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
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) have been considered but are moot because of the new grounds of rejection.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 6-10 and 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2020/0186411 A1 herein Ravichandran in view of US 2022/0210658 A1 herein Lee.
Claim 1, Ravichandran discloses A method of operating a wireless communication network to dynamically manage network slices (0009, slice orchestration), the method (Title, Method) comprising:
retrieving network slice Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that indicate traffic patterns and network parameters related to a wireless network slice (0034, obtaining KPIs related to the service and slice, thus traffic patterns and network parameters; 0085-0086; 0174, the monitoring module collects fault, performance and event data from the network elements together with actual KPI trends and resource occupancy trends, the resource orchestration module monitors the active slices and traffic patterns);
predicting an increase in congestion for the wireless network slice based on the network slice KPIs (0029, nodes host machine learning, artificial learning and deep learning intelligence functions as cognitive functions to predict parameters including an increase in congestion; 0088; 0175, the fault and performance prediction module predicts a performance issue in a slice from the monitored data).
Ravichandran may not explicitly disclose updating a bandwidth allocation for the wireless network slice based on the predicted increase in congestion to an updated bandwidth allocation; and increasing a bandwidth of the wireless network slice based on the updated bandwidth allocation by direction one or more network functions to increase the bandwidth for the wireless network slice to the updated bandwidth.
Lee discloses updating a bandwidth allocation for the wireless network slice based on the predicted increase in congestion to an updated bandwidth allocation (0041-0042; 0046, the spectrum allocator applies a predictive function to the throughput measured for each slice over previous time windows to predict a throughput for the current window, and divides the RAN total bandwidth into a fixed sub-band and a variable sub-band allocated to each slice based on that predicted throughput, thus recomputing each slice’s allocation); and
increasing a bandwidth of the wireless network slice based on the updated bandwidth allocation (0016, 0036; 0048, the variable sub-band allocated to a slice is bandwidth shared among the slices according to the current traffic demand within each slice; 0057, where the traffic demand is high and exceeds the fixed bandwidth a variable sub-band is allocated which, thus increasing a bandwidth) by direction one or more network functions to increase the bandwidth for the wireless network slice to the updated bandwidth (0023; 0054; 0019, the spectrum allocator is implemented by the AMF, SMF or PCF). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ravichandran to include allocating each network slice a fixed sub-band and a variable sub-band based on high traffic demand at a slice as taught by Lee so as to dynamically assign the finite radio resources of the TAN to the network slices to satisfy network variability (0014).
Claim 6, Ravichandran discloses The method of claim 1 wherein: the network slice KPIs comprise at least one of bandwidth utilization, latency, packet loss, transaction rate, or throughput for the wireless network slice (0189-0195, congestion and other KPIs); and the predicted network conditions comprise one or more of network congestion or a security violation for the wireless network slice (0189-0195, congestion based resolution).
Claim 7, Ravichandran discloses The method of claim 1 wherein: updating the one or more network slice parameters for the wireless network slice based on the prediction comprises updating one or more of a bandwidth utilization, a Quality-of-Service (QoS), or a security parameter for the wireless network slice (0189-0195); and modifying the wireless network slice based on the one or more updated network slice parameters comprises modifying the wireless network slice using one or more of the updated bandwidth utilization, the updated QoS, or the updated security parameter (00189-0197; 0080).
Claim 8, Ravichandran discloses The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining the predicted network conditions persist after modifying the wireless network slice based on the one or more updated network slice parameters (Fig. 5A); instantiating a new wireless network slice based on the wireless network slice (Fig. 5B, instantiation/creation of a slice); and transferring at least a portion of the users from the wireless network slice to the new wireless network slice (0189-0199, mobility factor considered and switching to a WLAN).
Claim 9, Ravichandran discloses Ravichandran discloses The method of claim 1 wherein: generating the prediction of the network conditions for the wireless network slice comprises feeding the network slice KPIs into a machine learning model trained to predict the network conditions based on the network slice KPIs and receiving a machine learning output that comprises the prediction (0029, 0050-0055, inputs of parameters to machine learning).
Claim 10, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 1. Ravichandran discloses A Network Slice Control Function (0021; Fig. 2).
Claim 15, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 6.
Claim 16, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 7.
Claim 17, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 8.
Claim 18, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 9.
Claim 19, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 1.
