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 .
Applicant's submission filed on 11/25/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-18 have been examined.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks Page 3 with regards to amended limitation “wherein extracting the set of attributes comprising mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets”, filed on 11/25/2025 , with respect to the rejections of claims 1, 8,11, 18 under 103/102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of Sjoberg.
With regards to 112 2nd rejection:
With regards to 112 2nd rejection (Claim13), Applicant relied on his argument is that the recitation in claim 13 does not imply that the CTAS is structurally external to the UE.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Claim 13 recites “wherein the at least one CTAS is operatively coupled to one or more communication interfaces for communicating with the UE via one or more channels from a group consisting of : telephone calls, …..” and independent claim 11 which claim 13 depends on recites “ UE comprising at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS)”. It is unclear how the CTAS is communicating with UE via one or more channels such as telephone calls and that the same CTAS is within the UE. Claim 13 shows that the CTAS is external from UE since it communicate with UE using one or more channels such as video calls. Therefore, the 112 2nd is maintained.
Applicant argument # 1
Applicant argues that Lee does not explicitly teach “ extracting a set of attributes from the one or more predefined request signals”.
Examiner response to Applicant’s argument #1
Applicant relied on his argument is that Lee performs no extraction of attributes.
The examiner respectfully disagrees. Lee ‘s invention teaches acquiring a call setup message; Obtaining identification information of a base station, obtaining status information of the base station using the identification information, changing performance information included in the call setup message according to the status information of the base station (See Abstract ). Lee’s invention further teaches Obtaining allowable performance information corresponding to state information of the base station and reflecting the obtained allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message (Page 2, Page 6).
Therefore, Lee teaches extracting attributes such as performance information (Codec list) from call setup message. These attributes pertaining to a set of modes.
Applicant argument # 2
Applicant argues that Lee does not explicitly teach “add a predefined number of mode-sets to the one or more predefined request signals if the set of modes are unavailable in the one or more predefined request signals and restricting the set of modes to the predefined number of mode-sets, if the set of modes exceed the predefined number of mode set”
Examiner response to Applicant’s argument #2
The examiner respectfully disagrees. Lee teaches adding a predefined number of mode-sets to the one or more predefined request signals if the set of modes are unavailable in the one or more predefined request signals. Lee’s invention teaches reflecting the acquired allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message, adding a list of codec modes that can be supported according to the state information of the base station to the performance information (See Page 2).
Lee further teaches the P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec and according to the SDP, description of the codec mode is omitted in the performance information portion of the call setup message when all codec modes are allowed. Accordingly, the terminal 202 transmits a call setup message without describing the codec mode part (Page 6).
Therefore, Lee teaches changing the call setup message based on the status of the base station by adding a list of allowed codec modes of the call setup message if they are not defined ( when terminal sent call setup message without describing the code mode part).
Lee also teaches restricting the set of modes to the predefined number of mode-sets, if the set of modes exceed the predefined number of mode set. Lee’s invention teaches the P-CSCF 208 may change the call setup message by restricting some codec modes when the state of the base station 204 is poor, i.e., adding only the allowed codec modes to the performance information portion of the call setup message.
Lee’s invention further teaches deleting a codec mode, which is not allowed according to the state information of the base station, from the codec mode list when the codec mode list is included in the performance information of the call setup message (Page 2).
Lee ‘s invention further teaches that since the terminal 202 generally supports all codecs and all quality modes, the performance information included in the call setup message delivered by the terminal 202 to the P-CSCF 208 indicates that all quality modes are supported. If the amount of resources that the base station 204 can provide to the terminal 202 is 1000, a codec-codec mode combination other than the codec mode A, B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec may be used cannot provide optimal call quality. Therefore, the P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec.
Lee’s invention further teaches that if the P-CSCF 208 receives a call setup message that includes a list of codec modes that are explicitly allowed, the P-CSCF 208 may not support a bit rate that the base station 204 cannot support in the list of codec modes already included. The call setup message can be changed by removing the codec mode that requires. (See Page 6).
Therefore, Lee invention teaches restricting and changing codec modes when the requested modes exceed what the base station can support due to load condition.
Applicant argument # 3
Applicant argues that Cakulev does not explicitly teach that the CTAS is in communication with central database.
Examiner response to Applicant’s argument #3
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Cakulev teaches CTAS is in communication with central database. Cakulev invention teaches a device comprises a telephony application server in IMS network. The TAS 320 may function as a multimedia application server that provides call control for voice and video between UEs 110. TAS 320 may serve the called UE 110 during call establishment, the TAS as shown in Fig. 3 is in communication with HSS through I-CSCF 140 and UE. ( See Fig.3, Claim 4, ¶ 0037) .
Cakulev invention further teaches that I-CSCF 310-I queries HSS 330 to learn the identity of the S-CSCF assigned to a given UE 110 so that it can properly forward the SIP signaling. HSS 330 includes a master user database (DB) that supports all of CSCFs 310 of IMS network (¶ 0036). The TAS is defined as a node within the IMS network which include the HSS device. Therefore, the TAS is in communication with HSS and the UE.
Note: the claim does not specify the type of communication between the TAS and central database if it is direct communication or indirect communication.
Applicant also relied on his argument is that TAS performs only generic call control and fallback avoidance functions and entirely lacks the claimed receiving, extracting, mapping ,adding and restricting.
In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show non obviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
Applicant argument # 4
Applicant argues Xing does not explicitly teach that UE being associated with any predefined circle in the network.
Examiner response to Applicant’s argument #4
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Xing teaches at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS) in communication with UE associated with a predefined circle in the communication network.
Xing invention teaches the smart phone can engage in a real-time gaming service based on similar connection through the RAN, the transport network and the core network to a gaming server (See Fig.1 &2, Col.1, lines 25-31. Col. 6, lines 5-10).
Xing invention further teaches an indication that the portion of the end-to-end connection that passes through the transport network is arranged in a star topology, a circle topology, or any other type of topology or arrangement (Col.10, lines 25-31).
Therefore, Xing teaches the predefined circle as equivalent to the circle topology as a specific structural configuration of the transport network. This topology functions as a predefined circle through which communication between the UE and TAS is routed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—the specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claims contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention
With regards to claims 1,8, 11, 18, the claims recite the limitation "… wherein extracting the set of attributes comprising mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets”.
The examiner checked the specification (¶0042, ¶ 0043 and Table 1 – See Remarks – Page 1) and the recitations are:
Table1, ¶0042 The CTAS 102 may comply with but not limited to AMR-WB. The 8 mode sets are shown in Table 1.
¶0043- In an embodiment, the CTAS may calculate a mean opinion score (MOS) with respect to the mode-sets. In an embodiment, at mode-set 3, an optimum MOS is achieved that helps provide best and optimum voice quality.
Based on the above paragraphs and Table 1, The specification does not describe "… wherein extracting the set of attributes comprising mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets.”
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding Claims 1,8,11, 18, the claims recite the limitation "… wherein extracting the set of attributes comprising mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets.”. “It is unclear how the extracting of attributes comprising mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices…” Therefore, the examiner is unable to clearly and precisely define the metes and bounds of the claimed language.
