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 .
This office Action is in response to Application 19252830 filed on 06/27/2025. Claims 1, 4, and 7 are independent claims. Claims 1-9 have been examined and are pending in this application. This Office Action is made Non-Final.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/05/2025 and 01/05/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheriton et al. (“Cheriton,” US 8,493,867, published on 07/23/2013) in view of Dondeti et al. (“Dondeti,” US 8,687,485, published on 04/01/2014).
Regarding Claim 1;
Cheriton discloses a communication method, comprising:
determining, by a security tunnel receiving end, first information, wherein the first information indicates a protocol header sequence number of a service data packet received by the security tunnel receiving end (Col 5, lines 8-16; a tunneling protocol or IPSecESP (Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)) to communicate packets via tunnel. For example, network device can send a packet to network device via tunnel by encapsulating that packet with a tunnel header and then forwarding the encapsulated packet to network device via link according to information in the tunnel header; Col 7, lines 11- 17; when a packet is received via one of input ports, forwarding engine uses information in the packet's header to determine the forwarding action to take. For example, forwarding engine can access a lookup table, based on the packet's header, in order to determine how to forward the packet; Col 10, lines 54-61; determine the packet sequence number to include in a tunneled packet's tunnel header from the value of next sequence number); and
sending, by the security tunnel receiving end, the service data packet based on the first information (Col 7, lines 26-34; when forwarding engine determines that a packet should be transmitted via a network tunnel, control unit encapsulates that packet with an appropriate tunnel header and forwards the encapsulated packet to the transmission queue for the output port associated with the tunnel [] forward packets that are to be transmitted via tunnel to transmission queue for output via output port).
Cheriton disclose wherein the first information indicates a protocol header sequence number of a service data packet received by the security tunnel receiving end as recited above, but do not explicitly disclose security protocol header.
However, in an analogous art, Dondeti discloses providing replay protection system/method that includes:
security protocol header (Dondeti: Col 7, lines 34-35; the sequence number is extracted from the security protocol header).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Dondeti with the method/system of Cheriton to include security protocol header. One would have been motivated to identifier indicates a format or transformation of a packet transmitted by an associated member. The transform identifier can therefore be used at a receiving device to distinguish between transmissions by different members of the group (Dondeti: abstract).
Regarding Claim 2;
The combination of Cheriton and Dondeti disclosed the method according to claim 1,
Cheriton discloses wherein the sending, by the security tunnel receiving end, the service data packet based on the first information comprises (Cheriton: Col 7, lines 26-34; when forwarding engine determines that a packet should be transmitted via a network tunnel, control unit encapsulates that packet with an appropriate tunnel header and forwards the encapsulated packet to the transmission queue for the output port associated with the tunnel [] forward packets that are to be transmitted via tunnel to transmission queue for output via output port): sending, by the security tunnel receiving end, the service data packet based on the security protocol header sequence number that is of the service data packet and that is indicated by the first information being an expected sequence number; or buffering, by the security tunnel receiving end, the service data packet based on the security protocol header sequence number that is of the service data packet and that is indicated by the first information being not an expected sequence number (Cheriton: Col 7, lines 26-34; when forwarding engine determines that a packet should be transmitted via a network tunnel, control unit encapsulates that packet with an appropriate tunnel header and forwards the encapsulated packet to the transmission queue for the output port associated with the tunnel [] forward packets that are to be transmitted via tunnel to transmission queue for output via output port).
Dondeti further discloses security protocol header (Dondeti: Col 7, lines 34-35; the sequence number is extracted from the security protocol header).
The motivation is the same as claim 1 above.
Regarding Claim 3;
The combination of Cheriton and Dondeti disclosed the method according to claim 1,
Cheriton disclose wherein the sending, by the security tunnel receiving end, the service data packet based on the first information comprises (Cheriton: Col 7, lines 26-34; when forwarding engine determines that a packet should be transmitted via a network tunnel, control unit encapsulates that packet with an appropriate tunnel header and forwards the encapsulated packet to the transmission queue for the output port associated with the tunnel [] forward packets that are to be transmitted via tunnel to transmission queue for output via output port): based on the security protocol header sequence number that is of the service data packet and that is indicated by the first information being not an expected sequence number and a buffer being full, sequentially sending, by the security tunnel receiving end, buffered service data packets, and sending the service data packet (Cheriton: Col 5, lines 34-43; the tunnel update packets indicate a "window" of packets that the egress of network tunnel is prepared to receive (e.g., the size of this window can vary depending on the available buffer space for storing tunneled packets). In response to the tunnel update packets, network device updates its state information and/or sends a copy of any packet that was not received at the tunnel egress. Network device can also control the bandwidth available to tunnel based on the information in the tunnel update packets; Col 12, lines 34-48; if the received packet's sequence number is less than next sequence number expected, a copy of that packet has already been received by network device and the packet is dropped. If the packet's sequence number is greater than next sequence number expected 654 and less than next sequence number 656 (e.g., if the packet is received out-of-order and is within the window of packets that the tunnel egress is prepared to receive) and if there is space in deferred forwarding queue, the packet is added to the deferred forwarding queue. If there is no space [i.e., buffer being full] in deferred forwarding queue as indicated by difference between the current values of next sequence number 652 and next sequence number expected 654, control unit updates next sequence number expected to make room for the new packet. If the updated value of next sequence number expected equals the sequence number of the packet at the head of deferred forwarding queue, that packet will be forwarded by forwarding engine).
Dondeti further discloses security protocol header (Dondeti: Col 7, lines 34-35; the sequence number is extracted from the security protocol header).
The motivation is the same as claim 1 above.
Regarding Claim 4;
This Claim recites an apparatus that perform the same steps as method of Claim 1, and has limitations that are similar to Claim 1, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 1.
Regarding Claim 5;
This Claim recites an apparatus that perform the same steps as method of Claim 2, and has limitations that are similar to Claim 2, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 2.
Regarding Claim 6;
This Claim recites an apparatus that perform the same steps as method of Claim 3, and has limitations that are similar to Claim 3, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 3.
Regarding Claim 7;
This Claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable media that perform the same steps as method of Claim 1, and has limitations that are similar to Claim 1, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 1.
Regarding Claim8;
This Claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable media that perform the same steps as method of Claim 2, and has limitations that are similar to Claim 2, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 2.
Regarding Claim 9;
This Claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable media that perform the same steps as method of Claim 3, and has limitations that are similar to Claim 3, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 3.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHAO WANG whose telephone number is (313)446-6644. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 7:30-4:30PM EST.
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/C.W./Examiner, Art Unit 2439
/LUU T PHAM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2439
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