DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Application # 19/152,904 was filed on 7/31/2025.
Claims 1-23 were originally filed. A preliminary amendment was filed on 7/31/2026 amending claims, canceling 4, 6, 16, 18, 20-22 are cancelled. Therefore, claims 1-3, 5, 7-15, 17, 19, 23-27 are subject to examination.
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) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tao et al. U.S. Patent Publication # 2024/0089213 (hereinafter Tao) in view of Devanagondi et al. U.S. Patent # 7,486,678 (hereinafter Devanagondi)
With respect to claim 1, Tao teaches a switch control method, comprising:
-obtaining a first transmission quantity that is recorded in a priority flow control (PFC) counter in a reference switch and that corresponds to a target message queue (Paragraph 148, 151), wherein the first transmission quantity is a quantity of PFC pause frames that are transmitted by the reference switch to a target switch and that correspond to the target message queue (Paragraph 22-23, 176-177), and the target message queue is a message queue on the target switch (Paragraph 176-177) , and the PFC counter is not disposed in the target switch (Paragraph 223-224); and
in a case that the first transmission quantity satisfies a preset first control condition (Paragraph 148), transmitting a first control instruction to the target switch, wherein the first control instruction is configured for instructing a discarding (i.e. disabling) operation on a message in the target message queue (Paragraph 165-166);
-wherein the transmitting a first control instruction to the target switch comprises: transmitting the first control instruction to a second transmission module in the target switch through a first transmission module in the reference switch (Paragraph 143), wherein the first transmission module and the second transmission module are connected through a first port of the reference switch and a second port of the target switch (Paragraph 143, 148-153); the target message queue is a message queue at the second port of the target switch (Paragraph 207, 209-212); the first control instruction comprises a queue number of the target message queue and a first operation identification (Paragraph 188, 191, 233, 239) and the first operation identification is configured for performing the discarding operation on the message (Paragraph 202, 218); or
transmitting the first control instruction to a fourth transmission module in the target switch by a network controller through a third transmission module in the reference switch, wherein the first control instruction comprises an Internet protocol (IP) address of the reference switch, an IP address of the target switch, a first port number of a first port of the reference switch, a second port number of a second port of the target switch, a queue number of the target message queue, and a first operation identification; and the first operation identification is configured for performing the discarding operation on the message.
Tao teaches wherein the first control instruction is configured for instructing a discarding (i.e. disabling) operation on a message in the target message queue (Paragraph 165-166) but does not explicitly state discarding operation.
Devanagondi teaches wherein the first control instruction is configured for instructing a discarding (i.e. discarding) operation on a message in the target message queue (column 12 lines 17-64); the first operation identification is configured for performing the discarding operation on the message (column 12 lines 17-64). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement Devanagondi’s teaching in Tao’s teaching to come up with having discarding operation. The motivation for doing so would be to indicate whether an error has occurred with the reception or storage of the packet and should be discarded.
With respect to claim 2, Tao and Devanagondi teaches method according to claim 1, but Tao further teaches characterized in that wherein before the transmitting a first control instruction to the target switch, the method further comprises: in a case that the first transmission quantity is greater than or equal to a preset first quantity threshold(Paragraph 148), determining that the first transmission quantity satisfies the preset first control condition (Paragraph 148-150); or in a case of determining, based on the first transmission quantity, that a quantity of PFC pause frames that are transmitted by the reference switch to the target switch within a first preset duration and that correspond to the target message queue is greater than or equal to a preset second quantity threshold, determining that the first transmission quantity satisfies the preset first control condition.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5, 7-14, 24-27 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.
Claims 15, 17, 19, 23 are allowed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
A). Le et al. U.S. Patent Publication # 2021/0320866 which teaches about PFC of IEEE 802.1.
B). Suleman et al. U.S. Patent Publication # 2021/0037057
C). Alimohammadifar et al. U.S. Patent Publication # 2020/0374210
D). Sun et al. U.S. Patent Publication # 2021/0136000
E). Ji et al. U.S. Patent Publication # 2021/0021540.
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DHAIRYA A. PATEL
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2453
/DHAIRYA A PATEL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2453
