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
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/16/24 has been considered by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5, 14 and 19 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.
Claims 3, 5, 14 and 19 are objected as allowable because the closest prior art found fails to disclose, teach or suggest either alone or render obvious in a combined teachings of the prior art, the uniquely distinct features in the specific order, structure and combination of limitations together as a whole of the limitations recited in dependent claims 3, 5, 14 and 19 in combination with all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims from which claims 3, 5, 14 and 19 are dependent upon.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the claims at issue are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); and In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
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Claims 1-2, 4, 6-13, 15-18 and 20 of the instant application are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-4, 6-7, 9 & 11 of US Patent No. 12,069,747 (i.e. corresponding to parent application number: 17/375,765).
Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because of the following explanation indicated below:
Regarding claim 1 and claim 12 and claim 17, The instant application claims:
A method performed by a control plane node of a mobile network, the method comprising: and A control plane node of a mobile network, the control plane node comprising: a network interface configured to enable network communications; one or more processors; and one or more memories storing instructions that when executed configure the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: and A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed configure one or more processors to perform operations comprising: (US Patent Claim 1 recites “A method, comprising: obtaining, by a control plane node of a mobile network, from a first radio node, a setup request including an identifier of the first radio node and a tenant identifier”. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that it is inherent for a complex device such as the control plane node to include processors and memories or non-transitory medium comprising instructions in order to be able to perform the disclosed functionalities).
maintaining a mapping for a first tenant of a plurality of tenants, (US Patent Claim 2 recites “storing, by the control plane node, a mapping of the identifier of the UPF instance to the tenant identifier”; US Patent Claim 6 recites “allocating, by the control plane node, a first group of compute resources to the first tenant and a second group of compute resources to a second tenant”; US Patent Claim 1 recites “and utilizing, by the control plane node, the tenant identifier to select the first radio node and the UPF instance for communication with a UE associated with a first tenant identified by the tenant identifier upon obtaining a session establishment request for the UE”. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize based on the combination of the cited teachings together as a whole that the control plane node stores and maintains the mapping of the tenant identifier corresponding to the first tenant of a plurality of tenants including both the first and second tenant).
the mapping including a tenant identifier of a first tenant, an identifier of a radio node associated with the first tenant, and an identifier of a user plane function associated with the first tenant, (US Patent Claim 2 recites “storing, by the control plane node, a mapping of the identifier of the UPF instance to the tenant identifier … and storing, by the control plane node, a second mapping of the identifier of the first radio node to the tenant identifier”; US Patent Claim 1 recites “and utilizing, by the control plane node, the tenant identifier to select the first radio node and the UPF instance for communication with a UE associated with a first tenant identified by the tenant identifier upon obtaining a session establishment request for the UE”).
wherein the identifier of the radio node associated with the first tenant and the identifier of the user plane function associated with the first tenant are obtained by the control plane node before establishment of at least one session for at least one user equipment (UE) associated with the first tenant; (US Patent Claim 1 recites “obtaining, by a control plane node of a mobile network, from a first radio node, a setup request including an identifier of the first radio node and a tenant identifier; obtaining, by the control plane node from a user plane function (UPF) instance, an association setup request for the UPF instance, the association setup request including an identifier of the UPF instance and the tenant identifier, wherein the setup request and the association setup request are obtained by the control plane node before obtaining a session establishment request for at least one user equipment (UE);”).
and utilizing the mapping for the first tenant to facilitate communications for a particular UE associated with the first tenant using the radio node and the user plane function for at least one session of the particular UE (US Patent Claim 1 recites “and utilizing, by the control plane node, the tenant identifier to select the first radio node and the UPF instance for communication with a UE associated with a first tenant identified by the tenant identifier upon obtaining a session establishment request for the UE”; US Patent Claim 2 recites “storing, by the control plane node, a mapping of the identifier of the UPF instance to the tenant identifier … and storing, by the control plane node, a second mapping of the identifier of the first radio node to the tenant identifier”).
Regarding claim 2 and claim 13 and claim 18 of the instant application (see US Patent Claim 1).
Regarding claim 4 and claim 15 of the instant application (see US Patent Claim 2).
Regarding claim 6 of the instant application (see US Patent Claim 3).
Regarding claim 7 of the instant application (see US Patent Claim 4).POU920150017US3 Page 23 of 26
Regarding claim 8 of the instant application (see US Patent Claim 6).
Regarding claim 9 of the instant application (see US Patent Claim 7).
Regarding claim 10 and claim 16 and claim 20 f the instant application (see US Patent Claim 9).
Regarding claim 11 of the instant application (see US Patent Claim 11).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
DeFoy et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0117015) discloses a system wherein a 5G tenant system is a physical or virtual system hosted on a UE or routed through a UE such as a device connected to the UE over a LAN or WLAN and a 5G tenant system connects to one or more virtual networks such as a 5G-LAN and discloses a 5G tenant system interface can be associated with multiple inner addresses such as a VM or locally attached device may configure multiple IP and/or MAC addresses used to communicate over a 5G LAN network and the WTRU1 may register with the 5G network and may send a PDU session establishment request message including a 5GLAN network ID/name, TSI ID1 and one or more inner MAC and/or IP addresses and discloses upon reception of the message, SMF1 may request verification that the TSI ID1 and inner MAC/IP addresses are allowed and the WTRU may send traffic using the new IP/MAC address as source address over the 5GLAN PDU session and the UPF may forward the packet/frame to SMF and inform the SMF of the usage of a new source address and discloses the SMF may verify if the new source address should be allowed and discloses if the new address is allowed, the SMF may configure UPF to allow traffic to/from new address and Fig. 5 shows at step 510a that the SMF updates the modified / new associations such as WTRU1 inner MAC/IP address, SMF1 and UPF1, 5GLAN Network ID and discloses the SMF may select a suitable PSA UPF such as based on 5GLAN network / ID, VN name/ID and/or availability of NVEs and the SMF stores association tuple such as UE inner MAC/IP address, TSI ID, UPF ID, and 5GLAN group/network ID.
STAMMERS et al. (US Patent Publication 2020/0120022) discloses a system wherein with VXLAN technology, a data center maybe segmented into a plurality of security groups and such VXLAN feature may address needs of a multitenant data center where each tenants VM may share the physical server with other tenants and discloses the SMF may consult with the NRF for discovery of one or more UPF instance that may be appropriate for use in the session and the SR path information associated with one or more SR paths involving use of the selected UPF instance may be obtained and discloses the methods for use in providing transport network segmentation in a mobile network based on security group identity may be performed at one or more network nodes in the mobile network such as an SMF and discloses an SR path for session communication for the one or more UEs may then be selected or otherwise obtained based on the identity of the security group and discloses a table which provides example SR path information associated with each SR path of a plurality of different candidate SR paths for different candidate pairs and the different candidate pairs of mobility nodes are different candidate pairs of gNB-UPF instances and also provides example security group information which may be related to or stored in association with each SR path and includes identities of security groups and a security group may be associated with one of a plurality of candidate SR paths for session communication.
SIVAVAKEESAR (US Patent Publication 2019/0174561) discloses a system that allows a particular UE to know whether the UE’s allowed tenant ID and/or slice type are supported within a particular cell based on information identifying the supported tenant ID, slice type per tenant ID and TUPF.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL Y MAPA whose telephone number is (571)270-5540. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Thursday: 10 AM - 8 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anthony Addy can be reached at (571) 272 - 7795. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL Y MAPA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
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