DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is a response to Preliminary Amendment to an Application No. 18/843,270 filed on 09/02/2024 in which claims 1-3, 5-6, 8-10, 13-16, and 18-20 are amended and claims 21-24 are canceled.
Accordingly, Claims 1-20 are currently pending for examination.
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 .
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.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The Examiner contends that the drawings submitted on 09/24/2024 are acceptable for examination proceedings.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Examiner has considered the reference(s) listed on the Information Disclosure Statement submitted on 09/02/2024 and 12/10/2024.
Specification
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure. The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the abstract includes the reference numbers in the parentheses which must be deleted. See MPEP § 608.01(b) for guidelines for the preparation of patent abstracts.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12-18, and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12-18, and 20 are objected to because they include reference characters (i.e., acronyms) are not enclosed within parentheses. See MPEP § 608.01(m).
Appropriate corrections are required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by NINGLEKHU et al. (US 2022/0272620 A1) hereinafter “Ninglekhu”. The U.S. reference, Ninglekhu, was cited in IDS filed on 09/02/2024.
Regarding claims 1 and 15, Ninglekhu discloses Claim 1 of a method performed by a first network node for collection from a user equipment, UE (see FIG. 20; see ¶ [0540], PCF), of UE data about UE route selection policy, URSP, usage (see ¶ [0538], a call flow showing the interaction between the UE and Network when the UE is configured to send URSP usage reports to the network), and Claim 15 of a first network node in a wireless communication system, the first network node comprising: processing circuitry; and non-transitory computer-readable memory coupled with the processing circuitry, wherein the memory includes instructions that when executed by the processing circuitry causes the first network node to perform (see FIG. 1G; see ¶ [0116], core network including processor and memory), the method comprising:
requesting from the UE the UE data about URSP usage via a URSP rule between the first network node and the UE (see ¶ [0541], the UE policy container includes indications to the UE that the UE should sent reports to the PCF when certain URSP rules or route descriptors are used);
initiating a UE policy update to update the URSP rule provided to the UE (see ¶ [0543], the UE updates the UE policy provided by the PCF and sends the result to the AMF); and
receiving from the UE the UE data about URSP usage based on a UE policy delivery protocol that allows the UE to send the UE data about URSP usage via non-access stratum, NAS, signaling (see ¶ [0546], the UE sends a NAS message to the AMF. The message includes a container that will be transparently delivered to the PCF by the AMF. The container includes the event report).
Regarding claim 2, Ninglekhu discloses further comprising: exposing the received UE data about URSP usage to a second network node based on occurrence of an event for event exposure by the first network node, the event comprising the UE has the UE data about URSP usage (see ¶ [0096], the NEF exposes capabilities and services in the 5G core network to Application Functions (AF). Exposure may occur on the N33 API interface. The NEF may connect to an AF via an N33 interface and it may connect to other network functions in order to expose the capabilities and services of the 5G core network).
Regarding claim 3, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the URSP rule comprises information indicating to the UE whether and how to send to the first network node the UE data about URSP usage (see ¶ [0546], the UE sends a NAS message to the AMF. The message includes a container that will be transparently delivered to the PCF by the AMF. The container includes the event report).
Regarding claims 4 and 17, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the information comprises at least one of the following: a condition or a list of conditions for reporting the UE data; an error condition or a list of error conditions for reporting an error in a selection of a route selection descriptor, RSD; and an indication for a timing for reporting the UE data (see ¶ [0236], the instruction contains a UE policy part with a UE policy part type set to “ANDSP”. The UE shall set the UE policy delivery service cause to #111 (Protocol error, unspecified) for the instruction in the UE policy section management result IE of the MANAGE UE POLICY COMMAND REJECT message).
Regarding claims 5 and 18, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the UE data about URSP usage comprises at least one of the following: a location of the UE (see ¶ [0360], the URSP rules may be associated with Context information (e.g. the UE's location, the time of day, User permissions, etc.)).
Regarding claim 6, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the requesting from the UE the UE data about URSP usage via a URSP rule between the first network node and the UE comprises:
receiving a request from a second network node to subscribe to an event for the UE data about the URSP usage; determining whether the request applies to an ongoing UE policy association; and initiating an update of the URSP rule for the UE with an ongoing UE policy association, the update comprising added information indicating to the UE whether and how to send to the first network node the UE data about URSP usage (see ¶ [0192], One URSP rule with the “match all” Traffic descriptor is used to route the traffic of applications which do not match any other URSP rules and shall be evaluated with the lowest priority in Rule Precedence. The RSD in this URSP rule includes at most one value for each Route Selection Component. However, note that TS 23.503 states “If the UE fails to establish a PDU session with any of the Route Selection Descriptors, it tries other URSP rules in the order of Rule Precedences with matching Traffic descriptors, except the URSP rule with the “match-all” Traffic descriptor, if any. The UE shall not use the UE Local Configuration in this case.”).
Regarding claim 7, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the request from the second network node comprises at least one of the following: an identifier of the event indicating that the UE data is requested; an identifier of a group of target UEs; and an identification of at least one application for which the UE data is requested (see ¶ [0507], The UE STATE INDICATION message may be updated to allow the UE to indicate an ePDG identifier, N3IWF Identifier, or SSID. Inclusion of an ePDG identifier, N3IWF Identifier, or SSID in the message may be an indication to the network that the UE would like to access the network via the ePDG identifier, N3IWF Identifier, or SSID. The PCF may respond to this request with a new ANDSP policy that can be used by the UE to access the network via the ePDG identifier, N3IWF Identifier, or SSID).
