Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/106,332

TECHNOLOGIES FOR OFFLOADING PATHS FROM EDGE COMPUTING RESOURCES

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Feb 06, 2023
Examiner
SHIVERS, ASHLEY L
Art Unit
2477
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Apple Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
87%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 10m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 87% — above average
87%
Career Allow Rate
527 granted / 607 resolved
+28.8% vs TC avg
Moderate +15% lift
Without
With
+14.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 10m
Avg Prosecution
18 currently pending
Career history
625
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
7.5%
-32.5% vs TC avg
§103
48.7%
+8.7% vs TC avg
§102
26.2%
-13.8% vs TC avg
§112
8.1%
-31.9% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 607 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
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 . Claim Objections Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities: --In claim 8, insert “method” before “of claim”. Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action: A person shall be entitled to a patent unless – (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claims 1 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Salkintzis et al. (U.S. PGPub 2024/0323825), hereinafter referred to as Salkintzis. Regarding claim 1, Salkintzis discloses a method comprising: determining application traffic is associated with a user equipment (UE) route selection policy (URSP) rule that includes an offload guidance parameter (a URSP rule in the remote unit 105 may indicate that certain traffic is to be directly offloaded to the data network 150 rather than transferred via PDU session; See [0049]); associating the application traffic to a protocol data unit (PDU) session based on the URSP rule (The third URSP rule indicates that the traffic matching the Traffic Descriptor (“TD”) component of this rule (i.e., all traffic with destination Fully Qualified Domain Name (“FQDN”)=example.com), is to be sent via PDU session where the preferred access type is non-3GPP access; See [0077]); determining, based on an edge data network (DN) indication from a network (The TD may reference a Data Network Name (“DNN”); See [0077]), the PDU session is to be serviced by an edge application server (the data network 150 may be an edge computing network, having local instances of one or more application servers. Here, a corresponding application client in the remote unit 105 may establish a connection with a local application server in the data network 150. As discussed in greater detail below, a URSP rule in the remote unit 105 may indicate that certain traffic is to be directly offloaded to the data network 150 rather than transferred via PDU session; See [0049]); identifying offload restrictions based on the offload guidance parameter and said determining that the PDU session is to be serviced by the edge application server (indication that traffic is offloaded to the data network rather than transferred via PDU session; See [0049]); detecting an offloading connectivity option for application traffic (The third URSP rule indicates that the traffic matching the Traffic Descriptor (“TD”) component of this rule (i.e., all traffic with destination Fully Qualified Domain Name (“FQDN”)=example.com), is to be sent via PDU session where the preferred access type is non-3GPP access; See [0077]); and selecting or discarding the offloading connectivity option based on the offload restrictions (When the UE 205 attempts to transmit traffic that matches this rule, the UE 205 will first select and connect to a WLAN access network and then will offload this traffic directly to the WLAN access network; See [0077]). Regarding claim 21, Salkintzis discloses an apparatus comprising: memory to store a user equipment (UE) route selection policy (URSP) rule that includes an offload guidance parameter (the memory 510 may store various parameters; See Fig. 5, #510 and [0128]); and processing circuitry coupled with the memory (processor; See Fig. 5, #505), the processing circuitry to determine application traffic is associated with the URSP rule (a URSP rule in the remote unit 105 may indicate that certain traffic is to be directly offloaded to the data network 150 rather than transferred via PDU session; See [0049]); associate the application traffic to a protocol data unit (PDU) session based on the URSP rule (The third URSP rule indicates that the traffic matching the Traffic Descriptor (“TD”) component of this rule (i.e., all traffic with destination Fully Qualified Domain Name (“FQDN”)=example.com), is to be sent via PDU session where the preferred access type is non-3GPP access; See [0077]); determine, based on an edge data network (DN) indication from a network (The TD may reference a Data Network Name (“DNN”); See [0077]), the PDU session is to be served by an edge application server (the data network 150 may be an edge computing network, having local instances of one or more application servers. Here, a corresponding application client in the remote unit 105 may establish a connection with a local application server in the data network 150. As discussed in greater detail below, a URSP rule in the remote unit 105 may indicate that certain traffic is to be directly offloaded to the data network 150 rather than transferred via PDU session; See [0049]); identify offload restrictions based on the offload guidance parameter and determination that the PDU session is to be serviced by the edge application server (indication that traffic is offloaded to the data network rather than transferred via PDU session; See [0049]); detect an offloading connectivity option for application traffic (The third URSP rule indicates that the traffic matching the Traffic Descriptor (“TD”) component of this rule (i.e., all traffic with destination Fully Qualified Domain Name (“FQDN”)=example.com), is to be sent via PDU session where the preferred access type is non-3GPP access; See [0077]); and select or discard the offloading connectivity option based on the offload restrictions (When the UE 205 attempts to transmit traffic that matches this rule, the UE 205 will first select and connect to a WLAN access network and then will offload this traffic directly to the WLAN access network; See [0077]). 