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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 08/21/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
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 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kolekar et al. (US 2022/0330022) (us-provisional-application US 63135436 filed on 01/08/2021) in view of Lai et al. (US 2022/0240210).
Regarding claim 1, Kolekar teaches a User Equipment (UE) comprising: a controller (fig. 2); and storage circuitry (fig. 2) storing Default UE credentials (the UE is provisioned with default UE credentials [0074, [0077]), wherein: the UE has an Automatic Stand-alone Non-Public Network (SNPN) selection mode and a Manual SNPN selection mode, and in a case that the UE is operating in an SNPN access mode, the controller is configured to: select, in the Automatic SNPN selection mode, as an onboarding network based on the Default UE credentials (i.e., The UE at operation 1 engages in SNPN selection as well as a registration procedure. During selection of the SNPN, the UE selects the O-SNPN based on an indication in a system information broadcast (SIB) broadcasted by the O-SNPN (e.g., a “Support for onboarding” indicator). In this operation, if the UE wants to initiate onboarding, the UE may either automatically discover and select the O-SNPN network based on the broadcasted information or may present a list of available onboarding networks (ONs) to the user for manual selection [0078]-[0079], [0202]); perform a registration procedure for an onboarding service on the selected SNPN using the Default UE credentials (i.e., The UE may register to the O-SNPN for onboarding by including an indication, in a Registration Request, indicating that the registration is for UE onboarding. During the registration procedure, the UE may provide device-specific information, e.g., the default UE credential [0078]-[0079], [0273]); establish a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session with the selected SNPN (i.e., In the Configuration PDU Session Establishment Request, the UE includes the DCS identity and may also include the provisioning server (PS) identity and/or SO-SNPN identity [0080]-[0081], [0213]).
Kolekar does not specifically acquire SNPN credentials after the PDU session with the selected SNPN is established.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Lai teaches Both user plane (UP) and control plane (CP) provisioning procedure can be used to obtain the SNPN credentials from a subscriber owner (SO) via ON-SNPN access connectivity to the provisioning server (PVS) A PVS is the entity that provides network credentials and other data in. the UF to enable SNPN access… Upon successfully onboarding registration, UE later follows the supported provisioning procedure (i.e., CP or UP remote provisioning procedure) decided by the ON-SNPN to obtain the SNPN credentials from a subscriber owner (SO-SNPN) via the ON-SNPN access connectivity to the PVS… The UE performs an Onboarding registration to the SNPN with default UE credentials. Upon successful registration, the UE performs a selected remote provisioning procedure (either CP or UP remote provisioning procedure) with the SNPN to obtain SNPN credentials ([0007]-[0009]). After the secure connection is established, the UF is provisioned with SNPN credentials to enable discovery, selection, and registration for a desired SNPN ([0019], [0023], [0030]-[0031]). the UE establishes a protocol data unit (PDU) session to acquire the SNPN credentials under the UP provisioning. The UE uses a control plane signaling to acquire the SNPN credentials under the CP provisioning (claims 4-7]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Lai within the system Kolekar in order to eliminate the need to pre-configure every User Equipment (UE) manually before deployment.
Regarding claim 2, Kolekar in view of Lai teaches all the limitations above. Kolekar further teaches the UE further comprises a transmission and reception circuitry, wherein the transmission and reception circuitry is configured to transmit, in the registration procedure, a registration request message including information relating to onboarding, the information indicating a requested type of the registration procedure (i.e., ay present a list of available onboarding networks (ONs) to the user for manual selection. The UE may register to the O-SNPN for onboarding by including an indication, in a Registration Request, indicating that the registration is for UE onboarding [0078]). The UE initiates the NAS registration procedure by sending a NAS Registration Request message with the following characteristics: The UE sets the 5GS Registration Type to the value “SNPN Onboarding” indicating that the registration request is for onboarding ([0096]-[0097]).
Regarding claim 3, Kolekar teaches a communication control method performed by a User Equipment (UE), the communication control comprising: in a case that the UE is operating in an SNPN access mode, selecting, in the Automatic SNPN selection mode, as an onboarding network based on the Default UE credentials that are stored in the UE (i.e., The UE at operation 1 engages in SNPN selection as well as a registration procedure. During selection of the SNPN, the UE selects the O-SNPN based on an indication in a system information broadcast (SIB) broadcasted by the O-SNPN (e.g., a “Support for onboarding” indicator). In this operation, if the UE wants to initiate onboarding, the UE may either automatically discover and select the O-SNPN network based on the broadcasted information or may present a list of available onboarding networks (ONs) to the user for manual selection…, the UE is provisioned with default UE credentials [0074, [0077]) [0078]-[0079], [0202]); performing a registration procedure for an onboarding service on the selected SNPN using the Default UE credentials (i.e., The UE may register to the O-SNPN for onboarding by including an indication, in a Registration Request, indicating that the registration is for UE onboarding. During the registration procedure, the UE may provide device-specific information, e.g., the default UE credential [0078]-[0079], [0273]); establishing a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session with the selected SNPN (i.e., In the Configuration PDU Session Establishment Request, the UE includes the DCS identity and may also include the provisioning server (PS) identity and/or SO-SNPN identity [0080]-[0081], [0213]), wherein the UE has an Automatic Stand-alone Non-Public Network (SNPN) selection mode and a Manual SNPN selection mode (i.e., the UE may either automatically discover and select the O-SNPN network based on the broadcasted information or may present a list of available onboarding networks (ONs) to the user for manual selection).
Kolekar does not specifically acquiring SNPN credentials after the PDU session with the selected SNPN is established.
However, the preceding limitation is known in the art of communications. Lai teaches Both user plane (UP) and control plane (CP) provisioning procedure can be used to obtain the SNPN credentials from a subscriber owner (SO) via ON-SNPN access connectivity to the provisioning server (PVS) A PVS is the entity that provides network credentials and other data in. the UF to enable SNPN access… Upon successfully onboarding registration, UE later follows the supported provisioning procedure (i.e., CP or UP remote provisioning procedure) decided by the ON-SNPN to obtain the SNPN credentials from a subscriber owner (SO-SNPN) via the ON-SNPN access connectivity to the PVS… The UE performs an Onboarding registration to the SNPN with default UE credentials. Upon successful registration, the UE performs a selected remote provisioning procedure (either CP or UP remote provisioning procedure) with the SNPN to obtain SNPN credentials ([0007]-[0009]). After the secure connection is established, the UF is provisioned with SNPN credentials to enable discovery, selection, and registration for a desired SNPN ([0019], [0023], [0030]-[0031]). the UE establishes a protocol data unit (PDU) session to acquire the SNPN credentials under the UP provisioning. The UE uses a control plane signaling to acquire the SNPN credentials under the CP provisioning (claims 4-7]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, to have implemented the technique of Lai within the system Kolekar in order to eliminate the need to pre-configure every User Equipment (UE) manually before deployment.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEAN ALLAND GELIN whose telephone number is (571)272-7842. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FR 9-6 PM.
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/JEAN A GELIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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