DETAILED ACTION
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 64-72 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 64 -72 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eklof et al. (US 20230284058 A1) in view of Teyeb et al. (US 20210266991 A1).
Considering claim 64, Eklof teaches a method of multi-connectivity with quality of experience (QoE) measurement, comprising:
transmitting, by a first base station (BS) to a second BS (Fig.5, [0106] gNBs can be connected to each other via one or more Xn interfaces, such as Xn interface 540 between gNBs 500 and 550), a secondary node (S-NODE) addition request message ([0127] MN sends an SN Addition Request message to request the target SN to allocate radio resources for one or more specific PDU Sessions/QoS Flows, indicating QoS Flows characteristics (QoS Flow Level QoS parameters, PDU session level transport network layer (TNL) address information, and PDU session level Network Slice info)):
indicating a request for radio resources of the second BS for dual connectivity operation ([0127] indicating QoS Flows characteristics, [0110] dual-connectivity); and
comprising one or more information elements (IEs) related QoE measurement and reporting (Fig.16-17, [0173]-[0174] A “TRACE START” S1AP message is used by the LTE EPC for initiating QoE measurements by a specific UE, [0129], [0175] message containing “Application layer measurement configuration” IE in order to configure QoE measurement in the UE, [0133]);
Eklof do not clearly teach receiving, by the first BS from the second BS, in response to the S-NODE addition request message, one of an S-NODE addition request acknowledge message or an S-NODE addition request reject message, the S-NODE addition request acknowledge message comprising QoE configuration parameters related to the QoE measurement and reporting; and transmitting, by the first BS to a user equipment (UE),in response to receiving the S-NODE addition request acknowledge message, a reconfiguration message comprising configuration parameters of one or more cells of the second BS.
Teyeb teaches receiving, by the first BS from the second BS (SN addition request Acknowledge), in response to the S-NODE addition request message ([0096], [0098] provides the new SCG radio resource configuration to the MN in a SN RRC configuration message contained in the SN Addition Request Acknowledge message), one of an S-NODE addition request acknowledge message or an S-NODE addition request reject message, the S-NODE addition request acknowledge message comprising QoE configuration parameters related to the QoE measurement and reporting (Fig.7-8, [0106]-[0107] SN-Addition Request Acknowledge message (operation 2), the SN can provide the list of the QoS flows/bearers…); and transmitting, by the first BS to a user equipment (UE) (Fig.7, [0099] MN sends the MN RRC reconfiguration message to the UE including the SN RRC configuration message),in response to receiving the S-NODE addition request acknowledge message (Fig.7-8, [0096]-[0099]), a reconfiguration message comprising configuration parameters of one or more cells of the second BS (Fig.7-8, [0099] the MN informs the SN that the UE has completed the reconfiguration procedure successfully via SN Reconfiguration Complete message).
Therefore, It would have been obvious before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide above teaching of Teyeb to Eklof, in order to improve flexibility for the network to monitor end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) of data flows, including their corresponding radio bearers, associated with data sessions between a user equipment (UE) and another entity, such as an OTT data application or service external to the 5G network.
Considering claim 65, Eklof and Teyeb further teach wherein the S-NODE addition request message and the S-NODE addition request acknowledge message are Xn messages (Teyeb: Fig.7, [0076] messages exchanged over Xn interface between the MN and SN, [0096]-[0098]).
Considering claim 66, Eklof and Teyeb further teach wherein the S-NODE addition request acknowledge message comprises the reconfiguration message comprising configuration parameters for one or more cells of the second BS (Teyeb: Fig.7-8, [0096]-[0099]).
Considering claim 67, Eklof and Teyeb further teach wherein the one or more cells of the second BS are grouped in a secondary cell group (SCG) (Teyeb: [0097]).
Considering claim 68, Eklof and Teyeb further teach wherein the configuration parameters of one or more cells of the second BS comprise quality of QoE configuration parameters associated with the one or more cells (Teyeb: Fig.7-8, [0096]-[0099]).
Considering claim 69, Eklof and Teyeb further teach receiving, by the first BS from the UE, QoE measurement reports based on the QoE configuration parameters.
Considering claim 70, a first base station (BS) configured to communicate with a user equipment (UE), comprising:
a transmitter ([0377] transmitter) configured to transmit, to a second BS, a secondary node (S- NODE) addition request message ([0127] MN sends an SN Addition Request message to request the target SN to allocate radio resources for one or more specific PDU Sessions/QoS Flows, indicating QoS Flows characteristics (QoS Flow Level QoS parameters, PDU session level transport network layer (TNL) address information, and PDU session level Network Slice info)):
indicating a request for radio resources of the second BS for dual connectivity operation ([0127] indicating QoS Flows characteristics, [0110] dual-connectivity); and
comprising one or more information elements (IEs) related to QoE measurement and reporting (Fig.16-17, [0173]-[0174] A “TRACE START” S1AP message is used by the LTE EPC for initiating QoE measurements by a specific UE, [0129], [0175] message containing “Application layer measurement configuration” IE in order to configure QoE measurement in the UE, [0133]); and
Eklof do not clearly a receiver configured to receive, from the second BS, one of an S-NODE addition request acknowledgment message or an S-NODE addition request rejection message, the S-NODE addition request acknowledgment message comprising QoE configuration parameters related to the QoE measurement and reporting; and the transmitter further configured to transmit, to the UE, a reconfiguration message including configuration parameters of one or more cells of the second BS.
