DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Introduction
The claims 1-20 are pending in this application. This is a non-final office action in response to Application Number 18/849,674 filed on 23 September 2024 with a preliminary amendment also filed on 23 September 2024 in which the specification is amended, claims 5-7, 11-12, and 19-20 are amended, claims 21-27 are canceled, and no claims are added; the instant application is a 371 of PCT/EP2022/058407 filed on 30 March 2022.
The applicant of record is Nokia Technologies Oy in Espoo, Finland and the inventors of record are Michael Jarschel, Mu He, Hasanin Harkous, Padmavathi Sudarsan, Jan Erik Ignatius, and Lasse Juha Tapio Tallgren. The application papers are signed by a U.S.-registered patent practitioner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 15 October 2024 and 8 December 2025 were filed after the filing date of the instant application on 23 September 2024 and before the mailing date of the first office action on the merits. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it includes legal phraseology. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Interpretation
The claims have been considered according to the latest Patent Eligibility Guidelines and are considered eligible.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over O-RAN ("O-RAN Acceleration Abstraction Layer General Aspects and Principles v01.01", 4 March 2021) in view of ETSI ("Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Acceleration Technologies; Acceleration Resource Management Interface Specification; Release 3", ETSI DRAFT) and further view of what was well-known in the art.
Examiner notes that O-RAN incorporates ETSI as reference [5], see section 2.6.1 of O-RAN which states: "In [4,5,10], ETSI has specified a generic acceleration and abstraction model as well as acceleration resource management that have served as the basis of this specification. This specification consistently complements the aforementioned ETSI specifications and provides guidance on practical implementation of the concepts introduced in ETSI specifications on NFV acceleration interfaces."
Regarding claim 1, ORAN disclosed an apparatus comprising at least one processing core, at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the apparatus at least to:
- receive an accelerator programming request from an Acceleration Abstraction Layer, AAL, - Deployment Management Service, DMS, network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request);
- transmit a code retrieval request to a repository network component and receive a code fragment in response (see ETSI combination below);
- transmit a programming request with said code fragment to a hardware accelerator manager, to request the hardware accelerator manager to program at least one hardware accelerator node (see ETSI combination below);
- receive an indication indicating that the programming was successful in response to transmitting the programming request (see explanation below); and
- transmit an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful to the AAL-DMS (see explanation below).
ORAN did not explicitly disclose the following limitations that are taught in a related art ETSI that was incorporated within ORAN:
- transmit a code retrieval request to a repository network component and receive a code fragment in response (see ETSI, pages 28-29, steps 7-9: “7) The acceleration management function requires the image of the chosen accelerator in the 6th step from the acceleration image repository. 8) The acceleration image repository looks up the list of images and gets the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator. 9) The acceleration image repository returns the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator to the acceleration management function.”);
- transmit a programming request with said code fragment to a hardware accelerator manager, to request the hardware accelerator manager to program at least one hardware accelerator node (see ETSI, page 29, steps 10) and 11), " 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of ORAN and ETSI based on ORAN’s explanation about incorporating ETSI’s teachings. Doing so would further clarify how ORAN performs acceleration.
O-RAN in view of ETSI did not explicitly disclose the following limitations that are well-known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention:
- receive an indication indicating that the programming was successful in response to transmitting the programming request (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request); and
- transmit an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful to the AAL-DMS (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of O-RAN in view of ETSI with what was well-known in the art to clarify that an indication of success is sent and received in response to the accelerated programming request. Examiner notes that sending and receiving an indication of success in response to a request is well-known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention as being a best practice to provide feedback on a request.
Regarding claim 2, ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the apparatus at least to:
- operate as an Accelerator Programming, AP, -DMS network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request).
Regarding claim 3, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 1 above. Examiner notes that claims 1 and 3 both describe an apparatus performing a method from different perspectives. ORAN disclosed, as recited in claim 3: An apparatus comprising at least one processing core, at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the apparatus at least to:
- transmit an accelerator programming request to an Accelerator Programming, AP, - Deployment Management Service, DMS, network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request);
- receive an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful from the AP-DMS (see explanation below); and
- transmit a program completion message to a deploy DMS (see explanation below).
