DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-16 are pending.
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 filed 10/27/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
A. Applicant argues that prior art Hong does not have a filing date before applicant’s effective filing date.
However, the examiner respectfully disagrees. Applicant’s claim priority from provisional application 63/430,846 which has a filing date of 12/7/2022. Meanwhile, Hong claims foreign priority to Korean Application KR10-2022-0013336 which has a filing date of 1/28/2022. Therefore, Hong clearly has an earlier effective filing date, and applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-5, 7-13, and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hong (US 2025/0234239 A1).
With regards to Claim 1, Hong teaches a method for a base station, the method comprising: receiving, from a session management function (SMF), a packet data unit (PDU) set importance rule associated with a quality of service (QoS) profile for a PDU session (i.e., The method may include an information reception step of receiving, from a core network control plane node, one or more pieces of information among assistance information for an application traffic characteristic, a PDU-Set QoS parameter, an identifier for grouping flows belonging to a multi-modal application, and a synchronization threshold, configuring a radio bearer for application traffic using information received from the core network control plane node, and receiving PDU-Set information from a core network user plane node, Paragraph 11, Paragraphs 94, 116); receiving, from a user plane function (UPF), a first PDU for downlink transmission, the first PDU receive in a general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP-U) message having a header (i.e., Alternatively, the UPF may include additional information in the GTP-U header associated with 5QI/QFI and encapsulate the same. Alternatively, additional information may be included in the UL PDU session information included in the PDU session user plane protocol, Paragraph 188); determining a priority level of the first PDU based on information in the GTP-U message header and the PDU set importance rule (i.e., In downlink, incoming data packets may be classified by priority based on a packet filter set of a downlink packet detection rule (PDR). The user plane function (UPF) may carry the user plane traffic classification belonging to one QoS flow through the N3 user plane marking using the QFI…, Paragraph 161); and scheduling downlink transmission of the first PDU based on the determined priority level (i.e., In order to support scheduling considering the corresponding 5QI/QoS characteristic information, the base station may configure a signaling radio bearer (SRB)/a data radio bearer (DRB) associated with the corresponding 5QI/QoS characteristic information/sub-indicator (configured with the corresponding 5QI/QoS characteristic information/sub-indicator). The base station may include information for indicating the SRB/DRB configuration information in the SRB/DRB configuration information and transmit the same to the UE through RRC signaling (e.g., RRC reconfiguration message). Alternatively, the base station may configure, in association, a configuration required to transmit the corresponding user plane data considering the corresponding traffic characteristic information in the corresponding DRB configuration information through RRC signaling (e.g., RRC reconfiguration message), Paragraph 158)
With regards to Claim 2, Hong teaches wherein determining the priority level of the first PDU comprises: inspecting the header for a PDU set importance value; and comparing the PDU set importance value with the PDU set importance rule (i.e., In downlink, incoming data packets may be classified by priority based on a packet filter set of a downlink packet detection rule (PDR). The user plane function (UPF) may carry the user plane traffic classification belonging to one QoS flow through the N3 user plane marking using the QFI. Alternatively, different user plane traffic classifications (e.g., sub-stream/data unit/sub-flow/frame) belonging to one QoS flow may be additionally classified using an identifier (described above) and/or a packet filter set (to be described below). Such different user plane traffic classifications may be carried through corresponding N3 user plan marking, Paragraph 161; Paragraph 162)
With regards to Claim 3, Hong teaches wherein the PDU set importance rule is received as part of the QoS profile for the PDU session (i.e., The signaled 5G QoS characteristic information may be provided as a portion of the QoS profile, Paragraph 147; Paragraph 156)
With regards to Claim 4, Hong teaches wherein the PDU set importance rule is received by the base station as part of non-dynamic 5G QoS identifier (5QI) descriptor or a dynamic 5QI descriptor (i.e., As another example, the corresponding QoS characteristic information may be defined and applied as a QoS profile (or a QoS parameter included in the QoS profile). The corresponding QoS characteristic information may be indicated in connection with 5QI…, Paragraph 156)
