DETAILED ACTION
1. This action is responsive to communication filed on 19 June 2026, with acknowledgement of an original application filed on 26 August 2021.
2. Claims 1-16, 19-23, and 26-28 are currently pending. Claims 1 and 19 are in independent forms. Claims 17-18 has been canceled.
Response to Arguments
3. Applicant's arguments filed on 19 June 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
I) In response to applicant's arguments on page 2, Applicant argued that the Office Action concedes that Peng in view of 3GPP fails to disclose "wherein the determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required comprises one of: (a) determining that the identifier of the FN-RG is associated with a stored subscription or a stored profile that indicates that authentication is not required for the FN-RG," but cites to Sheth to allegedly correct these deficiencies of Peng in view of 3GPP. However, Applicant respectfully submits that: (1) the prior art of record, either individually or in any proper combination, fails to disclose or suggest at least the above underlined recitations of Claim 1; and (2) the Office Action fails establish a prima facie case of obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103.
The examiner respectfully disagrees with the argument. The applicant argued that Sheth fails to disclose or suggest wherein the determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required comprises one of: (a) determining that the identifier of the FN-RG is associated with a stored subscription or a stored profile that indicates that authentication is not required for the FN-RG. Contrary to the applicant assertion, as stated in the office action the Sethi reference discloses In step 915, the authentication server extracts a NAS IP from the authentication request and, in step 920, locates a NAS definition such as the exemplary NAS definition 700 associated with the extracted NAS IP, from a profile storage, such as for example, NAS Profile Storage 330. The authentication server then determines, in step 950, whether any such user record was located. If at step 950, the authentication server successfully locates a subscription profile, the authentication server proceeds to authenticate the user in step 955). Furthermore, the Sethi reference discloses the profile object 600 is associated with a name, “NAS Region A Profile,” for use by other constructs in referring to the profile object. The profile object may also include a subscription IDs field 620 for defining one or more subscription IDs to be used in authenticating requests for service when the profile object 600 is used. Each subscription ID definition may include a subscription ID type field 622, an attribute pattern field 624, a substring regular expression (“Regex”) field 626, a modification operation field 628, and a priority field 629. The subscription ID type field 622 may store a type name for the subscription ID defined by a definition, such that the authentication server may determine against which subscription IDs configured for a user a subscription ID constructed according to the definition will be compared (see Sethi par. 0059).
II) In response to applicant's arguments on page 5, Applicant argued that Second, the Office Action fails to establish a primafacie case of obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 as the Office Action fails to indicate how or why one would combine Sheth's authentication process with the 3GPP system. 3GPP describes a gateway that is registered without authentication, so it is unclear how or why one of ordinary skill would combine the authentication process of Sheth with the system of 3GPP. The office action simply states that:
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Sheth into the system of Peng and 3GPP in order to include authentication profile object used for authenticating a subscriber. The exemplary profile object may be a NAS profile object stored in storage and, as such, may reflect partial contents of the NAS profile storage (see Sheth par. 0058).
Since each individual element and its function are shown in the prior art, albeit shown in separate references, the difference between the claimed subject matter and the prior art rests not on any individual element or function but in the very combination itself - that is in the substitution of Bose’s use of a face detector configured to analyze an image provided to the target server to detect a human face in an image as suggested by Jain. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been technologically capable of making the substitution, and the result would have been predictable. See MPEP § 2143.
III) In response to applicant's arguments on pages 5-6, Applicant argued that the dependent claims are patentable at least per the patentability of the independent claims from which they depend. Applicant traverses the rejections of the dependent claims. However, as each of these claims depends from a base claim that is believed to be in condition for allowance, Applicant does not believe that it is necessary to argue the allowability of each of the dependent claim individually.
Examiner refers applicant to the above response in items I-II.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claims 1-9, 11-16, 19, 21-23, and 26-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0052580 (hereinafter Peng) in view of 3GPP TR 33.807 3rd Generation Partnership Project (hereinafter 3GPP) in further view of Sheth et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0006746 (hereinafter Sheth).
