DETAILED ACTION
RCE
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 01/29/2026 has been entered.
Response to Remark
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 01/29/26.
Independent claims have been amended.
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 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.
Claims 1-5, 7, 8, 11-15, 17, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2023/0217310, “Zhang”) in view of Youn et al. (US 2023/0319634, “Youn”).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses a user equipment (UE) (See 115-b Fig.4 and Figs.5-7) comprising:
- an access performance acquisition circuit (See 625 Fig.6 and ¶.125, communication management circuitry), arranged to acquire performance of a 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) access and performance of a non-3GPP access (See 425 Fig.4, communicates in accordance with a dual networking mode such as 3GPP and a non-3GPP; See ¶.106, in accordance with ATSSS, Access Traffic Steering may refer to selection of an access network (AN) (e.g., a cellular access network, such as a 3GPP access network, and a non-cellular access, such as a non-3GPP access network) for a new data flow (e.g., IP flows) and transferring the traffic of this data flow over the selected AN; See Fig.3, cellular access and non-cellular access); and
- a wireless communication circuit (See Fig.5 and ¶.125, hardware includes a processor and circuit), arranged to determine a non-network-decided access traffic steering, switching and splitting (ATSSS) policy (See Fig.3 and ¶.107, ATSSS rules may refer to rules associated with ATSSS modes; See 405 & 410 Fig.4, UE monitors conditions of a non-cellular network and predict availability status of the non-cellular network) according to the performance of the 3GPP access and the performance of the non-3GPP access (See ¶.54, to improve ATSSS operation, a UE may be configured to perform techniques for predicting network availability of a cellular network, a non-cellular network, or both; See ¶.109, UE may perform a network availability monitoring procedure while operating in accordance with an ATSSS mode for cellular access and non-cellular access as shown in Fig.3), report the non-network-decided ATSSS policy to a network (See 420 Fig.4, UE sends ‘Indication of non-availability of non-cellular network), and receive a network-decided ATSSS policy from the network (420 Fig.4, UE receives indication to change dual networking mode; See ¶.3, the UE may be configured to connect with the one or more networks in accordance with a dual networking mode (e.g., an access traffic steering, switching, and splitting (ATSSS) mode); See ¶.104, the signal may indicate the network will likely become unavailable, which may prompt one or both of the networks (e.g., access node, base station) to adjust the ATSSS mode (e.g., ATSSS steering mode) of UE 115-a accordingly; Examiners’ Note: Youn discloses the limitations “receive the network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the network to the UE”), wherein the network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the network to the UE is generated based on suggestion of the UE, and the suggestion of the UE comprises the non-network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the UE to the network (See ¶.54, to improve ATSSS operation, a UE may be configured to perform techniques for predicting network availability of a cellular network, a non-cellular network, or both, and pre-emptively taking action so as to reduce latency and improve reliability for the UE. If the algorithm predicts that one of the networks may become unavailable, the UE may be configured to signal to one or both of the networks that the network is unavailable prior to the network actually becoming unavailable, which may prompt one or both of the networks to adjust the ATSSS mode of the UE accordingly; See ¶.104, UE may autonomously adjust the traffic steering, switching, and/or splitting on the uplink, or adjust the feedback of the downlink channel quality feedback of a cellular and/or non-cellular system; See ¶.107, the UE may provide access availability and/or unavailability reports to the network, such as if requested by the network in the Measurement Assistance Information; Examiner’s Note: Youn further discloses the limitations “the network generates ATSSS policy based on suggestion of the UE”).”
Zhang discloses the method of performing techniques for predicting network availability and of measurement report (See ¶.54, ¶.103-104, and ¶.107), but the Examiner provides a secondary prior art by Youn explicitly showing a UE sends ‘measurement report message’ to a network and the limitations “the network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the network to the UE, wherein the ATSSS policy generated, by the network, based on suggestion of the UE.”
