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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Invention I. in the reply filed on March 3, 2026 is acknowledged. Applicant’s arguments are found persuasive because are related processes that are usable together. See MPEP 806.05(j)
Restriction requirement is withdrawn.
Claims 1-19 are pending.
Claim Interpretation
For claims 1-8, 13-15 and 18 -19, the following limitation is interpreted as a Markush group:
“the federated learning capability information of the first network element comprises at least one of the following:
type information of federated learning training supported by the first network element,
time information of federated learning training supported by the first network element, or
metadata information possessed by the first network element.”
Each member is within the same art-recognized class as a registration parameter of a capabilities request. The members are interpreted as functionally equivalent and have a common use. See MPEP § 2117.
For claims 9-12,16-17 and 20, the following limitation is interpreted as a Markush group:
“at least one of the following:
type information of federated learning training supported by the first network element,
time information of federated learning training supported by the first network element, or
metadata information possessed by the first network element.”
Each member is within the same art-recognized class as a discovery response parameter. The members are interpreted as functionally equivalent and have a common use. See MPEP § 2117.
If Applicant disagrees with Examiner’s interpretation, Applicant is invited to provide alternative arguments/rationale.
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)(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.
Claims 1-11, 13-16 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Xin et al. U.S. Patent Application publication 2023/0083982.
Claims 1, 13, and 18,
Xin discloses
A network element registration method, wherein the method comprises:
sending, by a first network element, a registration request to a second network element (para 0307-Step 803 The client NWDAF triggers the network element management_network element registration request service operation to the NRF network element),
wherein the registration request is used to request registration of federated learning capability information of the first network element with the second network element (para 0307), and
the federated learning capability information of the first network element comprises at least one of the following:
type information of federated learning training supported by the first network element (para 0376-supported federated learning capability information),
time information of federated learning training supported by the first network element, or
metadata information possessed by the first network element.
Xin discloses A network element, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein a program or instructions executable on the processor are stored in the memory, and when the program or the instructions are executed by the processor (para 0416-0421)
Claims 2, and 14,
wherein the type information of the federated learning training supported by the first network element comprises at least one of the following: a federated learning server capability (0376- server ), or a federated learning client capability.
Xin discloses A network element, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein a program or instructions executable on the processor are stored in the memory. (para 0421-0422)
Claim 3-4 are conditional limitations not required to disclose the invention.
Claim 5,
wherein the registration request further comprises analytics identification (ID) information supported by the first network element (para 0244-0249- step 701, analytics ID-para 00249).
Claim 6,
wherein the analytics ID information corresponds to the type information of the federated learning training (para 0248-0249).
Claim 7,
wherein the analytics ID information corresponds to the federated learning capability information of the first network element (para 0248).
Claims 8, 15, and 19,
Xin discloses
A network element registration method, wherein the method comprises:
receiving, by a second network element, a registration request sent by a first network element (para 0307-Step 803 The client NWDAF triggers the network element management_network element registration request service operation to the NRF network element),
wherein the registration request is used to request registration of federated learning capability information of the first network element with the second network element (para 0307), and the federated learning capability information of the first network element comprises at least one of the following:
type information of federated learning training supported by the first network element (para 0376-supported federated learning capability information),
time information of federated learning training supported by the first network element, or
metadata information possessed by the first network element.
Xin discloses A network element, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein a program or instructions executable on the processor are stored in the memory, and when the program or the instructions are executed by the processor (para 0416-0421)
Claims 9, 16 and 20,
Xin discloses
A model determining method, wherein the method comprises:
sending, by a third network element, a discovery request to a second network element (Para 0317- The server NWDAF triggers a network element discovery request (Nnrf_NFDiscovery_Request) to the NRF network element),
wherein the discovery request is used to request to discover a network element capable of federated learning training (para 0317- The network element discovery request requests, from the NRF network element, the first client NWDAF list that can perform horizontal federated learning.), the discovery request comprises first information, and the first information comprises at least one of the following:
time information of the federated learning training corresponding to the target task,
metadata information of a network element of the federated learning training corresponding to the target task, or
network element type requirement information (para 0319- It may be understood that the first indication information indicates, to the NRF network element, a type of a client NWDAF or an algorithm performance requirement that is required by the server NWDAF.);
wherein the network element type requirement information is used to indicate a network element type corresponding to a to-be-discovered network element capable of federated learning training, and the network element type comprises a federated learning server network element type and/or a federated learning client network element type (para 0320).
Xin discloses A network element, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein a program or instructions executable on the processor are stored in the memory, and when the program or the instructions are executed by the processor (para 0416-0421)
Claim 10 is a conditional limitation not required to disclosed the invention.
Claim 11,
wherein after the sending, by a third network element, a discovery request to a second network element, the method further comprises:
receiving, by the third network element, a discovery response sent by the second network element (para 0325- The NRF network element sends a network element discovery response to the server NWDAF, where the network element discovery response includes the first client NWDAF list.),
wherein the discovery response comprises
identification information or address information of a target network element (para 0322-slice instance, vendor, DNAI), and
the target network element is a network element supporting federated learning training (para 0321- The NRF network element determines the first client NWDAF list that can perform horizontal federated learning. The first client NWDAF list includes information about each client NWDAF in a client NWDAF 1 to a client NWDAF n.); and
performing, by the third network element, federated learning training along with the target network element to obtain model information corresponding to the target task (para 0335-a client NWDAF is selected to perform horizontal federated learning)
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xin et al. U.S. Patent Application publication 2023/0083982 in view of Karapantelakis et al. U.S. Patent Application publication 2024/0064211.
Claim 12,
Although Xin discloses substantial limitations of the claimed invention, it fails to disclose
wherein the discovery response further comprises second information, and the second information comprises at least one of the following:
type information of federated learning training supported by the target network element, or
time information of federated learning training supported by the target network element.
In an analogous art, Karapantelakis discloses
time information within a NRF discovery message (para 0042 and Table 1)
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would find it obvious to combine the validity time of Karapantelakis with the Xin system to produce the predictable result for providing NRF response with validity times for federated learning capabilities.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xin et al. U.S. Patent Application publication 2023/0083982 in view of XU et al. U.S. Patent Application publication 2024/0064611.
Claim 17,
Xin discloses
A network element, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein a program or instructions executable on the processor are stored in the memory, and when the program or the instructions are executed by the processor. (para 0416-0421)
Although Xin discloses substantial limitations of the claimed invention, it fails to disclose
wherein the discovery response further comprises second information, and the second information comprises at least one of the following:
type information of federated learning training supported by the target network element, or
time information of federated learning training supported by the target network element.
In an analogous art, XU discloses
Obtaining a for federating learning period a valid time range of local data. (para 0070).
The teaching of Xin disclose evaluating the load requirements of a federated learning client and including the load information within a discovery response in step 808. (para 0334). One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would find it obvious to apply the presentation of the candidate NF information of XIN to the valid range of data of XU to produce the predictable result of presenting the valid range of data within the discovery results. The collection of the data and presentation of the result would operate in an ordinary predictable manner.
Conclusion
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/JMC/Examiner, Art Unit 2459
/TONIA L DOLLINGER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2459
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