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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 10/28/2024, 4/20/2025, and 12/14/2025 have been entered and considered by the examiner.
35 USC 112 CLAIM REJECTIONS
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 10-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 10, it recites “sending, by the user plane function network element to an application function network element or an access network element, second congestion information to indicate the congestion status of the user plane function network element”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim and it is incomplete for omitting essential elements/steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the elements/steps. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted elements are: first congestion information. If there is second congestion information, this would highly suggest that there needs to be first congestion information before there can be second congestion information so there is an omitted step. It is indefinite whether the first congestion information needs to be sent before the second and if the first hasn’t/doesn’t happen, why is there a second but not a first.
Dependent claims are rejected as depending from a rejected base claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3 and 6-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Guo et al (US2024/0275887 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 20, Guo teaches a communication method/apparatus (Abstract), comprising:
a non-transitory memory and one or more processors, the non-transitory memory stores a computer program or instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the communication apparatus to perform (Para. 0217):
receiving, by an access network element, first indication information from a session management function network element (Fig. 9; Paras. 0170-0171; At S907, the SMF network element sends a QoS flow identifier and the user plane congestion control indication to an access network device);
activating, by the access network element, a congestion acquisition function of the access network element based on the first indication information, wherein the congestion acquisition function is for obtaining a congestion status of the access network element in a data flow transmission process of a target service (Fig. 9; Paras. 0172-0173; At S907, The access network device may determine whether to enable the user plane congestion control on the QoS flow based on the user plane congestion control indication. In case that the user plane congestion control is enabled, a user plane congestion control way such as ECN or LAS to be enabled may also be determined);
obtaining, by the access network element, the congestion status of the access network element (Fig. 9; Paras. 0063 and 0172-0173; Internet engineering task force (IETF) defines a method for congestion control based on a user plane indication, including an explicit congestion notification (ECN) technology and a low latency, low loss, scalable throughput (L4S) technology (which is an evolved version of ECN). Both ECN and LAS indicate that there is a data congestion occurred in the transmission layer through an ECN indication bit in IP header. Then the sender and receiver of data may adapt the bit rate through application layer negotiation based on the identification of ECN indication bit, to mitigate the data congestion in the transmission layer. The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data); and
sending, by the access network element to a user plane function network element or a terminal device, first congestion information to indicate the congestion status of the access network element (Fig. 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0172-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data).
Regarding claim 2, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches the method further comprising: receiving, by the access network element, second congestion information from the user plane function network element; obtaining, by the access network element, a congestion status of the user plane function network element based on the second congestion information; and sending, by the access network element, the second congestion information to the terminal device (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0172-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data; i.e. each of the nodes shown in Fig. 2 is part of the network and the congestion status is transmitted between the sender and receiver of data so the AN, UPF, and terminal would share congestion status information).
Regarding claim 3, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches wherein the obtaining, by the access network element, the congestion status of the user plane function network element based on the second congestion information comprises: obtaining, by the access network element, the congestion status of the user plane function network element based on a receiving frequency of the second congestion information; or obtaining, by the access network element, the congestion status of the user plane function network element based on the second congestion information that comprises at least one of a congestion level of the user plane function network element or a data volume of a to-be-sent data flow in the user plane function network element (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0172-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data; i.e. each of the nodes shown in Fig. 2 is part of the network and the congestion status is transmitted between the sender and receiver of data so the AN, UPF, and terminal would share congestion status information).
Regarding claim 6, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches wherein the sending, by the access network element, the first congestion information to indicate the congestion status of the access network element comprises: sending, by the access network element, the congestion status of the access network element based on a sending frequency of the first congestion information to indicate the congestion status of the access network element; or sending, by the access network element, the first congestion information that comprises one or more of the following information: a congestion level of the access network element, a data volume of a to-be-sent data flow in the access network element, a channel quality indicator of a channel between the access network element and the terminal device, an air interface delay between the access network element and the terminal device, or a transmission mode in which the access network element sends the data flow (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0059, 0063, and 0172-0173; SMF provides the access network device with QoS flow profile information of each QoS flow, the QoS flow configuration information includes at least one of: a 5G QoS identifier (5QI), an allocation and retention priority (ARP), bit rate requirements, etc. A value of 5QI (also called 5QI or 5QI Value) is an index value that may correspond to QoS characteristics such as a time-delay and bit error rate requirement).
