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
Claims 3, 10, 15 and 17 are objected to because of the following informalities: the claims recite “capable of” language. Examiner suggests removing the “capable of” language and replacing it with a more positive recitation in the respective claims. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 13, 15, 16 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yu (US 2019/0394745).
Regarding claims 1 and 15, Yu discloses a computer system (Paragraphs 350-353, UPF) capable of acting as a universal gateway for policy-aware traffic forwarding for multiple types of network traffic (Paragraph 353, the UPF sends the data packet to an access network side tunnel corresponding to the access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the access type information of the data packet) that include a first type of network traffic and a second type of network traffic (Paragraphs 170-171, An access technology of a first communications network or an access technology of a second communications network includes: a 3GPP access technology [second type], a non-3GPP access technology [first type], a fixed network access technology (or a fixed network access technology or a wired access technology), a WLAN access technology, a trusted WLAN access technology, an untrusted WLAN access technology, a 5G RAN access technology, an LTE access technology, or the like…The foregoing access technology may be indicated by using access type information or radio access type information. The access type information may also be referred to as access type indication information), comprising:
(a) an interworking function (Interworking function is inherent in the UPF of paragraphs 350-353 since it interworks non-3GPP traffic into the 3GPP user plane); and
(b) a data plane associated with the second type of network traffic (Paragraphs 350-353, UPF), wherein: the interworking function is to extract identification information associated with a first client (Paragraph 347, The UPF matches a data packet based on the data flow description information [identification information]; Paragraph 353, the UPF receives a data packet, and determines access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the correspondence between the data flow description information and the access type information), wherein the first client is associated with the first type of network traffic (Paragraphs 347, 353, access type information);
based on the identification information, the interworking function is to obtain a first policy associated with the first client from a control plane entity associated with the second type of network traffic (Paragraph 353, In a data forwarding process, the UPF may further receive the data packet forwarding rule [first policy] sent by the SMF [from a control plane entity], where the data packet forwarding rule includes the correspondence between the data flow description information [identification information] and the access type information; the UPF stores the correspondence between the data flow description information and the access type information. [The SMF is associated with 3GPP traffic, specifically 5G]);
in response to detecting first network traffic of the first type from the first client (Paragraph 353, the UPF receives a data packet), (a) the interworking function is to interwork the first network traffic into the data plane entity associated with the second type of network traffic (Paragraph 353, determines access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the correspondence between the data flow description information and the access type information; and the UPF sends the data packet to an access network side tunnel corresponding to the access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the access type information of the data packet; Paragraphs 170-171, access types including non-3GPP as first type and 3GPP as second type), and (b) the data plane entity is to forward the first network traffic according to the first policy associated with the first client (Paragraph 353, UPF performs data packet forwarding according to forwarding rule including correspondence between data flow description and access type associated with the client); and
in response to detecting second network traffic of the second type from a second client (Paragraphs 170-171, access types including non-3GPP as first type and 3GPP as second type; Paragraph 353, UPF receives a data packet that has a flow description [paragraph 347] corresponding to an access type [3GPP, 5G]) the data plane entity is to forward the second network traffic according to a second policy associated with the second client (Paragraph 353, determines access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the correspondence between the data flow description information and the access type information; and the UPF sends the data packet to an access network side tunnel corresponding to the access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the access type information of the data packet. UPF performs data packet forwarding according to forwarding rule including correspondence between data flow description and access type associated with the client).
Regarding claim 8, Yu discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes a set of instructions which, in response to execution by a processor of a computer system, cause the processor to perform (Paragraph 376, a processor of the UPF is configured to perform the steps of the UPF in the method embodiment of FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B or FIG. 14 by invoking a program or an instruction stored in a memory) a method of policy-aware traffic forwarding for multiple types of network traffic (Paragraph 353, the UPF sends the data packet to an access network side tunnel corresponding to the access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the access type information of the data packet) that include a first type of network traffic and a second type of network traffic (Paragraphs 170-171, An access technology of a first communications network or an access technology of a second communications network includes: a 3GPP access technology [second type], a non-3GPP access technology [first type], a fixed network access technology (or a fixed network access technology or a wired access technology), a WLAN access technology, a trusted WLAN access technology, an untrusted WLAN access technology, a 5G RAN access technology, an LTE access technology, or the like…The foregoing access technology may be indicated by using access type information or radio access type information. The access type information may also be referred to as access type indication information), wherein the method comprises:
extracting identification information associated with a first client (Paragraph 347, The UPF matches a data packet based on the data flow description information [identification information]; Paragraph 353, the UPF receives a data packet, and determines access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the correspondence between the data flow description information and the access type information), wherein the first client is associated with the first type of network traffic (Paragraphs 347, 353, access type information);
based on the identification information, obtaining a first policy associated with the first client from a control plane entity associated with the second type of network traffic (Paragraph 353, In a data forwarding process, the UPF may further receive the data packet forwarding rule [first policy] sent by the SMF [from a control plane entity], where the data packet forwarding rule includes the correspondence between the data flow description information [identification information] and the access type information; the UPF stores the correspondence between the data flow description information and the access type information. [The SMF is associated with 3GPP traffic, specifically 5G]);
in response to detecting first network traffic of the first type from the first client (Paragraph 353, the UPF receives a data packet), (a) interworking the first network traffic into the data plane entity associated with the second type of network traffic (Paragraph 353, determines access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the correspondence between the data flow description information and the access type information; and the UPF sends the data packet to an access network side tunnel corresponding to the access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the access type information of the data packet; Paragraphs 170-171, access types including non-3GPP as first type and 3GPP as second type), and (b) forwarding the first network traffic according to the first policy associated with the first client (Paragraph 353, UPF performs data packet forwarding according to forwarding rule including correspondence between data flow description and access type associated with the client); and
in response to detecting second network traffic of the second type from a second client (Paragraphs 170-171, access types including non-3GPP as first type and 3GPP as second type; Paragraph 353, UPF receives a data packet that has a flow description [paragraph 347] corresponding to an access type [3GPP, 5G]), forwarding the second network traffic according to a second policy associated with the second client (Paragraph 353, determines access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the correspondence between the data flow description information and the access type information; and the UPF sends the data packet to an access network side tunnel corresponding to the access type information corresponding to the data packet based on the access type information of the data packet. UPF performs data packet forwarding according to forwarding rule including correspondence between data flow description and access type associated with the client).
