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 is a reply to the application filed on 2/18/2025, in which, claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1, 8, and 15 are independent.
When making claim amendments, the applicant is encouraged to consider the references in their entireties, including those portions that have not been cited by the examiner and their equivalents as they may most broadly and appropriately apply to any particular anticipated claim amendments.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 2/18/2025 are accepted.
Specification
The disclosure filed on 2/18/2025 is accepted.
Claim - Objections
Claims 1-20 are objected to because of the following informalities: spelling errors. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-8, 10-15, and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20160218939 A1 (hereinafter ‘Tiwari’) in view of Choi JH, Min SG, Han YH. MACsec Extension over Software-Defined Networks for in-Vehicle Secure Communication. In2018 Tenth International Conference on Ubiquitous and Future Networks (ICUFN) 2018 Jul 3 (pp. 180-185). IEEE (hereinafter ‘Ho’) in view of US 20150312036 A1 (hereinafter ‘Kumar’).
As regards claim 1, Tiwari (US 20160218939 A1) and Ho combination teaches: A system for distributing keys to a plurality of sites in a multi-site network, comprising: a multi-site key distribution controller (MSKDC) disposed in an upstream site of a multi-site network; (Tiwari: Abstract, Fig. 3, ¶32, i.e., distributed multi-site data centers)
However, Tiwari does not but in analogous art, Ho teaches: a multi-site key distribution controller (MSKDC) (Ho: Figs. 4-5, pages 181-183, i.e., the SDN controller distributing the SAK to the different peers in the network)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Tiwari to include an SDN controller for distributing SAK and related information to peer nodes with the motivation to set up an end to end communication path (Ho: Figs. 4-5, pages 181-184)
a first site of the multi-site network; and (Tiwari: Abstract, Fig. 3, ¶14, ¶32, i.e., distributed multi-site data centers)
a second site of the multi-site network, the MSKDC being configured to coordinate key distribution between sites of the multi-site network by: generating a first cryptographic key for use by the first site; (Tiwari: ¶14-16, ¶31-¶34, i.e., key pairs for multi-site clouds. See also Ho: Fig. 1, pages 181-182)
However, Tiwari et al do not but in analogous art, Kumar (US 20150312036 A1) teaches: assigning a first value of a key number counter to the first cryptographic key; (Kumar: Figs. 7A-8, ¶19, ¶49-¶55, i.e., assigning a value of a counter to the first key)
incrementing the key number counter to a second value based at least in part on the first value being assocated to the first cryptographic key; (Kumar: Figs. 7A-8, ¶19, ¶49-¶55, incrementing the counter value after associated the first value with the first key)
binding a first Association Number (AN) with the first cryptographic key; and (Kumar: Figs. 7A-8, ¶49-¶55, i.e., associating an ID with the first key)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Tiwari et al to include an incrementing counter value associated with generated keys and associated unique ID with the keys as taught by Kumar with the motivation to track unique cryptographic keys (Kumar: Figs. 7A-8, ¶49-¶55)
Tiwari et al combination further teaches: distributing the first cryptographic key and the first AN to the first site, wherein the first cryptographic key is used by one or more first network devices at the first site to encrypt packets sent from the first site. (Ho: Figs. 4-5, pages 181-183, i.e., the SDN controller distributing the SAK to the different peers in the network)
Claims 8, 15 recite substantially the same features recited in claim 1 above and are rejected based on the rationale discussed in the rejection.
