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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu et al (us 20230247524) (hereinafter Lu) in view of He et al (us 2022/0377826) (hereinafter He) and Tang et al (us 2024/0106792) (hereinafter Tang) and further in view of Chauhan et al (us 2022/0311826) (hereinafter Chauhan).
As regarding claim 1, Lu discloses one or more processors (see Lu figure.9, processing unit 906); a user plane node of a telecommunication network, the user plane node configured to be executed by the one or more processors to send location information in a packet forwarding control protocol (PFCP) association setup message to a control plane node of the telecommunication network, wherein the control plane node is a session management function (SMF) (see Lu 0141, UPF inform its data to CP function, which is a SMF; Lu 0142,0144 teaches UP function receives PFCP association setup request message which indicate target area which represent a list of tracking area identity (TAIs)… which usually describe the geographic location); the control plane node configured to be executed by the one or more processors to: receive the location information from the user plane node in the PFCP association setup message (see Lu 0142,0144 teaches UP function receives PFCP association setup request message which indicate target area which represent a list of tracking area identity (TAIs)… which usually describe the geographic location).
Lu is silent in regard to the concept of identify, from a set of Internet Protocol (IP) pools in an IP pool configuration associated with the control plane node.
He teaches the concept of receive the location information from the user plane node and identify, from a set of Internet Protocol (IP) pools in an IP pool configuration associated with the control plane node and assign the IP pool to the user plane node (see He 0047,0049, 0116, selects and send IP pool among multiple ranges of IP address to UP based on the received location).
It would have been obvious to one with an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of He to Lu because they're analogous art. A person would have been motivated to modify Lu with He’s teaching for the purpose of efficiently configuring and allocating addresses to user plane node.
The combination of Lu-He is silent in regard to the concept of an IP pool that is tagged with matching location information that matches the location information received from the user plane node.
Tang teaches the concept of an IP pool that is tagged with matching location information that matches the location information received from the user plane node (see Tang 0144-0147, allocate IP pool to gateways in different regions, 0151-0154, control node creates plurality of IP pools and each pools associate with different regions).
It would have been obvious to one with an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Tang to Lu-He because they're analogous art. A person would have been motivated to modify Lu-He with Tang’s teaching for the purpose of avoid address conflicting.
The combination of Lu-He-Tang is silent in regard to the concept of the location information includes a location of the user plane node.
Chauhan teaches the concept of the location information includes a location of the user plane node (see Chauhan 0052,0057-0058, UPF send location to SMF where SMF extracts location of UPF).
It would have been obvious to one with an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Chauhan Lu-He-Tang because they're analogous art. A person would have been motivated to modify Lu-He-Tang with Chauhan’s teaching for the purpose of enabling dynamic policy enforcement and efficient traffic routing.
As regarding claim 2, Lu-He-Tang-Chauhan discloses the user plane node is a user plane function (UPF) (see Lu 0141, UPF inform its data to CP function, which is a SMF).
As regarding claim 3, Lu-He-Tang-Chauhan discloses the control plane node is a centralized control plane node in a distributed user plane architecture and the user plane node is one of multiple user plane nodes in the distributed user plane architecture (see Tang 0144-0147, gateways in different regions/locations; also see fig.3, control node with different gateways in different regions). The same motivation was utilized in claim 1 applied equally well to claim 3.
As regarding claim 4, Lu-He-Tang-Chauhan discloses the location information is included in an information element (IE) of the PFCP association setup message (see Lu 0142-0144, UP communicate Target area information to CP, where IE indicates target area information).
As regarding claim 5, Lu-He-Tang-Chauhan discloses the location information comprises a string of characters indicating a multiple-system operator (MSO) location (see Tang 0144-0147, gateways in different regions/locations; also see fig.3, control node with different gateways in different regions. It is obvious that the location information comprises a string of characters because it would simplify the recognition of the location). The same motivation was utilized in claim 1 applied equally well to claim 5.
As regarding claims 6-10, 14-18, the limitations of claims 6-9, 14-18 are similar to limitations of rejected claims 1-5 above, therefore rejected for the same rationale.
As regarding claim 11, Lu-He-Tang-Chauhan discloses the location information comprises a string of characters (see Lu col.8, lines 56-67 to col.9, lines 1-11, UPF send location during the PFCP setup/association message. It is obvious that the location information comprises a string of characters because it would simplify the recognition of the location).
As regarding claim 12, Lu-He-Tang-Chauhan discloses in response to receiving an inquiry that includes an IP address of the IP pool that is selected by the telecommunication network to serve a user equipment (UE), providing, by the telecommunication network, the location information associated with the IP pool as location information for the UE (see He 0047, 0049, IP address pool assigned to UP for use by the UE, also see 0044, location based UE IP address selection). The same motivation was utilized in claim 1 applied equally well to claim 12.
As regarding claim 13, Lu-He-Tang-Chauhan discloses storing, by the control plane node, in memory, the location information in association with an identifier of the user plane node (see He 0047,0049, 0116, selects and send IP pool among multiple ranges of IP address to UP based on the received location, it is obvious to store location associate with user plane node so the system knows which location the user plane node associated with in order to select and send IP pool to the user plane node). The same motivation was utilized in claim 1 applied equally well to claim 13.
As regarding claim 19, Lu-He-Tang-Chauhan discloses assigning the IP pool comprises sending, to the user plane node, a message including the IP pool (see He 0049, CP send address pool to UP). The same motivation was utilized in claim 1 applied equally well to claim 19.
As regarding claim 20, Lu-He-Tang-Chauhan discloses the IP pool is a first IP pool, and wherein the matching location information is first matching location information, the operations further comprising: receiving, from the user plane node, updated location information; identifying, from the set of IP pools, a second IP pool that is associated with second matching location information that matches the updated location information received from the user plane node and reassigning the second IP pool to the user plane node (see He 0195, user is roaming to a different location, selecting address range based on the roamed location of the UE among multiple IP ranges). The same motivation was utilized in claim 1 applied equally well to claim 20.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUYEN MY DOAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4226. The examiner can normally be reached (571)272-4226.
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/DUYEN M DOAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
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