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 .
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.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged. In particular, this Application is the national stage application of an international application that claims foreign priority to a Greek application, filed on 7 Dec 2021. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement, submitted on 7 Jun 2024, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 22 is objected to because it lacks a period. Appropriate correction is required.
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 10-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Youn ‘562 (US 20240015562) in view of Kedalagudde (US 20230300674).
Regarding claims 10, 16, and 22, Youn ‘562 teaches an apparatus providing a network function in a mobile communication network, a method in a mobile communication network, and a processor for wireless communication, wherein the apparatus comprises at least one memory and at least one processor configured to cause the network function to perform the method comprising:
receiving, from a User Equipment ("UE"), a first message to establish a multiaccess data connection, the multiaccess data connection comprising a set of access networks (Youn ‘562, figure 12A, steps 2/3 and ¶466 – MA PDU session establishment request; Youn ‘562, ¶¶189-190 – MA is multi-access via both 3GPP and non-3GPP networks);
transmitting, to a User Plane Function ("UPF"), a request to establish a multiaccess connection for the UE (Youn ‘562, figure 12A, step 6 – SMF transmits N4 Session Establishment Request to UPF),
wherein the request comprises a plurality of reporting events and Quality of Service ("QoS") monitoring information indicating at least on QoS monitoring procedure for taking measurements for at least one QoS parameter on each access network in the set of access network (Youn ‘562, ¶470, last sentence – SMF transmits an indication to the UPF, requesting allocation of resources for each QoS flow; Youn ‘562, ¶428 – SMF indicates access measurement support for multiple QoS flows via measurement assistance information; Youn ‘562, ¶¶484 and 513 – UPF performs access measurements for QoS flows based on information provided by SMF);
transmitting, to the UE, a second message that accepts establishment of the multiaccess data connection, the second message comprising a set of traffic routing rules (Youn ‘562, ¶¶297, 471 and figure 12A, step 8 – PDU session establishment accept message, transmitted by the SMF to the NG-RAN is forwarded via the AMF; Youn ‘562, ¶¶470, 490 – PDU session establishment accept message may include the generated ATSSS rule; Youn ‘562, ¶247 – an ATSSS rule may be a prioritized list of rules [i.e. a set of rules]); and
transmitting, to the UE, a third message comprising measurement information derived from . . . [an ATSSS rule].” Youn ‘562, ¶248 and figure 8 (PDU session modification provides ATSSS rule modification to UE); Youn ‘562, ¶¶304, 307 (each ATSSS rule includes an access selection descriptor, such as smallest delay, which has the UE perform RTT measurements over both the 3GPP and non-3GPP access networks).
Youn ‘562 does not explicitly teach an SMF “receiving, from the UPF, an event report comprising information about a first reporting event, wherein the information is based on measurements for the at least one QoS parameter on each access network in the set of access networks; and transmitting. . . information “derived from the event report.” Instead, Youn ‘562 has the UE, not an SMF, receive an event report from the UPF. Youn ‘562, figure 15 and ¶522 (step s1504). However, Kedalagudde teaches a UE ATSSS RAN Measurement Report being sent from the UPF to the SMF. Kedalagudde, ¶85 (last sentence). The Measurement Report provides NR and WLAN measurements [i.e. measurements of both access networks] regarding the UE. Id. at ¶81; see also id. at ¶3 for examples of RAN measurements. The SMF, then in turn, decides if the ATSSS rules in the UE need updated. Id. at ¶85. The SMF updates the ATSSS rules through a PDU session modification. Id. at ¶¶95-96. As taught by Youn ‘562, a PDU session is updated by the SMF via the SMF transmitting the ATSSS rule to the UE. Youn ‘562, ¶248 and figure 8 (PDU session modification provides ATSSS rule modification to UE). At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to allow the SMF to receive a measurement report from the UPF, as taught by Kedalagudde, when providing an updated ATSSS rule via a PDU Session modification, as taught by Youn ‘562, in order to ensure the SMF can make an informed decision on whether ATSSS rules need updated in the UE and/or the NF rules need updated in the UPF. Kedalagudde, ¶85. This consolidates rule updating in one network function.
Regarding claims 11, 17, and 23, the combination of Youn ‘562 and Kedalagudde also teaches wherein the first reporting event indicates that an access network with a smallest Round-Trip Time ("RTT") has changed, wherein the report indicates which access network has the smallest RTT, and wherein the third message also indicates which access network has the smallest RTT. Youn ‘562, ¶¶304, 307 (ATSSS rule based on “smallest delay,” steers the data flow to the access node with the smallest RTT); Youn ‘562, ¶¶312, 316 (ATSSS rule provided to UE).
Regarding claims 12, 18, and 24, the combination of Youn ‘562 and Kedalagudde also teaches wherein the report further comprises a RTT value for each access network in the set of access networks, wherein the third message also comprises the RTT value for each access network in the set of access networks. Youn ‘562, ¶¶267, 276 (RTT measurement may be the average RTT obtained over an access network); Youn ‘562, ¶307 (ATSSS rule includes RTT determined over both 3GPP access and non-3GPP access); Youn ‘562, ¶¶312, 316 (ATSSS rule provided to UE).
Regarding claims 13, 19, and 25, the combination of Youn ‘562 and Kedalagudde also teaches
transmitting a policy request to a policy control function in the mobile communication network (Youn ‘562, figure 12 (step 5) and ¶468 – SMF transmits ATSSS capability information to PCF); and
receiving a policy response that comprises the plurality of reporting events and the QoS monitoring information for the multiaccess data connection (Youn ‘562, ¶468 – in response, the PCF transmits a PCC rule to the SMF; Youn ‘562, ¶233 – PCC rules include ATSSS control information; Youn ‘562, ¶¶249-250 – ATSSS defines QoS for access-agnostic QoS flows; Youn ‘562, ¶¶331 – thresholds corresponding to the QoS measurements may trigger ATSSS),
wherein the policy response further comprises an indication of at least one QoS monitoring procedure for taking measurements on each access network of the multiaccess data connection. Youn ‘562, ¶433, 477 (PCC rule dictates if measurement is required for a QoS flow).
Regarding claims 14, 20, and 26, the combination of Youn ‘562 and Kedalagudde also teaches wherein transmitting the third message comprises transmitting a protocol data unit ("PDU") Session Modification Command to the UE. Youn ‘562, ¶248 and figure 8 (PDU session modification provides ATSSS rule modification to UE).
Regarding claims 15, 21, and 27, the combination of Youn ‘562 and Kedalagudde also teaches wherein the second message indicates to the UE that measurements are to be provided by the mobile communication network. Youn ‘562, ¶470 (PDU session establishment accept message may include an indication of when measurement is necessary for each QoS flow); Youn ‘562, ¶484 (UE and UPF perform measurements for each QoS flow based on information provided by SMF); Youn ‘562, figure 14 (example of measurements for a QoS performed by either the UE or UPF).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure includes figure 6 of Velev and figure 7B, step 731 of Kim ‘038.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN S LAMONT whose telephone number is (571)270-7514 and email address is benjamin.lamont@uspto.gov (see MPEP 502.03 for using EFS or mail, but not email to authorize electronic communications). The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am to 3pm EST.
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/Benjamin Lamont/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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