With regards to Claim 5, Hong teaches receiving, from the UPF, a second GTP-U message having a header and a payload including a second PDU, associated with the QoS profile for the PDU session, for downlink transmission (i.e., Paragraphs 95, 147, multiple data streams/packets; The method may include an information reception step of receiving, from a core network control plane node, one or more pieces of information among assistance information for an application traffic characteristic, a PDU-Set QoS parameter, an identifier for grouping flows belonging to a multi-modal application, and a synchronization threshold, configuring a radio bearer for application traffic using information received from the core network control plane node, and receiving PDU-Set information from a core network user plane node, Paragraph 11, Paragraphs 94, 116); determining a second priority level of the second PDU based on information in the header of the second GTP-U message and the PDU set importance rule, the second priority level of the second PDU being different that the priority level of the first PDU (i.e., i.e., In downlink, incoming data packets may be classified by priority based on a packet filter set of a downlink packet detection rule (PDR). The user plane function (UPF) may carry the user plane traffic classification belonging to one QoS flow through the N3 user plane marking using the QFI…, Paragraph 161; For convenience of description, an application data unit (ADU) or PDU-set may denote one or more PDUs for transferring a payload of unit information generated in an application/application layer, a unit divided by the application/application layer, or a unit divided within the application, or a unit having a correlation between data/stream/packets, or a unit having dependency between data/stream/packets or a unit divided with different traffic characteristics/streams within one flow, a unit divided with different traffic characteristics/streams within one PDU session, or a unit divided based on any information/field/metadata included/used/added in the application, Paragraph 95); and scheduling downlink transmission of the second PDU based on the determined second priority level (i.e., In order to support scheduling considering the corresponding 5QI/QoS characteristic information, the base station may configure a signaling radio bearer (SRB)/a data radio bearer (DRB) associated with the corresponding 5QI/QoS characteristic information/sub-indicator (configured with the corresponding 5QI/QoS characteristic information/sub-indicator). The base station may include information for indicating the SRB/DRB configuration information in the SRB/DRB configuration information and transmit the same to the UE through RRC signaling (e.g., RRC reconfiguration message). Alternatively, the base station may configure, in association, a configuration required to transmit the corresponding user plane data considering the corresponding traffic characteristic information in the corresponding DRB configuration information through RRC signaling (e.g., RRC reconfiguration message), Paragraph 158)
With regards to Claim 7, Hong teaches wherein the PDU set importance rule comprises rules for how to map PDU set importance values in headers of GTP-U messages containing PDUs of a QoS flow to differing priority levels (i.e., For example, a 5QI value associated with the PDU-Set level QoS characteristic information may be defined. This may be defined separately from the 5QI value associated with the packet level QoS characteristic information. A 5QI mapping table associated with the PDU-Set level QoS characteristic information may be defined to be distinguished from the 5QI mapping table associated with the packet level QoS characteristic information, Paragraph 156)
With regards to Claim 8, Hong teaches wherein the PDU set importance rule is received from the SMF during a PDU session Establishment or a PDU Session Modification procedure (i.e., The method may include an information reception step of receiving, from an application function control entity, one or more pieces of information among assistance information for an application traffic characteristic, a PDU-Set QoS parameter, an identifier for grouping flows belonging to a multi-modal application, and a synchronization threshold, an information transmission step of transmitting, to a base station during a PDU session establishment, Paragraph 10)
The limitations of Claim 9 are rejected in the analysis of Claim 1 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
The limitations of Claim 10 are rejected in the analysis of Claim 2 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
The limitations of Claim 11 are rejected in the analysis of Claim 3 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
The limitations of Claim 12 are rejected in the analysis of Claim 4 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
The limitations of Claim 13 are rejected in the analysis of Claim 5 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
The limitations of Claim 15 are rejected in the analysis of Claim 7 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
The limitations of Claim 16 are rejected in the analysis of Claim 8 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
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 6 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hong (US 2025/0234239 A1) in view of Cheng (US 2017/0201461 A1).
With regards to Claim 6, Hong teaches the above disclosed subject matter. However, Hong does not explicitly disclose wherein scheduling downlink transmission of the second PDU is cancelled by the base station, based on the determined second priority level and a determined traffic congestion. Cheng does teach wherein scheduling downlink transmission of the second PDU is cancelled by the base station, based on the determined second priority level and a determined traffic congestion (i.e., For example, the second priority parameter may be set to drop the corresponding data packet when network congestion is detected as severe (e.g., a congestion level >75%) or the congestion level is detected as moderate (e.g., a congestion level >50%) or the congestion level is detected as mild (e.g., a congestion level >25%), Paragraph 38) in order to mitigate congestion (Paragraph 8). Therefore, based on Hong in view of Cheng, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Cheng with the system of Hong in order to mitigate congestion.
The limitations of Claim 14 are rejected in the analysis of Claim 6 above, and the claim is rejected on that basis.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SURAJ M JOSHI whose telephone number is (571)270-7209. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8-6 ET.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joon Hwang can be reached at (571)272-4036. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SURAJ M JOSHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447 February 26, 2026