DETAILED ACTION
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments presented in the remarks filed on 10/24/2025, addressing the limitations originally recited in claims 2 and 11 (now canceled and incorporated into the independent claims) in response to the prior 35 U.S.C. § 102/103 rejections, have been fully considered and are persuasive. Accordingly, the prior rejections and the indication of allowable to claim 13 are withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, new grounds of rejection are set forth in view of Choi; Noun (US 2019/0124717 A1).
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 1, 3-6, 8-10, 12-17 and 20-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong, Wei (US 2023/0276430 A1, hereinafter referred to as “Hong”.) in view of Choi; Noun (US20190124717A1, hereinafter referred to as “Choi”.)
Regarding claims 1, 4, 6, 12 & 20, Hong teaches a data transmission method, performed by a terminal, comprising: determining computing power requirement information, wherein the computing power requirement information indicates computing power resource information required when the terminal performs data transmission and/or data processing (Para [0047] first communication node, read as terminal, requesting configuration of computing power resources for the first communication node); and sending the computing power requirement information to a first network node (Para [0047 & 0048] second communication node, read as first network node, receives the request from the first node for the configuration of computing resources).
However, Hong fails to teach transmitting the computing power requirement information to the first network node by using a non-access stratum (NAS) message on a control plane for providing a mobility management message or a session management message.
In the same field of endeavor, Choi teaches the standard use of NAS control‑plane messaging (see Choi FIGs.1–6 and associated paragraphs regarding NAS/TAU/RAU and NAS containers. Choi discloses that NAS messages are routinely used to deliver UE‑originated reporting and control information to network functions and describes procedures by which higher‑layer information can be encapsulated in NAS messages and forwarded to appropriate core functions). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Hong’s teaching of the terminal forming and needing to send computing‑power requirement information to the network with Choi’s teaching that NAS control‑plane messages are the routine, standard means for delivering UE control/assistance information to core network functions. Hong teaches the new information type (compute requirement); Choi teaches a well‑known transport (NAS). The combination is a straightforward application of a known signaling channel (NAS) to carry a new kind of UE assistance/control information. The motivation to combine is explicit and practical: once a UE needs to report control/assistance information to core functions, NAS is an established, reliable mechanism to deliver such information to core nodes (registration/SMF/AMF), particularly for UE capabilities, registration and session management payloads. Choi shows that NAS containers and NAS message types are designed to carry comparable UE data to core NFs.
Regarding claims 3, 21 and 15, Hong further teaches an application scope of the computing power requirement information comprises an application data flow; an application data packet; a session channel; or the terminal (Figs. 2-10 shows data flow/channel/bearer/wireless connection between the first communication node (base station) and the second communication node (terminal)).
Regarding claim 5, Hong further teaches notifying, through an application layer (the terminal determining computing resources), the computing power requirement information to a communication layer (physical layer), and then performing a step of sending the computing power requirement information to the first network node through the communication layer (Para [0167] and claim 3).
Regarding claims 8-9, 16, 17, Hong further teaches the determining computing power requirement information comprises: determining a target computational requirement when the terminal performs the data transmission and/or the data processing; obtaining a basic computational unit corresponding to the target computational requirement, wherein the basic computational unit is a computational unit supported by the target network node; and breaking down the target computational requirement based on a type of the basic computational unit to obtain the computing power requirement information, and wherein the computing power requirement information comprises the type of the basic computational unit and a computational amount corresponding to the target computational requirement. The computing power resources may be computing resources to be used in the data processing. The computing power resources may be software resources and/or hardware resources. For example, the computing power resources may be neural network algorithm model resources, read as the basic computational unit as claimed (Para [0059 & 0068]).
Regarding claim 10, Hong teaches a data transmission method, performed by a first network node, wherein the method comprises: receiving computing power requirement information, wherein the computing power requirement information indicates computing power resource information required when a terminal performs data transmission and/or data processing (Fig. 8, Step 71, receiving a request message for requesting configuration of computing power resources from a first communication node); selecting a target computing power resource that satisfies the computing power requirement information and/or an identifier of a network element function that satisfies the target computing power resource from a preset computing power resource; and performing the data processing and/or the data transmission based on the target computing power resource and/or the identifier of the network element function (Fig. 8, Step 81, and Para [0147-0154]).
However, Hong fails to teach receiving the computing power requirement information to the first network node by using a non-access stratum (NAS) message on a control plane for providing a mobility management message or a session management message.
In the same field of endeavor, Choi teaches the standard use of NAS control‑plane messaging (see Choi FIGs.1–6 and associated paragraphs regarding NAS/TAU/RAU and NAS containers. Choi discloses that NAS messages are routinely used to deliver UE‑originated reporting and control information to network functions and describes procedures by which higher‑layer information can be encapsulated in NAS messages and forwarded to appropriate core functions). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Hong’s teaching of the terminal forming and needing to send computing‑power requirement information to the network with Choi’s teaching that NAS control‑plane messages are the routine, standard means for delivering UE control/assistance information to core network functions. Hong teaches the new information type (compute requirement); Choi teaches a well‑known transport (NAS). The combination is a straightforward application of a known signaling channel (NAS) to carry a new kind of UE assistance/control information. The motivation to combine is explicit and practical: once a UE needs to report control/assistance information to core functions, NAS is an established, reliable mechanism to deliver such information to core nodes (registration/SMF/AMF), particularly for UE capabilities, registration and session management payloads. Choi shows that NAS containers and NAS message types are designed to carry comparable UE data to core NFs.
Regarding claim 13, Hong further teaches wherein the receiving the computing power requirement information transmitted by using a first computing power sensing layer further comprises: receiving, through a second computing power sensing layer, the computing power requirement information transmitted by using the first computing power sensing layer, wherein the second computing power sensing layer is an upper layer of an NAS layer in the first network node (Hong further discloses a “first computing power sensing layer” above NAS in the terminal, and describes transmission of the sensing‑layer message to the network (see Hong ¶ [0064]–[0066], FIG. 4B, FIG. 4C, FIG. 4D). Hong further describes a corresponding “second computing power sensing layer” on the network side (peer layer to the terminal’s first sensing layer), and shows the network node receiving the sensing‑layer message (see Hong ¶ [0064]–[0078], FIG. 4B–4D).
6. Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong in view of Choi and further view of Lei et al. (US 20220294574 A1, hereinafter referred to as “Lei”).
Regarding claim 7, Hong in combination of Choi teaches using the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for sending computing resource information, but silent on wherein the information is set in a reserved field of the data packet header. However, Lei teaches using one or more reserved fields or unused fields to carry PUCCH signaling information (Claims 7 and 42 of Lei). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to set the computing resources information in the reserved fields or unused fields of the packet header for enhancing signaling between the terminal and the base station without changing the format of the packet.
7. Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong in view of Choi and further in view of Ahmadi (US 2014/0038654 A1).
Regarding claim 14, Hong and Choi fail to teach wherein the receiving computing power requirement information comprises: receiving computing power requirement information forwarded by a second network node, wherein the computing power requirement information is sent by the terminal to the second network node. However, Ahmadi, in the same field of endeavor teaches when UE 708 requests a computing resource, the computing resource may be provided by one or more of serving BS 704, non-serving BS 702, UE 706, and/or one or more other nodes in the cellular network (Fig. 7, Para 0092-0093]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the teaching of Ahmadi in the system of Hong in combination with Choi for providing the system with distributed computing processing.
Allowable Subject Matter
8. Claims 8 and 19 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.
Conclusion
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICKY QUOC NGO whose telephone number is (571)272-3139. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/RICKY Q NGO/
Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2464