Patent Application 18181818 - NETWORK REACHABILITY VERIFICATION METHOD AND - Rejection

Patent Application 18181818 - NETWORK REACHABILITY VERIFICATION METHOD AND

Title: NETWORK REACHABILITY VERIFICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER STORAGE MEDIUM

Application Information

• Invention Title: NETWORK REACHABILITY VERIFICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER STORAGE MEDIUM
• Application Number: 18181818
• Submission Date: 2025-05-14T00:00:00.000Z
• Effective Filing Date: 2023-03-10T00:00:00.000Z
• Filing Date: 2023-03-10T00:00:00.000Z
• National Class: 370
• National Sub-Class: 252000
• Examiner Employee Number: 85728
• Art Unit: 2464
• Tech Center: 2400

Rejection Summary

• 102 Rejections: 0
• 103 Rejections: 1

Cited Patents

No patents were cited in this rejection.

Office Action Text

    DETAILED ACTION

The instant application having application No 18/181,818 filed on 04/03/2023 is presented for examination by the examiner.

Examiner Notice
Claim 1 would be allowable if (i) claims 2 or 8 or 9 or 10 are incorporated into the independent claim 1.
Claim 12 would be allowable if (i) claims 13 or 17 or 18 are incorporated into the independent claim 12.
Claim 20 would be allowable if (i) claims 2 or 8 or 9 or 10 or 13 or 17 or 18 are incorporated into the independent claim 20, (ii), resolve 101 rejections.
The claims  6, 12, 15-16 and 20 have the conditional limitation “when executed by the at least one processor” and “logical reachable path and/or a logical unreachable path”, please clarify the language features from the limitations of the claims.

Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows: 
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.


Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter because of the following reason:

In claim 20, Applicant claims “A computer storage medium”. 
However, the computer readable storage medium does not necessarily exclude all types/forms of transitory medium. Thus, under the broadest reasonable interpretation standard, the computer readable storage medium excluding signals recited in claim 20 still covers other forms of transitory medium, the claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. It is suggested that the claims be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation “non-transitory” to the claim.    Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals per se.


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 of this title, 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 negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.


Claims 1, 6-7, 12, 15-16 and 20 are rejected under pre-AIA  35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Isaac et al. (U.S 11516321, Nov. 29, 2022) in view of Liu (US 20210234715, Jul. 29, 2021).

 	Regarding Claim 1, Isaac discloses a source interface and a destination interface that correspond to a virtual packet in a target network, wherein the target network comprises an underlay network(column 9,  line 40-50, send and receive packets via the underlay network via one or more underlay network interfaces, to send packets(virtual packet) via the underlay network, an underlay IP interface access a global routing table to lookup routing procedures based on destination IP addresses(target network)) and an overlay network constructed above the underlay network(also see, column 2,  line 40-50, a network overlay is a virtual and logical network that is overlaid on a network underlay of network devices);
 and verifying reachability of the virtual packet in the overlay network based on a logical topology of a plurality of forwarding instances of a plurality of network devices in the target network (column 2, line 35-50, a network overlay is a virtual and logical network that is overlaid on a network underlay of network devices, the network underlay provides infrastructure upon which the network overlay is instantiated, the network underlay support multiple network overlays in which clients of the multiple network overlays are isolated in network reachability, protocol from each other and from the underlay network), 
routing information of the plurality of forwarding instances, a source forwarding instance corresponding to the source interface (column 9, line 10-20, the network device may include one or more paths for routing and/or forwarding packet client 1 interface interface with client 1 devices via client 1 site network to send and receive packets, a client 2 interface interface with client 2 devices via client 2 site network to send and receive packets), 
and a destination forwarding instance corresponding to the destination interface (column 8, line 30-50, determine a destination network address of the additional timing control packet based on a source network address of the client-based timing control packet, the timing agent determine a source network address for the additional timing control packet based on a destination network address of the client-based timing control packet).   
Isaac discloses all aspects of the claimed invention, except a network reachability verification method.
Liu is the same field of invention teaches a network reachability verification method (page 1, par (0003), line 1-10, to guarantee the network reachability of such broadcast domain for the correct operation of guest VM networking activities).
Isaac and Liu analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor of access to a service device.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the network reachability verification the teaching of Isaac to include the guarantee the network reachability of such broadcast domain for the correct operation of guest VM networking activities teaching of Liu because it is providing a dynamic procurement of computing resources and other resources that are utilized to perform tasks within the cloud computing environment.
Regarding Claim 6, Isaac discloses the verifying    the reachability of the virtual packet in the overlay network comprises determining a logical reachable path and/or a logical unreachable path of the virtual packet in the overlay network(column 2, line 35-50, a network overlay is a virtual and logical network that is overlaid on a network underlay of network devices, the network underlay provides infrastructure upon which the network overlay is instantiated, the network underlay support multiple network overlays in which clients of the multiple network overlays are isolated in network reachability, protocol from each other and from the underlay network).   
 
  	Regarding Claim 7, Isaac discloses the method further comprises verifying reachability between two tunnel endpoints of each tunnel on a target logical path in the underlay network, wherein the target logical path is a logical path of the virtual packet that comprises a tunnel in the overlay network(column 2, line 35-50, the network underlay support multiple network overlays in which clients of the multiple network overlays are isolated in network reachability, protocol from each other and from the underlay network, also see column 3, line 5-10, the overlay network include tunneling services, such as a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network, a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN), generic network virtualization encapsulation, tunneling over IP version and the like).   
 
