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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 05/18/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This office action is responsive to amendment filed on 04/23/2026. The Examiner has acknowledged claims 1, 5 and 21 have been amended. Claims 2, 10 and 12-15 have been canceled. Claims 1, 3-9, 11 and 16-22 have been presented for examination and are rejected.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments and amendment filed on April 23rd, 2026 with respect rejected to claims 21, 3-9, 11 and 16-22 under 35 U.S.C. 102 have been considered, but are moot in view of the new ground of rejection necessitated by Applicant's amendment.
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 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)(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.
Claims 1, 4-6, 11 and 21-22 are rejected Under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (2) as being anticipated by Yu et al. (US 20230262513 hereinafter Yu).
With respect to claims 1, 5 and 21, Yu teaches a Quality of Service (QoS) guarantee method, performed by a first communications device (Yu, see Parag. [0151] the network device obtains the mapping relationship between the QoS flow), wherein the method comprises:
sending first information, wherein the first information is used to perform a first operation comprising determining or changing delay information within a server, and the first information (Yu, see FIG. 4 and paragraphs [0181-0183] S402: The network device sends the delay information (i.e., equivalent to first information) to a terminal device, so that the first terminal device determines first packet delay budget based on the delay information) comprises at least one of the following:
first request information, wherein the first request information is used to request to perform traffic-level QoS guarantee on a first object;
traffic-level delay budget, wherein the traffic-level delay budget comprises an end-to-end delay budget between a terminal and a server, or a delay budget between a terminal-side data end and a network-side data end;
first delay information (Yu, see Parag. [0193] the first delay information), wherein the first delay information comprises one of the following:
delay information within a terminal (Yu, see Parag. [0193] send the delay information to the terminal device), or delay information between a terminal-side data end and a terminal; or
delay information between a terminal and a gateway,
wherein when the first information comprises the first request information (Yu, see Parag. [0181] in response to request first information (i.e., first delay information) the network device sends the first delay information to a terminal device), the first object comprises at least one of the following:
a terminal (Yu, see FIG. 4 and Parag. [0181-0183] terminal devices),
a first traffic, first data, a first data channel, or a first computing task.
Claim 2, (Canceled)
With respect to claim 4, Yu teaches the method, further comprising:
receiving a first response (Yu, see Parag. [0222] FIG. 2, the first packet delay budget is to be met in response (i.e., first response) to data being transmitted)or traffic-level QoS guarantee start information; and
sending information, data of the first object (Yu, see Parag. [0183-0184] sends the delay information to the terminal device (i.e., terminal is equivalent to first object) in S402) or
a target object according to the first response, or the traffic-level QoS guarantee start information,
wherein the first response is used to indicate that a first request is successfully responded to, and the traffic-level QoS guarantee start information comprises at least one of the following:
indication information indicating starting of traffic-level QoS guarantee(Yu, see Parag. [0193] the network device dynamically indicates the packet delay budget that is to be met in response to data being transmitted on the side-link, so that the first terminal device selects or requests a more appropriate resource that meets a quality of service (QoS) requirement), or
description information of the target object for traffic-level QoS guarantee.
With respect to claim 6, Yu teaches the method, wherein the related information of the first operation further comprises:
subscription information of the traffic-level QoS guarantee (Yu, see Parag. [0034] the first quality of service flow is a quality of service flow between a remote terminal device and the network device), and
the performing the first operation according to the related information of the first operation(Yu, see claim 14, perform operations including: sending first indication information to the network device) comprises:
performing the first operation when a first condition is met (Yu, see Parag. [0006] the first aspect, the first terminal device determines, based on the received delay information, the first packet delay budget that is to be met in response to data being transmitted on the side-link),
wherein the first condition comprises at least one of the following:
the related subscription information of traffic-level QoS guarantee allows traffic-level QoS guarantee to be performed on all or a part of traffics in the first object;
the related subscription information of traffic-level QoS guarantee allows traffic-level QoS guarantee to be performed on the terminal;
the first information is obtained(Yu, see Parag. [0018] the first terminal device may send the first indication information to the network device);
a first delay changes; a second delay changes; a third delay changes (Yu, see Parag. [0007, 0009, 0011] the delay information includes first delay information, the second delay information and the third delay information);
a fourth delay changes; a traffic-level delay budget changes; and traffic-level delay guarantee cannot be met.
