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 .
The Office Action is in response to claims filed on 12/2/2025 where claims 31-52 are pending and ready for examination.
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on [ 1 ] has been entered.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 31-34, 36-43, 45- 48 -52 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being unpatentable over ETSI, “MEC in 5G Networks”, First Edition (June 2018) in view of Ppallan, US 11,290,548, Filed 5/13/2020
Regarding claim 31.ETSI discloses an apparatus comprising:
at least one processor (ETSI; ETSI discloses a technological environment supported by computing systems which inherently requires at least one processor); and
at least one memory storing instructions of a session management function, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform operations, the operations comprising at least(ETSI; ETSI discloses a technological environment supported by computing systems which inherently requires at least one memory with instructions to be executed by the at least one processor):
during establishment of a packet data unit session for a communication device (ETSI, Page 5):
receiving, from the communication communications device using a dynamic host configuration protocol, a request for allocation, using a dynamic host configuration protocol, of an internet protocol address for the communication device (ETSI; ETSI discloses that the session management function (SMF) provides DHCP services, and performs IP address allocation and management in the PDU session management, By definition DHCP services include receiving DHCP requests from a communication device for allocation of an IP address. Accordingly, ETSI contemplates receiving, using DHCP, a re3qauest for an IP address allocation from a communication device;
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allocating the internet protocol address to the communication device by invoking functionality of a dynamic host configuration protocol server (ETSI; ETSI discloses that the session management function (SMF) performs IP address allocation and management and provides DHCP services. Because DHCP server functionality, by definition, performs dynamic IP address allocation. ETSI contemplates allocating an internet protocol address to the communication device by invoking DHCP server functionality
see e.g. ETSI Page 5);
ETSI does not expressly disclose:
selecting an edge application server discovery function as a domain name server (DNS) for the packet data unit session;
sending, to the edge application server discovery function, a request for creation of a DNS context for the packet data unit session-edge application discovery function; and
after receipt of a response to the request for creation of the DNS context for the packet data unit session- of the edge application discovery function, sending, to the communication device, using the dynamic host configuration protocol, a response to the request for allocation comprising the internet protocol address allocated to the communication device.
However in analogous art Ppallan discloses:
selecting an edge application server discovery function as a domain name server (DNS) for the packet data unit session (Ppallan; Ppallan teaches discovering edge servers and services through DNS resolution in a MEC platform based network, where a DNS server is used to process DNS queries from a user equipment for service access. Ppallan contemplates using (i.e. selecting/designating) a function that performs edge server discovery as the DNS server for handling service discovery associated with the session, which is equivalent to selecting and edge application server discovery function as a DNS server for the packet data unit session;
see e.g. Abstract “A method of discovering edge-servers and services through domain name server (DNS) resolution in a mobile edge computing (MEC) platform based network is provided. The method includes communicating a DNS-query from a user-equipment to a DNS server, wherein DNS query pertains to a user-request for accessing one or more web-based services. ... “ );
sending, to the edge application server discovery function, a request for creation of a DNS context for the packet data unit session (Ppallan; Ppallan discloses communicating a DNS query from the UE to a DNS server for the purpose of identifying an application and discovering services in a MEC environment . Because the DNS query carries application identification and service discovery parameters, the DNS query constitutes a request that cause creation of DNS processing state (DNS context) at the DNS server performing edge application server discovery;
see e.g. Column 5, Lines 44-51:
“The DNS-query pertains to a user-request for accessing one or more web-based services. The communication of the DNS query from UE comprises identifying an application within the DNS query and a parameter related to:
a. accessing content or information; and
b. discovering standard services defined by one or more of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), quick UDP internet connections (QUIC), file transfer protocol (FTP);
c. discovering non-standard services pertaining to one or more of advertisements, medical, or gaming services”);
after receipt of a response to the request for creation of the DNS context for the packet data unit session- of the edge application discovery function, sending, to the communication device, a response to the request for allocation comprising the internet protocol address allocated to the communication device (Ppallan; Ppallan discloses sending a DNS response to the communication device after processing a DNS query associated with the service discovery. The DNS response includes server and addressing information that is returned to the UE, and subsequently used by the UE to access edge services. Thus contemplating sending a response to the communication device after receipt of a response associated with DNS context creation
see e.g. Column 7, Lines 39-57:
“As a part of response, the DNS response in operation 404 advertises at least of service associated with the main domain “xyz.com” as available through the edger server and remote server. In an example, the operation 404 may be defined by the format:
3600 IN EDX mec.img.xyz.com port. 80 43.200 55.130 5 A10.25.175.14
3600 IN EDX chat.xyz.com. 389 23.000 32.000 6 A 250.158.14.71
Based thereupon through operation 408, the UE access the “image services” by connecting to edge server defined by address “80 43.200 55.130 5 A10.25.175.14.” The UE accesses the “chat services” by connecting to remote server defined by address “389 23.000 32.000 6 A 250.158.14.71”.
Further, the DNS response may include information on at least one server or a plurality of servers for each service type. For example, information of a plurality of servers is included for the image service, and information of one server for the chat service may be included”
)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ppallan’s DNS scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in provisioning and delivering services to communication devices.
ETSI in view of Ppallan disclose:
after receipt of a response to the request for creation of the DNS context for the packet data unit session- of the edge application discovery function, sending, to the communication device, using the dynamic host configuration protocol, a response to the request for allocation comprising the internet protocol address allocated to the communication device (The combined teachings of ETSI and Ppallan provide for utilizing DNS context processing in conjunction with the DHCP protocol during packet data unit session establishment).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ppallan’s DNS scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in provisioning and delivering services to communication devices.
