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 .
Response to Amendment
Acknowledgement is made in that claims 3 and 20-36 have been canceled and claims 1-2, 18, and 37 have been amended in the instant application presented herein.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-11 and 13-14 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.
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 1-2, 4-9, 12, 15-19, and 37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han et al. (US 2017/0373804 A1) (hereinafter as Han) and in further view of Moreman (US 8,699,652) (hereinafter as Moreman).
Regarding Claim 1. Han teaches a network device for use in a communication network and configured to assist an application server using a Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) in a communication of a data object to client devices, wherein the data object comprises data blocks, the network device comprising:
processor circuitry (pars [0347-0349] and [0351-0352]); and
a storage unit storing instructions which when executed by the processor circuitry causes the network device (pars [0347-0349] and [0351-0352]) to become operative to:
inform the client devices of a multicast repair functionality enabled by the network device (containing/indicating delay info in CoAP messages to improve behaviors of CoAP server and CoAP client and leveraging delay info to multicast CoAP responses to multiple CoAP clients, and is aware of delay tolerance, pars [0056-0057], The CoAP Server 502 sends a multicast Response to the group after a properly scheduled period, instead of unicast for each Request, par [0235]).
Han does not explicitly teach the steps to:
receive at least one indication of at least one missing data block from a client device of the client devices that did not successfully receive all data blocks of the data object within at least one transmission window of an earlier transmission in the communication associated with the client device and the transmission window or one of the transmission windows is or comprises a finalization phase; and
decide to transmit the one or more missing data blocks to the client device via unicast or multicast or both unicast and multicast; and initiate a transmission of the one or more missing data blocks according to the decision; and end the communication of the data object once the finalization phase has elapsed.
However, Moreman in a similar field endeavor discloses a timer optimization technique for multicast to unicast conversion of IP video including the step to:
receive at least one indication of at least one missing data block (data packets) from a client device of the client devices that did not successfully receive all data blocks of the data object within at least one transmission window of an earlier transmission in the communication associated with the client device and the transmission window or one of the transmission windows is or comprises a finalization phase (a provisional time window of the current real time is set, and the conversion device waits the predetermined time period where the conversion device requests the data packet from CDS, col.6, lines 3-17. The conversion device monitors the timing of incoming data packets in multicast, and uses this information (indication) to determine whether unicast/multicast should be and waiting times in real-time, col.5, lines 53-65);
decide to transmit the one or more missing data blocks to the client device via unicast or multicast or both unicast and multicast (the conversion device monitors the timing of incoming data packets in multicast and uses this information to determine whether unicast/multicast should be and waiting times in real-time, col.5, lines 53-65, the CDS may provide both multicast and unicast transmissions for the same content, col.3, lines 26-30); and
initiate a transmission of the one or more missing data blocks according to the decision (if the timer has expired since the time the request for the data packet was received from client device the conversion device receives the content from a CDS at a first transmission type (multicast) and provide to to the client device at a converted second transmission type (unicast), col.4, lines 4-9); and
end the communication of the data object once the finalization phase has elapsed (once conversion device receives the requested data packet, the conversion device provides the requested data packet to client device, then ends, col.6, lines 6-17).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Moreman in Han to timely transmit missing data blocks (data packets) using different transmission protocols. One of ordinary skill in the before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Han/Moreman to improve delivery of content.
Regarding Claim 2. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor circuitry cause the network device to become operative to:
determine the one or more transmission windows corresponding to a data block of the data object associated with the client device, the transmission windows being or comprising:
a retransmission window that defines how long the client device should wait to receive one or more missing data blocks before indicating that the one or more data blocks have been missed;
a correction window that defines how long the client device should wait after communicating that the one or more missing data blocks are missing before reporting an error in the communication of the one or more data blocks; and/or
a finalization the finalization phase, which that defines how long the communication should remain open (Moreman: a provisional time window of the current real time is set, and the conversion device waits the predetermined time-period where the conversion device requests the data packet from CDS, col.6, lines 3-17. The conversion device monitors the timing of incoming data packets and uses this information to determine whether unicast/multicast should be and waiting times in real-time, col.5, lines 53-65).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Moreman in Han to timely transmit missing data blocks (data packets) using different transmission protocols. One of ordinary skill in the before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Han/Moreman to improve delivery of content.
Regarding Claim 4. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor circuitry cause the network device to become operative to:
initiate transmission of information indicative of one or transmission windows and/or the lengths of the one or more transmission windows (Moreman: a provisional time window of the current real time is set, and the conversion device waits the predetermined time period where the conversion device requests the data packet from CDS, col.6, lines 3-17).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Moreman in Han to timely transmit missing data blocks (data packets) using different transmission protocols. One of ordinary skill in the before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Han/Moreman to improve delivery of content.
Regarding Claim 5. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor circuitry cause the network device to become operative to: determine the one or more lengths of the one or more transmission windows, the one or more lengths being defined by a number of data blocks or a length of time (Moreman: the conversion device calculates a moving average time offset measurement to adjust the value of the timer, for example the last 100 packets in the same stream, adjusting the value of the timer for optimal time value, col.5, lines 30-52).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Moreman in Han to timely transmit missing data blocks (data packets) using different transmission protocols. One of ordinary skill in the before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Han/Moreman to improve delivery of content.