Regarding claim 1, Peng discloses a method performed by a core network node (Fig. 1, 5G core 106) of a wireless communication system, comprising:
“receiving a registration request to register a fixed network residential gateway, FN- RG, to the core network” (see Peng par. 0009, The method includes transmitting, by an interworking function in a control plane (IF-CP) of a broadband network gateway (BNG), a registration request to a 5G core in the 5G network, the registration request carrying a temporary identifier (ID) with location information corresponding to a residential gateway (RG) in the wireline network; exchanging, by the IF-CP, authentication messages with the 5G core to authenticate the RG; exchanging, by the IF-CP, registration messages with the 5G core to complete registration);
“obtaining an identifier associated with the FN-RG” (see Peng par. 0062, exchange registration messages with a fifth generation (5G) core in a 5G network to register a residential gateway in the wireline network, at least one of the registration messages containing a temporary identifier (ID) corresponding to the residential gateway; exchange authentication messages with the 5G core to authenticate the residential gateway; and exchange session messages with the 5G core to establish a session between the BNG and the 5G core);
Peng does not explicitly discloses determining, based on the identifier of the FN-RG, that authentication of the FN- RG by the core network is not required.
However, in analogues art, 3GPP TR 33.807 discloses determining, based on the identifier of the FN-RG, that authentication of the FN- RG by the core network is not required (see 3GPP section 5.11.1, the FAGF function in W-5GAN authenticates the FN-RG when a connection is established between FN-RG and the FAGF before registering FN-RG to 5GC on behalf of the FN-RG. In addition, the FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Peng in view of 3GPP does not explicitly discloses wherein the determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required comprises one of: (a) determining that the identifier of the FN-RG is associated with a stored subscription or a stored profile that indicates that authentication is not required for the FN-RG,
However, in analogues art, discloses (a) determining that the identifier of the FN-RG is associated with a stored subscription or a stored profile that indicates that authentication is not required for the FN-RG (see Sheth pars. 0036, 0070-0078, In step 915, the authentication server extracts a NAS IP from the authentication request and, in step 920, locates a NAS definition such as the exemplary NAS definition 700 associated with the extracted NAS IP, from a profile storage, such as for example, NAS Profile Storage 330. In step 925, the authentication server retrieves a NAS profile identified by the NAS definition, such as the exemplary NAS profile 600. Once the authentication server has gathered the appropriate profile objects, at step 930, the authentication server proceeds to construct a subscription identifier for use in authentication by retrieving the next subscription ID definition from the sorted list of subscription ID entries from the NAS profile. In step 945, the authentication server uses the subscription ID object to attempt to locate a subscription record that stores a matching subscription ID. The authentication server then determines, in step 950, whether any such user record was located. If at step 950, the authentication server successfully locates a subscription profile, the authentication server proceeds to authenticate the user in step 955);
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Sheth into the system of Peng and 3GPP in order to include authentication profile object used for authenticating a subscriber. The exemplary profile object may be a NAS profile object stored in storage and, as such, may reflect partial contents of the NAS profile storage (see Sheth par. 0058).
