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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 02/23/2026 has been entered. Claims 3, 11 and 19 have been deleted. Claims 21-23 have been added. Claims 1, 4, 9, 12, 17 and 20 have been amended. Claims 1-2, 4-10, 12-18 and 20-23 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-2, 4-10, 12-18 and 20-23 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 1-2, 4-6, 8-10, 12-14, 16-18 and 20-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krishan (US 20220070648 A1) in view of Cui et al. (20200336926 A1) and further in view of Srivastava et al. (US 20220322270 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Krishan teaches a method comprising:
querying, by a network management function (SCP 101), the network repository function (NRF 100) to obtain the identifying data for each of the plurality of radio base stations (the SCP sends the discovery request to the NRF, [0124]; NRF 100 creates a list of potential NF profiles with service instance information that can be provided in a discovery response, [0133]; any of the nodes (other than NRF 100) can be either consumer NFs or producer NFs, [0049]; Radio access network 120 may be accessed using a g-Node B (gNB) or other wireless access point, [0051]).
However, Krishan does not clearly teach initiating, by the network management function and based on the identifying data, a ping test to be performed between at least one access and mobility management function (AMF) and each of the plurality of radio base stations to determine latencies between the at least one AMF and each of the plurality of radio base stations; and
initiating a connection between the at least one AMF and a first radio base station of the plurality of radio base stations based on identifying a lowest latency between the at least one AMF and the first radio base station.
In an analogous art, Cui teaches initiating, by the network management function and based on the identifying data (RAT field 306 of Fig. 3), a ping test to be performed between at least one access and mobility management function (AMF) and each of the plurality of radio base stations (The instruction component 106 can provide an instruction to send one or more Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) traceroute echo packets to the second device, [0038]; the RAT field can be marked (e.g., by the insertion component 108) to distinguish or identify the access technology over which the end-to-end delay is measured, [0047]; The enhanced ICMP traceroute message (e.g., the message format 300) can be used over an N1 interface 428 and an N2 interface 430, which can enable automatic detection of the latency between UE and core control plane, and between RAN node and core control plane, [0061] and a message can be sent between the RAN 420 and the AMF 416, which is information about the control plane latency e.g., over the N2 interface 430, [0062]) to determine latencies between the at least one AMF and each of the plurality of radio base stations (The one or more traceroute echo packets can comprise fields that facilitate automatic latency discovery and dynamic network selection, [0039]); and
initiating a connection between the at least one AMF and a first radio base station of the plurality of radio base stations based on identifying a lowest latency between the at least one AMF and the first radio base station (If the determination by the analysis component is that the end-to-end latency satisfies the defined latency threshold, the first device 102 (or another device) can use the radio access technology defined in the message (e.g., the radio access technology for which the total latency was determined) for service to the second device 104 or to another device, [0049]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan with latency determination of Cui to provide a method for dynamic intelligent RAT selection for user applications based on network performance as suggested, Cui [0067].
However, Krishan and Cui do not clearly teach registering a plurality of radio base stations with a network repository function over a Service Based Interface (SBI), wherein the network repository function receives respective identifying data from each of the plurality of radio base stations over the SBI.
In an analogous art, Srivastava teaches registering a plurality of radio base stations with a network repository function over a Service Based Interface (SBI) (The NFRegister service operation is used to register an NF with the NRF by providing the NF profile of the requesting NF to the NRF. The NF profile is a data structure that describes the NF, the services offered by the NF, and identities for communicating with the NF, [0046], Fig. 2A), wherein the network repository function receives respective identifying data from each of the plurality of radio base stations over the SBI (One example of an SBI service operation that it may be desirable to provide on behalf of a non-SBI NE is the NFRegister service operation, [0046]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan and SBi registration of Srivastava to solve the problem of inability of NFs not supporting SBI service operations to communicate their identities to 5G NFs and to update their statuses with 5G NFs by communicating with the NRF over the SBI as suggested, Srivastava [0045].
Regarding claim 2, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the method of claim 1, Cui further teaches wherein each radio base station of the plurality of radio base stations is a gNodeB (Radio access network 120 may be accessed using a g-Node B (gNB) (not shown in FIG. 1) or other wireless access point, Krishan [0051]).
Regarding claim 4, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the method of claim 1. Srivastava further teaches wherein SBI/HTTP2 logic is provided for each radio base stations, the SBI/HTTP2 enabling each radio base station to register the identifying data within the network repository function (One example of an SBI service operation that it may be desirable to provide on behalf of a non-SBI NE is the NFRegister service operation, Srivastava [0046]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan and SBi registration of Srivastava to solve the problem of inability of NFs not supporting SBI service operations to communicate their identities to 5G NFs and to update their statuses with 5G NFs by communicating with the NRF over the SBI as suggested, Srivastava [0045].
