DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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.
This action is responsive to the Remark filed on 3/6/26.
Claims 1, 9 & 15 are amended. Claims 5 & 11 are canceled.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-10, 12-18 is/are presented for examination.
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 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 of this title, 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) 1-2, 6, 8-9, 12, 14-15 & 17-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue, U.S. Pub/Patent No. 2023/0055739 A1 in view of Rezagah, US 2022/0295338 A1.
As to claim 1, Xue teaches a communication method, wherein the method comprises:
receiving from a third network element, M groups of quality of service (QoS) profiles corresponding to a first QoS flow (Xue, page 6, paragraph 50 & 53; i.e., [0050] The QoS profile for the QoS flow based on changes in the network condition to select another QoS profile from the plurality of QoS profiles; [0053] the first network element in FIG. 1 may be implemented as one or more of the core network, any of the RANs, any edge network node, any network node);
sending to the N groups of QoS profiles corresponding to the first QoS flow (Xue, page 6, paragraph 49; page 6, paragraph 54; i.e., [0049] Transmission profile such as QoS profile. Data flows based on QoS profiles may be referred to as QoS flows; [0054] the first network element may be implemented as the core network 230 and the second network element. In particular, RAN 220 may perform radio bearer allocation for the QoS flow based on the selected QoS profile or QoS parameter);
receiving first indication information from the second network element wherein the first indication information indicates a group of QoS profiles selected by the second network element for the first QoS flow (Xue, page 6, paragraph 54; i.e., [0054] the first network element may be implemented as the core network 230 and the second network element. The RAN 220, after receiving the plurality of candidate QoS profiles from the first network element, may perform a selection from the plurality of the candidate QoS profiles or determine at least one QoS parameter value compatible with the plurality of candidate QoS profiles. The group of QoS profiles selected for the first QoS flow is one of the N groups of QoS profiles); and
sending second indication information to the third network element, wherein the second indication information indicates the group of QoS profiles selected for the first QoS flow (Xue, page 6, paragraph 50 & 54; i.e., [0050] for a particularly data flow such as a QoS flow, a first network element in the communication network 200 or 300 may determine a plurality of set of QoS profiles and communicate these candidate QoS profiles to a second network element in the communication network 200 or 300. The second network element may select one QoS profile from the plurality of QoS profiles [NOTE: according to the Detail Description, paragraph 7, and the third network element may be a core network device]);
wherein the first network element, the second network element, and the third network element are different from each other (Xue, figure 1; page 1, paragraph 3; i.e., [0003] a core network 102 and one or more radio access networks RAN1 , RAN2 , ... RANN. FIG. l(b) is a schematic representation of an example of a radio access network RANn that may include one or more base stations gNB1 to gNB5. connections for transmitting data from a user UE1, UE2 and UE3 to the base stations gNB2 , gNB4 or
for transmitting data from the base stations gNB2 , gNB4 to the users UE1, UE2 , UE3 . This may be realized on licensed bands or on unlicensed bands. Further, FIG. l(b) shows two IoT devices 1101 and 1102 in cell 1064 , which may be stationary or mobile devices. [NOTE: according to the description, network element is a node, network device/equipment, router or gateway]).
But Xue failed to teach the claim limitation wherein determining N groups of QoS profiles based on the M groups of QoS profiles, wherein N is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to N.
However, Rezagah teaches the limitation wherein determining N groups of QoS profiles based on the M groups of QoS profiles, wherein N is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to N (Rezagah, page 5 , paragraph 63-64, 78 & 97-99; i.e., [0064] a QoS profile includes one or more QoS parameters or metrics, the one or more QoS parameters or metrics; [0078] the first QoS profile is a most preferred QoS profile for the session, and the one or more second QoS profiles are less preferred QoS profiles for the session than the first QoS profile; [0097] one or more QoS profiles having a preference less than the current profile are obtained, e.g., in case of a downgrade situation; [0098] one or more QoS profiles having a preference higher than the current profile are obtained, like the top-n QoS profiles, e.g., in case of an upgrade situation; [0099] a latency lower or higher than a latency threshold or a data rate lower or higher than a data rate threshold or within a certain range).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Xue to substitute non-terrestrial wireless communication networks (NTN) from Rezagah for enhancements regarding the handling of quality of service, QoS, profiles for communications over sessions having associated therewith multiple QoS profiles (Rezagah, page 1, paragraph 2).
