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 Arguments
2. Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1, 3-15 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
3. Applicant amended independent claims 1 and 3.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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 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.
5. 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.
6. Claims 1, 3-13, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al (US 2016/0128093), hereinafter “Lee“, in view of Kim et al (US 2022/0240094), hereinafter “Kim“, further in view of Liu et al (US 2012/0275399), hereinafter “Liu”.
Regarding claim 1, Lee teaches an apparatus at a communication device for security of a wireless communication between the communication device and a counterpart communication device (Fig. 1), the apparatus comprising:
at least one processor (par [0014]); and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor (par [0014]), cause the apparatus at least to perform:
cipher a fixed part of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) at MAC layer for the wireless communication (pars [0129-0133], [0180-0181] teach the fixed sized MAC control elements reads on cipher a fixed part of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU)),
Lee does not explicitly teach wherein, the fixed part of the MAC PDU comprises at least one of the following fields: at least one MAC control element, or at least one header of radio protocol.
Kim, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein, the fixed part of the MAC PDU comprises at least one of the following fields: at least one MAC control element, (pars [0082] [0206] teach the MAC sub-header or MAC control element) or at least one header of radio protocol.
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Lee to Kim, in order to provide the mobile communication technologies for enhancing security when a UE and a base station perform data communication in a next-generation mobile communication system (as suggested by Kim in paragraph [0002]).
Lee and Kim do not clearly teach wherein parts of the MAC PDU other than the fixed part are not ciphered at the MAC layer,
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein parts of the MAC PDU other than the fixed part are not ciphered at the MAC layer (Figs. 7A, 8B teach the parts of the MAC PDU other than the fixed parts type of the corresponding MAC control element or padding which included the header and subheader that cover the MAC and vary with their numbers and sizes, in which reads on the fixed parts of the MAC PDU that are not ciphered at the MAC layer.
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Lee and Kim to Liu, in order to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast in the wireless communication networks to convey both data and control information with increased efficiency (as suggested by Liu in paragraph [0005]).
Regarding to claim 3, Lee teaches a method performed at a communication device for security of a wireless communication between the communication device and a counterpart communication device (Fig. 1), the method comprising:
ciphering, at the communication device, a fixed part of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) at MAC layer for the wireless communication (pars [0129-0133], [0180-0181] teach the fixed sized MAC control elements reads on cipher a fixed part of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU)),
Lee does not explicitly teach wherein, the fixed part of the MAC PDU comprises at least one of the following fields: at least one MAC control element, or
at least one header of radio protocol in the MAC PDU.
Kim, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein, the fixed part of the MAC PDU comprises at least one of the following fields: at least one MAC control element, (pars [0082] [0206] teach the MAC sub-header or MAC control element) or at least one header of radio protocol.
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Lee to Kim, in order to provide the mobile communication technologies for enhancing security when a UE and a base station perform data communication in a next-generation mobile communication system (as suggested by Kim in paragraph [0002]).
Lee and Kim do not clearly teach wherein parts of the MAC PDU other than the fixed part are not ciphered at the MAC layer,
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches wherein parts of the MAC PDU other than the fixed part are not ciphered at the MAC layer (Figs. 7A, 8B teach the parts of the MAC PDU other than the fixed parts type of the corresponding MAC control element or padding which included the header and subheader that cover the MAC and vary with their numbers and sizes, in which reads on the fixed parts of the MAC PDU that are not ciphered at the MAC layer.
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Lee and Kim to Liu, in order to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. in the wireless communication networks to convey both data and control information with increased efficiency (as suggested by Liu in paragraph [0005]).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 3, Lee further teaches wherein the at least one header of radio protocol comprises at least one of: one or more MAC subheaders of MAC service data units (SDUs) included in the MAC PDU (pars [0126-0130] [01041-0142]); one or more radio link control (RLC) headers (pars [0013-0014]); or one or more packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) headers.