Ravichandran discloses one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having program instructions stored thereon to dynamically manage network slices, wherein the program instructions, when executed by a computing system, direct the computing system to perform operations (0242, computer code in a tangible media loaded onto to a computer/controller).
Claim 20, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 8.
Claim(s) 2-5 and 11-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ravichandran in view of in view of Lee in view of US 20240095100 A1 herein Ishan.
Claim 2, Ravichandran discloses The method of claim 1. Ravichandran may not explicitly disclose wherein retrieving the network slice KPIs comprises: transferring an Application Programming Interface (API) call to a Network Data Analytics Function (NWDAF) that stores analytics data generated by control plane network functions, user plane network functions, and user devices; receiving an API response from the NWDAF that comprise the network slice KPIs.
Ishan discloses wherein retrieving the network slice KPIs comprises: transferring an Application Programming Interface (API) call to a Network Data Analytics Function (NWDAF) that stores analytics data generated by control plane network functions, user plane network functions, and user devices (0050; 0085); receiving an API response from the NWDAF that comprise the network slice KPIs (0050, information related to parameters stored in NWDAF, i.e. control and user parameters). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ravichandran to include NWDAF and other NFs as taught by Ishan so as to adhere to well established standard functions for cellular networks.
Claim 3, Ravichandran discloses The method of claim 1. Ravichandran may not explicitly disclose wherein retrieving the network slice KPIs comprises: transferring an Application Programming Interface (API) call to a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) that stores slice data for the wireless network slice; receiving an API response from the NSSF that comprise the network slice KPIs.
Ishan discloses wherein retrieving the network slice KPIs comprises: transferring an Application Programming Interface (API) call to a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) that stores slice data for the wireless network slice (0050, 0034); receiving an API response from the NSSF that comprise the network slice KPIs (0034). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ravichandran to include NWDAF and other NFs as taught by Ishan so as to adhere to well established standard functions for cellular networks.
Claim 4, Ravichandran discloses The method of claim 1. Ravichandran may not explicitly disclose wherein retrieving the network slice KPIs comprises: transferring an Application Programming Interface (API) call to a Network Slice Management Function (NSMF) that stores slice management data for the wireless network slice; receiving an API response from the NSMF that comprise the network slice KPIs.
Ishan discloses transferring an Application Programming Interface (API) call to a Network Slice Management Function (NSMF) that stores slice management data for the wireless network slice (0051); receiving an API response from the NSMF that comprise the network slice KPIs (0051-0053). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ravichandran to include NWDAF and other NFs as taught by Ishan so as to adhere to well established standard functions for cellular networks.
Claim 5, Ravichandran discloses The method of claim 1. Ravichandran may not explicitly disclose further comprising: receiving an Application Programming Interface (API) call from a Network Exposure Function (NEF) that comprises a third-party requirement for the wireless network slice; and wherein: updating the one or more network slice parameters comprises updating the one or more network slice parameters for the wireless network slice based on the third-party requirement; and further comprising: modifying the wireless network slice based on the one or more updated network slice parameters to meet the third-party requirement.
Ishan discloses receiving an Application Programming Interface (API) call from a Network Exposure Function (NEF) that comprises a third-party requirement for the wireless network slice (0034, 0050); and wherein: updating the one or more network slice parameters comprises updating the one or more network slice parameters for the wireless network slice based on the third-party requirement (0050-0053); and further comprising: modifying the wireless network slice based on the one or more updated network slice parameters to meet the third-party requirement (0060). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ravichandran to include NWDAF and other NFs as taught by Ishan so as to adhere to well established standard functions for cellular networks.
Claim 11, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 2.
Claim 12, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 3.
Claim 13, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 4.
Claim 14, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 5.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 20240259929 A1 - Network slicing is a feature and architecture in a 5G Standalone (SA) network. Permitting a device to request a network slice that has not already been pre-configured into the device will allow for the utilization of network slices that may have more suitable characteristics based on the particular needs of the device. Systems and methods are provided for on demand 5G slicing that allow a device to interact with the 5G network to request a particular slice based on characteristics, such as speed, latency, and reliability, in order to fulfill the particular needs of the device and obtain the best user experience. In some examples, an Entitlement Configuration Server (ECS) is used as the point of communication between a device and the 5G network.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mehmood B. Khan whose telephone number is (571)272-9277. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30 am-6:30 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Asad Nawaz can be reached at (571) 272-3988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Mehmood B. Khan/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2419
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