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
Response to Amendment
This office action is in response to applicant’s RCE amendment filed, 18 August 2025, of application filed, with the above serial number, on 05 January 2024 in which claims 1-6, 8-9, 11-15 have been amended. Claims 1-15 are pending in the application.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Gazda et al (hereinafter “Gazda”, WO2023/183538).
As per Claim 1, Gazda discloses a method performed by a terminal in a communication system, the method comprising:
identifying whether an application triggering is supported by an edge enabler client (EEC) of the terminal (at least paragraph 113-118, 105; Initially, there may be one or more prerequisite. An application vertical session(s) may be created, and an AVSID(s) may be assigned to identify the session. The AVSID may be provided to the EEC 210, for example, by the AC 202 when registering with the EEC or requesting EAS 204 discovery for an AVSID(s); EEC 210 may create an application-vertical-session EAS 204 discovery subscription with the EES 208; ACx 202 may implicitly trigger an EAS discovery at the EEC 210 by registering with the EEC and providing the AVSID in the registration);
if the application triggering is supported by the EEC of the terminal, transmitting, by the EEC of the terminal to a server of an edge data network (EDN), a request message including an indication indicating that an EEC triggering is requested, the server of the EDN including an edge configuration server (ECS) or an edge enabler server (EES) (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-106; Fig. 2; the EEC 210 may create an application-vertical-session EAS 204 discovery subscription with the EES 208; EEC1 210 may initiate AVS creation, which in EEC1 means acquiring the parameters needed to create an AVS in the EEL (e.g., EES 208); this action may be triggered from a request originating from an AC 202 using EEC1 210; the information required to create an AVS may be provided by the source that triggered the AVS initiation);
receiving, from the server, a message associated with the application triggering, the message including information on a trigger payload (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-106; Fig. 2, 7; At 704, at a later time, an EAS 204 may be instantiated in an EDN 206 to serve the application vertical session(s) that are identified by their respective AVSIDs. The EAS 204 may register with an EES 208 and provide its serving AVSIDs, for example via an enhanced EAS profile defined, e.g., as disclosed herein. [0117] At 706, the EES 208 may use the EAS 204 registration information and evaluate the information against EAS discovery subscription filters, for example the AVSIDs from the subscription created at 702. The EES 208 may determine that a notification needs to be issued towards the EEC 210, since the AVSID(s) matches the subscription request each EAS 204 may register with their EES 208 and provide their serving AVSIDs, the AC of the EEC receiving the EAS discovery), and the trigger payload including trigger description information indicating a procedure to be initiated by the EEC of the terminal (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-106, 120-122; Fig. 2; the EES 208 may send the EAS Discovery notification to the subscribed EEC 210 and include the application-vertical-session(s) enhanced EAS profile; par. 98 Gazda teaches the EEC/AC sends a message to EES an identifier of what the client requires, the EEC and EES match EAS discovery and selection requests with an appropriate EAS instance that was discovered; par. 99, Gazda discloses that if EAS is not available or not discovered, then service provisioning notification is sent to the EEC for service provisioning procedure to be selected. In par. 102 Gazda discloses this enables EEC to discover and select an EAS instance for the service requested. In par. 105, the AC/EEC may request and implicitly trigger an EAS discovery);
performing the procedure indicated by the trigger payload (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-107, 120-122; Fig. 2; At 710, the EEC 210 may inform the AC 202 about the EAS 204, providing the EAS endpoint(s) and the AVSID(s) that the EAS(s) is serving. The AC 202 may connect to the selected EAS(s) 204 and join the application vertical session action may be triggered by receiving a message such as a SMS for EAS discovery/ (EDGE-1); service-provisioning procedure/ (EDGE-4); see par. 106 the EEC terminal performs the EAS discovery procedure),
wherein the procedure includes an edge application server (EAS) discovery procedure over EDGE-1 or a service provisioning procedure over EDGE-4 (at least paragraph 114-119; EAS Discovery notification; at least Fig. 7, 2; EEC connection to EES over EDGE-1; alternatively Fig. 8, 9 and par. 120-130 for service provisioning).
As per Claim 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal performs and action indicated by a payload provided in a short message service (SMS) message based on the application triggering being supported (at least paragraph 154, 97-106; ACx (application (client)) 202 may implicitly trigger an EAS discovery at the EEC 210 by registering with the EEC and providing the AVSID in the registration; received the AVSID from a message such as a SMS).
