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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 11/3/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments regarding the 103 rejection have been carefully considered and they are moot because they do not apply to the new references used in the current office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 27-31, 36-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 27 and 36, the claims recites the limitation “detecting that usage of the frequency of the UE changes”. Here “the frequency of the UE” is not defined. Is it the FR1 (or FR2) of the UE? There is insufficient antecedent basis in the claim. Claims 28-31, 37-40 are rejected as well since they depend on the rejected claims.
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.
Claims 23-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bharatia (US 2018/0270778) in view of Kim (EP 3 576 440).
Regarding claim 23, Bharatia discloses a method performed by an Application Function (AF) node, for handling a data session for a User Equipment (UE) in a communication network (fig. 4), the method comprising:
obtaining information about usage of a predetermined frequency range FR1 for the UE from an Access and Mobility management Function (AMF) node (fig. 4, [0080-86][0104], step 8, the AMF may need to inform the AF regarding the mobility state of a specific UE. In this case, the AMF is expected to retrieve the list of events subscribed by the AF and respond to the AF via the NEF; sending event notification, here the evens may include usage of the frequency for the UE; the AF may also subscribe at this point to notification for bearer level events (or frequency events) related to the service information);
obtaining information about usage of a predetermined frequency range FR2,different to said frequency range FR1, for the UE from the AMF node (fig. 4, [0080-86][0104], there may be multiple occurrence of the events subscribed by the AF; step 8, the AMF may need to inform the AF regarding the mobility state of a specific UE. In that case, the AMF is expected to retrieve the list of events subscribed by the AF and respond to the AF via the NEF; sending event notification, here the evens may include usage of the frequency for the UE, the AF may also subscribe at this point to notification for bearer level events (or frequency ) related to the service information).
Bharatia only implicitly discloses providing event information about a first/second frequency range for the UE (Bharatia, [0104], the AF may also subscribe at this point to notification for mobility and/or bearer level events related to the service information. The AF instructs the SMF to report bearer level events related to the corresponding PCC rules; claim 3, an event including at least one of user plane management, mobility, or a user equipment (UE) location. Here, bearer level events are related to frequency events). The bear level event related to the service information of the first channel taught by Bharatia may (or can be modified to) include usage of the frequency range, Bharatia does not explicitly disclose
obtaining information about usage of a predetermined frequency range, FR1, FR2, respectively, for the UE,
applying a first congestion mechanism based on the obtained information about usage of the FR1 frequency range;
applying a second congestion mechanism, different to said first congestion mechanism, in response to the obtained information about usage of the FR2 frequency range.
Kim discloses obtaining information about usage of a predetermined frequency range, FR1, FR2, respectively, for the UE (Kim, fig. 6, [0004][0011]-[0013], determining a first channel, among a plurality of channels, the first channel defined by a first range of frequencies or FR1, determining state information that includes first state information in the first channel; state information may include ratio of time that the first channel defined by FR1 is busy, may include number of messages transmitted or received over the first channel, may include congestion information. If the state of information satisfies a criteria, determining a third frequency range to which to reassign the first channel. Here, determining the third frequency range implicitly includes determining the state information of the third frequency range (whose usage or busy ratio must be below a threshold). Here, the state information can be included in the event notification message taught by Bharatia);
applying a first congestion mechanism based on the obtained information about usage of the FR1 frequency range (Kim, [0023], may implement decentralized congestion control (DCC) to help ensure that a channel is not congested by an excess number of transmissions; may monitor a congestion level of a channel (the channel in FR1) and may take actions to mitigate high congestion levels, such as reducing output power (to reduce interference for other vehicles), increasing inter-packet transmission time (to allow other vehicles more opportunity to transmit)).
applying a second congestion mechanism, different to said first congestion mechanism, in response to the obtained information about usage of the FR2 frequency range (Kim, [0023], may implement decentralized congestion control (DCC) to help ensure that a channel is not congested by an excess number of transmissions; may monitor a congestion level of a channel (the channel in FR2) and may take actions to mitigate high congestion levels, such as drop packets, and/or increase transmission rate (to shorten the transmission duration and allowing other vehicles more time to transmit).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of exchanging information with AMF as given by Bharatia with the teachings of performing congestion control based on usage information given by Kim. The motivation for doing so would have been to effectively utilizing the available spectrum resources and ensuring reliable and fast communication performance (Kim, [0022]).
Claims 32 is rejected same as claim 23.
Regarding claims 24, 33, Bharatia and Kim disclose the method according to claim 23, wherein the AF node and the AMF node communicate via a Network Exposure Function (NEF) node (Bharatia, figs. 4, 14).
Regarding claim 25, 34, Bharatia and Kim disclose the method according to claim 24, wherein obtaining information about usage of the FR1 frequency range comprises:
transmitting, towards the NEF node, a subscription request to a UE frequency event, wherein the subscription request comprises a UE identifier and an event identifier (Bharatia, fig. 4, [0080-86], the AF sends subscription information to the NEF along with the parameters including application identifier (ID) for which the subscription is requested, an AF address which is processing the application at the AS, address of single UE); and
receiving, from the NEF node, information about usage of the FR1 frequency range for the UE (Bharatia, fig. 4, [0080-86], sending event notification; Kim, [0011]). The motivation of the combination is same as in claim 23.