As shown in S1203 & S1205 Fig.12, UE receives ATSSS rule from SMF network and UE sends ATSSS rule update request to the network:
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Youn, See ¶.264, the UE transmit a message for reporting access availability or unavailability to the UPF; See ¶.270, the UE requests an MA PDU session, the UE may indicate that the UE can support the MPTCP function in all steering modes and support the ATSSS-LL function only in the Active-Standby steering mode. In this case, in order for the UE to transmit an access availability/unavailability report to the UPF, the network may transmit Measurement Assistance Information for the UE to the UE. In this case, since the UE and UPF can use the measurements available in the MPTCP layer; See ¶.352, upon receiving this, the SMF can notify the PCF of the UE's request, and based on this, the SMF can receive an updated PCC rule from the PCF. The SMF may generate an updated ATSSS rule based on the updated PCC rule. Alternatively, the SMF may generate an ATSSS rule directly updated by the SMF according to a current PCC rule or a PCC rule preconfigured in the SMF without interaction with the PCF; See ¶.366, the terminal may periodically inform the UPF of the location of the terminal through the PMF measurement report or inform the UPF of time information; See ¶.379, the SMF may generate an ATSSS rule to be transmitted to the UE and an N4 rule to be transmitted to the UPF. At this time, since the terminal supports the validity condition, the ATSSS rule and the N4 rule may contain validity conditions for ATSSS. The SMF may transmit the generated N4 rule to UPF. If there is a PCC rule to create an ATSSS rule/N4 rule that includes match all filters among PCC rules, the SMF can create an ATSSS rule/N4 rule by inserting a match all filter into the ATSSS rule. For example, the SMF may generate a default ATSSS rule as described in the second example of the disclosure of this specification; See ¶.417, the SMF may generate an updated ATSSS rule based on the updated PCC rule. Alternatively, the SMF may generate an ATSSS rule directly updated by the SMF according to a current PCC rule or a PCC rule preconfigured in the SMF without interaction with the PCF. For reference, when the SMF creates the ATSSS rule, it may also create the N4 rule to be provided to the UPF).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “transmitting a measurement report message” and “the network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the network to the UE, wherein the ATSSS policy generated, by the network, based on suggestion of the UE” as taught by Youn into the system of Zhang, so that it provides a way of checking the validity criterion included in the UPF N4 rule based on UE time information and/or UE location information (Youn, See ¶.410) and sending the measurement report message to the network after receiving the updated ATSSS rule from the network (Youn, See Fig.12 and ¶.417).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses “the access performance acquisition circuit is arranged to perform access performance measurement upon the 3GPP access and the non-3GPP access for measuring the performance of the 3GPP access and the performance of the non-3GPP access (See ¶.54, a UE may monitor one or more parameters of the cellular network, such as throughput, degree of QoS satisfaction, channel quality, channel occupancy, etc. The UE may also monitor one or more parameters of the non-cellular network such as receive SINR measurements, etc. and in some cases may monitor one or more parameters of the UE such as the motion of the UE, positioning of the UE, whether the UE is connected to Bluetooth, etc ).”
Regarding claim 3, Zhang discloses “the access performance acquisition circuit is arranged to perform access performance prediction upon the 3GPP access and the non-3GPP access for predicting the performance of the 3GPP access and the performance of the non-3GPP access (See ¶.4, generally, the described techniques provide for improved methods of utilizing dual networking modes for steering, switching, or splitting traffic (e.g., access traffic steering, switching, and splitting (ATSSS) modes) by a user equipment (UE) to coordinate communications from multiple networks, such as one or more cellular networks, one or more non-cellular networks (e.g., a WiFi network), or a combination thereof. The described techniques may allow a UE to monitor an availability of one or more of networks the UE is receiving service from. The UE may predict an availability status of one or more of the networks and the UE may adjust dual networking modes based on the availability. Accordingly, the UE may predict that one or more of the networks will become unavailable and adjust modes prior to the unavailability so that communications are unaffected).”
Regarding claim 4, Zhang discloses “the access performance acquisition circuit predicts the performance of the 3GPP access and the performance of the non-3GPP access through machine learning (See ¶.95, UE may be configured to input the first, second, and/or third set of parameters into one or more algorithms (e.g., neural networks, machine-learning), where the one or more algorithms may predict network availability of base station, access point, or both).”
Regarding claim 5, Zhang discloses “the wireless communication circuit is further arranged to receive neural-network (NN) parameters transmitted from a network, and the access performance acquisition circuit uses an NN model indicated by the NN parameters to predict the performance of the 3GPP access and the performance of the non-3GPP access (See ¶.95, UE may be configured to input the first, second, and/or third set of parameters into one or more algorithms (e.g., neural networks, machine-learning), where the one or more algorithms may predict network availability of base station, access point, or both. The one or more algorithms may receive inputs from various heterogenous sources, such as a non-cellular receiver of UE, motion sensors, GNSS receivers, Bluetooth modules, OS modules, etc. In some cases, one algorithm may be associated with one set of parameters. For example, UE may be configured with a first algorithm for predicting availability of access node by inputting the first set of parameters and/or the third set of parameters. Accordingly, the first algorithm may predict the availably of access node based on the parameters associated with access node and/or based on the behavior of UE with respect to access node).”