O-RAN in view of ETSI did not explicitly disclose the following limitations that are well-known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention:
- receive an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful from the AP-DMS (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request); and
- transmit a program completion message to a deploy DMS (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of O-RAN in view of ETSI with what was well-known in the art to clarify that an indication of success is sent and received in response to the accelerated programming request. Examiner notes that sending and receiving an indication of success in response to a request is well-known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention as being a best practice to provide feedback on a request.
Regarding claim 4, ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed an apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the apparatus at least to:
- operate as an Acceleration Abstraction Layer, AAL, -DMS network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request).
Regarding claim 5, ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed an apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the apparatus at least to:
- receive, from a deploy DMS, a request to program an accelerator (see ETSI, pages 28-29, steps 7-11, "7) The acceleration management function requires the image of the chosen accelerator in the 6th step from the acceleration image repository. 8) The acceleration image repository looks up the list of images and gets the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator. 9) The acceleration image repository returns the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator to the acceleration management function. 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN); and
- transmit the accelerator programming request responsive to receiving the request (see ETSI, page 29, steps 10) and 11), " 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of ORAN and ETSI based on ORAN’s explanation about incorporating ETSI’s teachings. Doing so would further clarify how ORAN performs acceleration.
Regarding claim 6, ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed an apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the accelerator programming request is a request to program at least one hardware accelerator node (see ETSI, page 29, steps 10) and 11), " 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of ORAN and ETSI based on ORAN’s explanation about incorporating ETSI’s teachings. Doing so would further clarify how ORAN performs acceleration.
Regarding claim 7, ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed an apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the accelerator programming request is a request to program at least one hardware accelerator node for another network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request).
Regarding claim 8, ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed an apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said another network component is an application or a cloudified network function (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request).
Regarding claim 9, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claims 1 and 3 above. Examiner notes that claims 1 and 3 describe individual apparatuses that operate together to perform a method whereas claim 9 describes a system including components that operate together to perform a method. ORAN disclosed, as recited in claim 9: A system, comprising:
- an Acceleration Abstraction Layer, AAL, - Deployment Management Service, DMS, network component and an Accelerator Programming, AP-DMS network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request),
- wherein the AP-DMS network component is configured to:
receive an accelerator programming request from the AAL- DMS network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request);
transmit a code retrieval request to a repository network component and receive a code fragment in response (see ETSI combination below);
transmit a programming request with said code fragment to a hardware accelerator manager, to request the hardware accelerator manager to program at least one hardware accelerator node (see ETSI combination below);
receive an indication indicating that the programming was successful in response to transmitting the programming request (see explanation below); and
transmit an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful to the AAL-DMS (see explanation below); and
- the AAL-DMS network component is configured to:
transmit an accelerator programming request to an AP-DMS network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request);
receive an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful from the AP-DMS (see explanation below); and
transmit a program completion message to a deploy DMS (see explanation below).
ORAN did not explicitly disclose the following limitations that are taught in a related art ETSI that was incorporated within ORAN:
wherein the AP-DMS network component is configured to:
transmit a code retrieval request to a repository network component and receive a code fragment in response (see ETSI, pages 28-29, steps 7-9: “7) The acceleration management function requires the image of the chosen accelerator in the 6th step from the acceleration image repository. 8) The acceleration image repository looks up the list of images and gets the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator. 9) The acceleration image repository returns the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator to the acceleration management function.”);
transmit a programming request with said code fragment to a hardware accelerator manager, to request the hardware accelerator manager to program at least one hardware accelerator node (see ETSI, page 29, steps 10) and 11), " 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of ORAN and ETSI based on ORAN’s explanation about incorporating ETSI’s teachings. Doing so would further clarify how ORAN performs acceleration.