Regarding claim 26, 35, Bharatia and Kim disclose the method according to claim 24, wherein obtaining information about usage of the FR2 frequency range for the UE comprises receiving, from the NEF node, information about usage of the FR2 frequency range for the UE (Bharatia, fig. 4, [0080-86], sending event notification; Kim, [0011]). The motivation of the combination is same as in claim 23.
Regarding claim 27, Bharatia discloses a method performed by an Access and Mobility management Function (AMF) node, for handling a data session for a User Equipment (UE) in a communication network (fig. 4), the method comprising:
providing information about usage of a predetermined frequency range FR1 for the UE to an Application Function (AF) node (fig. 4, [0080-86][0104], step 8, the AMF may need to inform the AF regarding the mobility state of a specific UE. In this case, the AMF is expected to retrieve the list of events subscribed by the AF and respond to the AF via the NEF; sending event notification, here the evens may include usage of the frequency for the UE; the AF may also subscribe at this point to notification for bearer level events related to the service information); and
providing information about usage of a predetermined frequency range FR2 for the UE to the AF node (fig. 4, [0080-86][0104], there may be multiple occurrence of the events subscribed by the AF; step 8, the AMF may need to inform the AF regarding the mobility state of a specific UE. In that case, the AMF is expected to retrieve the list of events subscribed by the AF and respond to the AF via the NEF; sending event notification, here the evens may include usage of the frequency for the UE, the AF may also subscribe at this point to notification for bearer level events related to the service information).
Bharatia only implicitly discloses providing event information about a first/second frequency range for the UE (Bharatia, [0104], the AF may also subscribe at this point to notification for mobility and/or bearer level events related to the service information. The AF instructs the SMF to report bearer level events related to the corresponding PCC rules; claim 3, an event including at least one of user plane management, mobility, or a user equipment (UE) location). The bear level event related to the service information of the first channel taught by Bharatia may (or can be modified to) include usage of the frequency range, Bharatia does not explicitly disclose providing information about usage of a predetermined frequency range, FR1, FR2, respectively, for the UE,
detecting that usage of the frequency of the UE changes.
Kim discloses providing information about usage of a predetermined frequency range, FR1, FR2, respectively, for the UE (Kim, fig. 6, [0004][0011]-[0013], determining a first channel, among a plurality of channels, the first channel defined by a first range of frequencies or FR1, determining state information that includes first state information in the first channel; state information may include ratio of time that the first channel defined by FR1 is busy, may include number of messages transmitted or received over the first channel, may include congestion information. If the state of information satisfies a criteria, determining a third frequency range to which to reassign the first channel. Here, determining the third frequency range implicitly includes determining the state information of the third frequency range (whose usage or busy ratio must be below a threshold). Here, the state information can be included in the event notification message taught by Bharatia);
detecting that usage of the frequency of the UE changes (Kim, [0081], detects a congestion level that exceeds a threshold (usage of the frequency range changes), and therefore sets an interference mode to be "OFF" to indicate that interference is likely to be caused by a normal situation in which a large number of DCC- based vehicles are concurrently utilizing a channel).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of exchanging information with AMF as given by Bharatia with the teachings of performing adjustment based on usage information given by Kim. The motivation for doing so would have been to effectively utilizing the available spectrum resources and ensuring reliable and fast communication performance (Kim, [0022]).
Claims 36 is rejected same as claim 27.
Regarding claims 28, 37, Bharatia and Kim disclose the method according to claim 27, wherein the AF node and the AMF node communicate via a Network Exposure Function (NEF) node (Bharatia, figs. 4, 14).
Regarding claims 29, 38, Bharatia and Kim disclose the method according to claim 28, further comprising: receiving from the NEF node, a subscription request to a UE frequency event, wherein the subscription request comprises a UE identifier and an event identifier (Bharatia, fig. 4, [0080-86], the AF sends subscription information to the NEF along with the parameters including application identifier (ID) for which the subscription is requested, an AF address which is processing the application at the AS, address of single UE; Kim, [0011]).
Regarding claims 30, 39, Bharatia and Kim disclose the method according to claim 28, wherein the providing information about usage of the FR1 frequency range comprises transmitting, towards the NEF node, information about usage of a first frequency for the UE (Bharatia, fig. 4, [0080-86], sending event notification; Kim, [0011]). The motivation of the combination is same as in claim 27.
Regarding claims 31, 40, Bharatia and Kim disclose the method according to claim 28, wherein the providing information about usage of the FR2 frequency range comprises transmitting, towards the NEF node, information about usage of the FR2 frequency range for the UE (Bharatia, fig. 4, [0080-86], sending event notification; Kim, [0011]). The motivation of the combination is same as in claim 27.
Conclusion
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474