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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-2, 6-9, 13-16, and 20 are pending in this Office Action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed in the amendments on 10/17/2025, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The examiner presented, on 04/14/2025, the potentially allowable subject based on the Final Rejection dated 12/03/2024. However, the applicant declined the potentially allowable subject matter and requested the examiner to issue a Non-Final Rejection, which was mailed on 07/17/2025. Therefore, the examiner performed further search and consideration and was able to find references teaching all of the claims under 35 U.S.C. 103. The claims filed on 10/17/2025 are not allowable based on the updated search and consideration. The reasons are set forth below.
Drawings
The formal drawings received on 08/23/2024 have been entered.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 6-9, 13-16, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hirsch (US 20150280976) in view of K S (US 20210112011), and further in view of Ahmed (US 20230123074), Chou (US 20240292247), and Shi (US 20210240590).
Claims 1, 8, 15. Hirsch teaches:
A method, performed by at least one processor, for reporting data to a northbound management system (NBMS), the method comprising: – in paragraphs [0048]-[0092] (The Network Management System—Element Management System (NMS-EMS) communication occurs over so-called “northbound interfaces”(Itf-N) Manager. The dual Itf-N & P2P Agent of EMS.sub.1 performs the mapping (according to the object model of the NMS-EMS interface) of the event reports originated in EMS.sub.1 managed area and subsequently forwards the notifications are forwarded to NMS, since this subscription is active.)
determining whether or not there is a connectivity issue between the first MS and the NBMS; and – in paragraphs [0048]-[0056], [0097]-[0104] (The Network Management System—Element Management System (NMS-EMS) communication occurs over so-called “northbound interfaces”(Itf-N) Manager. The Agent in EMS.sub.1 discovers that the communication to NMS is interrupted.)
based on determining that there is the connectivity issue between the first MS and the NBMS, providing the encoded data from the persistent storage to a second MS and reporting, from the second MS to the NBMS, the encoded data, – in paragraphs [0048]-[0056], [0097]-[0104] (The Network Management System—Element Management System (NMS-EMS) communication occurs over so-called “northbound interfaces”(Itf-N) Manager. The Agent in EMS.sub.1 discovers that the communication to NMS is interrupted. Subsequently EMS.sub.2 receives via the dual Itf-N and P2P-Agent of EMS.sub.1 all event notifications from the network area managed by EMS.sub.1 (FIG. 9). These notifications (e.g. alarms) are forwarded by means of the Itf-P2P Manager component in EMS.sub.2 towards the NMS.)
Hirsch does not explicitly teach:
wherein the first MS is one of a Fault Management MS (FM MS) and a Performance Management MS (PM MS), wherein the second MS is another one of the FM MS and the PM MS.
However, K S teaches:
wherein the first MS is one of a Fault Management MS (FM MS) and a Performance Management MS (PM MS), – in paragraphs [0087]-[0098] (Microservices 104 includes a fault management and performance management (FMPM) microservice.)
wherein the second MS is another one of the FM MS and the PM MS, and – in paragraphs [0087]-[0098] (Microservices 104 includes a fault management and performance management (FMPM) microservice.)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Hirsch with K S to include wherein the first MS is one of a Fault Management MS (FM MS) and a Performance Management MS (PM MS), wherein the second MS is another one of the FM MS and the PM MS, as taught by K S, in paragraphs [0001]-[0016], to dynamically tuning otherwise static configuration parameters of network devices in computer networks.
Combination of Hirsch and K S does not explicitly teach:
receiving, by a first microservice (MS) in a Radio Access Network (RAN) Network Function (NF) from at least one other MS of the NF, data comprising performance data or event data related to functionality aspects of the NF; wherein the FM MS is configured to receive the event data from the at least one MS, and the PM MS is configured to receive the performance data from the at least one MS.
However, Ahmed teaches:
receiving, by a first microservice (MS) in a Radio Access Network (RAN) Network Function (NF) from at least one other MS of the NF, data comprising performance data or event data related to functionality aspects of the NF; – in paragraphs [0010]-[0027], Figs. 1, 2 (In 5G technology, network functions can be virtualized and decomposed into smaller virtual network functions (VNFs) running as microservices on a shared physical infrastructure, which may include a 5G radio access network (RAN) and a core network. When incoming network flows are received, various instances of VNFs within a network slice may be selected to form an SFC to serve the incoming flows. Fig. 1 shows that data traveling through various VNFs running as microservices.)
wherein the FM MS is configured to receive the event data from the at least one MS, and – in paragraphs [0010]-[0027], Figs. 1, 2 (When incoming network flows are received, various instances of VNFs within a network slice may be selected to form an SFC to serve the incoming flows. Fig. 1 shows that data traveling through various VNFs running as microservices.)
