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 Objections
Claim 12 is objected to because of the following informalities:
The phrase “determinine whether” appears to contain a typographical error. For clarity and consistency, it is suggested that “determinine” be amended to “determine” in the following instances:
“determinine whether the plurality of PDU sessions needs to be established…”
“determinine a PDU session ID and status…”
“determinine whether all the plurality of PDU sessions are activated…”
The claim should be corrected to read “determine” in each instance.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
3. 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.
4. Claims 1, 2, 9, 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by BAEK et al. (US 20180359795 A1).
BAEK et al. discloses methods for establishing a protocol data unit (PDU) session in a communication system comprising: regarding claim 1, a method performed by a network apparatus (100) for handling Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session establishment in a wireless network (see [0083], “a single PDU session establishing method is performed by the AMF 12b, the UDM 16b, the SMF 14b, the PCF 15b, and the UPF 13b), the method comprising: receiving a PDU session establishment request message from a User Equipment (UE) (200) to establish a plurality of PDU sessions (see [0027] “FIG. 6 illustrates a 5G system architecture for establishing a plurality of PDU sessions using an indicator (iMess) representing a request for establishing a plurality of PDU sessions in a 5G system”; [0209] “Operation 400 may include a process (operation 501) in which the (R)AN 31 receives a PDU session establishment request containing the iMess 300 from the UE 30”); determining whether all the plurality of PDU sessions are activated by the network apparatus (100) or at least one PDU session of the plurality of PDU sessions is rejected by the network apparatus (100) (see [0209], “ the AMF 32 analyzes the field specified in the iMess 300 and selects the SMF 34a, 34b, or 34c appropriate for each PDU session as per the standards”; [0118] “Where authenticating/assigning an authority to establish a PDU session fails, the SMF 14b terminates the PDU session establishment procedure and indicates the rejection to the UE 10b”); and performing one of: sending a PDU session establishment accept message comprises an indication indicating partial PDU session establishment to the UE (200), when at least one PDU session of the plurality of PDU sessions is requested by the network apparatus (100), sending a PDU session establishment accept message comprises an indication indicating complete PDU session establishment to the UE (200), when all the plurality of PDU sessions are activated by the network apparatus (100), and sending a PDU session reject message to the UE (200), when the at least one PDU session of the plurality of PDU sessions is rejected by the network apparatus (100) (see [0115] “the SMF 14b may reject the UE (10b) request by the NAS SM signaling (containing the relevant reason for the SM rejection) transmitted by the AMF 12b”).
Regarding claim 9, A network apparatus (100) for handling Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session establishment in a wireless network, the network apparatus (100) comprising: a memory (110);a processor (120) coupled with the memory (110);a communicator (130) coupled with the memory (110) and the processor (120); and a PDU session management controller (140) coupled with the memory (110), the processor (120) and the communicator (130), and configured to (see [0311] “Accordingly, a method for establishing a plurality of PDU session according to an embodiment may be implemented in such a manner as to be able to run on a computer. According to an embodiment, when a method for establishing a plurality of PDU sessions is performed on a computer device, computer readable commands may perform the operation method according to the disclosure”): receive a PDU session establishment request message from a User Equipment (UE) (200) to establish a plurality of PDU sessions (see [0027] “FIG. 6 illustrates a 5G system architecture for establishing a plurality of PDU sessions using an indicator (iMess) representing a request for establishing a plurality of PDU sessions in a 5G system”; [0209] “Operation 400 may include a process (operation 501) in which the (R)AN 31 receives a PDU session establishment request containing the iMess 300 from the UE 30”); determine whether all the plurality of PDU sessions are activated by the network apparatus (100) or at least one PDU session of the plurality of PDU sessions is rejected by the network apparatus (100); (see [0209], “ the AMF 32 analyzes the field specified in the iMess 300 and selects the SMF 34a, 34b, or 34c appropriate for each PDU session as per the standards”; [0118] “Where authenticating/assigning an authority to establish a PDU session fails, the SMF 14b terminates the PDU session establishment procedure and indicates the rejection to the UE 10b”) and perform one of: send a PDU session establishment accept message comprises an indication indicating partial PDU session establishment to the UE (200), when the at least one PDU session of the plurality of PDU sessions is requested by the network apparatus (100);send a PDU session establishment accept message comprises an indication indicating complete PDU session establishment to the UE (200), when all the plurality of PDU sessions are activated by the network apparatus (100), and send a PDU session reject message to the UE (200), when the at least one PDU session of the plurality of PDU sessions is rejected by the network apparatus (100) (see [0115] “the SMF 14b may reject the UE (10b) request by the NAS SM signaling (containing the relevant reason for the SM rejection) transmitted by the AMF 12b”).