Regarding claim 2, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 1,
3GPP further discloses registering the FN-RG in the core network without authentication in response to determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required (see 3GPP section 6.4.2, The F AGF performs initial registration on behalf of the FN-RG. It generates a Registration Request NAS message on and sends it the AMF in 5GC over N2. The message includes SUCI, and that the FAGF has authenticated the FN-RG and no further authentication is required to be performed by the 5GC).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Regarding claim 3, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 1,
3GPP further discloses wherein the identifier comprises a line ID associated with the FN-RG (see 3GPP section 5.2.1, The FN-RG will use identifiers not specified in 3GPP, e.g. the line ID).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Regarding claim 4, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 1,
3GPP further discloses receiving an indication from a fixed access gateway function, FAGF, that the FN-RG is authentic (see 3GPP section 6.4, the FN-RG connects to 5GC via W-5GAN, which has the FAGF function that provides connectivity to the 5GC via N2 and N3 reference points. Since the FN-RG is a non-wireless entity defined by the BBF, it doesn't support NAS signalling. The FAGF provides Nl connectivity on behalf of the FN-RG); wherein determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required is performed partly based on the indication from the FAGF (see 3GPP 5.2. 1, the FN-RG does not support 3GPP protocols, so it cannot authenticate to the 5GC by EAP-AKA' or 5G AKA It needs to be studied which entity authenticates the FN-RG and whether 3GPP nodes need to support further authentication methods. The Interworking function of the W-5GAN interfaces the 5GC using the 3GPP reference points Nl, N2 and N3.Expressed differently, the W-5GAN sends NAS messages on behalf of the FN-RG. Authorization of the FN-RG by the W-5GAN may hence be needed.3GPP).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Regarding claim 5, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 4,
Peng further discloses wherein the registration request is received from the FAGF, and wherein the indication comprises a flag associated with the registration request (see Peng par. 0006, Optionally, in any of the preceding aspects, another implementation of the aspect provides that a temporary identifier (ID) corresponding to the residential gateway is included in a registration request sent from the IF-CP to the AMF component in the 5G core in the 5G network. Optionally, in any of the preceding aspects, another implementation of the aspect provides that the temporary ID is marked with location information of the residential gateway).
Regarding claim 6, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 1,
3GPP further discloses wherein the registration request is received from a Fixed Access Gateway Function, FAGF, of an access network that serves the FN-RG (see 3GPP section 6.4.2, The F AGF performs initial registration on behalf of the FN-RG. It generates a Registration Request NAS message on and sends it the AMF in 5GC over N2).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Regarding claim 7, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 1,
3GPP further discloses wherein the identifier is included within a subscriber concealed identity, SUCI, contained in the registration request (see 3GPP section 5.12.1, specifies a procedure for registration and session management of FN-RG via W-5GAN. Solution #28 specifies the use of Line ID as an input to generate a SUP I/SU CI for the given FN-RG. The SU CI, thus generated, is sent by the F AGF to the AMF in the NAS registration request it builds on behalf of the RG. The SUCI is also expected to include other parameters such as Home Network Identifier of the operator owning the FN-RG).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Regarding claim 8, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 1,
Peng further discloses wherein determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required is performed in a United Data Management, UDM, function of the core network (see Peng par. 0036, FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram 300 illustrating a registration and authentication procedure performed over the N1′/N2′ interface. The sequence diagram 300 illustrates interactions between one or more of an RG 302, an AN 304, a BNG control plane (CP) 306 having an IF-CP 308, an AMF 310, an AUSF 312, a UDM 314, a PCF 316, an SMF 318, and a UPF 320).
Regarding claim 9, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 8,
Peng further discloses receiving, at the UDM, an authentication request from a Subscriber Authentication Function, AUSF, function of the core network, the authentication request including the identifier of the FN-RG (see Peng par. 0046, FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram 400 illustrating a session establishment procedure over the N1′/N2′ interface. The sequence diagram 400 illustrates interactions between one or more of an RG 402, an AN 404, an IF-UP 406, an IF-CP 408, an AMF 410, an AUSF 412, a UDM 414, a PCF 416, an SMF 418, and a UPF 420).
Regarding claim 11, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 9,
3GPP further discloses wherein the authentication request comprises an authentication get request (see 3GPP section 6.6.2, The TWIF creates a 5GC Registration Request message on behalf of the UE. The TWIF uses default values to populate the parameters in the Registration Request message, which are the same for all UEs that do not support 5G NAS. The Registration type indicates "Initial Registration").
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Regarding claim 12, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 10,
Peng further discloses transmitting an authentication response to the AUSF, the authentication response including the SUPI (see Peng pars. 0010, 0039, registration request 326, the authentication procedure 324 in the 5G core is performed to verify that the RG 302 is valid and legal. As shown, the IF-CP 308 and the AMF 310 exchange authentication messages and the AMF 310, AUSF 312, UDM 314, and PCF 316 participate in authentication, the IF-CP 308 gets the authentication related information of the RG 302 from the BNG (e.g., BNG 102, 202 of FIGS. 1-2). In an embodiment, the registration request 326 carries a subscriber permanent identifier (SUPI), a temporary device identifier (ID) corresponding to the RG 302 (if already registered with the 5G core), network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI), or other information used to locate and/or select the AMF 310).
