CTNF 18/721,800 CTNF 100031 Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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 06-52 The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/19/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. 06-52 The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/30/2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Claim Objections 07-29-01 AIA Claim 11 and Claim 22 is/are objected to because of the following informalities: line 6 states “are one or more PGW-C+SMFs” without giving a description of the combination of acronyms . Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1-2, 8, 10-13, 19, and 21-23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dao (Pub. No.: US 20210105196 A1, hereafter “Dao”) in view of Young (Pub. No.: US 20210092673 A1, hereafter “Young”) . Regarding Claim 1, Claim 12, and Claim 23 Dao teaches a method and function comprising A method (Dao Fig. 6: 572) performed by a first network function (Dao ¶0084-¶0088: NEF 314, e.g. a Network Exposure Function, see ¶0046) implementing a service consumer (Dao ¶0084-¶0088: NEF 314) , comprising: transmitting (Dao Fig. 6: 572) , to a second network function (Dao ¶0086-¶0088: NRF 316) implementing a Network Repository Function (NRF) (Dao ¶0086-¶0088: NRF 316) , a discovery request (Dao ¶0086-¶0088: Nnrf_NFDiscovery Request) for discovering one or more third network functions (Dao ¶0086: find the serving SMF) implementing service producers (Dao ¶0086: SMF) , wherein the discovery request including a preference indication (Dao ¶0085-¶0086: Nnrf_NFDiscovery Request to discover the SMF instance and/or SMF set, including S-NSSAI) for indicating whether one or more combined third network functions (Dao ¶0086: SMF set) or one or more standalone third network functions are preferred (Dao ¶0086: and/or SMF instance; Dao teaches a NEF transmitting to an NRF a discovery request for SMF including an S-NSSAI indicator for one SMF or multiple SMF) ; receiving (Dao ¶0087-¶0088: inform) , from the second network function (Dao ¶0086-¶0088: NRF 316) , a discovery (Dao Fig. 7: 574) response (Dao ¶0088: Nnrf_NFDiscovery Response) including information (Dao ¶0088: information) about the discovered one or more third network functions (Dao ¶0088: SMF instance or SMF set; Dao teaches a Nnrf_NFDiscovery Response about the SMF instance or SMF set) , wherein the discovery response further includes a match indication (Dao ¶0088: Nnrf_NFDiscovery Response contains the information of the SMF instance or SMF set) for indicating whether the information about all the discovered one or more third network functions match the preference indication (Dao ¶0088: information of the SMF instance or SMF set; Dao teaches the response containing the information to connect the UE to the SMF(s)) . Dao does not explicitly teach wherein the discovered one or more third network functions are provided based on the preference indication by the second network function, and if there is no preferred third network function discovered, the discovery response including information about discovered one or more non-preferred third network functions However, Young teaches wherein the discovered (Young ¶0059-¶0060: discovery request) one or more third network functions (Young Fig. 4: 240, SMF) are provided based on the preference indication (Young ¶0059: forward the identifier to SMF) by the second network function (Young Fig. 4: 258, NRF) , and if there is no preferred third network function discovered (Young ¶0060: based on the information in the discovery request, NRF may determine that UPF 320-1 is the most suitable UPF) , the discovery response (Young Fig. 4: response 230-1) including information about discovered one or more non-preferred third network functions (Young ¶0059: TAI associated with the new location; Young teaches a discovery request by an SMF from an NRF for a determination for a suitable UPF for a UE) It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Dao by way of Young, to include an element that teaches a discovery request by an SMF from an NRF for a determination for a suitable UPF for a UE, as taught by Young in Fig. 4 and ¶0059-¶0060, to improve users of mobile communication devices and expand available services as well as networks used to deliver such services, it may be necessary to discovery available network functions based on a location of the mobile communication devices. Claim 12 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art, Dao teaches receiving (Dao Fig. 6: 572) , from a first network function (Dao ¶0084-¶0088: NEF 314, e.g. a Network Exposure Function, see ¶0046; Dao teaches the first network function receiving information) transmitting (Dao Fig. 7: 574) , to the first network function (Dao ¶0084-¶0088: NEF 314, e.g. a Network Exposure Function, see ¶0046; Dao teaches transmitting from the first network function) , Claim 23 differs by the following limitation, which is also taught by the prior art, Dao teaches at least one processor (Dao Fig. 1: 106) ; and a non-transitory computer readable medium (Dao Fig. 1: 108) coupled to the at least one processor (Dao Fig. 1: 106 and 108 are attached) , the non-transitory computer readable medium (Dao Fig. 1: 108) contains instructions (Dao ¶0032: program and data storage) executable by the at least one processor (Dao Fig. 1: 106) , whereby the at least one processor (Dao Fig. 1: 106; Dao teaches a processor coupled to memory containing at least one program) Regarding Claim 2 and Claim 13 Dao in view of Young teaches the method and function as explained above in Claim 1. Dao further teaches wherein the preference indication indicates whether one or more combined third network functions (Dao ¶0086: SMF instance) or one or more standalone third network functions (Dao ¶0086: SMF set) are preferred to be discovered (Dao ¶0086: Nnrf_NFDiscovery Request to discover; Dao teaches the discovery request including a single SMF instance or an SMF set) . Regarding Claim 8 and Claim 19 Dao in view of Young teaches the method and function as explained above in Claim 1. Young further teaches wherein the discovery request further includes information elements of Data Network Name (DNN) (Young ¶0059: NSI) , Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (SNSSAI) (Young ¶0059: S-NSSAI) , and one or more of Tracking Area Identity (TAI) (Young ¶0059: associated TAI) , preferred TAI (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) , and preferred locality (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim; Young teaches the discovery request factoring in NSI, S-NSSAI, and an associated TAI) . It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Dao by way of Young, to include an element that teaches the discovery request factoring in NSI, S-NSSAI, and an associated TAI, as taught by Young in ¶0059, to improve users of mobile communication devices and expand available services as well as networks used to