DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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 final rejection. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on July 13, 2026 has been entered.
Status of Claims
Claims 16, 18-23, and 25-29 are pending. Claims 16 and 23 are in independent forms. Claims 16, 19-23, and 26-29 has been amended. Claims 1-15, 17, and 24 has been canceled.
Response to Arguments
3. Applicant's arguments filed 13 July 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
I) In response to applicant's arguments on pages 6-7, Applicant argued that Lee does not disclose "a service announcement including security information for an MBS security procedure". While Lee does discuss security and authentication, Lee does not disclose or suggest that a UE may obtain a service announcement including security information for an MBS security procedure as recited in the independent claims. Lee nowhere discloses a service announcement.
.
The examiner respectfully disagrees with the argument. The applicant argued that Lee does not disclose a service announcement including security information for an MBS security procedure, wherein the security information indicates whether an MBS traffic is protected at a service layer. Contrary to the applicant assertion, as stated in the office action the Lee reference discloses a multicast or broadcast transmission in 5G NR may be secured using a 5G NR network architecture including components of a 5G core (5GC). For example, the application (e.g., an application function (AF)) may interact with the 5GC via a network exposure function (NEF) and/or policy control function (PCF) to establish a service policy. Furthermore, the Lee reference discloses the radio access network node may protect the packets for the multicast or broadcast service using the cell-specific multicast-broadcast key for the cell to which the UE is connected or on which the UE is camped. The radio access network node may protect the packets for the multicast or broadcast service at a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer. At block 1014, the UE 104 may receive multicast or broadcast traffic. For example, the UE 104 may receive packets for the QoS flow via a radio bearer. The packets may be protected by the RAN node 402 using the cell-specific multicast-broadcast key. The UE 104 may decode the packets using the cell-specific multicast-broadcast key. At block 1016 the RAN node 402 may detect a key change event configured by the security policy. For example, the RAN node 402 may detect a UE 104 joining or leaving (e.g., disconnecting or changing cells). The RAN node 402 may trigger a key refresh in block 1022 in response to the key change event. Additionally, or alternatively, the SMF 194 may detect a key refresh event at block 1018. For example, the SMF 194 may detect a key change event configured by the service policy such as a subscription change (e.g., a subscriber joining or leaving the group) or a periodic key change. The SMF 194 may send a key change refresh notification 1020 to the RAN node 402 to trigger the key refresh event at block 1018. The key change refresh notification 1020 may include a list of revoked UE IDs corresponding to UEs that should not receive a new key (see Lee pars. 0039, 0165-0166).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claims 16-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0067958 (hereinafter Lee) in view of Mun et al. US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0165908 (hereinafter Mun).
Regarding claim 16, Lee discloses a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 1, UE 104), in a wireless communication system (Fig. 1, wireless communication system and an access network 100), the method comprising:
“obtaining, from an application function (AF) entity or a multicast and broadcast service function (MBSF) entity, a service announcement including security information for an MBS security procedure, wherein the security information indicates whether an MBS traffic is protected at a service layer” (see Lee Pars. 0039, 0084-0085, 0122-0124, 0165-0166, a multicast or broadcast transmission in 5G NR may be secured using a 5G NR network architecture including components of a 5G core (5GC). For example, the application (e.g., an application function (AF)) may interact with the 5GC via a network exposure function (NEF) and/or policy control function (PCF) to establish a service policy. A Session Management Function (SMF) may configure and control one or more quality of service (QoS) flows for the multicast or broadcast service at other nodes including a user plane function (UPF), radio access network (RAN) nodes, and user equipment (UEs), the radio access network node may protect the packets for the multicast or broadcast service using the cell-specific multicast-broadcast key for the cell to which the UE is connected or on which the UE is camped. The radio access network node may protect the packets for the multicast or broadcast service at a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer. At block 1014, the UE 104 may receive multicast or broadcast traffic. For example, the UE 104 may receive packets for the QoS flow via a radio bearer. The packets may be protected by the RAN node 402 using the cell-specific multicast-broadcast key. The UE 104 may decode the packets using the cell-specific multicast-broadcast key. At block 1016 the RAN node 402 may detect a key change event configured by the security policy. For example, the RAN node 402 may detect a UE 104 joining or leaving (e.g., disconnecting or changing cells). The RAN node 402 may trigger a key refresh in block 1022 in response to the key change event. Additionally, or alternatively, the SMF 194 may detect a key refresh event at block 1018. For example, the SMF 194 may detect a key change event configured by the service policy such as a subscription change (e.g., a subscriber joining or leaving the group) or a periodic key change. The SMF 194 may send a key change refresh notification 1020 to the RAN node 402 to trigger the key refresh event at block 1018. The key change refresh notification 1020 may include a list of revoked UE IDs corresponding to UEs that should not receive a new key); and