With regards to claim 13, the claim recites “at least one CTAS is operatively coupled to one or more communication interfaces for communicating with the UE via one or more channels selected from a group consisting of: telephonic calls, web-based voice communications, voice-over-IP communications…” Claim 11 which claim 13 depends on recites “ the UE comprising: at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS)..”. It is unclear how the CTAS is communicating with the UE via one or more channels such as telephone calls, voice over IP communication and that the UE comprising CTAS. Therefore, the examiner is unable to determine the metes and bounds of the claim language.
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.
Claims 1,2,4,7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. Publication No. KR 20140039852 A ( Lee hereinafter) in view of Cakulev et al. Publication No. US 2022/0086198 A1 ( Cakulev hereinafter) further in view of Xing et al. Patent No. US 11,659,444 B1 ( Xing hereinafter) further in view of J. Sjoberg et al. “RTP Payload Format and file Storage for the Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) and Adaptive Multi -Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) Audio codecs” – RFC 4867 – (Sjoberg hereinafter)
Regarding claim 1,
Lee teaches a system for mode set restriction during speech modulation in a communication network (Fig. 1, Pages 2 & 6), the system comprising:
at least one device in communication with a user equipment (UE) in the communication network, wherein the at least one device comprises of a memory and processor, the processor being coupled to a memory, the memory storing instructions on execution causes the at least one device (Fig.1, Fig.5, Page 6) to
receive one or more predefined request signals from the UE ;extract, a set of attributes from the one or more predefined request signals, the set of attributes pertaining to a set of modes, wherein the set of modes pertain to a standardized bit rate for speech modulation (Abstract , Page 2 & 6 acquiring a call setup message; Obtaining identification information of a base station, obtaining status information of the base station using the identification information, changing performance information included in the call setup message according to the status information of the base station. Obtaining allowable performance information corresponding to state information of the base station and reflecting the obtained allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message. it is assumed that the performance information included in the call setup message received by the P-CSCF 208 includes the AMR and AMR-WB codecs – Page 5 - the terminal 202 transmits a call establishment proposal message, for example, an SDP proposal message. The call setup suggestion message includes performance information of the terminal 202. The performance information of the terminal 202 may include, for example, a list of codecs supported by the terminal 202 and/ or information about a codec mode supported by the terminal 202);
determine, from the extracted set of attributes, if the set of modes are specified in the one or more predefined request signals (Page 4 -the first call control device 140 may change the call setup proposal message received from the first terminal 110 using the acquired state information of the first base station 120. For example, the call setup suggestion message received by the first call control device 140 includes information indicating that all codecs and codec modes are supported, but the state of the first base station 120 is a specific codec and codec mode combination – Page 5 - the P-CSCF 208 calculates which codecs and codec modes are allowed for each base station based on the received state information, and associates each base station with information about the codecs and codec modes allowed for the base station. Page 6 - the quality modes A, B, and C exist for the AMR codec, and the quality modes D, E, and F exist for the AMR-WB codec. Is illustrated in Table 3. Since the terminal 202 generally supports all codecs and all quality modes, the performance information included in the call setup message delivered by the terminal 202 to the P-CSCF 208 indicates that all quality modes are supported as shown in Table 3);
add a predefined number of mode-sets to the one or more predefined request signals if the set of modes are unavailable in the one or more predefined request signals; and restrict the set of modes to the predefined number of mode-sets, if the set of modes exceed the predefined number of mode-sets (Page 2 - reflecting the acquired allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message, adding a list of codec modes that can be supported according to the state information of the base station to the performance information Page 6 - P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec and according to the SDP, description of the codec mode is omitted in the performance information portion of the call setup message when all codec modes are allowed. Accordingly, the terminal 202 transmits a call setup message without describing the codec mode part -the P-CSCF 208 may change the call setup message by restricting some codec modes when the state of the base station 204 is poor, i.e., adding only the allowed codec modes to the performance information portion of the call setup message. Lee’s invention further teaches deleting a codec mode, which is not allowed according to the state information of the base station, from the codec mode list when the codec mode list is included in the performance information of the call setup message - since the terminal 202 generally supports all codecs and all quality modes, the performance information included in the call setup message delivered by the terminal 202 to the P-CSCF 208 indicates that all quality modes are supported. If the amount of resources that the base station 204 can provide to the terminal 202 is 1000, a codec-codec mode combination other than the codec mode A, B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec may be used cannot provide optimal call quality. Therefore, the P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec. if the P-CSCF 208 receives a call setup message that includes a list of codec modes that are explicitly allowed, the P-CSCF 208 may not support a bit rate that the base station 204 cannot support in the list of codec modes already included. The call setup message can be changed by removing the codec mode that requires.).
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that the device is the at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS),
the CTAS in communication with a user equipment (UE) associated with a predefined circle in the communication network and a centralized database, wherein the at least one CTAS comprises of a memory and a processor
mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets
Cakulev teaches
at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS), the at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS) in communication with a user equipment (UE) [..] in the communication network and a centralized database, wherein the at least one CTAS comprises of a memory and a processor (¶ 0018 - The functionality may be implemented in different locations within the network environment, such as, for example, in the called UE itself, or within a node ( e.g., a Telephony Application Server (TAS)) of the IMS network. When a SIP invite, with SOP offer, is sent by the calling UE – ¶ 0034 - FIG. 3 depicts another portion 300 of the network environment 100 of FIG. 1, including components of IMS network 140. As shown, IMS network 140 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 310-, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, and a telephony application server (TAS) – ¶ 0038 -P-CSCF S-CSCF I-CSCF 310-I, S-CSCF 310-S2 , P-CSCF 310-P 2 and/or TAS 320 may each include functionality implemented in a same, single network device – ¶ 0040 – shows that the TAS includes processor and memory. Note: TAS is in communication with UE and HSS (central database) , the CTAS comprises processor and memory).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the CTAS taught by Cakulev. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide call control for voice and video between UEs ( Cakulev – ¶ 0037).
Lee in view of Cakulev does not explicitly teach at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS) associated with a predefined circle in the communication network
Xing teaches
at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS) in communication with UE associated with a predefined circle in the communication network ( Fig.1 & 2 - Col. 6, lines 5-10 - The UE 102 may engage in one or more services via the telecommunication network, such as services for voice calls, video calls, gaming, streaming media, and/or other types of services or communications. For example, the UE 102 may communicate with a telephony application server (TAS) to place a call, communicate with a gaming server to engage in cloud gaming session or a real-time multiplayer gaming session, and/or engage in any other type of service – Col.10, lines 25-31 - an indication that the portion of the end-to-end connection that passes through the transport network is arranged in a star topology, a circle topology, or any other type of topology or arrangement).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lee in view of Cakulev to include the teaching of Xing. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide high availability and fault tolerance, essential for real-time voice applications.