Regarding claim 7, Zhang discloses “the wireless communication circuit is arranged to determine the non-network-decided ATSSS policy through machine learning (See ¶.4, utilizing dual networking modes for steering, switching, or splitting traffic (e.g., access traffic steering, switching, and splitting (ATSSS) modes) by a user equipment (UE) to coordinate communications from multiple networks, such as one or more cellular networks, one or more non-cellular networks, or a combination thereof. the UE may determine whether to change dual networking modes based on the availability status and may communicate in accordance with the same or a different dual networking mode using at least one of the cellular network, the non-cellular network, or a combination thereof based on the prediction; See ¶.98, the motion sensors may compare the detected motion with one or more patterns (e.g., trained patterns, stored patterns, learned patterns).”
Regarding claim 8, Zhang discloses “the wireless communication circuit is further arranged to receive neural-network (NN) parameters transmitted from a network, and use an NN model indicated by the NN parameters to determine the non-network-decided ATSSS policy (See ¶.54, a UE may monitor one or more parameters of the cellular network, such as throughput, degree of quality of service (QoS) satisfaction, channel quality, channel occupancy, etc. The UE may also monitor one or more parameters of the non-cellular network such as receive signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) measurements, etc. and in some cases may monitor one or more parameters of the UE such as the motion of the UE, positioning of the UE, whether the UE is connected to Bluetooth, etc. The UE may input the one or more parameters of the cellular network, the non-cellular network, the UE, or a combination thereof into an algorithm (e.g., a neural network) and the algorithm may predict availability of the networks; See ¶.95, for channel quality prediction, both a filter-based model (e.g., traditional filter-based mode) and neural network based model may be used and subject to a selector based on prediction performance).”
Regarding claim 11, it is a method claim corresponding to the a user equipment claim 1 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claims 12-15, 17, and 18, they are claims corresponding to claims 2-5, 7, & 8, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Claim 6 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Youn and Salkintzis et al. (US 2024/0334219, “Salkintzis”).
Regarding claim 6, it is a user equipment claim corresponding to the UE claim 1, except the limitation “each of the performance of the 3GPP access and the performance of the non-3GPP access predicted by the access performance acquisition circuit comprises at least one of predicted round-trip time (RTT) and predicted congestion.”
Zhang and Youn do not explicitly discloses what Salkintzis discloses “each of the performance of the 3GPP access and the performance of the non-3GPP access predicted by the access performance acquisition circuit comprises at least one of predicted round-trip time (RTT) and predicted congestion and computation of the at least one of predicted RTT and predicted congestion is performed locally on the UE” (Salkintzis, See ¶.33, a UE may be required to measure a latency (or RTT) over 3GPP access and the latency (or RTT) over non-3GPP access. Similarly, the UPF may be required to measure the latency (or RTT) over 3GPP access and the latency (or RTT) over non-3GPP access to decide how to route the DL traffic to comply with the policy rules; See ¶.34, a Performance Measurement Functionality (“PMF”) may be supported in a UE and in a UPF (e.g., which assists in taking real-time RTT measurements over the two accesses). In particular, RTT measurements may be taken by exchanging PMF-Echo Request and/or PMF-Echo Response messages between a PMF function in the UE (UE-PMF) and the PMF function in the UPF (UPF-PMF). Thus, the UE may calculate a RTT over each access, which is associated with the latency of each access).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply “each of the performance of the 3GPP access and the performance of the non-3GPP access predicted by the access performance acquisition circuit comprises at least one of predicted round-trip time (RTT) and predicted congestion and computation of the at least one of predicted RTT and predicted congestion is performed locally on the UE” as taught by Salkintzis into the system of Zhang and Youn, so that it provides a way for the UE to calculate a RTT over each access, which is associated with the latency of each access (Salkintzis, See ¶.34).
Regarding claim 16, Zhang and Youn do not explicitly discloses what Salkintzis discloses “each of the performance of the 3GPP access and the performance of the non-3GPP access predicted by the access performance acquisition circuit comprises at least one of predicted round-trip time (RTT) and predicted congestion” (Salkintzis, See ¶.54, the RTT analytics provided by the NWDAF contains a predicted RTT for each access type and is derived by the NWDAF based on historical RTT measurements available in the NWDAF. The predicted RTT values in the RTT analytics are then sent back to the remote unit 105 (e.g., UE) and are applied for determining a smallest-delay access type, or evaluating RTT thresholds, and so forth; See ¶.59, the RTT analytics may be used to predict the RTT that will be experienced if data is transmitted in a certain 3GPP cell or non-3GPP AP at a certain time period and via a certain QoS flow). Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 6.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed have been considered. But, in view of the applicant’s amendment to the amended claims, examiner has clarified and totally remapped the rejection to the argued claim limitations, using the prior art of record in the current prosecution of the claims by Zhang and Youn.
