DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/19/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This action is responsive to an amendment filed on 05/19/2026. No claims have been amended. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Applicant Arguments/Remarks, filed on 05/19/2026, with respect to the rejection of the pending claims under 35 U.S.C. §103 have been fully considered, but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that according to Sharma, the control plane uses 4G. Therefore, Sharma does not teach or suggest a radio access technology (RAT) control plane with functionality supporting a 4G control plane and a 5G control plane" as recited by the pending claims. (Arg./Rem. Page 5)
Examiner, respectfully disagrees. Sharma teaches UE registers with two Cores (4G and 5G Core) independently and makes independent connections over 4G and 5G network, …the 5G UE that supports 4G-5G interworking function has two non-access stratum (NAS) interfaces 1i.e., 4G NAS to communicate with a 4G mobile management entity (MME) and 5G NAS to communicate with 5G MME wherein these two interfaces work independently of each other [¶ 0008]. …resource controller 310 establishes a PDN connection over 5G/4G. The purpose is to exchange signaling messages needed for 4G-5G internetworking [¶ 0059]. To activate the 5G connection, the resource controller 310 sends 5G LSM messages over a 5G link, …The resource controller 310 sends 4G link activation request messages over a 4G link [¶ 0061]. Since, Sharma discloses two independent NAS control-plane interfaces (4G NAS and 5G NAS) and each NAS interface communicates with its respective core-network control-plane entity (4G MME, 5G MME/AMF), therefore, it would be realized that Sharma does teach a RAT control plane with functionality supporting a 4G control plane and a 5G control plane.
Therefore, Examiner is not persuaded and believes that the applied reference of Svennebring and Sharma collectively teach all of the applicant’s claimed limitation.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-4, 7-10, 13-16 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2019/0319868 (Svennebring et al.) in view of US 2020/0196199 (Sharma et al.).
Regarding Claim 1, Svennebring teaches a wireless access network comprising: a converged data plane at an edge node of the wireless access network, with multiple radio access technology (RAT) integration ([¶ 0038], edge servers 136 may be deployed at cell aggregation sites or at multi-RAT aggregation points. [¶ 0085], Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) architecture may be access-agnostic …MEC enables implementation of MEC applications that run on top of a Virtualization Infrastructure (VI), which is located in or close to the network edge. [¶ 0087], Each of the VIs includes a respective data plane (DP) that executes respective traffic rules, and routes the traffic among applications, MEC services, DNS server/proxy, 3GPP network, local networks, and external networks. The MEC DP may be connected with the RAN nodes and Core Network (CN), and/or may be connected with an Access Point (AP) via a wider network, such as the internet, an enterprise network, or the like); and a protocol fusion engine coupled to a processor at the edge node of the wireless access network ([¶ 0011], Svennebring discloses wireless communications, and in particular, technologies for Link Quality Prediction (LQP) or Link Performance Prediction (LPP). [¶ 0012], Each prediction layer provides its respective predicted performance metrics to the LPP layer/engine that fuses the results together to obtain an LPP. …The various prediction layers and the LPP layer/engine may be located …in one or more edge servers (e.g., MEC servers) deployed at the edge of a network. [¶ 0040], various aspects of the LPP embodiments may be performed by …one or more edge compute nodes [¶ 0044], the LPP layer may implement a data fusion engine (also referred to as an “LPP engine); wherein the protocol fusion engine when executed by the processor uses a shared pool of information about at least one of the wireless access network or a core network collected across a 4G RAT and a 5G RAT to predict and analyze network behavior and make adjustments to the wireless access network to provide better performance of the wireless access network for a user across one or more access methods ([¶ 0011], Svennebring teaches a wireless communications, and in particular, technologies for Link Quality Prediction (LQP) or Link Performance Prediction (LPP). LQP/LPP to improve wireless network performance by predicting future network behaviors/metrics and making applications, user equipment (UE), and/or network infrastructure more aware of these predicted network behaviors/metrics. The LPP technology uses machine learning (ML) techniques and a rich set of historical and real-time data feeds [i.e., pool of information] to dynamically predict the quality and/or performance of any given radio link and optimize application level behaviors. This allows the applications/UEs/infrastructure to make operational decisions. The LPP technology can also be used for other network planning and management tasks to further improve network performance and reduce operating costs. [¶ 0040], various aspects of the LPP embodiments may be performed by …one or more edge compute nodes. [¶ 0042], The LPPS predicts how network performance changes over time with a relatively high degree of confidence. For example, the LPPS is capable of predicting link performance in time and space, which allows applications, UEs, and/or network infrastructure able to shift delay tolerant traffic in