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
Acknowledgment is made of Applicant's submission of amendment, dated on 12/17/2025. This communication is considered fully responsive and sets forth below:
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7 ,9 ,15-17, 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 and if the claim objections are addressed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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 1-2,10-12 and 20 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hui et al. US 2023/0276337 Al in view of Tang US20200412559A1.
Regarding claim1, Hui et al. US 2023/0276337 Al discloses
1. A method for tuning system parameters for one or more network slices by a user equipment, the method comprising: 11. A user equipment (UE) for tuning system parameters for one or more network slices, the UE comprising a memory; and at least one processors comprising processing circuity; and memory storing instructions which, when executed individually and/or collectively by the at least one processor, cause the UE (FIG. 12 and [0138]-[0140] discloses UE include The processing circuitry and memory , wherein The processing circuitry is configured to execute program code stored in memory), wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
receiving, from a network, a set of user equipment route selection (URSP) rules including slice-specific information for each of the one or more network slices; [0060] A UE may be configured with a URSP used with respect to network slicing by an operator with which the UE is subscribed. Accordingly, UE 115 may utilize such a preconfigured URSP in applying an initial network slicing configuration to associate the one or more applications to the PDU sessions, such as on boot up of the UE. The network slicing provided by such preconfigured URSPs may thus be known and studied with respect to various performance dimensions (e.g., bandwidth, latency, power consumption, economic, etc.), wherein [0053] A URSP is a set of one or more URSP rules,
determining an application user ID (UID) associated with the one or more network slices based on the slice-specific information; [0056]-[0058] the UE analyzes a non-default traffic descriptor in a list of traffic descriptors of the URSP and, at block 502, and determines if the non-default traffic descriptor is a matched traffic descriptor for an application for which network slicing is to be implemented, wherein the traffic descriptors may comprise one or more application identifiers, one or more IP 3 tuples (e.g., destination IP address, destination port number, and protocol in use above the IP), one or more non-IP descriptors (e.g., destination information of non-IP traffic), one or more DNNs, one or more connection capabilities, and/or one or more domain descriptors (e.g., destination fully qualified domain names (FQDNs)), whereby matching of the application and a traffic descriptor with respect to this information may identify the traffic descriptor as matching the application ,If a non-default traffic descriptor is determined to be a matching traffic descriptor for the application at block 502, processing according to the example of flow 500 proceeds to block 505 where the UE analyzes a RSD in a list of RSDs of the matching non-default traffic descriptor and, at block 506, and determines if the RSD is a matched RSD for the application. For example, the RSDs may comprise a session and service continuity (SSC) mode, one or more S-NSSAIs, one or more DNNs, a preferred access type, a multi-access preference, a time window, and/or location criteria, whereby matching of the application and a RSD with respect to this information may identify the RSD as matching the application,
acquiring, from one or more applications running on the UE, packet information related to each of one or more ongoing protocol data unit (PDU) sessions associated with a corresponding network slice of the one or more network slices based on the received set of URSP rules and the determined application UID [0058] If a RSD is determined to be a matching RSD for the application at block 506, processing according to the example of flow 500 proceeds to block 508 where the UE determines if a PDU session of the matching RSD is a matching PDU session for the application. For example, the RSDs may comprise a PDU session type, whereby matching of the application with the PDU session type may identify the PDU session as matching the application. If a matching PDU session is identified at block 508, processing according to the example of flow 500 proceeds to block 509 wherein application traffic detected with respect to the application is routed on the matched PDU session.
Hui does not explicitly disclose obtaining a flow rate for each of the one or more ongoing PDU sessions based on the received set of URSP rules, the determined application UID, and the acquired packet information; tuning a set of system parameters for the one or more ongoing PDU sessions based on the obtained flow rate and a threshold flow rate; and applying, based on the dynamically tuned set of system parameters, one or more policies for the one or more ongoing PDU sessions,
wherein the one or more policies for the one or more ongoing PDU sessions are determined based on a type of a foreground application running on the UE
Tang US20200412559A1 discloses obtaining a flow rate for each of the one or more ongoing PDU sessions based on the received set of URSP rules, the determined application UID, and the acquired packet information; tuning a set of system parameters for the one or more ongoing PDU sessions based on the obtained flow rate and a threshold flow rate; and applying, based on the dynamically tuned set of system parameters, one or more policies for the one or more ongoing PDU sessions[0092] In response to that the state of the first application data stream indicates that a rate of the first application data stream is less than or equal to a first threshold, the operation of updating the association between the first application data stream and the PDU session and/or the operation of updating the network slice information and/or the operation of updating the PDU session are/is executed., and [0098]-[0101] discloses When the present state of the specified application data stream indicates that the present flow rate is lower than the certain threshold, and the application data stream is rebound immediately, and the UE may immediately modify an existing PDU session according to a new URSP and associate the application data stream with a PDU session matching with the condition,
wherein the one or more policies for the one or more ongoing PDU sessions are determined based on a type of a foreground application running on the UE [0098]-[0101] discloses When the present state of the specified application data stream (i.e. a type of a foreground application running on the UE ) indicates that the present flow rate is lower than the certain threshold, and the application data stream is rebound immediately, and the UE may immediately modify an existing PDU session according to a new URSP and associate the application data stream (i.e. a type of a foreground application running on the UE ) with a PDU session matching with the condition.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hui by including obtaining a flow rate for each of the one or more ongoing PDU sessions based on the received set of URSP rules, the determined application UID, and the acquired packet information; tuning a set of system parameters for the one or more ongoing PDU sessions based on the obtained flow rate and a threshold flow rate; and applying, based on the dynamically tuned set of system parameters, one or more policies for the one or more ongoing PDU sessions, wherein the one or more policies for the one or more ongoing PDU sessions are determined based on a type of a foreground application running on the UE , as taught by Tang, in order to modify an existing PDU session or establish a new PDU session according to the new URSP and subsequently associates the application data stream with a PDU session matching with the condition (see Tang [0098]-[0101]).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, the combination of Hui and Tang discloses all features with respect to claims 1 and 11, respectively.