Regarding claim 5, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the identifying data includes a network address and an identifier for each radio base station (The NF profile definition includes at least one of a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), an Internet protocol (IP) version 4 (IPv4) address or an IP version 6 (IPv6) address, Krishan [0048]).
Regarding claim 6, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the identifying data includes latency data or location data for each radio base station (For example, NRF 100 may send a list of NF profiles and associated service profiles with SCP-specific latency adjusted priorities to SCP 101, Krishan [0145]).
Regarding claim 8, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a table identifying the latencies between each AMF and each corresponding radio base station (SCP 101A further includes producer NF latency database 410 that stores SCP-specific producer NF latency information calculated by SCP 101A, Fig. 4, Table 3, [0105]).
Regarding claim 9, Krishan teaches a system (system of Figs. 1 and 6) comprising: one or more computer processors (proc 600); one or more computer readable storage media (mem 602); and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more computer processors (SCP discovery/service 604), the program instructions comprising instructions to:
query, by a network management function, a network repository function to obtain identifying data for each of a plurality of radio base stations (the SCP sends the discovery request to the NRF, [0124]; NRF 100 creates a list of potential NF profiles with service instance information that can be provided in a discovery response, [0133]; any of the nodes (other than NRF 100) can be either consumer NFs or producer NFs, [0049]; Radio access network 120 may be accessed using a g-Node B (gNB) (not shown in FIG. 1) or other wireless access point, [0051]).
However, Krishan does not clearly teach initiate, by the network management function and based on the identifying data, a ping test to be performed between at least one access and mobility management function (AMF) and each of the plurality of radio base stations to determine latencies between the at least one AMF and each of the plurality of radio base stations; and initiate a connection between the at least one AMF and a first radio base station of the plurality of radio base stations based on identifying a lowest latency between the at least one AMF and the first radio base stations.
In an analogous art, Cui teaches initiate, by the network management function and based on the identifying data (RAT field 306 of Fig. 3), a ping test to be performed between at least one access and mobility management function (AMF) and each of the plurality of radio base stations (The instruction component 106 can provide an instruction to send one or more Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) traceroute echo packets to the second device, [0038]; the RAT field can be marked (e.g., by the insertion component 108) to distinguish or identify the access technology over which the end-to-end delay is measured, [0047]; The enhanced ICMP traceroute message (e.g., the message format 300) can be used over an N1 interface 428 and an N2 interface 430, which can enable automatic detection of the latency between UE and core control plane, and between RAN node and core control plane, [0061] and a message can be sent between the RAN 420 and the AMF 416, which is information about the control plane latency e.g., over the N2 interface 430, [0062]) to determine latencies between the at least one AMF and each of the plurality of radio base stations (The one or more traceroute echo packets can comprise fields that facilitate automatic latency discovery and dynamic network selection, [0039]); and
initiate a connection between the at least one AMF and a first radio base station of the plurality of radio base stations based on identifying a lowest latency between the at least one AMF and the first radio base stations (If the determination by the analysis component is that the end-to-end latency satisfies the defined latency threshold, the first device 102 (or another device) can use the radio access technology defined in the message (e.g., the radio access technology for which the total latency was determined) for service to the second device 104 or to another device, [0049]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan with latency determination of Cui to provide a method for dynamic intelligent RAT selection for user applications based on network performance as suggested, Cui [0067].
However, Krishan and Cui do not clearly teach registering a plurality of radio base stations with a network repository function over a Service Based Interface (SBI), wherein the network repository function receives respective identifying data from each of the plurality of radio base stations over the SBI.
In an analogous art, Srivastava teaches registering a plurality of radio base stations with a network repository function over a Service Based Interface (SBI) (The NFRegister service operation is used to register an NF with the NRF by providing the NF profile of the requesting NF to the NRF. The NF profile is a data structure that describes the NF, the services offered by the NF, and identities for communicating with the NF, [0046], Fig. 2A), wherein the network repository function receives respective identifying data from each of the plurality of radio base stations over the SBI (One example of an SBI service operation that it may be desirable to provide on behalf of a non-SBI NE is the NFRegister service operation, [0046]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan and SBi registration of Srivastava to solve the problem of inability of NFs not supporting SBI service operations to communicate their identities to 5G NFs and to update their statuses with 5G NFs by communicating with the NRF over the SBI as suggested, Srivastava [0045].