Claim 10 (canceled)
With respect to claims 11 and 22, Dinan teaches the method, wherein the operation of determining or changing fourth delay information comprises:
requesting to change the delay information within the server (Yu, see claim 14, perform operations including: sending first indication information to the network device), when at least one of the following is met:
a first delay changes, a second delay changes, a third delay changes (Yu, see Parag. [0007, 0009, 0011] the delay information includes first delay information, the second delay information and the third delay information), a traffic-level delay budget changes, or traffic-level delay guarantee cannot be met.
Claims 12-15 (canceled)
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 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 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 7-9, 16-18 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 20230262513 hereinafter Yu) in view of Dinan et al. (WO 2020150333 hereinafter Dinan).
With respect to claims 7 and 20, Yu teaches the method, yet fails to explicitly disclose further comprising: obtaining the related policy information of traffic-level QoS guarantee,
wherein the related policy information of traffic-level QoS guarantee comprises at least one of the following:
description information of a target object;
a Policy Control and Charging (PCC) rule;
a QoS monitoring rule;
a delay between a terminal and a gateway.
However, Dinan discloses obtaining the related policy information of traffic-level QoS guarantee (Dinan, see paragraph [0061 ] the 5GC may provide policy information from the PCF 135 to the UE 100. In an example, the policy information may comprise: access network discovery and selection policy, UE 100 route selection policy (URSP), SSC mode selection policy),
wherein the related policy information of traffic-level QoS guarantee comprises at least one of the following:
description information of a target object;
a Policy Control and Charging (PCC) rule (Dinan, see paragraph [00147] UE 100 subscription profile in UDM 140, DNAI was included in the PCC rules, local operator policies);
a QoS monitoring rule; a delay between a terminal and a gateway.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of Yu with the teaching of Dinan to provide the methods for related policy information in particular a Policy Control and Charging (PCC) rule. The PCC rule for traffic-level QoS guarantees is that it allows network operators to apply dynamic, highly granular, and automated traffic management directly on a per-service basis.
Furthermore, Yu teaches a delay between a terminal and a gateway; delay information within a server; or a traffic-level delay budget (Yu, see Parag. [0011] a packet delay budget corresponding to a first quality of service flow, the first quality of service flow is a quality of service flow between a remote terminal device and the network device).
a delay between a terminal and a gateway; delay information within a server; or a traffic-level delay budget (Yu, see Parag. [0011] a packet delay budget corresponding to a first quality of service flow, the first quality of service flow is a quality of service flow between a remote terminal device and the network device).
With respect to claim 8, Yu-Dinan teaches the method, wherein after the obtaining the related policy information of traffic-level QoS guarantee, the method further comprises:
according to the related policy information of traffic-level QoS guarantee (Dinan, see paragraph [0061 ] the 5GC may provide policy information from the PCF 135 to the UE 100. In an example, the policy information may comprise: access network discovery and selection policy, UE 100 route selection policy (URSP), SSC mode selection policy), performing at least one of the following:
determining the delay information within the server;
determining QoS guarantee requirement information in the server, wherein the QoS guarantee requirement information in the server comprises the delay information within the server; or
determining related policy information used for traffic-level QoS guarantee of a user plane network element (Dinan, see paragraph [0061, 0074 ] the 5GC may provide policy information from the PCF 135 to the UE 100. The policy information may comprise: access network discovery and selection policy, UE 100 route selection policy (URSP), SSC mode selection policy. … the 5G QoS model may support a QoS flow-based framework as depicted in example FIG. 7. The 5G QoS model may support both QoS flows that require a guaranteed flow bit rate and QoS flows that may not require a guaranteed flow bit rate).
