DETAILED ACTION
1. This Office Action is in response to application 18/878430 filed on 12/23/2024. Claims 1-7, 9-21, are pending. Claim 8 has been cancelled through a preliminary amendment filed on 12/23/2024.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Interpretation
3. Claims 1, 9, 10, recite “aggregation type.” Applicant’s specification states:
[0034] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a first structure of a computing power service identifier based on an aggregation type according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 2, the computing power service identifier in this embodiment of the present application may include an aggregation type and a service ID. The aggregation type may include N aggregation categories. Here N is a natural number greater than or equal to 1. For example, the aggregation categories include, but are not limited to, an identifier type, a service type, a resource attribute, a grading metric, and a service parameter.
Therefore, in line with applicant’s specification, the examiner will construe “aggregation type” to be one of the categories such as identifier type, service type, resource attribute, grading metric, or service parameter.
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
4. Claims 1-7, 9-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yong et al. (US 2015/0195197) in view of Nainar et al. (US 2020/0153716).
Regarding claim 1, Yong disclosed:
A computing power routing search method, applied to a current computing power network node, comprising (Paragraph 30, traffic/service classification in order to determine oncoming traffic flow and determine where the next route hop would be):
in response to receiving a computing power traffic message (Figure 11, 1110 receiving a packet), parsing (Figure 11, 1120, inspecting the packet) the computing power traffic message to obtain a computing power service identifier (Figure 7, SFC header 700) carried in the computing power traffic message, wherein the computing power service identifier comprises an aggregation type (Figure 10, metadata type 1002) and a service ID (Figure 7, 720, SFC path identifier) (Paragraph 47, when the classifier node receives a packet, the classifier node inspects the packet to determine an SFC that is the next destination for the packet. Based on this, an SFC header is added to the packet and filled with proper information into the SFC header. Paragraph 45, the meta type 1002 indicates a type of metadata that is embedded into the data (i.e., resource attribute). Paragraph 41, the SFC path ID is a unique identifier that presents a service chain path in the network. Figure 7, metadata 726 is expanded in figures 9-10, to show that the metadata is included in the SFC header (of Figure 7));
searching a computer power routing table (Paragraph 57, table lookup) for a computing power routing table home node (Paragraph 57, virtual access point (VAP)) corresponding to the computing power service identifier according to the aggregation type in the computing power service identifier (Paragraph 55, SFC information includes a virtual access point (VAP) of service function instances. Paragraph 57, the SFC header, including an SFC path ID and all SFC information carried, is used to determine the next service function instance address. A table lookup is performed to find a VAP associated with the service function instance address); and
in response to determining that the computing power routing table home node is found in the computer power routing table, sending the computing power traffic message to the computing power routing table home node to enable the computing power routing table home node to perform computing power routing search processing on the computing power traffic message (Paragraph 54, after determining the VAP for the SF instance, forwarding the packet to the next SF instance).
While Yong disclosed searching a table (see above), Yong did not explicitly disclose that the table was a precreated hierarchical computing power routing table and determining that the computing power routing table home node is found in the hierarchical computing power routing table.
However, in an analogous art, Nainar disclosed a precreated hierarchical computing power routing table (Paragraph 74, containers can have table 416 associated therewith, which is referred to as a SFF network service header forwarding table. Upon receiving a data packet, comparing information included in the header of the received packet to information available in the table (i.e., pre-created). A service function path ID (service path ID) indicates which service function (container) the packet is to be steered to (i.e., next hop). Figure 4, 416, showing the forwarding table including the SFP ID along with an action to take based on the SFP ID (i.e., hierarchical));
determining that the computing power routing table home node is found in the hierarchical computing power routing table (Paragraph 74, comparing the header of the packet to information available in the table).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Yong with Nainar because the references involve lookup tables based on service function headers, and as such, are within the same environment.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the precreated hierarchical computer power routing table of Nainar with the teachings of Yong in order to provide faster services and/or connectivity to client endpoints (Nainar, Paragraph 49).
Regarding claims 9, 10, the claims are substantially similar to claim 1. Claim 9 recites one or more processors and a memory (Yong, Paragraph 70, multiple processors and memories). Claim 10 recites a non-transitory storage medium (Yong, Paragraph 72, non-transitory storage device). Therefore, the claim is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claims 2, 11, 17, the limitations of claims 1, 9, 10, have been addressed. Yong and Nainar disclosed:
wherein the aggregation type comprises N aggregation categories, wherein N denotes a natural number greater than or equal to 1 (Yong, Paragraph 45, the metadata type 1002 indicates a type of metadata embedded into the data (i.e., n greater than or equal to 1)).
Regarding claims 3, 12, 18, the limitations of claims 2, 11, 17, have been addressed. Yong and Nainar disclosed:
wherein the aggregation categories comprise an identifier type (Yong, Figure 7, SFC path ID), a service type (Yong, Figure 7, O bit 702, Paragraph 40, O bit indicates the type of packet), a resource attribute (Yong, Figure 7, TTL 718) , a grading metric (Yong, Figure 9, Paragraph 44, sequence numbers associated with the metadata), and a service parameter (Yong, Figure 7, Paragraph 41, S bit 710, used to correlate metadata information).
