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 .
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 1-2, 4, 6-9, 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Karampatsis et al (US 20180220327 A1) in view of Rastogi (US 20160050653 A1)
Regarding claims 1, 7, 15, 18, Karampatsis et al discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), comprising: executing, by a first communication device (Base station 260), a first operation (paragraph 0296-0297) wherein the executing the first operation (Base station 260: first communication device may be able to detect user plane congestion; base station 260 may be assumed to support a “Deep Packet Inspection” capability where inspection of the QoS parameters (i.e sub-QCI parameters of IP flows/sub-flows; paragraph 0316, 0347, 0381) comprises at least one of the following: measuring a network resource load (the base station, one or more measures to mitigate the congestion based on corresponding one or more measures taken by the PCRF; measurements or metrics about the network may be collected by the WTRU 202 and by one or more RANs; paragraph 0121-0122); sending first information (send congestion load information during UTRAN to E-UTRAN inter RAT handover; the PCEF 270 may also include the congestion load information ; paragraph 0024, 0270), wherein the first information comprises at least one of the following: first category information or second category information (read as: radio resource management, traffic classification, quality of service policy enforcement; traffic differentiation based on respective levels or classes of service ; receive Application Identifier, service flow descriptions, if available, and application detection start/ stop event triggers report; reporting of the start and the stop of a detected applications and transfer of SDF descriptions and application instance identifiers for detected applications from the PCEF 270 to the PCRF 220, reporting of the accumulated usage of network resources on a per IP-CAN session basis from the PCEF 270 to the PCRF220, delivery of IP CAN session specific parameters from the PCEF 270 to the PCRF 220 ; paragraph 0097, 0105; furthermore, the PCRF 220 upon receiving congestion load information from the PCEF 270 via Gx (located in PDNGW/GGSN) or via the BBERF for PMIP based S5 via Gxx; the PCRF 270 may provide updated QoS rules for specific services based on the congestion status reported, the time of date, the usage threshold of the user and/or the subscription profile requirements stored in the SPR 218; paragraph 0382-0383); determining an importance level of a target data packet (the base station 260 may determine if any of the traffic is classified in accordance with one or more infra-QCI levels, and if so, may make appropriate drop decisions based on such determination ; paragraph 0176), data flow description information corresponding to the target data packet (the base station 260 may perform deep packet inspection of IP packets of the previously received GTP packets to determine the priorities of the received IP packets; paragraph 0053, 0252), and/or a tunnel to which the target data packet is mapped (each TFT may include packet filtering information for identifying and mapping packets to specific bearers ; paragraph 0161); determining a range of a first target data packet (the network node to perform active queue management may determine whether the flow has a sub-flow policy defined and signature available ; paragraph 0222); stopping a first target operation and/or executing a second target operation (the base station 260 may drop the GTP packet and/or the IP packet on condition that the priority of the first IP packet does not takes precedence over the priorities of the previously received IP packets; the MME 262 may reject the request due to indications of high RAN user plane congestion load; furthermore, the source eNodeB 260 may transmit the eNodeB Status Transfer message to the target eNodeB 260-T via the MME to convey the PDCP and HFN status of the E-RABs for which PDCP status preservation applies, where the source eNodeB 260 may omit transmitting this message if none of the E-RABs of the WTRU 202 may be treated with PDCP status preservation; paragraph 0252, 0381, 0435), or, executing the first target operation; or executing a data transfer guaranteeing operation (the WTRU 102 may receive location information over the air interface 116 from a base station (base stations 114a, 114b) and determine its location based on the timing of the signals being received from two or more nearby base stations; paragraph 0053), wherein the first category information (read as: radio resource management, traffic classification, quality of service policy enforcement, traffic differentiation based on respective levels or classes of service ; paragraph 0070, 0080) comprises at least one of the following: a monitored network resource load (the PCRF may indicate the TDF to report specific application that need to be monitored in case of high RAN user plane congestion; paragraph 0720) or an index of a load value corresponding to the network resource load (the NMCF 224 may evaluate the performance metrics, and provide the performance metrics and an evaluation of the performance metrics to various entities of the communications system 100; for instance, the NMCF 224 may monitor and generate, from the performance information and network condition reports, performance metrics related to packet retransmissions ; paragraph 0132, 0143); and first indication information (the packet may include the indication), wherein the first indication information (the base station 260 may send a congestion indication to the core network 203; the congestion indication may be sent to the PCRF 220 ; paragraph 0179, 0250) is configured to indicate at least one of the following: congestion starts (the source eNodeB 260 may start forwarding of downlink data from the source eNodeB 260 towards the target eNodeB 260-T for bearers subject to data forwarding; this may be either direct or indirect forwarding; paragraph 0436), the network resource load reaches a reporting threshold (the PCEF 270 may receive congestion load information; information may include: the sponsors identification, a usage threshold and whether the PCRF 220 reports such events to the AF 272, and information identifying an application service provider and application, for example, SDFs, Application ID; furthermore, the PCRF 220 may have subscribed to the PCEF 270 to monitor the usage of a particular user; the PCRF 220 may indicate to the