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
Applicant’s submission filed on 04/10/2026 has been entered. Applicant’s submission overcomes previous claim objections to claims 1 and 14. Therefore, the corresponding claim objections are withdrawn. Claims 1-3, 5-12, and 14-18 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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, 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, 8-10, 17, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khirallah et al. (US 2024/0049006), hereinafter “Khirallah”, in view of Nikopour et al. (US 2024/0023028), hereinafter “Nikopour”.
Regarding claims 1, 10, Khirallah teaches:
A method performed within a cellular network, or a cellular network, the method or the cellular network comprising:
one or more processors (see Khirallah, par. [0309]: the described elements may be configured to reside on a tangible, persistent, addressable storage medium and may be configured to execute on one or more processors); and
memory storing machine-readable instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors (see Khirallah, par. [0309]: the described elements may be configured to reside on a tangible, persistent, addressable storage medium and may be configured to execute on one or more processors), cause the cellular network to:
managing, by a first network function (NF) of the cellular network, a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session between a user equipment (UE) and a data network (DN) (see Khirallah, pars. [0235-0237]: Each PDU Session of a UE is associated with the following aggregate rate limit QoS parameter: per Session Aggregate Maximum Energy Rate (Session-AMER). The Session-AMER is signalled to the appropriate UPF entity/ies to the UE and to the (R)AN (to enable the calculation of the UE-AMER). The Session-AMER limits the aggregate energy utilization rate that can be expected to be provided across all Non-GBR QoS Flows for a specific PDU Session, and see pars. [0026-0028]: The first aspect provides a method of managing an energy performance policy, EPP, for a user equipment, UE, over a network interface of a network, for example a New Radio, NR, network such as a 5G NR network, the method comprising: sending, by the Core Network, CN, for example the Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF, thereof, assistance information on the EPP for the UE to an NG-RAN node and/or to the UE using signalling and/or messages; and managing the EPP for the UE; in this case, the network manages a PDU session and its energy performance);
acquiring, by a second NF of the cellular network, information indicating a utilization status of energy for the PDU session (see Khirallah, pars. [0137-0138]: the AMF may send the following information (in existing or newly defined IE(s)) to NG-RAN and/or UE (and/or other network entities): Assistance Information on EPP(s) IE={list of EPPs (e.g., EPP ID, EPP Type (EPP-UE, EPP-RAN, EPP-CN, EPP-NF, Other), UE ID, RAN ID, NW-entity ID, other), EPP Granularity (e.g., EPP per QoS flow, EPP per PDU session, EPP per NSSAI, other), Energy Charge Granularity (e.g., per QoS flow, PDU session, NSSAI, other), Energy Charge Variability (e.g., same for all services/use cases, dependent on service/use case, fixed over a given time/location, variable/dynamic depending on energy utilization rate, other), traffic type (GBR, delay-critical GBR, energy-constrained non-GBR, non-GBR (i.e., non energy constrained non-GBR), AMER—UL and AMER—DL, MFER—UL and MFER—DL, Session-AMER, UE-AMER, UE-Slice-MER, EPP(s) validity time and/or location, other information related to energy usage management for the designated UE and/or NW entity and/or NF}, and see par. [0170]: the network could collect energy utilization information in other network entities and/or functions and enforce Session-AMER in other network entities (e.g., SMF, UPF, other). This may use, for example, a kind of ‘averaging’ of energy utilization for N PDU sessions, with 1/Nth being considered to be the energy used by any single PDU session, etc; in this case, network entities acquire energy utilization information for PDU sessions, corresponding to utilization status of the energy for the PDU session);
requesting, by a third NF of the cellular network, the information indicating the utilization status of the energy for the PDU session from the second NF (see Khirallah, par. [0129]: the network (e.g., NG-RAN, AMF, other) may directly obtain assistance information on EPPs for a designated UE, from another network central node or a newly defined Network entity or Network Function that can be dedicated to store, manage, and share EPPs to NG-RAN (or other NW entities and NFs) directly or via another NW entity, and see pars. [0122-0124]: Assistance information from the network (e.g., NW entities and/or NW functions), for example: Assistance information based on NWDAF analytics/predictions (UE energy usage patterns, and/or energy cost patterns, etc.). The network (e.g., AMF and/or NG-RAN) may subscribe directly (or via another entity) for NWDAF analytics. E.g., in case of NWDAF analytics showing high patterns of energy consumption for a given UE (or groups of UEs), the network may decide to modify the EPP parameters (e.g., Energy usage Charge, Energy utilization level, other) in order to reduce energy consumption in the network and/or energy usage cost (to the UE); in this case, subscribing for NWDAF analytics which include energy consumption information corresponds to requesting information indicating utilization status of the energy for the PDU session from the second NF); and
