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 the claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection.
Claim Objections
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 7 recites the limitation of “5GG”, which is error. The limitation of “5GG” is interpreted as 5GS. Claim 7 recites “receiving by the” which is interpreted as “receiving, by the AF, a notification…”. Appropriate correction is required.
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 8 and 11 is 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.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "an entity", which makes the claim vague and indefinite. It is unclear if this is the same entity as independent claim in 1 or whether it is a wholly new entity. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 11 is dependent on cancelled claim 6, which makes the claim vague and indefinite. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-4, 7, 11, 13-16 and 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2021067913 A1 herein Talebi in view of US 20190261260 A1 herein Wang.
Claim 1, Talebi discloses A method, comprising:
receiving, by an application function connected to a 5th generation communication system (5GS), a message (0221-0223; 0233, 5GS bridge information is transmitted/notified to the AF) comprising: quality of service (QoS) requirements for a device (0221, 0233, 5GS QoS information, i.e. 5QI, TSC, delay, etc.), and at least one of: a medium access control (MAC) address of the device, or an internet protocol (IP) address of the at least one device (0233, 5GS bridge information is transmitted/notified to the AF, Port-ID on the DS-TT side, 0255, Port-ID can be a MAC address), wherein the IP address of the device is associated with the MAC address of the device (further limiting an alternative, convention in the art, since networking devices have MAC address and any assigned IP address to the networking devices will be associated with the MAC address);
receiving, by the AF, from a 5GS, information about devices that are connected via at least one entity to the 5GS, wherein the information comprises, for respective devices of the devices, a MAC address of the respective device (0233, Port-ID on the DS-TT side; 0255 port-ID can be a MAC address; conventionally all UEs are connected via a base station/gNB, thus connection via an entity), a user equipment identity (UE ID) associated with the MAC address of the respective device, or an IP address associated with the MAC address of the respective device (0233, Port-ID on the DS-TT side, 0255, Port-ID can be a MAC address, it is implied that more than one UE is connected to the 5GS bridge/TSN bridge; 0227, The SMF may send the 5GS virtual bridge related information (bridge delay, UE port ID, UPF port ID, traffic class, 5GS virtual bridge ID, UE ID) to the AF);
determining, by the AF, based on the information and the at least one of the MAC address of the device or the IP address of the device, that the device is one of the devices (0228, In an example, when the PDU session is established, the UE may report its port capabilities and propagation delay as 802.1Qcc defined and report the topology information as 802.1AB defined to SMF over NAS or user plane. The AF may receive/collect/gather and may maintain the 5GS virtual bridge properties including bridge ID, port ID of UPF ports, port ID of UE ports, port related capabilities and bridge delay of port pairs, and/or the like.).
Talebi may not explicitly disclose requesting, by the AF QoS from the 5GS, a QoS having the QoS requirements for the at least one device.
Wang discloses requesting, by the AF, QoS from the 5GS, a QoS having the QoS requirements for the at least one device (0250-0251, QoS parameters for the stream requested by the AF). 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 Talebi to include QoS mapping and binding as taught by Wang so as to allow for prioritization of individual streams (0218).
Claim 2, Talebi discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the QoS requirements comprise at least one of latency, periodicity, burst size, (0221, 0233, 5GS QoS information, i.e. 5QI, TSC, delay, etc).
Claim 3, Talebi discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the message is received from at least one of: the device or from a network server (0233, information/message received from UPF, thus server).
Claim 4, Talebi discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the device is connected to the 5GS via a user equipment (UE) or via a wired network connected to a user equipment (UE) or a user plane function (UPF) of the 5GS (0233, binding information of UE with UPF stored in AF).
Claim 7, Talebi discloses the method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:
subscribing, by the AF, to the 5GS of notification (0220, AF collects 5GS bridge information) of at least one of: the MAC addresses of the devices that are connected via the entity to the 5GG, IP addresses associated with MAC addresses of the devices that are connected via the entity to the 5GG, or the UE ID associated with the devices connected via entities to the 5GS (0233, Port-ID on the DS-TT side; 0255, Port-ID can be a MAC address – UE/DS-TT is part of the bridge information); and
receiving by the notification that a new device is connected via the entity to the 5GS, wherein the notification comprises at least one of: a MAC address of the new device, an IP address of the new device associated with the MAC address of the new device, or a UE ID associated with the MAC address of the new device (0275, bridge configuration changes, bridge configuration includes network ports and connected UE’s MAC address, i.e. a new device has been added, The UPF may allocate identity for UE virtual port and may send the virtual port identity with corresponding 5GS virtual bridge identity (e.g., When UE establishes a PDU session) to the SMF. The virtual port identity may be unique in the 5G virtual bridge (the TSN bridge). The SMF may register the virtual port to 5GS virtual bridge with their identities to the AF. The SMF may collect topology and delay time information of the 5GS virtual bridge. The SMF may reports topology and delay time information to the AF).