Sjoberg teaches
mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets (section 3.3 – Multi Rate Encoding and mode adaptation – To perform mode adaptation, the decoder (speech receiver) needs to signal the encoder (speech sender) the new mode it prefers. This mode change signal is called Codec Mode Request or CMR – Section 4.3.1 – the Payload header - CMR (4 bits): Indicates a codec mode request sent to the speech CMR encoder at the site of the receiver of this payload. The value of the CMR field is set to the frame type index of the corresponding CMR speech mode being requested. The frame type index may be 0-7 for AMR, as defined in Table 1a in [2], or 0-8 for AMR-WB, as defined in Table 1a in [4]. CMR value 15 indicates that no mode request CMR is present, and other values are for future use. The codec mode request received in the CMR field is valid until the CMR next codec mode request is received, i.e., a newly received CMR value CMR corresponding to a speech mode, or NO_DATA overrides the previously received CMR value corresponding to a speech mode or NO_DATA. The codec mode selection MAY be restricted by a session parameter toa subset of the available modes. If so, the requested mode MUST be among the signaled subset (see Section 8 ). If the received CMR. CMR value is outside the signaled subset of modes, it MUST be ignored) – Section 8.1 – AMR Media Type Registration - Restricts the active codec mode set to a subset of all modes, for example, to be able to support transport channels such as GSM networks in gateway use cases. Possible values are a comma separated list of modes from the set: 0,...,7 (see Table 1a [2]). The SID frame type8 and NO_DATA (frame type 15) are never included in the mode set, but can always be used. If mode-set is specified, it MUST be abided, and frames encoded with modes outside of the subset MUST NOT be sent in any RTP payload or used in codec mode requests. If not present ,all codec modes are allowed for the payload type – Note: the 3GPP TS 26.101, is attached with office action to show the table 1a which mentioned in the above citations) .
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lee to include the teachings of Sjoberg. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide media type registrations to standardize how the codecs are identified in sessions.
Regarding claim 2,
Lee further teaches
wherein the one or more predefined request signals with the added predefined number of mode sets are transmitted to the UE (Page 7 - In addition, the communication unit 510 may receive a call setup message from the terminal 202 through the base station 204. In this case, the call setup message may include, for example, a call setup proposal and/ or a call setup response. The controller 530 changes the performance information part of the call setup message according to the above-described embodiment with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. The communication unit 510 transmits the call setup message in which the performance information part has been changed to the destination entity of the call setup message. The destination entity of the call establishment message may include, for example, the opposite P-CSCF, the base station and or the terminal - Page 3 - The called terminal may transmit an SDP Answer including information about the selected codec to the calling terminal. If the SDP response is sent normally, the negotiation process for the codec to be used for delivering the voice is completed -See Also Page 4).
Regarding claim 4,
Lee further teaches
wherein the at least one device is operatively coupled to one or more communication interfaces for communicating with the UE via one or more channels selected from a group consisting of: telephonic calls, web-based voice communications, voice-over-IP communications, and wherein the one or more communication interfaces are associated with a session description protocol ( SDP), the SDP comprising one or more control signals for a plurality of service session and protocols for service use by the UE ( Page 3 - To initiate a VoLTE call, the originating terminal first sends a signal for establishing a voice call to the called terminal. For example, the calling terminal may include codec information that can be supported by the calling terminal in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling message of an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), SDP is a protocol used to convey information such as IP address, port number, and codec to use for transmitting and receiving voice information. In order to establish a logical connection for transmitting and receiving voice information, the calling terminal and the called terminal transmit an SDP message to the counterpart terminal. In general, a message for starting negotiation by transmitting from a calling terminal to a called terminal is called an SDP Offer, and a message transmitted by a terminal receiving an SDP proposal in response to an SDP proposal is called an SD Answer –See Also - Page 8 ).
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that the device is CTAS.
wherein the at least one CTAS is operatively coupled to one or more communication interfaces for communicating with the UE via one or more channels selected from a group consisting of: telephonic calls, web-based voice communications, voice-over-IP communications.
Cakulev teaches
wherein the at least one CTAS is operatively coupled to one or more communication interfaces for communicating with the UE via one or more channels selected from a group consisting of: telephonic calls, web-based voice communications, voice-over-IP communications (¶ 0018 -¶0019 - The functionality may be implemented in different locations within the network environment, such as, for example, in the called UE itself, or within a node ( e.g., a Telephony Application Server (TAS)) of the IMS network. When a SIP invite, with SOP offer, is sent by the calling UE – ¶ 0034 - FIG. 3 depicts another portion 300 of the network environment 100 of FIG. 1, including components of IMS network 140. As shown, IMS network 140 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 310-, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, and a telephony application server (TAS) – ¶ 0038 -P-CSCF S-CSCF I-CSCF 310-I, S-CSCF 310-S2 , P-CSCF 310-P 2 and/or TAS 320 may each include functionality implemented in a same, single network device – ¶ 0073– The exemplary process may include the IMS node serving the called UE 110 receiving a SIP INVITE message, with SDP offer, from a calling UE ll0's SIP UA 150 (block 800) and the IMS node returning a SIP message to the calling UE 110 (block 805). The INVITE message invites the called party (e.g., UE 110-2) to a call session with the calling party (e.g., UE 110-1)).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the CTAS taught by Cakulev. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide call control for voice and video between UEs ( Cakulev – ¶ 0037).
Regarding claim 7,
Lee further teaches
wherein the at least one device is configured to exceed the predefined number of mode-sets based on underlying network condition (Page 6 - it is assumed that the performance information included in the call setup message received by the P-CSCF 208 includes the AMR and AMR-WB codecs. In addition, if only the transmission/ reception using the AMR codec is possible and the transmission/ reception using the AMR-WB codec is not allowed as the bandwidth allowed to the terminal according to the state information of the base station 204, the PCSCF208 may determine the call establishment message. Remove AMR-WB from the content and leave only AMR. when applying a combination of some codecs and codec modes, if the bandwidth is not allowed to the terminal 202 according to the state information of the base station 204, the P-CSCF 208 may perform the terminal performance of the call establishment message. The information may be changed to include only a combination of a codec and a codec mode allowed for the terminal 202.- See Table 3, the P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec – the P-CSCF 208 may change the call setup message by restricting some codec modes when the state of the base station 204 is poor, i.e., adding only the allowed codec modes to the performance information portion of the call setup message. have. If the P-CSCF 208 receives a call setup message that includes a list of codec modes that are explicitly allowed, the P-CSCF 208 may not support a bit rate that the base station 204 cannot support in the list of codec modes already included. The call setup message can be changed by removing the codec mode that requires).
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that the device is CTAS,
Cakulev teaches
the device is CTAS (¶ 0018 - The functionality may be implemented in different locations within the network environment, such as, for example, in the called UE itself, or within a node ( e.g., a Telephony Application Server (TAS)) of the IMS network. When a SIP invite, with SOP offer, is sent by the calling UE – ¶ 0034 - FIG. 3 depicts another portion 300 of the network environment 100 of FIG. 1, including components of IMS network 140. As shown, IMS network 140 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 310-, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, and a telephony application server (TAS) – ¶ 0038 -P-CSCF S-CSCF I-CSCF 310-I, S-CSCF 310-S2 , P-CSCF 310-P 2 and/or TAS 320 may each include functionality implemented in a same, single network device – ¶ 0040 – shows that the TAS includes processor and memory. Note: TAS is in communication with UE and HSS (central database) , the CTAS comprises processor and memory).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the CTAS taught by Cakulev. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide call control for voice and video between UEs ( Cakulev – ¶ 0037).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Cakulev further in view of Xing further in view of Sjoberg further in view of Atarius et al. Publication No. US 2016/0323425 A1 ( Atarius hereinafter ).
