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
Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1, 6, 11, and 16 independents. Claims 2-5, 7-10, 12-15 and 17-20 are independent.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 12/26/2024, 02/20/2025, and 03/24/2025 were in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khan et al. (US 20120281540) hereinafter Khan in view of Cui et al. (US 20230071237) hereinafter Cui.
Regarding claim 1, Khan teaches a method implemented by a network traffic management device (i.e. an improved mobile gateway can negotiate tags that can be appended to packets forwarded by the mobile gateway to other network resources allowing the network resources to receive and understand service- and subscriber-specific instructions, [0016]) the method comprising: receive, from a controller, a routing policy (i.e. policy control data 355 can be retrieved by the policy control engine 310 corresponding to the particular subscriber and forwarded to the mobile gateway, [0035]), wherein the routing policy comprises a plurality of subscriber identities (i.e. policy control data maintained for individual subscribers can include and be indexed by a subscriber international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) assigned to the subscriber, [0035]), each of the plurality of subscriber identities being associated with a service level and a service instance of a plurality of service instances (i.e. Policy control data 355 can include, in some instances, an identification of the subscriber (e.g., the subscriber IMSI), an assigned IP address for the corresponding subscriber device, together with a service path name corresponding to the subscriber, and one or more service policy identifiers corresponding to the subscriber and related to one or more of the services included in the subscriber's particular service path, [0036] and subscribers can specify, subscribe to, or opt-in to various policies or service levels associated with the service, [0044], [0042]); receive one or more data packets from a user device (i.e. A data flow 350 can be received originating from a subscriber's mobile client device, [0035] and [0037]); identify a subscriber identity associated with the one or more data packets (i.e. subscriber data flow 350 can be received by mobile gateway 305 from a mobile device 315 associated with a particular subscriber. The data flow 350 can identify a request for one or more resources associated with a website hosted by a particular web server (e.g., 405). Mobile gateway 305 can obtain policy control data 355 retrieved by policy control engine 310 in connection with authentication and authorization of the subscriber client device 315. The policy control data 355 can include an identification of a particular service path associated with the subscriber as well as policies to which a subscriber has opted-in to. In this example, the retrieved service path identifier, "Path 1," retrieved for the subscriber in policy control data 355, [0041], [0037], [0037], and [0045]); determine, based on the subscriber identity and the routing policy, a destination service instance (i.e. service policy identifiers included in service header 370 can be used to identify multiple policies, such as the policy of each distinct service in the service chain. In some cases, multiple different service policy identifiers (e.g., 374) can be included in the service header 370 each corresponding to a separate policy, while in other instances a single service policy identifier for the subscriber can map to a plurality of service policies subscribed to by a single subscriber, each policy corresponding to a separate service, [0045], [0036], [0037], and [0041]); and forward the one or more data packets to the destination service instance (i.e. The mobile gateway 305 can, with the assistance of other network elements in network 120 and service nodes 325, 340, 410 route packets in data flow 350 according to the predefined data plane service path corresponding to "Path 1" as negotiated between service node 325, SB/SD module 330, mobile gateway, [0041], [0042]-[0043], and [0037]).
However, Khan does not explicitly disclose a segment routing and micro service instances.
However, Cui teaches a segment routing (i.e. segment routing, [0050]) and micro service instances (i.e. microservices for connections segment routing, [0052]).
Based on Khan in view of Cui, 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 teaching of Cui to the system of Khan in order to enable a large portion of the population to stream high-definition media many hours per day with their mobile devices, when out of reach of wireless fidelity hotspots, (Cui, [0003]).
Regarding claim 2, Khan teaches the subscriber identity is identified using a 5G control plane that associates internet protocol (IP) addresses with phone numbers (i.e. policy control engine can, in some implementations, assign an IP address to the subscriber device 315. In some instances, an IP address assigned to a particular subscriber device (e.g., 315) can be a temporary IP address, one that is re-used across a plurality of subscriber devices authorized to use the network. Further, policy control data maintained for individual subscribers can include and be indexed by a subscriber international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) assigned to the subscriber, [0035] and [0047]).
Regarding claim 3, Khan teaches the destination service instance is determined by identifying a service instance associated with the subscriber identity in the routing policy (i.e. [0036], [0037], [0041], and [0045]].
However, Khan does not explicitly disclose a segment routing and micro service instance.
However, Cui teaches a segment routing (i.e. segment routing, [0050]) and micro service instance (i.e. microservices for connections segment routing, [0052]). Therefore, the limitations of claim 3 are rejected in the analysis of claim 1 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
Regarding claim 4, Khan teaches the destination service instance is configured to provide a service level to the user device that corresponds to a service level associated with the subscriber identity in the routing policy (i.e. subscribers can specify, subscribe to, or opt-in to various policies or service levels associated with the service. Services can be delivered based on the subscribed-to policy. Among other advantages, the above system can simplify management of subscribers' policy changes. For instance, a user can request that a service level or policy for a particular service be modified, [0044] and [0042]).