the PM MS is configured to receive the performance data from the at least one MS. – in paragraphs [0010]-[0027], Figs. 1, 2 (When incoming network flows are received, various instances of VNFs within a network slice may be selected to form an SFC to serve the incoming flows. Fig. 1 shows that data traveling through various VNFs running as microservices.)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Hirsch and K S with Ahmed to include receiving, by a first microservice (MS) in a Radio Access Network (RAN) Network Function (NF) from at least one other MS of the NF, data comprising performance data or event data related to functionality aspects of the NF; wherein the FM MS is configured to receive the event data from the at least one MS, and the PM MS is configured to receive the performance data from the at least one MS, as taught by Ahmed, in paragraph [0001]-[0022], to enable flexible orchestration of services in 5G mobile networks, which are designed to embrace numerous services with varied service-level requirements (SLRs).
Combination of Hirsch, K S, and Ahmed does not explicitly teach:
data comprising performance data or event data related to functionality aspects of the NF; encoding, by the first MS, the received data.
However, Chou teaches:
data comprising performance data or event data related to functionality aspects of the NF – in paragraphs [0036]-[0089] (Generating measurements related to perform measurements for data volume performance measurements for network functions supporting edge computing. The 5G core NFs and gNB-CU can be implemented as Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs),)
encoding, by the first MS, the received data; – in paragraphs [0519]-[0532] (The term “modulated data signal” or signals refers to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in one or more signals.)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Hirsch, K S, and Ahmed with Chou to include data comprising performance data or event data related to functionality aspects of the NF; encoding, by the first MS, the received data, as taught by Chou, in paragraph [0002]-[0036], to collect real-time performance data or performance measurements that can be used by analytic applications to detect the potential issues in advance, and take appropriate actions to prevent or mitigate the issues.
Combination of Hirsch, K S, Ahmed, and Chou does not explicitly teach:
storing, by the first MS, the encoded data in a persistent storage.
However, Shi teaches:
storing, by the first MS, the encoded data in a persistent storage, – in paragraphs [0016]-[0029] (Data management module 137 may transmit data collected about the performance of applications to one or more external entities via network 155 and/or may store the data in persistent storage (e.g., in storage 140).)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Hirsch, K S, Ahmed, and Chou with Shi to include storing, by the first MS, the encoded data in a persistent storage, as taught by Hirsch, in paragraphs [0001]-[0047], to re-route the event reports so that operators working on NMS are able to receive the information without significant delay.
Claims 2, 9, 16. The method of claim 1, – refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Shi teaches:
further comprising: storing, by the first MS, the received data in a persistent storage. – in paragraphs [0016]-[0029] (Data management module 137 may transmit data collected about the performance of applications to one or more external entities via network 155 and/or may store the data in persistent storage (e.g., in storage 140).)
Claims 6, 13. The method of claim 1, – refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Shi teaches:
wherein the event data comprises information on at least one fault or error event. – in paragraphs [0010], [0025], [0026] (Data management module 137 may manage data pertaining to latency, upload and download speeds, error rates, and any other network statistics indicative of the performance of application 135.)
Claims 7, 14. The method of claim 1, – refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Chou further teaches:
wherein the performance data comprises at least one performance statistic or counter. – in paragraphs [0031], [0091] (A counter such as a cumulative counter can ascertain raw measurements of increments such as in integers or other value, and the performance data can provide this data meaning as a category, file or different format to a device for further processing or monitoring based thereon.)
Claim 20. Claim 20 is substantially similar to claims 6 and 7.
REMARKS
Applicant has presented amendments to the claims. The examiner maintains the rejections, see remarks below.
Argument 1: The applicant argues that the art does not disclose wherein the first MS is one of a Fault Management MS (FM MS) and a Performance Management MS (PM MS), wherein the second MS is another one of the FM MS and the PM MS, as recited in the independent claims.
In response, the examiner respectfully submits:
However, K S teaches:
wherein the first MS is one of a Fault Management MS (FM MS) and a Performance Management MS (PM MS), – in paragraphs [0087]-[0098] (Microservices 104 includes a fault management and performance management (FMPM) microservice.)
wherein the second MS is another one of the FM MS and the PM MS, and – in paragraphs [0087]-[0098] (Microservices 104 includes a fault management and performance management (FMPM) microservice.)
Conclusion
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 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 MUHAMMAD RAZA whose telephone number is (571)272-7734. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 7:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vivek Srivastava can be reached on (571)272-7304. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MUHAMMAD RAZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2449