Regarding claim 3,
Lee further teaches the predefined number of mode sets (Page 6). However, Lee does not explicitly teach
Atarius teaches
wherein the predefined number of mode sets is within a predefined frequency range ( ¶ 0020 - FIG. 2 are supported bandwidths over an audio frequency range up to 20 kHz for four modes in EVS. The four supported bandwidths illustrated in FIG. 2 are: narrowband (NB); wideband (WB), super wideband (SWB) and full band (FB) – See ¶ 0064 &0058) .
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the teachings of Atarius. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to improve voice clarity and intelligibility ( Atarius– ¶ 0044) .
Claims 5,6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Cakulev further in view of Xing further in view of Sjoberg further in view of Lindahl et al. Publication No. US 2011/0039506 A1 ( Lindahl hereinafter).
Regarding claim 5,
Lee further teaches
wherein the one or more predefined request signals comprises a field for the SDP, said field being configured for setting the predefined number of mode-sets [..] associated with the UE as mandated by a set of predefined instruction protocol. ( UE ( Page 2 &3 - To initiate a VoLTE call, the originating terminal first sends a signal for establishing a voice call to the called terminal. For example, the calling terminal may include codec information that can be supported by the calling terminal in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling message of an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), SDP is a protocol used to convey information such as IP address, port number, and codec to use for transmitting and receiving voice information. In order to establish a logical connection for transmitting and receiving voice information, the calling terminal and the called terminal transmit an SDP message to the counterpart terminal. In general, a message for starting negotiation by transmitting from a calling terminal to a called terminal is called an SDP Offer, and a message transmitted by a terminal receiving an SDP proposal in response to an SDP proposal is called an SD Answer the calling terminal transmits
an SDP proposal requesting a codec mode that includes the list of codecs supported by the terminal in the SDP message and requests the highest bandwidth (or other resource) in the SDP message–See Also - Page 6 )
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that setting the number of mode sets by the user.
Lindahl teaches
setting the number of mode sets by the user ( Fig. 10 -. For instance, screen 210 may include drop-down menu 214, by which the user may select a preferred music codec, the selection being an AAC codec in the present example. The user may also select a preferred speech codec ( e.g., AMR) through drop-down menu 216. Thus, based upon these selections, adaptive encoder/decoder logic 70 may utilize the AAC codec for encoding music broadcasts and the AMR codec for encoding speech broadcasts).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lee to include the teachings of Lindahl. The motivation for doing so is to allow the user to select the preferred speech codec ( ¶ 0073 – Lindahl).
Regarding claim 6,
Lee further teaches
wherein if the set of modes is specified in the SDP and wherein the set of modes is not within a predefined frequency range, the at least one device is configured to modify the set of modes to the predefined number of mode-sets (Page 6 - when applying codec mode 6.6 of the AMR-WB codec, it is necessary to secure a bit rate of about 24 kbps in an IPv4 environment to provide a stable call. The P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message according to whether the resources that the base station 204 can provide to the terminal 202 can secure this bit According to the SDP, description of the codec mode is omitted in the performance information portion of the call setup message when all codec modes are allowed. Accordingly, the terminal 202 transmits a call setup message without describing the codec mode part. In this case, the P-CSCF 208 may change the call setup message by restricting some codec modes when the state of the base station 204 is poor, i.e., adding only the allowed codec modes to the performance information portion of the call setup message. have. If the P-CSCF 208 receives a call setup message that includes a list of codec modes that are explicitly allowed, the P-CSCF 208
may not support a bit rate that the base station 204 cannot support in the list of codec modes already included. The call setup message can be changed by removing the codec mode that requires)
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that the device is CTAS
Cakulev teaches
the device is CTAS (¶ 0018 - The functionality may be implemented in different locations within the network environment, such as, for example, in the called UE itself, or within a node ( e.g., a Telephony Application Server (TAS)) of the IMS network. When a SIP invite, with SOP offer, is sent by the calling UE – ¶ 0034 - FIG. 3 depicts another portion 300 of the network environment 100 of FIG. 1, including components of IMS network 140. As shown, IMS network 140 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 310-, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, and a telephony application server (TAS) – ¶ 0038 -P-CSCF S-CSCF I-CSCF 310-I, S-CSCF 310-S2 , P-CSCF 310-P 2 and/or TAS 320 may each include functionality implemented in a same, single network device – ¶ 0040 – shows that the TAS includes processor and memory. Note: TAS is in communication with UE and HSS (central database) , the CTAS comprises processor and memory).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the CTAS taught by Cakulev. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide call control for voice and video between UEs ( Cakulev – ¶ 0037) .
Claims 8,9,11,13,16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Cakulev further in view of Sjoberg
Regarding claim 8,
Lee teaches a method for mode set restriction during speech modulation in a communication network, (Pages 2 & 6), the method comprising:
receive, by a device, one or more predefined request signals from the UE ;extract, , by the device, a set of attributes from the one or more predefined request signals, the set of attributes pertaining to a set of modes, wherein the set of modes pertain to a standardized bit rate for speech modulation (Abstract , Page 2 & 6 acquiring a call setup message; Obtaining identification information of a base station, obtaining status information of the base station using the identification information, changing performance information included in the call setup message according to the status information of the base station. Obtaining allowable performance information corresponding to state information of the base station and reflecting the obtained allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message. it is assumed that the performance information included in the call setup message received by the P-CSCF 208 includes the AMR and AMR-WB codecs – Page 5 - the terminal 202 transmits a call establishment proposal message, for example, an SDP proposal message. The call setup suggestion message includes performance information of the terminal 202. The performance information of the terminal 202 may include, for example, a list of codecs supported by the terminal 202 and/ or information about a codec mode supported by the terminal 202);
determine, by the device from the extracted set of attributes, if the set of modes are specified in the one or more predefined request signals (Page 4 -the first call control device 140 may change the call setup proposal message received from the first terminal 110 using the acquired state information of the first base station 120. For example, the call setup suggestion message received by the first call control device 140 includes information indicating that all codecs and codec modes are supported, but the state of the first base station 120 is a specific codec and codec mode combination – Page 5 - the P-CSCF 208 calculates which codecs and codec modes are allowed for each base station based on the received state information, and associates each base station with information about the codecs and codec modes allowed for the base station. Page 6 - the quality modes A, B, and C exist for the AMR codec, and the quality modes D, E, and F exist for the AMR-WB codec. Is illustrated in Table 3. Since the terminal 202 generally supports all codecs and all quality modes, the performance information included in the call setup message delivered by the terminal 202 to the P-CSCF 208 indicates that all quality modes are supported as shown in Table 3);
add, by the device, a predefined number of mode-sets to the one or more predefined request signals if the set of modes are unavailable in the one or more predefined request signals; and restrict, by the device, the set of modes to the predefined number of mode-sets, if the set of modes exceed the predefined number of mode-sets (Page 2 - reflecting the acquired allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message, adding a list of codec modes that can be supported according to the state information of the base station to the performance information Page 6 - P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec and according to the SDP, description of the codec mode is omitted in the performance information portion of the call setup message when all codec modes are allowed. Accordingly, the terminal 202 transmits a call setup message without describing the codec mode part Page 2 -the P-CSCF 208 may change the call setup message by restricting some codec modes when the state of the base station 204 is poor, i.e., adding only the allowed codec modes to the performance information portion of the call setup message. Lee’s invention further teaches deleting a codec mode, which is not allowed according to the state information of the base station, from the codec mode list when the codec mode list is included in the performance information of the call setup message – Page 6 - since the terminal 202 generally supports all codecs and all quality modes, the performance information included in the call setup message delivered by the terminal 202 to the P-CSCF 208 indicates that all quality modes are supported. If the amount of resources that the base station 204 can provide to the terminal 202 is 1000, a codec-codec mode combination other than the codec mode A, B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec may be used cannot provide optimal call quality. Therefore, the P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec. if the P-CSCF 208 receives a call setup message that includes a list of codec modes that are explicitly allowed, the P-CSCF 208 may not support a bit rate that the base station 204 cannot support in the list of codec modes already included. The call setup message can be changed by removing the codec mode that requires.).