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. Claims 2 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salkintzis as applied to claims 1 and 21 above, and further in view of Lee et al. (U.S. PGPub 2023/0147538), hereinafter referred to as Lee. Regarding claim 2, Salkintzis fails to teach the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a PDU session establishment or modification accept message that includes the edge DN indication. Lee teaches receiving a PDU session establishment or modification accept message that includes the edge DN indication (a protocol data unit (PDU) session establishment request message including user equipment-requested DNN information about at least one of a first DNN corresponding to the first DNN information or a third DNN, wherein a PDU session between the user equipment and a network is established based on the selected DNN information; See [0028]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Salkintzis to include receiving a PDU session establishment or modification accept message that includes the edge DN indication taught by Lee in order to effectively provide services. Regarding claim 22, Salkintzis fails to teach the apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processing circuitry is further to: receive a PDU session establishment or modification accept message that includes the edge DN indication. Lee teaches receiving a PDU session establishment or modification accept message that includes the edge DN indication (a protocol data unit (PDU) session establishment request message including user equipment-requested DNN information about at least one of a first DNN corresponding to the first DNN information or a third DNN, wherein a PDU session between the user equipment and a network is established based on the selected DNN information; See [0028]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Salkintzis to include receiving a PDU session establishment or modification accept message that includes the edge DN indication taught by Lee in order to effectively provide services. Claims 3 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salkintzis in view of Lee as applied to claims 2 and 22 above, and further in view of Faccin et al. (U.S. PGPub 2018/0324577), hereinafter referred to as Faccin. Regarding claim 3, Salkintzis fails to teach the method of claim 2, wherein the offload restrictions prevent offloading the application traffic based on the edge application server servicing the PDU session. Faccin teaches wherein the offload restrictions prevent offloading the application traffic based on the edge application server servicing the PDU session (The UE Route Selection Policy (URSP) may include a prioritized list of URSP rules, and each USRP rule may be composed Non-seamless offload: This indicates if the matching traffic is Prohibited, Preferred or Permitted (i.e. allowed but not preferred) to be offloaded to non-3GPP access outside of a PDU session; See [0126]-[0128]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Salkintzis in view of Lee to include wherein the offload restrictions prevent offloading the application traffic based on the edge application server servicing the PDU session taught by Faccin in order to enhance NR technology. Regarding claim 23, Salkintzis in view of Lee fails to teach the apparatus of claim 22, wherein the offload restrictions prevent offloading the application traffic based on the edge application server servicing the PDU session. Faccin teaches wherein the offload restrictions prevent offloading the application traffic based on the edge application server servicing the PDU session (The UE Route Selection Policy (URSP) may include a prioritized list of URSP rules, and each USRP rule may be composed Non-seamless offload: This indicates if the matching traffic is Prohibited, Preferred or Permitted (i.e. allowed but not preferred) to be offloaded to non-3GPP access outside of a PDU session; See [0126]-[0128]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Salkintzis in view of Lee to include wherein the offload restrictions prevent offloading the application traffic based on the edge application server servicing the PDU session taught by Faccin in order to enhance NR technology. Claims 4-5 and 24-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salkintzis in view of Lee as applied to claims 2 and 22 above, and further in view of Youn et al. (U.S. PGPub 2024/0015562), hereinafter referred to as Youn. Regarding claim 4, Salkintzis in view of Lee the method of claim 2, wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes measurement assistance information and the method further comprises: determining one or more round trip time (RTT) measurements on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access or non-3GPP access based on the measurement assistance information. Youn teaches wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes measurement assistance information (When the MA PDU session is established, the network may provide Measurement Assistance Information to the UE; See [0252]) and the method further comprises: determining one or more round trip time (RTT) measurements on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access or non-3GPP access based on the measurement assistance information (PMF protocol messages such as the following examples may be exchanged between the UE and the PMF: Messages can be exchanged allowing Round Trip Time (RTT) measurements. For example, if a “Smallest Delay” Steering Mode is used, messages allowing RTT measurements may be exchanged; See [0258]-[0259]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Salkintzis in view of Lee to include wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes measurement assistance information and the method further comprises: determining one or more round trip time (RTT) measurements