O-RAN in view of ETSI did not explicitly disclose the following limitations that are well-known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention:
wherein the AP-DMS network component is configured to:
receive an indication indicating that the programming was successful in response to transmitting the programming request (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request); and
transmit an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful to the AAL-DMS (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request); and
the AAL-DMS network component is configured to:.
receive an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful from the AP-DMS (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request); and
transmit a program completion message to a deploy DMS (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of O-RAN in view of ETSI with what was well-known in the art to clarify that an indication of success is sent and received in response to the accelerated programming request. Examiner notes that sending and receiving an indication of success in response to a request is well-known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention as being a best practice to provide feedback on a request.
Regarding claim 10, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 5 above. ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed, as recited in claim 10: A system according to claim 9, wherein the AAL-DMS network component is further configured to:
- receive, from a deploy DMS, a request to program an accelerator (see ETSI, pages 28-29, steps 7-11, "7) The acceleration management function requires the image of the chosen accelerator in the 6th step from the acceleration image repository. 8) The acceleration image repository looks up the list of images and gets the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator. 9) The acceleration image repository returns the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator to the acceleration management function. 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN); and
- transmit the an accelerator programming request responsive to receiving the request (see ETSI, page 29, steps 10) and 11), " 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of ORAN and ETSI based on ORAN’s explanation about incorporating ETSI’s teachings. Doing so would further clarify how ORAN performs acceleration.
Regarding claim 11, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 6 above. ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed, as recited in claim 11: A system according to claim 9, wherein the accelerator programming request is a request to program at least one hardware accelerator node (see ETSI, page 29, steps 10) and 11), " 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of ORAN and ETSI based on ORAN’s explanation about incorporating ETSI’s teachings. Doing so would further clarify how ORAN performs acceleration.
Regarding claim 12, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 7 above. ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed, as recited in claim 12: A system according to claim 9, wherein the accelerator programming request is a request to program at least one hardware accelerator node for another network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request).
Regarding claim 13, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 8 above. ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed, as recited in claim 13: A system according to claim 12, wherein said another network component is an application or a cloudified network function (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request).
Regarding claim 14, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 1 above. Examiner notes that claim 14 describes a method whereas claim 1 describes an apparatus performing a method. ORAN disclosed, as recited in claim 14: A method, comprising:
- receiving an accelerator programming request from an Acceleration Abstraction Layer, AAL, - Deployment Management Service, DMS, network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request);
- transmitting a code retrieval request to a repository network component and receiving a code fragment in response (see ETSI combination below);
- transmitting a programming request with said code fragment to a hardware accelerator manager, to request the hardware accelerator manager to program at least one hardware accelerator node (see ETSI combination below);
- receiving an indication indicating that the programming was successful in response to transmitting the programming request (see explanation below); and
- transmitting an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful to the AAL-DMS (see explanation below).
ORAN did not explicitly disclose the following limitations that are taught in a related art ETSI that was incorporated within ORAN:
- transmitting a code retrieval request to a repository network component and receiving a code fragment in response (see ETSI, pages 28-29, steps 7-9: “7) The acceleration management function requires the image of the chosen accelerator in the 6th step from the acceleration image repository. 8) The acceleration image repository looks up the list of images and gets the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator. 9) The acceleration image repository returns the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator to the acceleration management function.”);
- transmitting a programming request with said code fragment to a hardware accelerator manager, to request the hardware accelerator manager to program at least one hardware accelerator node (see ETSI, page 29, steps 10) and 11), " 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of ORAN and ETSI based on ORAN’s explanation about incorporating ETSI’s teachings. Doing so would further clarify how ORAN performs acceleration.
O-RAN in view of ETSI did not explicitly disclose the following limitations that are well-known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention:
- receiving an indication indicating that the programming was successful in response to transmitting the programming request (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request); and
- transmitting an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful to the AAL-DMS (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of O-RAN in view of ETSI with what was well-known in the art to clarify that an indication of success is sent and received in response to the accelerated programming request. Examiner notes that sending and receiving an indication of success in response to a request is well-known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention as being a best practice to provide feedback on a request.
Regarding claim 15, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 2 above. ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed, as recited in claim 15: A method according to claim 14, further comprising:
- operating as an Accelerator Programming, AP, -DMS network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request).