PCEF 270 to be notified if a usage threshold has been met ; exceeding, approaching and/or satisfying a threshold ; paragraph 0094, 0133-0134, 0402), it is required to stop transferring data packets to the first communication device (the base station 260 may drop (filter) the GTP packet and the IP packet on condition that the priority of the first IP packet does not takes precedence over the priorities of the IP packets; paragraph 0250-0251), it is required not to transfer or allowed not to transfer the first data packet (the base station 260 may obtain, from the GTP-packet header, an indicator indicative of a priority of the first IP packet; this indicator may have been inserted into the GTP-packet header by the core network in responsive to the congestion indication; the indicator may be, for example, a sub-QCI (or sub-QCI label; note that the base station 260 may discard packets of low priority; paragraph 050-0251, 0474), it is required not to transfer or allowed not to transfer a second data packet (TDF 276 may detect a start and stop of an application traffic that matches one or more active ADC Rules; paragraph 0285, 0474), or it is required not to transfer or allowed not to transfer data packets other than a third data packet and/or a fourth data packet (the WTRU 202 may be able to mitigate congestion in the uplink direction based on operator policies provided by the ANDSF 222 ; the ANDSF policies may include information to drop low sub-QCI packets of specific applications based on the user plane congestion status in the uplink; in addition, the base station 260 may be able to detect user plane congestion, where the base station 260 may be assumed to support a Deep Packet Inspection capability where inspection of the QoS parameters of IP flows/sub-flows is possible; the base station 260 may mitigate congestion by, for example, updating a UE context stored in the MME 262 with parameters to indicate base station behavior during user plane congestion for a particular user; the UE context may include, for example, information indicating that a particular user is a high priority user, and such user should receive high QoE even at cases of high user plane congestion ; paragraph 0297-0306), information of a first data packet; or information of the third data packet (the base station 260 may drop IP packets of the IP flows/sub-flows having low priority sub-QCIs; the IP packets of the IP flows/sub-flows having low priority sub-QCIs dropped by the base station 260 may be based on the UE context information provided by the MME 262 and the DPI performed; paragraph 0309-0316), wherein the second category information comprises at least one of the following: a monitored network resource load (the PCRF may indicate the TDF to report specific application that need to be monitored in case of high RAN user plane congestion; paragraph 0720) or an index of a load value corresponding to the network resource load (the MME may generate and transmit a Modify Bearer Request message to the SGW; the Modify Bearer request message may include the congestion load information; in addition, the new MME 262-N may include congestion load information in the Update Location Information towards the HSS 218; paragraph 0347-0348); or second indication information, wherein the second indication information is configured to indicate at least one of the following: the congestion ends (the base station 260 may take into account a subscription profile stored in the UE context so as to identify how to mitigate congestion, by for example, discarding packets of low priority sub-QCIs based on the subscription profile of the user stored in the UE context ; paragraph 0299-0309), the network resource load does not reach the reporting threshold (the MME 262 may reject the request due to indications of high RAN user plane congestion load ; the MME may transmits a modify bearer command message to the SGW if there is a specific quality control indicator value for high RAN user plane congestion ; paragraph 0381, 0670-0671), or data transfer is recovered (the indication may be indicative of a policy rule to be applied to the traffic sub-class to handle the packet to; the policy rule may include parameters to use for policing and/or scheduling packets of the traffic sub-class; note that the differentiated traffic is scheduled for transmission based on a prioritization of the multiple traffic sub-classes; in addition, scheduling the differentiated traffic may include adjusting a scheduled time of transmission of a packet the differentiated traffic based on the prioritization of the multiple traffic sub-classes ; paragraph 0172, 0182-0184).
However, Karampatsis et al, does not specifically teach that the second data packet is a data packet depending on the first data packet; the fourth data packet is a data packet on which the third data packet depends; the information of the first data packet is configured to indicate a range of the first data packet; and the information of the third data packet is configured to indicate a range of the third data packet.
On the other hand, Rastogi, from the same field of endeavor, teaches that the second data packet is a data packet depending on the first data packet; the fourth data packet is a data packet on which the third data packet depends (read as: determining whether notification criteria have been satisfied relating to either the amount of detected congestion or the time since a congestion report has been provided to the core network 102; the criteria may specify a threshold time limit after a previously generated congestion report; congestion may be evidenced by dropped, discarded, retransmitted, or lost data packets, and by repeated requests for packet retransmissions paragraph 0013-0014; paragraph 0.059, 0089-0093); the information of the first data packet is configured to indicate a range of the first data packet (monitor congestion to detect congestion levels ; furthermore, congestion metrics may comprise numbers, rates, or other measures of packet losses, including discards and retransmission requests that occur in the protocol stacks 124 of the mobile device 110 and the base station 108 ; paragraph 0079-0084); and the information of the third data packet is configured to indicate a range of the third data packet (comparing the congestion metrics to the provided and corresponding thresholds; if one or more of the congestion metrics exceeds its corresponding congestion threshold, an action 408 is performed of generating and providing a congestion report to the core network 102; paragraph 0087).