As per Claim 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the message associated with the application triggering is received from the server via a short message service (SMS) - service center (SC) (SMS-SC) (at least paragraph 154, 97-106, 162; Fig. 2; received the AVSID from a message such as a SMS).
As per Claim 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger payload further includes entity information on an identifier and an address for a server (at least paragraph 162, 97-106, 120-122; Fig. 2; EAS discovery/ (EDGE-1); EEC 210 may utilize services of the ECS 212 to discover EDNs 206 and EESs 208 that can serve the needs of ACs 202 on a WTRU 203 via the service-provisioning procedure. In some cases, EDN 206/EES 208 service provisioning may consider EAS 204 and AC 202 type information (e.g., EASID and ACID) in the AC Profile; the EES 208 may use the AVSID to identify the EAS 204 hosting the AVS and return the address of the EAS hosting the AVS to the EEC2).
As per Claim 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the procedure is performed with the server indicated by the entity information (at least paragraph 106-107, 162, 149; selects only EAS(s) associated with the AVSID(s); EEC2 210 may include the AVSID in the EAS discovery request, and EES 208 may use the AVSID to identify the EAS 204 hosting the AVS and return the address of the EAS hosting the AVS to the EEC2; AVSID).
As per Claim 6, Gazda discloses a method performed by a server of an edge data network (EDN) in a communication system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a terminal, a request message including an indication indicating that an edge enabler client (EEC) triggering is requested, wherein the indication is associated with an application triggering supported by the terminal (at least paragraph 1141-119, 154, 97-106; Fig. 2; the EEC 210 may create an application-vertical-session EAS 204 discovery subscription with the EES 208; EEC1 210 may initiate AVS creation, which in EEC1 means acquiring the parameters needed to create an AVS in the EEL (e.g., EES 208); this action may be triggered from a request originating from an AC 202 using EEC1 210; the information required to create an AVS may be provided by the source that triggered the AVS initiation); and
transmitting, to the terminal, a message associated with the application triggering based on the indication, the message including information on a trigger payload and the trigger payload including trigger description information indicating an edge application server (EAS) discovery procedure over EDGE-1 or a service provisioning procedure over EDGE-4 (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-106, 120-122; Fig. 2; At 704, at a later time, an EAS 204 may be instantiated in an EDN 206 to serve the application vertical session(s) that are identified by their respective AVSIDs. The EAS 204 may register with an EES 208 and provide its serving AVSIDs, for example via an enhanced EAS profile defined, e.g., as disclosed herein. [0117] At 706, the EES 208 may use the EAS 204 registration information and evaluate the information against EAS discovery subscription filters, for example the AVSIDs from the subscription created at 702. The EES 208 may determine that a notification needs to be issued towards the EEC 210, since the AVSID(s) matches the subscription request each EAS 204 may register with their EES 208 and provide their serving AVSIDs, the AC of the EEC receiving the EAS discovery; EAS discovery/ (EDGE-1) see fig. 7; service-provisioning procedure/ (EDGE-4: see Fig. 8-9)), and
performing a procedure indicated by the trigger description information with the terminal (at least paragraph 114-119, 154, 97-107, 120-122; Fig. 2; At 710, the EEC 210 may inform the AC 202 about the EAS 204, providing the EAS endpoint(s) and the AVSID(s) that the EAS(s) is serving. The AC 202 may connect to the selected EAS(s) 204 and join the application vertical session action may be triggered by receiving a message such as a SMS for EAS discovery/ (EDGE-1); service-provisioning procedure/ (EDGE-4); see par. 106 the EEC terminal performs the EAS discovery procedure),
wherein the server includes an edge configuration server (ECS) or an edge enabler server (EES) (at least paragraph 154, 97-106, 120-122; Fig. 2; ECS, EES), and
wherein the procedure includes an edge application server (EAS) discovery procedure over EDGE-1 or a service provisioning procedure over EDGE-4 (at least paragraph 114-119; EAS Discovery notification; at least Fig. 7, 2; EEC connection to EES over EDGE-1; alternatively Fig. 8, 9 and par. 120-130 for service provisioning).
