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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to a restriction requirement that was mailed April 22, 2026. An election was made with traverse, June 9, 2026, electing examination of group II, consisting of claims 10-20. Group I, consisting of claims 1-9 was NOT elected. Claim 10 was amended. Claims 21-29 are newly added. Claims 10-29 are now pending in this application.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-9 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected group I, consisting of claims 1-9, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on June 9, 2026.
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 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.
Claim(s) 10-29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hung et al. (US 2023/0077594 A1).
With respect to claim 10, Hung discloses a network device comprising:
one or more computer processors (Figure 1, packet processors 112); and
a computer-readable storage device comprising instructions for controlling the one or more computer processors (Figure 1) to:
receive a traffic policy comprising a list of policy rules including terminal rules
and GOTO rules (Abstract and [0015], traffic policy rules and GOTO action associated with a policy rule);
identify segments in the traffic policy, wherein each segment begins with a GOTO rule followed by one or more terminal rules, each segment being
associated with a segment identifier (ID) ([0161]-[0168], rules can be viewed as being composed of “d” fields);
program the terminal rules in corresponding hardware (HW) entries of a first HW
table, wherein each HW entry encodes the segment ID associated with the
corresponding terminal rule ([0178], flattened rules list can be compiled to produce a set of packet filters programmed into a TCAM);
generate a plurality of intersection rules, each intersection rule representing a combination of one or more of the GOTO rules ([0164]-[0173], intersection rules comprising minimum set of match criteria that matches a packet);
program the intersection rules in corresponding hardware (HW) entries of a
second HW table ([0077], compiled rules 414), wherein each HW entry encodes a segment mask based on the segment ID associated with one of the one or more GOTO rules of the corresponding intersection rule (Figure 4B and 4C, [0027], and [0164]-[0173], traffic policy to compiled rules).
With respect to claim 11, Hung discloses the network device of claim 10, wherein the segment ID is a multi-bit value, wherein only the least significant n bits of the segment ID of an nᵗʰ segment are set to '1' and remaining bits are set to '0' (Figure 2).
With respect to claim 12, Hung discloses the network device of claim 10, wherein the segment mask of the nᵗʰ segment is generated by replacing the '0' bits in the segment ID of the nᵗʰ segment with don't-care bits (Figure 2 and [0027]).
With respect to claim 13, Hung discloses the network device of claim 10, wherein the policy rules in the traffic policy are listed in order of priority ([0027]), wherein the segment mask that is encoded in a given HW entry in the second HW table is the segment mask of the segment associated with the lowest priority GOTO rule among the GOTO rule(s) of the intersection rule that corresponds to the given HW entry ([0027]).
With respect to claim 14, Hung discloses the network device of claim 10, wherein the segment ID is an n-bit value (Figure 2), wherein the traffic policy comprises m GOTO rules (m > n) (Figure 4A), wherein the computer-readable storage device further comprises instructions for controlling the one or more computer processors to:
program terminal and intersection rules associated with the first n GOTO rules of the traffic policy into the first and second HW tables, respectively (Figure 4A and 4B); and
program remaining terminal and GOTO rules of the traffic policy in the first HW table (Figure 4A).
With respect to claim 21, Hung discloses the network device of claim 10, wherein a given GOTO rule in the traffic policy includes a GOTO action that specifies to continue matching policy rules in the traffic policy that follows the given GOTO rule (Figure 4A).
With respect to claim(s) 15-18, 20, and 23-29, the method and non-transitory medium of claim(s) 15-18, 20, and 23-29 does/do not limit or further define over the network device of claim(s) 10-14 and 21. The limitations of claim(s) 15-18, 20, and 23-29 is/are essentially similar to the limitations of claim(s) 10-14 and 21. Therefore, claim(s) 15-18, 20, and 23-29 is/are rejected for the same reasons as claim(s) 10-14 and 21. Please see rejection above.
With respect to claim 19, Hung discloses the method of claim 15, wherein the terminal rules are programmed in the first HW table in the same order as they appear in traffic policy (Figure 4A).
With respect to claim 22, Hung discloses the method of claim 15, further comprising:
receiving an ingress packet ([0026]);
identifying a first matched rule from the first HW table based on contents of the ingress packet ([0030]);
applying any actions specified in an action set of the first matched rule (Figure 4A);
identifying a second matched rule from the second HW table based on contents of the ingress packet and the segment ID encoded in the first matched rule (Figure 4B); and
applying any actions specified in the second matched rule (Figure 4B).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ESTHER B. HENDERSON whose telephone number is (571)270-3807. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6a-2p ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Umar Cheema can be reached at 571-270-3037. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ESTHER B. HENDERSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2458 July 16, 2026
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