Rastogi also discloses a radio access network that is configured to detect and report congestion radio congestion to a core network, where RAN congestion may be indicated by lost, discarded, or retransmitted data packets (paragraph 0013-0014). Note that an action 306, performed at or by the RAN 104, comprises monitoring congestion at the RAN 104, which may include congestion detected at the mobile device 110 and congestion detected at the base station 108, where congestion may be evidenced by dropped, discarded, retransmitted, or lost data packets, and by repeated requests for packet retransmissions. Action 308 comprises determining whether notification criteria have been satisfied relating to either the amount of congestion detected or the time since a congestion report has been provided to the core network 102. For example, criteria may be specified in terms of threshold numbers or rates of dropped, discarded, or retransmitted data packets. When one of the monitored metrics exceeds the corresponding threshold a congestion report is generated. Alternatively, or in addition, the criteria may specify a threshold time limit after a previously generated congestion report, only after which an additional report will be sent. If the criteria are not satisfied, RAN 104 continues to monitor congestion to detect congestion levels (paragraph 0079-0084). Furthermore, an action 404 comprises obtaining RAN congestion metrics, where the RAN congestion metrics may comprise numbers, rates, or other measures of packet losses, including discards and retransmission requests that occur in the protocol stacks 124 of the mobile device 110 and the base station 108 (paragraph 0059, 0086). An action 406 comprises comparing the congestion metrics to the provided and corresponding thresholds. If one or more congestion metrics exceeds its corresponding congestion threshold, an action 408 is performed of generating and providing a congestion report to the core network 102. Otherwise, if none of the congestion thresholds have been exceeded, the actions 404 and 406 are repeated (paragraph 0087). In addition, action 506 comprises analyzing the type and location of congestion. For example, the action 506 may comprise determining the particular bearer or service type or a user that is experiencing the congestion, based on the metrics contained in the received congestion report. Action 506 may also comprise determining the severity of the congestion in relation to desired key performance indicators, user subscription data, and/or existing QoS policies (paragraph 0089-0093). It is shown above that Rastogi discloses the features of the fourth data packet is a data packet on which the third data packet depends; the information of the first data packet is configured to indicate a range of the first data packet; and the information of the third data packet is configured to indicate a range of the third data packet. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to apply the technique of Rastogi to the communication system of Karampatsis in order to provide a method for avoiding or reducing user plane congestion at the radio access network of a cellular communication system.
Regarding claim 2, Karampatsis et al as modified discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), wherein the network resource load comprises at least one of the following: a resource load of the first communication device, a resource load of a transfer layer connected to the first communication device (the MME may transmit congestion load information, and the SGW may include congestion load information to the PGW 266, where the congestion load information may be the percentage of load in the cell ; paragraph 0442-0443), or a transmission rate of the transfer layer connected to the first communication device (the congestion mitigation measures may include traffic prioritization, traffic reduction and limitation of traffic, where the mitigation measures may be based on user subscription, type of application and type of content ; paragraph 0237, 0268).
Regarding claim 4, Karampatsis et al as modified discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), wherein the sending, by the first communication device, the first information comprises: sending, by the first communication device, an uplink data packet, wherein header information of the uplink data packet (sending a congestion indication to a core network; receiving a general packet radio system tunneling protocol packet including an first internet protocol packet associated with a first flow within a bearer; abstract, paragraph 0133) comprises the first information; and/or sending, by the first communication device, an uplink control plane signaling, wherein the uplink control plane signaling comprises the first information; wherein the header information comprises at least one of the following: a header of a GTP protocol or a header of a business application layer (obtaining, from a header of the GTP packet, an indicator indicative of a priority of the IP packet, wherein the indicator was inserted into the header of the GTP packet by the core network responsive to the congestion indication; and dropping any of the GTP packet and the first IP packet on condition that a priority of a second IP packet associated with second flow within the bearer takes precedence over the priority of the first IP packet ; abstract; paragraph 0133-0134, 0297).
Regarding claim 6, Karampatsis et al as modified discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), wherein the first target data packet is at least one of the following: a data packet with a low importance level, a data packet that needs to be discarded, a data packet that is allowed to be discarded (the base station 260 may drop (filter) the GTP packet and the IP packet on condition that the priority of the first IP packet does not takes precedence over the priorities of the IP packets; paragraph 0250-0251), a data packet that is not needed to be prioritized for guaranteed transfer, or a data packet on which a data packet that is not needed to be prioritized for guaranteed transfer depends (the base station 260 may drop IP packets of the IP flows/sub-flows having low priority sub-QCIs; the IP packets of the IP flows/sub-flows having low priority sub-QCIs dropped by the base station 260 may be based on the UE context information provided by the MME 262 and the DPI performed; paragraph 0309-0316).
Regarding claim 7, Karampatsis et al as modified discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), wherein the determining the range of the first target data packet comprises at least one of the following: the information of the first data packet with different priorities is applied step by step from the highest priority to the lowest priority to determine the range of the first target data packet; or using the importance level as the range of the first target data packet from the lowest importance level to the highest importance level; the first target data packet comprises at least one of the following: the first data packet, the second data packet, or the data packet with the lowest importance level; the range of the first target data packet comprises at least one of the following: the range of the first data packet, a range of the second data packet, or a range of the data packet with the lowest importance level; the first target data packet does not comprise at least one of the following: the third data packet or the fourth data packet; the range of the first target data packet does not comprise at least one of the following: the range of the third data packet or a range of the fourth data packet, wherein a second target data packet is a data packet depending on the first target data packet; the third data packet is a data packet that needs to be prioritized for guaranteed transfer; and the fourth data packet is a data packet on which the third data packet depends (a media access control (MAC) layer scheduler of the WTRU 202 may dynamically inspect a MAC SDU to identify the QCI sub layer priority for each packet, and perform prioritized scheduling to transmit the high priority packets first, and low priority packets next; if low priority packets become delayed in the queue past discard Timer timeout (in a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer), such packets may be discarded before transmission; such discard may reduce or otherwise affect congestion ; paragraph 0299-0303).