As regards claim 3, Tiwari et al combination teaches the system of claim 1, the MSKDC being further configured to: generate a second cryptographic key for use by the second site; (Tiwari: ¶14-16, ¶31-¶34, i.e., key pairs for multi-site clouds. See also Ho: Fig. 1, pages 181-182. Ho: Figs. 4-5, pages 181-183, i.e., the SDN controller distributing the SAKs to the different peers in the network. See also, Kumar: Figs. 7A-8, ¶19, ¶49-¶55, i.e., assigning a unique value of a counter to each of the generated keys)
assign a third value of a key number counter to the second cryptographic key; (See also, Kumar: Figs. 7A-8, ¶19, ¶49-¶55, i.e., assigning a unique value of a counter to each of the generated keys)
increment the key number counter to a fourth value based at least in part on the second value being assocated to the second cryptographic key; (Kumar: Figs. 7A-8, ¶19, ¶49-¶55, incrementing the counter value after associated the unique values with the generated keys)
bind a second AN with the second cryptographic key; and (Kumar: Figs. 7A-8, ¶49-¶55, i.e., associating an ID with the first key. See also, Ho: Fig. 2)
distribute the second cryptographic key and the second AN to the second site, wherein second cryptographic key is used by one or more second network devices at the second site to encrypt packets sent from the second site. (Tiwari: ¶14-16, ¶31-¶34. Ho: Figs. 4-5, pages 181-183, i.e., the SDN controller distributing the SAK to the different peers in the network)
Claims 10, 17 recite substantially the same features recited in claim 3 above and are rejected based on the rationale discussed in the rejection.
As regards claim 4, Tiwari et al combination teaches the system of claim 3, wherein: the one or more first network devices use the first cryptographic key to encrypt traffic that is sent to the one or more second network devices at the second site, the traffic being sent with an indication of the first AN; (Ho: Figs. 4-5, 7, pages 181-184) and the one or more second network devices are operative to identify a particular key used to decrypt the packets based at least in part on the first AN. (Ho: Figs. 2, 4-5, 7, pages 181-184. Note identifying key is inherent feature in MACsec protocol using information in the protocol header. See e.g., US 8397064 B2, Fig. 4A, claim 1)
Claims 11, 18 recite substantially the same features recited in claim 4 above and are rejected based on the rationale discussed in the rejection.
As regards claim 5, Tiwari et al combination teaches the system of claim 1, wherein one or more second network devices at the second site are operative to: receive an encrypted packet having a Media Access Control Security (MACsec) header, the encrypted packet being sent from the first site; (Ho: Figs. 2, 4-5, pages 181-184) identify a security channel identifier from the MACsec header; (Ho: Figs. 2, 4-5, pages 181-184) determine that the security channel identifier is associated with the first site; and based at least in part on the security channel identifier being associated with an encryption key, using the encryption key to decrypt the encrypted packet. (Ho: Figs. 2, 4-5, pages 181-184)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Tiwari to include an SDN controller for distributing SAK and related information to peer nodes with the motivation to set up an end to end communication path (Ho: Figs. 4-5, pages 181-184)
Claims 12, 19 recite substantially the same features recited in claim 5 above and are rejected based on the rationale discussed in the rejection.
As regards claim 6, Tiwari et al combination teaches the system of claim 1, wherein the first cryptographic key is a cryptographic transmit key, the MSKDC being further configured to: distribute a cryptographic receive key to the second site, the cryptographic receive key being configured to decrypt encrypted traffic sent from the first site that was encrypted using the cryptographic transmit key. (Tiwari: Figs 1-5, ¶32-¶42. See also, Ho: Figs. 4-5, pages 181-184)
Claims 13, 20 recite substantially the same features recited in claim 6 above and are rejected based on the rationale discussed in the rejection.
As regards claim 7, Tiwari et al combination teaches the system of claim 6, wherein the encrypted traffic comprises Virtual extensible local-area network (VXLAN) packets. (Ho: Figs. 4-5, page 181, i.e., MACSec encrypting vlan traffic)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Tiwari to include an SDN controller for distributing SAK and related information to peer nodes with the motivation to set up an end to end communication path (Ho: Figs. 4-5, pages 181-184)
Claim 14 recites substantially the same features recited in claim 7 above and is rejected based on the rationale discussed in the rejection.
Claim Objections
Claims 2, 9, 16 are objected. Claim recites allowable subject matter: “the MSKDC being further configured to: receive, from the first site an indication that the first cryptographic key was successfully deployed at the first site; and designate, at the MSKDC, the first cryptographic key as being active, wherein a previous cryptographic key is designated as idle” not taught by prior art taken alone or in combination. Claim would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the respective base claims and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/SYED A ZAIDI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2432
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