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
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.
Claims 11-15 and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Pat. Pub. 2022/0369363 to Ferdi in view of U.S. Patent 12,089,038 to Moon.
Regarding claim 11, Ferdi teaches an apparatus for wireless communication of a network element, comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to:
initiate a network slice specific authentication and authorization (NSSAA) procedure to register a user equipment (UE) with a network slice associated with uncrewed aerial services (see section [0087], which teaches that a WTRU (UAV) may instigate a slice registration procedure (NSSAA), as recited). It is also noted that Ferdi teaches the civil aviation authority (CAA) level UAV ID in section [0104].
Regarding the remainder of claim 11 which recites:
“and in response to successful registration of the UE with the network slice by the NSSAA procedure, initiate an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) service supplier (USS) uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) authentication and authorization (UUAA) mobility management (UUAA-MM) procedure to register the UE with a USS associated with the network slice, wherein a UUAA determination procedure is performed prior to the NSSAA procedure”, Moon is added.
In an analogous art, Moon teaches a system which registers UAVs. As described in claim 1 of Moon, Moon teaches that after UAV registration and a after first UUAA procedure is completed, an authorization (UUAA) mobility management (UUAA-MM) procedure to register the UE is instigated as recited. Regarding the wherein clause “wherein a UUAA determination procedure is performed prior to the NSSAA procedure”, it is noted that Moon teaches both the UUAA and UUAA-MM, and it would appear obvious to perform the first UUAA before the NSSAA in Ferdi, as if the device itself cannot be registered on the network, it is not efficient or necessary to register a slice first and then subsequently find out that the device cannot be registered.
Therefore, as Ferdi teaches the registration of slices and as both Ferdi and Moon teach the registration of UAVs, and as Moon explicitly teaches the recited UUAA-MM procedure, it would have been obvious to incorporate Moon’s teachings into the slice registration of Ferdi, as it is conventional to register devices and slices for the reasons as described in both Ferdi and Moon.
Regarding claim 12, which recites “wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, from the UE, a registration request to register with an access network, the registration request indicating support for the NSSAA procedure; and initiate a primary authentication procedure to register the UE with the access network based on the registration request, wherein the NSSAA procedure is initiated in response to the registration request indicating support for the NSSAA procedure, and wherein the registration request comprises one or more of single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI) associated with the network slice or a civil aviation administration (CAA)-level UAV identification (ID) assigned to the UE by the USS”, see sections [0087], [0119] to [0123] of Ferdi, which teach the registration procedure, and NSSAA procedure (which includes S-NSSAIs) and primary authentication and see Moon for the (CAA)-level UAV identification (ID), as recited. Therefore, the combination of references would teach and/or render obvious these features.
Regarding claim 13, which recites “wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: when the registration request indicates support for NSSAA, initiate the NSSAA procedure concurrent with the primary authentication procedure or after the UE is registered with the access network”, it is first noted that the use of the word “when” in a method claim may make the recited features have little to no patentable weight, as the open ended language of “when” may be interpreted to mean that the condition has not occurred. Additionally, Ferdi and Moon teach the recited features of the NSSAA and primary registrations.
Regarding claim 14, which recites “wherein the UUAA determination procedure indicates performing the UUAA-MM procedure based on one or more of the following criteria: uncrewed aerial subscription data for the UE is valid; local operator policy indicates the UUAA determination procedure is performed during the primary authentication procedure; there is no valid UUAA result from a previous UUAA-MM procedure; and/or CAA-level UAV ID is provided in an initial registration request”, as described above, Moon teaches performing the UUAA-MM procedure and Ferdi teaches in section [0104] of the civil aviation authority (CAA) level UAV ID. Therefore, the combination of references would teach and/or render obvious this feature.
Regarding claim 15, which recites “wherein the network element communicates with the USS via a UAS-network function (UAS-NF) during the UUAA-MM procedure”, see claim 2 of Moon, which teaches using the UAS-NF. Therefore, the combination of references would teach and/or render obvious this feature.
Regarding claim 17, which recites “wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: in response to determining to perform the UUAA-MM procedure by the UUAA determination procedure, send a registration accept message that includes a pending UUAA-MM indication to the UE; and receive a registration complete message from the UE after sending the registration accept message”, seeMoon for the UUAA-MM procedure and see sections [0110]-[0111], [0117] and [0123]-[0124] of Ferdi, which teaches the completion of the registration. Therefore, the combination of references would teach and/or render obvious these features.
Regarding claim 18, which recites “wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: maintain a UUAA result associated with the UE and the UUAA-MM procedure; and in response to the UE being successfully registered with the USS by the UUAA-MM procedure, initiate a UE configuration update procedure”, see the rejection of claim 11 for the UUAA procedure, and see sections [0013] and [0087] of Ferdi for the configuration update, as recited.
Regarding claim 19, which recites “wherein: the UE comprises a UAV, and the network element comprises an access and mobility management function (AMF)”, see sections [0005], [0077], [0087] and [0110] to [0127] of Ferdi, and columns 2-3 and 8-9 of Moon, which teach the UAV registering with the AMF, as recited.
Election/Restrictions
As per the previously mailed restriction, claims 20-29 have been withdrawn.
Double Patenting
A potential double patenting rejection was discussed in view of 12,652,536 however, no rejection is issued.
Conclusion
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/STEVEN S KELLEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646
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