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 . The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions. 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 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.
Response to Remarks/Arguments
This communication is considered fully responsive to the Amendment filed on 22 April 2026.
The 35 USC § 103 rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-18 is/are maintained.
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 22 April 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-18 under 35 USC § 103 have been fully considered and are not persuasive.
In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986). PGPUB Ronciak teaches sending packets through the network stack. (See Ronciak; [0023][0028]). NVIDIA teaches generating and sending fake packets. (NVIDIA; dummy send command to send dummy packets to warm up the cache; p. 66). Sending Dummy packets would apply to packets sent through the cache and network stack of Ronciak. The NVIDIA reference is not cited for cache, or network stack. While NVIDIA’s reference discloses bypassing the stack to increase performance of message sending, sending dummy packets would improve cache performance if sent through network stack of Ronciak. See below for more detailed rejection.
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) 1-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent No. / U.S. Pre-Grant Publication US-20060168400-A1 to Ronciak et al. (“Ronciak”) in view of NPL “NVIDIA MESSAGE ACCELERATOR VMA Documentation rev 952” to NVIDIA et al. (“NVIDIA”) (See version 9.8.60 for citations, documentations with better formatting).
As to claim 1, Ronciak disclose(s) a network processor comprising:
a processor, (Ronciak; Fig. 1; CPU) comprising:
at least one processor core, arranged to load and execute program codes to deal with packet processing, wherein the program codes comprise:
a network driver; (Ronciak; Fig. 1; Network Controller)
a network stack of an operating system kernel; (Ronciak; Fig. 1; Protocol Layers)
and a cache, arranged to cache at least a portion of instructions and data associated with processing of the packet that is performed by the network stack of the OS kernel. (Ronciak; Fig. 1; Cache; store prefetch instructions [0005] and data; [0029]) (See Ronciak; [0023][0028]); sending packets through protocol layers)
But does not expressly disclose a packet pre-learning module, arranged to generate a fake packet, and send the fake packet to the network stack of the OS kernel through the network driver.
NVIDIA discloses a packet pre-learning module, arranged to generate a fake packet, and send the fake packet to the network stack of the OS kernel through the network driver. (NVIDIA; dummy send command to send dummy packets to warm up the cache; p. 66)
At the time of invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine the dummy packets of NVIDIA and the network stack and caching of Ronciak. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings as both are concerned with caching. Using the dummy packets of NVIDIA would allow for cache to be warmed.
Accordingly, the prior art references teach all of the claimed elements.
Furthermore, it would have been obvious to combine the teachings as all the claimed elements were known in the prior art and one skilled in the art could have combined the elements as claimed by known methods with no change in their respective functions, and the combination would have yielded nothing more than predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art.
As to claim 2, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the network processor of claim 1,
But does not expressly disclose wherein the packet pre-learning module is arrange to generate the fake packet periodically. (NVIDIA; DummysendcycleDuration; p. 66)
As to claim 3, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the network processor of claim 1, wherein the network stack of the OS kernel is arranged to send the fake packet to the network driver after processing the fake packet, and the network driver is arranged to drop the fake packet after receiving the fake packet from the network stack of the OS kernel. (NVIDIA; dummy packets reaches the hardware NIC and then is dropped; p. 66)
As to claim 4, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the network processor of claim 1, further comprising:
a network interface, arranged to receive a packet from a network before the fake packet is generated; (Ronciak; Fig. 1; Network controller ; [0014] receive packets)
wherein a configuration of the fake packet is based at least partly on the packet. (Ronciak; Fig. 1; packet headers; [0028])
As to claim 5, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the network processor of claim 4, wherein the network interface is a local area network interface. (Ronciak; Fig. 1; network 18; LAN; [0018])
As to claim 6, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the network processor of claim 4, wherein the network interface is a wide area network interface. (Ronciak; Fig. 1; network 18; WAN; [0018])
As to claim 7, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the network processor of claim 1, further comprising:
a network interface, arranged to receive a packet from a network after the fake packet is generated, and send the packet to the network stack of the OS kernel through the network driver; (Ronciak; Fig. 1; Network controller, device driver, protocol layers)
wherein a sequence of instructions invoked by the network stack of the OS kernel for processing the packet received by the network interface is identical to a sequence of instructions invoked by the network stack of the OS kernel for processing the fake packet generated by the packet pre-learning module. (Ronciak; Fig. 1; Cache; store prefetch instructions [0005] and data; [0029]; a cache hit will have the same instructions)
As to claim 8, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the network processor of claim 7, wherein the network interface is a local area network interface. (Ronciak; Fig. 1; network 18; LAN; [0018])
As to claim 9, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the network processor of claim 7, wherein the network interface is a wide area network interface. (Ronciak; Fig. 1; network 18; WAN; [0018])
As to claim 10, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) a packet processing method comprising:
executing a network driver;
executing a network stack of an operating system kernel;
generating a fake packet, and sending the fake packet to the network stack of the OS kernel through the network driver;
and caching at least a portion of instructions and data associated with processing of the fake packet that is performed by the network stack of the OS kernel.
See similar rejection to claim 1.
As to claim 11, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the packet processing method of claim 10, wherein generating the fake packet comprises:
generating the fake packet periodically.
See similar rejection to claim 2.
As to claim 12, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the packet processing method of claim 10, wherein executing the network stack of the OS kernel comprises:
sending the fake packet to the network driver after processing the fake packet;
executing the network driver comprises:
dropping the fake packet after receiving the fake packet from the network stack of the OS kernel.
See similar rejection to claim 3.
As to claim 13, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the packet processing method of claim 10, further comprising:
receiving a packet from a network interface before the fake packet is generated;
wherein a configuration of the fake packet is based at least partly on the packet.
See similar rejection to claim 4.
As to claim 14, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the packet processing method of claim 13, wherein the network interface is a local area network interface.
See similar rejection to claim 5.
As to claim 15, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the packet processing method of claim 13, wherein the network interface is a wide area network interface.
See similar rejection to claim 6.
As to claim 16, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the packet processing method of claim 10, further comprising:
receiving a packet from the network interface after the fake packet is generated;
and sending the packet to the network stack of the OS kernel through the network driver;
wherein a sequence of instructions invoked by the network stack of the OS kernel for processing the packet received from the network interface is identical to a sequence of instructions invoked by the network stack of the OS kernel for processing the fake packet.
See similar rejection to claim 7.
As to claim 17, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the packet processing method of claim 16, wherein the network interface is a local area network interface.
See similar rejection to claim 8.
As to claim 18, Ronciak-NVIDIA disclose(s) the packet processing method of claim 16, wherein the network interface is a wide area network interface.
See similar rejection to claim 9.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRYAN LEE whose telephone number is (571)270-5606. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9am-5pm.
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/BRYAN Y LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445
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