As to claim 2, Xue-Rezagah teaches the method as recited in claim 1, wherein the first network element is a master network device, the second network element is a secondary network device, and the third network element is a core network device (Xue, page 6, paragraph 54; i.e., [0054] the first network element may be implemented as the core network 230 and the second network element may be the RAN 220 of FIG. 2 or FIG. 3. The RAN 220, after receiving the plurality of candidate QoS profiles from the first network element, may perform a selection from the plurality of the candidate QoS profiles or determine at least one QoS parameter value compatible with the plurality of candidate QoS profiles. The communication network may then configure the transmission of the QoS flow according to the selected QoS profile or QoS parameter values).
As to claim 6, Xue-Rezagah teaches the method as recited in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the first network element, assistance information from the second network element, wherein the assistance information indicates QoS that can be satisfied by the second network element (Xue, page 6, paragraph 54; i.e., [0054] the first network element may be implemented as the core network 230 and the second
network element may be the RAN 220 of FIG. 2 or FIG. 3. The RAN 220, after receiving the plurality of candidate QoS profiles from the first network element, may perform a selection from the plurality of the candidate QoS profiles or determine at least one QoS parameter value compatible with the plurality of candidate QoS profiles. The communication network may then configure the transmission of the QoS flow according to the selected QoS profile or QoS parameter values); and
the determining, by the first network element, the N groups of QoS profiles based on the M groups of QoS profiles includes:
determining, by the first network element, the N groups of QoS profiles from the M groups of QoS profiles based on the assistance information (Xue, page 6, paragraph 50; i.e., [0050] for a particularly data flow such as a QoS flow, a first network element in the communication network 200 or 300 may determine a plurality of set of QoS profiles and communicate these candidate QoS profiles to a second network element in the communication network 200 or 300. The second network element may select one QoS profile from the plurality of QoS profiles based on network conditions detected or derived at the second network element for configuring the transmission of the QoS flow).
As to claim 8, Xue-Rezagah teaches the method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the N groups of QoS profiles includes a value of one or more of the following QoS parameters: an uplink maximum flow bit rate (MFBR), a downlink MFBR, an uplink guaranteed flow bit rate (GFBR), a downlink GFBR, an uplink maximum packet loss rate (MPLR), a downlink MPLR, a packet delay budget (PDB), a packet error rate (PER), a 5th generation QoS identifier (5QI), a maximum data burst volume (MDBV), or a QoS flow priority (Xue, page 8, paragraph 51; i.e., [0051The QoS parameters, for example, may include but are not limited to one or more of allocation and retention priority (ARP) parameters, and various bit rates such as a guaranteed flow bit rate (GFBR), a maximum flow bit rate (MFBR), an aggregate maximum bit rate (AMBR), and maximum packet loss rate (MPLR), resource type, priority level, packet delay budget (PDB), packet error rate (PER), average window, maximum data burst volume (MDBV), and the like).
Claim(s) 9 & 15 is/are directed to apparatus claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 1. Therefore, claim(s) 9 & 15 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 1.
Claim(s) 12 & 14 is/are directed to apparatus claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 6 & 8. Therefore, claim(s) 12 & 14 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 6 & 8.
Claim(s) 17 & 18 is/are directed to apparatus claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 6 & 8. Therefore, claim(s) 17 & 18 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 6 & 8.
Claim(s) 3-4, 10 & 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue, U.S. Pub/Patent No. 2023/0055739 A1 in view of Rezagah, US 2022/0295338 A1, and further in view of Huang, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. 2020/0015116 A1.
As to claim 3, Xue-Rezagah teaches the method as recited in claim 1. But Xue-Rezagah failed to teach the claim limitation wherein the first network element is a central unit (CU) of a secondary network device, the second network element is a distributed unit (DU) of the secondary network device, and the third network element is a master network device.
