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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statement(s) submitted on November 24, 2025 has been considered by the Examiner and made of record in the application file.
Specification
3. The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
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.
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 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 1-5, 8-12, 15-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madan et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication # 2024/0224122 A1) in view of Sambandan et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication # 2023/0029632 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Madan et al. teach a method for centralized unit (CU) deployment for one or more cell sites (Fig.1A @ S4-S7), the method, comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, a request to deploy one or more CUs (read as receiving inputs parameters for one or more network functions (e.g.: CUCP, CUUP) (Paragraph [0040]));
obtaining, by the one or more processors, the parameters (read as “the auto-commissioning server 103 takes all the inputs/dynamic parameters (e.g., parameters obtained via steps S4 to S7) and fills them (inputs/dynamic parameters) into those templates in an automated manner.”(Paragraph [0045]));
generating, by the one or more processors (Fig.3 @ 103b), CU deployment data that includes the parameters (read as “the auto-commissioning server 103 integrates with the name controller 104c to generate the unique hostname for the network function(s) and a gNodeB ID for vRAN network service.”(Paragraph [0043])); and
causing, by the one or more processors (Fig.3 @ 103b), an automatic deployment of the CUs within one or more computing environments based, at least in part, on the parameters. (read as automatic deployment of one or more network functions (Paragraph [0040]))
However, Madan et al. fail to explicitly teach determining parameters used to deploy the CUs.
Sambandan et al. teach a method for determining parameters used to deploy the CUs. (read as a service orchestration tool (Fig.2 @ 227, 4C-4E, and 5A-5B; Paragraph(s) [0038], [0041]-[0042], and [0045]-[0046]))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the service orchestration tool as taught by Sambandan et al. with the auto commissioning server as taught by Madan et al. for the purpose of enhancing access management of devices in a communication network.
Regarding claim 9, Madan et al. teach a computer system (Fig(s).1 @ 103 and 3 @ 103) including one or more electronic processors (Fig.3 @ 103b) configured to perform CU deployment associated with cell sites (Fig.1A), wherein the system (Fig(s).1 @ 103 and 3 @ 103) comprises:
one or more processors configured to determine parameters to deploy the one or more CUs (Fig.3 @ 103b);
generate CU deployment data that includes the parameters (read as “the auto-commissioning server 103 integrates with the name controller 104c to generate the unique hostname for the network function(s) and a gNodeB ID for vRAN network service.”(Paragraph [0043])); and
cause the orchestrator to begin the orchestration of the execution of the one or more workflows to perform the CU deployment. (read as automatic deployment of one or more network functions (Paragraph [0040]))
However, Madan et al. fail to explicitly teach an orchestrator configured to:
determine one or more workflows to deploy one or more CUs,
wherein the one or more workflows cause operations to execute to deploy the one or more CUs; and
orchestrate execution of the one or more workflows to perform the CU deployment;
Sambandan et al. teach an orchestrator (read as a service orchestration tool (Fig.2 @ 227, 4C-4E, and 5A-5B; Paragraph(s) [0038], [0041]-[0042], and [0045]-[0046])) configured to:
determine one or more workflows to deploy one or more CUs (read as service orchestration tool generating a deployment VNF file based on common configuration parameter(s) and/or site-specific configuration(s) (Fig.2 @ 227, 4C-4E, and 5A-5B; Paragraph(s) [0038], [0041]-[0042], and [0045]-[0046])),
wherein the one or more workflows cause operations to execute to deploy the one or more CUs (read as common configuration parameter(s) and/or site-specific configuration(s) (Paragraph(s) [0038]-[0039])); and
orchestrate execution of the one or more workflows to perform the CU deployment (read as service orchestration tool (Fig.2 @ 227, 4C-4E, and 5A-5B; Paragraph(s) [0038], [0041]-[0042], and [0045]-[0046]));
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the service orchestration tool as taught by Sambandan et al. with the auto commissioning server as taught by Madan et al. for the purpose of enhancing access management of devices in a communication network.
Regarding claim 15, Madan et al. teach a non-transitory computer-readable medium (Fig.3 @ 103a) configured to perform CU deployment associated with cell sites (Fig.1A @ S4-S7), and
wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium (Fig.3 @ 103a), when executed by a computer (Fig(s).1 @ 103 and 3 @ 103), causes the computer (Fig(s).1 @ 103 and 3 @ 103) to:
receive a request to deploy one or more CUs (read as receiving inputs parameters for one or more network functions (e.g.: CUCP, CUUP) (Fig.1A; Paragraph [0040]));
generate CU deployment data that includes the parameters (read as “the auto-commissioning server 103 integrates with the name controller 104c to generate the unique hostname for the network function(s) and a gNodeB ID for vRAN network service.”(Paragraph [0043]));
cause an automatic deployment of the CUs within one or more computing environments based, at least in part, on the parameters. (read as automatic deployment of one or more network functions (Paragraph [0040]))
However, Mandan et al. fail to explicitly teach the step to determine parameters used to deploy the CUs;
Sambandan et al. teach a method to determine parameters used to deploy the CUs. (read as a service orchestration tool (Fig.2 @ 227, 4C-4E, and 5A-5B; Paragraph(s) [0038], [0041]-[0042], and [0045]-[0046]))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the service orchestration tool as taught by Sambandan et al. with the auto commissioning server as taught by Madan et al. for the purpose of enhancing access management of devices in a communication network.
