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
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/12/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 06/04/2026 have been considered but are moot in view of new ground(s).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 4, 7-10, 12-13, 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (WO 2020029938) in view of Hall et al. (US 20150180945).
Regarding claim 1, Wu discloses a communication method, comprising:
obtaining, by a gateway, first information from a core network, wherein the first information comprises at least one of: information indicating an integrity protection algorithm, information indicating an encryption algorithm, an integrity protection key, or an encryption key, and the gateway and the core network belong to a second communication system (user plane gateway receives a key identifier from the access and mobility management network element, where the key identifier includes a key set identifier KSI corresponding to the UPF transmission root key and/or a key set identifier in 5G ngKSI corresponding to an intermediate key; [0023]);
sending, by the gateway, an access protocol message to a first node, wherein the access protocol message comprises the first information, and the first node belongs to a first communication system different from the second communication system, the first node comprises a terminal device (user plane gateway transmits a data packet to the UE, where the data packet carries the key identifier, the key identifier includes the key set identifier KSI corresponding to the UPF transmission root key and/or the key set identifier in 5G ngKSI corresponding to the intermediate key; [0025]); and
exchanging, by the gateway, communication information directly with the first node according to a tunneling user plane protocol based on the first information (When the key identifier is carried in the data packet exchanged between the UE and the user plane gateway, the UE and the user plane gateway each may obtain a corresponding key based on the key identifier to perform encryption/decryption and/or integrity protection; [0026].
user plane security protection is established between the UE and the user plane gateway, to implement end-to-end security protection between the UE and the user plane gateway. This is similar to establishment of an end-to-end secure channel, and the UE and the user plane gateway may securely perform data transmission on the secure channel. Encryption and/or integrity protection are/is performed on data between the UE and the user plane gateway; [0183]).
Wu does not expressly disclose exchanging, by the gateway, communication information with the first node according to a GTP protocol.
In an analogous art, Hall discloses exchanging, by the gateway, communication information with the first node according to a GTP protocol (network node 100 also includes a local gateway node (LGW) 120 for carrying user plane data between the UE 10 and the Internet 300. GTP-U tunnel is activated in the uplink and the UE 10 may perform a first transmission of uplink user plane data towards the CGW 210, as indicated by message 611; [0037, 0075]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Hall into the system of Wu in order to efficiently use a local gateway, co-located with a base station, as a decision point to selectively direct user plane data of a user equipment to the application service platform or to Internet or to services provided at a primary site (Hall; [0040]).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Wu and Hall, particularly Wu discloses wherein obtaining the first information comprises: receiving, by the gateway, second information from the core network device, and generating the first information based on the second information, wherein the first information or the second information correspond to capability information of the first node, and the capability information comprises information indicating that the first node supports at least one of the integrity protection algorithm or the encryption algorithm (user plane gateway receives indication information of a first security algorithm from a session management network element, where the first security algorithm is determined based on a security capability of the UE and a security capability of the user plane gateway, or the first security algorithm is determined based on a security capability of the UE, a security capability of the user plane gateway, and a security requirement of a service; [0017]).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Wu and Hall, particularly Wu discloses wherein the communication information comprises at least one of control plane signaling or user plane data; and the method further comprises: sending, by the gateway, priority information to the first node, wherein the priority information indicates at least one of a priority of the control plane signaling or a priority of the user plane data (It may be understood that the first security algorithm may be an intersection set of security algorithms supported by the UE and security algorithms supported by the user plane gateway. In other words, the first security algorithm may be a security algorithm supported by both the UE and the user plane gateway. The user plane gateway and the user UE may determine the first security algorithm based on respective priority lists of the security algorithms, for example, obtain a security algorithm with a highest priority in the intersection set. In other words, the first security algorithm may be a security algorithm supported by both the UE and the user plane gateway; [0270]).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Wu and Hall, particularly Wu discloses sending, by the gateway, first tunnel information to the first node, wherein the first tunnel information is used to establish a tunnel for exchanging the information between the first node and the gateway (When the key identifier is carried in the data packet exchanged between the UE and the user plane gateway, the UE and the user plane gateway each may obtain a corresponding key based on the key identifier to perform encryption/decryption and/or integrity protection; [0026].
