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
This action is in response to application filed on 4/14/2025.
Claims 1-8 & 16-23 filed on 12/22/2025 have been examined and are pending with this action.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/29/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed in the amendment filed 4/14/2026, have been fully considered and are moot based on new grounds of rejection. The reasons set forth below.
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 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 5, 16 & 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable of MA et al (CN 101207910) in view of WEI (CN 114390442) and in further view of CHOI et al (US 20230276411 A1).
INDEPENDENT CLAIMS:
As per claim 1, MA discloses an apparatus for performing a network function (MA: “Fig 1, wireless network controller sends relative message of MBMS service on MCCH”), the apparatus comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (MA: “ step S304, the user equipment ( the mobile terminal which has memory and processor) receives the relative message”), and configured to cause the apparatus to:
determine whether to activate or deactivate a point-to-point (PTP) mode to provide a multicast and broadcast service (MBS) to a user equipment (UE) (MA: “MBMS service comprises: 4 MBS (Multicast Service) and broadcast service, broadcast-Multicast Service Centre) activates certain multicast service, and for each broadcast service, the UE only need local activation; on the configuration of the radio bearer, the multicast service can be P-T-M (point-to-point, but also shortening the PTM or microns) and P-T-P (point to point,)”); and
Ma does not explicitly teach user plane protocol.
WEI however discloses transmit a data transmission indication via a user plane protocol of a network interface (WEI: “the transmission process of the service, the MAC layer dynamically switching transmission mode of the service between the PTM and PTP & the RLC entity is used for receiving the received PDCPPDU, the notified RLC entity transmits the indication information”) in a wireless network to activate or deactivate the PTP mode (WEI: the PTP bearer is activated; when the MAC layer determines one or more RB transmitting the service through the PTP bearer of the UE”).
Examiner Note: In 0019 of the spec the user protocol includes PDCP PDU.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Ma view of WEI to figure out the user plane protocol. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in to improve the multicast service configuration (WEI).
Modified Ma does not explicitly discloses network interface between CU and DU.
Choi however discloses network interface between a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU) of a base station (Choi [0074 & 0077 & Fig 5): “This functional split allows a structure having deployment flexibility to separate and migrate NR network protocols between the CU and the DU & The CU may allocate a radio resource to the DU so that the DU is able to transmit and receive data to and from an MT of an IAB node on a lower level of the DU. ”). Base station is shown in figure 1 as gNB 101.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Ma view of Choi to figure out the network interface between a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in to improve the configuration of the radio resources (Choi).
Claim 16 is rejected based on rationale provided for claim 1.
As per claim 5, MA discloses an apparatus for performing a network function (MA: “Fig 1, wireless network controller sends relative message of MBMS service on MCCH”), the apparatus comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (MA: “ step S304, the user equipment ( the mobile terminal which has memory and processor) receives the relative message”), and configured to cause the apparatus to:
a network interface in a wireless network to activate or deactivate a point-to-point (PTP) mode to provide a multicast and broadcast service (MBS) to a user equipment (UE) (MA: “MBMS service comprises: 4 MBS (Multicast Service) and broadcast service, broadcast-Multicast Service Centre) activates certain multicast service, and for each broadcast service, the UE only need local activation; on the configuration of the radio bearer, the multicast service can be P-T-M (point-to-point, but also shortening the PTM or microns) and P-T-P (point to point,)”);
Ma does not explicitly teach user plane protocol.
WEI however discloses receive a data transmission indication via a user plane protocol (WEI: “the transmission process of the service, the MAC layer dynamically switching transmission mode of the service between the PTM and PTP & the RLC entity is used for receiving the received PDCPPDU, the notified RLC entity transmits the indication information”).
Examiner Note: In 0019 of the spec the user protocol includes PDCP PDU.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Ma view of WEI to figure out the user plane protocol. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in to improve the multicast service configuration (WEI).
Modified Ma does not explicitly discloses network interface between CU and DU.
Choi however discloses network interface between a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU) of a base station (Choi [0074 & 0077 & Fig 5): “This functional split allows a structure having deployment flexibility to separate and migrate NR network protocols between the CU and the DU & The CU may allocate a radio resource to the DU so that the DU is able to transmit and receive data to and from an MT of an IAB node on a lower level of the DU. ”). Base station is shown in figure 1 as gNB 101.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Ma view of Choi to figure out the network interface between a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in to improve the configuration of the radio resources (Choi).
Claim 20 is rejected based on rationale provided for claim 5.
DEPENDENT CLAIMS:
Claims 2-4, 6-8, 17-19 & 21-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable of MA et al (CN 101207910) in view of WEI (CN 114390442) and in further view of CHOI et al (US 20230276411 A1) in further view of Griot et al (US Pat # 11722855 A).
As per claim 2, Ma/Wei/Choi discloses the apparatus of claim 1 (MA: “Fig 1, wireless network controller sends relative message of MBMS service on MCCH”),
Ma does not explicitly teach data transmission indication is transmitted via an individual tunnel for PTP transmission.