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 3, Lee further teaches comprising: determining how to build the MAC PDU, based on a size of the fixed part of the MAC PDU (pars [0130-0133] [0145] [0180-0181]), or based on a location of the fixed part within the MAC PDU, or based on a size of the fixed part of the MAC PDU and a location of the fixed part within the MAC PDU.
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 5, Lee further teaches wherein determining how to build the MAC PDU comprises determining how to build the MAC PDU according to at least one of the following principles:
in case that there are a plurality of MAC control elements to be included in the MAC PDU, one or more MAC control elements of the plurality of MAC control elements is placed outside the fixed part, or is postponed to a next MAC PDU; in case that there are a plurality of MAC control elements to be included in the fixed part, an order in which the plurality of MAC control elements are included in the fixed part is randomized;
in case that there are a plurality of MAC SDUs to be included in the MAC PDU, subheaders of respective MAC SDUs are concatenated at the beginning (pars 0128-0133] [0141-0145]) or end of the MAC PDU;
in case that there are a plurality of MAC SDUs to be included in the MAC PDU, an order in which the plurality of MAC SDUs are included in the MAC PDU changes from one MAC PDU to another MAC PDU;
in case that there are padding bits to be included in the fixed part, the padding bits are randomized bits; or
one or more MAC control elements of the MAC PDU to be ciphered are placed in the fixed part at the beginning or the end of the MAC PDU, while the other MAC control elements of the MAC PDU are placed at an opposite side of the MAC PDU as specified in the claim.
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 3, Lee further teaches wherein the fixed part of the MAC PDU is started with a random nonce (pars [0130-0133] [0145], and [0180-0181]).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 3, Lee further teaches wherein the fixed part of the MAC PDU comprises a MAC control element (MAC CE) with random content (pars [0128-0133] [0140-0142], and [0180-0181]).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 3, Lee further teaches comprising: obtaining an indication of the size of the fixed part of the MAC PDU (pars [0128-0133] [0140-0142] [0180]); or obtaining an indication of one or more candidate sizes of the fixed part, and selecting one candidate size as the size of the fixed part (pars [0128-0133] [0140-0142], and [0180]).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 9, Lee further teaches wherein, obtaining the indication of the size of the fixed part comprises receiving by the communication device, an indication of the size of the fixed part of the MAC PDU (pars [0128-0133] [0140-0142] [0180]); or obtaining the indication of one or more candidate sizes of the fixed part comprises receiving by the communication device, an indication of one or more candidate sizes of the fixed part, and selecting one candidate size as the size of the fixed part (pars [0128-0133] [0140-0142], and [0180]).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 9, Lee further teaches wherein the obtained indication comprises at least one of the following: a capability parameter of the communication device, which indicates one or more candidate sizes of the fixed part supported by the communication device (pars [0128-0133] [0140-0142], and [0180]); or a capability parameter of the counterpart communication device, which indicates one or more candidate sizes of the fixed part supported by the counterpart communication device.
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 3, Lee further teaches comprising: sending to the counterpart communication device, an indication of the size of the fixed part (pars [0128-0133] [0140-0142], and [0180]); or sending to the counterpart communication device, an indication of one or more candidate sizes of the fixed part.
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 12, Lee further teaches wherein the sent indication comprises: a capability parameter of the communication device, which indicates one or more candidate sizes of the fixed part supported by the communication device (pars [0128-0133] [0140-0142], and [0180]).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Lee, Kim and Liu teach the method according to claim 3, Lee further teaches comprising: delivering the ciphered MAC PDU to a physical layer for transmission to a counterpart communication device (pars [0128-0133] [0140-0142], and [0180]).
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claim 14 is 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.
As to claim 14, the prior art of record fails to disclose wherein the size of the fixed part is a size that matches a block size of a block cipher that is applied to encrypt the fixed part or a multiple of the block size of the block cipher as specified in the claim.
Conclusion
8. 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL T VU whose telephone number is (571)272-8131. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00AM to 6:00PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles N. Appiah can be reached on 571-272-7904. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL T VU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641