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 .
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.
Claim(s) 29, 30, 32-37, 39-42, 44 and 45 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by You (WO 2022/067627).
Regarding claim 29, You discloses a method for indicating freshness of a subscription concealed identifier (SUCI, page 10, unique permanent identity such as a SUCI), the method being performed by a user equipment (Figure 9) comprising: generating a SUCI for a subscription of the UE, wherein the SUCI comprises a concealed part encrypted based on a public key of a home network (page 13, system uses ECIES encryption scheme for encrypting the SUPI), wherein the concealed art comprises a mobile subscription identification number (MSIN, page 13) and a freshness parameter (pages 12-14, use of SQN MS or registration timestamp to indicate freshness); and sending the SUCI in a network registration request (Figure 10, steps 0-2c) towards a unified data management (UDM) node of the home mobile network (Figure 10, node 370).
Regarding claim 36, You discloses a method for verifying freshness of a SUCI, the method being performed by a UDM node (Figure 10, UDM 370) comprising: receiving a request for an authentication vector for a user equipment (UE 310, also see Authentication request steps 3-4, figure 10), wherein the request comprises a SUCI for a subscription for the UE, wherein the SUCI comprises a concealed part encrypted based on a public key of a home network (page 13, system uses ECIES encryption scheme for encrypting the SUPI), wherein the concealed art comprises a mobile subscription identification number (MSIN, page 13) and a freshness parameter (pages 12-14, use of SQN MS or registration timestamp to indicate freshness). You discloses the request is received from an Authentication Server Function node (360, Figure 10), revealing the freshness parameter by decrypting the concealed part based on a private key of the home mobile network operator of the subscription (pages 16-17, UDM uses SIDF function and authentication key) and verifying freshness of the SUCI by validating the freshness parameter (pages 25-26, UDM determines based on the SQN MS or registration time stamp whether a replay attack has occurred based on the synchronized freshness parameter).
Regarding claim 44, You discloses a user equipment (UE 310) for indicating freshness of a SUCI, the UE comprising processing circuitry (page 7, mobile phones, computers, etc. inherently contain processing circuitry as well as page 31, implemented by devices including memory and processors) configured to: generate a SUCI for a subscription of the UE, wherein the SUCI comprises a concealed part encrypted based on a public key of a home network (page 13, system uses ECIES encryption scheme for encrypting the SUPI), wherein the concealed art comprises a mobile subscription identification number (MSIN, page 13) and a freshness parameter (pages 12-14, use of SQN MS or registration timestamp to indicate freshness); and send the SUCI in a network registration request (Figure 10, steps 0-2c) towards a unified data management (UDM) node of the home mobile network (Figure 10, node 370).
Regarding claim 45, You discloses a UDM node (370) for verifying freshness of a SUCI, the UDM mode comprising processing circuitry (page 8, UDM forming a database and authentication repository. inherently contains processing circuitry as well as page 31, implemented by devices including memory and processors) configured to cause the UDM node to: receive a request for an authentication vector for a user equipment (UE 310, also see Authentication request steps 3-4, figure 10), wherein the request comprises a SUCI for a subscription for the UE, wherein the SUCI comprises a concealed part encrypted based on a public key of a home network (page 13, system uses ECIES encryption scheme for encrypting the SUPI), wherein the concealed art comprises a mobile subscription identification number (MSIN, page 13) and a freshness parameter (pages 12-14, use of SQN MS or registration timestamp to indicate freshness). You discloses the request is received from an Authentication Server Function node (360, Figure 10), reveal the freshness parameter by decrypting the concealed part based on a private key of the home mobile network operator of the subscription (pages 16-17, UDM uses SIDF function and authentication key) and verify freshness of the SUCI by validating the freshness parameter (pages 25-26, UDM determines based on the SQN MS or registration time stamp whether a replay attack has occurred based on the synchronized freshness parameter).
Regarding claim 30 and 37, You discloses that the freshness parameter is generated based on information share between the UE and UDM node (page 13, In some implementations for synchronization of the sequence numbers, SQNMs maintained by the UE 310 may be communicated to the carrier network during some authentication processes. Likewise, the SQNHE maintained by the UDM/ARPF may also be communicated to the UE. However, in order to protect these sequence numbers from leakage, their transmissions may be minimized and when transmission is necessary, they may be transmitted in an encrypted form that is considered secure. In one exemplary implementation as described in more detail below, the SQNMs may be transmitted together with and in a same manner as the transmission of a Subscription Permanent Identifier (SUPI) from the UE 310 to the AMF/SEAF 330 of the serving network during an authentication process. And SQNHE from the UDM/ARPF side may be communicated to the UE by being embedded and encrypted in an authentication vector, as described in further detail below.)
Regarding claims 32 and 39, You discloses wherein the freshness parameter is a sequence number (page 12, sequence number SQN) that is incremented upon the SUCI to be generated or having been generated (SQN increased as the UE is authenticated, which includes the generation of the SUCI, pages 14-15).
Regarding claims 33 and 40, You discloses wherein the SUCI comprises a subscription permanent identifier and wherein the SUPI parameter indicates the SUCI to carry the freshness parameter. (Figure 4, concatenated SUPI and SQN is part of the data structure, pages 14-15)
Regarding claims 34 and 41, You discloses wherein a network registration request is sent despite the UE already having a valid non-access stratum security context (use of re-authentication process(page 13, SQN is used in a reauthentication process which happens after initial authentication).
Regarding claim 35 and 42, You discloses wherein the network registration requests network registration, and wherein the method further comprises: receiving a response to the network registration request from a service mobile network operator, the response comprising an authentication request for the UE; and terminating the network registration request (terminating the registration/authentication procedure based on a failure of registration/authentication indicating an SUCI attack, page 26, If the comparison shows that the received SQNMs is less than or equal to the previously stored SQNMs, the home UDM 370 determines that a SUCI replay attack has occurred and respond with a failure code or discard the message to stop the registration/authentication procedure.)
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, 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.
Claim(s) 31 and 38 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over You in view of Phan (2022/0116777).
Regarding claims 31 and 38, You discloses the use of freshness parameter having been validated, acts as a pre-shared key between the UE and UDM (Figure 4, pages 14-16). You discloses all the particulars of the claim except for the freshness parameter being a pseudo-random value. However, Phan teaches the use of a freshness (SRT) indicator in generating a SUCI in which a pseudo-random value is used (para 65-67, use of a random number to help conceal the SUPI). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include a random number in order to prevent simple decoding of the concealed SUPI.
Claim(s) 43 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over You in view of Targali (2022/0337994).
Regarding claim 43, You discloses upon receiving the SUCI, where the concealed part comprises the freshness parameter (Figure 4, SQN or registration timer) in a registration request. You doesn’t disclose the request acts as a trigger for the UDM note to start network recording of a location. However, Targali teaches in an analogous art, the use of UDM node (AMF and AUSF/SAF) in which a registration request triggers recording of the location of the UE (para 26-27, AMF function is to track location as well as para 31, UDM performing network registration management). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to track UE location in order to allow core network functions to be accurately performed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Jimenez (2025/0016552) discloses use of a SUCI with a data field which is encrypted using a protection scheme.
Bradley (11528604) discloses the use of a freshness parameter (Param 1) in encrypting a SUPI in to a SUCI.
Malhotra(11012857) discloses a SUPI with is authenticated with a SUCI in a UDM network.
Yang (2021/0021993) discloses using a SUCI created using public and private key pairs for verification.
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WILLIAM GEORGE TROST IV
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2641
/WILLIAM G TROST IV/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2641
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