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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/30/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because:
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they include the following reference character(s) not mentioned in the description:
“step 98” in figure 9;
“step 99” in figure 9.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because:
uses phrases which can be implied, such as, “This application discloses” (see line 1).
A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
The recitation in page 43 paragraph [0293] line 1 “Step 78” seems to be improper because it is improperly constructed (see above objections to the drawings); it is suggested to be changed to “Step 98”
The recitation in page 43 paragraph [0294] line 1 “Step 79” seems to be improper because it is improperly constructed (see above objections to the drawings); it is suggested to be changed to “Step 99”
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Krendzel (WO 2021069057 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Krendzel discloses data acquisition method (method of data acquisition figure 20, page 3 lines 7-14, 25), transmittin7g, by a first network element (service consumer and/or S-(i) NWDAF, first network entity) in a first public land mobile network, PLMN, (PLMN1 being the visitor network) a first request (request for data analytics being first message, step 1 and/or step 6, step 6 showing a processed request) to a second network element (T-(i) NWDAF and/or service producer, second network entity) in a second PLMN (PLMN2), wherein the first request is used to acquire a data analytics result generated by the second PLMN for the roaming user terminal (figure 20, request for data analytics, the request is for a NWDAF service producer in another PLMN), and the roaming user terminal is a user terminal that roams from the first PLMN to the second PLMN or a user terminal that roams from the second PLMN to the first PLMN; (UE roams from PLMN2 to PLMN1) and receiving, by the first network element, a first response transmitted by the second network element for the first request (step 9 and/or step 10, figure 20); wherein the first request comprises an identifier of a second area in the second PLMN (first message indicating a PLMN and region-specific notification target address, source and target region IDs page 3 line 14) and a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores a program or instructions capable of running on the processor, and when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the steps of the data acquisition (see figure 3).
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Regarding claims 5 and 15, Krendzel discloses data acquisition method (methods of figure 16 or 20), characterized by receiving (step 1, figure 20), by a first interface network element in a first PLMN (S-(i) NWDAF, PLMN1), a first request (data analytics request, first message) transmitted by a first network element (service consumer) in the first PLMN, wherein the first request is used to acquire a data analytics result generated by the second PLMN (PLMN2) for the roaming user terminal, and the roaming user terminal is a user terminal that roams from the first PLMN to the second PLMN or a user terminal that roams from the second PLMN to the first PLMN (inter-PLMN roaming terminal); processing (steps 2-5), by the first interface network element, the first request, and transmitting a processed first request (steps 6-8) to a second network element (service provider) in the second PLMN; receiving (steps 8 and 9), by the first interface network element, a first response transmitted by the second network element for the first request; and transmitting (step 10), by the first interface network element, the first response to the first network element; wherein the first request comprises an identifier of a second area in the second PLMN (first message indicating a PLMN and region-specific notification target address, source and target region IDs page 3 line 14) and a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores a program or instructions capable of running on the processor, and when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the steps of the data acquisition (see figure 3).
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Krendzel discloses data acquisition method (methods of figure 16 or 20), characterized by receiving (step 6), by a second interface network element in a second PLMN (T-NWDAF in PLMN2), a first request (request in step 6 which is processed from request in step 1, first message) transmitted by a first network element in a first PLMN (service consumer in PLMN1), wherein the first request is used to acquire a data analytics result generated by the second PLMN for the roaming user terminal, and the roaming user terminal is a user terminal that roams from the first PLMN to the second PLMN or a user terminal that roams from the second PLMN to the first PLMN; transmitting (message exchange in step 8), by the second interface network element, the first request to a second network element (NF service producer) in the second PLMN; acquiring, by the second interface network element, a first response (message exchange in step 8) transmitted by the second network element for the first request; and transmitting (messages in steps 9 and/or 10), by the second interface network element, the first response to the first network element; wherein the first request comprises an identifier of a second area in the second PLMN (first message indicating a PLMN and region-specific notification target address, source and target region IDs page 3 line 14) and a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores a program or instructions capable of running on the processor, and when the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the steps of the data acquisition (see figure 3).
Regarding claims 2, 6, 10, 12, 16 and 20, Krendzel discloses claims 1, 5, 9, 11, 15 and 19, Krendzel also discloses at least one of the following information: an identifier of the second PLMN, used to indicate a data provider network; a first roaming indication, used to indicate that the first request is specific to the roaming user terminal, or indicate that the first request is specific to the user terminal that roams from the first PLMN to the second PLMN or the user terminal that roams from the second PLMN to the first PLMN; an identifier of the first PLMN, used to indicate a data requester network; or an identifier of a first area in the first PLMN, used to indicate that the roaming user terminal is located in the first area or comes from the first area through roaming (step 6, figure 20, data analytics request message containing source and target PLMN IDs)
Regarding claim 3, Krendzel discloses claim 2, Krendzel also discloses transmitting, by the first network element, the first request to the second network element through a first interface network element (any interfacing network element, e.g. S-(i) NWDAF or even NRF PLMN1 corresponding to NRF PLMN2 figure 20, where NRF PLMN1 is selected based on identifier of the PLMN).
Regarding claim 4, Krendzel discloses claim 3, Krendzel also discloses determining, by the first network element based on the identifier of the first PLMN and/or the identifier of the second PLMN, the first interface network element that is in the first PLMN and that corresponds to the second PLMN (any interfacing network element, e.g. S-(i) NWDAF or even NRF PLMN1 corresponding to NRF PLMN2 figure 20, where NRF PLMN1 is selected based on identifier of the PLMN).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Krendzel discloses claims 5 and 15, Krendzel also discloses determining, by the first interface network element, a second interface network element in the second PLMN (determined second interface network element being T-(i) WDAF).
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Krendzel discloses claims 5 and 15, Krendzel also discloses transmitting, by the first interface network element, the processed first request to the second network element through the second interface network element (determined second interface network element being T-(i) WDAF).
Regarding claim 13, Krendzel discloses claim 12, Krendzel also discloses transmitting the first request to the second network element through a first interface network element (step 7, target (I) NWDAF verifies the correctness of the subscription correlation identifier and further the target (l)NWDAF checks based on its inter-PLMN network data analytics provision restriction information if the analytics request can be provided to the S- PLMN)
Regarding claim 14, Krendzel discloses claim 13, Krendzel also discloses determining, based on the identifier of the first PLMN and/or the identifier of the second PLMN, the first interface network element that is in the first PLMN and that corresponds to the second PLMN (step 7, target (I) NWDAF verifies the correctness of the subscription correlation identifier and further the target (l)NWDAF checks based on its inter-PLMN network data analytics provision restriction information if the analytics request can be provided to the S- PLMN).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Lauster (US 20190200207 A1) discloses techniques for providing subscriber-specific routing of a roaming user equipment in a visited communication network.
Fu (US 20250211967 A1) methods for exposure of data/analytics of a communication network in roaming scenario.
Hu (US 9763077 B2 ) discloses method and system for implementing data routing of roaming user.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUAN A TORRES whose telephone number is (571)272-3119. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kenneth N Vanderpuye can be reached at (571) 272-3078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUAN A TORRES/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2634
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