Detailed Action
1. This Office Action is responsive to the Amendment filed 06/12/2026. Claims 1, 12, 15 and 18 have been amended. Claims 2, 4, 8, 10, 16-17 and 22-38 have been cancelled. Claims 36-38 have been added as new claims. Claims 1, 3, 5-7, 9, 11-15, and 18-21 are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/29/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
3. 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.
4. Claim 11 is 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 11 recites the limitation "claim 2" in line 1. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
5. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, fourth paragraph:
Subject to the following paragraph [i.e., the fifth paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112], a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
6. Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends.
Claim 9 recites the limitation “wherein the AF session creation request message is authorized by a Network Exposure Function (NEF)”, which is similar to “the AF session creation request message is authorized by the NEF”, that fails to further limit the subject matter of independent claim 1 upon which it depends.
Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
7. 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.
8. Claims 1, 9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Xu et al. (US 2025/0287294 A1), hereinafter “Xu”.
9. As to claim 1, Xu teaches a method for implementing an extended reality service policy, applied to a Policy Control Function (PCF), and comprising:
receiving an Application Function (AF) session creation request message sent by a Network Exposure Function (NEF), wherein first indication information in the AF session creation request message is configured to indicate a Packet Data Unit (PDU) session associated with an AF session requested by the AF session creation request message, and the AF session creation request message is authorized by the NEF to enable the PCF to associated the AF session with the PDU session ([0164] and [0214-0223]: The AF sends its request to the NEF. The NEF ensures the necessary authorization control, including throttling of AF requests and mapping from the information provided by the AF into information needed by the 5GC. The NEF determines based on the AF service identifier whether the service request is for an EAS enabled by the EASDF. If it is so, it includes the indication in the N5 request to the PCF); and
associating the AF session with the PDU session by updating policy information of the PDU session according to the first indication information to make policy information of the PDU session consistent with policy information of the AF session ([0223]: The PCF determines if existing PDU Sessions are potentially impacted by the AF request. For each PDU of these PDU sessions, the PCF updates the SMF with corresponding new policy information about the PDU session by invoking Npcf_SMPolicyControl_UpdateNotify service operation; [0227]: When the updated policy information about the PDU session is received from the PCF, the SMF may take appropriate actions to reconfigure the User plane of the PDU session).
10. As to claim 9, Xu teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the AF session creation request message is authorized by a Network Exposure Function (NEF) ([0090]: The NEF may be further operative to check whether the AF is authorized to perform the request); and wherein the method further comprises: generating a policy decision feedback message according to the AF session creation request message authorized by the NEF and sending the policy decision feedback message to the NEF (Xu, [0220]: The NEF responds to the AF; [0223-0224]: the PCF includes in the PCC rule(s) the information required for reporting the event, including the Notification Target Address pointing to the NEF or AF).
11. As to claim 11, Xu teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the policy information comprises a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) rule and/or a QoS policy ([0153-0154]: 3GPP defines a policy control and charging (PCC) architecture that allows handling Policy and Charging Control in the network. The PCF provides network control regarding the service data flow detection, gating, quality of service (QoS) and flow based charging towards the SMF. The PCF shall provision PCC rules to the SMF via the N7 reference point).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
12. 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.
13. Claims 3 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu, in view of Qiao et al. (US 2020/0213897 A1), hereinafter “Qiao”.
14. As to claim 3, Xu teaches the method according to claim 1, but does not explicitly teach “sending a User Equipment Route Selection Policy (URSP) rule table to a User Equipment (UE), wherein the URSP rule table comprises second indication information, and the second indication information is configured to indicate a corresponding Extended Reality and Media (XRM) service; and wherein the second indication information comprises at least one of: XRM service indication information; or application description information”.
In an analogous art, Qiao discloses “sending a User Equipment Route Selection Policy (URSP) rule table to a User Equipment (UE), wherein the URSP rule table comprises second indication information indicating a corresponding Extended Reality and Media (XRM) service; and wherein the second indication information comprises at least one of: XRM service indication information; or application description information” ([0332] and [0463]: based on the list of restricted services, the PCF may determine at least one restricted service for the always-on PDU session for the wireless device. The PCF may send a message comprising a URSP and/or the at least one restricted service to the wireless device via the AMF). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Xu and Qiao to achieve the claimed invention to allow the UE to use the URSP table that includes information to determine how to route data from the user device to other network devices.