on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access or non-3GPP access based on the measurement assistance information taught by Youn in order to enhance QoS in multi-access PDU sessions. Regarding claim 5, Salkintzis in view of Lee the method of claim 4, wherein the measurement assistance information includes an address of a performance measurement function. Youn teaches wherein the measurement assistance information includes an address of a performance measurement function (When the MA PDU session is established, the network may provide Measurement Assistance Information to the UE. The measurement assistance information may include addressing information of a Performance Measurement Function (PMF) in UPF; See [0252]-[0253]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Salkintzis in view of Lee to include wherein the measurement assistance information includes an address of a performance measurement function taught by Youn in order to enhance QoS in multi-access PDU sessions. Regarding claim 24, Salkintzis in view of Lee fails to teach the apparatus of claim 22, wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes measurement assistance information and the processing circuitry is further to: determine one or more round trip time (RTT) measurements on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access or non-3GPP access based on the measurement assistance information. Youn teaches wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes measurement assistance information (When the MA PDU session is established, the network may provide Measurement Assistance Information to the UE; See [0252]) and the method further comprises: determine one or more round trip time (RTT) measurements on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access or non-3GPP access based on the measurement assistance information (PMF protocol messages such as the following examples may be exchanged between the UE and the PMF: Messages can be exchanged allowing Round Trip Time (RTT) measurements. For example, if a “Smallest Delay” Steering Mode is used, messages allowing RTT measurements may be exchanged; See [0258]-[0259]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Salkintzis in view of Lee to include wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes measurement assistance information and the method further comprises: determining one or more round trip time (RTT) measurements on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access or non-3GPP access based on the measurement assistance information taught by Youn in order to enhance QoS in multi-access PDU sessions. Regarding claim 25, Salkintzis in view of Lee fails to teach the apparatus of claim 24, wherein the measurement assistance information includes an address of a performance measurement function. Youn teaches wherein the measurement assistance information includes an address of a performance measurement function (When the MA PDU session is established, the network may provide Measurement Assistance Information to the UE. The measurement assistance information may include addressing information of a Performance Measurement Function (PMF) in UPF; See [0252]-[0253]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Salkintzis in view of Lee to include wherein the measurement assistance information includes an address of a performance measurement function taught by Youn in order to enhance QoS in multi-access PDU sessions. Claims 6-8, 10, 26-28 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn as applied to claims 4 and 24 above, and further in view of Ly et al. (U.S. PGPub 2023/0413114), hereinafter referred to as Ly. Regarding claim 6, Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn and further teaches the method of claim 4, wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes one or more traffic offload rules and the method further comprises: identifying the offload restrictions based on the one or more traffic offload rules. Ly teaches wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes one or more traffic offload rules (In response, the network may return to the UE a status of the request and may include one or more of rules indicating a select steering mode, an adaptive steering mode, or a list of steering modes and the conditions on adapting traffic steering; See [0137]) and the method further comprises: identifying the offload restrictions based on the one or more traffic offload rules (Traffic steering adaptation rules may be used to communicate conditions in which traffic adaptation may be made by the UE and/or the network. The adaptation rules may be included in a communication to request for enabling adaptive traffic steering, for example, or in a response to grant adaptive traffic steering functionality. The UE and the network can communicate to each other when traffic adaptation is to be performed to signal whether traffic adaptation may be performed for UL only, DL only, or both UL and DL; See [0138] and [0140]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn to include wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes one or more traffic offload rules and the method further comprises: identifying the offload restrictions based on the one or more traffic offload rules taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Regarding claim 7, Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn fails to teach the method of claim 6, further comprising: determining a measurement value based on the one or more the RTT measurements; comparing the measurement value to a threshold; and selecting or discarding the offloading connectivity option based on said comparing of the measurement value to the threshold. Ly teaches determining a measurement value based on the one or more the RTT measurements (The network may send a PMFP Measurement request, e.g., including a QFI, measurement begin/end indicators, a measurement type, a measurement value, and/or an indication of whether measurement obtained from 3GPP or non-3GPP access; See [0146]), comparing the measurement value to a threshold (the UE and UPF may be allowed by network to determine how to proceed, based on comparison of