Regarding claim 13, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 12,
3GPP further discloses wherein the authentication response includes an indication that authentication is not required for the FN-RG (see 3GPP section 6.4.2, The F AGF performs initial registration on behalf of the FN-RG. It generates a Registration Request NAS message on and sends it the AMF in 5GC over N2. The message includes SUCI, and that the FAGF has authenticated the FN-RG and no further authentication is required to be performed by the 5GC).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Regarding claims 14 and 21, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth the method of Claim 13, the method of claim 19,
Peng further discloses wherein the authentication response further includes a dummy authentication vector to be used for authenticating non-access stratum communications between an access network and the core network on behalf of the FN-RG (see Peng par. 0038, When there is a need to access the 5G network (e.g., 5G service provisioning), the IF-CP 308 sends a registration request 326 to the AMF 310 of the 5G core. In an embodiment, the registration request 326 carries a non-access stratum (NAS) message that includes the identification of the RG 302).
Regarding claim 15, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 12,
3GPP further discloses wherein the authentication response comprises an authentication get response (see 3GPP section 6.1.4, After the NWt-cp connection is successfully established, the TNGF responds to AMF with an N2 Initial Context Setup Response message. Finally, the NAS Registration Accept message is sent by the AMF and is forwarded to UE via the established NWt-cp connection).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Regarding claim 16, Peng discloses a network node, comprising:
“a processor circuitry” (Fig. 6, processor 630);
“a network interface coupled to the processor circuit” (Fig. 6, TX 620 receiver, TX 640 transmitter); and
a memory (Fig. 6, memory 660) coupled to the processor circuit, the memory comprising machine readable program instructions that, when executed by the processor circuit, cause the network node to perform operations comprising operations according to Claim 1.
Claim 16 is rejected for the same reasons as claim 1.
Regarding claim 19, Peng discloses a method in a United Data Management, UDM, (Fig. 1, UDM 148) function of a core network of a wireless communication system, comprising:
“receiving, at the UDM, an authentication request from a Subscriber Authentication Function, AUSF, function of the core network, the authentication request requesting authentication of a fixed network residential gateway, FN-RG and including an identifier of the FN-RG” (see Peng pars. 0009, 0062, The method includes transmitting, by an interworking function in a control plane (IF-CP) of a broadband network gateway (BNG), a registration request to a 5G core in the 5G network, the registration request carrying a temporary identifier (ID) with location information corresponding to a residential gateway (RG) in the wireline network; exchanging, by the IF-CP, authentication messages with the 5G core to authenticate the RG; exchanging, by the IF-CP, registration messages with the 5G core to complete registration, exchange registration messages with a fifth generation (5G) core in a 5G network to register a residential gateway in the wireline network, at least one of the registration messages containing a temporary identifier (ID) corresponding to the residential gateway; exchange authentication messages with the 5G core to authenticate the residential gateway; and exchange session messages with the 5G core to establish a session between the BNG and the 5G core);
Peng does not explicitly discloses determining, based on the identifier of the FN-RG, that authentication of the FN- RG is not required, wherein the determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required comprises determining that the identifier of the FN-RG is associated with a stored subscription or a stored profile that indicates that authentication is not required for the FN-RG; transmitting an authentication response to the AUSF, the authentication response including an indication that authentication of the FN-RG is not required.
However, in analogues art, 3GPP TR 33.807 discloses determining, based on the identifier of the FN-RG, that authentication of the FN- RG by the core network is not required, (see 3GPP section 5.11.1, the FAGF function in W-5GAN authenticates the FN-RG when a connection is established between FN-RG and the FAGF before registering FN-RG to 5GC on behalf of the FN-RG. In addition, the FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG); transmitting an authentication response to the AUSF, the authentication response including an indication that authentication of the FN-RG is not required” (see 3GPP section 6.6.2.2, 6.4.2, The AMF triggers an authentication procedure by sending a request to AUSF indicating the AN type. The F AGF performs initial registration on behalf of the FN-RG. It generates a Registration Request NAS message on and sends it the AMF in 5GC over N2. The message includes SUCI, and that the FAGF has authenticated the FN-RG and no further authentication is required to be performed by the 5GC. The AMF selects an AUSF based on the received SUCI and interacts with it to obtain the corresponding SUPI).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Peng in view of 3GPP does not explicitly discloses wherein the determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required comprises determining that the identifier of the FN-RG is associated with a stored subscription or a stored profile that indicates that authentication is not required for the FN-RG.
