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 .
Information Disclosure Statement (IDS)
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05 April 2024 and 18 October 2024 is being considered by the examiner.
Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 6-10 and 16-20 have been withdrawn from consideration.
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(s) 1 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1: ZTE (MODERATOR), ‘Summary of Offline Discussion on CB: # 1_R18Slice’, R3-230810, 3GPP TSG-RAN3 Meeting #119, Athens, Greece, 07 March 2023 in view of D2: SAMSUNG, ‘Discussion on SA2 question in Slicing LSes’, R3-230623, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG3 #119, Athens, Greece, 17 February 2023.
Regarding claims 1 and 11, D1 discloses a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
identifying a protocol data unit (PDU) session associated with a network slice, based on first information on availability of the network slice;
performing deactivation of at least one user plane (UP) resource for the PDU session, in case that a user equipment (UE) moves from a first cell inside a network slice area of service (NS-AoS) to a second cell outside the NS-AoS, and the at least one UP resource is active for the PDU session; and
transmitting, to an access and mobility management function (AMF) entity, second information for requesting the deactivation of the at least one UP resource.
D1, which is considered to be the closest prior art to the subject matter of claim 1, discloses a method comprising triggering release of PDU Sessions or deactivation of UP resources of PDU sessions according to a policy as a UE is moving to an area where zero resources are allocated to their network slice, wherein a NG-RAN is able to notify the release of PDU Session Resources to an AMF (see PDU SESSION RESOURCE NOTIFY in NGAP) or to remove a DRB, hence removing UP resources for it, at any point in time and possibly as a consequence of the configured policy (see section 3.2.4).
Claim 1 differs from D1 in that it further comprises “identifying a protocol data unit, PDU, session associated with a network slice, based on first information on availability of the network slice”.
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to identifying a protocol data unit, PDU, session associated with a network slice, based on firs information on availability of the network slice.”
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 and 12-15 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.
The prior art made of record and is not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant disclosure:
WO 2018/034924 A1 discloses a network slice reselection where the WTRU may determine whether to contact an existing network slice function or a new network slice function to establish a connection to a network slice.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRENDA H PHAM whose telephone number is (571)272-3135. The examiner can normally be reached 571-272-3135.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Jiang can be reached at 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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BRENDA H. PHAM
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2412
/BRENDA H PHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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