However, Khan does not explicitly disclose a segment routing and micro service instance.
However, Cui teaches a segment routing (i.e. segment routing, [0050]) and micro service instance (i.e. microservices for connections segment routing, [0052]). Therefore, the limitations of claim 4 are rejected in the analysis of claim 1 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
Regarding claim 5, Khan teaches receive, from the controller, an updated routing policy comprising one or more updated service levels and/or updated service instances (i.e. Existing services can also be modified, the respective service nodes hosting the service, sending update data to the SB/SD module 330 to communicate the change (such as a change to the location of the service node or a change in the policies of the service) to other network elements, such as mobile gateway 305. Records of service paths and policies maintained by policy control engine can be correspondingly updated to reflect the addition of the new content filtering service or modification of an existing service, [0040]); receive one or more additional data packets from the user device (i.e. a user can request that a service level or policy for a particular service be modified. Such a request can be nearly instantaneously communicated to the mobile gateway 305 and/or policy control engine 310 so that subsequent data flows, originating from a subscriber device, are tagged with policy identifiers (e.g., 374) corresponding to the modified policy selection, [0044]); identify the subscriber identity associated with the one or more additional data packets (i.e. subsequent data flows involving the content-filtering service can be tagged with policy identifiers (e.g., equal to "102") corresponding to the young-adult-level content filtering, [0044]); determine, based on the subscriber identity and the updated routing policy, an updated destination service instance (i.e., [0040] and [0044]); and forward the one or more data packets to the updated destination service instance The mobile gateway 305 can, with the assistance of other network elements in network 120 and service nodes 325, 340, 410 route packets in data flow 350 according to the predefined data plane service path corresponding to "Path 1" as negotiated between service node 325, SB/SD module 330, mobile gateway, [0041]).
However, Khan does not explicitly disclose a segment routing and micro service instance.
However, Cui teaches a segment routing (i.e. segment routing, [0050]) and micro service instance (i.e. microservices for connections segment routing, [0052]). Therefore, the limitations of claim 5 are rejected in the analysis of claim 1 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
Regarding claims 6-20, the limitations of claims 6-20 are similar to the limitations of claims 1-5. Khan further teaches a network traffic management device, comprising memory comprising programmed instructions stored thereon and one or more processors configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions (i.e. a memory element (e.g., such included in mobile gateway 305 or policy control engine 310) can store data used for the operations described herein. This includes the memory element being able to store software, logic, code, or processor instructions that are executed to carry out the activities described in this Specification. A processor can execute any type of instructions associated with the data to achieve the operations detailed herein in this Specification. In one example, the processor (e.g., such included in mobile gateway 305, [0053]); a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions comprising executable code (i.e. a service-aware mobile gateway such as described in the implementations and related functions outlined herein may be implemented by logic encoded in one or more tangible machine-readable media, [0053]); a network traffic management system, comprising one or more network traffic management devices, controllers or data processing units with memory comprising programmed instructions stored thereon and one or more processors configured to be capable of executing the stored programmed instructions (i.e. A system comprising: a mobile gateway including: at least one processor device; at least one memory element; a routing module, adapted when executed by the at least one processor device, claim 16). Therefore, the limitations of claims 6-20 are rejected in the analysis of claims 1-5 above, and the claims are rejected on that basis.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Rajamanickam et al. (US 20240195725), Segment Routing policies are used to steer traffic through a specific, user-defined path using one or more Segment Identifier (SID) list for Traffic Engineering (TE) purpose.
Alaettinoglu et al. (US 20230095297), The SDN controller 20 then converts these paths into an SR Policy object as defined in Segment Routing Policy Architecture, draft-ietf-spring-segment-routing-policy.
FARNHAM (US 20210135983), a routing policy for evaluating by service proxies to select a service instance to route a service request to and/or a network link to route the service request via.
Yadav et al. (US 20210266251), segment Routing and the use of a new class of SID, e.g., a branch SID, to combine the functionality of an anycast SID and a binding SID. In the domain 7, for every transit path through the domain 7, a pair of Segment Routing policies, e.g., P2-1, P2-2 are created on the dual-homed border nodes 21, 26 towards the domain 6, which use their own version of constrained path to cross over to the border routers on the other end.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AYELE F WOLDEMARIAM whose telephone number is (571)270-5196. The examiner can normally be reached M_F 8:30AM-5:00PM.
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/AW/
AYELE F. WOLDEMARIAM
Examiner
Art Unit 2447
12/22/2025
/SURAJ M JOSHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447