Griot however discloses wherein the data transmission indication is transmitted via an individual tunnel for PTP transmission (Griot: [0085]: “ FIG. 4A illustrates that while two RAN nodes 141 (e.g., base station 110a-d) may both have an established N3 tunnel for a multicast session context including an MBS flow (labeled M flow Y in FIG. 4A), one RAN node 141 may select point-to-multipoint delivery (e.g., a 5GC shared MBS traffic delivery method) while the other RAN node 141 may select to use point-to-point delivery (e.g., a 5GC Individual MBS traffic delivery method).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Ma view of Griot to figure out user of tunnel for transmission. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in for enabling multicast service data transport for mobility between multicast/broadcast service (MBS) supporting and non-MBS supporting access nodes. (Griot).
As per claim 3, Ma/Wei/Choi discloses the apparatus of claim 1 (MA: “Fig 1, wireless network controller sends relative message of MBMS service on MCCH”),
Ma does not explicitly teach data transmission indication is transmitted via an individual tunnel for PTM transmission.
Griot however discloses wherein the data transmission indication is transmitted via a shared tunnel for PTP transmission and point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission (Griot: [0061]: “The UPF computing device 145 may be configured to deliver a same flow as MBS flow in a certain area using point-to-multipoint tunnelling and as unicast flow to specific wireless devices (e.g., for legacy non-5G wireless devices).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Ma view of Griot to figure out user of tunnel for transmission. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in for enabling multicast service data transport for mobility between multicast/broadcast service (MBS) supporting and non-MBS supporting access nodes. (Griot).
As per claim 4, Ma/Wei/Choi discloses the apparatus of claim 3, wherein the data transmission indication is transmitted in a frame via the user plane protocol (WEI: “the transmission process of the service, the MAC layer dynamically switching transmission mode of the service between the PTM and PTP & the RLC entity is used for receiving the received PDCPPDU, the notified RLC entity transmits the indication information”) and comprises an identity (ID) associated with the UE (WEI: “ the UE PTP carries the ID of the MBS dedicated BWP”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Ma view of WEI to figure out the user plane protocol. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in to improve the multicast service configuration (WEI).
Claims 17-19 are rejected based on rationale provided for claims 2-4 rejection.
As per claim 6, Ma/Wei/Choi discloses the apparatus of claim 5 (MA: “Fig 1, wireless network controller sends relative message of MBMS service on MCCH”),
Ma does not explicitly teach data transmission indication is received via an individual tunnel for PTP transmission.
Griot however discloses wherein the data transmission indication is received via an individual tunnel for PTP transmission (Griot: [0085]: “ FIG. 4A illustrates that while two RAN nodes 141 (e.g., base station 110a-d) may both have an established N3 tunnel for a multicast session context including an MBS flow (labeled M flow Y in FIG. 4A), one RAN node 141 may select point-to-multipoint delivery (e.g., a 5GC shared MBS traffic delivery method) while the other RAN node 141 may select to use point-to-point delivery (e.g., a 5GC Individual MBS traffic delivery method).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Ma view of Griot to figure out user of tunnel for transmission. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in for enabling multicast service data transport for mobility between multicast/broadcast service (MBS) supporting and non-MBS supporting access nodes. (Griot).
As per claim 7, Ma/Wei/Choi discloses the apparatus of claim 5 (MA: “Fig 1, wireless network controller sends relative message of MBMS service on MCCH”),
Ma does not explicitly teach data transmission indication is received via an individual tunnel for PTM transmission.
Griot however discloses wherein the data transmission indication is received via a shared tunnel for PTP transmission and point-to-multipoint (PTM) transmission (Griot: [0061]: “The UPF computing device 145 may be configured to deliver a same flow as MBS flow in a certain area using point-to-multipoint tunnelling and as unicast flow to specific wireless devices (e.g., for legacy non-5G wireless devices).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of modified Ma view of Griot to figure out user of tunnel for transmission. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in for enabling multicast service data transport for mobility between multicast/broadcast service (MBS) supporting and non-MBS supporting access nodes. (Griot).
As per claim 8, Ma/Wei/Choi discloses the apparatus of claim 7, wherein the data transmission indication is received in a frame via the user plane protocol (WEI: “the transmission process of the service, the MAC layer dynamically switching transmission mode of the service between the PTM and PTP & the RLC entity is used for receiving the received PDCPPDU, the notified RLC entity transmits the indication information”) and comprises an identity (ID) associated with the UE (WEI: “ the UE PTP carries the ID of the MBS dedicated BWP”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Ma view of WEI to figure out the user plane protocol. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in to improve the multicast service configuration (WEI).
Claims 21-23 are rejected based on rationale provided for claims 6-8 rejection.
Conclusion
This action is made Final. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes:
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/SIBTE H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2449
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