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 .
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.
Priority
The instant application is the national stage entry under 35 U.S.C. 371 of PCT/IB2023/055559, filed 31 May 2023, having claims 1-15. The instant application further claims priority to India Patent Application No. 20221031237, filed 31 May 2022.
Claims 1-15 have been examined.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 25 November 2024 was before the mailing date of the first action on the merits. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The specification is objected to as failing to provide proper antecedent basis for the claimed subject matter. See 37 CFR 1.75(d)(1) and MPEP § 608.01(o). Correction of the following is required: The term “quality of service (QoS) report” in claims 14 and 15 has no antecedent basis in the specification. For purposes of this office action, it is being presumed that these refer to a “quality of service (QoS) request.”
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.
Claims 1-15 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1, 8, 14, and 15 recite “the request is based on a quality of service (QoS) request/report.” The specification gives no guidance as to what sorts of requests/reports would be considered to be “based upon” a QoS activity. The scopes of the claims are therefore indefinite. For purposes of the prior art search, it is being presumed that any user-generated request is based on a QoS request.
Claims 2-7 and 9-13 are dependent upon base claims 1 and 8 and wholly incorporate their limitations, rendering them likewise indefinite.
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.
Claims 1, 2, 5-8, and 11-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0053148 to Lee et al. (hereinafter Lee).
As per claim 1, Lee discloses a system (110) for network slicing the system (110) comprising:
a processor (202); and
a memory (204) operatively coupled with the processor (202) (see paragraphs 132 and 137), wherein said memory (204) stores instructions which, when executed by the processor (202), cause the processor (202) to:
receive a request (see abstract) from one or more users (102) via a computing device (104) (user equipment, see claim 1, also see figures 5-6 and paragraph 68), wherein the request (application service, see paragraphs 42, 69) is based on a quality of service (QOS) request (requests may be to compare capability information without generating an error, see paragraphs 134 and 139) generated by the users (102), and wherein the computing device (104) is connected to the processor (202) via a primary network (106) (see figure 1 and paragraphs 43-47);
determine if an end-to-end logical network is accessible in a secondary network (108) to the one or more users (102) based on the primary network (106) being accessible to the one or more users (102) (accessible networks are shown by allowed NSSAIs, see paragraphs 64-66 and tested, see allowed NSSAI test, see paragraph 67) upon roaming;
in response to a positive determination, generate a mapping between the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108) (see paragraph 66);
in response to a negative determination, provision the end-to-end logical network in the secondary network (108) and generate the mapping between the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108) (see paragraph 67); and
enable the one or more users (102) to access the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108), and facilitate generation of the network slice (see figure 5 and paragraph 68-78).
As per claim 2, n the primary network (106) is a Home Public Land Mobile Network (106), and wherein the secondary network (108) is a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (108) (VPLMN is secondary for a roaming agreement, with possible mappings to HPLMN A, B, and/or C, see paragraphs 49-52).
As per claim 5, the mapping is a network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) mapping (see paragraphs 64-67).
As per claim 6, the NSSAI mapping comprises a home public land mobile network (HPLMN) information, an NSSAI information, and a subscription data information of the one or more users (102) (see example paragraphs 74, 85; NSSAI may include subscription information, see paragraph 123).
As per claim 7, the processor (202) is to generate a network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) mapping creation request to a visitor network service provider (VNSP) of the secondary network (108) in response to the negative determination (updated NSSAI mapping sent, see paragraph 67).
8. A method for network slicing, the method comprising:
receiving, by a processor (202) associated with a system (110) (see paragraphs 132 and 137), a request from one or more users (102) via a computing device (104) (user equipment, see claim 1, also see figures 5-6 and paragraph 68), wherein the request (application service, see paragraphs 42, 69) is based on a quality of service (QOS) request (requests may be to compare capability information without generating an error, see paragraphs 134 and 139) generated by the one or more users (102);
determining, by the processor (202), if an end-to-end logical network is accessible in a secondary network (108) to the one or more users (102) based on a primary network (106) being inaccessible to the one or more users (102) (accessible networks are shown by allowed NSSAIs, see paragraphs 64-66 and tested, see allowed NSSAI test, see paragraph 67) upon roaming;
in response to a positive determination, generating, by the processor (202), a mapping between the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108) (see paragraph 66);
in response to a negative determination, provisioning, by the processor (202), the end-to-end logical network in the secondary network (108) and generating the mapping between the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108) (see paragraph 67); and
enabling, by the processor (202), the one or more users (102) to access the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108), and facilitating generation of the network slice (see figure 5 and paragraph 68-78).