Regarding claims 4, 13, 19, the limitations of claims 1, 9, 10, have been addressed. Yong and Nainar disclosed:
wherein sending the computing power traffic message to the computing power routing table home node to enable the computing power routing table home node to perform the computing power routing search processing on the computing power traffic message comprises: in response to determining that the computing power routing table home node is one of computing power network nodes associated with the current computing power network node, sending the computing power traffic message to the computing power routing table home node to enable the computing power routing table home node to perform the following operation (see claim 1): searching the precreated hierarchical computing power routing table (Nainar, Paragraph 74, containers can have table 416 associated therewith, which is referred to as a SFF network service header forwarding table) for the computing power routing table home node corresponding to the computing power service identifier according to the aggregation type in the computing power service identifier (Yong, Paragraph 54, after determining the VAP for the SF instance, forwarding the packet to the next SF instance. Paragraph 55, SFC information includes a virtual access point (VAP) of service function instances. Paragraph 57, the SFC header, including an SFC path ID and all SFC information carried, is used to determine the next service function instance address. A table lookup is performed to find a VAP associated with the service function instance address).
For motivation, please refer to claim 1.
Regarding claims 5, 14, 20, the limitations of claims 1, 9, 10, have been addressed. Yong and Nainar disclosed:
wherein sending the computing power traffic message to the computing power routing table home node to enable the computing power routing table home node to perform the computing power routing search processing on the computing power traffic message comprises (see claim 1): in response to determining that the computing power routing table home node is a computing power network node other than computing power network nodes associated with the current computing power network node, sending the computing power traffic message to an upper-level computing power network node of the current computing power network node to enable the upper-level computing power network node to perform the following operation: searching the precreated hierarchical computing power routing table (Nainar, Paragraph 74, containers can have table 416 associated therewith, which is referred to as a SFF network service header forwarding table) for the computing power routing table home node corresponding to the computing power service identifier according to the aggregation type in the computing power service identifier (Yong, Figure 13, step 1330, determining if the SF instance is local, if so determining the VAP for the SF instance and forwarding the packet. However, if the SF instance is not local (i.e., a computer power network node other than the nodes associated with the current node), then the address of the next steering node (i.e., upper level computer power network node) is determined in step 1335 and the packet is forwarded to that steering node which performs the steps again to determine the VAP for the SF instance).
For motivation, please refer to claim 1.
Regarding claims 6, 15, 21, the limitations of claims 1, 9, 10, have been addressed. Yong and Nainar disclosed:
wherein sending the computing power traffic message to the computing power routing table home node to enable the computing power routing table home node to perform the computing power routing search processing on the computing power traffic message further comprises (see claim 1): in response to determining that the computing power routing table home node is one of computing power network nodes associated with the current computing power network node, sending the computing power traffic message to the computing power routing table home node to enable the computing power routing table home node to provide a computing power service for the computing power traffic message (Yong, Paragraph 54, after determining the VAP for the SF instance, forwarding the packet to the next SF instance. Paragraph 55, SFC information includes a virtual access point (VAP) of service function instances. Paragraph 57, the SFC header, including an SFC path ID and all SFC information carried, is used to determine the next service function instance address. A table lookup is performed to find a VAP associated with the service function instance address).
Regarding claims 7, 16, the limitations of claims 1, 9, have been addressed. Yong and Nainar disclosed:
wherein sending the computing power traffic message to the computing power routing table home node to enable the computing power routing table home node to perform the computing power routing search processing on the computing power traffic message comprises (see claim 1): in response to determining that the computing power routing table home node is a computing power network node other than computing power service nodes associated with the current computing power network node, sending the computing power traffic message to the computing power routing table home node to enable the computing power routing table home node to perform the following operation:searching the precreated hierarchical computing power routing table (Nainar, Paragraph 74, containers can have table 416 associated therewith, which is referred to as a SFF network service header forwarding table) for the computing power routing table home node corresponding to the computing power service identifier according to the aggregation type in the computing power service identifier (Yong, Figure 13, step 1330, determining if the SF instance is local, if so, determining the VAP for the SF instance and forwarding the packet. If the SF instance is not local (i.e., a computer power network node other than the nodes associated with the current node), then the address of the next steering node (i.e., computer power routing table home node) is determined in step 1335 and the packet is forwarded to that steering node which performs the steps again to determine the VAP for the SF instance).
For motivation, please refer to claim 1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Steven C. Nguyen whose telephone number is (571)270-5663. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7AM - 3PM and alternatively, through e-mail at Steven.Nguyen2@USPTO.gov.
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/S.C.N/Examiner, Art Unit 2451
/Chris Parry/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2451
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