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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group 1 (claims 1-8) in the reply filed on 12/26/2025 is acknowledged.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-8 are objected to because of the following informalities:
(1) Regarding claim 1:
Line 3 recites “on time validity information”; the examiner suggests changing to “on the time validity information” since the term “time validity information” was introduced in claim 1.
(2) Regarding claim 7:
Line 3 recites “allows a user”; the examiner suggests changing to “allows the user” since the “user” was introduced in claim 1.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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 1-5, 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over NPL (3GPP TR 23.700-08 V1.3.0, dated 2022-10).
(1) Regarding claim 1:
NPL discloses a method, comprising:
detecting, by the processor, a CAG cell associated with a CAG identifier (ID) in an allowed CAG list (Entries in the Allowed CAG list of the UE can additionally contain the following validity information: - Validity time period (from/to date and time). - Location (e.g. list of tracking areas where the CAG list is valid). Location information for Allowed CAG list only needed if PNI-NPN as hosting network can be a subset of a CAG. localized services, page 42, UE selection of PNI-NPN hosting network for localized services); and
indicating, by the processor, to a user whether the CAG ID is authorized based on time validity information associated with the CAG ID in the allowed CAG list (The UE selects a Hosting network from the list of discovered Hosting networks. If automatic network selection is performed and the multiple Hosting networks are discovered in point 3. the UE can select the network with the highest order. If manual network selection is performed, the list of discovered Hosting networks is displayed to the user. The UE starts registration procedure with the selected Hosting network, page 113 paragraphs 2-3; Entries in the Allowed CAG list of the UE can additionally contain the following validity information: - Validity time period (from/to date and time). - Location (e.g. list of tracking areas where the CAG list is valid), page 42, section 6.10.2.2, page 66, 2nd paragraph).
NPL fails to explicitly disclose determining, by a processor of an apparatus, that the apparatus supports closed access group (CAG) and operates in a manual network selection mode.
However, NPL discloses a LSP notifies the UE's home PLMN that the UE is already provisioned with the corresponding credential for accessing the Localized service. The UE's UDM updates UE's subscription with the CAG ID and optionally DNN or S-NSSAI corresponding to the Localized service provider. The UDM updates UE's configuration using UE Configuration Update procedure. In the scenario of hosting network is a PNI-NPN, the Hosting Network Selection and Access Information consists the following information: - Hosting Network Identifier, e.g. CAG ID and corresponding PLMN ID. - The time condition information when the hosting network provides access service. - The location condition information where the hosting network provides access service. The UE selects a hosting network when the time and location condition information is satisfied (page 84, section 6.23.2 Functional Description), For automatically network selection, and manual network selection, the UE performs the existing mechanism as defined in TS 23.122 [6] with the following difference: the hosting network ID (i.e. CAG ID) in the Allowed CAG ID list is taken into account when the corresponding time and location condition information is satisfied (page 85, step 6). It is desirable to determine by a processor of an apparatus, that the apparatus supports closed access group (CAG) and operates in a manual network selection mode because it provide the benefit of enabling the apparatus to select hosting network out of a list of CAG ID for manual network selection.
(2) Regarding claim 2:
NPL discloses all subject matter of claim 1, and further discloses determining, by the processor, whether the CAG ID is authorized based on time validity information associated with the CAG ID in the allowed CAG list (If manual network selection is performed, the list of discovered Hosting networks is displayed to the user. The UE starts registration procedure with the selected Hosting network, page 113 paragraphs 2-3; Entries in the Allowed CAG list of the UE can additionally contain the following validity information: - Validity time period (from/to date and time). - Location (e.g. list of tracking areas where the CAG list is valid), page 42, section 6.10.2.2, page 66, 2nd paragraph; For automatically network selection, and manual network selection, the UE performs the existing mechanism as defined in TS 23.122 [6] with the following difference: the hosting network ID (i.e. CAG ID) in the Allowed CAG ID list is taken into account when the corresponding time and location condition information is satisfied (page 85, step 6)).
(3) Regarding claim 3:
NPL discloses all subject matter of claim 2, and further discloses the CAG ID is authorized when the time validity information comprises at least one time period matching the apparatus' current time (If manual network selection is performed, the list of discovered Hosting networks is displayed to the user. The UE starts registration procedure with the selected Hosting network, page 113 paragraphs 2-3; Entries in the Allowed CAG list of the UE can additionally contain the following validity information: - Validity time period (from/to date and time). - Location (e.g. list of tracking areas where the CAG list is valid), page 42, section 6.10.2.2, page 66, 2nd paragraph; For automatically network selection, and manual network selection, the UE performs the existing mechanism as defined in TS 23.122 [6] with the following difference: the hosting network ID (i.e. CAG ID) in the Allowed CAG ID list is taken into account when the corresponding time and location condition information is satisfied (page 85, step 6)).
(4) Regarding claim 4:
NPL discloses all subject matter of claim 2, and further discloses the CAG ID is not authorized when the time validity information comprises at least one time period but none of the time period matches the apparatus' current time (If manual network selection is performed, the list of discovered Hosting networks is displayed to the user. The UE starts registration procedure with the selected Hosting network, page 113 paragraphs 2-3; Entries in the Allowed CAG list of the UE can additionally contain the following validity information: - Validity time period (from/to date and time). - Location (e.g. list of tracking areas where the CAG list is valid). In the case of PNI-NPN (CAG) selection for access to localized services, the UE only considers an entry in the Allowed CAG list valid if and while all conditions for that entry are met. page 42, section 6.10.2.2, page 66, 2nd paragraph; For automatically network selection, and manual network selection, the UE performs the existing mechanism as defined in TS 23.122 [6] with the following difference: the hosting network ID (i.e. CAG ID) in the Allowed CAG ID list is taken into account when the corresponding time and location condition information is satisfied (page 85, step 6); it is obvious that if the validity time period cannot satisfied the validity test, then the CAG ID is invalid).
(5) Regarding claim 5:
NPL discloses all subject matter of claim 2, and further discloses presenting, by the processor, the CAG ID to the user when determining that the CAG ID is authorized (For manual network selection, when the corresponding time and location condition information is satisfied, the UE provides to the user the list of hosting networks (each is identified by a PLMN ID and NID) and related human-readable names (if available) of the available hosting networks. The user selects manually one hosting network from the list, page 67, 2rd paragraph).
(6) Regarding claim 8:
NPL discloses all subject matter of claim 1, and further discloses the manual network selection mode is triggered by the user (The user may determine its desired local service and trigger the UE to send a NAS request (e.g. UL NAS Transport) to the network for the authorization to access the desired service. The UE indicates the desired local service identifier in the request, page 116, 2nd paragraph, step 3)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-7 are 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kumar et al. (US 2024/0107407 A1) discloses method and apparatus for access control of UE through MBSR-UE in communication system.
Zhang (US 12/507054 B2) discloses control method and apparatus for obtaining emergency service, terminal, and readable storage medium.
Yang (WO/2021/232852 A1) discloses method and apparatus for terminal to access network.
Kim (WO/2021/172768 A1) discloses method and apparatus for manual closed access group selection in wireless communication system.
NPL (CN112770365 A) discloses processing method of cell switching, device, network side device and terminal.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SIU M LEE whose telephone number is (571)270-1083. The examiner can normally be reached M-T 8:30-7:00.
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/SIU M LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632 1/15/2026