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 .
Claims 1-12 have been examined.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC §112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim language in the following claims is not clearly understood:
As per claim 1, line 7, it is unclear whether “one or more processors” refers to “one or more processors” in line 3. (i.e., if they are the same, then use “the” or “said”)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Israel et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2021/0326744 (hereinafter Israel).
As per claim 1, Israel teaches the invention as claimed for searching for an investigation range of a failure occurring in a communication network, the search device comprising:
a generation unit, including one or more processors, configured to generate a graph in which a plurality of devices within a certain investigation range including a suspected failure location obtained by artificial intelligence (Al) are connected on the basis of a connection configuration of devices constituting a communication network ([40][41][85][86][91], e.g., generate an investigation subgraph/graph in which a plurality of nodes/devices (e.g., 602, fig. 6) within a certain investigation range (e.g., subgraph showing only part of the alerts) including location of the suspicious alert [41] obtained by enhanced system including ML/link prediction are connected on the basis of connection configuration of devices of the communication network); and
a search unit, including one or more processors, configured to input the graph to a search model capable of searching for an investigation range on the basis of past failure results and to cause the search model to infer whether to extend the investigation range of the graph ([47][67][69][72][87][91], e.g., input an subgraph to ML/link predication model [67] capable of investigating the subgraph (only part of the alerts) to infer next added nodes/alerts [91] based on past alerts results; predicting alert that would be next added (i.e., predicting next nodes as translated by the next alert would be next added) given a current investigation graph which contain only part of the alerts (those seen so far)),
wherein the generation unit is configured to add a neighboring device adjacent to a device in the graph to the graph in a case in which the investigation range of the graph needs to be extended ([91], e.g., add next alert nodes to generate an entire investigation graph given the current investigation graph which contains only part of the alerts (those seen so far)).
As per claim 2, Israel teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Israel further teach wherein the search unit is configured to input failure isolation information from an operator to the search model during inference in the search model, and cause the inference to be performed using the failure isolation information ([47][87][91]).
As per claim 3, Israel teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Israel further teach wherein the search unit is configured to cause inference as to whether the investigation range of the graph to which the neighboring device has been added needs to be further extended to be repeated one or more times according to a failure investigation result based on alarm information from the communication network ([41][91], e.g., cause prediction of next alert/node would be next added to generate entire investigation graph to be executed multiple times according to the link prediction execution based on alert information from the network).
As per claim 4, Israel teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Israel further teach wherein the search model is a graph neural network that has learned investigation ranges isolated for past failure ([187][41][91][67][97], e.g., neural network trained by graph/subgraph).
As per claims 5 and 6, they are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1 above.
As per claims 7 and 10, they are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 2 above.
As per claims 8 and 11, they are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 3 above.
As per claims 9 and 12, they are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 4 above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should
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Glenton Burgess can be reached on 571-272-3949. The fax phone number for the organization where this
application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PHILIP C LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454