Regarding claims 2 and 16, and as applied to claims 1 and 15 above, Madan et al., as modified by Sambandan et al., teach a method (Fig.1A) and a non-transitory computer-readable medium (Fig.3 @ 103a) wherein causing the automatic deployment of the CUs within a cloud network comprises executing one or more workflows to deploy the one or more CUs (read as automatic deployment (Paragraph [0040])),
wherein the one or more workflows cause operations to execute to deploy the one or more CUs. (read as inputs parameters (Paragraph [0040]))
Regarding claims 3 and 17, and as applied to claims 2 and 16 above, Madan et al. teach “a method and system for auto-commissioning of virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRANs).”(Fig(s).1A and 3; Paragraph [0002]) Also, Madan et al. teach a method wherein the operations comprise first operations to instantiate the CUs (read as network function(s)) within one or more networks (read as “The auto-commissioning server 103 identifies the datacenter(s)/cluster where the network function(s) needs to be instantiated.”(Paragraph [0041])), and
However, Madan et al. fail to explicitly teach wherein the second operations to provision individual ones of the CUs after instantiation.
Sambandan et al. teach a method wherein the second operations to provision individual ones of the CUs after instantiation. (read as “the service orchestration tool is configured to use a consistent theme for automatically assigning the identifiers to the various components of the VNFs.”(Paragraph [0041]) For example, “interfaces in respective VNFs (for example, the CU-CP and CU-UP) that are configured to communicate the same type of traffic will be assigned the same identifier.”(Paragraph [0041]))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the service orchestration tool as taught by Sambandan et al. with the auto commissioning server as taught by Madan et al. for the purpose of enhancing access management of devices in a communication network.
Regarding claims 4, 10, and 18, and as applied to claims 3, 9, and 15 above, Madan et al., as modified by Sambandan et al., teach a method (Fig.1A), a computer system (Fig.1A @ 103 and 3 @ 103), and a non-transitory computer-readable medium (Fig.3 @ 103a) wherein obtaining and determining the CU deployment data comprises querying an inventory management component that includes data related to a planned deployment of the one or more CUs (Fig.1A), and
wherein the CU deployment data identifies IP addresses to be used by the one or more CUs. (read as IP address (Fig.1A; Paragraph [0040]))
Regarding claims 5 and 12, and as applied to claims 2 and 9 above, Madan et al., as modified by Sambandan et al., teach a method (Fig.1A) and a computer system (Fig(s).1A @ 103 and 3 @ 103) wherein the operations comprise first operations to configure one or more computing environments (read as inputs parameters (Paragraph [0040])),
wherein the first operations, when executed by the one or more processors (Fig.3 @ 103b), perform one or more of configuring computer hosts including operations, hypervisor changing operations, firmware changing operations, BIOS changing operations, driver changing operations, inventory verification operations, or reserving IP addresses operations. (read as input parameter(s) (e.g.: IP address) (Paragraph [0040]))
Regarding claim 8, and as applied to claim 2 above, Madan et al. teach “a method and system for auto-commissioning of virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRANs).”(Fig(s).1A and 3; Paragraph [0002])
However, Madan et al. fail to explicitly teach wherein execution of the one or more workflows is orchestrated by a workflow engine that executes in a network separately from the one or more computer environments.
Sambandan et al. teach a method wherein execution of the one or more workflows is orchestrated by a workflow engine that executes in a network separately from the one or more computer environments. (Fig.2 @ 230)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the cloud master node as taught by Sambandan et al. with the auto commissioning server as taught by Madan et al. for the purpose of enhancing access management of devices in a communication network.
Regarding claim 11, and as applied to claim 9 above, Madan et al., as modified by Sambandan et al., teach a computer system (Fig(s).1A @ 103 and 3 @ 103) further comprising an inventory management component that stores data related to a planned deployment of the one or more CUs (Fig.1B @ 107); and
wherein determining the parameters to deploy the one or more CUs comprises querying the inventory management component that includes data related to a planned deployment of the one or more CUs (Fig(s).1A and 1B), and
wherein the CU deployment data identifies IP addresses to be used by the one or more CUs, and one or more DUs assigned to report to the one or more CUs.(Fig(s).1A and 1B)
Regarding claim 20, and as applied to claim 16 above, Madan et al. teach “a method and system for auto-commissioning of virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRANs).”(Fig(s).1A and 3; Paragraph [0002])
However, Madan et al. fail to explicitly teach wherein the operations further comprise other operations to associate individual ones of the CUs with one or more DUs.