As per Claim 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the message is transmitted based on a trigger delivery request message, the trigger delivery request message being transmitted from the server to a network exposure function (NEF) based on the indication, and wherein the trigger delivery request message further includes at least one of a generic public subscription identifier (GPSI), an application function (AF) identifier (ID), a trigger reference number, or an application port ID (at least paragraph 154; this action may be triggered by receiving a message such as a SMS, or, for example, this action may be triggered by other external sources such as another WTRU 203 or server. In any case, the information required to create an AVS may be provided by the source that triggered the AVS initiation. The AVS parameters may include an AVS identifier (AVSID) that uniquely identifies the AVS resource).
As per Claim 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the message associated with the application triggering is transmitted from the NEF to the terminal via a short message service (SMS) - service center (SC) (SMS-SC) (at least paragraph 154, 162; Fig. 2; received the AVSID from a message such as a SMS).
Claims 9-15 do not, in substance, add or define any additional limitations over claims 1-8 and therefore are rejected for similar reasons, supra.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 18 August 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues on p. 10 that Gazda does not disclose the EDN server “in a disconnected state” triggers the EEC procedure.
In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., EDN server “in a disconnected state”; terminal transmitting an indication ‘in advance’; ‘a situation where there is no ongoing connection’; ‘sent via the 3GPP network’) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Applicant argues that the information in Gazda of an AVS ID that identifies a session is completely different from information that indicates which procedure is to be executed and that the terminal in Gazda does not know which procedure is used to initiate based solely on the notification.
However, the claim continues to not recite indicating which procedure to be performed, the claim as amended recites the EEC sending the request message to either an ECS or EES depending on the procedure the client selects, the client receives a message depending on which server the client requested and the message includes the description information for the procedure in order to be performed. The trigger payload as claimed does not indicate which procedure is to be performed according to a server selecting it for the client for example, but rather the EEC client indicates which procedure is performed. The trigger description indicates a procedure is to be initiated by the EEC, either EAS discovery or service provisioning, either of those can be initiated, the trigger description information does not clearly say one or the other, just either. Further, as amended, the EEC is initiating the procedure, thus further solidifying that the EEC chooses which procedure, as if the server chose the procedure the server would be in essence initiating the procedure.
Based on the remarks, Fig. 7-10 and Gazda’s associated description in par. 113-119 of Fig. 7 (for EAS discovery procedure), [par. 120-130 of Fig. 8a, 8b, 9 (for service provisioning procedure)] better describes the claimed amendment wherein the terminal ‘in advance’ notifying the server of a subscription to have an EAS discovery procedure be performed as triggered by the EEC sending the asynchronous EAS discovery request to the EES as in claim 1 and according to the remarks.
Thus, the limitation of claim 1 with identifying whether an application triggering is supported by an edge enabler client (EEC) of the terminal is taught by Gazda at least paragraph 113-118; Initially, there may be one or more prerequisite. An application vertical session(s) may be created, and an AVSID(s) may be assigned to identify the session. The AVSID may be provided to the EEC 210, for example, by the AC 202 when registering with the EEC or requesting EAS 204 discovery for an AVSID(s); EEC 210 may create an application-vertical-session EAS 204 discovery subscription with the EES 208.
Gazda teaches in par. 154 that the EEC sends a triggering request and receiving the response in order to trigger the EEC to perform the procedure needed to fulfill the service requested.
Gazda thus teaches when EAS is available that the EEC is notified it should perform EAS discovery with the given EDN and associated requirements, otherwise the EEC is notified that service provisioning procedure should be performed to provision an EAS for the requirements needed by the EEC. Gazda clearly teaches the EEC selects which of these based on what is available and notified and Gazda teaches subscribing to both EAS updates in order to trigger an EAS discovery procedure and a service provisioning subscription so as to get updates or messages (as claimed) including information on if an EAS becomes available for the service of interest to the application, in each case the trigger payload indicates whether it is an EAS discovery or service provisioning subscription response.
Finally, Applicant argues that Gazda does not disclose the amended limitations of method claim 1. However, claim 1 is a method claim and as amended includes a contingent limitation of ‘if the application triggering is supported by the EEC of the terminal…’ with the following limitations only applying in such contingent scenario. See MPEP 2111.04 II wherein Ex parte Schulhauser notes that the BRI of such claim, including claim 1 herein, would not need to be disclosed by the prior art when such condition is not met.
The IDS filed 10.14.25 identifies Kim US 2022/0225061 as being a relevant document and indeed par. 69-95 do appear relevant and Applicant is recommended to consider those relevant passages when replying to this Office Action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/GREGORY TODD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443