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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) have been considered but are moot because of the new ground of rejection.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-4, 7-9, 11, 12, 14-18 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20220158903 A1 herein TNO in view of US 20170303259 A1 herein Lee.
Claim 1, TNO discloses a network slice selection method, the method comprising:
detecting, by a third party media service provider external to a mobile network operator (MNO) (0009, third parties outside of the communication network), an update in configuration information of a user, the update including a change from a previous configuration state to a new configuration state (0054, CAS is informed of and monitor service properties, thus change of user configuration);
in response to detecting the update, selecting, by the third party media service provider and based on the updated configuration information, a first network slice from at least two network slices (0057, CAS is enabled to manage network slices and their properties via SREF; 0063-0067, functions can be invoked to instantiate or remove slices based on the update information);
determining first information including a slice identifier of the first network slice (0055, abstraction of slice properties, understood as slice identifier, into a slice object accessible to the CAS and translation of modified properties into requests to slice-management function) and
transmitting, by the third party media service provider, the first information to an entity of a 5G Core network of the MNO (0020, modifications by the CAS are changed to requests by the SREF) that is configured to determine, based on the slice identifier, the first network slice for providing a media service to a terminal of the user from the at least two network slices (0028-0029; 0063-0065, modifying or instantiation slices based on slice objects and modifications (requests) sent to SREF, since instantiation thus provision of services to users).
TNO may not explicitly disclose that the third party media service provider’s selection for slices is based on updated configuration information of the user account.
Lee discloses that subscription changes to the UE may be used in slice determination/selection (0141, 0289). The selection of the slices is based on a pool for a third party provider (0084-0089). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TNO to include slice selection based on subscription change as taught by Lee so as to achieve effective maximization and cost reduction (0004).
Claim 2, TNO discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the third party media service provider comprises one or more of an instant messaging service, a download service, a web browsing service, an e-commerce service, or a game service (0005).
Claim 3, TNO discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the update in the configuration information of the user of the media service comprises at least one of: a user identity of the user changes from a nonmember status to a member status; a membership level of the user changes from a first level to a second level; the user obtains a service trial permission of a first duration; the user obtains a service reward permission of a second duration; the media service is a specified type of media service; a geographic position where a terminal corresponding to the user is located is positioned in a predetermined region; or a current time falls within a predetermined time period (0269).
Claim 4, TNO discloses the method according to claim 1, determining, by the third party media service provider, Quality of Service (QoS) requirement information of the media service based on the updated configuration information of the user, wherein the first network slice is selected by the third party media service provider based on the determined QoS service (0005, slices based on Quality of Service).
Claim 7, TNO discloses the method according to claim 1,where in the first information is transmitted by an Application Programming Interface (API) of the entity of the 5G Core network of the MNO available to the third party media service provider (0011).
Claim 8, TNO discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the third party media service provider is an Application Function (AF) (0005, server).
Claim 9, TNO discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the entity of the 5G Core network is a Policy Control Function (PCF) (0079).
Claim 11, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 1.
Claim 12, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 4.
Claim 14, TNO discloses the method according to claim 11, the method further comprising: executing, by the entity of the 5G Core network, an operation based on the selected first network slice (0005, bandwidth increase and latency reduction).
Claim 15, TNO discloses the method according to claim 14, wherein the executing comprises: updating, by the entity of the 5G Core network, a policy corresponding to a terminal based on the selected first network slice, the terminal being a terminal of the user (0005, application based policies and operations).
Claim 16, TNO discloses the method according to claim 14, wherein the executing comprises: updating, by the entity of the 5G Core network, a user equipment routing selection policy (URSP) rule of a terminal based on the selected first network slice, the terminal being a terminal of the user (0067, modifiable traffic routing for users).
Claim 17, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 15.
Claim 18, TNO discloses the method according to claim 14, wherein the executing, comprises: updating, by the entity of the 5G Core network, an access and mobility management policy of a terminal based on the determined first network slice, the terminal being a terminal of the user (0079).
Claim 20, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 1.
Claim(s) 6 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TNO in view of Lee in view of US 20180287891 A1 herein Shaw.
Claim 6, TNO discloses the method according to claim 1. TNO may not explicitly disclose wherein the slice identifier is based on a QoS flow.
Shaw discloses wherein the slice identifier is based on a QoS flow (0028). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TNO to include determining QOS as taught by Shaw so as to significantly improve operational efficiency and/or reduce time-to-market for new services (0021).
Claim 10, TNO discloses the method according to claim 1. TNO may not explicitly disclose wherein the at least two network slices provide different QoSs.
Shaw discloses wherein the at least two network slices provide different QoSs (0028, create a new slice based on different QOS levels). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TNO to include determining QOS as taught by Shaw so as to significantly improve operational efficiency and/or reduce time-to-market for new services (0021).
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TNO in view of Lee in view of US 20170164349 A1 herein Zhu.
Claim 19, TNO discloses the method according to claim 18. TNO may not explicitly disclose wherein in response to a determination that the first network slice and a second network slice previously used by the terminal of the user correspond to a same access network device, the access and mobility management policy comprises reconfiguring a radio bearer of the terminal; and in response to a determination that the first network slice and the second network slice correspond to different access network devices, the access and mobility management policy comprises triggering the terminal to perform a hand over process.
Zhu discloses wherein in response to a determination that the first network slice and a second network slice previously used by the terminal of the user correspond to a same access network device, the access and mobility management policy comprises reconfiguring a radio bearer of the terminal (0054, dynamic resource allocation of access points and slices within the access point, thus reconfiguration of a radio bearer; 0075, configuration of APs where UE has connected); and in response to a determination that the first network slice and the second network slice correspond to different access network devices, the access and mobility management policy comprises triggering the terminal to perform a hand over process (0070, handover on a per slice basis when slices are provided by different service providers). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify TNO to include dynamic allocation as taught by Zhu so as to provide benefits that include efficient use of RAN resources.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 20230371013 A1 - A resource allocation method, a device, and a storage medium are disclosed. The method includes: A network device obtains a packet concurrency status of a plurality of wireless local area network WLAN devices, where the plurality of WLAN devices correspond to a same channel. The network device allocates channel resource slices to the plurality of WLAN devices from a channel resource in a first time period based on the packet concurrency status..
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mehmood B. Khan whose telephone number is (571) 272-9277. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30 am-6:30 pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Asad Nawaz can be reached on (571) 272-3988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Mehmood B. Khan/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2468
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