Claim 11, Talebi in view of Wang discloses the method according to claim [1]6. Talebi may not explicitly disclose wherein the requesting comprises using at least one of the MAC address or UE ID to request the QoS from the 5GS.
Wang discloses wherein the requesting comprises using at least one of the MAC address or UE ID to request the QoS from the 5GS device (0250-0251, QoS parameters for the stream requested by the AF). 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 Talebi to include QoS mapping and binding as taught by Wang so as to allow for prioritization of individual streams (0218).
Claim 13, Talebi discloses A method of User Plane Function (UPF) of a 5th generation communication system, the method comprising:
learning a medium access control (MAC) address of at least one device connected via at least one entity to a 5GS (0229, SMF provides the UPF with MAC addresses of devices as part of a TSN configuration; 0233, UPF has mapping relations of MAC addresses of devices; conventionally all UEs are connected via a base station/gNB, thus connection via an entity);
providing, to an application function (AF), information about the at least one device connected via the at least one entity to the 5GS, wherein the information comprises, for a respective device of the at least one device, the MAC address of the respective device, a user equipment identity (UE ID) associated with the MAC address of the respective device, or an IP address associated with the MAC address of the respective device (0233, 5GS bridge information is transmitted/notified to the AF, Port-ID on the DS-TT side, 0255, Port-ID can be a MAC address).
Talebi may not explicitly disclose receiving, from the AF, a request for quality of service (QoS) having QoS requirements a device of the at least one device connected via the at least one entity to the 5GS.
Wang discloses receiving, from the AF, a request for quality of service (QoS) having QoS requirements a device of the at least one device connected via the at least one entity to the 5GS (0250-0251, QoS parameters for the stream requested by the AF). 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 Talebi to include QoS mapping and binding as taught by Wang so as to allow for prioritization of individual streams (0218).
Claim 14, Talebi in view of Wang discloses The method according to claim 13, wherein the learning comprises learning the MAC address of a respective device of the at least one device connected via the at least one entity to a 5GS based on data transmitted by the respective device of the at least one device (0221, 0229, list of MAC addresses of the devices is transmitted from the UE to the SMF and provided to the UPF).
Claim 15, Talebi in view of Wang The method according to claim 13, wherein the learning comprises discovering an internet protocol (IP) address of a respective device of the at least one device (0255, A Port ID, a virtual port id, may comprise a MAC address of a port, an IP address of a port, a name of a port (e.g., alphanumeric), and/or the like).
Claim 16, Talebi in view of Wang discloses The method according to claim 13, further comprising:
receiving, from the AF, a request to subscribe for notifications of MAC addresses learned for devices (0220, AF collects 5GS bridge information; 0233, Port-ID on the DS-TT side; 0255, Port-ID can be a MAC address – UE/DS-TT is part of the bridge information);
in response to the request, when a MAC address is learned for a device of the at least one device, providing, to the AF, a notification including at least one of: a MAC address of the device, an IP address of the device, or an identifier of a user equipment associated with the MAC address of the device (0275, bridge configuration changes, bridge configuration includes network ports and connected UE’s MAC address, i.e. a new device has been added, The UPF may allocate identity for UE virtual port and may send the virtual port identity with corresponding 5GS virtual bridge identity (e.g., When UE establishes a PDU session) to the SMF. The virtual port identity may be unique in the 5G virtual bridge (the TSN bridge). The SMF may register the virtual port to 5GS virtual bridge with their identities to the AF. The SMF may collect topology and delay time information of the 5GS virtual bridge. The SMF may reports topology and delay time information to the AF).
Claim 22, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 1. Talebi discloses An apparatus (Fig. 1: 145), comprising: at least one processor (0295, microprocessor); and at least one memory (implied, since the AF is a computing device connected to a cellular station, thus memory exists) storing computer program code of an application function of a 5th generation communication system (5GS) (0295, programmable logic, software, etc.).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Talebi in view of Wang in view of US 8914810 B1 herein Brockners.
Claim 8, Talebi discloses the method according to claim 1. Talebi may not explicitly disclose wherein the receiving information comprises polling the 5GS for updates at fixed intervals to receive the information about devices that are connected via an entity the 5GS.