time and/or space in order to smooth out peak demand and improve overall network resource utilization. [¶ 0044], the LPP layer may implement a data fusion engine (also referred to as an “LPP engine”). [¶¶ 0046-0047] one of the layers is responsible for collecting data from one or more UEs and/or NANs, which may be processed by that layer and provided to other layers for determining their respective predicted performance metrics. …The LPP layer obtains the predicted performance metrics from the prediction layers and fuses the predicted performance metrics together to obtain an LPP for an LPPS consumer. The LPP layer may include any suitable technology to fuse the predicted performance metrics provided by the prediction layers. Data fusion is a process of integrating and/or combining data collected from multiple sources at different spatial and temporal scales in order to make inferences about that data. [¶ 0049], the LPP layer is configured to perform Multi-Cell Multi-Layer (MCML) data fusion techniques. …the LPP layer takes data from one or more prediction layers and combines that data with data from one or more other prediction layers to derive the link performance prediction for corresponding LPPS consumers. In one MCML example, the LPP layer may take an output from a cell transition prediction layer, which is in the form of expected cells a UE will visit, and pairs that output with outputs provided by a cell load prediction layer to predict a performance of individual cells based on mobility of the UE. [¶ 0025], the access networks provide network connectivity to the end-user devices via respective NANs. The access networks may be Radio Access Networks (RANs) such as an NG RAN or a 5G RAN for a RAN that operates in a 5G/NR cellular network, an E-UTRAN for a RAN that operates in an LTE or 4G cellular network).
Svennebring does not explicitly teach, however, Sharma teaches a radio access technology (RAT) control plane with functionality supporting a 4G control plane and a 5G control plane ([¶ 0008], UE registers with two Cores (4G and 5G Core) independently and makes independent connections over 4G and 5G network, …the 5G UE that supports 4G-5G interworking function has two non-access stratum (NAS) interfaces i.e., 4G NAS to communicate with a 4G mobile management entity (MME) and 5G NAS to communicate with 5G MME wherein these two interfaces work independently of each other. [¶ 0059], …resource controller 310 establishes a PDN connection over 5G/4G. The purpose is to exchange signaling messages needed for 4G-5G internetworking. [¶ 0061] To activate the 5G connection, the resource controller 310 sends 5G LSM messages over a 5G link, …The resource controller 310 sends 4G link activation request messages over a 4G link).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Sharma’s 4G/5G internetworking control-plane architecture into Svennebring’s edge-based data fusion and network prediction architecture, because such incorporation would predict network behavior using information obtained from both 4G and 5G RATs and improve user performance during inter-RAT operation and mobility across heterogeneous access technology.
Regarding Claim 2, Svennebring teaches the wireless access network of claim 1 wherein the wireless access network provides network slicing across technologies ([¶ 0034] The Network Access nodes (NAN)s are communicatively coupled to Core Network (CN). The CN may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, a 5G core (5GC), or some other type of CN. The CN may comprise a plurality of network elements, which are configured to offer various data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers who are connected to the CN via a RAN. Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the network node functions. A logical instantiation of the CN may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN may be referred to as a network sub-slice).
Regarding Claim 3, Svennebring does not explicitly teach, however, Sharma teaches the wireless access network of claim 1 wherein the wireless access network provides cross- technology interoperability ([¶ 0001], inter-network switching for 4G-5G networks and manage data and control plane issues in a 4G-5G network switching).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Sharma’s functionality for 4G-5G network switching to the teachings of Svennebring, because such incorporation would have provided the ability to manage both 4G and 5G connections from a unified control plane ensures seamless handovers as users move between areas with different network coverages.
Regarding Claim 4, Svennebring teaches the wireless access network of claim 1 wherein the wireless access network provides seamless quality of experience (QoE) regardless of an access method ([¶ 0057] The LPP notifications may also be used by network operators and service providers to improve Quality of Service (QoS) and/or Quality of Experience (QoE), which are traditionally associated with network performance metrics. Static network performance metrics only provide a partial, snapshot view of the QoS and/or QoE. Using the LPP notifications, network operators and service providers can adjust traffic routes, mode of operation, and/or other parameters to optimize QoS and QoE since they will have advance warning regarding any significant changes in expected network performance. The LPPS itself may be an abstraction layer between service providers and the underlying mobile access network giving an abstracted view of the access network link quality, which allows service providers and/or application developers to make proactive decisions to improve QoS/QoE).
