DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
This is a first office action in response to the instant
This is a first office action in response to the instant application for letters patent filed on 26 November 2024. Claims 2-23 are presented for examination.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: Opportunistic Delivery of content in a communication network.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the abstract does not describe the invention as claimed. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter 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 pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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 under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a).
Claims 2-3, 5, 7-14, 16, and 18-23 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being obvious over William et al. hereinafter William Pub Number US 20100179986 A1.
The applied reference has a common assignee with the instant application. Based upon the pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(e) date of the reference, it constitutes prior art. This rejection under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.132 that any invention disclosed but not claimed in the reference was derived from the inventor of this application and is thus not an invention “by another”; (2) a showing of a date of invention for the claimed subject matter of the application which corresponds to subject matter disclosed but not claimed in the reference, prior to the pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(e) date of the reference under 37 CFR 1.131(a); or (3) an oath or declaration under 37 CFR 1.131(c) stating that the application and reference are currently owned by the same party and that the inventor or joint inventors (i.e., the inventive entity) named in the application is the prior inventor under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 104 as in effect on March 15, 2013, together with a terminal disclaimer in accordance with 37 CFR 1.321(c). This rejection might also be overcome by showing that the reference is disqualified under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(c) as prior art in a rejection under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a). See MPEP §§ 2146 et seq.
As per claim 2, William teaches a gateway system (see par 0042 , gateway) for content delivery in a communications infrastructure that provides a shared communications link with a plurality of subscriber terminals (see para 0039, client-server communication link 125 includes a cable communication link … bandwidth resources can be shared by multicasting traffic), the gateway system comprising: a content processing subsystem operable to maintain a queue of identifiers corresponding to content objects
(see par 0028, “the server optimizer 130 use various techniques (e.g., dictionary coding) to identify redundancies between incoming data and data previously sent across the links of the communication system 100a (e.g., the client-server communication link 125 and the content network link 135). In particular, various techniques (e.g. delta coding, wide dictionary coding, etc.) may allow identification of redundancies in byte sequences (i.e. queue) traversing the links”; It must be noted that the server optimizer, while identifying redundancy between incoming data and data previously sent across the link, also plays the role of maintaining a queue of identifiers corresponding to content objects; see par 0081 as well); and a communications processing subsystem communicatively coupled with the content processing subsystem (see par 0026, content servers 150 are in direct communication with the server optimizer 130) and operable to: determine that excess capacity is presently available on the shared communications link (see par 0106, “pre-positioning routines are initiated (e.g., each night at 2:00 am, when a certain level of under-subscription or excess capacity of a communication link is detected”); identify a next content object according to the queue of identifiers (see par 0028, “the server optimizer 130 use various techniques (e.g., dictionary coding) to identify redundancies between incoming data and data previously sent across the links of the communication system 100a (e.g., the client-server communication link 125 and the content network link 135). In particular, various techniques (e.g. delta coding, wide dictionary coding, etc.) may allow identification of redundancies in byte sequences traversing the links even when a large history is maintained. “; it must be noted that next content is part of the redundancy); assign the next content object to a delivery queue for delivery over the shared communications link (see par 0105 and 0108); and assign data from the delivery queue to a service flow for communication over the shared communications link (see par 0106 and 0099). It must be noted that William does not discuss communication over presently available excess capacity ...; However, William at paragraph 0106, teaches “pre-positioning routines that are initiated (e.g., each night at 2:00 AM, when a certain level of under-subscription or excess capacity of a communication link is detected”. Therefore, one skill artisan at the effective date and time of the invention as claimed would acknowledge using the pre-positioning routines to define presently available excess capacity on the shared communication link for timely overload or under-subscription prevention and data transfer.
As per claim 3, William teaches the gateway system of claim 2, wherein at least one content object of the content objects corresponds to a request issued from at least one of the plurality of subscriber terminals to a content server (see par 0055, “when one server within the server optimizer 130 receives a request from a user (e.g., from a user system 110 on a spot beam 235, as shown in FIG. 2), the server management module may process that request in the context of other requests received at other servers in the server optimizer 130”; 0091).
As per claim 5, William teaches the gateway system of claim 2, wherein the content processing subsystem is further operable to: receive the request issued from the at least one of the plurality of subscriber terminals to the content server in a forwarded request (see par 0132); determine an identifier of the content objects of the forwarded requests (see par 0132); and store the identifier corresponding to the content objects in the queue of identifiers (see par 0132).
As per claim 7, William teaches the gateway system of claim 2, wherein the communications processing subsystem is operable to assign the data from the queue to the service flow for communication over the shared communications link whenever it determines that the excess capacity is presently available on the shared communications link (see par 0106).
As per claim 8, William teaches the gateway system of claim 7, wherein the communications processing subsystem is operable to: determine that excess capacity is presently available on the communications link only during one or more predetermined time windows; and assign the data from the queue to the service flow for communication over the communications link within the excess capacity only during the one or more time windows (see par 0106, “pre-positioning routines are initiated (e.g., each night at 2:00 am, when a certain level of under-subscription or excess capacity of a communication link is detected, etc.), whereby one or more session streams may be established to communicate particular content sets”).
As per claim 9, William teaches the gateway system of claim 2, wherein the communications processing subsystem is operable to: receive the next content object from an associated content source in response to the request see par 0027, “server optimizer 130 may act as a transparent man-in-the-middle to intercept the data as it passes between the client-server communication link 125 and the content network link 135. Some purposes of the interception may include filtering, caching, parsing, and/or otherwise processing the requests and responses”; see par 0092).
As per claim 10, William teaches the gateway system of claim 2, wherein the content processing subsystem is implemented as an Internet cloud instance (see par 0025, fig 1A, element 140; “network 140 may be any type of network 140 a”).
As per claim 11, William teaches the gateway system of claim 2, wherein the communications processing subsystem is operable to: apply one or more transport protocols to the next content object, the applying the one or more transport protocols comprising applying a modcode to the next content object as a function of a type of data being sent (see claim 3, applying a modcode …).
As per claim 12, William teaches the gateway system of claim 11, wherein the shared communications link comprises a carrier of a spot beam of a satellite (see par 0035, 0038, 0046: spot beams 235).
Claims 13-14, 16, and 18-23 are method of the system claims 2-3, 5, and 7-12 discussed above. They contain the same limitations. Therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
Claims 4, 6, 15, and 17 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FRANTZ B JEAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3937. The examiner can normally be reached 8-5 M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Glenton B. Burgess can be reached at 5712723949. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/FRANTZ B JEAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
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