However, in analogues art, Manik discloses wherein the determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required comprises determining that the identifier of the FN-RG is associated with a stored subscription or a stored profile that indicates that authentication is not required for the FN-RG (see Sheth pars. 0036, 0070-0078, In step 915, the authentication server extracts a NAS IP from the authentication request and, in step 920, locates a NAS definition such as the exemplary NAS definition 700 associated with the extracted NAS IP, from a profile storage, such as for example, NAS Profile Storage 330. In step 925, the authentication server retrieves a NAS profile identified by the NAS definition, such as the exemplary NAS profile 600. Once the authentication server has gathered the appropriate profile objects, at step 930, the authentication server proceeds to construct a subscription identifier for use in authentication by retrieving the next subscription ID definition from the sorted list of subscription ID entries from the NAS profile. In step 945, the authentication server uses the subscription ID object to attempt to locate a subscription record that stores a matching subscription ID. The authentication server then determines, in step 950, whether any such user record was located. If at step 950, the authentication server successfully locates a subscription profile, the authentication server proceeds to authenticate the user in step 955);
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Sheth into the system of Peng and 3GPP in order to include authentication profile object used for authenticating a subscriber. The exemplary profile object may be a NAS profile object stored in storage and, as such, may reflect partial contents of the NAS profile storage (see Sheth par. 0058).
Regarding claim 22, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 19,
3GPP further discloses wherein the authentication request comprises an authentication get request, and wherein the authentication response comprises an authentication get response (see 3GPP section 6.6.2, 6.1.4, The TWIF creates a 5GC Registration Request message on behalf of the UE. The TWIF uses default values to populate the parameters in the Registration Request message, which are the same for all UEs that do not support 5G NAS. The Registration type indicates "Initial Registration". After the NWt-cp connection is successfully established, the TNGF responds to AMF with an N2 Initial Context Setup Response message. Finally, the NAS Registration Accept message is sent by the AMF and is forwarded to UE via the established NWt-cp connection).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of 3GPP into the system of Peng in order to include an FAGF indicates to the AMF that it has authenticated the FN-RG and therefore no authentication is to be performed by the 5GC during registration of the FN-RG. (see 3GPP section 5.11.1).
Regarding claim 23, Peng discloses a network node, comprising:
“processor circuitry” (Fig. 6, processor 630);
“a network interface coupled to the processor circuit” (Fig. 6, TX 620 receiver, TX 640 transmitter); and a memory (Fig. 6, memory 660) coupled to the processor circuit, the memory comprising machine readable program instructions that, when executed by the processor circuit, cause the network node to perform operations comprising operations according to Claim 19.
Claim 23 is rejected for the same reasons as claim 19.
Regarding claim 26, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 1,
Sheth further discloses wherein the determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required comprises: determining that the identifier of the FN-RG is associated with a stored subscription or a stored profile that indicates that authentication is not required for the FN-RG (see Sheth pars. 0070-0078, In step 915, the authentication server extracts a NAS IP from the authentication request and, in step 920, locates a NAS definition such as the exemplary NAS definition 700 associated with the extracted NAS IP, from a profile storage, such as for example, NAS Profile Storage 330. In step 925, the authentication server retrieves a NAS profile identified by the NAS definition, such as the exemplary NAS profile 600. Once the authentication server has gathered the appropriate profile objects, at step 930, the authentication server proceeds to construct a subscription identifier for use in authentication by retrieving the next subscription ID definition from the sorted list of subscription ID entries from the NAS profile. In step 945, the authentication server uses the subscription ID object to attempt to locate a subscription record that stores a matching subscription ID. The authentication server then determines, in step 950, whether any such user record was located. If at step 950, the authentication server successfully locates a subscription profile, the authentication server proceeds to authenticate the user in step 955);
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Sheth into the system of Peng and 3GPP in order to include authentication profile object used for authenticating a subscriber. The exemplary profile object may be a NAS profile object stored in storage and, as such, may reflect partial contents of the NAS profile storage (see Sheth par. 0058).