reporting, by the second NF, to the third NF, the information indicating the utilization status of the energy for the PDU session based on the requesting by the third NF (see Khirallah, par. [0129]: the network (e.g., NG-RAN, AMF, other) may directly obtain assistance information on EPPs for a designated UE, from another network central node or a newly defined Network entity or Network Function that can be dedicated to store, manage, and share EPPs to NG-RAN (or other NW entities and NFs) directly or via another NW entity, and see pars. [0122-0124]: Assistance information from the network (e.g., NW entities and/or NW functions), for example: Assistance information based on NWDAF analytics/predictions (UE energy usage patterns, and/or energy cost patterns, etc.). The network (e.g., AMF and/or NG-RAN) may subscribe directly (or via another entity) for NWDAF analytics. E.g., in case of NWDAF analytics showing high patterns of energy consumption for a given UE (or groups of UEs), the network may decide to modify the EPP parameters (e.g., Energy usage Charge, Energy utilization level, other) in order to reduce energy consumption in the network and/or energy usage cost (to the UE), and see pars. [0083-0085]: Each PDU Session of a UE is associated with the following aggregate rate limit QoS parameter: per Session Aggregate Maximum Energy Rate (Session-AMER) The Session-AMER is signalled to the appropriate UPF entity/ies to the UE and to the (R)AN (to enable the calculation of the UE-AMER). The Session-AMER limits the aggregate energy utilization rate that can be expected to be provided across all Non-GBR QoS Flows for a specific PDU Session; in this case, the network obtains assistance information based on subscribing (i.e. based on the requesting by the third NF)).
However, Khirallah does not teach:
wherein the information indicating a utilization status of renewable energy
Nikopour, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the information indicating a utilization status of renewable energy (see Nikopour, Fig. 1, par. [0050]: Under the Option 2 split, the CU 132 can connect to multiple DU 131 (e.g., the CU 132 is centralized), which allows RRC and PDCP anchor change to be eliminated during a handover across DUs 131 and allows the centralized CU 132 to pool resources across several DUs 131. In these ways, the option 2 function split can improve resource efficiencies, and see par. [0068]: It should be noted that the parameters listed in table 1.2-1 and the various energy efficiency metrics described herein are examples, and additional or alternative parameters and/or metrics can be used in other implementations, including any of those discussed herein. Additionally, the parameter names/labels listed in table 1.2-1 and the aforementioned metrics are examples, and other names/labels can be used to represent the listed parameters/metrics. Moreover, other types of data can be used for energy efficiency determinations, such as historical data, environmental data (e.g., data related to weather including sunshine/daylight hours, geographic features, infrastructure-related data, and/or other information about a given area/region), telemetry data, availability and/or usage of renewable energy/electricity sources, and see par. [0045]: Each of the edge cloud, regional cloud, and core cloud (collectively referred to as “clouds” or “cloud sites”) includes functionality to support both user plane (also referred to as the “deployment plane”) and control plane (also referred to as the “management plane”) services; in this case, energy efficiency procedures are performed for the network including renewable energy usage);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method of Khirallah with the renewable energy utilization of Nikopour with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of maximizing network energy efficiency while maintaining QoS (see Nikopour, par. [0023]).
Regarding claims 8, 17, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour teaches the method or system. Khirallah further teaches:
wherein: the second NF operates as a network data analytics function of the cellular network (see Khirallah, par. [0129]: the network (e.g., NG-RAN, AMF, other) may directly obtain assistance information on EPPs for a designated UE, from another network central node or a newly defined Network entity or Network Function that can be dedicated to store, manage, and share EPPs to NG-RAN (or other NW entities and NFs) directly or via another NW entity, and see pars. [0122-0124]: Assistance information from the network (e.g., NW entities and/or NW functions), for example: Assistance information based on NWDAF analytics/predictions (UE energy usage patterns, and/or energy cost patterns, etc.). The network (e.g., AMF and/or NG-RAN) may subscribe directly (or via another entity) for NWDAF analytics. E.g., in case of NWDAF analytics showing high patterns of energy consumption for a given UE (or groups of UEs), the network may decide to modify the EPP parameters (e.g., Energy usage Charge, Energy utilization level, other) in order to reduce energy consumption in the network and/or energy usage cost (to the UE)).