15. As to claim 7, Xu-Qiao teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the first indication information comprises at least one of: Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI) and a Data Network Name (DNN); or an Application ID, wherein the Application ID corresponds to the S-NSSAI and the DNN (Qiao, [0280]: The SM Policy Association Establishment request message sent to the PCF may comprise at least one of the following information elements for the PDU session and/or the UE: …; an application identifier; and allocated application instance identifier; DNN, S-NSSAI(s) and/or network slice instance identifier(s), PDU session ID, user location information, or information of the SMF for the PDU session); and wherein the AF session creation request message comprises at least one of: an XRM service identifier; an XRM group identifier; a UE address or a UE identifier; an AF identifier; data flow description information; or a Quality of Service (QoS) parameter (Qiao, [0280]: The SM Policy Association Establishment request message sent to the PCF may comprise at least one UE identity and/or at least one UE IP address for the UE).
16. Claims 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu-Qiao, in view of Jagannatha et al. (US 10,986,568 B1), hereinafter “Jagannatha”.
17. As to claim 5, Xu-Qiao teaches the method according to claim 3, but does not explicitly teach “sending the URSP rule table to the UE through a UE configuration update process”.
In an analogous art, Jagannatha teaches “sending the URSP rule table to the UE through a UE configuration update process” (col. 6, line 4 – col. 7, line 9:: user device 105 may receive, updates to the second URSP table (e.g., updated information for the NSSAI included in the second URSP table … when the second network provides NSSAI and/or URSP information to the user device 105, the second network may utilize a policy control function (PCF) to send subscribed NSSAI and/or configured NSSAI in a non-access stratum (NAS) configuration update command to the user device 105).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Xu-Qiao and Jagannatha to achieve the claimed invention to enable a user device to update the URSP table that includes network slice selection assistance information to determine how to route data from the user device to correct slices of a network depending on a service utilized by the user device (Jagannatha, col. 1, lines 46-50).
18. As to claim 6, Xu-Qiao-Jagannatha teaches the method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises: updating the URSP rule table according to operator policy information, subscription information or capability information of the UE, and sending the updated URSP rule table to the UE (Jagannatha, col. 5, lines 28-55: the second URSP may include a file that includes NSSAI associated with the second network, a file that includes user equipment route selection policies associated with the second network, …; and col. 6, lines 43-51: when the second network provides NSSAI and/or URSP information to the user device 105, the second network may utilize a policy control function (PCF) to send subscribed NSSAI and/or configured NSSAI in a non-access stratum (NAS) configuration update command to the user device 105).
19. Claims 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu, in view of Luo et al. (US 2025/0106291 A1), hereinafter “Luo”.
20. As to claim 12, Xu teaches a method for implementing an extended reality service policy, applied to an Application Function (AF), and comprising:
sending an Application Function (AF) session creation request message to a Policy Control Function (PCF) through a Network Exposure Function (NEF) to enable the NEF to authorize the AF session creation request message and send the authorized AF session creation request message to the PCF, wherein the AF session creation request message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is configured to indicate a Packet Data Unit (PDU) session associated with an AF session requested by the AF session creation request message ([0164] and [0214-0223]: The AF sends its request to the NEF. The NEF ensures the necessary authorization control, including throttling of AF requests and mapping from the information provided by the AF into information needed by the 5GC. The NEF determines based on the AF service identifier whether the service request is for an EAS enabled by the EASDF. If it is so, it includes the indication in the N5 request to the PCF).
Xu does not explicitly teach “the AF session creation request message further comprises at least one of: an Extended Reality and Media (XRM) service identifier; or an XRM group identifier”.
In an analogous art, Luo teaches “the AF session creation request message further comprises at least one of: an Extended Reality and Media (XRM) service identifier; or an XRM group identifier” ([0133] and [0136-0137]: the AF request includes Application Identifier or UE(s) info with XR traffic configuration information, where UE(s) info includes the identifiers of the UE(s) that the requests is targeting, i.e., an individual UE, or a group of UE represented by Internal Group Identifier, or any UE accessing the combination of DNN, S-NSSAI and DNAI(s). The XR traffic configuration information from AF can include XR traffic indication (i.e., under 3GPP standards, the XR traffic configuration and XR traffic indication can comprise or be directly mapped to an XRM service identifier or an Internal/External Group Identifier), and optionally packet characteristic values transferred over N6 interface).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Xu and Luo to achieve the claimed invention to enable the system to use the XR traffic configuration information obtained by the PCF from the AF for the PDU session to process extended reality and media service ([0001]).
21. As to claim 13, Xu-Luo teaches the method according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises: receiving through the NEF, an AF session feedback message sent by the PCF (Xu, [0220]: The NEF responds to the AF; [0223-0224]: the PCF includes in the PCC rule(s) the information required for reporting the event, including the Notification Target Address pointing to the NEF or AF).
22. As to claim 14, Xu-Luo teaches the method according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises: receiving an application request message which is sent by a User Equipment (UE) through the PDU session, wherein the application request message comprises information corresponding to the PDU session, and the information corresponding to the PDU session is the first indication information (Luo, [0061]: UE requests a modified PDU session establishment procedure for non-roaming and roaming with local breakout case; [0063]: UE triggers the PDU session establishment procedure. AMF selects SMF and informs it to establish or modify a PDU session for the UE).