Regarding claim 8, Karampatsis et al as modified discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), wherein the first target operation comprises: determining whether the target data packet is within the range of the first target data packet; determining whether the target data packet is the second target data packet; executing at least one of the following for the target data packet that is within the range of the first target data packet and/or is the second target data packet: not transferring the target data packet, excluding a cache amount of the target data packet from a buffer status report, or deleting the target data packet in a buffer area; not transferring the first target data packet; in a case that the first target data packet is not transferred, not transferring the second target data packet; deleting the first target data packet and/or the second target data packet in the buffer area; adding, for other data packets, importance level information of the data packets; transferring the other data packets; not transferring all data packets; applying the information of the first data packet with different priorities step by step from the highest priority to the lowest priority and not transferring the target data packet accord with the first data packet information (the WTRU 202 may dynamically inspect a MAC SDU to identify the QCI sub layer priority for each packet, and perform prioritized scheduling to transmit the high priority packets first, and low priority packets next; paragraph 0299-0300 ); and not transferring the target data packet step by step from the lowest importance level to the highest importance level, wherein the second target data packet is a data packet depending on the first target data packet; and the other data packets are data packets other than the first target data packet and/or the second target data packet (the PCEF 270 may also include the congestion load information; the base station 260 may report congestion information to other nodes ; the congestion information reported may include one or more of the following percentage of load in a cell, current throughput and maximum throughput supported by a cell; current number of WTRUs 202 in ECM-CONNECTED state and maximum number of ECM-CONNECTED states supported by the cell; paragraph 0270, 0314-0316).
Regarding claim 9, Karampatsis et al as modified discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), wherein the second target operation comprises: adding, for a data packet, importance level information corresponding to the data packet; and sending, by the first communication device, the data packet to a target side or a target interface; the target side comprises at least one of the following: an RAN, a user plane network element, or a terminal; the target interface comprises at least one of the following: an N9 interface, an N6 interface, an N3 interface, or a Uu interface (the NMCF 224 may obtain performance metrics associated with any of the accesses 204.sub.1-3. the NMCF 224 may, for example, collect performance metrics, such as, congestion (user-plane or otherwise), connectivity, loading, latency, etc. associated with local radio and backhaul links, via interfaces on the accesses 204.sub.1-3; the NMCF 224 may garner the performance metrics from one or more network condition reports; paragraph 0127, 0268).
Regarding claim 12, Karampatsis et al as modified discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), wherein the data transfer guaranteeing operation comprises at least one of the following: transferring the data packets with high priority preferentially; transferring the data packets with high importance levels preferentially; transferring a third target data packet and/or a fourth target data packet preferentially; transferring the third target data packet and/or the fourth target data packet with high priority preferentially; the third target data packet is a data packet that needs to be prioritized for guaranteed transfer (the Source/Target MME 262/262-T may transmit a Handover Request to target eNodeB 260-T, where the Source/Target MME 262/262-T may include the source MME congestion load information in the Handover Request message; the target eNodeB 260-T may store source eNodeB congestion load status in order to be aware of the congestion load in all adjacent eNodeB cells and dynamically decide whether a future handover should proceed in the source eNodeB 260; if the target eNodeB 260-T has resources to allocate the bearer required, the eNodeB 260-T may respond with a Handover Request ACK, as shown at call flow part 3818; paragraph 0430-0432); or the fourth target data packet is a data packet on which the third target data packet depends; and/or, wherein the executing, by the first communication device, the data transfer guaranteeing operation comprises: acquiring related information of the third data packet; executing, by the first communication device, the data transfer guaranteeing operation according to the related information of the third data packet, wherein the related information of the third data packet comprises at least one of the following: the information of the third data packet, a resource load corresponding to the third data packet, a priority corresponding to the third data packet, or an index of the information of the third data packet (the PCEF 270 may also include the congestion load information; the base station 260 may report congestion information to other nodes ; the congestion information reported may include one or more of the following percentage of load in a cell, current throughput and maximum throughput supported by a cell; current number of WTRUs 202 in ECM-CONNECTED state and maximum number of ECM-CONNECTED states supported by the cell; paragraph 0270, 0314-0316).
Regarding claim 13, Karampatsis et al as modified discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), wherein the executing the first operation comprises: in a case that a fourth condition is met, executing the first operation according to the information of the first data packet, or determining that the information of the first data packet is effective; the fourth condition comprises at least one of the following: the congestion starts; the first category information is acquired; an actual resource load reaches the resource load corresponding to the first data packet (the PCEF 270 may receive congestion load information; information may include: the sponsors identification, a usage threshold and whether the PCRF 220 reports such events to the AF 272, and information identifying an application service provider and application, for example, SDFs, Application ID; furthermore, the PCRF 220 may have subscribed to the PCEF 270 to monitor the usage of a particular user; the PCRF 220 may indicate to the PCEF 270 to be notified if a usage threshold has been met ; exceeding, approaching and/or satisfying a threshold ; paragraph 0094, 0133-0134, 0402); or an index information is acquired, and the index information is configured to indicate the information executing the first data packet corresponding to the index information (the MME may generate and transmit a Modify Bearer Request message to the SGW; the Modify Bearer request message may include the congestion load information; in addition, the new MME 262-N may include congestion load information in the Update Location Information towards the HSS 218; paragraph 0347-0348).