At pages 7-12, with respect to claim 1, applicant argues that any combination of Zhang and Youn fail to disclose “the suggestion of UE comprising the non-network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the UE to a network” by asserting that,
“Since the predicted network unavailability sent from the UE to the network as taught by Zhang is not ATSSS policy generated by the UE, the applicant asserts that the claim limitation "report the non-network-decided ATSSS policy to a network, and receive a network-decided ATSSS policy from the network, wherein the network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the network to the UE is generated based on suggestion of the UE, and the suggestion of the UE comprises the non-network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the UE to the network" is not taught or suggested by Zhang.” [applicant’s emphasis added].
In reply, the limitations “the suggestion of UE comprising the non-network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the UE to a network” explicitly read on:
¶.[0116] of Zhang discloses “at 415, UE may transmit a message indicating that the non-cellular network will become unavailable, where the message may include a field indicating that the non-cellular network will become unavailable, an indication of a failure event associated with the non-cellular network, a report including one or more parameters associated with the non-cellular network, or a combination thereof. In some cases, the report may be an access availability and/or access unavailability report. In some cases, UE 115-b may determine a time to transmit the message indicating that the non-cellular network will become unavailable, where the time may be based on a predicted time that the non-cellular network will become unavailable, where the UE transmits the message at the time.” [emphasis added].
¶.[0087] of Zhang discloses “UE 115-a may determine whether there is a non-cellular RF signature (e.g., WiFi signal RF signature) to compare a non-cellular signal to. If so, UE 115-a may determine whether current measurements indicate that the UE is moving out of WiFi coverage. An RF signature may include signal information from the serving access points, other detected access points, or a combination thereof.”
¶.[0092] of Zhang discloses “UE 115-a may identify that a map application is running which may be indicative that a UE 115-a is leaving one or more of geographic coverage areas 110-a, and 110-b.”
¶.[0104] of Zhang discloses “the signal may indicate the network will likely become unavailable, which may prompt one or both of the networks (e.g., access node 205, base station 105-a) to adjust the ATSSS mode (e.g., ATSSS steering mode) of UE 115-a accordingly. In such cases, one or both of the networks may determine to change ATSSS modes for serving UE 115-a and indicate the new ATSSS mode to UE 115-a.” [emphasis added].
[Fig.12] of Youn discloses,
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In other words, Zhang discloses that UE suggests/reports the network conditions related with ATSSS policy/rule to the network and the network feedbacks ATSSS rule/policy to the UE based on the suggested capability information. Further, Youn discloses the method of sending ATSSS rule update request to the network and the network, SMF, generated a new ATSSS rule based on the feedback from the UE and then send back the updated ATSSS rule to UE as shown Fig.12,
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art applies the method of “transmitting a measurement report message” and “the network-decided ATSSS policy sent from the network to the UE, wherein the ATSSS policy generated, by the network, based on suggestion of the UE” as taught by Youn into the system of Zhang in order to sending the updated ATSSS rule to the UE from the network based on the UE’s feedback information, which is a suggestion associated with ATSSS rule, associated with ATSSS rule as shown in Fig.12 and described in ¶.417. Therefore, the examiner respectfully disagrees.
At page 13, with respect to claim 6, applicant argues that any combination of Zhang, Youn, and Salkintzis fail to disclose “computation of the at least one of predicted RTT performed locally on the UE.” [applicant’s emphasis added].
In reply, the limitations “computation of the at least one of predicted RTT performed locally on the UE” explicitly read on:
¶.[0033] of Salkintzis discloses “a UE may be required to measure a latency (or RTT) over 3GPP access and the latency (or RTT) over non-3GPP access. Similarly, the UPF may be required to measure the latency (or RTT) over 3GPP access and the latency (or RTT) over non-3GPP access to decide how to route the DL traffic to comply with the policy rules.”
¶.[0034] of Salkintzis discloses “RTT measurements may be taken by exchanging PMF-Echo Request and/or PMF-Echo Response messages between a PMF function in the UE (UE-PMF) and the PMF function in the UPF (UPF-PMF). Thus, the UE may calculate a RTT over each access, which is associated with the latency of each access).” [emphasis added].
In other words, Salkintzis discloses the method of measuring RTT over 3GPP access and non-3GPP access and calculating an estimated/predicted RTT over each access performed on the UE.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art applies “computation/calculation of the at least one of predicted RTT performed locally on the UE” as taught by Salkintzis into the system of Zhang and Youn in order for the UE to calculate the estimated RTT over each access, which is associated with the latency of each access (Salkintzis, See ¶.34). Therefore, the examiner respectfully disagrees.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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/JUNG H PARK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411