Sambandan et al. teach a method wherein the operations further comprise other operations to associate individual ones of the CUs with one or more DUs.(read as “RAN configurations for CU-CP VNF 216, CU-UP VNF 218, and DU VNF 205”(Paragraph [0033]))
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the service orchestration tool as taught by Sambandan et al. with the auto commissioning server as taught by Madan et al. for the purpose of enhancing access management of devices in a communication network.
Claims 6-7, 13-14, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madan et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication # 2024/0224122 A1), in view of Sambandan et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication # 2023/0029632 A1), and Mehta et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication # 2021/0385051 A1).
Regarding claims 6, 13, and 19, and as applied to claims 2, 9, and 16 above, Madan et al. teach “a method and system for auto-commissioning of virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRANs).”(Fig(s).1A and 3; Paragraph [0002])
Sambandan et al. teach a service orchestration tool (Fig.2 @ 227, 4C-4E, and 5A-5B; Paragraph(s) [0038], [0041]-[0042], and [0045]-[0046])
However, Madan et al. and Sambandan et al. fail to explicitly teach accessing, via the one or more processors, validation data associated with the execution of the one or more workflows;
determining, via the one or more processors and based on the validation data, an occurrence of an error;
determining, via the one or more processors, that the error is resolved; and
causing the one or more workflows to resume execution.
Mehta et al. teach a method for accessing, via the one or more processors, validation data associated with the execution of the one or more workflows (Fig.8 @ 850)
determining, via the one or more processors and based on the validation data, an occurrence of an error (Fig.8 @ 845);
determining, via the one or more processors, that the error is resolved (Fig.8 @ 845); and
causing the one or more workflows to resume execution. (Fig.8 @ 860)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the authentication module as taught by Mehta et al. and the service orchestration tool as taught by Sambandan et al. with the auto commissioning server as taught by Madan et al. for the purpose of enhancing access management of devices in a communication network.
Regarding claims 7 and 14, and as applied to claims 6 and 9 above, Madan et al. teach “a method and system for auto-commissioning of virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRANs).”(Fig(s).1A and 3; Paragraph [0002])
Sambandan et al. teach a service orchestration tool (Fig.2 @ 227, 4C-4E, and 5A-5B; Paragraph(s) [0038], [0041]-[0042], and [0045]-[0046])
However, Madan et al. and Sambandan et al. fail to explicitly teach a method further comprising causing a validation app to perform a validation,
wherein the validation is one or more of
a pre-check validation of the workflow that validates a data readiness before performing operations to deploy the CUs,
a validation that validates the deployment of the CUs, or
a post-check validation that validates a successful completion of the one or more workflows.
Mehta et al. teach a method further comprising causing a validation app to perform a validation (Fig.8 @ 850),
wherein the validation is one or more of
a pre-check validation of the workflow that validates a data readiness before performing operations to deploy the CUs,
a validation that validates the deployment of the CUs (Fig.8 @ 850), or
a post-check validation that validates a successful completion of the one or more workflows.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the authentication module as taught by Mehta et al. and the service orchestration tool as taught by Sambandan et al. with the auto commissioning server as taught by Madan et al. for the purpose of enhancing access management of devices in a communication network.
Conclusion
5. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure:
Samsung (“Virtualized Radio Access Network: Architecture, Key technologies and Benefits”, 2019) document teaches “User plane of CU can be sliced into multiple CU-UPs to support network slicing and multiple CU-UPs can be deployed in independent locations while single CU-CP is deployed in the central site.”(Section Flexibility in CU-UP deployment, page 8)
Baba (U.S. Patent Application Publication # 2024/0323089 A1) teaches “In order to optimize dynamic deployment of network functions, the MANO 36 constructs a virtualization system using, for example, a plurality of data centers included in the edge cloud 30. The edge orchestrator 35 manages the edge cloud 30 and analyzes the edge cloud 30. The regional orchestrator 45, the MANO 46, the core orchestrator 55, and the MANO 56 also execute functions and processes similar to those of the edge orchestrator 35 and the MANO 36. Although the edge cloud 31 and the regional cloud 41 are not illustrated in FIG. 6, it is assumed that an edge orchestrator and a MANO are also associated with the edge cloud 31, and a regional orchestrator and a MANO are also associated with the regional cloud 41.”(Paragraph [0053])
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P.O. Box 1450
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or early communications from the Examiner should be directed to Salvador E. Rivas whose telephone number is (571) 270-1784. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 7:00AM to 3:30PM.
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/SALVADOR E RIVAS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
March 5, 2026