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that the device is the at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS),
the CTAS comprising of a memory and processor, wherein the CTAS is operatively coupled to the communication network and centralized database
mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets
Cakulev teaches
the device is the at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS), the CTAS comprising of a memory and processor, wherein the CTAS is operatively coupled to the communication network and centralized database (¶ 0018 - The functionality may be implemented in different locations within the network environment, such as, for example, in the called UE itself, or within a node ( e.g., a Telephony Application Server (TAS)) of the IMS network. When a SIP invite, with SOP offer, is sent by the calling UE – ¶ 0034 - FIG. 3 depicts another portion 300 of the network environment 100 of FIG. 1, including components of IMS network 140. As shown, IMS network 140 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 310-, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, and a telephony application server (TAS) – ¶ 0038 -P-CSCF S-CSCF I-CSCF 310-I, S-CSCF 310-S2 , P-CSCF 310-P 2 and/or TAS 320 may each include functionality implemented in a same, single network device – ¶ 0040 – shows that the TAS includes processor and memory. Note: TAS is in communication with UE and HSS (central database) , the CTAS comprises processor and memory).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the CTAS taught by Cakulev. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide call control for voice and video between UEs ( Cakulev – ¶ 0037) .
Sjoberg teaches
mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets (section 3.3 – Multi Rate Encoding and mode adaptation – To perform mode adaptation, the decoder (speech receiver) needs to signal the encoder (speech sender) the new mode it prefers. This mode change signal is called Codec Mode Request or CMR – Section 4.3.1 – the Payload header - CMR (4 bits): Indicates a codec mode request sent to the speech CMR encoder at the site of the receiver of this payload. The value of the CMR field is set to the frame type index of the corresponding CMR speech mode being requested. The frame type index may be 0-7 for AMR, as defined in Table 1a in [2], or 0-8 for AMR-WB, as defined in Table 1a in [4]. CMR value 15 indicates that no mode request CMR is present, and other values are for future use. The codec mode request received in the CMR field is valid until the CMR next codec mode request is received, i.e., a newly received CMR value CMR corresponding to a speech mode, or NO_DATA overrides the previously received CMR value corresponding to a speech mode or NO_DATA. The codec mode selection MAY be restricted by a session parameter toa subset of the available modes. If so, the requested mode MUST be among the signaled subset (see Section 8 ). If the received CMR. CMR value is outside the signaled subset of modes, it MUST be ignored) – Section 8.1 – AMR Media Type Registration - Restricts the active codec mode set to a subset of all modes, for example, to be able to support transport channels such as GSM networks in gateway use cases. Possible values are a comma separated list of modes from the set: 0,...,7 (see Table 1a [2]). The SID frame type8 and NO_DATA (frame type 15) are never included in the mode set, but can always be used. If mode-set is specified, it MUST be abided, and frames encoded with modes outside of the subset MUST NOT be sent in any RTP payload or used in codec mode requests. If not present ,all codec modes are allowed for the payload type – Note: the 3GPP TS 26.101, is attached with office action to show the table 1a which mentioned in the above citations) .
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lee to include the teachings of Sjoberg. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide media type registrations to standardize how the codecs are identified in sessions.
Regarding claim 9,
Lee further teaches
transmitting, by the CTAS, the one or more predefined request signals with the added predefined number of mode sets to the UE (Page 7 - In addition, the communication unit 510 may receive a call setup message from the terminal 202 through the base station 204. In this case, the call setup message may include, for example, a call setup proposal and/ or a call setup response. The controller 530 changes the performance information part of the call setup message according to the above-described embodiment with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. The communication unit 510 transmits the call setup message in which the performance information part has been changed to the destination entity of the call setup message. The destination entity of the call establishment message may include, for example, the opposite P-CSCF, the base station and or the terminal - Page 3 - The called terminal may transmit an SDP Answer including information about the selected codec to the calling terminal. If the SDP response is sent normally, the negotiation process for the codec to be used for delivering the voice is completed -See Also Page 4. ).
Regarding claim 11,
Lee teaches a user equipment (UE) for mode set restriction during speech modulation in a communication network, the UE comprising,
at least one device in communication with a communication network, wherein the at least one device comprises of a memory and processor, the processor being coupled to a memory, the memory storing instructions on execution causes the at least one device (Fig.1, Fig.5, Page 2,Page 6) to
receive one or more predefined request signals from the UE ;extract, a set of attributes from the one or more predefined request signals, the set of attributes pertaining to a set of modes, wherein the set of modes pertain to a standardized bit rate for speech modulation ((Abstract , Page 2 & 6 acquiring a call setup message; Obtaining identification information of a base station, obtaining status information of the base station using the identification information, changing performance information included in the call setup message according to the status information of the base station. Obtaining allowable performance information corresponding to state information of the base station and reflecting the obtained allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message. it is assumed that the performance information included in the call setup message received by the P-CSCF 208 includes the AMR and AMR-WB codecs – Page 5 - the terminal 202 transmits a call establishment proposal message, for example, an SDP proposal message. The call setup suggestion message includes performance information of the terminal 202. The performance information of the terminal 202 may include, for example, a list of codecs supported by the terminal 202 and/ or information about a codec mode supported by the terminal 202).
determine, from the extracted set of attributes, if the set of modes are specified in the one or more predefined request signals (Page 4 -the first call control device 140 may change the call setup proposal message received from the first terminal 110 using the acquired state information of the first base station 120. For example, the call setup suggestion message received by the first call control device 140 includes information indicating that all codecs and codec modes are supported, but the state of the first base station 120 is a specific codec and codec mode combination – Page 5 - the P-CSCF 208 calculates which codecs and codec modes are allowed for each base station based on the received state information, and associates each base station with information about the codecs and codec modes allowed for the base station. Page 6 - the quality modes A, B, and C exist for the AMR codec, and the quality modes D, E, and F exist for the AMR-WB codec. Is illustrated in Table 3. Since the terminal 202 generally supports all codecs and all quality modes, the performance information included in the call setup message delivered by the terminal 202 to the P-CSCF 208 indicates that all quality modes are supported as shown in Table 3).
