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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to application filed on 12/30/2025.
Claims 1-12 & 18-20 have been examined and are pending with this action.
Election/Restriction
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-12 & 18-20 in the reply filed on 12/30/2025 is acknowledged.
Priority
Examiner acknowledges that the Applicant claims a priority benefit of PCT/CN2022/086276 filed on 4/12/2022.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 12/22/2023 and these drawings are accepted.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 9/11/2024 & 1/8/2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Oath/Declaration
The Oath/Declaration filed on 1/29/2024, is accepted by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as they are drawn to software per se. While the applicants appear to be attempting to claim a product, which qualifies as one of the four statutory categories of invention, the applicant’s claim language does not clearly show that the product is comprised by hardware.
The examiner notes that amending in the term “device” or “computer” as the physical structure where the program code resides, it would overcome the above 35 U.S.C. 101 issues.
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 1-2, 5-8 & 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by
Velev et al (US 2019/0174573).
As per claim 1, Velev discloses a session management method (Velev: [ABS]: “to establish at least one session between the User Equipment and the Session Management Function node”), comprising:
determining, a first parameter, wherein the first parameter is used by a first network device (Velev: [0069 & Fig 7] “The SMF1 26 (First network device) retrieves session (e.g. DNN (Data Network Name)/APN-related) subscription information or dynamically generated information from the U/SDM 34”), to determine a first inactivity duration of a first quality of service (QoS) flow of a terminal device (Velev: [0071 & Fig 7] “The SMF1 26 derives or updates or modifies session parameters (e.g. QoS rules, charging rules, QoS parameters and/or multiple Inactivity timer(s)). The SMF1 26 can update or modify or newly determine session parameters at any time implicitly, i.e. without retrieval of new information from other CN CP NFs. ”),; and
sending, a first message to the first network device, wherein the first message comprises the first parameter (Velev: [0070-0071 & Fig 7] “the SMF1 26 (First network device) considers the information received from the UE 20 (The terminal device) (e.g. during a NAS SM request) and received from the CCNF 24 (e.g. the MMF) about UE capabilities or preferences & The SMF1 26 derives or updates or modifies session parameters (e.g. QoS rules, charging rules, QoS parameters and/or multiple Inactivity timer(s)).”).
Examiner Note: SMF1 26 is being interpreted as first network device and UE 20 is being interpreted as the terminal device.
Claim 18-20 are rejected based on rationale provided for claim 1.
As per claim 2, Velev discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the first inactivity duration of the first QoS flow is used to determine to release the first QoS flow (Velev: [0053] “The SMF1 26 derives or updates or modifies session parameters (e.g. QoS rules, charging rules, QoS parameters and/or multiple Inactivity timer(s)). The SMF1 26 can update or modify or newly determine session parameters at any time implicitly, i.e. without retrieval of new information from other CN CP NFs. ”).
As per claim 5, Velev discloses the method according to claim 1, further comprising :
receiving, by the terminal device, a message that is of the first network device and that comprises information about the first inactivity duration of the first QoS flow (Velev: [0071 Y&0097]: “The SMF1 26 derives or updates or modifies session parameters (e.g. QoS rules, charging rules, QoS parameters and/or multiple Inactivity timer(s)). The SMF1 26 can update or modify or newly determine session parameters at any time implicitly, i.e. without retrieval of new information from other CN CP NFs & Communication pattern for the application(s) using this PDU session=>e.g. Session Inactivity timer (for the Idle state), RAN Inactivity/Dormant timer (for the RAN Inactive/Dormant state), one or more types of UPF Inactivity timers;”).
As per claim 6, Velev discloses the method according to claim 5, further comprising: when duration in which there is no data transmission on the first QoS flow reaches the first inactivity duration of the first QoS flow, releasing, by the terminal device, the first QoS flow (Velev: [0071 Y&0097]: “The SMF1 26 derives or updates or modifies session parameters (e.g. QoS rules, charging rules, QoS parameters and/or multiple Inactivity timer(s)). The SMF1 26 can update or modify or newly determine session parameters at any time implicitly, i.e. without retrieval of new information from other CN CP NFs & Communication pattern for the application(s) using this PDU session=>e.g. Session Inactivity timer (for the Idle state), RAN Inactivity/Dormant timer (for the RAN Inactive/Dormant state), one or more types of UPF Inactivity timers;”).
Examiner Note: Inactivity timer during a session means there is no inactivity and no data transmission occurs during that duration.
As per claim 7, Velev discloses the method according to claim 5, further comprising : when duration in which there is no data transmission on the first QoS flow reaches the first inactivity duration of the first QoS flow, sending, by the terminal device to the first network device, a message indicating that the first QoS flow is inactive and/or requesting to release the first QoS flow; and receiving, by the terminal device from the first network device, a message indicating to release the first QoS flow (Velev: [0036 Y&0097]: “to detect inactivity of user data transfer for a session among at least one session between a User Equipment (UE) and a Session Management Function (SMF) node, for a period; and a transmitter configured to transmit, to the SMF node, information for deactivation of User Plane (UP) connection for the session based on detection of the inactivity is provided & Communication pattern for the application(s) using this PDU session=>e.g. Session Inactivity timer (for the Idle state), RAN Inactivity/Dormant timer (for the RAN Inactive/Dormant state), one or more types of UPF Inactivity timers;”).
As per claim 8, Velev discloses the method according to claim 6, wherein the releasing, the first QoS flow comprises: deleting, by the terminal device, an association relationship between the first QoS flow and a second QoS flow, wherein the first QoS flow is used to transmit data of high importance in the service, the second QoS flow is used to transmit data of low importance in the service, and there is the association relationship between the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow (Velev: [0010 Y&0097]: “Session release: deletion of the PDU session, which means the SM context is deleted (released) in the UE and in the NG CN control plane and/or user plane.& Communication pattern for the application(s) using this PDU session=>e.g. Session Inactivity timer (for the Idle state), RAN Inactivity/Dormant timer (for the RAN Inactive/Dormant state), one or more types of UPF Inactivity timers;”).
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 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 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable of Velev et al (US 2019/0174573) in view of XIONG (US 2023/0062526).
As per claim 3, Velev discloses the method according to claim 1 (Velev: [ABS]: “to establish at least one session between the User Equipment and the Session Management Function node”),
Velev does not explicitly teach frame rate information.
, wherein the first parameter is first periodicity information of a service of the terminal device; or the first parameter is second inactivity duration of the first QoS flow or second inactivity duration of the first session that is determined based on first periodicity information of a service of the terminal device (Xiong: [0053] “ the periodicity information included in the QoS parameter corresponding to the service characteristic of the interactive service data flow in the PCC rule may be a specific periodicity value”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Velev view of Xiong to figure out the periodicity information. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in enhancing communication. (Xiong).
As per claim 4, Velev discloses the method according to claim 3 (Velev: [ABS]: “to establish at least one session between the User Equipment and the Session Management Function node”),
Velev does not explicitly teach frame rate information.
Xiong however discloses wherein the first periodicity information of the service of the terminal device comprises at least one of information about a first frame rate of the service or information about a first ratio of frames of high importance to frames of low importance in the service (Xiong: [0053] the periodicity information is the FPS information, the SMF entity may convert the FPS information to a specific periodicity value. Specifically, the periodicity value is equal to 1000/FPS (ms).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Velev view of Xiong to figure out the periodicity information. One would be motivated to do so because this technique advantageously aids in enhancing communication. (Xiong).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-12 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. Claims 11 or 10 and 12 are to be dissolved along with claim 9 for potential allowance.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes:
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/SIBTE H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2449