user plane security protection is established between the UE and the user plane gateway, to implement end-to-end security protection between the UE and the user plane gateway. This is similar to establishment of an end-to-end secure channel, and the UE and the user plane gateway may securely perform data transmission on the secure channel. Encryption and/or integrity protection are/is performed on data between the UE and the user plane gateway; [0183]).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Wu and Hall, particularly Wu discloses wherein at least one of the priority information, first QoS information, or first tunnel information is carried in the access protocol message (access and mobility management network element may determine the first security algorithm in the registration procedure, and indicate the first security algorithm to the UE by using an existing NAS security mode command (SMC) message. In other words, optionally, the indication information of the first security algorithm may be carried in the existing NAS security mode command (SMC) message; [0436]).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Wu and Hall, particularly Wu discloses the access protocol message further comprises indication information, and the indication information indicates at least one of the first information, the priority information, the first QoS information, or the first tunnel information (t should be understood that, that the NAS message carries the key identifier and the input parameter that is used to generate the UPF transmission root key is merely a possible implementation, and should not constitute any limitation on this application. The access and mobility management network element may alternatively send the key identifier and the input parameter that is used to generate the UPF transmission root key to the UE through separate signaling; [0291]).
Regarding claim 10, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 3.
Regarding claim 13, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 4.
Regarding claim 16, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 7.
Regarding claim 17, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 8.
Regarding claim 18, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 9.
Regarding claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Claim(s) 2, 11, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (WO 2020029938) in view of Hall et al. (US 20150180945), and in view of Liao et al. (US 20190387401).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Wu and Hall does not expressly disclose wherein the access protocol message composes an extensible authentication protocol (EAP-5G) message or a SparkLink access protocol (SLAP) message.
In an analogous art, Liao discloses wherein the access protocol message composes an extensible authentication protocol (EAP-5G) message or a SparkLink access protocol (SLAP) message (The group key hierarchy 1301 is shown on the right hand side in FIG. 13 in parallel to keys generated during an extensible authentication protocol (EAP)-AKA procedure, which has been adapted to the new 5GS architecture from EPS-AKA and shown as a 5G-AKA key hierarchy 1302 on the right; [0216]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Liao into the system of Wu and Hall in order to reduce the storage space of the security parameters for each individual IoT device and reduce the signaling overheads for retrieving the security parameters for each individual IoT (Liao; [0047]).
Regarding claim 11, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 2.
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 2.
Claim(s) 5, 6, 14, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al. (WO 2020029938) in view of Hall et al. (US 20150180945), and in view of Metsala et al. (US 20150351138).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Wu and Hall does not expressly disclose sending, by the gateway, first quality of service (QoS) information to the first node, wherein the first QoS information is used for at least one of communication between nodes in the first communication system, or communication between the first node and the core network device.
In an analogous art, Metsala discloses sending, by the gateway, first quality of service (QoS) information to the first node, wherein the first QoS information is used for at least one of communication between nodes in the first communication system, or communication between the first node and the core network device (In order to establish (quality-related) properties of the bearer to be set up, setup requirements e.g. in the form of signaling parameters are conventionally used. In the exemplary case of setup of a S1 bearer, the QCI carried by S1 (eNB-MME) and S11 (SGW-MME) signaling is used to establish dedicated bearers; [0005]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Metsala into the system of Wu and Hall in order to provide enhanced and improved support for the backhaul or core network for mobile broadband (Metsala; [0116]).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Wu, Hall, and Metsala, particularly Metsala discloses wherein the first QoS information is from the core network device; or the method further comprises: receiving, by the gateway, second QoS information from the core network device, and generating the first QoS information based on link status information and the second QoS information; or generating, by the gateway, the first QoS information based on link status information (Each EPS bearer/E-RAB (GBR and Non-GBR) may be associated with one or more of the following bearer level QoS parameters: [0058] QoS Class Identifier (QCI): scalar that is used as a reference to access node-specific parameters that control bearer level packet forwarding treatment (e.g. scheduling weights, admission thresholds, queue management thresholds, link layer protocol configuration, etc.), and that have been pre-configured by the operator owning the eNodeB, wherein a specified one-to-one mapping of standardized QCI values to standardized characteristics may be employed; [0057]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Metsala into the system of Wu and Hall in order to provide enhanced and improved support for the backhaul or core network for mobile broadband (Metsala; [0116]).
Regarding claim 14, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 5.
Regarding claim 15, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 6.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Gupta (US 20190306868), “WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK (WLAN) CONNECTIVITY OPTION DISCOVERY.”
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 OUSSAMA ROUDANI whose telephone number is (571)272-4727. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, UN C CHO can be reached at (571) 272 7919. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/OUSSAMA ROUDANI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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