Regarding claim 32, ETSI in view of Ppallan disclose the apparatus of claim 31, wherein the response to the request for allocation further comprises an address of the edge application server discovery function (Because the independent claim already requires DNS based edge application discovery, providing the address of the DNS server performing that discovery is inherent and necessarily present for the communication device to issue DNS queries.. A DNS query cannot be performed without knowledge of the DNS server address. Accordingly, the dependent claim merely makes explicit information that is functionally required by the DNS based operation of the independent claim and does not add substantive technical imitation).
Regarding claim 33, ETSI in view of Ppallan disclose the apparatus of claim 31, wherein the operations further receiving comprises receiving a packet data unit establishment request comprising the request for allocation, and wherein the response to the request for allocation comprises a packet data unit accept message (ETSI teaches performing session management and IP address allocation during PDU session establishment, including management of session parameters by the SMF. In 5G systems, PDU session establishment signaling is carried using PDU session establishment request and PDU session accept messages. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to convey, the claimed request and response using these standardized PDU session establishment messages as doing so constitutes a predictable and standards compliant implementation of the disclosed session management and IP address allocation functions).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ppallan’s DNS scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in provisioning and delivering services to communication devices.
Regarding claim 34. ETSI in view of Ppallan disclose the apparatus of claim 31, wherein the request for allocation is provided in a protocol configuration option (STSI teaches utilizing DHCP services for IP address allocation during PDU session establishment, wherein DHCP signaling, by definition, conveys configuration requests parameters using protocol configuration options. Accordingly providing the request for IP address allocation within a protocol configuration option constitutes a predictable implementation of DHCP based address allocation as taught by ETSI and does not introduce a new technical function beyond that of the disclosed DHCP operation).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ppallan’s DNS scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in provisioning and delivering services to communication devices.
Regarding claim 37, ETSI in view of Ppallan disclose the apparatus of claim 31, wherein the selecting of the edge application server discovery function for the communication communications device is performed after the internet protocol addresses has been allocated to the communication device (The combined solution teaches IP allocation occurs during PDU session establishment, and DNS -based edge application server discovery as performed using the allocated IP address. Accordingly, the selection of the edge application server discovery function logically occurs after IP address allocation, as the communication device must possess an allocated IP address prior to participating in DNS based discovery operations. The limitation therefore specificizes temporal ordering of already disclosed seps and does not introduce a new technical function).
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ppallan’s DNS scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in provisioning and delivering services to communication devices.
Regarding claim 36. . ETSI in view of Ppallan discloses The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the context create request for creation of the DNS context for the packet data unit session comprises at least one of: the internet protocol address that is allocated to the communication device, a subscription permanent identifier, a data network name, an identifier of a notification endpoint, and domain name server serve message handling rules (The combined solution per ETSI as ETSI provides for data network name as ETSI provides for PDU sessions with local and central data networks which necessarily entails identification of the particular local and/or central data networks
See e.g. ETSI, Page 5:
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Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ppallan’s DNS scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in provisioning and delivering services to communication devices.
Regarding claim 38, ETSI in view of Ppallan disclose the apparatus of claim 31, wherein the operations further comprise providing, to the edge application server discovery function, the internet protocol address allocated to the communication device (Because the dependent claim already requires use of a DNS server for edge application service discovery, the DNS server necessarily maintains addressing information in memory for operation of the DNS resolution process. Accordingly, providing the allocated internet protocol address to the edge application server discovery function constitutes initial staging of addressing information required for DNS operation and does not introduce a new technical function beyond the DNS based discovery already recited)
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ppallan’s DNS scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in provisioning and delivering services to communication devices.
Regarding claim 39. ETSI in view of Ppallan disclose The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the operations further comprise comprising: after establishment of the packet data unit session:
sending, to the edge application server discovery function, a request to update the DNS context for the packet data unit session-edge application discovery function (In DNS systems, context is updated through subsequent DNS queries and corresponding DNS responses which return updated resolution information such as available servers, addresses, or service endpoints. As Ppallan teaches DNS based edge server discovery with responses that may include one or a plurality of servers per service type, issuing a subsequent query after session establishment results in updated DNS resolution information being provided to the communication device); and
receiving, from the edge application server discovery function, an updated DNS context for the packet data unit session-edge application discovery function (As detailed above updated DNS context is received).
The Examiner notes one of ordinary skill in the art would be inclined to update DNS context information in the claimed system because the technological environment comprises mobile communication devices operating within a multi-access edge computing (MEC) platform. Such environments, inherently support mobility across edge locations, which necessitates updating DNS context information to ensure continued and correct resolution of edge application servers as network conditions and device locations change. Accordingly, updating DNS context information after establishment of the PDU session is consistent with the operational requirements of MEC-based mobile systems.
Therefore it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Ppallan’s DNS scheme. The motivation being the combined solution provides for implanting a known technique resulting in increased efficiencies in provisioning and delivering services to communication devices.
Regarding claim 40, claim 40 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 31 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 41, claim 41 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 32 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 42, claim 42 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 33 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 43, claim 43 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 34 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 45, claim 45 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 36 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 46, claim 46 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 37 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 47, claim 47 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 38 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 48, claim 48 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 39 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 49, claim 49 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 31 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 50, claim 50 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 32 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 51, claim 51 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 33 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding claim 52, claim 52 comprises the same and/or similar subject matter as claim 34 and is considered an obvious variation; therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
/TODD L BARKER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2449