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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Acknowledgement is made of the amendment filed on December 30, 2025, in which:
Claims 1-20 are Currently Amended.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending and an Office action on the merits follows.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pub No.: US-20210058766-A1 (herein “Aravamudhan”), and further in view of WO 2020/249201 (herein “Krendzel”).
Claims 1, 12, 18, and 20
Consider claim 1, Aravamudhan teaches a method at a core network node for device triggering for 5G, devices, the method comprising:
receiving a request to trigger the 5G wireless device in a 5G system (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0049] note line 1A NEF/SCEF 116 receiving a device trigger request from AS 118); and
transmitting a Device Trigger Request message to a Short Message Service-Service Center, SMS-SC, with one or more SMS serving node identities to trigger the 5G wireless device (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0046] note the NEF/SCEF 116 sends Device Trigger Request to SMSC 132 with user identifier AVP, serving node AVP, a trigger action AVP, IMSI, triggering payload, MME name, and SMS application port ID, and additional parameters).
Aravamudhan fails to teach SMS serving node identities, including an identity of available registered Short Message Service Function, SMSF, for Third Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP, access and an identity of available registered SMSF for non-3GPP access. Krendzel explains the NEF sending Submit Trigger message to SMS-SC the SMSF identities where the UE is registered and reachable in both 3GPP and non-3GPP (Krendzel Fig. 8, Page 18 lines 27-30, Page 25 line 8-line 25).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Aravamudhan to include the recited teaching of Krendzel. Such a modification would improve Aravamudhan by providing an improved operation of session establishment in 5G networks (see Krendzel page 2 lines 2-5)
Claim(s) 12, 18, and 20 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 1.
Claims 2 and 13
Consider claim 2, Aravamudhan teaches wherein the core network node is one of: an MTC-IWF (Machine Type Communication-InterWorking Function) an SCEF (Service Capability Exposure Function); and an NEF (Network Exposure Function) (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0046] note NEF/SCEF 116).
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 2.
Claim 3
Consider claim 3, Aravamudhan teaches wherein the request to trigger the 5G wireless device is received from one of: an AS (Application Server); SCS (Service Capability Server); and an AF (Application Function) (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0038] note AS 118).
Claim 4
Consider claim 4, Aravamudhan teaches wherein the request to trigger the 5G wireless device comprises a Device Action Request (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0042] note Device Action Request).
Claim 5
Consider claim 5, Aravamudhan teaches wherein the request to trigger the 5G wireless device comprises one or more of: an application identity; a trigger payload; and an identity of the 5G wireless device (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0046] note the NEF/SCEF 116 sends Device Trigger Request to SMSC 132 with user identifier AVP, serving node AVP, a trigger action AVP, IMSI, triggering payload, MME name, and SMS application port ID, and additional parameters).
Claim 6
Consider claim 6, Aravamudhan teaches wherein the Device Trigger Request message comprises one or more of: an application identity; a trigger payload; and an identity of the 5G wireless device (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0046] note the NEF/SCEF 116 sends Device Trigger Request to SMSC 132 with user identifier AVP, serving node AVP, a trigger action AVP, IMSI, triggering payload, MME name, and SMS application port ID, and additional parameters).
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected for at least the same reason(s) set forth in claim 6.
Claim 7
Consider claim 7, Aravamudhan teaches further comprising: prior to transmitting the Device Trigger Request message, requesting one or more 5G domain Short Message Service, SMS, serving node identities for the 5G wireless device including available registered SMSF identity for 3GPP access, and available registered SMSF identity for non-3GPP access (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0044] note NEF/SCEF request message to the HSS to obtain the IMSIs, the IP short message gateway name, and the MME name of the IP short message gateway and the MME serving the UEs, Fig. 2A line 3).
Claim 8
Consider claim 8, Aravamudhan teaches further comprising: prior to transmitting the Device Trigger Request message, receiving the one or more 5G domain SMS serving node identities for the 5G wireless device including available registered SMSF identity for 3GPP access and available registered SMSF identity for non-3GPP access (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0044] note NEF/SCEF receives response message from the HSS to obtain the IMSIs, the IP short message gateway name, and the MME name of the IP short message gateway and the MME serving the UEs, Fig. 2A line 4).
Claim 9
Consider claim 9, Aravamudhan fails to teach wherein one or more 5G domain SMS serving node identities comprises available registered SMSF identities for one or both 3GPP access and non-3GPP access from a UDM (Unified Data Management) node. Krendzel teaches the NEF invokes Nudm_UECM_Get (SUPI, SMS) to retrieve the UE SMSF identities. The UDM may invoke the Nudr_DM_Query service to retrieve the UE SMSF identities. The UDM provides a Nudm_UECM_Get response with the corresponding UE SMSF identities (see Krendzel page 25 lines 8-11).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Aravamudhan to include the recited teaching of Krendzel. Such a modification would improve Aravamudhan by providing an improved operation of session establishment in 5G networks (see Krendzel page 2 lines 2-5)
Claim 10
Consider claim 10, Aravamudhan fails to teach further comprising: prior to transmitting the Device Trigger Request message, selecting a suitable SMS-SC based on configured information. Krendzel teaches the NEF selects a suitable SMS-SC based on configured information (see Krendzel Fig. 5, page 25 lines 14-15).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Aravamudhan to include the recited teaching of Krendzel. Such a modification would improve Aravamudhan by providing an improved operation of session establishment in 5G networks (see Krendzel page 2 lines 2-5)
Claim 11
Consider claim 11, Aravamudhan as modified by Krendzel teaches wherein selecting the suitable SMS-SC based on one or more from a group consisting of: the identity of the 5G wireless device; the application identity; load balancing; and how close the SMS-SC is to the core network node (see Krendzel Fig. 5, page24 lines 1-14 note UE ID, NF load analytics).
Claim 15
Consider claim 15, Aravamudhan teaches further comprising: transmitting, to the one or more SMS serving node identities, a device trigger for the 5G device (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0047] note SMSC sends the device trigger request to the serving MME).
Claim 16
Consider claim 16, Aravamudhan teaches wherein the device trigger is transmitted through one or more of a group consisting of: an SMSF (Short Message Service Function) for 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) access; and an SMSF for non-3GPP access (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0046] note the NEF/SCEF 116 sends Device Trigger Request to SMSC 132 with user identifier AVP, serving node AVP, a trigger action AVP, IMSI, triggering payload, MME name, and SMS application port ID, and additional parameters).
Claim 17
Consider claim 17, Aravamudhan teaches wherein the device trigger is contained as an SMS payload (see Aravamudhan Fig. 2A, [0046] note the NEF/SCEF 116 sends Device Trigger Request to SMSC 132 with user identifier AVP, serving node AVP, a trigger action AVP, IMSI, triggering payload, MME name, and SMS application port ID, and additional parameters).
Claim 19
Consider claim 19, Aravamudhan fail to teach wherein the core network node is further operative to: prior to transmitting the Device Trigger Request message, select the SMS-SC based on one or more of: the identity of the 5G wireless device; the application identity; load balancing; and how close the SMS-SC is to the core network node. Krendzel teaches the NEF selects a suitable SMS-SC based on configured information for the UE, UE ID (see Krendzel Fig. 5, page 24 lines 1-14, page 25 lines 14-15).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Aravamudhan to include the recited teaching of Krendzel. Such a modification would improve Aravamudhan by providing an improved operation of session establishment in 5G networks (see Krendzel page 2 lines 2-5)
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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARCUS C HAMMONDS whose telephone number is (571)270-3193. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00AM-6:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, ALISON T. SLATER can be reached at (571)270-0375. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARCUS HAMMONDS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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