add a predefined number of mode-sets to the one or more predefined request signals if the set of modes are unavailable in the one or more predefined request signals; and restrict the set of modes to the predefined number of mode-sets, if the set of modes exceed the predefined number of mode-sets (Page 2 - reflecting the acquired allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message, adding a list of codec modes that can be supported according to the state information of the base station to the performance information Page 6 - P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec and according to the SDP, description of the codec mode is omitted in the performance information portion of the call setup message when all codec modes are allowed. Accordingly, the terminal 202 transmits a call setup message without describing the codec mode part Page 2 -the P-CSCF 208 may change the call setup message by restricting some codec modes when the state of the base station 204 is poor, i.e., adding only the allowed codec modes to the performance information portion of the call setup message. Lee’s invention further teaches deleting a codec mode, which is not allowed according to the state information of the base station, from the codec mode list when the codec mode list is included in the performance information of the call setup message – Page 6 - since the terminal 202 generally supports all codecs and all quality modes, the performance information included in the call setup message delivered by the terminal 202 to the P-CSCF 208 indicates that all quality modes are supported. If the amount of resources that the base station 204 can provide to the terminal 202 is 1000, a codec-codec mode combination other than the codec mode A, B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec may be used cannot provide optimal call quality. Therefore, the P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec. if the P-CSCF 208 receives a call setup message that includes a list of codec modes that are explicitly allowed, the P-CSCF 208 may not support a bit rate that the base station 204 cannot support in the list of codec modes already included. The call setup message can be changed by removing the codec mode that requires).
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that the device is the at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS),
CTAS in communication with a communication network and centralized database, wherein the at least one CTAS comprises of a memory and processor and wherein the at least one CTAS is operatively coupled to a processor,
mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets
Cakulev teaches
at least one converge telephony application server (CTAS), CTAS in communication with a communication network and centralized database, wherein the at least one CTAS comprises of a memory and processor and wherein the at least one CTAS is operatively coupled to a processor, (¶ 0018 - The functionality may be implemented in different locations within the network environment, such as, for example, in the called UE itself, or within a node ( e.g., a Telephony Application Server (TAS)) of the IMS network. When a SIP invite, with SOP offer, is sent by the calling UE – ¶ 0034 - FIG. 3 depicts another portion 300 of the network environment 100 of FIG. 1, including components of IMS network 140. As shown, IMS network 140 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 310-, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, and a telephony application server (TAS) – ¶ 0038 -P-CSCF S-CSCF I-CSCF 310-I, S-CSCF 310-S2 , P-CSCF 310-P 2 and/or TAS 320 may each include functionality implemented in a same, single network device – ¶ 0040 – shows that the TAS includes processor and memory. Note: TAS is in communication with UE and HSS (central database) , the CTAS comprises processor and memory).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the CTAS taught by Cakulev. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide call control for voice and video between UEs ( Cakulev – ¶ 0037) .
Sjoberg teaches
mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets (section 3.3 – Multi Rate Encoding and mode adaptation – To perform mode adaptation, the decoder (speech receiver) needs to signal the encoder (speech sender) the new mode it prefers. This mode change signal is called Codec Mode Request or CMR – Section 4.3.1 – the Payload header - CMR (4 bits): Indicates a codec mode request sent to the speech CMR encoder at the site of the receiver of this payload. The value of the CMR field is set to the frame type index of the corresponding CMR speech mode being requested. The frame type index may be 0-7 for AMR, as defined in Table 1a in [2], or 0-8 for AMR-WB, as defined in Table 1a in [4]. CMR value 15 indicates that no mode request CMR is present, and other values are for future use. The codec mode request received in the CMR field is valid until the CMR next codec mode request is received, i.e., a newly received CMR value CMR corresponding to a speech mode, or NO_DATA overrides the previously received CMR value corresponding to a speech mode or NO_DATA. The codec mode selection MAY be restricted by a session parameter toa subset of the available modes. If so, the requested mode MUST be among the signaled subset (see Section 8 ). If the received CMR. CMR value is outside the signaled subset of modes, it MUST be ignored) – Section 8.1 – AMR Media Type Registration - Restricts the active codec mode set to a subset of all modes, for example, to be able to support transport channels such as GSM networks in gateway use cases. Possible values are a comma separated list of modes from the set: 0,...,7 (see Table 1a [2]). The SID frame type8 and NO_DATA (frame type 15) are never included in the mode set, but can always be used. If mode-set is specified, it MUST be abided, and frames encoded with modes outside of the subset MUST NOT be sent in any RTP payload or used in codec mode requests. If not present ,all codec modes are allowed for the payload type – Note: the 3GPP TS 26.101, is attached with office action to show the table 1a which mentioned in the above citations) .
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lee to include the teachings of Sjoberg. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide media type registrations to standardize how the codecs are identified in sessions.
Regarding claim 13,
Lee further teaches
wherein the at least one device is operatively coupled to one or more communication interfaces for communicating with the UE via one or more channels selected from a group consisting of: telephonic calls, web-based voice communications, voice-over-IP communications, and wherein the one or more communication interfaces are associated with a session description protocol ( SDP), the SDP comprising one or more control signals for a plurality of service session and protocols for service use by the UE ( Page 3- To initiate a VoLTE call, the originating terminal first sends a signal for establishing a voice call to the called terminal. For example, the calling terminal may include codec information that can be supported by the calling terminal in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling message of an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), SDP is a protocol used to convey information such as IP address, port number, and codec to use for transmitting and receiving voice information. In order to establish a logical connection for transmitting and receiving voice information, the calling terminal and the called terminal transmit an SDP message to the counterpart terminal. In general, a message for starting negotiation by transmitting from a calling terminal to a called terminal is called an SDP Offer, and a message transmitted by a terminal receiving an SDP proposal in response to an SDP proposal is called an SD Answer –See Also - Page 8 ).
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that the device is CTAS.
wherein the at least one CTAS is operatively coupled to one or more communication interfaces for communicating with the UE via one or more channels selected from a group consisting of: telephonic calls, web-based voice communications, voice-over-IP communications.
Cakulev teaches
wherein the at least one CTAS is operatively coupled to one or more communication interfaces for communicating with the UE via one or more channels selected from a group consisting of: telephonic calls, web-based voice communications, voice-over-IP communications (¶ 0018 -¶0019 - The functionality may be implemented in different locations within the network environment, such as, for example, in the called UE itself, or within a node ( e.g., a Telephony Application Server (TAS)) of the IMS network. When a SIP invite, with SOP offer, is sent by the calling UE – ¶ 0034 - FIG. 3 depicts another portion 300 of the network environment 100 of FIG. 1, including components of IMS network 140. As shown, IMS network 140 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 310-, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, and a telephony application server (TAS) – ¶ 0038 -P-CSCF S-CSCF I-CSCF 310-I, S-CSCF 310-S2 , P-CSCF 310-P 2 and/or TAS 320 may each include functionality implemented in a same, single network device – ¶ 0073– The exemplary process may include the IMS node serving the called UE 110 receiving a SIP INVITE message, with SDP offer, from a calling UE ll0's SIP UA 150 (block 800) and the IMS node returning a SIP message to the calling UE 110 (block 805). The INVITE message invites the called party (e.g., UE 110-2) to a call session with the calling party (e.g., UE 110-1)).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the CTAS taught by Cakulev. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide call control for voice and video between UEs ( Cakulev – ¶ 0037) .
