DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
A preliminary amendment received on 1/31/2024 amending claims 1, 4-10, and 12-15 and adding claims 16-20 has been entered by the examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 1/31/2024 and 5/28/2025 have been entered and considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nokia et al (Nokia et al., "KI#1: Conclusion Update for MBS Session Activation/Deactivation and UE Join/Leave," 3GPP Draft (02-18-2021)) IDS submitted by Applicant in view of Fujishiro et al (US 2024/0179797 A1) support provided in provisional 63/228257 which is used for priority of the PCT.
Regarding claims 1 and 15, Nokia teaches a method/ apparatus, operating as a core network (CN) for managing paging for multicast and broadcast services (MBS), the method implemented in a core network (CN) and (Abstract), comprising:
processing hardware configured to (It would be necessary for the core network components to include processing hardware):
receiving, at the CN/SMF/AMF and from an MBS network, an identifier for an MBS session (Page 4; i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows this in Option 1-3 as MBS Activate and includes the MBS session ID and this is sent from the MB-UPF/SMF to the SMF or AMF);
transmitting, from the CN/SMF/AMF to a radio access network (RAN), a message including the identifier for the MBS session (Page 4; i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows this in Option 1-3 as PDU session Setup Req and includes the MBS session ID and this is sent from the AMF to the RAN);
transmitting, from the CN/SMF/AMF to the RAN, one or more multicast configuration parameters associated with the MBS session (Pages 4 and 15; If SMF has no information about the multicast context for the indicated multicast group, SMF interacts with MB SMF to retrieve QoS information of the multicast QoS flow(s); SMF requests the AMF to transfer a message to the RAN node using the Namf_N1N2MessageTransfer service (N2 SM information (PDU Session ID, Multicast Context ID, MB-SMF ID, multicast QoS flow information), N1 SM container (PDU Session Modification Command (PDU Session ID, multicast information (Multicast Context ID, multicast QoS flow information, multicast address))); and
transmitting, from the CN/SMF/AMF to the RAN, one or more MBS data packets to be broadcast to a user equipment (UE) in accordance with the one or more multicast configuration parameters (Page 4; i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows the MBS data delivery).
However, while Nokia teaches communication between the SMF/AMF and the RAN, which is well-known in the art that the SMF/AMF is part of the core network (Page 4), he does not specifically disclose processing hardware configured to, and receiving and transmitting between the CN and the MBS network and RAN.
Fujishiro teaches a communication method is performed by a user equipment in a mobile communication system (Abstract). He further teaches processing hardware configured to, and receiving and transmitting between the CN and the MBS network and RAN (Fig. 4; Paras. 0031, 0034, 0094, and 0126; The 5GC 20 may be simply referred to as a core network (CN) 20; The 5GC 20 includes an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) and a User Plane Function (UPF) 300).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Fujishiro with the teachings as in Nokia. The motivation for doing so would have been develop technical specifications of a multicast broadcast service (MBS) in the 5G system (Fujishiro at para. 0003).
Regarding claims 2 and 16, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Fujishiro further teaches wherein the UE is a first one of a plurality of UEs, the method further comprising: identifying a set of UEs of the plurality of UEs to join the MBS session; and generating a message of the one or more messages including the identifier for the MBS session and an identifier for each UE of the set of UEs (Para. 0099; The group notification may include at least one selected from the group consisting of a multicast session identifier indicating the group, an identifier of each UE belonging to the group, and a multicast session identifier associated with the identifier).
Regarding claims 3 and 17, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Fujishiro further teaches wherein the message further includes a paging cycle configuration for each of at least some of the set of UEs or a paging cycle configuration for the MBS session (Paras. 0072 and 0099; The gNB 200 may transmit the group notification (paging message) to the UE 100 in response to a paging request (group notification request) from the AMF 300A. The group notification may include at least one selected from the group consisting of a multicast session identifier indicating the group, an identifier of each UE belonging to the group, and a multicast session identifier associated with the identifier. The UE 100 receiving the group notification including such an identifier can recognize start of the target multicast session that the UE 100 joins; The scheduling information of the MBS traffic channel may include a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration of the MBS traffic channel).