Regarding claim 14, Karampatsis et al as modified discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), wherein the stopping executing the first target operation and/or executing the second target operation comprise at least one of the following: in a case that a fifth condition is met, executing the first operation according to the information of the first data packet; the fifth condition comprises at least one of the following: the congestion ends; an actual resource load does not reach a resource load corresponding to the first data packet; the first category information is not acquired ; or the second category information is acquired (the base station 260 may drop the GTP packet and/or the IP packet on condition that the priority of the first IP packet does not takes precedence over the priorities of the previously received IP packets; the MME 262 may reject the request due to indications of high RAN user plane congestion load; furthermore, the source eNodeB 260 may transmit the eNodeB Status Transfer message to the target eNodeB 260-T via the MME to convey the PDCP and HFN status of the E-RABs for which PDCP status preservation applies, where the source eNodeB 260 may omit transmitting this message if none of the E-RABs of the WTRU 202 may be treated with PDCP status preservation; paragraph 0252, 0381, 0435).
Regarding claims 16, 19, Karampatsis et al discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), comprising: executing, by a second communication device, a second operation (Base station 260: first communication device and second communication device may be able to detect user plane congestion; base station 260 may be assumed to support a “Deep Packet Inspection” capability where inspection of the QoS parameters( i.e. sub-QCI parameters of IP flows/sub-flows; paragraph 0316, 0347, 0381), wherein the second operation comprises at least one of the following: acquiring first information (the WTRU 102 may acquire location information; paragraph 0053), wherein the first information comprises at least one of the following: first category information or second category information (read as: radio resource management, traffic classification, quality of service policy enforcement; traffic differentiation based on respective levels or classes of service ; receive Application Identifier, service flow descriptions, if available, and application detection start/ stop event triggers report; reporting of the start and the stop of a detected applications and transfer of SDF descriptions and application instance identifiers for detected applications from the PCEF 270 to the PCRF 220, reporting of the accumulated usage of network resources on a per IP-CAN session basis from the PCEF 270 to the PCRF220, delivery of IP CAN session specific parameters from the PCEF 270 to the PCRF 220 ; paragraph 0097, 0105; furthermore, the PCRF 220 upon receiving congestion load information from the PCEF 270 via Gx (located in PDNGW/GGSN) or via the BBERF for PMIP based S5 via Gxx; the PCRF 270 may provide updated QoS rules for specific services based on the congestion status reported, the time of date, the usage threshold of the user and/or the subscription profile requirements stored in the SPR 218; paragraph 0382-0383); measuring a network resource load (the base station, one or more measures to mitigate the congestion based on corresponding one or more measures taken by the PCRF; measurements or metrics about the network may be collected by the WTRU 202 and by one or more RANs; paragraph 0121-0122); determining an importance level of a target data packet (the base station 260 may determine if any of the traffic is classified in accordance with one or more infra-QCI levels, and if so, may make appropriate drop decisions based on such determination ; paragraph 0176), data flow description information corresponding to the target data packet (the base station 260 may perform deep packet inspection of IP packets of the previously received GTP packets to determine the priorities of the received IP packets; paragraph 0053, 0252), and/or a tunnel to which the target data packet is mapped (each TFT may include packet filtering information for identifying and mapping packets to specific bearers ; paragraph 0161); determining a range of a first target data packet (the network node to perform active queue management may determine whether the flow has a sub-flow policy defined and signature available ; paragraph 0222); applying information of the first data packet with different priorities in a priority sequence (the priority of the first IP packet does not takes precedence over the priorities of the previously received IP packets) to execute the second first target operation; stopping the second first target operation and/or executing a second target operation, or, executing the second first target operation (the base station 260 may drop the GTP packet and/or the IP packet on condition that the priority of the first IP packet does not takes precedence over the priorities of the previously received IP packets; the MME 262 may reject the request due to indications of high RAN user plane congestion load; furthermore, the source eNodeB 260 may transmit the eNodeB Status Transfer message to the target eNodeB 260-T via the MME to convey the PDCP and HFN status of the E-RABs for which PDCP status preservation applies, where the source eNodeB 260 may omit transmitting this message if none of the E-RABs of the WTRU 202 may be treated with PDCP status preservation; paragraph 0252, 0381, 0435); or executing a data transfer guaranteeing operation (the WTRU 102 may receive location information over the air interface 116 from a base station (base stations 114a, 114b) and determine its location based on the timing of the signals being received from two or more nearby base stations; paragraph 0053), wherein the first category information (read as: radio resource management, traffic classification, quality of service policy enforcement, traffic differentiation based on respective levels or classes of service ; paragraph 0070, 0080) comprises at least one of the following: a monitored network resource load (the PCRF may indicate the TDF to report specific application that need to be monitored in case of high RAN user plane congestion; paragraph 0720) or an index of a load value corresponding to the network resource load (the NMCF 224 may evaluate the performance metrics, and provide the performance metrics and an evaluation of the performance metrics to various entities of the communications system 100; for instance, the NMCF 224 may monitor and generate, from the performance information and network condition reports, performance metrics related to packet retransmissions ; paragraph 0132, 0143); and first indication information (the packet may include the indication), wherein the first indication information (the base station 260 may send a congestion indication to the core network 203; the congestion indication may be sent to the PCRF 220 ; paragraph 0179, 0250) is configured to indicate at least one of the following: congestion starts (the source eNodeB 260 may start forwarding of downlink data from the source eNodeB 260 towards