With respect to claim 9, Yu-Dinan teaches the method, further comprising:
sending a first response or traffic-level QoS guarantee start information to a another communications device, wherein:
the first response is used to indicate that first request information is successfully responded to (Dinan, see paragraphs [0260-0263] the UE may send a NAS message(i.e., interpreted as being equivalent to first request ) to the SMF (e.g., via the AMF). The NAS message may comprise the SRP message, a PDU session type indicating that the request is for SRP/TSN (e.g., type = SRP/TSN), S-NSSAI(s), DNN, PDU Session ID, request type, old PDU session ID, N1 SM container (PDU Session Establishment Request); the traffic-level QoS guarantee start information comprises at least one of the following:
indication information indicating starting of traffic-level QoS guarantee, or description information of the target object for traffic-level QoS guarantee(Dinan, see paragraph [0216] for QoS profile generation, the AF may maintain the relationship between UE ID, 5GS virtual bridge ID and UE port ID. The AF may determine/find the corresponding UE ID when receiving TSN stream rule (Bridge ID, Ingress port ID, Egress port ID, Stream description (i.e., interpreted as being equivalent to description information), stream id, and/or the like) from CNC. The AF may determine the traffic class in the TSN stream rule and map the traffic class to corresponding 5QI (i.e., interpreted as being equivalent to first object/ first traffic or first data);
the target object comprises at least one of the following:
the terminal, a target traffic, target information, target data, a target data channel, or a target computing task(Dinan, see paragraphs [00232-00233] if the UE (i.e., equivalent to terminal) may determine that the PDU session establishment procedure is required, the UE may send a NAS Message to an AMF);
the description information of the target object comprises at least one of the following:
description information of the target traffic, description information of the target information, description information of the target data (Dinan, see paragraph [0216] for QoS profile generation, the AF may maintain the relationship between UE ID, 5GS virtual bridge ID and UE port ID. The AF may determine/find the corresponding UE ID when receiving TSN stream rule (Bridge ID, Ingress port ID, Egress port ID, Stream description (i.e., interpreted as being equivalent to description information), stream id, and/or the like) from CNC), description information of the target data channel, or description information of the target computing task;
the target object is the same as or different from the first object; and the target object is the same as or different from the second object.
With respect to claim 16, Yu teaches the method, yet fails to explicitly disclose wherein the communications device comprises a core network (CN) element.
However, Dinan discloses wherein the communications device comprises a core network (CN) element (Dinan, see paragraph [0042] FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 depict a 5G system comprising of access networks and 5G core network (CN)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of Yu with the teaching of Dinan to provide the methods for integrating a Core Network (CN) element directly into a communications device, it enhanced autonomy & reliability for network management and performance. It enables edge computing and local traffic routing, which reduces latency by processing data closer to the source instead of routing everything through a centralized, remote core.
With respect to claim 17, Yu-Dinan teaches the method wherein the CN element comprises a session management function (SMF) (Dinan, see FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 and paragraph [0047] session management function, SMF 160, may include one or more of the following functionalities (one or more of the SMF 160 functionalities may be supported in a single instance of a SMF 160)).
With respect to claim 18, Yu-Dinan teaches the method, wherein the CN element comprises a policy control function (PCF) (Dinan, see ] FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 and paragraph [0053 ] a policy control function, PCF 135, may support unified policy framework to govern network behavior, provide policy rules to control plane function(s) to enforce policy rules, implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a user data repository (UDR), and/or the like).