Regarding Claim 6. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor circuitry cause the network device to become operative to: decide to transmit the missing data block to the client device via unicast or multicast or both unicast and multicast based on the number of unsuccessful transmissions of the missing data block within the one or more transmission windows (Moreman: if the timer has expired since the request for the data packet was received the conversion device makes a unicast request, col.6, lines 9-17) .
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Moreman in Han to timely transmit missing data blocks (data packets) using different transmission protocols. One of ordinary skill in the before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Han/Moreman to improve delivery of content.
Regarding Claim 7. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor circuitry cause the network device to become operative to: decide to transmit the missing data block to the client device via unicast or multicast or both unicast and multicast using the number of missed data blocks of the data object per client device of the client devices (Moreman: conversion device determines that a request for a video packer can be satisfied by waiting for the requested packet to be received from the multicast transmission flow or that the conversion device should send a unicast transmission request to the CDS for the video packet, col.3, lines 1-9).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Moreman in Han to timely transmit missing data blocks (data packets) using different transmission protocols. One of ordinary skill in the before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Han/Moreman to improve delivery of content.
Regarding Claim 8. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 1, the network device further comprising connections for assisting multiple application servers in communicating with multiple groups of client devices for the purpose of multicast and unicast transmissions (Moreman: separate serving devices for each type of transmission (multicast and/or unicast) may be used in a multi-client network to reduce burden (assist), col.3, lines 15-19 and lines 40-46. Also Han discloses containing/indicating delay info in CoAP messages to improve behaviors of CoAP server and CoAP client and leveraging delay info to multicast CoAP responses to multiple CoAP clients, and is aware of delay tolerance, pars [0056-0057], The CoAP Server 502 sends a multicast Response to the group after a properly scheduled period, instead of unicast for each Request, par [0235]).
Regarding Claim 9. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 1, the instructions when executed by the processor circuitry cause the network device to become operative to gather network information, the network information comprising:
a number of client devices in which the data object is to be communicated to;
mobility characteristics from at least one of the plurality of clients;
a number of client devices belonging to a cell;
radio resource allocation of a cell;
network resource allocation for a cell (Han: CoAP Server maintains a list of available resources that can be accessed by CoAP Clients either through multicast CoAP addresses referenced to the resource, par [0008]);
available bandwidth in a cell; and/or, at least one radio parameter, derived from the reference and sounding channels, for each client device.
Regarding Claim 12. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor circuitry cause the network device to become operative to:
initiate transmission of information indicative of one or more sessions assigned to the client device (Han: containing/indicating delay info in CoAP messages to improve behaviors of CoAP server and CoAP client and leveraging delay info to multicast CoAP responses to multiple CoAP clients, and is aware of delay tolerance, pars [0056-0057], The CoAP Server 502 sends a multicast Response to the group after a properly scheduled period, instead of unicast for each Request, par [0235]); and/or
initiate transmission of information for initialization of one or more sessions (if the timer has expired since the time the request for the data packet was received from client device the conversion device receives the content from a CDS at a first transmission type (multicast) and provide to to the client device at a converted second transmission type (unicast) when receiving packets for video content (session), col.4, lines 4-9).
Regarding Claim 15 the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor circuitry cause the network device to become operative to:
decide, using the gathered network information, to transmit the missing data block to the client device via unicast and/or multicast (Moreman: conversion device determines that a request for a video packer can be satisfied by waiting for the requested packet to be received from the multicast transmission flow or that the conversion device should send a unicast transmission request to the CDS for the video packet, col.3, lines 1-9).
Regarding Claim 16. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor circuitry cause the network device to become operative to:
decide, using the gathered network information, to first, before any retransmissions, transmit the data blocks of the data object to the client device via multicast and/or unicast (Moreman: server determines the necessary bandwidth and decides to unicast or multicast packets, col.3, lines 32-55).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Moreman in Han to timely transmit missing data blocks (data packets) using different transmission protocols. One of ordinary skill in the before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Han/Moreman to improve delivery of content.
Regarding Claim 17. the combined teachings of Han/Moreman teach the network device of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the processing circuitry cause the network device to be operative to:
decide to cease transmission of the missing data block based on:
the data block being missed by the client device in one or more of the associated transmission windows (Moreman: a provisional time window of the current real time is set, and the conversion device waits the predetermined time period where the conversion device requests the data packet from CDS, col.6, lines 3-17, the conversion device determines that it does not have the requested data packet and holds off transmission, col.5, lines 1-12).; and/or the gathered network information.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Moreman in Han to timely transmit missing data blocks (data packets) using different transmission protocols. One of ordinary skill in the before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Han/Moreman to improve delivery of content.
Regarding Claims 18-19, these method claims comprise limitations substantially the same, as those discussed in claims 1-2 above, same rationale of rejection is applicable.
Regarding Claim 37, this non-transitory computer readable storing medium claim comprises limitations substantially the same, as those discussed in claim 1 above, same rationale of rejection is applicable. Han further teaches a non-transitory computer readable storing medium at par [0358].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY MEJIA whose telephone number is (571)270-3630. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10:30 AM-6:30 PM EST.
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/ANTHONY MEJIA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2451
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