difference between measurement and threshold value for each access (3GPP and non-3GPP); See [0147]), and selecting or discarding the offloading connectivity option based on said comparing of the measurement value to the threshold (whichever access has smaller difference is the access the UE/UPF should use; See [0147]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn to include determining a measurement value based on the one or more the RTT measurements; comparing the measurement value to a threshold; and selecting or discarding the offloading connectivity option based on said comparing of the measurement value to the threshold taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Regarding claim 8, Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn fails to teach the of claim 7, wherein the one or more RTT measurements includes a first RTT measurement on 3GPP access and a second RTT measurement on non-3GPP access and the measurement value is based on a comparison of the first RTT measurement and the second RTT measurement. Ly teaches wherein the one or more RTT measurements includes a first RTT measurement on 3GPP access and a second RTT measurement on non-3GPP access and the measurement value is based on a comparison of the first RTT measurement and the second RTT measurement (the UE and UPF may be allowed by network to determine how to proceed, based on comparison of difference between measurement and threshold value for each access (3GPP and non-3GPP); See [0147]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn to include wherein the one or more RTT measurements includes a first RTT measurement on 3GPP access and a second RTT measurement on non-3GPP access and the measurement value is based on a comparison of the first RTT measurement and the second RTT measurement taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Regarding claim 10, Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn fails to teach the method of claim 7, wherein the measurement assistance information includes an indication of the threshold. Ly teaches wherein the measurement assistance information includes an indication of the threshold (Performance measurement configuration and exchange may include the network providing measurement assistance information to the UE that includes measurement type indicators (e.g., RTT, PLR), a threshold value; See [0146]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn to include wherein the measurement assistance information includes an indication of the threshold taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Regarding claim 26, Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn fails to teach the apparatus of claim 24, wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes one or more traffic offload rules and the processing circuitry is further to: identify the offload restrictions based on the one or more traffic offload rules. Ly teaches wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes one or more traffic offload rules (In response, the network may return to the UE a status of the request and may include one or more of rules indicating a select steering mode, an adaptive steering mode, or a list of steering modes and the conditions on adapting traffic steering; See [0137]) and the method further comprises: identifying the offload restrictions based on the one or more traffic offload rules (Traffic steering adaptation rules may be used to communicate conditions in which traffic adaptation may be made by the UE and/or the network. The adaptation rules may be included in a communication to request for enabling adaptive traffic steering, for example, or in a response to grant adaptive traffic steering functionality. The UE and the network can communicate to each other when traffic adaptation is to be performed to signal whether traffic adaptation may be performed for UL only, DL only, or both UL and DL; See [0138] and [0140]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn to include wherein the PDU session establishment or modification accept message further includes one or more traffic offload rules and the method further comprises: identifying the offload restrictions based on the one or more traffic offload rules taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Regarding claim 27, Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn fails to teach the apparatus of claim 26, wherein the processing circuitry is further to: determine a measurement value based on the one or more the RTT measurements; compare the measurement value to a threshold; and select or discard the offloading connectivity option based on comparison of the measurement value to the threshold. Ly teaches determining a measurement value based on the one or more the RTT measurements (The network may send a PMFP Measurement request, e.g., including a QFI, measurement begin/end indicators, a measurement type, a measurement value, and/or an indication of whether measurement obtained from 3GPP or non-3GPP access; See [0146]), comparing the measurement value to a threshold (the UE and UPF may be allowed by network to determine how to proceed, based on comparison of difference between measurement and threshold value for each access (3GPP and non-3GPP); See [0147]), and selecting or discarding the offloading connectivity option based on said comparing of the measurement value to the threshold (whichever access has smaller difference is the access the UE/UPF should use; See [0147]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn to include determining a measurement value based on the one or more the RTT measurements; comparing the measurement value to a threshold; and selecting or discarding the offloading connectivity option based on said comparing of the measurement value to the threshold taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Regarding claim 28, Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn fails to teach the apparatus of claim 27, wherein the one or more RTT measurements includes a first RTT measurement on 3GPP access and a second RTT measurement on non-3GPP access and the measurement value is based on a comparison of the