Regarding Claim 12, Isaac discloses the apparatus comprises at least one processor; and  at least one memory, coupled to the at least one processor and configured to store  instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the apparatus to obtain a source interface and a destination interface that correspond to a virtual   packet in a target network, wherein the target network comprises an underlay network (column 9,  line 40-50, send and receive packets via the underlay network via one or more underlay network interfaces, to send packets(virtual packet) via the underlay network, an underlay IP interface access a global routing table to lookup routing procedures based on destination IP addresses(target network)) and an overlay network constructed above the underlay network(also see, column 2,  line 40-50, a network overlay is a virtual and logical network that is overlaid on a network underlay of network devices); 
and verify reachability of the virtual packet in the overlay network based on a   logical topology of a plurality of forwarding instances of a plurality of network devices in the target network(column 2, line 35-50, a network overlay is a virtual and logical network that is overlaid on a network underlay of network devices, the network underlay provides infrastructure upon which the network overlay is instantiated, the network underlay support multiple network overlays in which clients of the multiple network overlays are isolated in network reachability, protocol from each other and from the underlay network), routing information of the plurality of forwarding instances, a source forwarding instance corresponding to the source interface(column 9, line 10-20, the network device may include one or more paths for routing and/or forwarding packet client 1 interface interface with client 1 devices via client 1 site network to send and receive packets, a client 2 interface interface with client 2 devices via client 2 site network to send and receive packets), and a destination forwarding instance corresponding to the destination interface(column 8, line 30-50, determine a destination network address of the additional timing control packet based on a source network address of the client-based timing control packet, the timing agent determine a source network address for the additional timing control packet based on a destination network address of the client-based timing control packet).  
 Isaac discloses all aspects of the claimed invention, except a network reachability verification apparatus.
Liu is the same field of invention teaches a network reachability verification method (page 1, par (0003), line 1-10, to guarantee the network reachability of such broadcast domain for the correct operation of guest VM networking activities).
Isaac and Liu analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor of access to a service device.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the network reachability verification the teaching of Isaac to include the guarantee the network reachability of such broadcast domain for the correct operation of guest VM networking activities teaching of Liu because it is providing a dynamic procurement of computing resources and other resources that are utilized to perform tasks within the cloud computing environment.
 
Regarding Claim 15, Isaac discloses when executed by the at least one processor, the instructions further cause the apparatus to determine a logical reachable path and/or a logical unreachable path of the virtual    packet in the overlay network(column 2, line 35-50, a network overlay is a virtual and logical network that is overlaid on a network underlay of network devices, the network underlay provides infrastructure upon which the network overlay is instantiated, the network underlay support multiple network overlays in which clients of the multiple network overlays are isolated in network reachability, protocol from each other and from the underlay network).   
 
Regarding Claim 16, Isaac discloses when executed by the at least one processor, the instructions further cause the apparatus to verify reachability between two tunnel endpoints of each tunnel on a target logical path in the underlay network, wherein the target logical path is a logical path of the virtual packet that comprises a tunnel in the overlay network(column 2, line 35-50, the network underlay support multiple network overlays in which clients of the multiple network overlays are isolated in network reachability, protocol from each other and from the underlay network, also see column 3, line 5-10, the overlay network include tunneling services, such as a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network, a virtual extensible local area network (VXLAN), generic network virtualization encapsulation, tunneling over IP version and the like).   
 
Regarding Claim 20, Isaac discloses a computer storage medium, wherein the computer storage medium stores instructions, and when the instructions are executed by a processor of a computer device(page 1, par (0003), line 1-10, to guarantee the network reachability of such broadcast domain for the correct operation of guest VM networking activities), the computer device is configured to obtain a source interface and a destination interface that correspond to a virtual packet in a target network, wherein the target network comprises an underlay network(column 9,  line 40-50, send and receive packets via the underlay network via one or more underlay network interfaces, to send packets(virtual packet) via the underlay network, an underlay IP interface access a global routing table to lookup routing procedures based on destination IP addresses(target network)) and an overlay network constructed  above the underlay network(also see, column 2,  line 40-50, a network overlay is a virtual and logical network that is overlaid on a network underlay of network devices); 
and verify reachability of the virtual packet in the overlay network based on a logical topology of a plurality of forwarding instances of a plurality of network devices in the target network(column 2, line 35-50, a network overlay is a virtual and logical network that is overlaid on a network underlay of network devices, the network underlay provides infrastructure upon which the network overlay is instantiated, the network underlay support multiple network overlays in which clients of the multiple network overlays are isolated in network reachability, protocol from each other and from the underlay network), 
routing information of the plurality of forwarding instances, a source forwarding instance corresponding to the source interface(column 9, line 10-20, the network device may include one or more paths for routing and/or forwarding packet client 1 interface interface with client 1 devices via client 1 site network to send and receive packets, a client 2 interface interface with client 2 devices via client 2 site network to send and receive packets), and a destination forwarding instance corresponding to the destination interface(column 8, line 30-50, determine a destination network address of the additional timing control packet based on a source network address of the client-based timing control packet, the timing agent determine a source network address for the additional timing control packet based on a destination network address of the client-based timing control packet).   
Isaac discloses all aspects of the claimed invention, except the instructions are executed by a processor of a computer device.
Liu is the same field of invention teaches the instructions are executed by a processor of a computer device.
Isaac and Liu analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor of access to a service device.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the network reachability verification the teaching of Isaac to include the guarantee the network reachability of such broadcast domain for the correct operation of guest VM networking activities teaching of Liu because it is providing a dynamic procurement of computing resources and other resources that are utilized to perform tasks within the cloud computing environment.

Conclusion

The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure are:
Fang et al. (US 20160119219, Apr. 28, 2016) teaches Method for Reachability management in computer networks.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IQBAL ZAIDI whose telephone number is (571)270-3943.  The examiner can normally be reached on M to Thu 8.a.m to 6.p.m..
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, NGO RICKY can be reached on 571-272-3139.  The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/IQBAL ZAIDI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464