DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Amendment filed on November 20th, 2025.
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 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.
In the instant Amendment, claims 1, 3, 6-7, 9, 11, 14-15, 17 & 19 have been amended; and claims 1, 9 & 17 are independent. Claims 1-20 have been examined and are pending. This Action is made NON-FINAL.
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 .
Examiner’s Note
In attempt to expedite the prosecution, examiner has contacted the applicant’s representative, David A. Sumy, on March 20th, 2026. Examiner stated that the examiner has mistaken objecting dependent claims 3-4, 11-12 or 19. However, upon further consideration of objected claims and updating searches, examiner believe that Yu reference does cover the objected claims. Therefore, a new ground of rejection is made in view of Yu.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 7-8, filed 11/20/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-2, 5-10, 13-18 & 20 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Yu.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ajagekar et al. (Ajagekar), U.S. Pub. Number 2023/0052655, in view of Yu et al. (Yu), U.S. Pub. Number 2021/0385088, and further in view of Han et al. (Han), U.S. Pub. Number 2019/0357076.
Regarding claim 1; Ajagekar discloses a method comprising:
receiving, by a core device of (pars. 0052-0059; fig. 3A; the sending node uses the hash of the identifier as an index to select a cryptographic key from a predetermined set of keys that are provisioned on the sending node; for instance, the set of keys may be a set of public/private key pairs that are provisioned on both the sending node and the receiving node.);
provisioning, by the core device, at least one of the encryption service or the decryption service at the core device (pars. 0052-0059; fig. 3A; the identifier may be included in the header of the message received from the sending node (e.g., an SEID, a TEID, or a sequence number); the receiving node may select the cryptographic key from a predetermined set of keys provisioned on the receiving node.); and
performing, by the core device during a packet data unit (PDU) session, the at least one of the encryption service or the decryption service to application data (pars. 0052-0059; fig. 3A; the sending node encrypts the payload of the message with the selected cryptographic key.).
Ajagekar fails to explicitly disclose provisioning information, which includes an identifier of at least one of an encryption algorithm or a decryption algorithm, for at least one of encryption or decryption and an identifier for a key to be used to perform at least one of an encryption service or a decryption service.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yu discloses network access method, user equipment, network entity, and storage system comprising provisioning information, which includes an identifier of at least one of an encryption algorithm or a decryption algorithm (Yu: par. 0034; an identifier corresponding to a first non-public network and encryption information are obtained; the encryption information may include encrypted security credentials for the first non-public network; the third network entity obtains the identifier corresponding to the first non-public network and the encryption information; ), for at least one of encryption or decryption and an identifier for a key to be used to perform at least one of an encryption service or a decryption service (Yu: par. 0042; the decryption of the encryption information may be based at least in part on public-key cryptography; the default credentials are associated with the identifier of the first non-public network; the encryption information is decrypted using a private key associated with terminal 201 (e.g., the first non-public network or the first network corresponding to the encrypted the encryption information is associated with a public key associated with terminal 201.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Yu into the method, apparatus and non-transitory computer readable storage media of Ajagekar comprising provisioning information, which includes an identifier of at least one of an encryption algorithm or a decryption algorithm, for at least one of encryption or decryption and an identifier for a key to be used to perform at least one of an encryption service or a decryption service to securely access a non-public network (NPN) (Yu: par. 0003).
Ajagekar and Baskaran fail to explicitly disclose user plane of a core network; the user plane during PDU session.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Han discloses QOS flow processing method and device, and communication system comprising user plane of a core network (par. 0080; fig. 2; a user plane core network device.); the user plane during PDU session (par. 0080; fig. 2; the tunnel is established based on a protocol data unit (PDU) session (session); QoS flows belonging to a same PDU session use a same tunnel the PDU session is a link between a user equipment (UE) and a data network (DN) to provide a protocol data unit connection service; each PDU session has a unique identity, and unique identity of the PDU session may be one of: PDU session identifier, an access point name (APN), an identity of a user plane core network device, an address of the user plane core network device, and an IP address allocated by the user plane core network device to the UE.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Han into the method, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable storage media of Ajagekar and the apparatuses, methods, and systems of Baskaran comprising user plane of a core network; the user plane during PDU session to provide a reliable QoS service for a user and ensure continuity of a user service (Han: par. 0007).
Regarding claim 2; Ajagekar, Yu, and Han disclose the method of claim 1, wherein Ajagekar further discloses a strength of the encryption algorithm is based on a type of the end device to which the PDU session pertains (Ajagekar: par. 0067; apply a hashing algorithm an a Session Endpoint Identifier (SEID) present in the PFCP header to select the cryptographic key.).
Regarding claim 3; Ajagekar, Yu, and Han disclose the method of claim 1, wherein Yu further discloses a length of the key depends on an end device application associated with the PDU session (Yu: par. 0046; accessing the second network entity through the fourth network entity may be performed based at least in part on use of an NEF parameter provision update message (e.g., Nnef_ParameterProvision_Update) and an NEF traffic influence update message (e.g., Nnef_TrafficInfluence_Update; the AF may send an NEF parameter provision update message or an NEF traffic influence update message to the NEF; the NEF parameter provision update message or the NEF traffic influence update message may include the identifier of the first non-public network and the corresponding encryption information (e.g., encrypted security credentials).).
Regarding claim 4; Ajagekar, Yu, and Han disclose the method of claim 1, wherein Yu further discloses the provisioning information is received by the core device after the end device has registered and attached to the core network (Yu: par. 0030; the terminal is a device tha is subscribed to the first network (e.g., registered with the first network) and a device that obtains services (e.g., that requires services) provided by the non-public network; after successfully accessing the first network, the terminal may use services provided by the first network; for instance, the terminal may use call services and data services provided by the first network.).
Regarding claim 5; Ajagekar, Baskaran, and Han disclose the method of claim 1, wherein Ajagekar further discloses a strength of the encryption algorithm is based on a quality of service (QoS) metric value associated with the application data (Ajagekar: par. 0031; the second node uses the private key of a key pair to decrypt the payload of the message and uses the public key of the key pair to encrypt the payload of the response; the response may be a PFCP session establishment response.).
Regarding claim 6; Ajagekar, Baskaran, and Han disclose the method of claim 1, wherein Ajagekar further discloses the provisioning comprises: selecting, by the core device based on the provisioning information, a key to be used to perform the at least one of the encryption service or the decryption service (Ajagekar: par. 0033; apply a hashing algorithm an a session endpoint identifier (SEID) present in the PFCP header to select the cryptographic key.).
Regarding claim 7; Ajagekar, Baskaran, and Han disclose the method of claim 1, wherein Ajagekar further discloses the provisioning comprises: selecting, by the core device based on the provisioning information, at least one of an encryption algorithm or a decryption algorithm (Ajagekar: par. 0053; select a cryptographic key for the encryption.).
Regarding claim 8; Ajagekar, Baskaran, and Han disclose the method of claim 1, wherein Ajagekar further discloses the core device includes a user plane function (Ajagekar: par. 0052; the message may be a control message from a sending control plane node (e.g., an SMF node) to a receiving user plane node (e.g., a UPF node).).
Regarding claim 9; Claim 9 is directed to a network device which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 9 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
Regarding claims 10-16; Claims 10-16 are directed to the network device of claim 9 which have similar scope as claims 2-8. Therefore, claims 10-16 remain un-patentable for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 17; Claim 17 is directed to a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 17 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
Regarding claims 18-20; Claims 18-20 are directed to the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 which have similar scope as claims 2-8. Therefore, claims 18-20 remain un-patentable for the same reasons.
Conclusion
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/KHOI V LE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2436