“receiving, from a base station, the MBS traffic based on the security information, in case that the security capability of the UE supports the MBS security procedure at the service layer based on the security information” (see Mun par. 0006, 0039, 0092, reporting status information about at least one of capability and a channel status of a mobile station to a base station; receiving information about an available service layer level according to the status information among all available service layer levels for providing the MBS from the base station. One or more of the UEs 104 may include a multicast receiver component 140 that receives multicast transmissions using a multicast-broadcast key. The multicast receiver component 140 may include a session component 141 that transmits a request for a PDU session for a multicast or broadcast service, a key management component 142 that receives and/or derives keys for a QoS flow for the multicast or broadcast service, a receiving component 143 that receives a RB and QoS flow packets for the multicast or broadcast service, a decoding component that decodes the QoS flow packets using the keys, and an optional capability component 145 that signals UE capabilities and receives a security policy based on UE capabilities);
Lee does not explicitly discloses identifying whether a security capability of the UE supports the MBS security procedure at the service layer based on the security information; receiving the MBS traffic via an individual MBS traffic delivery method, in case that the security capability of the UE does not support the MBS security procedure at the service layer.
However, in analogues art, Mun discloses identifying whether a security capability of the UE supports the MBS security procedure at a service layer based on the security information (see Mun par. 0006, providing a method for receiving a multicast broadcasting service (MBS), the method including: reporting status information about at least one of capability and a channel status of a mobile station to a base station; receiving information about an available service layer level according to the status information among all available service layer levels for providing the MBS from the base station; and adaptively receiving the MBS, which is provided by the base station via at least one available service layer according to the available service layer level, in accordance with at least one of the capability and the channel status of the mobile station); receiving the MBS traffic via an individual MBS traffic delivery method, in case that the security capability of the UE does not support the MBS security procedure at the service layer (see Mun par. 0007, receiving information about all available service layer levels for providing the MBS; transmitting status information about at least one of capability and a channel status of a mobile station and information about an available service layer level according to the status information among all the available service layer levels; and adaptively receiving the MBS, which is provided by the base station via at least one available service layer according to the available service layer level, in accordance with at least one of the capability and the channel status of the mobile station).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Mun in to the system of Lee in order to include receiving the MBS provided via the base layer and selectively receiving the MBS provided via the at least one enhanced layer according to at least one of the capability and the channel status of the mobile station if the MBS is provided via the at least one enhanced layer (see Mun par. 0011).
Regarding claims 18 and 25, Lee in view of Mun discloses the method of claim 16, the UE of claim 23,
Lee further discloses wherein the security information includes information on the MBS security procedure for a control plane or a user plane (see Lee par. 0084, A Session Management Function (SMF) may configure and control one or more quality of service (QoS) flows for the multicast or broadcast service at other nodes including a user plane function (UPF), radio access network (RAN) nodes, and user equipment (UEs)).
Regarding claims 19 and 26, Lee in view of Mun discloses the method of claim 16, the UE of claim 23,
Lee further discloses wherein the receiving of the MBS traffic comprises: joining an MBS session by transmitting a non-access stratum (NAS) message including an indication of requesting the individual MBS traffic delivery method to a session management function (SMF) entity (see Lee par. 0007, receiving the multicast-broadcast key may include receiving the at least one multicast-broadcast key from the SMF that generated the at least one multicast-broadcast key via NAS signaling. Decoding the one or more QoS flow packets may include decoding encoded QoS flow packets from a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer).
Regarding claims 20 and 27, Lee in view of Mun discloses the method of claim 19, the UE of claim 26,
Lee further discloses wherein the NAS message includes at least one of: a protocol data unit (PDU) session establishment request, a PDU session modification request, a security mode complete message, or a registration request message (see Lee par. 0150 The SMF 194 may transmit a PDU session establishment accept message 810 to the UE 104. The PDU session establishment accept message 810 may be a NAS signaling message including the key ID that identifies the multicast-broadcast key for the QoS flow and the actual multicast-broadcast key, which may be a root multicast-broadcast key. Accordingly, the SMF 194 may distribute the multicast-broadcast key to the UE 104 that requested the PDU session).
