Appeal No. 2004-1668
Application No. 09/466,529
modules stored in the memory, the software modules including a
scalable network data engine that is independent of the network
protocol of the computer network, and wherein the network data
engine is executed by the CPU to provide the functionality for
creating and deleting tables within the memory, updating table
entries within the tables, inserting and deleting entries from
the tables, and searching the tables according to a plurality of
indices” (col. 3, line 64 - col. 4, line 11). Each table has a
control structure that includes the maximum number of rows to
allow for the table, the size of each row, the offset from the
base of the row to a hash key, the size of the hash key, the
number of slots in a hash table, a pointer to the base of the
hash table, an array of directory descriptors, an array of per-
packet update structures, a pointer to a first stage hash
function, and a pointer to an init function (col. 7, lines 9-17).
The examiner argues that 1) “both Pickett et al and Iddon et
al are directed to determining network faults (see col. 1 lines
10-12 of Pickett et al and col. 1 lines 26-28 of Iddon et al).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art
to combine these teaching since they lie within a similar
environment” (answer, page 10), and 2) “it would have been
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