Regarding claim 7, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches the method further comprising: activating, by the access network element, a notification function of the access network element based on the first indication information, wherein the notification function of the access network element is for sending the congestion status of the access network element to the user plane function network element or the terminal device (Fig. 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0172-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data).
Regarding claim 8, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches the method further comprising: receiving, by the access network element, at least one of a first congestion acquisition manner or a first notification manner from the session management function network element; when the access network element receives the first congestion acquisition manner, determining, by the access network element based on the first congestion acquisition manner, to obtain the congestion status of the access network element based on at least one of the data volume of the to-be-sent data flow in the access network element or usage of an air interface resource; and when the access network element receives the first notification manner, determining, by the access network element, at least one of the following based on the first notification manner: to send the congestion status of the access network element to the user plane function network element or the terminal device when the data volume of the to-be-sent data flow is greater than or equal to a first threshold, to indicate the congestion status of the access network element based on the first congestion information, or a message that carries the first congestion information (Fig. 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0172-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data).
Regarding claim 9, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches wherein the obtaining, by the access network element, the congestion status of the access network element comprises: obtaining, by the access network element, the congestion status of the access network element based on at least one of the data volume of the to-be-sent data flow in the access network element or the usage of the air interface resource (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0059, 0063, and 0172-0173; SMF provides the access network device with QoS flow profile information of each QoS flow, the QoS flow configuration information includes at least one of: a 5G QoS identifier (5QI), an allocation and retention priority (ARP), bit rate requirements, etc. A value of 5QI (also called 5QI or 5QI Value) is an index value that may correspond to QoS characteristics such as a time-delay and bit error rate requirement; The ARP is the priority for allocation or maintenance of resources by the access network device for QoS flows. For each QoS flow, the access network device schedules radio resources based on the QoS flow profile information received from SMF to guarantee the QoS requirement of the QoS flow; i.e. the scheduled radio resources based on the QoS flow profile would read on the data volume as the proper amount of resources would be needed to transmit the volume of data).
Regarding claim 10, Guo teaches a communication method/apparatus (Abstract), comprising:
receiving, by a user plane function network element, second indication information from a session management function network element (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0170-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data; At S907, the SMF network element sends a QoS flow identifier and the user plane congestion control indication to an access network device; i.e. each of the nodes shown in Fig. 2 is part of the network and the congestion status is transmitted between the sender and receiver of data so the AN, UPF, and terminal would share congestion status information and the UPF is in between the terminal and SMF);
activating, by the user plane function network element, a congestion acquisition function of the user plane function network element based on the second indication information, wherein the congestion acquisition function is for obtaining a congestion status of the user plane function network element in a data flow transmission process of a target service (Fig. 9; Paras. 0172-0173; At S907, The access network device may determine whether to enable the user plane congestion control on the QoS flow based on the user plane congestion control indication. In case that the user plane congestion control is enabled, a user plane congestion control way such as ECN or LAS to be enabled may also be determined);
obtaining, by the user plane function network element, the congestion status of the user plane function network element (Fig. 9; Paras. 0063 and 0172-0173; Internet engineering task force (IETF) defines a method for congestion control based on a user plane indication, including an explicit congestion notification (ECN) technology and a low latency, low loss, scalable throughput (L4S) technology (which is an evolved version of ECN). Both ECN and LAS indicate that there is a data congestion occurred in the transmission layer through an ECN indication bit in IP header. Then the sender and receiver of data may adapt the bit rate through application layer negotiation based on the identification of ECN indication bit, to mitigate the data congestion in the transmission layer. The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data); and
sending, by the user plane function network element to an application function network element or an access network element, second congestion information to indicate the congestion status of the user plane function network element (Fig. 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0172-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data).