Regarding claim 10, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the system of claim 9, wherein each radio base station of the plurality of radio base stations is a gNodeB (Radio access network 120 may be accessed using a g-Node B (gNB) (not shown in FIG. 1) or other wireless access point, Krishan [0051]).
Regarding claim 12, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the system of claim 9. Srivastava further teaches wherein SBI/HTTP2 logic is provided for each radio base stations, the SBI/HTTP2 enabling each radio base station to register the identifying data within the network repository function (One example of an SBI service operation that it may be desirable to provide on behalf of a non-SBI NE is the NFRegister service operation, Srivastava [0046]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan and SBi registration of Srivastava to solve the problem of inability of NFs not supporting SBI service operations to communicate their identities to 5G NFs and to update their statuses with 5G NFs by communicating with the NRF over the SBI as suggested, Srivastava [0045].
Regarding claim 13, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the system of claim 9, wherein the identifying data includes a network address and an identifier for each radio base station (The NF profile definition includes at least one of a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), an Internet protocol (IP) version 4 (IPv4) address or an IP version 6 (IPv6) address, Krishan [0048]).
Regarding claim 14, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the system of claim 9, wherein the identifying data includes latency data or location data for each radio base station (For example, NRF 100 may send a list of NF profiles and associated service profiles with SCP-specific latency adjusted priorities to SCP 101, Krishan [0145]).
Regarding claim 16, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the system of claim 9, wherein the program instructions further comprise instructions to display a table identifying the latencies between each AMF and each corresponding radio base station (SCP 101A further includes producer NF latency database 410 that stores SCP-specific producer NF latency information calculated by SCP 101A, Fig. 4, Table 3, [0105]).
Regarding claim 17, Krishan teaches one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media having program instructions embodied therewith (MEM 602 of Fig. 6), the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform operations including:
query, by a network management function, a network repository function to obtain identifying data for each of a plurality of radio base stations (the SCP sends the discovery request to the NRF, [0124]; NRF 100 creates a list of potential NF profiles with service instance information that can be provided in a discovery response, [0133]; any of the nodes (other than NRF 100) can be either consumer NFs or producer NFs, [0049]; Radio access network 120 may be accessed using a g-Node B (gNB) (not shown in FIG. 1) or other wireless access point, [0051]).
However, Krishan does not clearly teach initiate, by the network management function and based on the identifying data, a ping test to be performed between at least one access and mobility management function (AMF) and each of the plurality of radio base stations to determine latencies between the at least one AMF and each of the plurality of radio base stations; and initiate a connection between the at least one AMF and a first radio base station of the plurality of radio base stations based on identifying a lowest latency between the at least one AMF and the first radio base stations.
In an analogous art, Cui teaches initiate, by the network management function and based on the identifying data (RAT field 306 of Fig. 3), a ping test to be performed between at least one access and mobility management function (AMF) and each of the plurality of radio base stations (The instruction component 106 can provide an instruction to send one or more Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) traceroute echo packets to the second device, [0038]; the RAT field can be marked (e.g., by the insertion component 108) to distinguish or identify the access technology over which the end-to-end delay is measured, [0047]; The enhanced ICMP traceroute message (e.g., the message format 300) can be used over an N1 interface 428 and an N2 interface 430, which can enable automatic detection of the latency between UE and core control plane, and between RAN node and core control plane, [0061] and a message can be sent between the RAN 420 and the AMF 416, which is information about the control plane latency e.g., over the N2 interface 430, [0062]) to determine latencies between the at least one AMF and each of the plurality of radio base stations (The one or more traceroute echo packets can comprise fields that facilitate automatic latency discovery and dynamic network selection, [0039]); and
initiate a connection between the at least one AMF and a first radio base station of the plurality of radio base stations based on identifying a lowest latency between the at least one AMF and the first radio base stations (If the determination by the analysis component is that the end-to-end latency satisfies the defined latency threshold, the first device 102 (or another device) can use the radio access technology defined in the message (e.g., the radio access technology for which the total latency was determined) for service to the second device 104 or to another device, [0049]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan with latency determination of Cui to provide a method for dynamic intelligent RAT selection for user applications based on network performance as suggested, Cui [0067].
However, Krishan and Cui do not clearly teach registering a plurality of radio base stations with a network repository function over a Service Based Interface (SBI), wherein the network repository function receives respective identifying data from each of the plurality of radio base stations over the SBI.
