DETAILED ACTION
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 .
This Office action is in response to the application filed on 09/23/2024.
Claims 1-15 are presented for examination.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on Korean application 10-2022-0037345 filed in Republic of Korea on 03/25/2022. Receipt of certified copies of the papers required by 37 CFR 1.55 is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 09/23/2024 and 06/25/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are considered by the examiner.
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 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 2025/0070999 A1), in view of Colm Ikuno (US 2021/0321466 A1).
As to claim 1, Li discloses the invention as claimed, including a method performed by a first session management function (SMF) managing a session of a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system supporting virtual network (VN) group communication (¶0003, “performed by a first Session Management Function (SMF) in a wireless core network. The method includes in response to a User Equipment (UE) requesting a communication session, registering or updating with a Virtual Network (VN) management network node at least one of information item associated with the first SMF”), the method comprising:
receiving a protocol data unit (PDU) session establish request message including identification information indicating the VN group communication, transmitted from the UE through an access and mobility management function (AMF) managing mobility of the UE
(¶0030, “When a UE requests to establish a PDU session, it may specify that the PDU session is for VN communication. The VN targeted by the requested PDU session may be identified by a particular Data Network Name (DNN) or Single Network Slice Selection Assistance information (S-NSSAI) of the VN”; ¶0037, “Receiving, by the SMF-1, a PDU session establishment request. In this step, the SMF-1 receives a PDU session establishment request. The request may be initiated at a UE and transmitted from an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF)”; ¶0052, “Receiving a PDU session establishment request. In this step, the SMF-1 receives a PDU session establishment request associated with a UE. The request may be transmitted from an AMF”);
receiving information about a plurality of SMFs capable of information sharing for the VN group communication from the UDM (¶0035, “the information of the SMF-2 can be provided in a list among a plurality pieces of information of a plurality of SMFs under the same network”; ¶0044, “the NRF may return the SMF list related to the same VN ID”; ¶0059, “Discovering one or more SMFs associated with the same VN by the SMF-2. Like the step 503, the SMF-2 uses the VN ID of the VN group it serves to look up the record of the UDM or UDR to determine whether there is another SMF or a plurality of SMFs actively serving the same VN group”; ¶0085, “Updating or storing information of the SMF-1 and/or the VN ID to a VN management network node, such as the UDR/UDM serving as the VN management network node. The SMF-1 may update or store to the UDR or UDM its profile, such as its information that may identify the SMF-1”; ¶0086, “Subscribing to a service function for notification of information of newly enrolled SMF under the same VN by SMF-1. In this step, the SMF-1 can use its VN ID to subscribe to a service function of the VN management network node, such as the UDR or UDM”); and
performing session management for the VN group communication through the information sharing with a second SMF among the plurality of SMFs (¶0006, “receiving, by an intermediate Session Management Function (iSMF) and from a first Session Management Function (SMF), at least one of a virtual network (VN) identifier (ID), a routing information of the first SMF, or data communication tunnel information of a first User Plane Function (UPF); and transmitting, by the iSMF, to a second SMF, at least one of the VN ID, data communication tunnel information of an iUPF, and the routing information of the first SMF”; ¶0033; ¶0035, “the information of the SMF-2 can be provided in a list among a plurality pieces of information of a plurality of SMFs under the same network”).
Although Li discloses subscribing to a service function (UMD) using its VN identification associated with SMF (¶0086, “the SMF-1 can use its VN ID to subscribe to a service function of the VN management network node, such as the UDR or UDM”), Li does not specifically disclose transmitting a request message including the identification information to a user data management (UDM) managing subscription information.
However, Colm Ikuno discloses transmitting a request message including the identification information to a user data management (UDM) managing subscription information (Figs. 7-8; ¶0045, “the SMF is configured to establish a PDU session by being configured to: perform a PDU establishment procedure of IP type involving the UE, the UDM and the SMF, link an IP address or IP prefix to a UE's PDU session and with one or more of a combination of: a Single Network Slice Selection Identifier (S-NSSAI), a 5G virtual network (VN) group, a Data Network Name (DNN), and/or a Subscriber Permanent Identifier (SUPI) associated with the UE's PDU session, and subscribe in the UDM to changes of subscriber information associated with a subscriber identifier (ID) associated with the PDU session…a request referring to a subscriber, wherein the subscriber is specified as an IP address or IP address range, S-NSSAI, 5G VN group, DNN, and/or SUPI”; ¶0046; ¶0076, “A PDU session is established, and the SMF subscribes in the UDM to changes of the subscriber information associated with a subscriber identifier (ID) associated with the PDU session of this given subscriber (e.g. if the subscriber is purged the SMF is notified and the PDU session is released by the SMF)”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Li to include transmitting a request message including the identification information to a user data management (UDM) managing subscription information, as taught by Colm Ikuno because it would allow the network to precisely locate, authenticate, and retrieve the exact subscriber profile required for tailored service delivery (Colm Ikuno; ¶0032; ¶0068).
