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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 04/27/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 04/27/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant essentially argues that the applied references do not disclose the amended limitations. The Examiner respectfully disagrees. Please see the rejection below to see how the applied references still disclose the amended claims. The applied references clearly disclose a message that includes QOS information along with address information received by an access function of a 5G system.
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 and 11 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 an apparatus (0221, the AF is a control function), comprising:
at least one processor (0295, processor); and
at least one memory storing instructions (0295, software/program) of an application function of a 5th generation communication system (5GS) (0221, the AF acts as a controller function to collect 5GS virtual bridge information), wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform operations, the operations comprising:
receiving a message comprising: quality of service (QoS) requirements for a device, and an address of a device, wherein the address of the device is one of a medium access control (MAC) address of the device or an internet protocol (IP) address of the device (0227, the may send the 5GS virtual bridge related information (bridge delay, UE port ID, UPF port ID, traffic class, UE ID, etc.) to the AF or via NEF to add the UE port or update bridge properties; 0255, supplies MAC address format for the port/device address), wherein the IP address of the device is associated with the MAC address of the device (further limits the alternative of an IP address, since MAC address is disclosed, the limitation has been met);
receiving information about devices that are connected via at least one entity to the 5GS, wherein the information comprises addresses of the devices that are connected via the at least one entity to the 5GS (0230, the UE obtains a list of MAC addressees of the backend devices; 0228, AF collects/gathers and maintains 5GS virtual bridge properties including port ID of UE ports (0255, port ID comprises a MAC address of a port)), wherein a respective address of the addresses of the devices comprises a MAC address (0228, port ID of UE port; 0255, port ID same as MAC address) of a respective device of the devices or an IP address associated with the MAC address of the respective device of the devices (further limits the alternative of an IP address, since MAC address is disclosed, the limitation has been met);
determining whether the address of the device comprised in the message matches one of the addresses of the devices that are connected via at least one entity to the 5GS comprised in the information (0226, the AF determines/finds corresponding UE ID when receiving the TSN stream rule (Bridge ID, ingress and egress ports, AF maintains the relationship between UE ID, 5GS virtual bridge ID and UE port ID)); and
in an instance that the determining determines the address of the device comprised in the message matches one of the addresses of the devices that are connected via at least one entity to the 5GS comprised in the information: determining that the device is one of the devices that are connected via at least one entity to the 5GS (0223, UE ports connected and reported to the AF; 0226).
Talebi may not explicitly disclose requesting, from the 5GS, a QoS having the QoS requirements for the device.
Wang discloses requesting, from the 5GS, a QoS having the QoS requirements for the 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 apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the QoS requirements comprise at least one of latency, periodicity, burst size, or jitter (0221, 0233, 5GS QoS information, i.e. 5QI, TSC, delay, etc).
Claim 3, Talebi discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the message is received from at least one of: the device or from a server of the 5GS (0233, information/message received from UPF, thus server).
Claim 4, Talebi discloses the apparatus 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 via a user plane function (UPF) of the 5GS (0233, binding information of UE with UPF stored in AF).
Claim 7, Talebi discloses the apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the operations further comprises:
subscribing to the 5GS of notification (0220, AF collects 5GS bridge information) of at least one of: MAC addresses of the devices that are connected via the at least one entity to the 5GS or IP addresses associated with MAC addresses of the devices that are connected via the at least one entity 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 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, or an IP address of the new device 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 apparatus 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(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 apparatus 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 the at least one entity to 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 the at least one entity to 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 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 apparatus according to claim 7. Talebi may not explicitly disclose wherein the operations further comprise 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(s) 10 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 apparatus according to claim 1. Talebi discloses receiving the QoS requirement (0233, QoS, propagation delay, etc.); wherein the determining comprises whether the address of the device comprised in the message matches one of the addresses of the devices that are connected via at least on entity to the 5GS comprised in the information (0230, 0223; see claim 1 rejection).
Talebi may not explicitly disclose comprises: after receiving the QoS requirements for the device, sending a query to the 5GS with address of the device; wherein the receiving information is in response to the query.
Ikuno discloses disclose after receiving the QoS requirements for the device, sending a query to the 5GS with address of the 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); wherein the receiving information is in response to the query (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
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.
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/Mehmood B. Khan/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
MEHMOOD B. KHAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2463
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