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 .
Response to Amendment
This communication is in response to the amendment of 3/13/2026. All changes made to the claims have been entered. Accordingly, Claims 1-10, 15-16 are currently pending in the application and 11, 13, 17, 18 withdrawn.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Group I (Claims 1-10, 15-16) in the reply filed on 03/13/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that Claim 1 and 11 (Groups I and II) share the same or corresponding technical feature (remarks page 6-7). This is not found persuasive because Claim 1 recites the subject mater of “the network control plane device configured to process and forward a signaling sent from the terminal control plane; the network user plane device configured to process and forward a data from the terminal user plane entity; wherein the terminal control plane entity and the terminal user plane entity are located in different devices” whereas claim 11 recites the subject matter of “send a request information to a network control plane device through a service interface; or send a request information to at least one network element in point-to-point connection with the network control plane device and receive a request response fed back from the network control plane device”. Processing and forwarding a signaling sent does not corresponds to sending a request information and receiving a request response fed back.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
Claim 1 is 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.
Claim 1 recites the subject matter “a signaling sent” in line 6. It is however unclear on what is meant by such subject matter. Does “a signing sent” referred to “a signaling transmission” as seen in line 2. Examiner suggests clarifying such subject matter.
Claim 1 recites the subject matter “ a data from” in line 8. It is however unclear on what is meant by such subject matter. Does “a data from” referred to “a data transmission” as seen in line 4. Examiner suggests clarifying such subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
1. 35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
2. Claim 15, 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The language of the claim raises a question as to whether the claim is directed merely to an abstract idea that is not tied to a technological art, environment or machine which would result in a practical application producing a concrete, useful, and tangible result to form the basis of statutory subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Claims 15, and 16, claims the non-statutory subject matter of a program. Data structures not claimed as embodied in computer-readable media are descriptive material per se and are not statutory because they are not capable of causing functional change in the computer. See, e.g., Warmerdam, 33 F.3d at 1361, 31 USPQ2d at 1754 (claim to a data structure per se held nonstatutory). Therefore, since the claimed programs are not tangibly embodied in a physical medium, encoded on a computer-readable medium and clearly recited as a computer program then the Applicants has not complied with 35 U.S.C 101.
Furthermore, the USPTO is obliged to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn too a computer readable medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. A claim drawn to such a computer readable medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101 by adding the limitation “non-transitory” to the claim.
Examiner suggests using such phrases as “A non-transitory computer readable medium embedded with a computer executable program including instructions for”.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 4-7, 15, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rinne et al. (US 7911995), in view of Bays (US 2016/0173371).
Regarding claim 1, 15, Rinne discloses a communication transmission system (a system for handling at least one connection to at least one terminal 1 to 4 in a radio access network, RAN, 16. The radio access network 16 includes at least one base station 8, at least one radio interface 14, or 15, and at least one router 5, col 3 lines 45-60 and figure 4), comprising:
a terminal control plane entity configured to perform a signaling transmission with a network control plane device (The base station 8 (correlating to network) and the mobile router 5 (correlating to terminal) communicate with each other using control plane, C-plane and (U-plane and C-plane) in the mobile router and signalling on the common control plane connection, col4 lines 25-30 and col1 lines 40-45 and col4 lines 55-67 and figure 4),
a terminal user plane entity configured to perform a data transmission with a network user plane device (The base station 8 and the mobile router 5 communicate with each other…user plane, U-plane and For the user plane data flow each connection is still treated separately and user plane transmissions , col4 lines 25-30 and col2 lines 1-2 and col3 lines 45-50 and col1 lines 40-45 and col4 lines 55-67 and figure 4);
the network control plane device configured to process and forward a signaling sent from the terminal control plane entity (the mobile router 5 sends an LLA ASSIGNMENT REQUEST message to base station BTS 8 (correlating to network), including an RLI 12 that has already been allocated to the mobile router 5. The base station 8 forwards the request to LLA Manager 9, col4 lines 7-15 and col1 lines 65-67 and figure 4);
the network user plane device configured to process and forward a data from the terminal user plane entity (mobile router which would require address transformation and tunneling means to pass the data from multiple terminals into a base station and enable forwarding of packets within a subnet prefix in IP networks and For the U-plane 7, the RLI and the LM values are transmitted for identifying the link and the terminal., col1 lines 40-45 and col2 lines 20-24 and col2 lines 1-2 and col4 lines 25-31)
Rinne however fails to disclose wherein the terminal control plane entity and the terminal user plane entity are located in different devices. Rinne discloses (U-plane and C-plane) in the mobile router (correlating to located in a same device, col1 lines 40-45 and figure 4). In a similar field of endeavor Bays discloses terminal control plane entity and the terminal user plane entity are located in different devices (router may include a controller that may be executed by a device that is different from the devices executing the control plane subsystems and the data plane subsystems and The data plane subsystems controlled by a control plane subsystem may also be located on different physical devices, [0016] and [0008]-[0010] and [0013] and figure 1 and figure 3). It 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 to incorporate the concept of having a control plane subsystem and a data/user plane subsystem of a router be located in different devices as disclosed by Bays into the system comprising U-plane and C-plane in a mobile router as disclosed by Rinne in order to improve the system and provide flexibility in the location of U-plane and C-plane entities related to a router (correlating to terminal).