Regarding claims 2, 9 and 16, Yu discloses wherein obtaining the first policy comprises: obtaining the first policy from a session management function (SMF) entity residing on the control plane associated with the second type of network traffic (Paragraph 353, In a data forwarding process, the UPF may further receive the data packet forwarding rule sent by the SMF).
Regarding claims 6, 13 and 20, Yu discloses wherein obtaining the first policy comprises: receiving, from the control plane entity, the first policy that is retrieved based on one or more of the following identification information associated with the first client: media access control (MAC) address, Internet Protocol (IP) address, an inner identifier, an outer identifier, and a chargeable-user identifier (CUID) (Paragraph 300, The control plane network element functional entity is mainly responsible for user registration and authentication [inner/outer identifier], mobility management, delivering a data packet forward policy [first policy based on user registration/authentication] to a user plane (UPF), a QoS control policy, or the like).
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.
Claim(s) 3, 10 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu as applied to claims 1, 8 and 15 above, and further in view of Lin (US 2022/0141134).
Regarding claims 3, 10 and 17, Yu discloses the claimed invention above but does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Lin: wherein extracting the identification information comprises: extracting, using a proxy agent supported by the computer system, the identification information during an authentication process (Lin, Paragraph 45, the AAA proxy 142b consults the user device identity and address comparison table in the comparison module 13 to obtain the target IP address corresponding to the identity information of the user device 3), wherein the identification information is extracted from one or more messages destined for or originating from an external authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) server capable of authenticating the first client using credential information associated with the first client (Lin, Paragraph 45, the user device 3 sends an access request signal including the identity information of the user device 3 to the Wi-Fi GW 111, the Wi-Fi GW 111 transmits the access request signal to the AAA proxy 142b through the routing module 12 and the SM 141, and the AAA proxy 142b then transmits the access request signal to the AAA server 4).
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 Yu with the cited disclosure from Lin in order to perform multi-access computing using different radio access technologies (Lin, Title and paragraph 3).
Claim(s) 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu as applied to claims 1, 8 and 15 above, and further in view of Hu et al. (US 2020/0205208).
Regarding claims 4, 11 and 18, Yu discloses the claimed invent above but does not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Hu et al.: wherein extracting the identification information comprises: extracting the identification information from a request message for an Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment using dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), or a response message in reply to the request message (Hu et al., Paragraph 119, 5G entity obtains IP address or MAC address of a terminal from DHCP procedure).
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 Yu with the cited disclosure from Hu et al. for interaction between terminals of different user planes (Hu et al., Paragraph 6).
Regarding claims 5, 12 and 19, Yu discloses wherein obtaining the first policy comprises: generating and sending, to the control plane entity, a packet data unit (PDU) session establishment request that includes the identification information (Paragraph36, where the second transmission message includes a permanent identifier of user equipment and PDU session establishment request information, the PDU session establishment request information includes a session identifier and second multi-access indication information); and receiving, from the control plane entity, one or more N4 session establishment requests specifying one or more parameters of the first policy (Paragraph 354, The SMF sends an N4 session update or establishment request message to the UPF if establishment of no multi-access session is allowed, where the N4 session update or establishment request message is used to indicate that the UPF updates an access network side tunnel identifier of the session service).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7, 14 and 21 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: regarding claims 7, 14 and 21, the prior art does not disclose or adequately suggest that in response to the proxy agent detecting a change of authorization or packet of disconnect message from an AAA server, generating and sending a report to the control plane entity to cause the control plane entity to modify session information or terminate a session.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OTIS L THOMPSON, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-1953. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 6:30am - 7:00pm.
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/OTIS L THOMPSON, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
February 3, 2026