With respect to claim 19, Yu-Dinan teaches the method, further comprising:
determining to generate or change the related policy information of traffic-level QoS guarantee (Yu, see Parag. [0011] a packet delay budget corresponding to a first quality of service flow, the first quality of service flow is a quality of service flow between a remote terminal device and the network device) when at least one of the following is met:
the related subscription information of traffic-level QoS guarantee allows traffic-level QoS guarantee to be performed on all or a part of services in the first object (Yu, see Parag. [0034] the first quality of service (QoS)flow between a remote terminal device (i.e., equivalent to first object ) and the network device), or
the related subscription information of traffic-level QoS guarantee allows traffic-level QoS guarantee to be performed on all or a part of services in the second object;
the related subscription information of traffic-level QoS guarantee allows traffic-level QoS guarantee to be performed on a terminal;
the first information is obtained, or the second information is obtained;
a first delay changes; a second delay changes; a third delay changes (Yu, see Parag. [0007, 0009, 0011] the delay information includes first delay information, the second delay information and the third delay information);
a fourth delay changes; a traffic-level delay budget changes; or traffic-level delay guarantee cannot be met.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 20230262513 hereinafter Yu) in view of Yamazaki (US 20110223948 hereinafter Yamazaki).
With respect to claim 3, Yu teaches the method, yet fails to explicitly disclose wherein:
when the first information comprises the delay information within the terminal, the delay information within the terminal comprises at least one of the following:
computing delay information within the terminal, or transmission delay information within the terminal;
when the first information comprises the delay information within the server, the delay information within the server comprises at least one of the following:
a computing delay within the server or a transmission delay within the server; or when the first information comprises the delay information between the terminal-side data end and the terminal,
the delay information between the terminal-side data end and the terminal comprises at least one of the following:
computing delay information between the terminal-side data end and the terminal, transmission delay information between the terminal-side data end and the terminal, delay information within the terminal, or delay information within the terminal-side data end.
However, Yanazaki discloses wherein: when the first information comprises the delay information within the terminal, the delay information within the terminal comprises at least one of the following:
computing delay information within the terminal, or transmission delay information within the terminal (Yamazaki, see paragraphs [0008-0009, 0015] the radio terminal of first delay information (delay information S1.sub.info) about the first delay signal sequence (i.e., corresponding to delay information with terminal));
when the first information comprises the delay information within the server, the delay information within the server comprises at least one of the following:
a computing delay within the server or a transmission delay within the server (Yamazaki, see paragraph [0017] there is provided a radio communication method comprising the steps of: superimposing and transmitting (e.g. step S104), by a first radio communication device configured to transmit a first signal sequence, the first signal sequence and a first delay signal sequence, the first delay signal sequence generated by delaying the first signal sequence (i.e., corresponding to transmission delay within the server)); or
when the first information comprises the delay information between the terminal-side data end and the terminal, the delay information between the terminal-side data end and the terminal comprises at least one of the following:
computing delay information between the terminal-side data end and the terminal, transmission delay information between the terminal-side data end and the terminal (Yamazaki, see paragraph [0017] receiving (step S302) the first signal sequence and the second signal sequence in the same time range by a receiver of the radio terminal from the transmission system; combining (step S303) the first signal sequence and the first delay signal sequence in accordance with the notified first delay information by a separation processor when executing separation processing), delay information within the terminal, or delay information within the terminal-side data end.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to combine the teaching of Yu with the teaching of Yanazaki to provide the systems and methods for radio communication system, the first delay information provides significant advantages for terminal operations, primarily by improving efficiency, reducing congestion, and enabling better proactive decision-making.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes:
PG. Pub. US 20210014767 Method for controlling data transmission involves sending first delay information to a first access network device and the first delay information represents a delay in transmitting data on a first path.
PG. Pub. US 20210168658 Method for communicating access network and terminal devices, involves transmitting time delay information to autonomous network element from session management function network element, where time delay information indicates time delay.
PG. Pub. US 20210321301 Cellular network slicing managing method, involves providing data services to user equipment of external entity in accordance with cellular network access conditions package.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELIZABETH KASSA whose telephone number is (571)270-0567. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Friday 9 AM -6 PM.
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05/28/2026
/ELIZABETH KASSA/Examiner, Art Unit 2457
/LANCE LEONARD BARRY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2457
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