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 1-20 are pending.
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 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stammers et al, application No. 2020/0120446, hereinafter known as Stammers (IDS submitted art), in view of Dao et al, application no. 2019/0261260, hereinafter known as Dao.
As to claim 1, Stammers a method for a session management function entity, the method comprising: receiving a first message from an application instance access module (Stammers, Figure 5. [0053], Figure 7b, [0060], User Equipment (UE) sending a request to establish a session received by Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) to session management function entity (SMF)), the first message comprising a first application instance identification information of a first application instance, the first message is used to request to establish a first connection for the first application instance (Stammers, [0062], application identifiers used to select and make requests to User Plane Function (UPF)); sending a second message to a first user plane function entity (Stammers, [0053]-[0055], SMF chooses one of plural UPF entities and forwards the message to UPF), the first user plane function entity serving the first application instance (Stammers, [0055], selection of UPF based on resources needed by UE for creating a PDU session (application instance)), the second message comprising the first application instance identification information, and the second message is used to request establishment of the first connection for the first application instance (Stammers, [0053]-[0055], SMF chooses one of plural Use Plane Function (UPF) entities and forwards the message to chosen UPF to set up the PDU session of a UE). the fourth message comprising a first address allocated by a core network element to the first connection (Stammers, [0056], UPF determines address to be allocated for session). Stammers does not expressly disclose sending response from UPF to SMF of establishment of success however Dao discloses receiving a third message from the first user plane function entity, the third message comprising a first connection establishment result, the first connection establishment result comprising a success (Dao, figure 7, [0114], UPF response to establishment of session request from SMF by acknowledging in step 729b with establishment response message); and sending a fourth message to the application instance access module (Dao, figure 7, step 732, message of establishment of session provided UE).
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 Stammers to include the limitations of receiving a third message from the first user plane function entity, the third message comprising a first connection establishment result, the first connection establishment result comprising a success as taught by Dao. Response from UPF is necessary to determine connection establishment was successful or not successful.
As to claim 3, Stammers dicloses the core network element comprising the first user plane function entity (Stammers, figure 1b, core network element UPF part 122a), and the third message further comprising the first address (Stammers, [0062], application identifiers used to select and make the request to UPF).
As to claim 4, Stammers discloses the core network element comprising a session management function entity (Stammers, figure 1b, core network element SMF part 120a).
As to claim 6, Stammer discloses the first message further comprising a first parameter, and the first parameter determining the first user plane function entity serving the first application instance, or the first parameter constructing a virtual local area network comprising the first user plane function entity (Stammers, Figure 7C, plural parameters used to select UPF for application instance).
As to claim 7, Stammers discloses the first parameter comprising at least one of the following parameters: location information and a session and service continuity (SSC) mode of the first application instance, a data network name (DNN) corresponding to the first connection, or identification information of a network slice in which the first connection is located (Stammers, [0030], choosing slice specific UPF with associated network metrics).
As to claim 10, Stammers discloses registering, with a network repository function entity, a function which supports establishment of a connection for an application instance (Stammers, Figure 1C, [0031], network repository function NRF well known in the art).
As to claims 11, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 20, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 10 respectively above by Stammers in view of Dao.
Claim 5 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stammers in view of Dao further in view of Yin et al, application no. 2023/0217527, hereinafter known as Yin.
As to claim 5, Stammers and Dao disclose the method according to claim 4. Stammers and Dao do not disclose however Yin dicloses the second message further comprising the first address, and the first address is used by the first user plane function entity to advertise a route (Yin, figure 6b, step 614 SMF selected UPF uses UE IP address provided by SMF to advertise route).
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 Stammers and Dao to include the limitations of the second message further comprising the first address, and the first address is used by the first user plane function entity to advertise a route as taught by Yin. Route advertisement is known in the art to distribute route information throughout the network so traffic can be sent to the route correctly.
As to claim 15, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 5 above by Stammers in view of Dao further in view of Yin.
Claim 8 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stammers in view of Dao further in view of Fard et al, application no. 2020/0267785, hereinafter known as Fard.
As to claim 8, Stammers and Dao disclose the method according to claim 1. Stammers and Dao do not disclose however Fard dicloses the first message further comprising application information corresponding to the first application instance, and the application information is used to construct a virtual local area network comprising the first user plane function entity (Fard, [0292], UPF selected and used to establish plural Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN)).
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 Stammers and Dao to include the limitations of the first message further comprising application information corresponding to the first application instance, and the application information is used to construct a virtual local area network comprising the first user plane function entity as taught by Fard. VLAN are used to established secure communication networks for authorized users and devices.
As to claim 18, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 8 above by Stammers in view of Dao further in view of Fard.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 9, 12 and 19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GAUTAM SHARMA whose telephone number is (571)270-7182. The examiner can normally be reached 11am-8pm.
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467