Regarding claim 2, Rinne discloses wherein the terminal control plane entity is in point-to-point connection with at least one network element in the network control plane device; or the terminal control plane entity is connected to the network control plane device through a service interface (base station 8 and the mobile router 5 communicate with each other using control plane, C-plane, 6 and The radio interface 15 is provided between the base station 8 and the router 5 , col4 lines 25-30 and col3 lines 49-60 and figure 4).
Regarding claim 4, Rinne discloses wherein the terminal user plane entity performs the data transmission with the network user plane device through a wirelessly-connected access network device; and/or the terminal user plane entity performs the data transmission with the network user plane device connected to the terminal user plane entity by wire (over a fast wireless connection (typically Wireless Local Area Network, WLAN) and treatment over the link from mobile router to base station and The base station 8 and the mobile router 5 communicate with each other using…user plane, U-plane, 7, col1 lines 25-30 and col1 line 65-col2 line 3 and col 4 lines 35-45 and figure 4).
Regarding claim 5, Rinne fails to disclose wherein terminal control plane entities are in one-to-one correspondence to terminal user plane entities; or a terminal control plane entity corresponds to a plurality of terminal user plane entities. Bays however discloses wherein terminal control plane entities are in one-to-one correspondence to terminal user plane entities; or a terminal control plane entity corresponds to a plurality of terminal user plane entities (Each control plane subsystem in turn can control one or more data plane subsystems…Accordingly, there can be a one-to-many relationship between a control plane subsystem and data plane subsystems, [0076] and figure 3). It 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 to incorporate the concept of having a control plane subsystem have a one or more correspondence to data/user plane subsystems as disclosed by Bays into the system comprising U-plane and C-plane in a mobile router as disclosed by Rinne in order to improve the system and provide flexibility in the implementation of control and user/data planes.
Regarding claim 6, 15, Rinne discloses sending, by the terminal control plane entity, a request information to the network control plane device; receiving, by the terminal control plane entity, a request response fed back from the network control plane device (the mobile router 5 sends an LLA ASSIGNMENT REQUEST message to base station BTS 8, including an RLI 12 that has already been allocated to the mobile router 5. The base station 8 forwards the request to LLA Manager 9, which returns a new LLA 10 to the base station 8. As the RLI 12 for this mobile router 5 has already been allocated, the base station 8 returns the new LLA 10, the old RLI 12 and a new LM 13 (such as the first available LM value). An LLA ASSIGNMENT CONFIRM message conveys the new identifiers LLA 10, LM 13 to the mobile router 5, col4 lines 5-22 and col4 lines 25-30 and col1 lines 40-45 and col4 lines 55-67 and figure 4).
Regarding claim 7, Rinne discloses sending, by the terminal control plane entity, the request information to the network control plane device through a service interface; or sending, by the terminal control plane entity, the request information to at least one network element in point-to-point connection with the network control plane device (base station 8 and the mobile router 5 communicate with each other using control plane, C-plane, 6 and The radio interface 15 is provided between the base station 8 and the router 5 , col4 lines 25-30 and col3 lines 49-60 and figure 4 and col 4 lines 9-22).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3, 8, 9, 10 is 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Van Phan et al. (US 2015/0223106) disclosing control plane connection may be defined as a connection for transferring control information or signalling information needed to manage the connectivity of the terminal device with the cellular communication system and the connection between the second access point 120 and the terminal device 110 is a user plane connection and the user plane connection may be defined as a connection for transferring payload data related to the terminal device ([0015] and figure 4, 6).
Zhang et al. (US 2019/0132226) disclosing obtaining, by a control plane device, quality of service (QoS) required by a data transmission service and information about data transmission capabilities of at least two user plane devices controlled by the control plane device (abstract)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NGUYEN HOANG NGO whose telephone number is (571)272-8398. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.
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/NGUYEN H NGO/Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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