As per claim 11, the mapping is a network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) mapping (see paragraphs 64-67).
As per claim 12, the NSSAI mapping comprises a home public land mobile network (HPLMN) information, an NSSAI information, and a subscription data information of the one or more users (102) (see example paragraphs 74, 85; NSSAI may include subscription information, see paragraph 123).
As per claim 13, the processor (202) is to generate a network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) mapping creation request to a visitor network service provider (VNSP) of the secondary network (108) in response to the negative determination (updated NSSAI mapping sent, see paragraph 67).
14. A user equipment (UE) (104) for network slicing, the UE (104) comprising:
one or more processors communicatively coupled to a processor (202) associated with a system (110) (see paragraphs 132 and 137), wherein the one or more processors are coupled with a memory, and wherein said memory stores instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
transmit a request to the processor (202) via a network (106) (user equipment, see claim 1, also see figures 5-6 and paragraph 68), wherein the request (application service, see paragraphs 42, 69) is based on a quality of service (QOS) report (requests may be to compare capability information without generating an error, see paragraphs 134 and 139) generated by one or more users (102), wherein the processor (202) is configured to:
receive the request from the UE (104);
determine if an end-to-end logical network is accessible in a secondary network (108) to the one or more users (102) based on a primary network (106) being inaccessible to the one or more users (102) (accessible networks are shown by allowed NSSAIs, see paragraphs 64-66 and tested, see allowed NSSAI test, see paragraph 67) upon roaming;
in response to a positive determination, generate a mapping between the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108) (see paragraph 66);
in response to a negative determination, provision the end-to-end logical network in the secondary network (108) and generate the mapping between the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108) (see paragraph 67); and
enable the one or more users (102) to access the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108), and facilitate generation of the network slice (see figure 5 and paragraph 68-78).
15. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a processor (see paragraphs 132 and 137) with executable instructions, causing the processor to:
receive a request (user equipment, see claim 1, also see figures 5-6 and paragraph 68) from one or more users (102) via a computing device (104), wherein the request (application service, see paragraphs 42, 69) is based on a quality of service (Qos) report (requests may be to compare capability information without generating an error, see paragraphs 134 and 139) generated by the one or more users (102);
determine if an end-to-end logical network is accessible in a secondary network (108) to the one or more users (102) based on a primary network (106) being inaccessible to the one or more users (102) (accessible networks are shown by allowed NSSAIs, see paragraphs 64-66 and tested, see allowed NSSAI test, see paragraph 67) upon roaming;
in response to a positive determination, generate a mapping between the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108) (see paragraph 66);
in response to a negative determination, provision the end-to-end logical network in the secondary network (108) and generate the mapping between the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108) (see paragraph 67); and
enable the one or more users (102) to access the primary network (106) and the secondary network (108), and facilitate generation of the network slice (see figure 5 and paragraph 68-78).
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, 4, 9, and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee as applied to claims 1 and 8 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0036754 to Livanos (hereinafter Livanos).
Regarding claims 3 and 9, Lee does not disclose that the processor (202) is to use a security edge protection proxy (SEPP) to provision the end-to-end logical network in the secondary network (108).
Livanos discloses the use of a SEPP proxy between and VPLMN and HPLMN (see paragraph 3) so as to provide a proxy for use with the Authentication Server Function (AUSF) over an inter-PLMN N32 interface.
Therefore it would have been obvious at the time of filing to use a SEPP in the logical network, for use with the Authentication Server Function (AUSF) over an inter-PLMN N32 interface.
As per claims 4 and 10, the processor (202) is to send a discovery request to a visitor network repository function (VNRF) of the secondary network (108) via the SEPP to provision the end-to-end logical network in the secondary network (108) (see Lee, paragraph 75 and Livanos, paragraph 43-49 and figs. 4-6).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW E HENEGHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3834. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Fuelling can be reached at (571)270-1367. 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.
/MATTHEW E HENEGHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3992
Prosecution Insights