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 .
This action is in response to the application filed on 16 January 2024.
Claims 1-20 are under examination.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 8 and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claims 1, 8 and 14 reads “one or more IMS”. Claims include abbreviation that is not defined in the claim. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
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 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 1-6, 8-13, and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Kuravangi-Thammaiah et al. (US Publication 2024/0414637) in view of Cai et al. (US Publication 2021/0021647).
With respect to claims 1, 8 and 15, Kuravangi-Thammaiah teaches A method comprising:
receiving notification of network overload conditions; (the slice priorities for particular DNNs may change. For example, as shown, UDM/UDR 201 may receive network analytics information from Network Data and Analytics Function (“NWDAF”) 305 and/or some other suitable source. In this example, the analytics information may indicate that Slice_1 is relatively congested, overloaded, etc. (e.g., relative to other slices, and/or relative to particular thresholds), paragraph 23)
receiving notification of an attach request from a wireless device at home subscriber service (HSS); (AMF 401 may output (some or all operations described herein with regard to UDM/UDR 201 may be performed by a Home Subscriber Server (“HSS”) and/or some other device or system, paragraph 18. at 402) a request for slice information for a particular UE 103 and a particular DNN. AMF 401 may output the request based on, for example, receiving an attach request associated with UE 103, paragraph 27)
obtaining a priority network slice for the wireless device from a unified data repository (UDR); (the UDM and UDR may communicate with each other, such as to request and/or provide information (e.g., slice priority information, DNN information, UE information, etc.) in accordance with such embodiments, paragraph 26) and
Kuravangi-Thammaiah doesn’t teach sharing the priority network slice for the wireless device with one or more IMS application servers.
Cai teaches sharing the priority network slice for the wireless device with one or more IMS application servers. (HSS 502 is a database that stores subscription-related information or subscriber profiles for users of IMS terminals (also referred to as UE or IMS UE). A P-CSCF 504 is a SIP proxy that is the first point of contact for an IMS terminal. The P-CSCF 504 is assigned to an IMS terminal before registration, and sits on the signaling path to inspect the signaling messages. I-CSCF 506 queries HSS 502 for an address of the S-CSCF 508, and forwards requests/responses to the S-CSCF 508. S-CSCF 508 is the central node of the signaling plane, paragraph 40)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Kuravangi-Thammaiah with sharing the priority network slice for the wireless device with one or more IMS application servers as taught by Cai. The motivation for combining Kuravangi-Thammaiah and Cai is to be able to optimized for a variety of characteristics, such as latency, bandwidth, etc.
With respect to claims 2, 9 and 16, Kuravangi-Thammaiah doesn’t teach wherein the one or more IMS application servers utilize the priority network slice for the wireless device.
Cai teaches wherein the one or more IMS application servers utilize the priority network slice for the wireless device. (when a request is received for an IMS service, IMS slice selection manager 620 may be configured to select an IMS network slice 602-604 that is optimized to provide the IMS service, paragraph 44)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Kuravangi-Thammaiah with sharing the priority network slice for the wireless device with one or more IMS application servers as taught by Cai. The motivation for combining Kuravangi-Thammaiah and Cai is to be able to optimized for a variety of characteristics, such as latency, bandwidth, etc.
With respect to claims 3, 10 and 17, Kuravangi-Thammaiah doesn’t teach wherein the one or more IMS application servers utilize the priority network slice to attach the wireless device to a wireless network.
Cai teaches wherein the one or more IMS application servers utilize the priority network slice to attach the wireless device to a wireless network. (SSF 213 handles an initial attach request and session establishment request from UE 108 by selecting an appropriate network slice for UE 108 based on subscription information, UE usage type, service type, and UE capabilities. NSSF 213 connects with a subscriber repository 306 (e.g., Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and/or Subscriber Profile Repository (SPR)), which is a database or databases that stores subscriber-related information or subscriber profiles. Another type of network function is a Common Control Plane Network Function (CCNF) 304. CCNF 304 is the control plane entry function that is shared among different network slices, and includes the Mobility Management (MM) function, the authentication (AU) function, and the NAS Proxy function. Other types of network functions are Slice-Specific Control Plane Network Functions (CP NF) and Slice-Specific User Plane Network Functions (UP NF). Slice-specific network functions are allocated to a particular network slice (i.e., not shared among network slices), and have no direct interface with (R)AN 104. The network functions that are allocated to a particular network slice are configured to support a particular set of functionalities, such as session management and QoS framework, paragraph 36)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Kuravangi-Thammaiah with sharing the priority network slice for the wireless device with one or more IMS application servers as taught by Cai. The motivation for combining Kuravangi-Thammaiah and Cai is to be able to optimized for a variety of characteristics, such as latency, bandwidth, etc.
With respect to claims 4, 11, and 18, Kuravangi-Thammaiah doesn’t teach wherein the one or more IMS application servers comprise interrogating call session control function (I-CSCF) serving call session control function (S-CSCF), and telephony application server (TAS).