Regarding Claims 7-10, the claimed limitations are identical and/or equivalent in scope to Claims 1-4, therefore, Claims 7-10 are rejected under the same rationale as claims 1-4.
Regarding Claim 13, the claim limitations are identical and/or equivalent in scope to claim 1, therefore, rejected under the same rationale as claim 1. Svennebring further teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions (Fig. 5, ¶ 0124, 0133), as claimed in claim 13.
Regarding Claims 14-16, the claimed limitations are identical and/or equivalent in scope to Claims 2-4, therefore, Claims 14-16 are rejected under the same rationale as claims 2-4.
Regarding Claim 19, Svennebring teaches the wireless access network of claim 1, wherein the wireless access network includes the edge node ([Fig. 1, ¶ 0015] FIG. 1, illustrates an example edge computing environment 100, specifically illustrates the different layers of communication occurring within the environment 100…access node layer 130 (or “edge node layer 130”) comprising a plurality of network access nodes (NANs) 131, 132, and 133 and a plurality of edge compute nodes 136a-c within an edge computing system 135).
Claims 5, 11 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Svennebring in view of Sharma, and further in view of US 2019/0166634 (Ni et al.).
Regarding Claim 5, Svennebring in view of Sharma do not explicitly teach, however, Ni teaches the wireless access network system of claim 1 provides per user granular control at one or more of a control plane and a data plane ([¶ 0194], a process of establishing a service packet forwarding path between the second base station and the second forwarding plane network element and a service packet forwarding path between the second service network element and the second forwarding plane network element. It should be noted that, a granularity of the service packet forwarding path is per user. [¶ 0210], the path between the second base station and the second forwarding plane network element and the path between the second forwarding plane network element and the second service network element are IP in IP tunnels. a granularity of the tunnel between the forwarding plane network element and the service network element is per user.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ni with Svennebring and Sharma in order to provide a granularity of the service packet forwarding path per user. The combination would have allowed for a system to provide an end-to-end service packet routing [Ni, Abstract]
Regarding Claims 11 and 17, the claimed limitations are identical and/or equivalent in scope to claim 5, therefore, claims 11 and 17 are rejected under the same rationale as claim 5.
Claims 6, 12 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Svennebring in view of Sharma, and further in view of US 2021/0282082 (Mildh et al.).
Regarding Claim 6, Svennebring in view of Sharma do not explicitly teach, however, Mildh teaches the wireless network system of claim 1 provides per session granular control at one or more of a control plane and a data plane ([¶ 0144] The control plane configures user-plane (UP) functions to provide the traffic handling functionality needed for a session. One or multiple UP functions per session can be activated and configured by the control-plane as needed for a given user-plane scenario).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Mildh with Svennebring and Sharma, in order to activate One or multiple UP functions per session, configured by a control-plane. The combination would have allowed for a system to support low latency services [Mildh, ¶ 0145].
Regarding Claims 12 and 18, the claimed limitations are identical and/or equivalent in scope to claim 6, therefore, claims 12 and 18 are rejected under the same rationale as claim 6.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Svennebring in view of Sharma, and further in view of US 2018/0192131 (Epstein et al.).
Regarding Claim 20, although, Svennebring teaches the edge servers may be deployed at the edge of Core Network (CN), however, Svennebring in view of Sharma do not explicitly teach, but Epstein teaches the wireless access network of claim 1, wherein the core network includes the edge node ([¶0032] As shown in FIG. 2, in some implementations, the core network 240 includes an edge node 235 that provides an interface for data communication external to the core network 240.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Epstein’s teachings of includes edge node with core network to the combined teachings of Svennebring and Sharma, because such incorporation would have allowed for a system to reduce latency significantly.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMAD YOUSUF A MIAN whose telephone number is (571)272-9206. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5:30pm.
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/MOHAMMAD YOUSUF A. MIAN/ Examiner, Art Unit 2457
/ARIO ETIENNE/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2457
1 Non-Access Stratum (NAS) manages control-plane signaling, user mobility, and communication sessions directly between the User Equipment (UE) and the mobile Core Network
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