Regarding claims 4 and 18, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Nokia further teaches wherein the message is an MBS message of one or more messages, further comprising: determining to transmit a first message of the one or more messages to the RAN; and determining whether to transmit the MBS message as the first message or to transmit a UE message including an identifier for the UE as the first message based on whether the CN determines to transmit the first message for an MBS session (Page 4; i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows paging with a UE id or not based on the option chosen).
Regarding claims 5 and 19, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Nokia further teaches wherein the UE is a first one of a plurality of UEs and the message is an MBS message of one or more messages, further comprising: determining to page the plurality of UEs for an MBS session; and determining whether to generate the MBS message or a plurality of UE messages, each UE message of the plurality of UE messages including an identifier for a different UE of the plurality of UEs, based on whether a base station of the RAN supports paging for MBS (Pages 4-5; whether the benefit of group paging can be taken ultimately depends on RAN2 support of group paging; i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows group paging and this would depend on whether it was supported).
Regarding claims 6 and 20, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Nokia further teaches wherein the message is an MBS message of a plurality of messages, further comprising: determining to transmit a first message to the RAN to page the UE; and determining whether to transmit the MBS message as the first message based on whether the RAN pages the UE for an MBS session (Page 4; i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows paging with a UE id or not based on the option chosen).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Fujishiro further teaches wherein the first message includes a paging cycle configuration for the UE or a paging cycle configuration for the MBS session (Paras. 0072 and 0099; The gNB 200 may transmit the group notification (paging message) to the UE 100 in response to a paging request (group notification request) from the AMF 300A. The group notification may include at least one selected from the group consisting of a multicast session identifier indicating the group, an identifier of each UE belonging to the group, and a multicast session identifier associated with the identifier. The UE 100 receiving the group notification including such an identifier can recognize start of the target multicast session that the UE 100 joins; The scheduling information of the MBS traffic channel may include a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration of the MBS traffic channel).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Nokia further teaches wherein the message is a first message of one or more messages and the MBS session is a first MBS session of one or more MBS sessions, further comprising: determining to page the UE via the RAN for the one or more MBS sessions; and generating a message of the one or more messages including an identifier for each of the one or more MBS sessions and an identifier for the UE in response to the determining (Pages 4-5; whether the benefit of group paging can be taken ultimately depends on RAN2 support of group paging; i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows group paging and this would depend on whether it was supported).
Regarding claim 9, Nokia teaches a method for managing paging for multicast and broadcast services (MBS), the method implemented in a radio access network (RAN) and (Abstract), comprising:
receiving, at the RAN and from a core network (CN)/AMF/SMF, an identifier for an MBS session and an indication to page a user equipment (UE) participating in the MBS session (Pages 3-4; After the MB-SMF receives the trigger to re-activate the MBS session, we see three major approaches to implement the re-activation of idle mode UEs mostly depending on the type of paging used as described below; i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows this in Option 1-3 as PDU session Setup Req and includes the MBS session ID and this is sent from the AMF to the RAN);
transmitting, from the RAN to the UE, a paging message including the identifier for the MBS session, when one or more radio connections between the UE and the RAN are inactive (Pages 2-4; The AF can include an indication in the Multicast Session Request (step 1 in Figure 8.2.3-2) whether the requested multicast session shall be established in an active stated or an inactive state i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows paging with a UE id or not based on the option chosen and the MBS activate includes the session ID);
receiving, at the RAN and from the CN/AMF/SMF, one or more parameters associated with the MBS session (Pages 4 and 15; If SMF has no information about the multicast context for the indicated multicast group, SMF interacts with MB SMF to retrieve QoS information of the multicast QoS flow(s); SMF requests the AMF to transfer a message to the RAN node using the Namf_N1N2MessageTransfer service (N2 SM information (PDU Session ID, Multicast Context ID, MB-SMF ID, multicast QoS flow information), N1 SM container (PDU Session Modification Command (PDU Session ID, multicast information (Multicast Context ID, multicast QoS flow information, multicast address))); and
subsequently to the transmitting, broadcasting, from the RAN to the UE in accordance with the one or more parameters, one or more MBS data packets (Page 4; i.e. the Fig. on page 4 shows the MBS data delivery).