Teyeb teaches a receiver configured to receive, from the second BS, one of an S-NODE addition request acknowledgment message or an S-NODE addition request rejection message ([0096], [0098] provides the new SCG radio resource configuration to the MN in a SN RRC configuration message contained in the SN Addition Request Acknowledge message), one of an S-NODE addition request acknowledge message or an S-NODE addition request reject message, the S-NODE addition request acknowledge message comprising QoE configuration parameters related to the QoE measurement and reporting (Fig.7-8, [0106]-[0107] SN-Addition Request Acknowledge message (operation 2), the SN can provide the list of the QoS flows/bearers…); and transmitting, by the first BS to a user equipment (UE) (Fig.7, [0099] MN sends the MN RRC reconfiguration message to the UE including the SN RRC configuration message),in response to receiving the S-NODE addition request acknowledge message (Fig.7-8, [0096]-[0099]), a reconfiguration message comprising configuration parameters of one or more cells of the second BS (Fig.7-8, [0099] the MN informs the SN that the UE has completed the reconfiguration procedure successfully via SN Reconfiguration Complete message).
Therefore, It would have been obvious before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide above teaching of Teyeb to Eklof, in order to improve flexibility for the network to monitor end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) of data flows, including their corresponding radio bearers, associated with data sessions between a user equipment (UE) and another entity, such as an OTT data application or service external to the 5G network.
Considering claim 71, Eklof teaches a second base station (BS) configured to communicate with a user equipment (UE), comprising:
a receiver ([0377] receiver) configured to receive, from a first BS, a secondary node (S-NODE) addition request message ([0127] MN sends an SN Addition Request message to request the target SN to allocate radio resources for one or more specific PDU Sessions/QoS Flows, indicating QoS Flows characteristics (QoS Flow Level QoS parameters, PDU session level transport network layer (TNL) address information, and PDU session level Network Slice info)):
indicating a request for radio resources of the second BS for dual connectivity operation ([0127] indicating QoS Flows characteristics, [0110] dual-connectivity); and
comprising one or more information elements (IEs) related to QoE measurement and reporting (Fig.16-17, [0173]-[0174] A “TRACE START” S1AP message is used by the LTE EPC for initiating QoE measurements by a specific UE, [0129], [0175] message containing “Application layer measurement configuration” IE in order to configure QoE measurement in the UE, [0133]); and
a transmitter configured to transmit, to the first BS, in response to the S-NODE addition request message, one of an S-NODE addition request acknowledgment message or an S-NODE addition request rejection message, the S-NODE addition request acknowledgment message comprising QoE configuration parameters related to the QoE measurement and reporting.
Eklof do not clearly teach a transmitter configured to transmit, to the first BS, in response to the S-NODE addition request message, one of an S-NODE addition request acknowledgment message or an S-NODE addition request rejection message, the S-NODE addition request acknowledgment message comprising QoE configuration parameters related to the QoE measurement and reporting.
Teyeb teaches a transmitter configured to transmit, to the first BS, in response to the S-NODE addition request message ([0096], [0098] provides the new SCG radio resource configuration to the MN in a SN RRC configuration message contained in the SN Addition Request Acknowledge message), one of an S-NODE addition request acknowledge message or an S-NODE addition request reject message, the S-NODE addition request acknowledge message comprising QoE configuration parameters related to the QoE measurement and reporting (Fig.7-8, [0106]-[0107] SN-Addition Request Acknowledge message (operation 2), the SN can provide the list of the QoS flows/bearers…); and transmitting, by the first BS to a user equipment (UE) (Fig.7, [0099] MN sends the MN RRC reconfiguration message to the UE including the SN RRC configuration message).
Therefore, It would have been obvious before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide above teaching of Teyeb to Eklof, in order to improve flexibility for the network to monitor end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) of data flows, including their corresponding radio bearers, associated with data sessions between a user equipment (UE) and another entity, such as an OTT data application or service external to the 5G network.
Considering claim 72, Eklof and Teyeb further teach a receiver configured to receive, from the first BS (Teyeb: Fig.7-8, [0096]-[0099]), a reconfiguration message including configuration parameters of one or more cells of a second BS (Teyeb: Fig.7-8, [0096]-[0099]); and a transmitter configured to transmit, to the first BS, a reconfiguration complete message (Teyeb: Fig.7-8, [0096]-[0099]).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 KHAI MINH NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-7923. The examiner can normally be reached 6-3.
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/KHAI M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641
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