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 Status
Claims 2-5 and 7-20 have been amended. Thus, claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
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 of this title, 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 1-4, 6-9, 11-14, 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (US Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0313851) in view of Ryu et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0037496).
Regarding claim 1, Chen teaches a communication method (Fig. 1), comprising:
determining, by a policy control function network element, that a category of a backhaul network of a terminal device is a satellite backhaul category (PCF determines satellite backhaul category for a UE [s101 | Paragraphs 55-58]);
determining, by the policy control function network element, policy information of the terminal device based on the satellite backhaul category and service deployment information (policy info is determined based on service and backhaul [Paragraphs 15, 20, 24-25, 54, 134, 136, 138]), [
sending, by the policy control function network element, the policy information to the terminal device (PCF sends the policy to the UE [s202 | Paragraph 73]).
However, Chen does not explicitly mention: wherein the service deployment information comprises information about a service deployed on a satellite, the policy information comprises a correspondence between the service deployed on the satellite and a first-type routing policy, and the first-type routing policy is used for determining a user plane function network element on the satellite as a session anchor of the terminal device.
Ryu teaches, in a similar field of endeavor of communication systems, the following:
wherein the service deployment information comprises information about a service deployed on a satellite, the policy information comprises a correspondence between the service deployed on the satellite and a first-type routing policy, and the first-type routing policy is used for determining a user plane function network element on the satellite as a session anchor of the terminal device (for the disclosed system (Fig. 1), a relationship between the deployment and a UPF session anchor for the UE is provided within the service deployment information for satellite [Paragraph 50-51, 55-59, 62, 150]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system (as taught by Chen) by determining session anchor for the UE (as taught by Ryu) for the purpose of improving authentication process (Ryu – Paragraph 47).
Regarding claim 2, Ryu further teaches the communication method according to claim 1, wherein the determining, by the policy control function network element, that the category of the backhaul network of the terminal device is the satellite backhaul category comprises: obtaining, by the policy control function network element, the satellite backhaul category from an access and mobility management function network element ([Paragraphs 137, 150, 160]).
Regarding claim 3, Ryu further teaches the communication method according to claim 1, further comprising: obtaining, by the policy control function network element, the service deployment information ([Paragraphs 12, 15, 20, 24]).
Regarding claim 4, Ryu further teaches the communication method according to claim 1, wherein the satellite backhaul category is a geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite backhaul category ([Paragraph 204]).
Regarding claim 6, Chen teaches a communication method (Fig. 1), comprising:
obtaining, by a terminal device, first indication information from an access and mobility management function network element, wherein the first indication information indicates that a category of a backhaul network of the terminal device is a satellite backhaul category (PCF determines satellite backhaul category for a UE [s101 | Paragraphs 55-58]);
receiving, by the terminal device, policy information from a policy control function network element (policy info is determined based on service and backhaul [Paragraphs 15, 20, 24-25, 54, 134, 136, 138]), [
determining, by the terminal device based on the first indication information and the policy information, the first-type routing policy corresponding to the first-type service (routing policy is then determined by the UE corresponding to the service [Paragraphs 15, 20, 24-25, 54, 134, 136, 138]).
However, Chen does not explicitly mention: wherein the policy information comprises a correspondence among a first-type service, a first-type routing policy, and second indication information, the first-type service is a service deployed on a satellite, the first-type routing policy is used for determining a user plane function network element on the satellite as a session anchor of the terminal device, and the second indication information indicates that the policy information is used when the category of the backhaul network is the satellite backhaul category.
Ryu teaches, in a similar field of endeavor of communication systems, the following:
wherein the policy information comprises a correspondence among a first-type service, a first-type routing policy, and second indication information, the first-type service is a service deployed on a satellite, the first-type routing policy is used for determining a user plane function network element on the satellite as a session anchor of the terminal device, and the second indication information indicates that the policy information is used when the category of the backhaul network is the satellite backhaul category (for the disclosed system (Fig. 1), a relationship between the deployment and a UPF session anchor for the UE is provided within the service deployment information for satellite, and the policy indicates backhaul category [Paragraph 50-51, 55-59, 62, 150]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system (as taught by Chen) by determining session anchor for the UE (as taught by Ryu) for the purpose of improving authentication process (Ryu – Paragraph 47).
Regarding claim 7, Chen further teaches the communication method according to claim 6, further comprising: storing, by the terminal device, the first indication information ([Paragraph 218]).
Regarding claim 8, Ryu further teaches the communication method according to claim 6, wherein the obtaining, by the terminal device, the first indication information from the access and mobility management function network element comprises:
receiving, by the terminal device, a registration accept message from the access and mobility management function network element, wherein the registration accept message comprises the first indication information ([Paragraphs 121, 133, 137, 163]); or receiving, by the terminal device, a configuration update message from the access and mobility management function network element, wherein the configuration update message comprises the first indication information ([Paragraphs 66, 76, 89, 114]).
Regarding claim 9, Ryu further teaches the communication method according to claim 6, wherein the satellite backhaul category is a geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite backhaul category ([Paragraph 204]).
Regarding claims 11-14, these claims are rejected as applied to claims 1-4.
Regarding claims 16-19, these claims are rejected as applied to claims 6-9.
Claims 5 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (US Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0313851) in view of Ryu et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0037496) and further in view of Pham et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0281317).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Chen and Ryu teaches all the limitations recited in claim 1.
However, the combination of Chen and Ryu does not explicitly mention: wherein the service deployment information further comprises information about a service deployed on the ground, the service deployed on the ground is different from the service deployed on the satellite, and the policy information further comprises a correspondence between the service deployed on the ground and a second-type routing policy.
Pham teaches, in a similar field of endeavor of communication systems, the following:
wherein the service deployment information further comprises information about a service deployed on the ground ([Paragraphs 16-17]), the service deployed on the ground is different from the service deployed on the satellite ([Paragraphs 20-23]), and the policy information further comprises a correspondence between the service deployed on the ground and a second-type routing policy ([Paragraphs 27, 31, 63-64]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system (as taught by Chen) by determining session anchor for the UE (as taught by Ryu) by comprising service deployed on the ground (as taught by Pham) for the purpose of enabling aggregation of spaced related systems services (Pham – Paragraph 15).
Regarding claim 15, this claim is rejected as applied to claim 5.
Claims 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (US Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0313851) in view of Ryu et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0037496) and further in view of Ravishankar et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0269780).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Chen and Ryu teaches all the limitations recited in claim 6.
However, the combination of Chen and Ryu does not explicitly mention: wherein the policy information further comprises a correspondence between the first-type service and a second-type routing policy, and the second-type routing policy is used for determining a user plane function network element on the ground as the session anchor of the terminal device.
Ravishankar teaches, in a similar field of endeavor of communication systems, the following:
wherein the policy information further comprises a correspondence between the first-type service and a second-type routing policy, and the second-type routing policy is used for determining a user plane function network element on the ground as the session anchor of the terminal device (for the disclosed system, policies are related to several services to determine a UPF on the ground [Paragraph 74]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the communication system (as taught by Chen) by determining session anchor for the UE (as taught by Ryu) by relating UPF on the ground (as taught by Ravishankar) for the purpose of identifying satellites properly (Ravishankar – Paragraph 58).
Regarding claim 20, this claim is rejected as applied to claim 10.
Conclusion
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June 22, 2026
/FABRICIO R MURILLO GARCIA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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