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 .
Priority
The Instant Application, filed 07/19/2024, is a National Stage entry of PCT/EP2022/ 056574 with an international filing date of 03/14/2022 and claims foreign priority to 20220100055, filed 01/21/2022. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 12-14 have been withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 12/23/25.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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(s) 1-11 and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Merwaday et al. (2022/0014946) in view of Patil et al. (2021/0014141).
As per claim 1, Merwaday et al. teaches a method of a network equipment (NE) comprising: receiving a request for recommendations associated with a wireless communication network, the request comprising a threshold minimum confidence level for the recommendations and a specified time period for delivering the recommendations [Merwaday et al., paragraphs 0132, 0146-0147 and 0152];
in response to determining that the threshold minimum confidence level cannot be met, determining a set of additional data to use for satisfying the threshold minimum confidence level, the set of additional data available from a set of physical network resources [Merwaday et al., paragraphs 0130, 0132 and 0147];
determining that the set of additional data from the set of physical network resources is available from at least one digital twin instance [Merwaday et al., paragraphs 0117 and 0153];
receiving the set of additional data from the at least one digital twin instance in response to transmitting a request for the set of additional data from the at least one digital twin instance [Merwaday et al., paragraphs 0118-0120]; and
delivering the recommendations at the specified time period in response to the recommendations, derived based on the set of additional data from the at least one digital twin instance, satisfying the threshold minimum confidence level [Merwaday et al., paragraphs 0144-0146 and 0152].
But Merwaday et al. fails to explicitly teach analytics associated with a wireless communication network, however, Patil et al. in the same field of endeavor teaches
receiving a request for analytics associated with a wireless communication network, the request comprising a threshold minimum confidence level for the analytics and a specified time period for delivering the analytics [Patil et al., paragraphs 0012-0013];
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Merwaday et al. with Patil et al. in order to improve core networks by including a Network Data Analytics Function (NWDAF) that collects data from other network functions, application functions, and operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) functions.
As per claim 2, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising requesting, from a network repository function ("NRF"), a digital twin controller function ("DTCF") that supports the at least one digital twin instance [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0113].
As per claim 3, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 2, further comprising transmitting a query to the DTCF for the at least one digital twin instance that is available to provide the set of additional data [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0119].
As per claim 4, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 3, wherein the query for the DTCF comprises a request to instantiate a digital twin for one or more of a specific network function type, a network slice, and a user equipment device to receive the set of additional data [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0126].
As per claim 5, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 4, further comprising requesting to execute the at least one digital twin instance with one or more simulation parameters for generating the set of additional data [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0133].
As per claim 6, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 5, further comprising receiving the set of additional data from the at least one digital twin instance in response to the DTCF executing the at least one digital twin instance according to the one or more simulation parameters and receiving, from the DTCF, an identifier for the at least one digital twin instance [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0115].
As per claim 7, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 6, further comprising mapping the identifier for the at least one digital twin instance to a physical instance of a corresponding network function [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0110].
As per claim 8, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 6, further comprising deriving the analytics at the specified time period in response to the analytics, derived based on the set of additional data from the at least one digital twin instance, satisfying the threshold minimum confidence level [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0099].
As per claim 9, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 5, further comprising receiving the set of additional data from the at least one digital twin instance via the DTCF [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0093].
As per claim 10, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 5, wherein the one or more simulation parameters are derived from the set of additional data [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0069].
As per claim 11, Merwaday-Patil teaches the method of claim 1, wherein a digital twin instance comprises a virtualized simulation of a corresponding physical resource [Merwaday et al., paragraph 0060].
Claims 15-20 have similar limitations as to the rejected claims above therefore they are being rejected under the same rationale.
There are prior art made of record not relied upon but is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See attached.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RANODHI N SERRAO whose telephone number is (571)272-7967. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
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Ranodhi N. Serrao
/RANODHI SERRAO/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2444