Brockners discloses wherein the receiving information comprises polling the 5GS for updates at fixed intervals to receive the information about devices that are connected via an entity the 5GS (Col 6: 50-67, The Event Registration Request information flow sent by an AF to the CLF contains a Subscription Duration (i.e., the duration for which the subscription for particular event will be active), the Subscriber ID, and the Event or Event-Type (e.g., a user logon event), the globally unique address that corresponds to the UNI associated to the user attached to the network, and the identity of the AF. When an actual CLF event occurs, a Notification Event Request information flow is sent from the CLF back to the AF. The Notification Event Request flow includes the Event-Type, Subscriber ID, globally unique IP address, and, optionally, additional information related to the event, such as an update action). 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 Talebi to include updates on connection of devices as taught by Brockners so as to expeditiously provide appropriate default services upon connection (Col 2: 38-43).
Claim(s) 9 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Talebi in view of Wang in view of US 20110077021 A1 herein Mizikovsky.
Claim 9, Talebi in view of Wang discloses the method according to claim 7. Talebi may not explicitly disclose further comprising receiving a timestamp indicating when the MAC address of the new device was last seen.
Mizikovsky discloses receiving a timestamp indicating when the MAC address of the new device was last seen (0025, 0031, last-seen location with timestamp). 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 Tablebi to include last-seen location timestamps as taught by Mizikovsky so as to provide tracking of mobile units when connected or disconnected from the network (0010).
Claim 17, Talebi in view of Wang discloses The method according to claim 16. Talebi may not explicitly disclose further comprising providing, to the AF, a notification when the UPF has not learned a MAC address of the at least one device for some pre-configured time period.
Mizikovsky discloses providing, to the AF, a notification when the UPF has not learned a MAC address of the at least one device for some pre-configured time period (0025, 0031, last-seen location with timestamp). 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 Tablebi to include last-seen location timestamps as taught by Mizikovsky so as to provide tracking of mobile units when connected or disconnected from the network (0010).
Claim(s) 10 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Talebi in view of Wang in view of US 20210321251 A1 herein Ikuno.
Claim 10, Talebi in view of Wang discloses the method according to claim 1. Talebi discloses receiving the QoS requirement (0233, QoS, propagation delay, etc.)
Talebi may not explicitly disclose wherein the determining comprises: after receiving the QoS requirements for the at least one device, sending a query to the 5GS with the least one of the MAC address or IP address of the at least one device; when the at least one of the MAC address or IP address in the query matches a MAC address or IP address of one of the devices connected via the 5GS, receiving an indication of the match.
Ikuno discloses disclose wherein the determining comprises: after receiving the QoS requirements for the at least one device, sending a query to the 5GS with the least one of the MAC address or IP address of the at least one device (0060, querying from the NF consumer, understood as an AF, to the to the functional entity, understood as the NF/5GS, using MAC or IP); when the at least one of the MAC address or IP address in the query matches a MAC address or IP address of one of the devices connected via the 5GS, receiving an indication of the match (0060, notifying the NF consumer by the functional entity of binding information that matches the query). 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 Talebi to include querying network functions as taught by Ikuno so as to alleviate a difficult process of utilizing MAC ranges so as to facilitate monitoring of events and triggers associated with the MAC ranges (0053).
Claim 18, Talebi in view of Wang discloses The method according to claim 13. Talebi may not explicitly disclose wherein the providing comprises: receiving, from the AF, a query comprising one or more MAC addresses; determining whether one MAC address of the one or more the MAC addresses included in the query matches a MAC address one of the at least one device that is learned; and when there is a match, transmitting an indication of the match to the AF.
Ikuno discloses wherein the providing comprises: receiving, from the AF, a query comprising one or more MAC addresses (0060, querying from the NF consumer, understood as an AF, to the to the functional entity, understood as the NF/5GS, using MAC or IP); determining whether one MAC address of the one or more the MAC addresses included in the query matches a MAC address one of the at least one device that is learned (0060, notifying the NF consumer by the functional entity of binding information that matches the query); and when there is a match, transmitting an indication of the match to the AF (0060, notifying the NF consumer by the functional entity of binding information that matches the query). 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 Talebi to include querying network functions as taught by Ikuno so as to alleviate a difficult process of utilizing MAC ranges so as to facilitate monitoring of events and triggers associated with the MAC ranges (0053).
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 20190182741 A1 - User equipment (UE) includes processing circuitry, where to configure the UE for Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) handover from an LTE network to a legacy network with circuit switched (CS) communications, the processing circuitry is to encode a Session Description Protocol (SDP) message for transmission to a second UE within the LTE network. The SDP message includes a voice codec selection for voice over LTE communication with the second UE and a maximum end-to-end packet loss rate (E2E_MAX_PLR) that can be tolerated by the UE when using the voice codec. The UE decodes an SRVCC handover command from an eNB within the LTE network, the handover command based on at least one packet loss rate (PLR) associated with a packet switched voice communication link between the UE and the second UE exceeding a PLR threshold that is determined based on the E2E_MAX_PLR that can be tolerated by the UE.
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, Nishant Divecha can be reached on (571) 270-3125. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Mehmood B. Khan/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2468