Regarding claims 21 and 28, Lee in view of Mun discloses the method of claim 19, the UE of claim 23,
Mun further discloses receiving, from a base station, the MBS traffic (see Mun par. 0035, the base station 201 provides the MBS to MSs 202 and 203, which are close to a base station 201 and have a good channel status, using both the base layer using the QPSK and the enhanced layer using the 16QAM as the modulation scheme and provides the MBS to MSs 204 and 205, which are far from the base station 201 and have a bad channel status, using only the base layer using the QPSK); and identifying whether an MBS traffic protection is applied to the MBS traffic (see Mun par. 0002, data transmission between a base station and a MS is made via a "service flow". The service flow includes a service flow identifier (SF ID) for identifying the service flow between the base station and the MS, a connection identifier (CID) for identifying a connection for delivering service flow traffic, and quality of service (QoS) parameters for service quality and security information for ensuring the security of the service flow), wherein the identifying of whether the security capability of the UE supports the MBS security procedure is applied in case that the MBS traffic protection is applied to the MBS traffic (see Mun par. 0046, When the DSA message is exchanged in order to establish an MBS session, a method for applying the capabilities and/or the channel statuses of the MSs is defined and, when the base station transmits MBS data traffic to the MS, a method for informing the MS of whether the traffic corresponds to the base layer or the enhanced layer is defined).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Mun in to the system of Lee in order to include receiving the MBS provided via the base layer and selectively receiving the MBS provided via the at least one enhanced layer according to at least one of the capability and the channel status of the mobile station if the MBS is provided via the at least one enhanced layer (see Mun par. 0011).
Regarding claims 22 and 29, Lee in view of Mun discloses the method of claim 19, the UE of claim 23,
Mun further discloses wherein the security information includes at least one of: MBS traffic protected at the service layer, the MBS traffic unprotected at the service layer, indications for which security procedures are supported by a network, the security procedures including a control-plane procedure or a user-plane procedure, the MBS traffic allowed via 5G Core (5GC) individual MBS traffic delivery method, the MBS traffic not allowed via 5GC individual MBS traffic delivery method, different levels of protection supported for point-to-multipoint delivery and point-to- point delivery, and the different levels of protection not supported for point-to-multipoint delivery and point-to-point delivery (see Mun par. 0007, a method for receiving a multicast broadcasting service (MBS), the method including: receiving information about all available service layer levels for providing the MBS; transmitting status information about at least one of capability and a channel status of a mobile station and information about an available service layer level according to the status information among all the available service layer levels; and adaptively receiving the MBS, which is provided by the base station via at least one available service layer according to the available service layer level, in accordance with at least one of the capability and the channel status of the mobile station).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Mun in to the system of Lee in order to include receiving the MBS provided via the base layer and selectively receiving the MBS provided via the at least one enhanced layer according to at least one of the capability and the channel status of the mobile station if the MBS is provided via the at least one enhanced layer (see Mun par. 0011).
Regarding claim 23, Lee discloses a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 1, UE 104), the UE comprising:
“at least one transceiver” (Fig. 15, transceiver 1502); and
at least one processor (Fig. 15, processor 1512) communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver and at least one memory (Fig. 15, memory 1516), communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the UE to:
“obtain, from an application function (AF) entity or a multicast and broadcast service function (MBSF) entity, a service announcement including security information for an MBS security procedure, wherein the security information indicates whether an MBS traffic is protected at a service layer” (see Lee Pars. 0039, 0084-0085, 0122-0124, 0165-0166, a multicast or broadcast transmission in 5G NR may be secured using a 5G NR network architecture including components of a 5G core (5GC). For example, the application (e.g., an application function (AF)) may interact with the 5GC via a network exposure function (NEF) and/or policy control function (PCF) to establish a service policy. A Session Management Function (SMF) may configure and control one or more quality of service (QoS) flows for the multicast or broadcast service at other nodes including a user plane function (UPF), radio access network (RAN) nodes, and user equipment (UEs), the radio access network node may protect the packets for the multicast or broadcast service using the cell-specific multicast-broadcast key for the cell to which the UE is connected or on which the UE is camped. The radio access network node may protect the packets for the multicast or broadcast service at a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer. At block 1014, the UE 104 may receive multicast or broadcast traffic. For example, the UE 104 may receive packets for the QoS flow via a radio bearer. The packets may be protected by the RAN node 402 using the cell-specific multicast-broadcast key. The UE 104 may decode the packets using the cell-specific multicast-broadcast key. At block 1016 the RAN node 402 may detect a key change event configured by the security policy. For example, the RAN node 402 may detect a UE 104 joining or leaving (e.g., disconnecting or changing cells). The RAN node 402 may trigger a key refresh in block 1022 in response to the key change event. Additionally, or alternatively, the SMF 194 may detect a key refresh event at block 1018. For example, the SMF 194 may detect a key change event configured by the service policy such as a subscription change (e.g., a subscriber joining or leaving the group) or a periodic key change. The SMF 194 may send a key change refresh notification 1020 to the RAN node 402 to trigger the key refresh event at block 1018. The key change refresh notification 1020 may include a list of revoked UE IDs corresponding to UEs that should not receive a new key); and