As to claim 2, Li discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the PDU session establish request message includes at least one of a data network name (DNN) or single-network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI) mapped to the identification information, and the identification information (¶0030, “When a UE requests to establish a PDU session, it may specify that the PDU session is for VN communication. The VN targeted by the requested PDU session may be identified by a particular Data Network Name (DNN) or Single Network Slice Selection Assistance information (S-NSSAI) of the VN”).
As to claim 3, Li discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the first SMF and the second SMF are allocated to different service areas or different tracking areas (TAs) in the VN group communication (¶0033, “SMF1 and SMF2 may be remote to one another (e.g., may be associated with different geographic regions)”).
As to claim 4, Li discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the first SMF controls a first user plane function (UPF) performing an anchor function, based on the information sharing, to establish a data transfer path between a second UPF controlled by the second SMF and the first UPF (¶0002, “a main Session Management Function (SMF) controls two or more User Plane Function (UPF), including UPF-1 and UPF-2. Each UPF may serve as a PSA (PDU session Anchor), to which one or more user equipments (UEs) establish PDU sessions”; ¶0101; ¶0103; ¶0110; ¶0112).
As to claim 5, Li discloses the method of claim 4, wherein the VN group communication is performed between the UE connected to the first UPF and a counterpart UE connected to the second UPF (¶0004, “performed by a first Session Management Function (SMF) in a wireless core network. The method includes establishing a Virtual Network (VN) session with a second SMF; establishing a data communication tunnel between a first User Plain Function (UPF) and a second UPF, the first UPF being assigned by a first SMF to assist a User Equipment (UE) with a communication session associated with a VN and the second UPF”).
As to claim 6, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 1 above. In addition, Li discloses a first session management function (SMF) managing a session of a UE in a wireless communication system supporting virtual network (VN) group communication, comprising: a transceiver; and a processor (¶0172; ¶0173).
As to claims 7-10, they are rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claims 2-5 above, respectively.
As to claim 11, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 1 above. In addition, Li discloses a user data management (UDM) managing subscription information about a UE in a wireless communication system supporting virtual network (VN) group communication, comprising:
a transceiver (¶0172; ¶0173); and
a processor (¶0172; ¶0173) configured to:
transmit, through the transceiver, a subscription response message including information about a plurality of SMFs capable of information sharing for the VN group communication to the first SMF (¶0035, “the information of the SMF-2 can be provided in a list among a plurality pieces of information of a plurality of SMFs under the same network”; ¶0044, “The SMF-2 may send a request to the NRF, and the NRF may return the SMF list related to the same VN ID in response”; ¶0070, “Subscribing to a service function for notification of information of newly enrolled SMF under the same VN by SMF-1 for actively serving the VN. In this step, the SMF-1 can use its VN ID to subscribe to a service function of the VN management network node”; ¶0053, “For obtaining such information from UDM, the SMF-1 may invoke Nudm_UECM_Get (VN ID) service operation, and the UDM may return the SMF list related to this VN group”; ¶0073, “Updating or registering its profile (e.g., the information of the SMF-2 and VN ID) to the NRF by the SMF-2. The information of the SMF-2 may include a SMF ID or a SMF URI, and the VN ID may include an internal group ID, DNN/S-NSSAI, a shared VN Group Data ID, or a new VN group ID value”; ¶0074).
As to claim 12, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 2 above.
As to claim 13, Li discloses the UDM of claim 11, wherein the session management for the VN group communication is performed through the information sharing between the first SMF and a second SMF among the plurality of SMFs (¶0006, “receiving, by an intermediate Session Management Function (iSMF) and from a first Session Management Function (SMF), at least one of a virtual network (VN) identifier (ID), a routing information of the first SMF, or data communication tunnel information of a first User Plane Function (UPF); and transmitting, by the iSMF, to a second SMF, at least one of the VN ID, data communication tunnel information of an iUPF, and the routing information of the first SMF”; ¶0033; ¶0035, “the information of the SMF-2 can be provided in a list among a plurality pieces of information of a plurality of SMFs under the same network”; ¶0053, “For obtaining such information from UDM, the SMF-1 may invoke Nudm_UECM_Get (VN ID) service operation, and the UDM may return the SMF list related to this VN group”).
As to claim 14, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth with respect to claim 3 above.
As to claim 15, Li discloses the UDM of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to, in case that a list of SMFs participating in the VN group communication related to the identification information is updated, notify existing SMFs in the list of information about an SMF newly included in the updated list (¶0034; ¶0035, “the information of the SMF-2 can be provided in a list among a plurality pieces of information of a plurality of SMFs under the same network”; ¶0070, “Subscribing to a service function for notification of information of newly enrolled SMF under the same VN by SMF-1 for actively serving the VN”; ¶0074; ¶0077).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Han et al. (US 2023/0037685), Yang et al. (US 2024/0250788), Munoz De La Torre Alonso et al. (US 2024/0276562) disclose method and apparatus for providing plurality of virtual networks for application in mobile communication network.
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/JUNGWON CHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454 August 25, 2026
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