Regarding claims 2 and 10, wherein the PDU session establishment request message comprises a Single-Network Slice Selection Assistance In- formation (S-NSSAI), a UE requested Data Network Name (DNN), a Subscriber Permanent Identifier (SUPI), a PDU session Identifier (ID),a request type, and a PDU session establishment request comprising a plurality of PDU sessions attributes (see [0086] “the UE 10b may transmit a NAS message to the AMF 12b. The NAS message may include at least one or more of single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI), data network name (DNN), PDU session ID, request type, or N1 SM information”; [0105] “the SM request may include at least one or more of subscriber permanent ID, DNN, S-NSSAI, PDU session ID, AMFID, N1 SM information”; “[0195] “The PSIs 330, 340, and 350 are used to specify detailed information about the PDU session request. The PSIs includes PDU session ID fields 331, 341, and 351, PDU session type fields 333, 343, and 353, single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI) fields 335, 345, and 355, data network name (DNN) fields 337, 347, and 357, service and session continuity (SSC) fields 339, 349, and 359”).
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.
Claims 3 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over BAEK et al. (US 20180359795 A1) in view of Wang et al. (US 20200178196 A1) .
BAEK et al. discloses the claimed limitation above. BAEK et al. does not disclose, but Wang et al. discloses the followings: regarding claims 3 and 11, wherein the plurality of PDU sessions attributes of the PDU session establishment request comprises at least one of the PDU session ID, a requested PDU session type, a multi-access PDU connectivity service indicating when the at least one PDU session provides multi-access PDU connectivity service or not, and a flag bit to determine number of PDU sessions or the plurality of PDU sessions to be established per DNN and S-NSSAI based on different security policies (see [0005] “The WTRU may send a request to an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF). For example, the WTRU may send an explicit indication that the WTRU is requesting a multi-access PDU session. The request may be a PDU session ID for the PDU session”). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of BAEK et al., by using the features as taught by Wang et al., to improve clarity and flexibility in establishing and distinguishing PDU sessions based on session type and policy.
5. Claims 4, 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over BAEK et al. (US 20180359795 A1) in view 3GPP TS 23.502 version 16.7.0 Release 16.
Regarding claims 4 and 12, BAEK et al. discloses: determining whether the plurality of PDU sessions needs to be established based on the PDU session establishment request message (see [0209] “the AMF 32 analyzes the field specified in the iMess 300 and selects the SMF 34a, 34b, or 34c appropriate for each PDU session as per the standards”); determining a PDU session ID and status of the plurality of PDU sessions from one of a plurality of PDU sessions attributes, session management subscription data or based on local/network/operator's configuration indicating number of PDU sessions to be established and security policy for each PDU session of the plurality of PDU sessions, when the plurality of PDU sessions needs to be established (see [0210] “the AMF 32 collectively and previously brings subscription data related to the UE 30 from the UDM 36”; [0114] “The subscription data contains the authenticated PDU type, authenticated SSC mode, and default QoS profile”); recording the PDU session ID and the status of the plurality of PDU sessions in a Session Management (SM) context (see [0097] “The AMF 12b may store an association between the PDU session ID and the SMF (14b) ID”).
BAEK et al. does not disclose, but 3GPP TS 23.502 version 16.7.0 Release 16 disclose: regarding claims 4, 12, determining whether all the plurality of PDU sessions are activated by the network apparatus (100) or the at least one PDU session is rejected by the network apparatus (100) based on the SM context (see step 12 in Figure 4.2.3.2-1 on page 49 ; and page 56, “the AMF shall wait for all responses from the SMFs before it sends MM NAS Service Accept message to the UE”). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of BAEK et al., by using the features as taught by 3GPP TS 23.502 version 16.7.0 Release 16, in order to reliably track PDU-session status.
6. Claims 5-8, 13, 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over BAEK et al. (US 20180359795 A1) in view of Huang et al. (US 20230021262 A1).
Regarding claim 5, BAEK et al. discloses: a method performed by an user equipment (UE) (200) for handling Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session establishment in a wireless network, the method comprising: sending a PDU session establishment request message to a network apparatus (100) to establish a plurality of PDU sessions (see Abstract, “A method for establishing a plurality of protocol data unit (PDU) sessions between a user equipment (UE) and a data network (DN) by the UE may comprise transmitting a message to establish the plurality of PDU sessions to at least one network function (NF) of a plurality of NFs”).
Regarding claim 13, BAEK et al. discloses: An user equipment (UE) (200) for handling Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session establishment in a wireless network, the UE (200) comprising :a memory (210);a processor (220) coupled with the memory (210);a communicator (230) coupled with the memory (210) and the processor (220); and a PDU session establishment controller (240) coupled with the memory(210), the processor (220) and the communicator (230), and configured to (see [0305], “a method for establishing a plurality of PDU sessions according to an embodiment may be implemented on a UE 1000 or recorded in a recording medium. Referring to FIG. 1, the UE 1000 may include at least one or more processors 1100 and a memory 1200”): send a PDU session establishment request message to a network apparatus (100) to establish a plurality of PDU sessions (see Abstract, “A method for establishing a plurality of protocol data unit (PDU) sessions between a user equipment (UE) and a data network (DN) by the UE may comprise transmitting a message to establish the plurality of PDU sessions to at least one network function (NF) of a plurality of NFs”).