Hui further discloses wherein the set of URSP rules comprises a traffic descriptor and a route selection descriptor, wherein the traffic descriptor comprises a rule precedence and an application identifier, wherein the route selection descriptor comprises a network slice selection, a session and service continuity (SSC) mode, a data network name (DNN) selection, and an access type preference [0053] A UE may associate applications to packet data unit (PDU) sessions based on a UE route selection policy (URSP). A URSP is a set of one or more URSP rules, where a URSP rule is composed of a precedence value of the URSP rule identifying the precedence of the URSP rule among all the existing URSP rules, one or more traffic descriptors, and one or more route selection descriptors (RSDs) for each of the one or more traffic descriptors, wherein [0056] the traffic descriptors may comprise one or more application identifiers, one or more IP 3 tuples (e.g., destination IP address, destination port number, and protocol in use above the IP , wherein [0057] the RSDs may comprise a session and service continuity (SSC) mode, one or more S-NSSAIs, one or more DNNs, a preferred access type, a multi-access preference, a time window, and/or location criteria, whereby matching of the application and a RSD with respect to this information may identify the RSD as matching the application.
Regarding claims 10 and 20, the combination of Hui and Tang discloses all features with respect to claims 1 and 11, respectively.
Hui does not disclose dynamically creating the one or more policies for each of the one or more ongoing PDU sessions associated with the corresponding network slice based on the obtained flow rate and the threshold flow rate.
Tang US20200412559A1 discloses dynamically creating the one or more policies for each of the one or more ongoing PDU sessions associated with the corresponding network slice based on the obtained flow rate and the threshold flow rate [0092] In response to that the state of the first application data stream indicates that a rate of the first application data stream is less than or equal to a first threshold, the operation of updating the association between the first application data stream and the PDU session and/or the operation of updating the network slice information and/or the operation of updating the PDU session are/is executed., and [0098]-[0101] discloses When the present state of the specified application data stream indicates that the present flow rate is lower than the certain threshold, and the application data stream is rebound immediately, and the UE may immediately modify an existing PDU session according to a new URSP and associate the application data stream with a PDU session matching with the condition.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Hui by including dynamically creating the one or more policies for each of the one or more ongoing PDU sessions associated with the corresponding network slice based on the obtained flow rate and the threshold flow rate, as taught by Tang, in order to modify an existing PDU session or establish a new PDU session according to the new URSP and subsequently associates the application data stream with a PDU session matching with the condition (see Tang [0098]-[0101]).
Claims 3 and 13 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hui et al. US 2023/0276337 Al in view of Tang US20200412559A1 in view of Sakurai et al US20170237751A1.
Regarding claims 3 and 13, the combination of Hui and Tang discloses all features with respect to claims 1 and 11, respectively.
The combination of Hui and Tang does not disclose wherein the packet information includes information associated with a source internet protocol (IP), a source port, a destination IP, a destination port, a protocol, and a packet length.
Sakurai et al US20170237751A1 discloses wherein the packet information includes information associated with a source internet protocol (IP), a source port, a destination IP, a destination port, a protocol, and a packet length [0099] The packet information 250 stores a number 31 assigned to the packet, an occurrence time 32 of the packet, a transmission source IP address 33, a transmission source port number 34, a transmission destination IP address 35, a transmission destination port number 36, a protocol 37, a length 38 of the packet, and any other information 39.
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 combination of Hui and Tang by including wherein the packet information includes information associated with a source internet protocol (IP), a source port, a destination IP, a destination port, a protocol, and a packet length, as taught by Sakurai, in order to determine the packet information (see Sakurai [0099]).
Claims 4 and 14 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hui et al. US 2023/0276337 Al in view of Tang US20200412559A1 in view of Chen et al US20240370218A1.
Regarding claims 4 and 14, the combination of Hui and Tang discloses all features with respect to claims 1 and 11, respectively.
The combination of Hui and Tang does not wherein the set of system parameters corresponds to a set of kernel parameters, and wherein the set of kernel parameters corresponds to at least one of one or more transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) parameters or one or more driver layer parameters.
Chen et al US20240370218A1 discloses wherein the set of system parameters corresponds to a set of kernel parameters, and wherein the set of kernel parameters corresponds to at least one of one or more transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) parameters or one or more driver layer parameters [0278]The kernel layer may also be referred to as a driver layer, and may provide management services such as device discovery, device authentication, device connection, and device leaving state.. 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 combination of Hui and Tang by including wherein the set of system parameters corresponds to a set of kernel parameters, and wherein the set of kernel parameters corresponds to at least one of one or more transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) parameters or one or more driver layer parameters, as taught by Chen, in order to provide management services(see Chen [0099]).
Conclusion
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/ABDELTIF AJID/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478