Regarding claim 16, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 3 above. Examiner notes that claim 16 describes a method whereas claim 3 describes an apparatus performing a method. ORAN disclosed, as recited in claim 16: A method, comprising:
- transmitting an accelerator programming request to an Accelerator Programming, AP, - Deployment Management Service, DMS, network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request);
- receiving an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful from the AP-DMS (see explanation below); and
- transmitting a program completion message to a deploy DMS (see explanation below).
O-RAN in view of ETSI did not explicitly disclose the following limitations that are well-known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention:
- receiving an indication indicating that accelerator programming was successful from the AP-DMS (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request); and
- transmitting a program completion message to a deploy DMS (Examiner notes that receiving and transmitting an indication of success is implicitly disclosed since it is best practice to provide feedback on a request).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of O-RAN in view of ETSI with what was well-known in the art to clarify that an indication of success is sent and received in response to the accelerated programming request. Examiner notes that sending and receiving an indication of success in response to a request is well-known in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention as being a best practice to provide feedback on a request.
Regarding claim 17, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 4 above. ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed, as recited in claim 17: A method according to claim 16, further comprising:
- operating as an Acceleration Abstraction Layer, AAL, -DMS network component (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request).
Regarding claim 18, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 5 above. ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed, as recited in claim 18: A method according to claim 16, further comprising:
- receiving, from a deploy DMS, a request to program an accelerator (see ETSI, pages 28-29, steps 7-11, "7) The acceleration management function requires the image of the chosen accelerator in the 6th step from the acceleration image repository. 8) The acceleration image repository looks up the list of images and gets the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator. 9) The acceleration image repository returns the appropriate image of the chosen accelerator to the acceleration management function. 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN); and
- transmitting the an accelerator programming request responsive to receiving the request (see ETSI, page 29, steps 10) and 11), " 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of ORAN and ETSI based on ORAN’s explanation about incorporating ETSI’s teachings. Doing so would further clarify how ORAN performs acceleration.
Regarding claim 19, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claim 6 above. ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed, as recited in claim 19: A method according to claim 16, wherein the accelerator programming request is a request to program at least one hardware accelerator node (see ETSI, page 29, steps 10) and 11), " 10) The acceleration management function sends the chosen accelerator and image information to the acceleration agent via the onload acceleration image operation in clause 7.4.2. 11) The acceleration agent loads the image to the accelerator driver."; note: the "acceleration management function" in ETSI corresponds to the "IMS/DMS" in ORAN and the "acceleration agent" in ETSI corresponds to the "HW Accelerator" in ORAN).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of ORAN and ETSI based on ORAN’s explanation about incorporating ETSI’s teachings. Doing so would further clarify how ORAN performs acceleration.
Regarding claim 17, the claim contains the limitations, substantially as claimed, as described in claims 7 and 8 above. ORAN in view of ETSI disclosed, as recited in claim 20: A method according to claim 16, wherein the accelerator programming request is a request to program at least one hardware accelerator node for another network component, wherein said another network component is an application or a cloudified network function (see ORAN, fig. 2.2, "IMS/DMS" & page 16, section 3.1.1, "The HW Accelerator Manager shall provide local management functions within the O-Cloud Node. The AAL Specification will define what interfaces to use when exposing these management functions to the O-Cloud IMS. In addition, the following functions may be supported by the HW Accelerator Manager." & page 16, section 3.1.12, " The HW Accelerator Manager shall allow the configuration of the HW Accelerator as prescribed by the SMO through the O2 interface."; note: fig. 2.2 shows that the SMO communicates with the HW accelerator manager via the O2 interface through the IMS/DMS, i.e. the SMO transmits the AP request to the IMS/DMS which receives the request).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Peng et al. (U.S. Patent 10,620,986): Fig. 5, 16:5-30: VIM (virtualized infrastructure manager) includes an acceleration device cloud management layer; determining a target VIM based on determining the to-be-accelerated VNF’s required type of hardware acceleration resource matches the type and size of the target host’s hardware matching resource.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Angela Widhalm de Rodriguez whose telephone number is (571)272-1035. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 6am-2:30pm EST.
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/ANGELA WIDHALM DE RODRIGUEZ/ Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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