Regarding claim 16,
Lee further teaches
wherein the at least one device is configured to exceed the predefined number of mode-sets based on underlying network condition (Page 6 - it is assumed that the performance information included in the call setup message received by the P-CSCF 208 includes the AMR and AMR-WB codecs. In addition, if only the transmission/ reception using the AMR codec is possible and the transmission/ reception using the AMR-WB codec is not allowed as the bandwidth allowed to the terminal according to the state information of the base station 204, the PCSCF208 may determine the call establishment message. Remove AMR-WB from the content and leave only AMR. when applying a combination of some codecs and codec modes, if the bandwidth is not allowed to the terminal 202 according to the state information of the base station 204, the P-CSCF 208 may perform the terminal performance of the call establishment message. The information may be changed to include only a combination of a codec and a codec mode allowed for the terminal 202.- See Table 3, the P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec – the P-CSCF 208 may change the call setup message by restricting some codec modes when the state of the base station 204 is poor, i.e., adding only the allowed codec modes to the performance information portion of the call setup message. have. If the P-CSCF 208 receives a call setup message that includes a list of codec modes that are explicitly allowed, the P-CSCF 208 may not support a bit rate that the base station 204 cannot support in the list of codec modes already included. The call setup message can be changed by removing the codec mode that requires).
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that the device is CTAS,
Cakulev teaches
the device is CTAS (¶ 0018 - The functionality may be implemented in different locations within the network environment, such as, for example, in the called UE itself, or within a node ( e.g., a Telephony Application Server (TAS)) of the IMS network. When a SIP invite, with SOP offer, is sent by the calling UE – ¶ 0034 - FIG. 3 depicts another portion 300 of the network environment 100 of FIG. 1, including components of IMS network 140. As shown, IMS network 140 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 310-, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, and a telephony application server (TAS) – ¶ 0038 -P-CSCF S-CSCF I-CSCF 310-I, S-CSCF 310-S2 , P-CSCF 310-P 2 and/or TAS 320 may each include functionality implemented in a same, single network device – ¶ 0040 – shows that the TAS includes processor and memory. Note: TAS is in communication with UE and HSS (central database) , the CTAS comprises processor and memory).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the CTAS taught by Cakulev. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide call control for voice and video between UEs ( Cakulev – ¶ 0037) .
Claims 10,12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Cakulev further in view of Sjoberg further in view of Atarius
Regarding claim 10,
Lee further teaches the predefined number of mode sets (Page 6). However, Lee does not explicitly teach
Atarius teaches
wherein the predefined number of mode sets is within a predefined frequency range ( ¶ 0020 - FIG. 2 are supported bandwidths over an audio frequency range up to 20 kHz for four modes in EVS. The four supported bandwidths illustrated in FIG. 2 are: narrowband (NB); wideband (WB), super wideband (SWB) and full band (FB) – See ¶ 0064 &0058) .
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the teachings of Atarius. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to improve voice clarity and intelligibility ( Atarius– ¶ 0044) .
Regarding claim 12,
Lee further teaches the predefined number of mode sets (Page 6). However, Lee does not explicitly teach
Atarius teaches
wherein the predefined number of mode sets is within a predefined frequency range ( ¶ 0020 - FIG. 2 are supported bandwidths over an audio frequency range up to 20 kHz for four modes in EVS. The four supported bandwidths illustrated in FIG. 2 are: narrowband (NB); wideband (WB), super wideband (SWB) and full band (FB) – See ¶ 0064 &0058) .
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the teachings of Atarius. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to improve voice clarity and intelligibility; ( Atarius– ¶ 0044) .
Claims 14,15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Cakulev further in view of Sjoberg further in view of Lindahl
Regarding claim 14,
Lee further teaches
wherein the one or more predefined request signals comprises a field for the SDP, said field being configured for setting the predefined number of mode-sets [..] associated with the UE as mandated by a set of predefined instruction protocol. ( UE ( Page 2 &3 - To initiate a VoLTE call, the originating terminal first sends a signal for establishing a voice call to the called terminal. For example, the calling terminal may include codec information that can be supported by the calling terminal in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling message of an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), SDP is a protocol used to convey information such as IP address, port number, and codec to use for transmitting and receiving voice information. In order to establish a logical connection for transmitting and receiving voice information, the calling terminal and the called terminal transmit an SDP message to the counterpart terminal. In general, a message for starting negotiation by transmitting from a calling terminal to a called terminal is called an SDP Offer, and a message transmitted by a terminal receiving an SDP proposal in response to an SDP proposal is called an SD Answer the calling terminal transmits
an SDP proposal requesting a codec mode that includes the list of codecs supported by the terminal in the SDP message and requests the highest bandwidth (or other resource) in the SDP message–See Also - Page 8 ).
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that setting the number of mode sets by the user.
Lindahl teaches
setting the number of mode sets by the user ( Fig. 10 -. For instance, screen 210 may include drop-down menu 214, by which the user may select a preferred music codec, the selection being an AAC codec in the present example. The user may also select a preferred speech codec ( e.g., AMR) through drop-down menu 216. Thus, based upon these selections, adaptive encoder/decoder logic 70 may utilize the AAC codec for encoding music broadcasts and the AMR codec for encoding speech broadcasts).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lee to include the teachings of Lindahl. The motivation for doing so is to allow the user to select the preferred speech codec ( ¶ 0073 – Lindahl) .
Regarding claim 15,
Lee further teaches
wherein if the set of modes is specified in the SDP and wherein the set of modes is not within a predefined frequency range, the at least one device is configured to modify the set of modes to the predefined number of mode-sets (Page 12 & 13 - when applying codec mode 6.6 of the AMR-WB codec, it is necessary to secure a bit rate of about 24 kbps in an IPv4 environment to provide a stable call. The P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message according to whether the resources that the base station 204 can provide to the terminal 202 can secure this bit According to the SDP, description of the codec mode is omitted in the performance information portion of the call setup message when all codec modes are allowed. Accordingly, the terminal 202 transmits a call setup message without describing the codec mode part. In this case, the P-CSCF 208 may change the call setup message by restricting some codec modes when the state of the base station 204 is poor, i.e., adding only the allowed codec modes to the performance information portion of the call setup message. have. If the P-CSCF 208 receives a call setup message that includes a list of codec modes that are explicitly allowed, the P-CSCF 208
may not support a bit rate that the base station 204 cannot support in the list of codec modes already included. The call setup message can be changed by removing the codec mode that requires rate.)
However, Lee does not explicitly teach that the device is CTAS
Cakulev teaches
the device is CTAS (¶ 0018 - The functionality may be implemented in different locations within the network environment, such as, for example, in the called UE itself, or within a node ( e.g., a Telephony Application Server (TAS)) of the IMS network. When a SIP invite, with SDP offer, is sent by the calling UE – ¶ 0034 - FIG. 3 depicts another portion 300 of the network environment 100 of FIG. 1, including components of IMS network 140. As shown, IMS network 140 may include a Proxy Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 310- a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, and a telephony application server (TAS) – ¶ 0038 -P-CSCF S-CSCF I-CSCF 310-I, S-CSCF 310-S2 , P-CSCF 310-P and/or TAS 320 may each include functionality implemented in a same, single network device – ¶ 0040 – shows that the TAS includes processor and memory. Note: TAS is in communication with UE and HSS (central database) , the CTAS comprises processor and memory).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the control device taught by Lee to include the CTAS taught by Cakulev. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide call control for voice and video between UEs ( Cakulev – ¶ 0037) .
