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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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.
Claims 1-8 and 10-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bedekar et al, application no. 20200374946, hereinafter known as Bedekar in view of Goshi application no. 2024/0396787, hereinafter known as Goshi.
As to claim 1, Bedekar discloses a method comprising: receiving, by a centralized unit-control plane node within a telecommunications network, an indication for a user equipment to establish a session at least in part by being assigned a centralized unit-user plane node (Bedekar, figure 6, step s630, User Equipment UE sends attach bearer setup message to centralized unit-control plane node CU-CP; Figure 6, s660-s680, steps to choose a centralized unit-user plane node CU-UP); forwarding, by the centralized unit-control plane node to a radio access network repository function, centralized unit-user plane discovery information for the user equipment (Bedekar, [0096], CU-CP sending bearer setup request to AMF that is further sent to UPF and then to radio access network repository function NRF; [0118], NRF and CU-CP may communicate directly; [0097], based on UE discovery information of QoS, slice, location); receiving, from the radio access network repository function, in response to forwarding the centralized unit-user plane discovery information, identifying information for at least one centralized unit-user plane node (Bedekar, [0018], [0054], NRF providing other parts of the network, including CU-CP, in response to queries, attributes to various parts of network such as attributes of UE or CU-UP and providing that information; [0100]-[0101], CU-CP assigning CU-UP based on NRF result of preferred CU-UP); and assigning, by the centralized unit-control plane node and based on the received identifying information for the at least one centralized unit-user plane node, a specific centralized unit-user plane node to the user equipment (Bedekar, [0065]-[0066], Assigning bearer or flow of UE to a CU-UP from among plural CU-UP’s; [0067], selection of a particular CU-UP is done by CU-CP; [0100]-[0101], CU-CP assigning CU-UP based on NRF result of preferred CU-UP). Bedekar does not disclose however Goshi dicloses a radio access network repository function within a corresponding radio access network (Goshi, figure 4, [0094], network repository function provisioned at a radio access network).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bedekar to include the limitations of a radio access network repository function within a corresponding radio access network as taught by Goshi. Provisioning network repository function at radio access network reduces the delay in sending messages to the network core.
As to claim 2, Bedekar discloses wherein the centralized unit-control plane node selects, from among multiple candidate centralized unit-user plane nodes (Bedekar, [0065]-[0067], multiple CU-UP instances at different locations, CU-CP selecting a particular CU-UP), the specific centralized unit-user plane node for the user equipment by finding a match between the centralized unit-user plane discovery information and the identifying information for the multiple candidate centralized unit-user plane nodes (Bedekar, [0097]-[0098], preferentially choosing a CU-UP for UE bearer, where the UPF queries the CU-UP to match the attribute or criteria of the UE bearer or flow; [0108], choosing a CU-UP by CU-CP based on identifying information CU-UP).
As to claim 3, Bedekar discloses wherein the centralized unit-user plane discovery information comprises at least one of a user equipment location, a requested slice type, or a quality of service specification for the session (Bedekar, [0097], attributes of UE including QoS, slice location information).
As to claim 4, Bedekar discloses wherein the identifying information for at least one centralized unit-user plane node comprises a list of multiple centralized unit-user plane nodes (Bedekar, [0018], list of preferred CU-UP maintained by NRF; [0090]-[0093], compiling list of CU-UP with identifying information that includes, ID’s of CU-UP, load, latency, location proximity information that used to choose the CU-UP, i.e. the condition).
As to claim 5, Bedekar discloses wherein the identifying information for at least one centralized unit-user plane node further specifies a condition for each one within a set of the multiple centralized unit-user plane nodes (Bedekar, [0090]-[0093], compiling list of CU-UP with identifying information that includes, ID’s of CU-UP, load, latency, location proximity information that used to choose the CU-UP, i.e. the condition).
As to claim 6, Bedekar discloses wherein the condition further specifies, for each one within the set, at least one of latency from a distributed unit or radio unit, load information, or edge computing capacity information (Bedekar, [0090]-[0093], compiling list of CU-UP with identifying information that includes, ID’s of CU-UP, load, latency, location proximity information that used to choose the CU-UP, i.e. the condition).
As to claim 7, Bedekar discloses further comprising forwarding bearer context information to the assigned specific centralized unit-user plane node (Bedekar, [0073], selecting a particular bearer or flow of UE to go with particular CU-UP).
As to claim 8, Bedekar discloses further comprising, prior to the assigning, the specific centralized unit-user plane node registering with the radio access network repository function (Bedekar, figure 6, Step S600 CU-UP 126 sends identifies information to Core UP 130, which in turn at step sS610 provides it to Core CP 140/150 and finally at step S620, the identifying information is provided to NRF by Core CP).
As to claim 10, Bedekar discloses wherein the specific centralized unit-user plane node registering with the radio access network repository function further comprises the specific centralized unit-user plane node sending specific identifying information for the specific centralized unit-user plane node that indicates at least one of coverage, buffering capability, quality of service capability, or latency (Bedekar, [0090]-[0093], compiling list of CU-UP with identifying information that includes, ID’s of CU-UP, load, latency, location proximity information that used to choose the CU-UP, i.e. the condition).
As to claims 11-17, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-7 respectively above by Bedekar in view of Goshi.
As to claims 18-20, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-3 respectively above by Bedekar in view of Goshi.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bedekar in view of Goshi and further in view of Han, Tingjun, application no. 2020/0228613, hereinafter known as Han.
As to claim 9, Bedekar and Goshi discloses a method of claim 8. Bedekar disclose storing or providing CU-UP identifying information to store in NRF, i.e. registering (Bedekar, Figure 6, steps S600-S630). Bedekar and Goshi do not disclose NRF provided an acknowledgment of the success for any kind of registration however Han dicloses further comprising the specific centralized unit-user plane node receiving, in response to registering with the radio access network repository function, an indication that the registering succeeded (Han, [0072], providing a message by NRF to indicate when a service is registered successfully).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Bedekar and Goshi to include the limitations of further comprising the specific centralized unit-user plane node receiving, in response to registering with the radio access network repository function, an indication that the registering succeeded as taught by Han. Acknowledgement of success of registration of services enables mitigating steps in registration of was not successful.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GAUTAM SHARMA whose telephone number is (571)270-7182. The examiner can normally be reached 11am-8pm.
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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