In an analogous art, Srivastava teaches registering a plurality of radio base stations with a network repository function over a Service Based Interface (SBI) (The NFRegister service operation is used to register an NF with the NRF by providing the NF profile of the requesting NF to the NRF. The NF profile is a data structure that describes the NF, the services offered by the NF, and identities for communicating with the NF, [0046], Fig. 2A), wherein the network repository function receives respective identifying data from each of the plurality of radio base stations over the SBI (One example of an SBI service operation that it may be desirable to provide on behalf of a non-SBI NE is the NFRegister service operation, [0046]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan and SBi registration of Srivastava to solve the problem of inability of NFs not supporting SBI service operations to communicate their identities to 5G NFs and to update their statuses with 5G NFs by communicating with the NRF over the SBI as suggested, Srivastava [0045].
Regarding claim 18, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 17, wherein each radio base station of the plurality of radio base stations is a gNodeB (Radio access network 120 may be accessed using a g-Node B (gNB) (not shown in FIG. 1) or other wireless access point, Krishan [0051]).
Regarding claim 20, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 17. Srivastava further teaches wherein SBI/HTTP2 logic is provided for each radio base stations, the SBI/HTTP2 enabling each radio base station to register the identifying data within the network repository function (One example of an SBI service operation that it may be desirable to provide on behalf of a non-SBI NE is the NFRegister service operation, Srivastava [0046]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan and SBi registration of Srivastava to solve the problem of inability of NFs not supporting SBI service operations to communicate their identities to 5G NFs and to update their statuses with 5G NFs by communicating with the NRF over the SBI as suggested, Srivastava [0045].
Regarding claim 20, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the method of claim 1.
Srivastava further teaches wherein the identifying data includes a gNodeB IP address (e.g. ipv4addresses, table 1), a gNodeB identifier (e.g. nfintanceid, table 1), and latitude/longitude data (locality string O 0 . . . 1 Operator defined Information about the location of the NF instance (e.g. geographic location, data center), table1; The NF profile is a data structure that includes the attributes illustrated in Table 1, [0048]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan and SBi registration of Srivastava to solve the problem of inability of NFs not supporting SBI service operations to communicate their identities to 5G NFs and to update their statuses with 5G NFs by communicating with the NRF over the SBI as suggested, Srivastava [0045].
Claims 7 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krishan (US 20220070648 A1) in view of Cui et al. (20200336926 A1) and further in view of Srivastava and Theimer et al. (US 20220303886 A1).
Regarding claim 7, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava the method of claim 1.
However, Krishan, Cui and Srivastava do not teach further comprising displaying, by the network management function, a map indicating a location of each radio base station in relation to a location of each AMF.
In an analogous art, Theimer teaches displaying, by the network management function, a map indicating a location of each radio base station in relation to a location of each AMF (the database structure comprises a table listing all combinations of locations, e.g. for RAN and UPF nodes, [0081], Fig. 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan, Cui and Srivastava with table of Theimer to provide location of potential network functions to be selected, topology to the customer as suggested, Theimer [0042].
Regarding claim 15, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the system of claim 9.
However, Krishan, Cui and Srivastava do not teach wherein the program instructions further comprise instructions to display, by the network management function, a map indicating a location of each radio base station in relation to a location of each AMF.
In an analogous art, Theimer teaches display, by the network management function, a map indicating a location of each radio base station in relation to a location of each AMF (the database structure comprises a table listing all combinations of locations, e.g. for RAN and UPF nodes, [0081], Fig. 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan, Cui and Srivastava with table of Theimer to provide location of potential network functions to be selected, topology to the customer as suggested, Theimer [0042].
Claim 23 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krishan (US 20220070648 A1) in view of Cui et al. (20200336926 A1) and further in view of Srivastava and Heikal et al. (US 20230319919 A1).
Regarding claim 23, Krishan as modified by Cui and Srivastava teaches the method of claim 1.
However, Krishan, Cui and Srivastava do not teach further comprising: identifying a plurality of latencies between the at least one AMF and the plurality of base stations; and illustrating, using a graphical user interface, a geographical map corresponding to the plurality of radio base stations, each of the plurality of radio base stations indicating a latency from the plurality of latencies.
In an analogous art, Heikal teaches identifying a plurality of latencies between the at least one AMF and the plurality of base stations; and illustrating, using a graphical user interface, a geographical map corresponding to the plurality of radio base stations, each of the plurality of radio base stations indicating a latency from the plurality of latencies (FIG. 4 is an example diagram illustrating latency of communicating data between a mobile communication device at multiple different locations and a remote management entity in the network environment, [0096]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application was made to have modified the node discovery of Krishan, Cui and Srivastava with illustration of Heikal to provide improved implementation of wireless access networks and expand use of limited wireless bandwidth in a network environment as suggested, Heikal [0003].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 22 is 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
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/NICOLE M LOUIS-FILS/Examiner, Art Unit 2641
/JINSONG HU/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2643