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, see remark, filed 06/04/2026, with respect to the rejections of claims 1-7, 14, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yuan et al (US 2024/0163692), claims 8-13, 15, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yuan in view of Ly et al (US 2023/0319533) and claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combined teaching of Yuan and Ly in view of Ma et al (US 2020/0367120) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Liao et al (US 2021/0360742)(hereinafter Liao).
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 1-3, 14 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Liao.
Regarding claim 1, Liao discloses a communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions for execution by the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: obtaining first information of a first node (e.g., UE 102) in a first communication system (e.g., N3GPP-AN), wherein the first information comprises status information of the first node and/or status information of a first link, and the first node is an end of the first link (see Liao. Fig. 5, p. [0057], e.g., the 5GC capable UE 102 discovers and selects the N3GPP-AN (e.g., based on 3GPP TR 23.716, clause 7.1.3.1 for TNAN selection). The 5GC capable UE 102 may follow 3GPP TR 23.716, clause 7.1.3.3 (step 1-step 3) for establishing L2 transport connection with the N3GPP-AP); and
sending the first information to a first functional entity (e.g., the 5GC) in a second communication system (e.g., 5G network) in a first manner (see Liao. Fig. 5, p. [0058], e.g., For both untrusted and trusted cases, since the N3GPP-AN regards the relay UE 502 as 5G wireless/wireline backhaul to access the 5GC 106, the N3GPP-GF may forward some or all the 5G-NAS messages (e.g., capability information regarded as status) between the relay UE 502 and the 5GC capable UE 102).
Regarding claim 2, Liao disclose the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprises: receiving control policy information from the first functional entity, wherein the control policy information is used to configure the first node (see Liao, Fig. 6, p. [0069-0073], e.g., block 616, a registration procedure for the remote UE, and block 618, PDU session establishment procedure) .
Regarding claim 3, Liao disclose the apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control policy information comprises one or more of the following: node status update information, quality of service (QoS) policy configuration information, a node status report policy, or a link status detection policy.
Regarding claim 14, Liao discloses apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the status information of the first node comprises one or more of the following: hardware version information, software version information, or node power information (see Liao, Fig. 6, p. [0069-0073], e.g., block 616, a registration procedure for the remote UE, and block 618, PDU session establishment procedure).
Regarding claim 18, Liao discloses a communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions for execution by the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: receiving first information of a first node (e.g., UE 102) in a first communication system (e.g., N3GPP-AN), wherein the first information comprises status information of the first node (see Liao. Fig. 5, p. [0057], e.g., the 5GC capable UE 102 discovers and selects the N3GPP-AN (e.g., based on 3GPP TR 23.716, clause 7.1.3.1 for TNAN selection). The 5GC capable UE 102 may follow 3GPP TR 23.716, clause 7.1.3.3 (step 1-step 3) for establishing L2 transport connection with the N3GPP-AP) and/or status information of a first link, and the first node is an end of the first link; and sending the first information to a first functional entity (e.g., the 5GC) in a second communication system (e.g., 5G network) (see Liao. Fig. 5, p. [0058], e.g., For both untrusted and trusted cases, since the N3GPP-AN regards the relay UE 502 as 5G wireless/wireline backhaul to access the 5GC 106, the N3GPP-GF may forward some or all the 5G-NAS messages (e.g., capability information regarded as status) between the relay UE 502 and the 5GC capable UE 102).
Regarding claim 19, Liao discloses the apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the operations further comprises: receiving control policy information from the first functional entity, wherein the control policy information is used to configure the first node; and sending the control policy information to the first node (see Liao, Fig. 6, p. [0069-0073], e.g., block 616, a registration procedure for the remote UE, and block 618, PDU session establishment procedure.
Regarding claim 20, Liao discloses a communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions for execution by the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: receiving first information from a first node (e.g., UE 102), wherein the first information comprises status information of the first node and/or status information of a first link, and the first node is an end of the first link (see Liao. Fig. 5, p. [0057], e.g., the 5GC capable UE 102 discovers and selects the N3GPP-AN (e.g., based on 3GPP TR 23.716, clause 7.1.3.1 for TNAN selection). The 5GC capable UE 102 may follow 3GPP TR 23.716, clause 7.1.3.3 (step 1-step 3) for establishing L2 transport connection with the N3GPP-AP); determining control policy information of the first node based on the first information, wherein the control policy information is used to configure the first node (see Liao, Fig. 6, p. [0069-0073], e.g., block 616, a registration procedure for the remote UE, and block 618, PDU session establishment procedure); and sending the control policy information (see Liao. Fig. 5, p. [0058], e.g., For both untrusted and trusted cases, since the N3GPP-AN regards the relay UE 502 as 5G wireless/wireline backhaul to access the 5GC 106, the N3GPP-GF may forward some or all the 5G-NAS messages (e.g., capability information regarded as status) between the relay UE 502 and the 5GC capable UE 102).
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.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liao in view of Tang (US 2021/0219364).
Regarding claim 6, Liao does not expressly disclose the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprises: receiving sending manner indication information, wherein the sending manner indication information indicates the first manner.
Tang discloses the above recited limitations (see Tang, Fig. 6, p. [0174], e.g., Similar to the sending manner of the UE, the UPF may send either the measurement result or the first indication information, or both the measurement result and the first indication information, and p. [0175], e.g., the UPF may actively determine whether the network resource corresponding to the second access technology of the QoS flow needs to be established, and send the first indication information to the SMF when the network resource corresponding to the second access technology of the QoS flow needs to be established).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Tang’s teachings into Liao. The suggestion/motivation would have been to provide indication information in order to determine whether to establish a network resource corresponding to the second access technology of the QoS flow as suggested by Tang.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5, 8-13, 15-17 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MINH TRANG T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-5248. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30am-6:00pm.
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/MINH TRANG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
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