Regarding claim 11, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches the method further comprising: receiving, by the user plane function network element, first congestion information from the access network element; obtaining, by the user plane function network element, a congestion status of the access network element based on the first congestion information; and sending, by the user plane function network element, the first congestion information to the application function network element (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0172-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data; i.e. each of the nodes shown in Fig. 2 is part of the network and the congestion status is transmitted between the sender and receiver of data so the AN, UPF, and terminal would share congestion status information).
Regarding claim 12, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches wherein the obtaining, by the user plane function network element, the congestion status of the access network element based on the first congestion information comprises: obtaining, by the user plane function network element, the congestion status of the access network element based on a receiving frequency of the first congestion information; or obtaining, by the access network element, the congestion status of the user plane function network element based on the first congestion information that comprises one or more of the following information: a congestion level of the access network element, a data volume of a to-be-sent data flow in the access network element, a channel quality indicator of a channel between the access network element and a terminal device, an air interface delay between the access network element and the terminal device, or a transmission mode in which the access network element sends the data flow (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0059, 0063, and 0172-0173; SMF provides the access network device with QoS flow profile information of each QoS flow, the QoS flow configuration information includes at least one of: a 5G QoS identifier (5QI), an allocation and retention priority (ARP), bit rate requirements, etc. A value of 5QI (also called 5QI or 5QI Value) is an index value that may correspond to QoS characteristics such as a time-delay and bit error rate requirement).
Regarding claim 13, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches wherein the sending, by the user plane function network element, the second congestion information to the application function network element comprises: sending, by the user plane function network element, the second congestion information to the application function network element through a network exposure function network element, wherein the second congestion information comprises identification information of the terminal device and identification information of the target service (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0059, 0063, 0118-0125, and 0172-0173; the description information includes at least one of: packet header information, an application identifier, or a service identifier).
Regarding claim 14, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches wherein the sending, by the user plane function network element, the second congestion information to the application function network element comprises: generating, by the user plane function network element, a first message that carries the second congestion information; and sending, by the user plane function network element, the first message to the application function network element, wherein when the data flow is a downlink data flow, a source address of the first message is a destination address of the data flow, and a destination address of the first message is a source address of the data flow; when the data flow is a downlink data flow, a source address of the first message is a destination address of the data flow, and a destination address of the first message is an application function network element address configured by the application function network element; when the data flow is an uplink data flow, a source address of the first message is a source address of the data flow, and a destination address of the first message is a destination address of the data flow; or when the data flow is an uplink data flow, a source address of the first message is a source address of the data flow, and a destination address of the first message is an application function network element address configured by the application function network element (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0059, 0063, 0082, 0118-0125, and 0172-0173; The Flow-Description may include at least one of: a source IP address of the service data flow, a destination IP address of the service data flow, a source port of the service data flow, a destination port of the service data flow, a protocol number, a source MAC address of the service data flow, a destination MAC address of the service data flow, and so on. QoS-Information is a QoS authorized by the PCC rule).
Regarding claim 16, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches wherein the sending, by the user plane function network element, the second congestion information to indicate the congestion status of the user plane function network element comprises: sending, by the user plane function network element, the congestion status of the user plane function network element based on a sending frequency of the second congestion information to indicate the congestion status of the user plane function network element; or sending, by the user plane function network element, the second congestion information that comprises at least one of a congestion level of the user plane function network element or a data volume of a to-be-sent data flow in the user plane function network element (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0059, 0063, and 0172-0173; SMF provides the access network device with QoS flow profile information of each QoS flow, the QoS flow configuration information includes at least one of: a 5G QoS identifier (5QI), an allocation and retention priority (ARP), bit rate requirements, etc. A value of 5QI (also called 5QI or 5QI Value) is an index value that may correspond to QoS characteristics such as a time-delay and bit error rate requirement).
Regarding claim 17, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches the method further comprising: activating, by the user plane function network element, a notification function of the user plane function network element based on the second indication information, wherein the notification function of the user plane function network element is for sending the congestion status of the user plane function network element to the application function network element or the access network element (Fig. 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0172-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data).