Regarding claims 9, 18, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour teaches the method or system. Khirallah further teaches:
wherein: the third device is a device configured to operate as a policy control function of the cellular network (see Khirallah, pars. [0099-0102]: The network may provide a single or multiple energy consumption policies at the granularity of: The whole network (i.e., EPP-Network). That is, energy enforcement on traffic going through the whole network (all entities and functions handling the traffic). Per network entity and/or network function (i.e., energy enforcement on a given entity or NF), E.g., EPP-RAN, EPP-CN entity, EPP-NF, EPP-NW-Entity (e.g., EPP-AMF, -SMF, -NSSF, -PCF, -UDM, -UPF, and/or any other internal or external entity)).
Claims 2-3 and 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khirallah in view of Nikopour, as applied to claims 1, 8-10, 17, and 18 above, and further in view of Örtenblad et al. (US 2022/0124522), hereinafter "Örtenblad".
Regarding claims 2, 11, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour teaches the method or system. Khirallah further teaches:
wherein the machine-readable instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the cellular network (see Khirallah, par. [0309]: the described elements may be configured to reside on a tangible, persistent, addressable storage medium and may be configured to execute on one or more processors) to:
a value indicating the utilization status of the energy for the PDU session (see Khirallah, pars. [0137-0138]: the AMF may send the following information (in existing or newly defined IE(s)) to NG-RAN and/or UE (and/or other network entities): [0138] Assistance Information on EPP(s) IE={list of EPPs (e.g., EPP ID, EPP Type (EPP-UE, EPP-RAN, EPP-CN, EPP-NF, Other), UE ID, RAN ID, NW-entity ID, other), EPP Granularity (e.g., EPP per QoS flow, EPP per PDU session, EPP per NSSAI, other), Energy Charge Granularity (e.g., per QoS flow, PDU session, NSSAI, other), Energy Charge Variability (e.g., same for all services/use cases, dependent on service/use case, fixed over a given time/location, variable/dynamic depending on energy utilization rate, other), traffic type (GBR, delay-critical GBR, energy-constrained non-GBR, non-GBR (i.e., non energy constrained non-GBR), AMER—UL and AMER—DL, MFER—UL and MFER—DL, Session-AMER, UE-AMER, UE-Slice-MER, EPP(s) validity time and/or location, other information related to energy usage management for the designated UE and/or NW entity and/or NF}, and see par. [0170]: the network could collect energy utilization information in other network entities and/or functions and enforce Session-AMER in other network entities (e.g., SMF, UPF, other). This may use, for example, a kind of ‘averaging’ of energy utilization for N PDU sessions, with 1/Nth being considered to be the energy used by any single PDU session, etc; in this case, network entities acquire energy utilization information for PDU sessions, corresponding to utilization status of the energy for the PDU session)
Khirallah does not teach, but Nikopour teaches:
wherein the utilization status is of renewable energy (see Nikopour, Fig. 1, par. [0050]: Under the Option 2 split, the CU 132 can connect to multiple DU 131 (e.g., the CU 132 is centralized), which allows RRC and PDCP anchor change to be eliminated during a handover across DUs 131 and allows the centralized CU 132 to pool resources across several DUs 131. In these ways, the option 2 function split can improve resource efficiencies, and see par. [0068]: It should be noted that the parameters listed in table 1.2-1 and the various energy efficiency metrics described herein are examples, and additional or alternative parameters and/or metrics can be used in other implementations, including any of those discussed herein. Additionally, the parameter names/labels listed in table 1.2-1 and the aforementioned metrics are examples, and other names/labels can be used to represent the listed parameters/metrics. Moreover, other types of data can be used for energy efficiency determinations, such as historical data, environmental data (e.g., data related to weather including sunshine/daylight hours, geographic features, infrastructure-related data, and/or other information about a given area/region), telemetry data, availability and/or usage of renewable energy/electricity sources, and see par. [0045]: Each of the edge cloud, regional cloud, and core cloud (collectively referred to as “clouds” or “cloud sites”) includes functionality to support both user plane (also referred to as the “deployment plane”) and control plane (also referred to as the “management plane”) services; in this case, energy efficiency procedures are performed for the network including renewable energy usage);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or system of Khirallah with renewable energy utilization of Nikopour with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of maximizing network energy efficiency while maintaining QoS (see Nikopour, par. [0023]).
However, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour does not teach:
further comprising:
giving, by the second NF, a notification to the third NF when a value is greater than a threshold.