deliver such services, it may be necessary to discovery available network functions based on a location of the mobile communication devices. Regarding Claim 10 and Claim 21 Dao in view of Young teaches the method and function as explained above in Claim 1. Dao further teaches wherein the preference indication (Dao ¶0175: NF updating the UE information for serving) is represented by an information element preferred Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) indication (preferred-pgw-ind) (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) or an information element PGW indication (pgw-ind) (Dao ¶0175: PGW-C+SMF) , or wherein the match indication is represented by an information element preferred PGW match indication (preferredPgwMatchlnd) (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim; Dao teaches updating the UE information for serving relating to the PGW-C+SMF) . Regarding Claim 11 and Claim 22 Dao in view of Young teaches the method and function as explained above in Claim 1. Dao further teaches The method according to claim 1, wherein the discovery request is a request of NnrfNFDiscovery_NFDiscover service operation (Dao ¶0086-¶0088: Nnrf_NFDiscovery Request) during a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session establishment procedure (Dao ¶0087: unicast PDU session) ; wherein the discovery response is a response of Nnrf_NFDiscovery_NFDiscover service operation during a PDU session establishment procedure (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) ; wherein the first network function implementing service consumer is an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) ; wherein the one or more third network functions implementing service producers are one or more Session Management Functions (SMFs) (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) ; wherein the one or more combined third network functions implementing service producers are one or more PGW-C+SMFs (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) ; or wherein the one or more standalone third network functions implementing service producers are one or more standalone SMFs (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim; Dao teaches the Nnrf_NFDiscovery Request response being sent through a PDU session) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 3-4 and 14-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dao (Pub. No.: US 20210105196 A1, hereafter “Dao”) in view of Young (Pub. No.: US 20210092673 A1, hereafter “Young”) , further in view of Chen (Pub. No.: US 20220210702 A1, hereafter “Chen”) . Regarding Claim 3 and Claim 14 Dao in view of Young teaches the method and function as explained above in Claim 2. Dao in view of Young does not explicitly teach when one or more combined third network functions are preferred to be discovered: if one or more combined third network functions are discovered, the discovery response includes information about the discovered one or more combined third network functions; or if one or more standalone third network functions are discovered but no combined third network function is discovered, the discovery response includes information about the discovered one or more standalone third network functions. However, Chen teaches when one or more combined third network functions (Chen ¶0101: SMF) are preferred to be discovered (Chen ¶0101: select) : if one or more combined third network functions are discovered (Chen ¶0101: combined network elements) , the discovery response includes information about the discovered one or more combined third network functions (Chen ¶0101: coordinated between multiple systems in the 5G network) ; or if one or more standalone third network functions are discovered but no combined third network function is discovered (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) , the discovery response includes information about the discovered one or more standalone third network functions (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim; Chen teaches multiple network elements that can be combined together for the selection process) . It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Dao in view of Young by way of Chen, to include an element that teaches multiple network elements that can be combined together for the selection process, as taught by Chen in ¶0101, to improve the network communication system by reducing the network service load. Regarding Claim 4 and Claim 15 Dao in view of Young teaches the method and function as explained above in Claim 2. Chen further teaches when one or more standalone third network functions are preferred to be discovered: if one or more standalone third network functions are discovered (Chen ¶0101: Combined network elements) , the discovery response includes information about the discovered one or more standalone third network functions (Chen ¶0101: HSS+UDM, PGW-C+A-SMF, and PGW-U+A-UPF) ; or if one or more combined third network functions are discovered (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) but no standalone third network function is discovered (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim) , the discovery response includes information about the discovered one or more combined third network functions (Not given patentable weight due to non-selective option in the claim; Chen teaches determining if the combined network elements is/are HSS+UDM, PGW-C+A-SMF, and PGW-U+A-UPF) . It would have been obvious for one skilled in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Dao in view of Young by way of Chen, to include an element that teaches determining if the combined network elements is/are HSS+UDM, PGW-C+A-SMF, and PGW-U+A-UPF, as taught by Chen in ¶0101, to improve the network communication system by reducing the network service load. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUSTIN MICHAEL WHITAKER whose telephone number is (703)756-4763. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 7:30am - 4:00pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached on (571) 270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /JUSTIN MICHAEL WHITAKER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415 /Sudesh M. Patidar/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 2 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 3 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 4 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 5 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 6 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 7 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 8 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 9 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 10 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 11 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 12 Art Unit: 2415 Application/Control Number: 18/721,800 Page 13 Art Unit: 2415
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