Regarding claim 8, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the added indication to the URSP rule comprises at least one of the following: a condition for reporting the UE data; an error condition for reporting an error in a selection of a route selection descriptor, RSD, that was matched, or a reason for rejection of the RSD for a packet data unit, PDU, session selection of the application; and an indication for a timing for reporting the UE data (see ¶ [0236], the instruction contains a UE policy part with a UE policy part type set to “ANDSP”. The UE shall set the UE policy delivery service cause to #111 (Protocol error, unspecified) for the instruction in the UE policy section management result IE of the MANAGE UE POLICY COMMAND REJECT message).
Regarding claim 9, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the condition for reporting the UE data comprises a time and a location of the UE when and where, respectively, the UE data may be sent and a location criteria included as part of a route selection descriptor, RSD; or an access type for use in sending the UE data (see ¶ [0360], the URSP rules may be associated with Context information (e.g. the UE's location, the time of day, User permissions, etc.)).
Regarding claim 10, Ninglekhu discloses further comprising:
monitoring a UE URSP usage for at least one application for a UE to provide the update to the URSP rule to a group of target UEs; and signaling the update to each target UE in a group of target UEs (see ¶ [0538], a call flow showing the interaction between the UE and Network when the UE is configured to send URSP usage reports to the network and how the network sends a report to the network).
Regarding claim 11, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the update to the URSP rule comprises adding information indicating to the UE whether and how to send to the first network node the UE data about URSP usage (see ¶ [0538], a call flow showing the interaction between the UE and Network when the UE is configured to send URSP usage reports to the network and how the network sends a report to the network).
Regarding claim 12, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the added indication to the URSP rule comprises at least one of the following: a condition for reporting the UE data; an error condition for reporting an error in a selection of a route selection descriptor, RSD, that was matched, or a reason for rejection of the RSD for a packet data unit, PDU, session selection of the application; and an indication for a timing for reporting the UE data (see ¶ [0236], the instruction contains a UE policy part with a UE policy part type set to “ANDSP”. The UE shall set the UE policy delivery service cause to #111 (Protocol error, unspecified) for the instruction in the UE policy section management result IE of the MANAGE UE POLICY COMMAND REJECT message).
Regarding claim 13, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the first network node comprises a policy control function, PCF (see FIG. 20; see ¶ [0540], PCF).
Regarding claim 14, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the second network node comprises a network data analytics function, NWDAF (see ¶ [0386-87], NWDAF).
Regarding claim 16, Ninglekhu discloses a method performed by a user equipment, UE (see FIG. 1A; see ¶ [0050], UE), for providing UE data about UE route selection policy, URSP, usage (see ¶ [0538], a call flow showing the interaction between the UE and Network when the UE is configured to send URSP usage reports to the network), the method comprising:
receiving a request for the UE data about URSP usage via a URSP rule between a first network node and the UE (see ¶ [0540], the PCF determines that policies should be configured on the UE);
checking whether the URSP rule includes information indicating to the UE whether and how to send to the first network node the UE data about URSP usage (see ¶ [0541], the UE policy container includes indications to the UE that the UE should sent reports to the PCF when certain URSP rules or route descriptors are used); and
based on inclusion of the information in the URSP rule, signaling via non-access stratum, NAS, signaling the UE data about URSP usage to the first network node (see ¶ [0546], the UE sends a NAS message to the AMF. The message includes a container that will be transparently delivered to the PCF by the AMF. The container includes the event report).
Regarding claim 19, Ninglekhu discloses further comprising: receiving an update to the URSP rule; and storing the update to the URSP rule (see ¶ [0549], the PCF may repeat Steps 2002-2005, using the UE Configuration Update procedure for transparent UE policy delivery which is detailed in section 4.2.4.3 of reference TS 23.502 to send new policies to the UE, remove policies from the UE, or to modify policies on the UE).
Regarding claim 20, Ninglekhu discloses wherein the update comprises information indicating to the UE whether and how to send to the first network node the UE data about URSP usage (see ¶ [0546], the UE sends a NAS message to the AMF. The message includes a container that will be transparently delivered to the PCF by the AMF. The container includes the event report),
wherein the information comprises at least one of the following: a condition for reporting the UE data; an error condition for reporting an error in a selection of a route selection descriptor, RSD, that was matched, or a reason for rejection of the RSD for a packet data unit, PDU, session selection of the application; and an indication for a timing for reporting the UE data (see ¶ [0236], the instruction contains a UE policy part with a UE policy part type set to “ANDSP”. The UE shall set the UE policy delivery service cause to #111 (Protocol error, unspecified) for the instruction in the UE policy section management result IE of the MANAGE UE POLICY COMMAND REJECT message), and
wherein the condition for reporting the UE data comprises a time and a location of the UE when and where, respectively, the UE data may be sent and a location criteria included as part of a route selection descriptor, RSD; or an access type for use in sending the UE data (see ¶ [0360], the URSP rules may be associated with Context information (e.g. the UE's location, the time of day, User permissions, etc.)).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record (see attached PTO-892) and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
DING et al. (US 2022/0417101 A1) (see FIG. 4; see ¶ [0287-09])
LI et al. (US 2022/0322202) (see FIG. 30; see ¶ [0321-24])
A shortened statutory period for reply to this action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of the action. An extension of time may be obtained under 37 CFR 1.136(a). However, in no event, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this action.
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/PETER CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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