Cai teaches wherein the one or more IMS application servers comprise interrogating call session control function (I-CSCF) serving call session control function (S-CSCF), and telephony application server (TAS). (IMS network 402 is a collection of different functions that are linked by standardized interfaces. For example, IMS network 402 includes a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 502, a Proxy-Call Session Control Function (P-CSCF) 504, an Interrogating-CSCF (I-CSCF) 506, and a Serving-CSCF (S-CSCF) 508 of a control layer (or control plane). IMS network 402 also includes Application Servers (AS) 510 and Media Servers (MS) 512 of an application layer (or user plane). The entities of the control layer handle the signaling messages (e.g., Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)) to support a session. For example, HSS 502 is a database that stores subscription-related information or subscriber profiles for users of IMS terminals (also referred to as UE or IMS UE). A P-CSCF 504 is a SIP proxy that is the first point of contact for an IMS terminal. The P-CSCF 504 is assigned to an IMS terminal before registration, and sits on the signaling path to inspect the signaling messages. I-CSCF 506 queries HSS 502 for an address of the S-CSCF 508, and forwards requests/responses to the S-CSCF 508. S-CSCF 508 is the central node of the signaling plane. S-CSCF 508 has knowledge of the services subscribed to by the users, and is responsible for enabling the services by contacting the appropriate application server 510. The entities of the application layer process data, store data, and provide services for IMS terminals. Application server 510 is part of the service/application plane, and hosts and executes IMS-specific services, such as IP telephony and multimedia service, paragraph 40)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Kuravangi-Thammaiah with sharing the priority network slice for the wireless device with one or more IMS application servers as taught by Cai. The motivation for combining Kuravangi-Thammaiah and Cai is to be able to optimized for a variety of characteristics, such as latency, bandwidth, etc.
With respect to claims 5, 12 and 19, Kuravangi-Thammaiah teaches wherein the network overload conditions comprise IP network outage, a fiber cut, site isolation, network congestion, or natural calamities. (load or congestion of various network slices, paragraph 14)
With respect to claims 6, 13 and 20, Kuravangi-Thammaiah teaches wherein the network overload conditions are indicated by satisfying a threshold of network slowdown. (The slice priorities for particular DNNs may change. For example, as shown, UDM/UDR 201 may receive network analytics information from Network Data and Analytics Function (“NWDAF”) 305 and/or some other suitable source. In this example, the analytics information may indicate that Slice_1 is relatively congested, overloaded, etc. (e.g., relative to other slices, and/or relative to particular thresholds). For example, the analytics information may indicate that throughput metrics associated with the particular slice exceed a threshold throughput, that a quantity of connections via the particular slice exceed a threshold quantity of connections, et, paragraph 23)
Claims 7 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Kuravangi-Thammaiah et al. (US Publication 2024/0414637) in view of Cai et al. (US Publication 2021/0021647) further in view of Gadalin et al. (US Publication 2023/0180017)
With respect to claims 7 and 14, Kuravangi-Thammaiah doesn’t teach wherein the priority network slice for the wireless device is identified at transport/IP layer
Gadalin teaches wherein the priority network slice for the wireless device is identified at transport/IP layer. (. The network traffic for the network slice may be identified at one or more network layers, such as the application layer (e.g., through deep packet inspection), the session layer, the transport layer, the network layer, or the data link layer. The network slices may be ephemeral, or having a specific duration in terms of time or data quantity, or may exist until released or cancelled. The network slice allocation service 425 may support an application programming interface (API) that may be called by applications on client devices 406, and/or backend services that interact with those applications, in order to request that a network slice be allocated, modified, or released. Although the network slice allocation service 425 allocates network slices on the radio-based network 103, there may be one or more devices coupled to the radio-based network 103 through one or more fixed or wired links, and the network slices determined by the network slice allocation service 425 may be applicable to such devices as well, paragraph 94)
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement system of Kuravangi-Thammaiah and Cai with wherein the priority network slice for the wireless device is identified at transport/IP layer as taught by Gadalin. The motivation for combining Kuravangi-Thammaiah, Cai, and Gadalin is to be able to provide per-flow or per-application QoS handling, including transport level packet marking for uplink (UL) and downlink (DL), and rate limiting
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Sabeur et al. (US Publication 2023/0062145) discloses The HSS can provide the slice identifier to an S-CSCF in the IMS when the UE registers with the IMS. The S-CSCF can share the slice identifier with other IMS elements, such as a P-CSCF and/or one or more application servers. Accordingly, the IMS elements can determine key performance indicators (KPIs) and perform other operations in association with usage of network slices by UEs, based on the same slice identifiers used within the core network.
Gupta et al. (US Publication 20230269136) discloses the dynamic slice request includes authorization credentials and a quality of service (QoS) indication for the client application. In response to the dynamic slice request, the network device generates a traffic descriptor value. The traffic descriptor value includes an access token that indicates the QoS authorized for the client application. The network device pushes updated UE Route Selection Policy (URSP) rules to a modem of the UE device, and also separately directs the traffic descriptor value to the client application. The network device receives, from the UE device, a protocol data unit (PDU) session establishment request that includes network slice selection information based on the traffic descriptor value.
Any inquiry concerning this communication from the examiner should be directed to ABDULLAHI AHMED whose telephone number is (571) 270-3652. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00AM-4:30PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Khalid Kassim can be reached on 571-270-3370. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABDULLAHI AHMED/Examiner, Art Unit 2475