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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the application filed on 08/22//2024.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Claims 1-20 are rejected.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “more of the layered domains” in line 6. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim because only one “a non-access stratum domain” is recited in claim 1.
A similar problem exists in independent claims 8 and 15, which are also rejected for a similar reason as articulated above for claim 1.
Claims 2-7, 9-14 and 16-20 are also rejected for depending from rejected base claims, as well as for failing to remedy the deficiency in the base claims.
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 (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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 4, 7-8, 12, 14-15, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Yifan Yu et al (US 20190075552 A1).
For Claim 1, Yu discloses a method of wireless communication (Yu teaches, in ¶ 0052, that FIG. 1D illustrates a functional split between NG-RAN and the 5G Core (5GC) in accordance with some aspects), comprising:
operating a wireless communication network partitioned into layered domains in which a cell group stratum (Yu teaches, in FIG. 1D, NG-RAN 110 domain/grouping) is related to services related to a physical resource group (Yu teaches, in ¶ 0053, lines 1-5, that the gNBs 128 and the NG-eNBs 130 can be configured to host the following functions: functions for Radio Resource Management (e.g., inter-cell radio resource management 129A, radio bearer control 129B, connection mobility control 129C, radio admission control 129D, dynamic allocation of resources to UEs in both uplink and downlink (scheduling) 129F)), a non-cell-group stratum that comprises services that are not cell-group specific (Yu teaches, in FIG. 1D, 5GC 120 domain/grouping), and a non-access stratum domain that comprises providing core network services to user devices (Yu teaches, in FIG. 1D, 5GC 136 domain/grouping); and performing communication between one or more of the layered domains using pre-defined interfaces (Yu teaches, in ¶ 0061, that 5G system architectures can be service-based and interaction between network functions can be represented by corresponding point-to-point reference points Ni (as illustrated in FIG. 1E) or as service-based interfaces (as illustrated in FIG. 1F)).
Examiner notes that the cited 5GC 120 domain/grouping is in the Non-Access Stratum. However, Examiner believes that citation to be proper because claim 1 itself is silent about whether the “non-cell-group stratum” is in the Access Stratum or in the Non-Access Stratum.
For Claim 4, Yu discloses a method, wherein the non-cell-group stratum comprises a radio connection domain and comprises a radio connection control function and a radio connection data function (Yu teaches, in FIG. 1D, that the 5GC 136 domain/grouping comprises mobility anchoring 135A (e.g., anchor point for Intra-/Inter-RAT mobility); packet data unit (PDU) handling 135B (e.g., external PDU session point of interconnect to data network); packet routing and forwarding).
For Claim 7, Yu discloses a method, wherein the wireless communication network comprises a user plane, the user plane comprising a cell group enforcement function, a radio session enforcement function, and a core network user plane function (Yu teaches, in ¶ 0055, that The UPF 134 can be configured to host …packet inspection and user plane part of policy rule enforcement; traffic usage reporting; uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network; branching point to support multi-homed PDU session).
For Claims 8, 15, please refer to the rejection of Claim 1, above.
For Claims 12, 19, please refer to the rejection of Claim 4, above.
For Claim 14, please refer to the rejection of Claim 7, above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 5-6, 9-11, 13, 16-18, 20 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. RANGANATH et al (US 20240259879 A1) teaches an example implementation of a “CU/DU split” architecture where the ANs 1308 are embodied as a gNB-central unit (CU) that is communicatively coupled with one or more gNB-distributed units (DUs), where each DU may be communicatively coupled with one or more radio units (RUs).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMED A KAMARA whose telephone number is (571)2705629. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9AM-4PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, CHARLES JIANG can be reached at (571)2707191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOHAMED A KAMARA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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