“receive, from a base station, the MBS traffic based on the security information, in case that the security capability of the UE supports the MBS security procedure at the service layer based on the security information” (see Mun par. 0006, 0039, 0092, reporting status information about at least one of capability and a channel status of a mobile station to a base station; receiving information about an available service layer level according to the status information among all available service layer levels for providing the MBS from the base station. One or more of the UEs 104 may include a multicast receiver component 140 that receives multicast transmissions using a multicast-broadcast key. The multicast receiver component 140 may include a session component 141 that transmits a request for a PDU session for a multicast or broadcast service, a key management component 142 that receives and/or derives keys for a QoS flow for the multicast or broadcast service, a receiving component 143 that receives a RB and QoS flow packets for the multicast or broadcast service, a decoding component that decodes the QoS flow packets using the keys, and an optional capability component 145 that signals UE capabilities and receives a security policy based on UE capabilities);
Lee does not explicitly discloses identify whether a security capability of the UE supports the MBS security procedure at the service layer based on the security information; receive the MBS traffic via an individual MBS traffic delivery method, in case that the security capability of the UE does not support the MBS security procedure at a service layer.
However, in analogues art, Mun discloses identify whether a security capability of the UE supports the MBS security procedure at a service layer based on the security information (see Mun par. 0006, providing a method for receiving a multicast broadcasting service (MBS), the method including: reporting status information about at least one of capability and a channel status of a mobile station to a base station; receiving information about an available service layer level according to the status information among all available service layer levels for providing the MBS from the base station; and adaptively receiving the MBS, which is provided by the base station via at least one available service layer according to the available service layer level, in accordance with at least one of the capability and the channel status of the mobile station); and receive, MBS traffic via an individual MBS traffic delivery method, in case that the security capability of the UE does not support the MBS security procedure at a service layer (see Mun par. 0007, receiving information about all available service layer levels for providing the MBS; transmitting status information about at least one of capability and a channel status of a mobile station and information about an available service layer level according to the status information among all the available service layer levels; and adaptively receiving the MBS, which is provided by the base station via at least one available service layer according to the available service layer level, in accordance with at least one of the capability and the channel status of the mobile station).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the teachings of Mun in to the system of Lee in order to include receiving the MBS provided via the base layer and selectively receiving the MBS provided via the at least one enhanced layer according to at least one of the capability and the channel status of the mobile station if the MBS is provided via the at least one enhanced layer (see Mun par. 0011).
Conclusion
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Byun et al. (US 2022/0015063 A1): discloses A method and apparatus for paging for multicast and broadcast service in a wireless communication system is provided. A Distributed Unit (DU) of a Radio Access Network (RAN) node may receive, from a central unit (CU) of the RAN node, a service identity for a Multicast and/or Broadcast (MB) service. A MB session may be set for the MB service. A DU of a RAN node may transmit, to multiple User Equipments (UEs) in Connection Management (CM)-IDLE state, the service identity of the MB service. The multiple UEs may have joined to the MB session. A DU of a RAN node may receive, from at least one UE among the multiple UEs, an RRC message to request the MB service. A DU of a RAN node may forward the RRC message to the CU of the RAN node.
Guo et al. (US 2022/0312196 A1): discloses MBS key distribution includes processing group information associated with an MB session context received from an AF. At least a portion of the group information comprises a TMGI. A plurality of session join requests received from a plurality of UEs are processed. Each of the plurality of session join requests include the TMGE and are associated with the MB session context. A request associated with the MB session context for transmission to an MB-SMF is encoded. A response associated with the MB session context received from the MB-SMF is processed. The response includes a key derived for each of a portion of the plurality of UEs using a UE ID and the TMGI. A DL NAS message and an N2 message are encoded for the plurality of UEs and a base station, respectively. The DL NAS message and the N2 message include the derived key.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAMUEL AMBAYE whose telephone number is (571)270-7635. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
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/SAMUEL AMBAYE/Examiner, Art Unit 2433
/JEFFREY C PWU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2433
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