the target eNodeB 260-T for bearers subject to data forwarding; this may be either direct or indirect forwarding; paragraph 0436), the network resource load reaches a reporting threshold (the PCEF 270 may receive congestion load information; information may include: the sponsors identification, a usage threshold and whether the PCRF 220 reports such events to the AF 272, and information identifying an application service provider and application, for example, SDFs, Application ID; furthermore, the PCRF 220 may have subscribed to the PCEF 270 to monitor the usage of a particular user; the PCRF 220 may indicate to the PCEF 270 to be notified if a usage threshold has been met ; exceeding, approaching and/or satisfying a threshold ; paragraph 0094, 0133-0134, 0402), it is required to stop transferring data packets to the first communication device (the base station 260 may drop (filter) the GTP packet and the IP packet on condition that the priority of the first IP packet does not takes precedence over the priorities of the IP packets; paragraph 0250-0251), it is required not to transfer or allowed not to transfer the first data packet (the base station 260 may obtain, from the GTP-packet header, an indicator indicative of a priority of the first IP packet; this indicator may have been inserted into the GTP-packet header by the core network in responsive to the congestion indication; the indicator may be, for example, a sub-QCI (or sub-QCI label; note that the base station 260 may discard packets of low priority; paragraph 050-0251, 0474), it is required not to transfer or allowed not to transfer a second data packet (TDF 276 may detect a start and stop of an application traffic that matches one or more active ADC Rules; paragraph 0285, 0474), or it is required not to transfer or allowed not to transfer data packets other than a third data packet and/or a fourth data packet (the WTRU 202 may be able to mitigate congestion in the uplink direction based on operator policies provided by the ANDSF 222 ; the ANDSF policies may include information to drop low sub-QCI packets of specific applications based on the user plane congestion status in the uplink; in addition, the base station 260 may be able to detect user plane congestion, where the base station 260 may be assumed to support a Deep Packet Inspection capability where inspection of the QoS parameters of IP flows/sub-flows is possible; the base station 260 may mitigate congestion by, for example, updating a UE context stored in the MME 262 with parameters to indicate base station behavior during user plane congestion for a particular user; the UE context may include, for example, information indicating that a particular user is a high priority user, and such user should receive high QoE even at cases of high user plane congestion ; paragraph 0297-0306), information of a first data packet; or information of the third data packet (the base station 260 may drop IP packets of the IP flows/sub-flows having low priority sub-QCIs; the IP packets of the IP flows/sub-flows having low priority sub-QCIs dropped by the base station 260 may be based on the UE context information provided by the MME 262 and the DPI performed; paragraph 0309-0316), wherein the second category information comprises at least one of the following: a monitored network resource load (the PCRF may indicate the TDF to report specific application that need to be monitored in case of high RAN user plane congestion; paragraph 0720) or an index of a load value corresponding to the network resource load (the MME may generate and transmit a Modify Bearer Request message to the SGW; the Modify Bearer request message may include the congestion load information; in addition, the new MME 262-N may include congestion load information in the Update Location Information towards the HSS 218; paragraph 0347-0348); or second indication information, wherein the second indication information is configured to indicate at least one of the following: the congestion ends (the base station 260 may take into account a subscription profile stored in the UE context so as to identify how to mitigate congestion, by for example, discarding packets of low priority sub-QCIs based on the subscription profile of the user stored in the UE context ; paragraph 0299-0309), the network resource load does not reach the reporting threshold (the MME 262 may reject the request due to indications of high RAN user plane congestion load ; the MME may transmits a modify bearer command message to the SGW if there is a specific quality control indicator value for high RAN user plane congestion ; paragraph 0381, 0670-0671), or data transfer is recovered (the indication may be indicative of a policy rule to be applied to the traffic sub-class to handle the packet to; the policy rule may include parameters to use for policing and/or scheduling packets of the traffic sub-class; note that the differentiated traffic is scheduled for transmission based on a prioritization of the multiple traffic sub-classes; in addition, scheduling the differentiated traffic may include adjusting a scheduled time of transmission of a packet the differentiated traffic based on the prioritization of the multiple traffic sub-classes ; paragraph 0172, 0182-0184).
However, Karampatsis et al, does not specifically teach that the second data packet is a data packet depending on the first data packet; the fourth data packet is a data packet on which the third data packet depends; the information of the first data packet is configured to indicate a range of the first data packet; and the information of the third data packet is configured to indicate a range of the third data packet.
On the other hand, Rastogi, from the same field of endeavor, teaches that the second data packet is a data packet depending on the first data packet; the fourth data packet is a data packet on which the third data packet depends (read as: determining whether notification criteria have been satisfied relating to either the amount of detected congestion or the time since a congestion report has been provided to the core network 102; the criteria may specify a threshold time limit after a previously generated congestion report; congestion may be evidenced by dropped, discarded, retransmitted, or lost data packets, and by repeated requests for packet retransmissions paragraph 0013-0014; paragraph 0089-0093); the information of the first data packet is configured to indicate a range of the first data packet (monitor congestion to detect congestion levels ; furthermore, congestion metrics may comprise numbers, rates, or other measures of packet losses, including discards and retransmission requests that occur in the protocol stacks 124 of the mobile device 110 and the base station 108 ; paragraph 0079-0084); and the information of the third data packet is configured to indicate a range of the third data packet (comparing the congestion metrics to the provided and corresponding thresholds; if one or more of the congestion metrics exceeds its corresponding congestion threshold, an action 408 is performed of generating and providing a congestion report to the core network 102; paragraph 0087).
