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 .
Claims 1-8, 10-11,13-20, 22-23 and 25-28 are pending.
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.
Claims 1-4, 6-8, 10-11,13-16, 18-20, 22-23 and 25-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by 3GPP TS 29.244 V16.3.1 (2020-04), Technical Specification: 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Core Network and Terminals; Interface between the Control Plane and the User Plane Nodes; Stage 3(Release 16), hereinafter known as 3GPP.
As to claim 1, 3GPP discloses a method performed by a user plane function entity, comprising: receiving a first message from a control plane function entity (3GPP, section 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, control plane and user plane message exchange part of PFCP session procedure), wherein the first message comprises one or more information elements referencing one or more pre-defined packet detection rules (PDRs) configured in the user plane function entity (3GPP, section 5.2.1, control plane controls the user plane including provisioning, adding, modifying and deleting PDRs and URRs; section 5.19, activating and deactivating pre-defined PDR), wherein the one or more pre-defined PDRs specify one or more predefined usage reporting rules (URRs) (3GPP, section: 5.2.1, page 23, “A FAR, a QER, a URR and a MAR shall only be associated to one or multiple PDRs of the same PFCP session context”); activating the one or more pre-defined PDRs (3GPP, section: 5.19, activating and deactivating pre-defined PDR); generating a usage report for at least one of the one or more predefined URRs, wherein the usage report comprises information for describing received user traffic which is related to the at least one of the one or more predefined URRs (3GPP, section: 5.2.2.2 CP triggering user plane to generate URR’s; Section 5.2.1, page 22-23 URR comprising user traffic information,); and sending a second message comprising the usage report to the control plane function entity (3GPP, section: 5.2.2.2 sending the URR to the control plane by the user plane; section 5.2, page 22, sending or usage reports).
As to claim 2, 3GPP discloses wherein the information for describing received user traffic which is related to the at least one of the one or more predefined URRs comprises a PDR identifier and/or at least one predefined rule name (3GPP, section 8.2.36, packet detection rule with identifier PDR ID; section7.5.2.2 PFCP session establishment request IE with PDR ID).
As to claim 3, 3GPP discloses wherein the information describing received user traffic which is related to the at least one of the one or more predefined URRs is used for deriving a predefined policy and charging control rule in the control plane function entity (3GPP, section: 5.4, Policy and charging control (PCC) for traffic in the network; section 5.4.9, PCC traffic related to URR).
As to claim 4, 3GPP discloses wherein the PDR identifier is comprised in the first message (3GPP, section 8.2.36, packet detection rule with identifier PDR ID; section7.5.2.2 PFCP session establishment request IE with PDR ID).
As to claim 6, 3GPP discloses wherein a pre-defined PDR is associated with one or more predefined URRs (3GPP, section 5.4.9, predefined rule associated with URRs; 5.2, page 22, sending or usage reports).
As to claim 7, 3GPP discloses wherein the one or more information elements referencing one or more pre-defined PDRs comprises one or more activate predefined rules information elements (3GPP, section 8.2.36, packet detection rule with identifier PDR ID; section7.5.2.2 PFCP session establishment request IE with PDR ID; section: 5.19 page 65 and 66 activation and deactivation of pre-defined DR with associated information elements).
As to claim 8, 3GPP discloses the first message comprises at least one of: a Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) Session Establishment Request, or a PFCP Session Modification Request message; and the second message comprises a PFCP session report request message (3GPP, section 5.2.2.3.1, page 32-33, PFCP request and report messages)
As to claim 10, 3GPP discloses wherein a predefined rule is predefined with one or more predefined URRs (3GPP, section 5.4.9, predefined rules associated with URRs).
As to claim 11, 3GPP discloses the user plane function entity comprises at least one of: Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) user plane (PGW-U), or User plane Function (UPF); and the control plane function entity comprises at least one of: Session Management Function (SMF), PGW control plane (PGW-C), or PGW-C combined with SMF (3GPP, section 1: Scope; “In this specification the term CP function applies to control plane nodes such as SGW-C, PGW-C, TDF-C and SMF. In this specification the term UP function applies to user plane nodes such as SGW-U, PGW-U, TDF-U and UPF.”).
As to claims 13-16, 18-20, 22 and 23, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-4, 6-8, 10 and 11 respectively above by 3GPP.
As to claims 25 and 26, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1 and 2 respectively above by 3GPP.
As to claims 27 and 28, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1 and 2 respectively above by 3GPP.
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.
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.
Claims 5 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP in view of Oh, Jongsun, application no. 20200213909, hereinafter known as Oh.
As to claim 5, 3GPP discloses the method according to claim 2. 3GPP does not disclose however Oh discloses wherein the at least one predefined rule name is comprised in the one or more information elements referencing the one or more pre-defined PDRs (Oh, [0260]-[0266], use PDR name for predefined PDR).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of 3GPP to include the limitations of wherein the at least one predefined rule name is comprised in the one or more information elements referencing the one or more pre-defined PDRs.as taught by . Name for predefined PDR are known in the art to reference the PDR in information elements.
As to claim 17, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 5 above by 3GPP in view of Oh.
Conclusion
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/MICHAEL J MOORE JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467