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 .
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.
(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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-8, 11-17, 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yao et al. (12,542,727).
For claim 1, Yao teaches a quality of service processing method (background, summary and claims), comprising:
receiving, by a session management network element (col. 19, lines 20-50), a first rule from a policy control network element (col. 16, lines 50-67), wherein the first rule comprises direction information (col. 37, lines 30-55) and quality of service notification control information (col. 3, lines 30-45), the direction information indicating a direction of a first service flow (col. 16, lines 50-67), the direction information comprising an uplink direction and/or a downlink direction (col. 10, lines 50-65), and the quality of service notification control information (col. 17, lines 15-40) comprising an instruction for the session management network element to send notification information to the policy control network element when quality of service of the first service flow meets a preset reporting condition (col. 37, line 55 – col. 38, line 15);
sending, by the session management network element, the direction information and the notification control information to an access network device (col. 9, lines 40-65);
receiving, by the session management network element, quality of service notification information in a first direction from the access network device, wherein the quality of service notification information in the first direction includes a notification that the quality of service of the first service flow in the first direction meets the preset reporting condition, the first direction being included in the direction information (col. 18, lines 5-30); and
sending, by the session management network element, the first direction and information about the first service flow to the policy control network element (col. 19, line 20 – col. 20, line 45).
For claim 2, Yao teaches binding, by the session management network element, the first rule to the first service flow (col. 20, lines 25-45).
For claim 3, Yao teaches binding, by the session management network element, the first rule to the first service flow, wherein the bound first rule corresponds to the first service flow, direction information of the first service flow is the same as the direction information in the first rule, and quality of service notification control information of the first service flow is the same as the quality of service notification control information in the first rule (col. 20, lines 25-45).
For claim 5, Yao teaches sending, by the session management network element, a first message to the access network device (col. 14, lines 5-45), wherein the first message comprises identification information of the first service flow and the direction corresponding to the first service flow (col. 17, line 45 – col. 19, line 50).
For claim 6, Yao teaches further comprising:
receiving, by the session management network element, a second rule from the policy control network element, wherein the second rule comprises the first direction and a second quality of service parameter of a service flow in the first direction including updated quality of service of the service flow in the first direction (col. 17, lines 15-35); and
sending, by the session management network element, the first direction and the second quality of service parameter to the access network device (col. 17, lines 15-35).
For claim 7, Yao teaches sending, by the session management network element, the first direction and the second quality of service parameter of the service flow in the first direction to a terminal device (col. 19, line 20 – col 20, line 15).
For claim 8, Yao teaches binding, by the session management network element, the second rule to a second service flow (col. 17, lines 15-35).
For claim 11, Yao teaches sending, by the session management network element, a second message to the access network device, wherein the second message comprises identification information of the second service flow and the direction corresponding to the second service flow (col. 19, line 20 – col 20, line 15).
For claim 12, Yao teaches further comprising:
receiving, by the access network device, the direction information and the quality of service notification control information from the session management network element (col. 17, lines 15-35); and
determining, by the access network device, that the quality of service of the first service flow in the first direction meets the preset reporting condition, and sending, by the access network device to the session management network element, the quality of service notification information in the first direction (col. 19, line 20 – col 20, line 15).
For claim 13, Yao teaches a quality of service processing method (abstract, background, summary and claims), comprising:
sending, by a policy control network element (col. 16, lines 50-67), a first rule to a session management network element (col. 19, lines 20-50), wherein the first rule comprises direction information (col. 37, lines 30-55) and quality of service notification control information (col. 3, lines 30-45), the direction information indicating a direction of a first service flow (col. 16, lines 50-67), the direction information comprising an uplink direction and/or a downlink direction (col. 10, lines 50-65), and the quality of service notification control information (col. 17, lines 15-40) comprising an instruction for the session management network element to send notification information to the policy control network element when quality of service of the first service flow meets a preset reporting condition (col. 37, line 55 – col. 38, line 15); and
receiving, by the policy control network element, a first direction and information about the first service flow from the session management network element (col.19, line 20 – col. 20, line 45), wherein the first direction is included in the direction information (col. 18, lines 5-30).
For claim 14, Yao teaches further comprising:
updating, by the policy control network element, a first quality of service parameter of a service flow in the first direction to obtain a second quality of service parameter indicating current quality of service of the service flow in the first direction (col. 17, lines 15-35); and
sending, by the policy control network element, a second rule to the session management network element, wherein the second rule comprises the first direction and the second quality of service parameter of the service flow in the first direction (col. 17, lines 15-35).