Regarding claim 18, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches the method further comprising: receiving, by the user plane function network element, at least one of a second congestion acquisition manner or a second notification manner from the session management function network element; when the user plane function network element receives the second congestion acquisition manner, determining, by the user plane function network element based on the second congestion acquisition manner, to obtain the congestion status of the user plane function network element based on the data volume of the to-be-sent data flow in the user plane function network element; and when the user plane function network element receives the second notification manner, determining, by the user plane function network element at least one of the following based on the second notification manner: to send the congestion status of the user plane function network element to the application function network element or the access network element when the data volume of the to-be-sent data flow is greater than or equal to a second threshold, to indicate the congestion status of the user plane function network element based on the second congestion information, or a message that carries the second congestion information (Fig. 9; Paras. 0043, 0063, and 0172-0173; the network device 120 may be an access network device that communicates with the terminal device 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographical area and may communicate with the terminal device 110 located within the coverage area; The support for ECN/LAS technology is considered to be introduced in 5G network, so that the congestion status of wireless network may be transmitted to the sender and receiver of data through the user plane, thereby guiding the bit rate adjustment of data).
Regarding claim 19, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches wherein the obtaining, by the user plane function network element, the congestion status of the user plane function network element comprises: obtaining, by the user plane function network element, the congestion status of the user plane function network element based on the data volume of the to-be-sent data flow in the user plane function network element (Figs. 2 and 9; Paras. 0043, 0059, 0063, and 0172-0173; SMF provides the access network device with QoS flow profile information of each QoS flow, the QoS flow configuration information includes at least one of: a 5G QoS identifier (5QI), an allocation and retention priority (ARP), bit rate requirements, etc. A value of 5QI (also called 5QI or 5QI Value) is an index value that may correspond to QoS characteristics such as a time-delay and bit error rate requirement; The ARP is the priority for allocation or maintenance of resources by the access network device for QoS flows. For each QoS flow, the access network device schedules radio resources based on the QoS flow profile information received from SMF to guarantee the QoS requirement of the QoS flow; i.e. the scheduled radio resources based on the QoS flow profile would read on the data volume as the proper amount of resources would be needed to transmit the volume of data).
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 of this title, 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 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo et al (US2024/0275887 A1) in view of Spreadtrum et al (CN111065120A) IDS submitted by Applicant.
Regarding claim 4, Guo teaches the limitations of the previous claims.
However, while Guo teaches utilizing MAC addresses (Para. 0082), he does not specifically disclose wherein the sending, by the access network element, the first congestion information to the terminal device comprises: sending, by the access network element, the first congestion information to the terminal device by using a media access control control element message or higher layer signaling.
Spreadtrum teaches providing an enhanced method, device, and storage medium for an uplink ECN mechanism of a cellular network (Abstract). He further teaches wherein the sending, by the access network element, the first congestion information to the terminal device comprises: sending, by the access network element, the first congestion information to the terminal device by using a media access control control element message or higher layer signaling (Page 9 of English translation provided by Applicant; a base station may notify the sending terminal of the air interface uplink congestion situation through a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) in a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer or a Control Element (CE) in a Media Access Control (MAC) layer, SO that the sending terminal may perform cross-layer processing and instruct a TCP layer to adjust a sending rate).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings as in Spreadtrum with the teachings as in Guo. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the accuracy of rate adjustment of the sending terminal (Spreadtrum at Page 4).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of references Guo and Spreadtrum teach the limitations of the previous claims. Guo further teaches the method further comprising: determining, by the access network element based on a quality of service flow identifier of the target service, a correspondence between a quality of service flow identifier and a data radio bearer identifier, and a correspondence between a data radio bearer identifier and a logical channel identifier, a logical channel that carries the media access control control element message (Figs. 2, 3, and 9; Paras. 0043, 0059-0060, 0063, and 0172-0173; access network device identifies different QoS flows based on the QFI in the header of data packet, and the access network device performs the QoS flow and radio bearer mapping through a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENT KRUEGER whose telephone number is (303)297-4238. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00-5:00 MT.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Thier can be reached on (571) 272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENT KRUEGER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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