Regarding claim 27, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of claim 1,
Sheth further discloses wherein the determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required comprises: determining that the identifier of the FN-RG to a stored list of identifiers for FN-RGs that require authentication (see Sheth par. 0077, If the authentication server determines that this subscription ID definition (e.g.: 630) does not represent the last such definition from the sorted list of subscription ID entries from the NAS profile, and additional subscription ID definitions remain for consideration, the method 900 loops back to step 930 to process the next subscription ID definitions (e.g.: 640). In this manner, if the authentication attribute having the highest priority cannot be used for authentication then the authentication attribute having the next-highest priority is selected to attempt authentication).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Sheth into the system of Peng and 3GPP in order to include authentication profile object used for authenticating a subscriber. The exemplary profile object may be a NAS profile object stored in storage and, as such, may reflect partial contents of the NAS profile storage (see Sheth par. 0058).
Regarding claim 28, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Sheth discloses the method of Claim 1,
Sheth further discloses wherein the determining that authentication of the FN-RG is not required comprises: determining that the identifier of the FN-RG to a stored list of identifiers for FN-RGs that do not require authentication (see Sheth par. 0075, In step 945, the authentication server uses the subscription ID object to attempt to locate a subscription record that stores a matching subscription ID. For example the authentication server may form and submit an SQL query to locate such a subscription record. The authentication server then determines, in step 950, whether any such user record was located. If no matching record was found, the method proceeds to step 960).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Sheth into the system of Peng and 3GPP in order to include authentication profile object used for authenticating a subscriber. The exemplary profile object may be a NAS profile object stored in storage and, as such, may reflect partial contents of the NAS profile storage (see Sheth par. 0058).
6. Claims 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable
over Peng et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0052580 (hereinafter Peng) in view of 3GPP TR 33.807 3rd Generation Partnership Project (hereinafter 3GPP) in further view of Sheth et al. US Patent Application Publication no. 2016/0006746 (hereinafter Sheth) in further view of Jerichow Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0149521 (hereinafter Jerichow).
Regarding claims 10 and 20, Peng in view of 3GPP in further view of Manik discloses the method of Claim 9, the method of Claim 19, Peng in view of 3GPP does not explicitly discloses wherein the identifier of the FN-RG is included within a subscriber concealed identity, SUCI, associated with the FN-RG, and wherein the method further comprises: deconcealing, by the UDM, the SUCI to obtain a subscriber permanent identity, SUPI, associated with the FN-RG (3GPP in section 5.12.1 discloses SUPI concealment, introduced in Rel-15, is a privacy mechanism for mitigating traceability of subscribers by using SUCI over-the-air. For the FN-RG the Line Id is transferred from the W-5GAN to the AMF over a backhaul interface (i.e., not over-the-air); but 3GPP does not clearly discloses the deconcealing feature. However, in analogues art, Jerichow discloses deconcealing (see Jerichow par. 0030, Before the correct UDM instance can be addressed, the SUCI needs to be decrypted (or de-concealed). A new entity referred to as a Subscription Identifier De-Concealing Function (SIDF) was introduced in 3GPP TS 33.501 for the purpose of de-concealing the SUCI).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Jerichow into the system of Peng, 3GPP, and Manik in order to include AUSF can send the AV request with the SUCI and receives back the SUPI with the AVs. In this scenario, the UDM is handling the de-concealment via the SIDF internally and using the SUPI for directing the request to the correct UDM instance before responding to the AV request. (see Jerichow par. 0058).
Conclusion
7. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/SAMUEL AMBAYE/Examiner, Art Unit 2433
/JEFFREY C PWU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2433
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