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 .
Claims 15, 22 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 15, 22, the term “NRF, NF; UPF; SMF” need to define a meaning: for example, network repository function (NRF); session management function (SMF). Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 –
Claim(s) 1, 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Talebi Fard et al. (US Pub No. 2020/0228936).
Claim 1, Talebi Fard discloses a group user communication method (par [0085] “disclosed user plane function (UPF) of the 5G Radio Access Network to deploy for different groups of UEs”), applied to a user plane function (UPF) entity, comprising: receiving a packet forwarding request of a first user equipment, wherein the packet forwarding request is configured to request for forwarding a packet to a target user equipment (par [0140] “given of example, wherein the packet forwarding request is configured to request for forwarding a packet to a target user equipment by an N4 session establishment request 1030 message may be sent to the new UPF 110, providing packet detection, data forwarding, wherein data forwarding indication may indicate to the UPF 110 that a second tunnel endpoint to a target user equipment and further disclosed in par [0141]”, the first user equipment and the target user equipment are user equipment of a same virtual network group (See Fig. 15, and par [0193]”disclosed a UE connect to a virtual network, further in par [0194] how to provide in internal group identifier to identify group users”); determining a UPF entity associated with the target user equipment by searching group-level routing information of a current UPF entity (par [0204] “ internal group identifier to identify group users routing between those session, for example: of 5G LAN-type service”); and forwarding the packet requested to be forwarded to the target user equipment through the UPF entity associated with the target user equipment (par [0141] “endpoint to a target user equipment”).
Claim 13, Talebi Fard further discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a packet sent by an opposite-end UPF entity in the virtual network group, wherein the packet sent by the opposite-end UPF entity carries a destination address of the packet, and a user equipment corresponding to the destination address of the packet is associated with the current UPF entity(par [0140] “disclosed, wherein the packet forwarding request is configured to request for forwarding a packet to a target user equipment by an N4 session establishment request 1030 message may be sent to the new UPF 110, providing packet detection, data forwarding, wherein data forwarding indication may indicate to the UPF 110”); and forwarding the packet sent by the opposite-end UPF entity to the user equipment corresponding to the destination address of the packet (par [0039] “UE 100 IP address allocation to route to destination by UPF 110”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15, 20, 22, 27-28 are allowed.
The prior art of record either alone or in combination fail to disclose the limitations of a group user communication method, applied to a NRF entity, comprising: receiving a NF discovery request of a first UPF entity, wherein the NF discovery request comprises a group identifier being identifier information sent to the first UPF entity by a SMF entity and configured to identify a virtual network group; sending a NF discovery response to the first UPF entity, wherein the NF discovery response carrying UPF information of an opposite-end UPF entity associated with the virtual network group and opposite-end tunnel information; and receiving group-level routing information of the first UPF entity, and issuing group-level routing information of the opposite-end UPF entity to the first UPF entity, so that the first UPF entity creates the group-level routing information of the first UPF entity according to the group-level routing information of each opposite-end UPF entity, and performs communication between user equipment in the virtual network group according to the group- level routing information of the first UPF entity.
A group user communication method, applied to a SMF entity, comprising: sending a N4 session creation request to a first UPF entity, wherein the session creation request carries a group identifier and an equipment identifier of a first user equipment, the group identifier is configured to identify a virtual network group; and receiving a N4 session creation response of the first UPF entity, wherein in a process of the first UPF entity creating the N4 session for the first user equipment, group-level routing information corresponding to the equipment information of the first user equipment is added to group-level routing information of the first UPF entity, and communication between user equipment in the virtual network group is performed according to the group-level routing information of the first UPF entity.
Claims 2-5, 7-9, 11-12, 14 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.
The prior art of record either alone or in combination do not disclose the limitations of before receiving the packet forwarding request of the first user equipment, sending a registration request to a network repository function (NRF) entity after the current UPF entity is powered on, wherein the registration request carries registration information at least comprising virtual network group information supported by the current UPF entity; and receiving a registration response returned by the NRF entity in response to the registration request, so as to determine that the current UPF entity is successfully registered on the NRF entity.
Conclusion
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/PHUOC H DOAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646