For claim 15, Yao teaches that the preset reporting condition indicates that the quality of service of the first service flow does not meet target quality of service of the first service flow or that the quality of service of the first flow meets target quality of service of the first service flow (col. 20, lines 25-45).
For claim 16, Yao teaches a quality of service processing method (abstract, background, summary and claims), comprising:
receiving, by an access network device (col. 9, lines 40-65) from a session management network element (col. 19, lines 20-50), a quality of service (col. 3, lines 30-45) parameter set (col. 17, lines 15-40) of a service flow (col. 16, lines 50-67) in a first direction (col. 37, lines 30-55), the first direction comprising an uplink direction and/or a downlink direction (col. 10, lines 50-65);
receiving, by the access network device, a first service flow in the first direction (col. 9, lines 40-65);
determining, by the access network device, that a first quality of service parameter of the first service flow does not meet a target (col. 20, lines 25-45) quality of service parameter in the direction (col. 18, lines 5-30); and
selecting, by the access network device, a second quality of service parameter of the first service flow from the quality of service parameter set, wherein the second quality of service parameter is an updated quality of service parameter of the first service flow (col. 17, lines 15-35).
For claim 17, Yao teaches that one or more quality of service parameters in the quality of service parameter set includes at least one priority level (col. 42, lines 40-55).
For claim 19, Yao teaches sending, by the access network device to the session management network element, the first direction and the second quality of service parameter of the service flow in the first direction (col. 17, lines 15-35).
For claim 20, Yao teaches that the quality of service parameter comprises one or more of the following: the priority level (N/A), a packet delay budget (col. 34, line 60 – col. 35, line 5), a maximum data burst volume (N/A), a quality of service identifier (col. 3, line 40 – col. 5, line 40; col. 19, line 65 – col. 20, line 15), and notification control information (col. 18, lines 25-50).
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.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Han et al. (12,323,310).
For claim 4, Yao does not expressly disclose the limitations. Han teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) that includes binding the first rule to the first service flow comprises:
creating, by the session management network element, the first service flow, wherein direction information of the first service flow is the same as the direction information in the first rule, and quality of service notification control information of the first service flow is the same as the quality of service notification control information in the first rule (col. 10, lines 20-55); and
binding, by the session management network element, the first rule to the first service flow, wherein the bound first rule corresponds to the first service flow (col. 12, lines 15-25).
At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Han in order to provide improvements to maintaining QoS by monitoring network functions (col. 2, lines 15-50).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Li et al. (2022/0,322,202).
For claim 9, Yao does not expressly disclose the limitations. Li teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) wherein binding the second rule to a second service flow comprises:
when the second service flow is a currently existing service flow, determining, by the session management network element, that a direction of the second service flow is the first direction, and a quality of service parameter of the second service flow is the same as the second quality of service parameter in the second rule (Paras 233-237);
binding, by the session management network element, the second rule to the second service flow, wherein the bound second rule corresponds to the second service flow (Para 83, 251).
At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Li in order to provide improvements to path switching (Paras 3-5).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Han et al. (11,855,864).
For claim 10, Yao does not expressly disclose the limitations. Han teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) wherein binding the second rule to a second service flow comprises:
creating, by the session management network element, the second service flow, wherein a direction of the second service flow is the first direction, and a quality of service parameter of the second service flow is the same as the second quality of service parameter in the second rule (col. 16, line 10 – 50); and
binding, by the session management network element, the second rule to the second service flow, wherein the bound second rule corresponds to the second service flow (col. 18, lines 1-15).
At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Han in order to provide improved traffic analysis (background).
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of Yoon et al. (12,137,430).
For claim 18, Yao does not expressly disclose the limitations. Yoon teaches a method and system (abstract) in the relevant art (background, summary and claims) wherein selecting a second quality of service parameter of the first service flow from the quality of service parameter set comprises:
selecting, by the access network device from the quality of service parameter set, a quality of service parameter having a highest priority level as the second quality of service parameter (col. 25, lines 50-60); or
selecting, by the access network device from the quality of service parameter set, one or more quality of service parameters whose priority levels are lower than that of the first quality of service parameter, and using a quality of service parameter with a highest priority level in the selected one or more quality of service parameters as the second quality of service parameter (col. 26, lines 15-25).
At the time of filing, one of ordinary skill in the art would have added Yoon in order to provide improvements to the handling of session procedure (background).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MELVIN H POLLACK whose telephone number is (571)272-3887. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00.
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, Oscar Louie can be reached at (571)270-1684. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MELVIN H POLLACK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445