Örtenblad, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
further comprising:
giving, by the second NF, a notification to the third NF (see Örtenblad, par. [0053], lines 1-5: the NWDAF 13 (the service provider) provides analytics insights (e.g. load level information) either by means of a subscribe/notify operation or a request/response operation (to the service consumer), and see Örtenblad, Fig. 4, item S303, par. [0079], lines 1-4: In step S303, the NWDAF 13 sends the periodically requested network analytics information in the form of an Nnwdaf_EventsSubscription_Notify message to the PCF 14) when a value is greater than a threshold (see Örtenblad, pars. [0056-0058]: In the subscribe/notify case, the NWDAF 13 provides insights to the subscribed consumer: (a) periodically (period value provided by the consumer in the subscription request), or (b) when the insight value changes exceed a certain threshold value (the threshold value is provided by the consumer as well); in this case, the NWDAF (corresponding to the first device) sends a notification message to the PCF (corresponding to the second device) either periodically or when a value exceeds a threshold).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or system of the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour with the giving a notification of Örtenblad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing unnecessary signaling (see Örtenblad, par. [0019], lines 9-17).
Regarding claims 3, 12, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour teaches the method or system. Khirallah further teaches:
wherein the machine-readable instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the cellular network (see Khirallah, par. [0309]: the described elements may be configured to reside on a tangible, persistent, addressable storage medium and may be configured to execute on one or more processors) to:
a value indicating the utilization status of the energy for the PDU session (see Khirallah, pars. [0137-0138]: the AMF may send the following information (in existing or newly defined IE(s)) to NG-RAN and/or UE (and/or other network entities): [0138] Assistance Information on EPP(s) IE={list of EPPs (e.g., EPP ID, EPP Type (EPP-UE, EPP-RAN, EPP-CN, EPP-NF, Other), UE ID, RAN ID, NW-entity ID, other), EPP Granularity (e.g., EPP per QoS flow, EPP per PDU session, EPP per NSSAI, other), Energy Charge Granularity (e.g., per QoS flow, PDU session, NSSAI, other), Energy Charge Variability (e.g., same for all services/use cases, dependent on service/use case, fixed over a given time/location, variable/dynamic depending on energy utilization rate, other), traffic type (GBR, delay-critical GBR, energy-constrained non-GBR, non-GBR (i.e., non energy constrained non-GBR), AMER—UL and AMER—DL, MFER—UL and MFER—DL, Session-AMER, UE-AMER, UE-Slice-MER, EPP(s) validity time and/or location, other information related to energy usage management for the designated UE and/or NW entity and/or NF}, and see par. [0170]: the network could collect energy utilization information in other network entities and/or functions and enforce Session-AMER in other network entities (e.g., SMF, UPF, other). This may use, for example, a kind of ‘averaging’ of energy utilization for N PDU sessions, with 1/Nth being considered to be the energy used by any single PDU session, etc; in this case, network entities acquire energy utilization information for PDU sessions, corresponding to utilization status of the energy for the PDU session)
Khirallah does not teach, but Nikopour teaches:
wherein the utilization status is of renewable energy (see Nikopour, Fig. 1, par. [0050]: Under the Option 2 split, the CU 132 can connect to multiple DU 131 (e.g., the CU 132 is centralized), which allows RRC and PDCP anchor change to be eliminated during a handover across DUs 131 and allows the centralized CU 132 to pool resources across several DUs 131. In these ways, the option 2 function split can improve resource efficiencies, and see par. [0068]: It should be noted that the parameters listed in table 1.2-1 and the various energy efficiency metrics described herein are examples, and additional or alternative parameters and/or metrics can be used in other implementations, including any of those discussed herein. Additionally, the parameter names/labels listed in table 1.2-1 and the aforementioned metrics are examples, and other names/labels can be used to represent the listed parameters/metrics. Moreover, other types of data can be used for energy efficiency determinations, such as historical data, environmental data (e.g., data related to weather including sunshine/daylight hours, geographic features, infrastructure-related data, and/or other information about a given area/region), telemetry data, availability and/or usage of renewable energy/electricity sources, and see par. [0045]: Each of the edge cloud, regional cloud, and core cloud (collectively referred to as “clouds” or “cloud sites”) includes functionality to support both user plane (also referred to as the “deployment plane”) and control plane (also referred to as the “management plane”) services; in this case, energy efficiency procedures are performed for the network including renewable energy usage);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or system of Khirallah with renewable energy utilization of Nikopour with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of maximizing network energy efficiency while maintaining QoS (see Nikopour, par. [0023]).
However, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour does not teach:
further comprising:
giving, by the second NF, a notification to the third NF when a value is less than a threshold.
Örtenblad, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
further comprising:
giving, by the second NF, a notification to the third NF (see Örtenblad, par. [0053], lines 1-5: the NWDAF 13 (the service provider) provides analytics insights (e.g. load level information) either by means of a subscribe/notify operation or a request/response operation (to the service consumer), and see Örtenblad, Fig. 4, item S303, par. [0079], lines 1-4: In step S303, the NWDAF 13 sends the periodically requested network analytics information in the form of an Nnwdaf_EventsSubscription_Notify message to the PCF 14) when a value is lower than a threshold (see Örtenblad, pars. [0056-0058]: In the subscribe/notify case, the NWDAF 13 provides insights to the subscribed consumer: (a) periodically (period value provided by the consumer in the subscription request), or (b) when the insight value changes exceed a certain threshold value (the threshold value is provided by the consumer as well); in this case, the NWDAF (corresponding to the first device) sends a notification message to the PCF (corresponding to the second device) either periodically or when a value exceeds a threshold. In the case that the NWDAF sends a notification message periodically, it is not triggered by a value exceeding a threshold (i.e. the value is less than a threshold)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or system of the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour with the giving a notification and changing a parameter of Örtenblad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing unnecessary signaling (see Örtenblad, par. [0019], lines 9-17).
Claims 5 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khirallah in view of Nikopour, as applied to claims 1, 8-10, 17, and 18 above, and further in view of Nair et al. (US 2024/0406831), hereinafter “Nair”.
Regarding claims 5, 14, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour teaches the method or system. Khirallah further teaches:
further comprising:
determining, by the third NF, a policy of communication of a terminal connected to the cellular network depending on the information indicating the utilization status of the energy for the PDU session (see Khirallah, par. [0113]: The network may obtain/generate/provide/create EPP(s) for the designated UE based on the following:, and see pars. [0122-0124]: Assistance information from the network (e.g., NW entities and/or NW functions), for example: Assistance information based on NWDAF analytics/predictions (UE energy usage patterns, and/or energy cost patterns, etc.). The network (e.g., AMF and/or NG-RAN) may subscribe directly (or via another entity) for NWDAF analytics. E.g., in case of NWDAF analytics showing high patterns of energy consumption for a given UE (or groups of UEs), the network may decide to modify the EPP parameters (e.g., Energy usage Charge, Energy utilization level, other) in order to reduce energy consumption in the network and/or energy usage cost (to the UE); in this case, determining EPPs corresponds to determining a policy)
Khirallah does not teach, but Nikopour teaches:
wherein the utilization status is of renewable energy (see Nikopour, Fig. 1, par. [0050]: Under the Option 2 split, the CU 132 can connect to multiple DU 131 (e.g., the CU 132 is centralized), which allows RRC and PDCP anchor change to be eliminated during a handover across DUs 131 and allows the centralized CU 132 to pool resources across several DUs 131. In these ways, the option 2 function split can improve resource efficiencies, and see par. [0068]: It should be noted that the parameters listed in table 1.2-1 and the various energy efficiency metrics described herein are examples, and additional or alternative parameters and/or metrics can be used in other implementations, including any of those discussed herein. Additionally, the parameter names/labels listed in table 1.2-1 and the aforementioned metrics are examples, and other names/labels can be used to represent the listed parameters/metrics. Moreover, other types of data can be used for energy efficiency determinations, such as historical data, environmental data (e.g., data related to weather including sunshine/daylight hours, geographic features, infrastructure-related data, and/or other information about a given area/region), telemetry data, availability and/or usage of renewable energy/electricity sources, and see par. [0045]: Each of the edge cloud, regional cloud, and core cloud (collectively referred to as “clouds” or “cloud sites”) includes functionality to support both user plane (also referred to as the “deployment plane”) and control plane (also referred to as the “management plane”) services; in this case, energy efficiency procedures are performed for the network including renewable energy usage);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or system of Khirallah with renewable energy utilization of Nikopour with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of maximizing network energy efficiency while maintaining QoS (see Nikopour, par. [0023]).
However, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour does not teach:
determining, by the third NF, a policy on a route of communication of a terminal
Nair, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
determining, by the third NF, a policy on a route of communication of a terminal (see Nair, par. [0075], lines 1-4: The first node 101, based on the collected information may then aim to control the priority of the data for any data download or upload for optimal usage of green energy, and see Nair, Fig. 3, item 304, par. [0076], lines 1-4: In this Action 304, the first node 101 determines a scheduling of a transfer of data to or from the device 130 along the predicted route 140 to be followed by the device 130 during a time period; in this case, Nair teaches that a first node (corresponding to the second device) determines scheduling on a route (corresponding to a policy on a route) for a device (corresponding to the terminal))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the determination of a policy of the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour with the determination of a policy on a route of Nair with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of maximizing green energy usage (see Nair, par. [0166], lines 1-3).
Claims 6 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, as applied to claims 5 and 14 above, and further in view of Örtenblad.
Regarding claims 6, 15, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, teaches the method or system. Khirallah further teaches:
further comprising:
determining, by the third NF, a policy of the communication of the terminal through the cellular network when a determination is made that an available amount or a utilization rate of the energy for the PDU session (see Khirallah, par. [0113]: The network may obtain/generate/provide/create EPP(s) for the designated UE based on the following:, and see pars. [0122-0124]: Assistance information from the network (e.g., NW entities and/or NW functions), for example: Assistance information based on NWDAF analytics/predictions (UE energy usage patterns, and/or energy cost patterns, etc.). The network (e.g., AMF and/or NG-RAN) may subscribe directly (or via another entity) for NWDAF analytics. E.g., in case of NWDAF analytics showing high patterns of energy consumption for a given UE (or groups of UEs), the network may decide to modify the EPP parameters (e.g., Energy usage Charge, Energy utilization level, other) in order to reduce energy consumption in the network and/or energy usage cost (to the UE); in this case, determining EPPs corresponds to determining a policy)
Khirallah does not teach, but Nikopour teaches:
wherein the utilization status is of renewable energy (see Nikopour, Fig. 1, par. [0050]: Under the Option 2 split, the CU 132 can connect to multiple DU 131 (e.g., the CU 132 is centralized), which allows RRC and PDCP anchor change to be eliminated during a handover across DUs 131 and allows the centralized CU 132 to pool resources across several DUs 131. In these ways, the option 2 function split can improve resource efficiencies, and see par. [0068]: It should be noted that the parameters listed in table 1.2-1 and the various energy efficiency metrics described herein are examples, and additional or alternative parameters and/or metrics can be used in other implementations, including any of those discussed herein. Additionally, the parameter names/labels listed in table 1.2-1 and the aforementioned metrics are examples, and other names/labels can be used to represent the listed parameters/metrics. Moreover, other types of data can be used for energy efficiency determinations, such as historical data, environmental data (e.g., data related to weather including sunshine/daylight hours, geographic features, infrastructure-related data, and/or other information about a given area/region), telemetry data, availability and/or usage of renewable energy/electricity sources, and see par. [0045]: Each of the edge cloud, regional cloud, and core cloud (collectively referred to as “clouds” or “cloud sites”) includes functionality to support both user plane (also referred to as the “deployment plane”) and control plane (also referred to as the “management plane”) services; in this case, energy efficiency procedures are performed for the network including renewable energy usage);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or system of Khirallah with renewable energy utilization of Nikopour with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of maximizing network energy efficiency while maintaining QoS (see Nikopour, par. [0023]).
The combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour does not teach, but Nair teaches:
determining, by the third NF, a policy on a route of the communication of the terminal through the cellular network (see Nair, par. [0075], lines 1-4: The first node 101, based on the collected information may then aim to control the priority of the data for any data download or upload for optimal usage of green energy, and see Nair, Fig. 3, item 304, par. [0076], lines 1-4: In this Action 304, the first node 101 determines a scheduling of a transfer of data to or from the device 130 along the predicted route 140 to be followed by the device 130 during a time period; in this case, Nair teaches that a first node (corresponding to the second device) determines scheduling on a route (corresponding to a policy on a route) for a device (corresponding to the terminal))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the determination of a policy of the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour with the determination of a policy on a route of Nair with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of maximizing green energy usage (see Nair, par. [0166], lines 1-3).
However, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, does not teach:
when a determination is made that an available amount or a utilization rate is greater than a threshold.
