). As per claim 3, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the method as in claim 1, wherein discretizing the path metrics into labeled states comprises: assigning labels to ranges of values for the path metrics, wherein at least one possible label for each of the path metrics represents a service level agreement violation. (Jain, see paragraph [0033], measure both one-way and two-way or round-trip metrics of network performance, such as path connectivity, path delay, packet jitter, packet loss, packet re-ordering, and the like, e.g., on a per-subscriber basis between network devices, also referred to as hosts or endpoints (Note: the delay and jitter and loss indicates SLA violation)). As per claim 4, [Rejection rational for claim 1 is applicable]. As per claim 7, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the method as in claim 1, further comprising: providing state transition data based on the labeled states to a predictive routing engine, wherein the predictive routing engine uses the state transition data to predict violations along the network path. (Jain, see paragraph [0036], to predict the SLA metrics for a data flow based on a predicted class of the application from whence the data flow originated. SD-WAN appliance 18 may receive an application data packet of a data flow for an application. From this application data packet, SD-WAN appliance 18 may determine an application signature of the application data packet. SD-WAN appliance 18 may then determine whether the application signature matches an entry in an application signature database. If the application signature does match an entry in the application signature database, then SD-WAN appliance 18 may retrieve the SLA metrics, whether they were previously predicted or explicitly defined by the application, and find a link that has QoE metrics that satisfy the SLA metrics required for the application, Conversely, in response to determining that the application signature does not match any entry in the application signature database, SD-WAN appliance 18 may identify, based on one or more characteristics of the application data packet, a class of the application. Each class may be associated with a predicted set of SLA metrics). As per claim 8, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the method as in claim 1, wherein discretizing the path metrics into labeled states comprises: dividing timeseries of the path metrics into discrete time periods. (Jain, see paragraph [0034], determine QoE metrics, such as service level agreement (SLA) metrics that include round-trip time (RTT), jitter, and packet loss, which were influenced by applications' real-time parameters like packet size). As per claim 9, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the method as in claim 1, wherein the path metrics comprise a probability of a service level agreement violation by the network path predicted by a predictive routing engine. (Jain, see paragraph [0066], may determine a probability that the data flow belongs to each class trained into application classification engine 110. Application classification engine 110 may select the class with the highest probability or score as the class for the application data flow, or may select any classes that satisfy a threshold as a combination of classes to make up a hybrid class for the application data flow). As per claim 10, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the method as in claim 1, wherein the edges in the state transition visualization data include indicia indicating a count of their corresponding state transitions observed for the network path. (Jain, see paragraph [0004], a path for data flows between client devices and application servers. These paths are typically selected using service-level agreement (SLA) parameters and various QoE metrics of the WAN links. While the SLA parameters may be more static in nature, or at least predetermined prior to the SD-WAN appliance receiving the flow, the metrics of the various WAN links may be more dynamic, as the metrics describing the capabilities of the particular WAN link may vary based on various current aspects of the network). As per claim 11 an apparatus, comprising: one or more network interfaces; a processor coupled to the one or more network interfaces and configured to execute one or more processes; and a memory configured to store a process that is executable by the processor, the process when executed configured to: obtain path metrics for a network path used to convey application traffic for an online application; (Jain, see paragraph [0004], These metrics are obtained by sending probe packets on the various links and analyzing the results of the transmission, where probe packets having the same size as the data packets in the data flow reasonably measure how the particular WAN link could handle the data flow) discretize the path metrics into labeled states; (Jain, see paragraph [0051], the kernel may generate forwarding information in the form of forwarding information bases 103A-103N (“FIBs 103”) based on the network topology represented in RIB 104, i.e., perform route resolution) generate state transition visualization data that represents the labeled states as nodes and transitions between the labeled states as edges connecting the nodes; (Jain, see paragraph [0051], generates FIBs 103 in the form of radix or other lookup trees to map packet information (e.g., header information having destination information and/or a label stack) to next hops and ultimately to interface ports of IFCs 114 associated with respective forwarding units 112. Each of FIBs 103 may associate, for example, network destinations with specific next hops and corresponding IFCs 114. For MPLS-related traffic forwarding, FIBs 103 stores, for a given FEC, label information that includes an incoming label, an outgoing label, and a next hop for a packet. Control unit 82 may then program forwarding units 112 of data plane 85 with FIBs 103, which installs the FIBs within lookup ASICs 106) Jain doesn’t explicitly teach providing, by the device, the state transition visualization data for display. In analogous art Isono teaches providing, by the device, the state transition visualization data for display (Isono, see paragraph [0010], measures the packet delay, jitter, data loss or the like, and displays the measured result on the monitor display, it measures the packet delay, jitter, data loss. …Also see (A), (B), and (C) in fig. 5). