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 . The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions. 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-9, 14 and 22 is/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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim(s) 1 recite(s) the limitation "wherein said information is usable by the UE for identifying the network interface for accessing the Edge service". This is intended use and unclear as to whether the claimed functions are a part of the claimed method.
Claims 2-9 depend on claim 1 and are indefinite for the same reasons as claim 1. See Above.
Claim(s) 14 recite(s) the limitation “the DNS server”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation.
Claim(s) 22 recite(s) the limitation "receiving, the cloud EAS, a response message". This is unclear if was intended to be "receiving, from the cloud EAS, a response message".
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)(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.
(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.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Foreign Patent Publication CN 113746872 A to Yang et al (“Yang872”).
As to claim 10, Yang872 disclose(s) a method for use in User Equipment, UE, for identifying a data network interface of a current wireless network for accessing an Edge service, (“...service access request sent by the user terminal through the scheduling server, and then according to the source address of the user terminal carried in the service access request is the access address of the edge cloud service application server which is distributed and matched with it; so that the user terminal can directly access newly allocated edge cloud service application server according to the access address...”) [Yang872 et al. page 6 para 1] the method comprising:
transmitting, to at least one network node, a request message comprising an indication of the Edge service to obtain identification of the data network interface associated with the Edge service; (“...receiving the first service access request sent by the user terminal...Specifically, in addition to the source address of the user terminal in the service access request, it also can carry the service identifier....”) [Yang872 et al. para 2, 3]
receiving, from one of said nodes, a response message comprising information enabling the UE to identify the data network interface for accessing the Edge service. (“...sending the first access address to the user terminal, so that the user terminal sends the second service access request to the edge cloud service application server according to the first access address...”) [Yang872 et al. para 4]
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Foreign Patent Publication CN 111629030 A to Yang (“Yang030”).
As to claim 22, Yang030 disclose(s) a method for use in User Equipment, UE, for identifying a data network interface of a current wireless network for accessing an Edge service, service (“...the edge user plane function entity 1021 for the terminal device 101 of the service access request or service access request, edge application server 1022 for processing the service access request of the terminal device 101, providing the needed service data to the terminal device 101...”) [Yang page 6 para 1] the method comprising:
transmitting, to a cloud Edge application server (EAS) a request message to obtain identification of the data network interface associated with the Edge service; (“...It should be noted that the service scheduling auxiliary module 1023 may be deployed independently of the edge application server 1022, and may also arrange the service scheduling auxiliary module 1023 in the edge application server 1022… the terminal device 101 can through the wireless access network sends the service access request to the edge user plane function entity 1021, the edge user plane function entity 1021 when detecting the service access request of the target address is the network address of the appointed service scheduling server. The service access request is sent to the service scheduling auxiliary module 1023...”) [Yang page 6 paras 2-3 – service scheduling auxiliary module and the edge application server (EAS) may be a single element, resulting in the service access request that is sent from the user terminal to the service scheduling auxiliary module reading on the claimed sending the request from the terminal to the EAS];
receiving, the cloud EAS, a response message comprising information enabling the UE to determine the data network interface for accessing the Edge service. (“...The service scheduling server 104 returns a service access response message containing the network address of the edge application server 1022 to the service scheduling server 104...the edge user plane function entity 1021 after receiving the service scheduling server 104 returns the service access response message, it can send the service access response message to the terminal device 101. Furthermore, the terminal device 101 may send a service access request to the edge application server 1022 according to the network address of the edge application server 1022 included in the service access response message...”) [Yang pages 6-7 paras 4-5]
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant:
US-20210289400-A1 to MATOLIA discloses determining that a current protocol data unit (PDU) session of an application being executed by a UE is being serviced by a first EAS, determining that the first EAS is no longer suitable to service the application, selecting a second EAS to service the application and instructing the UE to use the second EAS for future PDU sessions for the application. This reference is of general relevance.
US-20200329109-A1 to PPALLAN discloses discovering edge-servers and services through domain name server (DNS) resolution in a mobile edge computing (MEC) platform based network is provided. The user equipment (UE) receives, from the DNS server, a response comprising details with respect to a plurality of available-servers configured for rendering the web-based services. This reference is of general relevance.
US-20180316746-A1 to Shattil discloses edge-server sets to deliver data to client devices. To rapidly find an optimal or near-optimal edge-server set, the server constructs a trellis having a number of states at least equal to the number of edge servers to be included in an edge-server set. Each state comprises a plurality of nodes, wherein each node corresponds to one of the plurality of candidate edge servers. This reference is of general relevance.
US-20240171647-A1 to Zhao discloses discovering an edge application server (EAS), using a session management function (SMF) network element that serves a session of a terminal apparatus obtains information about at least one EAS, or obtains indication information of an EAS that cannot serve the terminal apparatus. This reference is of general relevance.
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/BRYAN Y LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445