Örtenblad, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
when a determination is made that an available amount or a utilization rate is greater than a threshold (see Örtenblad, par. [0053], lines 1-5: the NWDAF 13 (the service provider) provides analytics insights (e.g. load level information) either by means of a subscribe/notify operation or a request/response operation (to the service consumer), and see Örtenblad, Fig. 4, item S303, par. [0079], lines 1-4: In step S303, the NWDAF 13 sends the periodically requested network analytics information in the form of an Nnwdaf_EventsSubscription_Notify message to the PCF 14, and see Örtenblad, pars. [0056-0058]: In the subscribe/notify case, the NWDAF 13 provides insights to the subscribed consumer: (a) periodically (period value provided by the consumer in the subscription request), or (b) when the insight value changes exceed a certain threshold value (the threshold value is provided by the consumer as well), and see Örtenblad, par. [0065], lines 1-9: with the expiry time associated with the requested network analytics information, the PCF 14 may come to a number of conclusions. For instance, the PCF 14 may (1) conclude that it is not necessary to request the information again until the expiry time has expired in the case of a request/response operation, or (2) update the periodicity with which it expects to receive the requested network analytics information in the case of a subscribe/notify operation, and see Örtenblad, par. [0064], lines 7-9: Thereafter, in step S103, the NWDAF 13 sends the requested network analytics information and the associated expiry time to the PCF 14; in this case, the PCF (corresponding to the second device) determines a policy based on the load level information (corresponding to an available amount or a utilization rate) which is determined to be sent and thereafter used for policy determination when a threshold is exceeded).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method of the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, with the determining a policy based a threshold of Örtenblad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing unnecessary signaling (see Örtenblad, par. [0019], lines 9-17).
Claims 7 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, as applied to claims 5 and 14 above, and further in view of Sirotkin et al. (US 10,897,732), hereinafter “Sirotkin”, and further in view of Örtenblad.
Regarding claims 7, 16, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, teaches the method or system. Khirallah further teaches:
further comprising:
determining, by the third NF, a policy on the communication of the terminal when a determination is made that an available amount or a utilization rate of the energy for the PDU session (see Khirallah, par. [0113]: The network may obtain/generate/provide/create EPP(s) for the designated UE based on the following:, and see pars. [0122-0124]: Assistance information from the network (e.g., NW entities and/or NW functions), for example: Assistance information based on NWDAF analytics/predictions (UE energy usage patterns, and/or energy cost patterns, etc.). The network (e.g., AMF and/or NG-RAN) may subscribe directly (or via another entity) for NWDAF analytics. E.g., in case of NWDAF analytics showing high patterns of energy consumption for a given UE (or groups of UEs), the network may decide to modify the EPP parameters (e.g., Energy usage Charge, Energy utilization level, other) in order to reduce energy consumption in the network and/or energy usage cost (to the UE); in this case, determining EPPs corresponds to determining a policy)
Khirallah does not teach, but Nikopour teaches:
wherein the utilization status is of renewable energy (see Nikopour, Fig. 1, par. [0050]: Under the Option 2 split, the CU 132 can connect to multiple DU 131 (e.g., the CU 132 is centralized), which allows RRC and PDCP anchor change to be eliminated during a handover across DUs 131 and allows the centralized CU 132 to pool resources across several DUs 131. In these ways, the option 2 function split can improve resource efficiencies, and see par. [0068]: It should be noted that the parameters listed in table 1.2-1 and the various energy efficiency metrics described herein are examples, and additional or alternative parameters and/or metrics can be used in other implementations, including any of those discussed herein. Additionally, the parameter names/labels listed in table 1.2-1 and the aforementioned metrics are examples, and other names/labels can be used to represent the listed parameters/metrics. Moreover, other types of data can be used for energy efficiency determinations, such as historical data, environmental data (e.g., data related to weather including sunshine/daylight hours, geographic features, infrastructure-related data, and/or other information about a given area/region), telemetry data, availability and/or usage of renewable energy/electricity sources, and see par. [0045]: Each of the edge cloud, regional cloud, and core cloud (collectively referred to as “clouds” or “cloud sites”) includes functionality to support both user plane (also referred to as the “deployment plane”) and control plane (also referred to as the “management plane”) services; in this case, energy efficiency procedures are performed for the network including renewable energy usage);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method or system of Khirallah with renewable energy utilization of Nikopour with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of maximizing network energy efficiency while maintaining QoS (see Nikopour, par. [0023]).
The combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour does not teach, but Nair teaches:
determining, by the third device, a policy on a route (see Nair, par. [0075], lines 1-4: The first node 101, based on the collected information may then aim to control the priority of the data for any data download or upload for optimal usage of green energy, and see Nair, Fig. 3, item 304, par. [0076], lines 1-4: In this Action 304, the first node 101 determines a scheduling of a transfer of data to or from the device 130 along the predicted route 140 to be followed by the device 130 during a time period; in this case, Nair teaches that a first node (corresponding to the second device) determines scheduling on a route (corresponding to a policy on a route) for a device (corresponding to the terminal))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the determination of a policy of the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour with the determination of a policy on a route of Nair with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of maximizing green energy usage (see Nair, par. [0166], lines 1-3).
However, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, does not teach:
determining, by the third NF, a policy that offloads the communication of the terminal to a non-cellular network when a determination is made that an available amount or a utilization rate is less than a threshold.
Sirotkin, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
determining, by the third NF, a policy that offloads the communication of the terminal to a non-cellular network (see Sirotkin, col. 10, lines 48-54: ANDSF policy module 168 may determine an ANDSF MO 163 including one or more ANDSF policies corresponding to UE 102. The ANDSF policies may include the ANDSF assistance information and one or more ANDSF rules configured to select between RAN 119 and WLAN AP 106, e.g., as described below, and see Sirotkin, col. 10, lines 55-67: the ANDSF assistance parameters may include, for example, offload preference information. For example, the offload preference information may include an offload preference indication to indicate, for example, a preference between accessing network 180 via cellular access, e.g., via RAN 119, or via WLAN access, e.g., via WLAN AP 106. The offload preference information may be based, for example, on a cellular load of RAN 119, and/or based on operator load balancing and/or traffic offloading preferences. The offload preference information may indicate, for example, how “aggressive” the operator may allow UE 102 to use offloading to the WLAN; in this case, a ANDSF policy module (corresponding to the second device) determines policies that are applied to the UE to determine when to offload to WLAN (corresponding to a non-cellular network))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the determination of a policy of the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, with the determination of a policy for offloading communication to a non-cellular network of Sirotkin with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of improving load balancing between cellular and non-cellular networks (see Sirotkin, col. 12, lines 1-6).
However, the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, and further in view of Sirotkin, does not teach:
when a determination is made that an available amount or a utilization rate of the renewable energy is less than a threshold.
Örtenblad, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
when a determination is made that an available amount or a utilization rate of the renewable energy is less than a threshold (see Örtenblad, par. [0053], lines 1-5: the NWDAF 13 (the service provider) provides analytics insights (e.g. load level information) either by means of a subscribe/notify operation or a request/response operation (to the service consumer), and see Örtenblad, Fig. 4, item S303, par. [0079], lines 1-4: In step S303, the NWDAF 13 sends the periodically requested network analytics information in the form of an Nnwdaf_EventsSubscription_Notify message to the PCF 14, and see Örtenblad, pars. [0056-0058]: In the subscribe/notify case, the NWDAF 13 provides insights to the subscribed consumer: (a) periodically (period value provided by the consumer in the subscription request), or (b) when the insight value changes exceed a certain threshold value (the threshold value is provided by the consumer as well), and see Örtenblad, par. [0065], lines 1-9: with the expiry time associated with the requested network analytics information, the PCF 14 may come to a number of conclusions. For instance, the PCF 14 may (1) conclude that it is not necessary to request the information again until the expiry time has expired in the case of a request/response operation, or (2) update the periodicity with which it expects to receive the requested network analytics information in the case of a subscribe/notify operation, and see Örtenblad, par. [0064], lines 7-9: Thereafter, in step S103, the NWDAF 13 sends the requested network analytics information and the associated expiry time to the PCF 14; in this case, the PCF (corresponding to the second device) receives load level information (corresponding to an available amount or a utilization rate) for determining a policy periodically when it is not triggered by a value exceeding a threshold (i.e. when the value is less than a threshold)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method of the combination of Khirallah in view of Nikopour, and further in view of Nair, and further in view of Sirotkin, with the determining a policy based on a threshold of Örtenblad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing unnecessary signaling (see Örtenblad, par. [0019], lines 9-17).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 10 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Kim (US 2026/0067800) teaches a method and an apparatus for managing energy information in a next-generation wireless communication system.
Bajpai et al. (WO 2021/229587) teaches a method performed by a core network node for assisting a User Equipment, UE, in decreasing consumption of non-renewable power in a wireless communications network.
Bhangu et al. (WO 2025/069040) teaches techniques for collecting and exposing network energy related information in a communication system.
Xin et al. (WO 2025/100866) teaches a method of producing network data analytics function-based, NWDAF-based, analytics of energy-related aspects of the network and using the analytics to support energy saving and energy efficiency in a communications network.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CALEB J BALLOWE whose telephone number is (571)270-0410. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FRI 7:30-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nishant B. Divecha can be reached at (571) 270-3125. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/C.J.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419
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