DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority as a Continuation-in-Part of co-pending US Application 18/199806 filed 5/19/2023 is acknowledged.
Claims 1-16 as filed 5/14/2024 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claim 5 is objected to because of the following informalities: “an serial/IP conversion block” should be - - a serial/IP conversion block - - as in similar claim 13. Appropriate correction is required.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Salkintzis et al. (US20210321258A1), hereafter Salkintzis.
Regarding claim 1,
Salkintzis discloses a non-3GPP (Fig. 1, non-3GPP access network 130) gateway (Fig. 1, interworking apparatus 135; Fig. 2, gateway 285; paragraph 62) for enabling a device (Fig. 1, UE 105; Fig. 2, UEs 205a-c) without IP signaling capability to communicate on a 3GPP-based communications network (paragraph 46, 51-52, 58; non-5G capable UE over non-3GPP access without signaling support) comprising an IP adapter configured to map an IP address allocated by the 3GPP network with a non-IP capable device (Fig. 6C, step 15, signaling 652; Fig. 8, 9; Fig. 10, step 1005-1015; paragraph 66, 150-157, 182-183; UE receives IP address for communication over non-3GPP network using NAI) and a signaling proxy (paragraph 51; interworking function establishes a proxy connection) configured to use a 3GPP credential to set up a session for sending and receiving data to and from a 3GPP core on behalf of the non-IP capable device, using the IP address mapped by the IP adapter (Fig. 10, step 1020-1030; paragraph 66, 72, 105, 150, 184-186; performing authentication using NAI, allocated IP address and associated credentials for 3GPP access).
Regarding claim 9,
Salkintzis discloses a method (i.e. Fig. 10) to be performed by a non-3GPP gateway (Fig. 1, interworking apparatus 135; Fig. 2, gateway 285; paragraph 186; method performed by interworking apparatus such as gateway 285) for enabling a device without IP signaling capability to communicate on a 3GPP-based communication network (paragraph 46, 51-52, 58; non-5G capable UE over non-3GPP access without signaling support).
Salkintzis shows mapping, by an IP adapter, an IP address allocated by the 3GPP network with a non-IP capable device (Fig. 6C, step 15, signaling 652; Fig. 8, 9; Fig. 10, step 1005-1015; paragraph 66, 150-157, 182-183; UE receives IP address for communication over non-3GPP network using NAI) and using, by a signaling proxy (paragraph 51; interworking function establishes a proxy connection), a 3GPP credential to set up a session for sending and receiving data to and from a 3GPP core on behalf of the non-IP capable device, using the IP address mapped by the IP adapter (Fig. 10, step 1020-1030; paragraph 66, 72, 105, 150, 184-186; performing authentication using NAI, allocated IP address and associated credentials for 3GPP access).
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.
Claims 2-4 and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salkintzis in view of Mihaly et al. (US20100291943A1), hereafter Mihaly.
Regarding claims 2 and 10,
Salkintzis discloses the IP adapter further comprises a distributed database of non-IP capable devices and non-3GPP gateways (paragraph 29, 96), but does not expressly disclose synchronizing peer databases on other gateways by exchanging affiliation information.
Mihaly discloses analogous art (Fig. 3, 4, 6, 7) including synchronizing peer databases on other gateways by exchanging affiliation information (paragraph 93) including mobility between 3GPP and non-3GPP access (paragraph 140).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Salkintzis by synchronizing peer databases on other gateways by exchanging affiliation information, as shown by Mihaly, thereby enabling the administering of transport resource in order to provide a balanced load and higher session completion ratios among the serving gateways.
Regarding claims 3 and 11,
The combination of Salkintzis and Mihaly discloses the IP adapter further comprises a management of non-IP capable devices module, which triggers the signaling proxy to establish a tunnel with the 3GPP core (Salkintzis: paragraph 121, 146-152; create a tunnel between the interworking apparatus and external network via the 5G/3GPP core).
Regarding claims 4 and 12,
The combination of Salkintzis and Mihaly discloses the management of non-IP capable devices module adds identifier information (Salkintzis: i.e. NAI; paragraph 66, 72, 88, 96) of local non-IP capable devices to the distributed database of non-IP capable devices to track non-IP capable devices (via distributed database mgmt shown in Mihaly; Fig. 3, 4, 6, 7; paragraph 93, 140). See motivation above.
Claims 5-8 and 13-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salkintzis and Mihaly as applied to claims 4 and 12 above, and further in view of Bouis et al. (US20230262021A1), hereafter Bouis.
Regarding claims 5, 6, 13, and 14,
The combination of Salkintzis and Mihaly discloses a conversion block configured to convert data to IP packets for routing through the 3GPP core (Salkintzis: Abstract; paragraphs 105, 135, 156) and providing an identifier for a non-IP capable device to the management of non-IP devices block (Salkintzis: i.e. NAI; paragraph 66, 72, 88, 96), but fails to expressly disclose a serial port providing serial data converted to IP packets.
Bouis discloses analogous art (Title: Interworking function to integrate non-IP nodes into 5G network) including a serial port (Fig. 4/claim 2; non-IP data via serial ports) for serial data and converting (i.e. translating) to IP packets (paragraph 21-25; translation includes serial to IP).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Salkintzis and Mihaly by providing a serial port and converting serial data to IP packets, as shown by Bouis, thereby securely integrating non-IP data with the 5G/3GPP core.
Regarding claims 7 and 15,
The combination of Salkintzis, Mihaly, and Bouis discloses the signaling proxy is transparent to the 3GPP core and the identity of the non-IP capable device is hidden from the 3GPP core (Bouis: paragraph 53; secure and transparent method for non-IP data traffic of IP-based 5G network). See motivation above.
Regarding claims 8 and 16,
The combination of Salkintzis, Mihaly, and Bouis discloses, when messaging from the serial port access (Bouis: Fig. 4/claim 2; non-IP data via serial ports) indicates the presence of a new non-IP capable device, the non-3GPP gateway registers the new non-IP capable device with the local distributed database of non-IP capable devices (distributed database mgmt shown in Mihaly; Fig. 3, 4, 6, 7; paragraph 93, 140) and the signaling proxy establishes a 3GPP session with the 3GPP core on behalf of the registered non-IP capable device (Salkintzis: Fig. 7B, step 7; paragraph 54-58, 87-94, 112, 131, 154-166, 194-205; proxy/delegated connection on behalf of the registered non-3GPP device). See motivations above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/GREGORY B SEFCHECK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
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