BAEK et al. does not disclose, but Huang et al. discloses: regarding claims 5 and 13, receiving a PDU session establishment accept message comprises one of an indication indicating partial PDU session establishment from the network apparatus (100) and an indication indicating complete PDU session establishment from the network apparatus (100) (see Abstract, “The multi-link association response frame carries link establishment status information, to indicate a link establishment status of each link that the STA MLD requests to establish”; see [0217] “include only status code indicating that all the links that the STA MLD requests to establish are successfully established, status code indicating that a part of the links that the STA MLD requests to establish are successfully established); performing one of: holding transfer of data to the network apparatus (100) when the PDU session establishment accept message comprises the indication indicating partial PDU session establishment is received by the UE (200); and configuring the plurality of PDU sessions and starting transfer of the data to the network apparatus (100) (see [0191], “Because one radio of the STA MLD may communicate with the AP MLD on only one link at any time, after a plurality of links sharing the radio are successfully established”) when the PDU session establishment accept message comprises the indication indicating the complete PDU session establishment is received by the UE (200) (see [0217] “include only status code indicating that all the links that the STA MLD requests to establish are successfully established”).
Regarding claim 6, wherein the UE (200) receives the PDU session establishment accept message comprises the indication indicating the partial PDU session establishment when at least one PDU session of the plurality of PDU sessions is requested by the network apparatus (100) (see Abstract, “The multi-link association response frame carries link establishment status information, to indicate a link establishment status of each link that the STA MLD requests to establish”; see [0217] “include only status code indicating that all the links that the STA MLD requests to establish are successfully established, status code indicating that a part of the links that the STA MLD requests to establish are successfully established; [0191] “the STA MLD may request to establish a plurality of links to the AP MLD”).
Regarding claim 7, wherein the UE receives the PDU session establishment accept message comprises the indication indicating the complete PDU session establishment when all the plurality of PDU sessions are activated by the network apparatus (100) (see Abstract, “The multi-link association response frame carries link establishment status information, to indicate a link establishment status of each link that the STA MLD requests to establish”; see [0217] “include only status code indicating that all the links that the STA MLD requests to establish are successfully established, status code indicating that a part of the links that the STA MLD requests to establish are successfully established; [0191] “the STA MLD may request to establish a plurality of links to the AP MLD”).
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of BAEK et al., by using the features as taught by Huang et al., in order to improve coordination, reliability, and data transfer control between the UE and network.
Regarding claim 8, BAEK et al. discloses: wherein the UE (200) receives a PDU session reject message from the network apparatus (100), when at least one PDU session of the plurality of PDU sessions is rejected by the network apparatus (100) (see [0115] The SMF 14b checks whether the UE (10b) request is compatible with the user subscription and local policies. Unless compatible, the SMF 14b may reject the UE (10b) request by the NAS SM signaling (containing the relevant reason for the SM rejection) transmitted by the AMF 12b).
Regarding claim 14, BAEK et al. discloses: wherein the PDU session establishment request message comprises a Single-Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI), a UE requested Data Network Name (DNN), a Subscriber Permanent Identifier (SUPI), a PDU session Identifier (ID), a request type, and a PDU session establishment request comprising a plurality of PDU sessions attributes ((see [0086] “the UE 10b may transmit a NAS message to the AMF 12b. The NAS message may include at least one or more of single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI), data network name (DNN), PDU session ID, request type, or N1 SM information”; [0105] “the SM request may include at least one or more of subscriber permanent ID, DNN, S-NSSAI, PDU session ID, AMFID, N1 SM information”; “[0195] “The PSIs 330, 340, and 350 are used to specify detailed information about the PDU session request. The PSIs includes PDU session ID fields 331, 341, and 351, PDU session type fields 333, 343, and 353, single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI) fields 335, 345, and 355, data network name (DNN) fields 337, 347, and 357, service and session continuity (SSC) fields 339, 349, and 359”)).
7. Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over BAEK et al. (US 20180359795 A1) in view of Huang et al. (US 20230021262 A1) as applied to claims 13, 14 above, and further in view of Wang et al. (US 20200178196 A1).
BAEK et al. and Huang et al. disclose the claimed limitation above. They do not disclose, but Wang et al. discloses the followings: regarding claim15, wherein the plurality of PDU sessions attributes of the PDU session establishment request comprises at least one of the PDU session ID, a requested PDU session type, a multi-access PDU connectivity service indicating when the at least one PDU session provides multi-access PDU connectivity service or not, and a flag bit to determine number of PDU sessions or the plurality of PDU sessions to be established per DNN and S-NSSAI based on different security policies (see [0005] “The WTRU may send a request to an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF). For example, the WTRU may send an explicit indication that the WTRU is requesting a multi-access PDU session. The request may be a PDU session ID for the PDU session”). It would have been obvious to one ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of BAEK et al. and Huang et al., by using the features as taught by Wang et al., to improve clarity and flexibility in establishing and distinguishing PDU sessions based on session type and policy.
Conclusion
8. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kawasaki et al. (US 11350466 B2) discloses a communication control means for establishing a session suitable for a terminal apparatus.
Huang-Fu et al. (US 11212720 B2) discloses a method of handling invalid PDU session during handover procedure.
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KWANG B YAO whose telephone number is (571)272-3182. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473
Prosecution Insights