However, Huang teaches the limitation wherein the first network element is a central unit (CU) of a secondary network device, the second network element is a distributed unit (DU) of the secondary network device, and the third network element is a master network device (Huang, page 1, paragraph 5; i.e., [0005] Central Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU). One base station may include one CU and multiple DUs ).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Xue-Rezagah to substitute session information from Huang for communication session from Xue-Rezagah to provide a new and better QoS mechanism (Huang, page 1, paragraph 4).
As to claim 4, Xue-Rezagah teaches the method as recited in claim 1. But Xue-Rezagah failed to teach the claim limitation wherein the first network element is a CU of a network device, the second network element is a DU of the network device, and the third network element is a core network device.
However, Huang teaches the limitation wherein the first network element is a CU of a network device, the second network element is a DU of the network device, and the third network element is a core network device (Huang, page 1, paragraph 5; i.e., [0005] Central Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU). One base station may include one CU and multiple DUs ).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Xue-Rezagah to substitute session information from Huang for communication session from Xue-Rezagah to provide a new and better QoS mechanism (Huang, page 1, paragraph 4).
Claim(s) 10 & 16 is/are directed to apparatus claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 3. Therefore, claim(s) 10 & 16 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 3.
Claim(s) 7 & 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue, U.S. Pub/Patent No. 2023/0055739 A1 in view of Rezagah, US 2022/0295338 A1, and further in view of Loon, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. 2012/0106391 A1.
As to claim 7, Xue-Rezagah teaches the method as recited in claim 1. But Xue-Rezagah failed to teach the claim limitation wherein modifying, by the first network element, a value of one or more QoS parameters in one or more of the N groups of QoS profiles.
However, Loon teaches the limitation wherein modifying, by the first network element, a value of one or more QoS parameters in one or more of the N groups of QoS profiles (Loon, page 2, paragraph 19; i.e., [0005] adjusting the individual maximum
bit rates for the individual terminals, including the modifying of QoS attributes of one or more of the terminals).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Xue-Rezagah to substitute M2M service from Loon for service data flow from Xue-Rezagah to efficiently transmits information messages for communications (Loon, page 1, paragraph 5).
Claim(s) 13 is/are directed to apparatus claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 7. Therefore, claim(s) 13 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 7.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s argument(s) filed 3/6/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues in substance that: A) with respect to claims 1, 9 & 15; Xue does not disclose "sending, by the first network element, second indication information to a third network element, wherein the second indication information indicates the one of the N groups of QoS profiles selected for the first QoS flow" (page 8-10).
In response to A); Xu does teach the claimed limitation of “wherein the first network element, the second network element, and the third network element are different from each other” (Xue, figure 1; page 1, paragraph 3; i.e., [0003] a core network 102 and one or more radio access networks RAN1 , RAN2 , ... RANN. FIG. l(b) is a schematic representation of an example of a radio access network RANn that may include one or more base stations gNB1 to gNB5. connections for transmitting data from a user UE1, UE2 and UE3 to the base stations gNB2 , gNB4 or
for transmitting data from the base stations gNB2 , gNB4 to the users UE1, UE2 , UE3 . This may be realized on licensed bands or on unlicensed bands. Further, FIG. l(b) shows two IoT devices 1101 and 1102 in cell 1064 , which may be stationary or mobile devices. [NOTE: according to the description, network element is a node, network device/equipment, router or gateway]). Clearly, Xu discloses the method of wherein the first network element, the second network element, and the third network element are different from each other. Therefore, Xu meets the claim limitation.
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 extension fee 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.
Listing of Relevant Arts
Belleschi, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. US 20240205727 A1 discloses DU, CU, core network and QoS requirements.
Laitila U.S. Patent/Pub. No. US 20210136620 A1 discloses multiple networks, core network, DU and QoS flow.
Contact Information
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
THUONG NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-3864. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9:00-6:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Noel Beharry can be reached on 571-270-5630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THUONG NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416
Prosecution Insights