However, while Nokia teaches communication between the SMF/AMF and the RAN, which is well-known in the art that the SMF/AMF is part of the core network (Page 4), he does not specifically disclose receiving between the CN and the RAN.
Fujishiro teaches a communication method is performed by a user equipment in a mobile communication system (Abstract). He further teaches receiving between the CN and the RAN (Fig. 4; Paras. 0031, 0034, 0094, and 0126; The 5GC 20 may be simply referred to as a core network (CN) 20; The 5GC 20 includes an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) and a User Plane Function (UPF) 300).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Fujishiro with the teachings as in Nokia. The motivation for doing so would have been develop technical specifications of a multicast broadcast service (MBS) in the 5G system (Fujishiro at para. 0003).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Fujishiro further teaches further comprising: broadcasting an MBS resource configuration to the UE using the identifier for the MBS session; wherein broadcasting the one or more MBS data packets is subsequent to broadcasting the MBS resource configuration (Fig. 12; Paras. 0122-0131; i.e. Fig. 12 shows this).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Fujishiro further teaches wherein the UE is a first UE of a plurality of UEs, the paging message is a first paging message of one or more paging messages, and the transmitting further includes: transmitting, using an identifier for the first UE, the first paging message of the one or more paging messages to the first UE, the first paging message including the identifier for the MBS session; and transmitting, using an identifier for a second UE of the plurality of UEs, a second paging message of the one or more paging messages to the second UE, the second paging message including the identifier for the MBS session (Paras. 0072 and 0099; The gNB 200 may transmit the group notification (paging message) to the UE 100 in response to a paging request (group notification request) from the AMF 300A. The group notification may include at least one selected from the group consisting of a multicast session identifier indicating the group, an identifier of each UE belonging to the group, and a multicast session identifier associated with the identifier. The UE 100 receiving the group notification including such an identifier can recognize start of the target multicast session that the UE 100 joins; The scheduling information of the MBS traffic channel may include a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration of the MBS traffic channel).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Fujishiro further teaches wherein transmitting the paging message is in accordance with at least one of: a paging cycle configuration of the MBS session or at least one paging cycle configuration of the UE (Paras. 0072 and 0099; The gNB 200 may transmit the group notification (paging message) to the UE 100 in response to a paging request (group notification request) from the AMF 300A. The group notification may include at least one selected from the group consisting of a multicast session identifier indicating the group, an identifier of each UE belonging to the group, and a multicast session identifier associated with the identifier. The UE 100 receiving the group notification including such an identifier can recognize start of the target multicast session that the UE 100 joins; The scheduling information of the MBS traffic channel may include a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration of the MBS traffic channel).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Fujishiro further teaches wherein the UE is a first UE of a plurality of UEs, the paging message is a first paging message of one or more paging messages, and further comprising: transmitting a first subset of the one or more paging messages to some of the plurality of UEs in accordance with a paging cycle of the MBS session; and transmitting a second subset of the one or more paging messages to some of the plurality of UEs in accordance with at least one paging cycle configuration of the plurality of UEs (Paras. 0072 and 0099; The gNB 200 may transmit the group notification (paging message) to the UE 100 in response to a paging request (group notification request) from the AMF 300A. The group notification may include at least one selected from the group consisting of a multicast session identifier indicating the group, an identifier of each UE belonging to the group, and a multicast session identifier associated with the identifier. The UE 100 receiving the group notification including such an identifier can recognize start of the target multicast session that the UE 100 joins; The scheduling information of the MBS traffic channel may include a discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration of the MBS traffic channel).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of references Nokia and Fujishiro teach the limitations of the previous claims. Nokia further teaches wherein the UE is a first UE of a plurality of UEs and the paging message is a first paging message of one or more paging messages, further comprising: in response to transmitting a paging message of the one or more paging messages, performing a state transition procedure with at least one UE of the plurality of UEs; and during the state transition procedure, facilitating the at least one UE joining the MBS session (Pages 3-5; Multicast Session Activation: State transition from inactive to active multicast session. CM IDLE UEs that joined the multicast session are paged. Radio resources are reserved).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENT KRUEGER whose telephone number is (303)297-4238. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00-5:00 MT.
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/KENT KRUEGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474