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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
1. 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.
2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
3. Claims 1, 7-9 and 15-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Pre-Grant Publication US 2024/0007919 to Xiaofei et al. (hereinafter Xiaofei) in view of U.S. Publication No. US 2023/0300738 to Liu et al. (hereinafter Liu)
As to claims 1 and 9, Xiaofei discloses a method for obtaining slice information, applied to a terminal device, the method comprising:
in response to a Non-Access Stratum of a terminal device receiving a configuration update command message that carries allowed network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) or in response to the Non-Access Stratum of the terminal device updating the allowed NSSAI, sending, by the Non-Access Stratum of the terminal device, intended slice information to an Access Stratum of the terminal device (Xiaofei; [0178]; [0180]-[0184] discloses in response to a non-access stratum of the UE determining that the expected network slice of the UE is changed (=updated), sending indication information of a changed expected network slice to an access stratum of the UE. The network slice indicated by the slice information includes: a network slice that the network allows the UE to access; the network slice that the network allows the UE to access may be a network slice indicated by the allowed single-network slice selection assistance information (Allowed S-NSSAI (s)) in the slice information, or one or more of the network slices corresponding to SST in the slice information. Here Xiaofei is applied for the 2nd alternative);
Xiaofei discloses of slice information received by the access stratum, however fails to disclose of using the intended slice information in cell re-selection. However, Liu discloses
receiving and storing, by the Access stratum of the terminal device, the intended slice information, so as to use the intended slice information in cell reselection, wherein the intended slice information is the allowed NSSAI or a subset of the allowed NSSAI (Liu; Abstract; [0006]; [0033]-[0039] discloses Access stratum receives slice related information from NAS and using the slice related information for cell reselection).
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings and select a cell by the access stratum based on the allowed NSSAI in order to select a particular cell.
As to claims 7 and 15, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Xiaofei-Liu discloses wherein the Non-Access Stratum of the terminal device updating the allowed NSSAI comprises:
receiving, by the Non-Access Stratum of the terminal device, the configuration update command message, wherein the configuration update command message carries rejected NSSAI (Xiaofei; [0178]-[0186]); and
updating, by the Non-Access Stratum of the terminal device, the allowed NSSAI using the rejected NSSAI (Xiaofei; [0178]-[0186])
As to claims 8 and 16, the rejection of claim 1 as listed above is incorporated herein. In addition, Xiaofei-Liu discloses wherein the intended slice information is the allowed NSSAI received by the terminal device or a subset of the allowed NSSAI received by the terminal device; or the intended slice information is the allowed NSSAI updated by the terminal device or a subset of the allowed NSSAI updated by the terminal device (Xiaofei; [0178]; [0180]-[0184] discloses in response to a non-access stratum of the UE determining that the expected network slice of the UE is changed (=updated), sending indication information of a changed expected network slice to an access stratum of the UE. Here Xiaofei is applied for the 3RD alternative)
4. Claims 2 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Pre-Grant Publication US 2024/0007919 to Xiaofei et al. (hereinafter Xiaofei) in view of U.S. Publication No. US 2023/0300738 to Liu et al. (hereinafter Liu) in view of U.S. Publication No, US 2024/0015798 to Cheng et al. (hereinafter Cheng)
As to claims 2 and 10, Xiaofei-Liu discloses selecting, by the Access Stratum of the terminal device, a suitable cell for access according to the intended slice information. Xiaofei-Liu fails to disclose supported slice information in a broadcast message. However, Cheng discloses
supported slice information in a broadcast message (Cheng; [0132] discloses network slice indices supported by the network may be broadcast to the UE)
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings in order to avoid compromising the security of the UE
5. Claims 6 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Pre-Grant Publication US 2024/0007919 to Xiaofei et al. (hereinafter Xiaofei) in view of U.S. Publication No. US 2023/0300738 to Liu et al. (hereinafter Liu) in view of U.S. Publication No. US 2020/0053083 to Kunz et al. (hereinafter Kunz)
As to claims 6 and 14, Xiaofei-Liu discloses NAS updating allowed NSSAI, but fails to disclose wherein the configuration update command message is received by the Non-Access Stratum from an AMF in a case where the terminal device has registered in a network and the allowed NSSAI is changed. However, Kunz discloses
wherein the configuration update command message is received by the Non-Access Stratum from an AMF in a case where the terminal device has registered in a network and the allowed NSSAI is changed (Kunz; [0113]-[01114] discloses If the UE 205 has been already assigned an Allowed NSSAI and after the network slice authentication procedure the Allowed NSSAI should be changed, the AMF 211 may need to perform a NAS UE Configuration Update procedure in order to remove or to add an S-NSSAI to the Allowed NSSA. the AMF 211 sends a NAS Registration Accept message including the Allowed NSSAI
It is obvious for a person of ordinary skilled in the art to combine the teachings before the effective filing date of the invention. One would be motivated to combine the teachings in order to determine the updated allowed NSSAI received from AMF.
Conclusion
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/FAISAL CHOUDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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