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Cakulev further in view of Sjoberg further in view of Xin et al. Publication No. US 2019/0253931 A1 ( Xin hereinafter).
Regarding claim 17,
Lee in view of Cakulev teaches the CTAS (Cakulev- Fig.1 -6, ¶ 0018-¶ 0038). However, Lee in view of Cakulev does not explicitly teach
calculate a mean opinion score (MOS) with respect to the predefined number of mode-sets.
Xin teaches
calculate a mean opinion score (MOS) with respect to the predefined number of mode-sets (¶ 0159 -For example, it is assumed that the IMS device sets a value of a preset MOS requirement of the video service to 4.0, that is, a minimum MOS value for a user to fully and fluently enjoy the video call service is 4, and the IMS device has obtained the negotiated codec information (for example, the AMR-WB codec is to be used and the allowed mode set is 6.60 kbps to 23.85 kbps). In this case, the IMS may perform a query in the internal database based on the preset MOS requirement and the codec information, to obtain an RSRP requirement corresponding to the case in which the MOS is 4.0 and the codec information is AMR-WB and 6.60 kbps to 23.85 kbps. For another example, it is assumed that the IMS device sets a value of a preset MOS requirement of the video service to 4.0, and the IMS device has learned that the UE is currently located in the 4G cell of the high-speed railway dedicated network).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the CTAS taught by Lee in view of Cakulev to include the teachings of Xin. The motivation for doing so is to allow the user to fully and fluently enjoy the video call( ¶ 0159- Xin).
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Sjoberg
Regarding claim 18,
Lee teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising machine- executable instructions that are executable by a processor to:
receive one or more predefined request signals from the UE ;extract, a set of attributes from the one or more predefined request signals, the set of attributes pertaining to a set of modes, wherein the set of modes pertain to a standardized bit rate for speech modulation (Abstract , Page 2 & 6 acquiring a call setup message; Obtaining identification information of a base station, obtaining status information of the base station using the identification information, changing performance information included in the call setup message according to the status information of the base station. Obtaining allowable performance information corresponding to state information of the base station and reflecting the obtained allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message. it is assumed that the performance information included in the call setup message received by the P-CSCF 208 includes the AMR and AMR-WB codecs – Page 5 - the terminal 202 transmits a call establishment proposal message, for example, an SDP proposal message. The call setup suggestion message includes performance information of the terminal 202. The performance information of the terminal 202 may include, for example, a list of codecs supported by the terminal 202 and/ or information about a codec mode supported by the terminal 202);
determine, from the extracted set of attributes, if the set of modes are specified in the one or more predefined request signals (Page 4 -the first call control device 140 may change the call setup proposal message received from the first terminal 110 using the acquired state information of the first base station 120. For example, the call setup suggestion message received by the first call control device 140 includes information indicating that all codecs and codec modes are supported, but the state of the first base station 120 is a specific codec and codec mode combination – Page 5 - the P-CSCF 208 calculates which codecs and codec modes are allowed for each base station based on the received state information, and associates each base station with information about the codecs and codec modes allowed for the base station. Page 6 - the quality modes A, B, and C exist for the AMR codec, and the quality modes D, E, and F exist for the AMR-WB codec. Is illustrated in Table 3. Since the terminal 202 generally supports all codecs and all quality modes, the performance information included in the call setup message delivered by the terminal 202 to the P-CSCF 208 indicates that all quality modes are supported as shown in Table 3);
add a predefined number of mode-sets to the one or more predefined request signals if the set of modes are unavailable in the one or more predefined request signals; and restrict the set of modes to the predefined number of mode-sets, if the set of modes exceed the predefined number of mode-sets (Page 2 - reflecting the acquired allowable performance information in the performance information included in the call setup message, adding a list of codec modes that can be supported according to the state information of the base station to the performance information Page 6 - P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec and according to the SDP, description of the codec mode is omitted in the performance information portion of the call setup message when all codec modes are allowed. Accordingly, the terminal 202 transmits a call setup message without describing the codec mode part Page 2 -the P-CSCF 208 may change the call setup message by restricting some codec modes when the state of the base station 204 is poor, i.e., adding only the allowed codec modes to the performance information portion of the call setup message. Lee’s invention further teaches deleting a codec mode, which is not allowed according to the state information of the base station, from the codec mode list when the codec mode list is included in the performance information of the call setup message – Page 6 - since the terminal 202 generally supports all codecs and all quality modes, the performance information included in the call setup message delivered by the terminal 202 to the P-CSCF 208 indicates that all quality modes are supported. If the amount of resources that the base station 204 can provide to the terminal 202 is 1000, a codec-codec mode combination other than the codec mode A, B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec may be used cannot provide optimal call quality. Therefore, the P-CSCF 208 changes the performance information included in the call setup message to support only the codec modes A and B of the AMR codec and the codec mode D of the AMR-WB codec. if the P-CSCF 208 receives a call setup message that includes a list of codec modes that are explicitly allowed, the P-CSCF 208 may not support a bit rate that the base station 204 cannot support in the list of codec modes already included. The call setup message can be changed by removing the codec mode that requires.).
However, Lee does not explicitly teach
mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets
Sjoberg teaches
mapping the attributes to corresponding mode-set indices defined in a bit-rate table comprising a plurality of predefined speech modulation mode-sets (section 3.3 – Multi Rate Encoding and mode adaptation – To perform mode adaptation, the decoder (speech receiver) needs to signal the encoder (speech sender) the new mode it prefers. This mode change signal is called Codec Mode Request or CMR – Section 4.3.1 – the Payload header - CMR (4 bits): Indicates a codec mode request sent to the speech CMR encoder at the site of the receiver of this payload. The value of the CMR field is set to the frame type index of the corresponding CMR speech mode being requested. The frame type index may be 0-7 for AMR, as defined in Table 1a in [2], or 0-8 for AMR-WB, as defined in Table 1a in [4]. CMR value 15 indicates that no mode request CMR is present, and other values are for future use. The codec mode request received in the CMR field is valid until the CMR next codec mode request is received, i.e., a newly received CMR value CMR corresponding to a speech mode, or NO_DATA overrides the previously received CMR value corresponding to a speech mode or NO_DATA. The codec mode selection MAY be restricted by a session parameter toa subset of the available modes. If so, the requested mode MUST be among the signaled subset (see Section 8 ). If the received CMR. CMR value is outside the signaled subset of modes, it MUST be ignored) – Section 8.1 – AMR Media Type Registration - Restricts the active codec mode set to a subset of all modes, for example, to be able to support transport channels such as GSM networks in gateway use cases. Possible values are a comma separated list of modes from the set: 0,...,7 (see Table 1a [2]). The SID frame type8 and NO_DATA (frame type 15) are never included in the mode set, but can always be used. If mode-set is specified, it MUST be abided, and frames encoded with modes outside of the subset MUST NOT be sent in any RTP payload or used in codec mode requests. If not present ,all codec modes are allowed for the payload type – Note: the 3GPP TS 26.101, is attached with office action to show the table 1a which mentioned in the above citations).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lee to include the teachings of Sjoberg. The motivation for doing so is to allow the system to provide media type registrations to standardize how the codecs are identified in sessions.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/YOUNES NAJI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445