first RTT measurement and the second RTT measurement. Ly teaches wherein the one or more RTT measurements includes a first RTT measurement on 3GPP access and a second RTT measurement on non-3GPP access and the measurement value is based on a comparison of the first RTT measurement and the second RTT measurement (the UE and UPF may be allowed by network to determine how to proceed, based on comparison of difference between measurement and threshold value for each access (3GPP and non-3GPP); See [0147]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn to include wherein the one or more RTT measurements includes a first RTT measurement on 3GPP access and a second RTT measurement on non-3GPP access and the measurement value is based on a comparison of the first RTT measurement and the second RTT measurement taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Regarding claim 30, Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn fails to teach the apparatus of claim 27, wherein the measurement assistance information includes an indication of the threshold. Ly teaches wherein the measurement assistance information includes an indication of the threshold (Performance measurement configuration and exchange may include the network providing measurement assistance information to the UE that includes measurement type indicators (e.g., RTT, PLR), a threshold value; See [0146]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Salkintzis in view of Lee and Youn to include wherein the measurement assistance information includes an indication of the threshold taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Claims 9 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salkintzis in view of Lee, Youn and Ly as applied to claims 8 and 28 above, and further in view of Matolia et al. (U.S. PGPub 2021/0289400), hereinafter referred to as Matolia. Regarding claim 9, Salkintzis in view of Lee, Youn and Ly fails to teach the method of claim 8, further comprising: determining a UE-to-user plane function (UPF) RTT time; receiving a UPF-to-Application server (AS) RTT time from a session management function (SMF); and adding the UE-to-UPF RTT time to the UPF-to-AS RTT time to determine the first RTT measurement. Matolia teaches determining a UE-to-user plane function (UPF) RTT time; receiving a UPF-to-Application server (AS) RTT time from a session management function (SMF); and adding the UE-to-UPF RTT time to the UPF-to-AS RTT time to determine the first RTT measurement (periodic latency measurements or RTT between the UE 110, UPF/PSA1 270a and the DN1/EAS1 280a for the currently executed application are performed; See [0057]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the method of Salkintzis in view of Lee, Youn and Ly to include determining a UE-to-user plane function (UPF) RTT time; receiving a UPF-to-Application server (AS) RTT time from a session management function (SMF); and adding the UE-to-UPF RTT time to the UPF-to-AS RTT time to determine the first RTT measurement taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Regarding claim 29, Salkintzis in view of Lee, Youn and Ly fails to teach the apparatus of claim 28, wherein the processing circuitry is further to: determine a UE-to-user plane function (UPF) RTT time; receive a UPF-to-Application server (AS) RTT time from a session management function (SMF); and add the UE-to-UPF RTT time to the UPF-to-AS RTT time to determine the first RTT measurement. Matolia teaches determining a UE-to-user plane function (UPF) RTT time; receiving a UPF-to-Application server (AS) RTT time from a session management function (SMF); and adding the UE-to-UPF RTT time to the UPF-to-AS RTT time to determine the first RTT measurement (periodic latency measurements or RTT between the UE 110, UPF/PSA1 270a and the DN1/EAS1 280a for the currently executed application are performed; See [0057]). Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Salkintzis in view of Lee, Youn and Ly to include determining a UE-to-user plane function (UPF) RTT time; receiving a UPF-to-Application server (AS) RTT time from a session management function (SMF); and adding the UE-to-UPF RTT time to the UPF-to-AS RTT time to determine the first RTT measurement taught by Ly in order to address performance measurements from 3GPP and non-3GPP accesses both exceeding configured threshold values by error handling. Conclusion Any response to this action should be mailed to: Commissioner for Patents, P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, VA 22313-1450 Hand delivered responses should be brought to: Customer Service Window Randolph Building 401 Dulany Street Alexandria, VA 22314 Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ASHLEY L SHIVERS whose telephone number is (571)270-3523. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00am-5:00pm. 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, Chirag Shah can be reached at 571-272-3144. 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. /ASHLEY SHIVERS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 12/23/2025
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Feb 06, 2023
Application Filed
Dec 23, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §103 (current)

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METHOD, APPARATUS, AND SYSTEM FOR TRANSMITTING OR RECEIVING DATA CHANNEL AND CONTROL CHANNEL IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 17, 2026
Patent 12562852
METHOD AND DEVICE IN NODES USED FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
2y 5m to grant Granted Feb 24, 2026
Patent 12557166
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PATH SWITCH IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
2y 5m to grant Granted Feb 17, 2026
Patent 12557038
POWER HEADROOM REPORTING FOR UNCONFIGURED CARRIERS WITH UNCONFIGURED UPLINK
2y 5m to grant Granted Feb 17, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
87%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+14.7%)
2y 10m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 607 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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