23. As to claim 15, Xu-Luo teaches the method according to claim 12, wherein the first indication information comprises at least one of: Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI) and a Data Network Name (DNN); or an Application ID, wherein the Application ID corresponds to the S-NSSAI and the DNN and wherein the AF session creation request message comprises at least one of: a UE address or a UE identifier; an AF identifier; data flow description information; or a Quality of Service (QoS) parameter (Xu, [0217] and Luo, [0133]).
24. Claims 18-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu, in view of MOON et al. (US 2022/0322257 A1), hereinafter “MOON”.
25. As to claim 18, Xu teaches a method for implementing an extended reality service policy, applied to a Network Exposure Function (NEF), and comprising:
receiving an Application Function (AF) session creation request message sent by an AF, wherein the AF session creation request message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is configured to indicate a Packet Data Unit (PDU) session associated with an AF session requested by the AF session creation request message; and authorizing the AF session creation request message, and sending the authorized AF session creation request message to a Policy Control Function (PCF) to enable the PCF to associate the AF session with the PDU session (Xu, [0164] and [0214-0223]: The AF sends its request to the NEF. The NEF ensures the necessary authorization control, including throttling of AF requests and mapping from the information provided by the AF into information needed by the 5GC. The NEF determines based on the AF service identifier whether the service request is for an EAS enabled by the EASDF. If it is so, it includes the indication in the N5 request to the PCF),
wherein the AF session creation request message further comprises at least one of: an Extended Reality and Media (XRM) service identifier; an XRM group identifier; a user Equipment (UE) address or a UE identifier; an AF identifier; data flow description information; or a Quality of Service (QoS) parameter (Xu, [0165]: the NEF receives, from the AF, information for deriving the indicator, an AF service identifier identifying an AF service; [0217]: the NEF stores the AF request information in the UDR (Data Set = Application Data; Data Subset = AF traffic influence request information; Data Key = AF Transaction Internal ID, S-NSSAI and DNN and/or Internal Group Identifier or SUPI).
Xu does not explicitly teach “creating a Time Sensitive Communication and Time Synchronization Function (TSCTSF) according to the AF identifier or the QoS parameter to communicate with the PCF”.
In an analogous art, MOON teaches “creating a Time Sensitive Communication and Time Synchronization Function (TSCTSF) according to the AF identifier or the QoS parameter to communicate with the PCF” ([0108]: a QoS configuration procedure of a traffic flow for time sensitive communication (TSC) may be performed. TSN may collect information of a TSC traffic flow and send it to each TSN node in management information as in a centralized network configuration (CNC) server. The 3GPP network obtains TSC traffic flow information by exchanging the management information between the TSN AF of FIG. 2 and the CNC. A TSN AF that has obtained the TSC traffic flow information from the CNC forwards the traffic flow information to the PCF, which creates information to configure 3GPP QoS for the flow by mapping the traffic flow information to QoS information used in the 3GPP network and sends the SMF information such as periodicity of traffic burst and a TSN GM clock based arrival time for the TSC traffic flow).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Xu and MOON to achieve the claimed invention to enable the system to obtain a synchronization indicator, a synchronization accuracy required for the time synchronization of the terminal/UE, and activating or deactivating a time synchronization function, based on the synchronization indicator and the synchronization accuracy (Li, [0090]).
26. As to claim 19, Xu-MOON teaches the method according to claim 18, wherein the method further comprises: sending an AF session creation feedback message to the AF to notify the AF of an authorization result of the AF session creation request message (Xu, [0243]: When the NEF receives an AF request from AF, the NEF ensures the necessary authorization control and mapping from the information provided by the AF into information needed by the 5GC. The NEF responds to the AF).
27. As to claim 20, Xu-MOON teaches the method according to claim 18, wherein the method further comprises: receiving a policy decision feedback message sent by the PCF, and feeding back the policy decision feedback message to the AF (Xu, [0220]: The NEF responds to the AF; [0223-0224]: the PCF includes in the PCC rule(s) the information required for reporting the event, including the Notification Target Address pointing to the NEF or AF).
28. As to claim 21, Xu-MOON teaches the method according to claim 18, wherein the first indication information comprises at least one of: Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI) and a Data Network Name (DNN); or an Application ID, wherein the Application ID corresponds to the S-NSSAI and the DNN (Xu, [0217]).
Response to Arguments
29. Applicant’s arguments filed 06/12/2026 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
30. Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
31. Further references of interest are cited on Form PTO-892, which is an attachment to this Office Action.
32. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUANG N NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-3886.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, KAMAL B. DIVECHA, can be reached at (571) 272-5863. The fax phone number for the organization is (571) 273-8300.
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/QUANG N NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2453
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