Rastogi also discloses a radio access network that is configured to detect and report congestion radio congestion to a core network, where RAN congestion may be indicated by lost, discarded, or retransmitted data packets (paragraph 0013-0014). Note that an action 306, performed at or by the RAN 104, comprises monitoring congestion at the RAN 104, which may include congestion detected at the mobile device 110 and congestion detected at the base station 108, where congestion may be evidenced by dropped, discarded, retransmitted, or lost data packets, and by repeated requests for packet retransmissions. Action 308 comprises determining whether notification criteria have been satisfied relating to either the amount of congestion detected or the time since a congestion report has been provided to the core network 102. For example, criteria may be specified in terms of threshold numbers or rates of dropped, discarded, or retransmitted data packets. When one of the monitored metrics exceeds the corresponding threshold a congestion report is generated. Alternatively, or in addition, the criteria may specify a threshold time limit after a previously generated congestion report, only after which an additional report will be sent. If the criteria are not satisfied, RAN 104 continues to monitor congestion to detect congestion levels (paragraph 0079-0084). Furthermore, an action 404 comprises obtaining RAN congestion metrics, where the RAN congestion metrics may comprise numbers, rates, or other measures of packet losses, including discards and retransmission requests that occur in the protocol stacks 124 of the mobile device 110 and the base station 108 (paragraph 0086). An action 406 comprises comparing the congestion metrics to the provided and corresponding thresholds. If one or more congestion metrics exceeds its corresponding congestion threshold, an action 408 is performed of generating and providing a congestion report to the core network 102. Otherwise, if none of the congestion thresholds have been exceeded, the actions 404 and 406 are repeated (paragraph 0087). In addition, action 506 comprises analyzing the type and location of congestion. For example, the action 506 may comprise determining the particular bearer or service type or a user that is experiencing the congestion, based on the metrics contained in the received congestion report. Action 506 may also comprise determining the severity of the congestion in relation to desired key performance indicators, user subscription data, and/or existing QoS policies (paragraph 0089-0093). It is shown above that Rastogi discloses the features of the fourth data packet is a data packet on which the third data packet depends; the information of the first data packet is configured to indicate a range of the first data packet; and the information of the third data packet is configured to indicate a range of the third data packet. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to apply the technique of Rastogi to the communication system of Karampatsis in order to provide a method for avoiding or reducing user plane congestion at the radio access network of a cellular communication system.
Regarding claims 17, 20, Karampatsis et al discloses a data progressing method (figs 32-33: congestion mitigation), comprising: executing, by a third communication device, a third operation (Base station 260: first communication device and second communication device may be able to detect user plane congestion; base station 260 may be assumed to support a “Deep Packet Inspection” capability where inspection of the QoS parameters( i.e. sub-QCI parameters of IP flows/sub-flows; paragraph 0316, 0347, 0381), wherein the third operation comprises at least one of the following: generating or updating a first policy (generate performance metrics based, at least in part, on the performance information and/or network condition reports ; quality of service policy enforcement ; paragraph 0132); sending the first policy (send congestion load information during UTRAN to E-UTRAN inter RAT handover; the PCEF 270 may also include the congestion load information ; paragraph 0024, 0270); the first policy comprises at least one of the following: a policy for not transferring data packets, a policy for prioritized guaranteed transfer of the data packets (the base station 260 may obtain from the GTP-packet header, an indicator indicative of a priority of the first IP packet; this indicator may have been inserted into the GTP-packet header by the core network in responsive to the congestion indication; the indicator may be, for example, a sub-QCI (or sub-QCI label). In an embodiment, obtaining the indication may include performing packet inspection of the GTP-packet header to reveal the indicator; paragraph 0250-0251; if the PCRF determines that the policy decision depends on the status of the policy counters available at the OCS (for example, policies on congestion load based on the spending limits) and such reporting is not established for the subscriber, the PCRF may transmit an Initial Spending Limit Report Request, as shown at call flow part 3412; paragraph 0294-0295, 0408), a policy for monitoring the network resource load, one or more information of the first data packet, one or more information of the third data packet, and tenth indication information (the NMCF 224 may evaluate the performance metrics, and provide the performance metrics and an evaluation of the performance metrics to various entities of the communications system 100; for example, the NMCF 224 may monitor and generate, from the performance information and network condition reports, performance metrics related to packet retransmissions ; paragraph 0132, 0142-0143), wherein the tenth indication information is configured to indicate: in a case that a ninth condition is met, allowing not to transfer a part of data packets of a first object (the MME may query the HSS for a subscriber profile for update quality of service (QoS) information; the HSS may carry out an HSS initiated subscribed QoS modification procedure; the PGW may have pre-configured policies installed that defined specific QoS behavior for specific IP flows based on reported congestion level; the PCRF may provide updated QoS rules for specific services based on a congestion status reported, a time of date, a usage threshold of the user, and/or a subscription profile requirements stored in a subscriber profile repository ; the MME may revokes a S1 interface overload procedure by transmitted an overload start; paragraph 0650-0651; paragraph 0694-0697), allowing not to transfer the first data packet and/or the second data packet (if the source MME 262 detects that target eNodeB 260-T is served by a different MME, the source MME 262 may transmit a Forward Relocation Request including various parameters and/or the congestion load information, as shown at call flow part 3808; at call flow part 3810, the target MME 262-T may decide whether handover may proceed taking into account the procedure of call flow part 3806; paragraph 0431-0435), requiring to guarantee the third data packet and/or the fourth data packet preferentially (), and allowing not to transfer the data packets other than the third data packet and/or the fourth data packet (determine whether a congestion indication (flag) should be sent for a particular S1-U flow; if the cell is congested, then the eNodeB may set the congestion indication for all traffic bearers for all WTRUs with downlink traffic in the cell; the congestion may be determined only in downlink or uplink