Ex Parte Kakadia et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardJun 2, 201613048350 (P.T.A.B. Jun. 2, 2016) Copy Citation UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE 13/048,350 03/15/2011 25537 7590 06/06/2016 VERIZON PA TENT MANAGEMENT GROUP 1320 North Court House Road 9th Floor ARLINGTON, VA 22201-2909 FIRST NAMED INVENTOR Deepak KAKADIA UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www .uspto.gov ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 20100890 8508 EXAMINER SHIH, ALBERT K ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2411 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 06/06/2016 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address( es): patents@verizon.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte DEEP AK KAKADIA and LALIT R. KOTECHA Appeal2015-002055 Application 13/048,350 Technology Center 2400 Before CATHERINE SHIANG, SCOTT B. HOWARD, and JOHN D. HAMANN, Administrative Patent Judges. SHIANG, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner's final rejection of claims 1-20, which are all the claims pending in the application. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We reverse. STATEMENT OF THE CASE Introduction Appeal2015-002055 Application 13/048,350 The present invention relates to adaptive quality of service based on application latency requirements. See generally Spec. 1. Claim 1 is exemplary: 1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, compnsmg: receiving, by one of the one or more computing devices and from a plurality of network devices, packet monitoring data for subscriber application traffic; calculating, by one of the one or more computing devices and based on the packet monitoring data, timing latencies for a particular subscriber flow; obtaining, by one of the one or more computing devices, Quality of Service (QoS) timing specifications for the particular subscriber flow; determining, by one of the one or more computing devices, that there is congestion within the particular subscriber flow based on the timing latencies for the particular subscriber flow and the QoS timing specifications; identifying, by one of the one or more computing devices and when the congestion is detected, at least one of the plurality of network devices that is a source of the congestion; and signaling, by one of the one or more computing devices and to the at least one of the plurality of network devices, an indication to modify QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow. Sirotkin Grayson References and Rejections US 2009/0010259 Al US 2012/0207022 Al Jan. 8,2009 Aug. 16, 2012 Claims 1-8, 10-13, 15-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Grayson. 2 Appeal2015-002055 Application 13/048,350 Claims 9, 14 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Grayson and Sirotkin. ANALYSIS We have reviewed the Examiner's rejections in light of Appellants' contentions and the evidence of record. We concur with Appellants' conclusion that the Examiner erred in finding Grayson teaches "identifying, at least one of the plurality of network devices that is a source of the congestion; and signaling, by one of the one or more computing devices and to the at least one of the plurality of network devices, an indication to modifj; QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow," as recited in independent claim 1 (emphases added). 1 The Examiner maps the claimed "at least one of the plurality of network devices [that is a source of the congestion]" to Grayson's eNB of Figure 4. See Ans. 39--40. 2 The Examiner finds: signaling, by one of the one or more computing devices and to the at least one of the plurality of network devices, an indication to modify QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow (Grayson, FIG. 1 and [0022-0023] "The Agg-PE can then aggregate bandwidth anomalies from multiple radio links into 1 Appellants raise additional arguments. Because the identified issue is dispositive of the appeal, we do not reach the additional arguments. 2 Alternatively and under the same analysis, the Examiner maps the claimed "at least one of the plurality of network devices [that is a source of the congestion]" to Grayson's RADIO of Figure 3. See Ans. 39--40. For similar reasons discussed in our analysis, the cited Grayson portions do not teach signaling to RADIO "an indication to modify QoS parameters," as required by the claim. 3 Appeal2015-002055 Application 13/048,350 QoS control signals, and send the QoS control signals (including bandwidth information) to an AGW. The AGW may then use the QoS information to optionally modifj; QoS characteristics of subscribers supported by the AGW" and "signaling may be used to allow a radio ... to signal the Agg-PE device that it is operating using constrained bandwidth"; and see aforementioned FIG. 4 and corresponding paragraph of description, such as [0046] which at least described that the modified QoS is translated and transmitted further from AGW to network device, eNB via 470a/470b, and so at least network device eNB is being signaled; Please note the same analysis can be done via FIG. 3 with RADIO, in which congestion of RADIO is identified and AGW may transmit translated QoS modification to RADIO via 370a/370b ). Ans. 39-40 (emphasis added). Appellants argue the cited Grayson portions teach signaling, to SGW425 and SGW 430-not eNB-"an indication to modify QoS parameters for the particular subscriber flow." See App. Br. 13-14. Reply Br. 4--5. Grayson's paragraphs 22 and 23 state the following (emphases added): [0022] ... The AggPE can then aggregate bandwidth anomalies from multiple radio links into QoS control signals, and send the QoS control signals (including bandwidth information) to anAGW. Note that the term 'QoS control signal' is a broad term that encompasses any type of information that may be relevant to QoS (either at a link level, at a network device level, at a network level more generally, etc.). Hence, any data segment or information relevant to QoS can be sent as a QoS control signal .... [0023] The AGW may then use the QoS information to optionally modifj; QoS characteristics of subscribers supported by the AGW. For example, the AGW may be operable to determine which subscribers are impacted by congestion on a 4 Appeal2015-002055 Application 13/048,350 microwave link to compare the guaranteed bit rate (GBR) bandwidth of those subscribers. If the GBR total bandwidth of such subscribers exceeds the microwave bandwidth, the AGW is then operable to decrease the cumulative GBR bandwidth so that subscribers can receive correct packet handling. Consistent with the above descriptions, Grayson's paragraph 46 states "SGW 425 and SGW 430 may then translate the QoS control signals and modifj; GBR [guaranteed bit rate] flows at 470a-b, respectively (e.g., via an Sl-AP interface)" (emphases added). Therefore, the cited Grayson portions teach modifying the QoS parameters at SGW 425 and SGW 430-not eNB. As a result, the Examiner has not shown the cited Grayson portions teach signaling to eNB-the device the Examiner cites as the source of the congestion-"an indication to modify QoS parameters," as required by the claim. Because the Examiner fails to provide sufficient evidence or explanation to support the rejection, we are constrained by the record to reverse the Examiner's rejection of independent claim 1, and dependent claims 2-9. For similar reasons, we reverse the Examiner's rejection of independent claims 10 and 18, which recite limitations similar to the disputed claim limitation, and dependent claims 11-17 and 19-20. DECISION We reverse the Examiner's decision rejecting claims 1-20. REVERSED 5 Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation