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 .
Claims 1 – 12 have been examined and are pending.
Drawings
3. The applicant’s submitted drawings are acceptable for examination purposes.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 11/26/20924 and 04/30/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 1 – 12 are objected to for minor correction. Following acronyms are used IPv6, RA and RS. Their full form i.e. Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6), Router Advertisement (RA) and Router Solicitation (RS) are required to be spelled at least at their first occurrence. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(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 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0106795 to Hui).
Regarding Claim 1, Hui discloses (¶2) an Internet protocol version 6 (Internet protocol version 6, IPv6) address configuration method and a routing device, which further includes:
address configuration method (Hui discloses (¶7) IPv6 address configuration method),
wherein the method comprises: obtaining, by a router, first information (Hui discloses (¶7) routing device obtaining a plurality of IPv6 prefixes (i.e. first information) from a plurality of networks) from an optical modem (Hui discloses (Figs. 1, 3, 4 and ¶40) routing device connected with the network(s) through an optical network terminal or optical modem),
wherein the first information is information used to generate an IPv6 address of the router (Hui discloses (¶11) the routing device uses the first IPv6 prefix as an IPv6 prefix of the routing device and determines an IPv6 address of the routing device based on the first IPv6 prefix and a local address of the routing device)
configuring, by the router, the IPv6 address of the router based on the first information (Hui discloses (¶11) the routing device uses the first IPv6 prefix as an IPv6 prefix of the routing device and determines an IPv6 address of the routing device based on the first IPv6 prefix and a local address of the routing device)
obtaining, by the router, an IPv6 address prefix of a terminal device based on the first information (Hui discloses (¶45 and Fig. 1) a process in which a routing device (CPE), and a terminal device (STA) are connected to an LTE or 5G network, the STA initiates a router request (router solicitation, RS) to the CPE, where the RS requests to allocate an IPv6 prefix, and the CPE returns an IPv6 prefix of the CPE to the STA by using a router advertisement (router advertisement, RA) message)
wherein an address prefix of an IPv6 address of the terminal device is the same as an address prefix of the IPv6 address of the router (Hui discloses (¶48 and ¶60) prefixes in the IPv6 addresses of the CPE or “router”, the STA 1 or “terminal”, and the STA 2 are in the IPv6 prefix 1)
sending, by the router, the address prefix of the terminal device to the terminal device (Hui discloses (¶45) the CPE i.e. router, returns an IPv6 prefix to the STA i.e. terminal) and
configuring, by the terminal device, the IPv6 address of the terminal device based on the address prefix of the terminal device (Hui discloses (¶45 and Fig. 1) the STA (i.e. terminal) generates an IPv6 address of the STA based on the received IPv6 prefix and a local address.)
Claim 12, do not teach or further define over the limitations in claim 1. Therefore, claim 12 is rejected for the same rationale of rejection as set forth in claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 5 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0106795 to Hui in view of US Patent No. 8,681,695 to Krishnan.
Claim 5, Hui disclose all the elements of claim 1. Further Hui disclose:
the configuring, by the router, the IPv6 address of the router based on the first information comprises: configuring, by the router, the second IPv6 address (Hui discloses (¶12) the routing device replaces the first IPv6 prefix in the first IPv6 address with the second IPv6 prefix, to obtain the second IPv6 address)
Hui does not explicitly disclose sending, by the router, an RS packet to the optical modem; when the router determines that no RA packet from the optical modem is received, obtaining, by the router, the first information from the optical modem based on DHCPv6, wherein the first information comprises a second IPv6 address, and the second IPv6 address is an IPv6 address of the router. However, in an analogous art, Krishnan teaches:
sending, by the router, an RS packet to the optical modem (Krishnan teaches (Fig. 2: RS 40, RA 62 and Fig. 3: 74, 76) that upon powering up, the first network device, (i.e. residential gateway 20 which can be implemented by a router), send a route solicitation RS packet, to the second network device, (i.e. edge router 12 which can be implemented by an optical modem)
when the router determines that no RA packet from the optical modem is received, obtaining, by the router, the first information from the optical modem based on DHCPv6, wherein the first information comprises a second IPv6 address and the second IPv6 address is an IPv6 address of the router (Krishnan teaches (¶Col. 3, Lines 27 – 31) in response to non-response (which amounts to a denial of the ND/RA address request), the RG instead determines a default link-local IPv6 address in accordance with IPv6 and assigns this IPv6 address to the residential gateway interface facing the edge router)
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing date to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine configuring, by the router, the IPv6 address of the router based on the first information comprises: configuring, by the router, the second IPv6 address, as disclosed by Hui, and sending, by the router, an RS packet to the optical modem; when the router determines that no RA packet from the optical modem is received, obtaining, by the router, the first information from the optical modem based on DHCPv6, wherein the first information comprises a second IPv6 address, and the second IPv6 address is an IPv6 address of the router, as taught by Krishnan, for the purpose of implementing (¶Col. 1, Line 7) allocating addresses within computer networks.
Claim 7, Hui disclose all the elements of claim 1. Hui does not explicitly disclose receiving, by the router, the IPv6 address of the terminal device from the terminal device; and configuring, by the router, a second routing entry based on the IPv6 address of the terminal device, wherein the second routing entry comprises a mapping relationship between the IPv6 address of the terminal device and a network port on a local area network side of the router. However, in an analogous art, Krishnan teaches:
receiving, by the router, the IPv6 address of the terminal device from the terminal device, and configuring, by the router, a second routing entry based on the IPv6 address of the terminal device, wherein the second routing entry comprises a mapping relationship between the IPv6 address of the terminal device and a network port on a local area network side of the router (Krishnan discloses (¶Col. 9, Lines 19 – 36) in response to the ND/RA message's failure to allocate a network address, residential gateway 20 determines a link-local IPv6 address and allocates this link-local IPv6 address for use by WAN interface 26. A link-local address comprises an address having link-only scope that can be used to reach neighboring nodes attached to the same link. In this instance, the line between residential gateway 20 and edge router 12 represents a link to which WAN interface 26 of residential gateway 20 couples. Assigning a link-local IPv6 address to WAN interface 26 effectively limits the scope of traffic originating from WAN interface 26 (e.g., traffic addressed with the link-local IPv6 address as the source address) to this link. This link-local traffic therefore only travels from residential gateway 20 to edge router 12, where edge router 12 is prohibited from forwarding this link-local traffic any further within service provider network 14 or on to public network 16 in accordance with IPv6.)
The motivation to combine the references is similar to the reasons in Claim 5.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 – 3, 4, 6 and 8 – 11 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rolled up and rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Applicant is encouraged to roll-up the Claims 2 – 3, 4, 6, 10 and 11 and the base claim(s) and any intervening claim(s) to the independent claim(s).
Conclusion
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0222542 to Inada (Electronic device, network relay device, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium)
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0099246 to Luo et al. (IPv6 Stateless Address Auto-Configuration)
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0099246 to Cox et al. (Method and apparatus for self-link assessing router)
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/H. A. K./
Examiner, Art Unit 2451
/Chris Parry/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2451