direction, and the eNodeB may set the congestion indication for WTRUs that have significant traffic in the direction of the congestion; paragraph 0511-0513); the ninth condition comprises at least one of the following: the network resource cannot satisfy a transfer requirement of all data of the first object, a network cannot guarantee QoS of the first object, and the network is congested; the first object comprises at least one of the following: a terminal, a QoS flow, a radio bearer, a data flow, and a data set; wherein the policy for not transferring data packets comprises at least one of the following: fourth indication information, wherein the fourth indication information is configured to indicate at least one of the following: it is required to discard or allowed not to transfer all data packets, it is required to discard or allowed not to transfer the first data packet (the MME 262 may reject the request due to indications of high RAN user plane congestion load ; the MME may transmits a modify bearer command message to the SGW if there is a specific quality control indicator value for high RAN user plane congestion ; paragraph 0381, 0670-0671), it is required to discard or allowed not to transfer the second data packet (the base station 260 may take into account a subscription profile stored in the UE context so as to identify how to mitigate congestion, by for example, discarding packets of low priority sub-QCIs based on the subscription profile of the user stored in the UE context ; paragraph 0299-0309), and it is allowed not to transfer the data packets other than the third data packet and/or the fourth data packet; one or more related information of the first data packet, and one or more related information of the third data packet , wherein the related information of the first data packet comprises at least one of the following: the information of the first data packet, an index of the information of the first data packet, an effective condition of the related information of the first data packet, and an ineffective condition of the related information of the first data packet (the MME may generate and transmit a Modify Bearer Request message to the SGW; the Modify Bearer request message may include the congestion load information; in addition, the new MME 262-N may include congestion load information in the Update Location Information towards the HSS 218; paragraph 0347-0348).
However, Karampatsis et al, does not specifically teach that the information of the third data packet is configured to indicate a range of the third data packet; the second data packet is a data packet depending on the first data packet; and the fourth data packet is a data packet on which the third data packet depends.
On the other hand, Rastogi, from the same field of endeavor, teaches that the information of the third data packet is configured to indicate a range of the third data packet (monitor congestion to detect congestion levels ; furthermore, congestion metrics may comprise numbers, rates, or other measures of packet losses, including discards and retransmission requests that occur in the protocol stacks 124 of the mobile device 110 and the base station 108 ; paragraph 0079-0084); the second data packet is a data packet depending on the first data packet (comparing the congestion metrics to the provided and corresponding thresholds; if one or more of the congestion metrics exceeds its corresponding congestion threshold, an action 408 is performed of generating and providing a congestion report to the core network 102; paragraph 0087); and the fourth data packet is a data packet on which the third data packet depends (read as: determining whether notification criteria have been satisfied relating to either the amount of detected congestion or the time since a congestion report has been provided to the core network 102; the criteria may specify a threshold time limit after a previously generated congestion report; congestion may be evidenced by dropped, discarded, retransmitted, or lost data packets, and by repeated requests for packet retransmissions paragraph 0013-0014; paragraph 0089-0093).
Rastogi also discloses a radio access network that is configured to detect and report congestion radio congestion to a core network, where RAN congestion may be indicated by lost, discarded, or retransmitted data packets (paragraph 0013-0014). Note that an action 306, performed at or by the RAN 104, comprises monitoring congestion at the RAN 104, which may include congestion detected at the mobile device 110 and congestion detected at the base station 108, where congestion may be evidenced by dropped, discarded, retransmitted, or lost data packets, and by repeated requests for packet retransmissions. Action 308 comprises determining whether notification criteria have been satisfied relating to either the amount of congestion detected or the time since a congestion report has been provided to the core network 102. For example, criteria may be specified in terms of threshold numbers or rates of dropped, discarded, or retransmitted data packets. When one of the monitored metrics exceeds the corresponding threshold a congestion report is generated. Alternatively, or in addition, the criteria may specify a threshold time limit after a previously generated congestion report, only after which an additional report will be sent. If the criteria are not satisfied, the RAN 104 continues to monitor congestion to detect congestion levels (paragraph 0079-0084). Furthermore, an action 404 comprises obtaining RAN congestion metrics, where the RAN congestion metrics may comprise numbers, rates, or other measures of packet losses, including discards and retransmission requests that occur in the protocol stacks 124 of the mobile device 110 and the base station 108 (paragraph 0086). An action 406 comprises comparing the congestion metrics to the provided and corresponding thresholds. If one or more congestion metrics exceeds its corresponding congestion threshold, an action 408 is performed of generating and providing a congestion report to the core network 102. Otherwise, if none of the congestion thresholds have been exceeded, the actions 404 and 406 are repeated (paragraph 0087). In addition, action 506 comprises analyzing the type and location of congestion. For example, the action 506 may comprise determining the particular bearer or service type or a user that is experiencing the congestion, based on the metrics contained in the received congestion report. Action 506 may also comprise determining the severity of the congestion in relation to desired key performance indicators, user subscription data, and/or existing QoS policies (paragraph 0089-0093). It is shown above that Rastogi discloses the features of the information of the first data packet is configured to indicate a range of the first data packet; and the information of the third data packet is configured to indicate a range of the third data packet. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to apply the technique of Rastogi to the communication system of Karampatsis in order to provide a method for avoiding or reducing user plane congestion at the radio access network of a cellular communication system.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5, 10, 11 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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MARCEAU MILORD
Examiner
Art Unit 2641
/MARCEAU MILORD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641
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