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to take the teaching of Isono and apply them on the teaching of Jain so that the user can recognize the deteriorate of the communications quality due to the influence from the traffic on the network based on the contents in the screen on the display (Isono, see paragraph [0009]). Jain-Isono doesn’t explicitly teach wherein the state transition visualization data being displayed comprises a 2-Dimensional plot with a plurality of nodes, each of which representing one of the labeled states, and a plurality of edges, each of which representing one of the transitions between the labeled states. In analogous art Bishop teaches wherein the state transition visualization data being displayed comprises a 2-Dimensional plot with a plurality of nodes, each of which representing one of the labeled states, and a plurality of edges, each of which representing one of the transitions between the labeled states (Bishop, see paragraph [0090], …which provides a representation of animated data visualizations implemented in a hierarchy of levels including states, triggers, state transitions , responsive actions, entity activity levels and variations among them over time, real-time event streams, trails of entity transitions from one state to another , and the sizes of the state types based on a number of entities belonging to a particular state type. Also see paragraph [0025], [0041]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to take the teaching of Bishop and apply them on the teaching of Jain-Isono as doing so would show state transitions activity levels and real time events. (Bishop, see paragraph [0090]). As per claim 12, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the path metrics comprise at least one of: packet loss, delay, jitter, or throughput. (Jain, see paragraph [0033], measure both one-way and two-way or round-trip metrics of network performance, such as path connectivity, path delay, packet jitter, packet loss). As per claim 13, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the apparatus discretizes the path metrics into labeled states by: assigning labels to ranges of values for the path metrics, wherein at least one possible label for each of the path metrics represents a service level agreement violation. (Jain, see paragraph [0033], measure both one-way and two-way or round-trip metrics of network performance, such as path connectivity, path delay, packet jitter, packet loss, packet re-ordering, and the like, e.g., on a per-subscriber basis between network devices, also referred to as hosts or endpoints (Note: the delay and jitter and loss indicates SLA violation)). As per claim 14, [Rejection rational for claim 1 is applicable]. As per claim 17, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the process when executed is further configured to: provide state transition data based on the labeled states to a predictive routing engine, wherein the predictive routing engine uses the state transition data to predict violations along the network path. (Jain, see paragraph [0036], to predict the SLA metrics for a data flow based on a predicted class of the application from whence the data flow originated. SD-WAN appliance 18 may receive an application data packet of a data flow for an application. From this application data packet, SD-WAN appliance 18 may determine an application signature of the application data packet. SD-WAN appliance 18 may then determine whether the application signature matches an entry in an application signature database. If the application signature does match an entry in the application signature database, then SD-WAN appliance 18 may retrieve the SLA metrics, whether they were previously predicted or explicitly defined by the application, and find a link that has QoE metrics that satisfy the SLA metrics required for the application, Conversely, in response to determining that the application signature does not match any entry in the application signature database, SD-WAN appliance 18 may identify, based on one or more characteristics of the application data packet, a class of the application. Each class may be associated with a predicted set of SLA metrics). As per claim 18, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the apparatus discretizes the path metrics into labeled states by: dividing timeseries of the path metrics into discrete time periods. (Jain, see paragraph [0034], determine QoE metrics, such as service level agreement (SLA) metrics that include round-trip time (RTT), jitter, and packet loss, which were influenced by applications' real-time parameters like packet size). As per claim 19, Jain-Isono-Bishop teaches the apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the path metrics comprise a probability of a service level agreement violation by the network path predicted by a predictive routing engine. (Jain, see paragraph [0066], may determine a probability that the data flow belongs to each class trained into application classification engine 110. Application classification engine 110 may select the class with the highest probability or score as the class for the application data flow, or may select any classes that satisfy a threshold as a combination of classes to make up a hybrid class for the application data flow). As per claim 20, [Rejection rational for claim 1 and 11 is applicable]. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HERMON ASRES whose telephone number is (571)272-4257. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday 9AM to 5PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. 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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /HERMON ASRES/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 2 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 3 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 4 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 5 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 6 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 7 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 8 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 9 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 10 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 11 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 12 Art Unit: 2449 Application/Control Number: 18/802,754 Page 13 Art Unit: 2449
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