Invalidity dossier
US 8356296
Method and system for minimal disruption during software upgrade or reload of a network device
Current assignee: Cisco Systems Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 6:22:19 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US8356296B1
Title: Method and system for minimal disruption during software upgrade or reload of a network device
Assignee: Cisco Systems Inc (current); Cisco Technology Inc (original)
Key dates (source-stated, with the source noting dates are assumptions): Priority date 2003-08-21; filing date 2010-08-06; publication/grant 2013-01-15. Status listed as "Expired - Lifetime," with adjusted expiration 2024-01-26.
Inventors: John Thomas Welder; Ratheesh Krishna Vadhyar; Sudhir Rao; Thomas W. Uban
Purpose: To upgrade or reload a network device's system software with minimal delay and without resetting all hardware components, thereby limiting control-plane impact and avoiding termination of ongoing communication sessions. The excerpt states prior-art approaches required blanket hardware resets and rebooted the device from scratch, cutting it off from the network.
Plain-language scope: The described method separates Layer 2 operations of the ISO/OSI reference model from other layers in the network device (the data plane is separated from the control plane). Software operations at Layer 2 are then reset or suspended while continuity is maintained for communication sessions between the network device and other network devices. Resetting is implemented by loading the software image into main memory before the actual upgrade begins, then performing a minimum reset of associated hardware components to remove interruptions to the device's operating code before transferring to the loaded image. Bootstrap code is loaded to main memory before the upgrade/reload; it performs a raw copy of the software image to a predetermined memory location containing the code for the software operations, overwriting old code (e.g., the old software image).
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US8356296](/patent/US8356296)/en
What the excerpt does not establish: The supplied text contains no claims, no claim language or numbering, no prior-art references, and no detailed description beyond definitions and figure captions (FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3). The text is expressly an excerpt and omits content; the full written description, claims, and prosecution history are therefore not established here.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:42:47 PM
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Litigation summary
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PTAB challenges
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Assignment history
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Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
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