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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The specification exemplifies a computer readable medium as different types of tangible, hardware storage, but also as a software. Hence, claims 15-20 recite a computer readable medium which can be broadly interpreted as a computer signal, which is non-statutory. This rejection can be overcome by inserting the word “non-transitory” in front of "computer readable medium.
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 1-4, 6-11, 13-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Xiong (US 2022/0224646).
Regarding claims 1, 8, 15, Xiong describes a communication method applied to a session management function (SMF) network element /communication apparatus [comprising at least one processor coupled to at least one memory storing instructions and configured to execute the instructions for the apparatus] / computer readable medium [comprising computer instructions to be run on an electronic device]
comprising:
obtaining routing information corresponding to a second data network access identifier (fig. 5 S510 & para. 122-123, SMF receiving target (second) routing information including the target data network access identifier. See also abstract));
obtaining an address of an edge application server (AS) corresponding to a service accessed by a terminal device (fig. 5 S510 & para. 122-123, SMF receiving the first & second AS address that the UE (terminal devices) uses for service continuity, see also abstract);
determining the second data network access identifier based on the address of the edge application server (fig. 5 S520 & para.131-132, second AS network address (second data network access identifier) is translated (determined) from first AS network address as part of the NAT rule. See also abstract),
determining, based on the routing information corresponding to the second data network access identifier, a packet processing rule corresponding to the service (fig. 5 S520 & para. 131-132, generating a packet processing rule according the the target traffic routing information & the NAT rule translation above. See also abstract), and
sending the packet processing rule to a user plane function (UPF) network element (fig. 5 S530 & para. 133-134, delivering the packet processing result to a target network device being the first UPF network element).
Regarding claims 2, 9, 16, Xiong describes:
wherein the routing information corresponding to the second data network access identifier is N6 traffic routing information corresponding to the second data network access identifier (table 9 after para. 110-112, “route to” (second data network access identifier) location identifies as N6 traffic routing information).
Regarding claims 3, 10, 17, Xiong describes:
the obtaining the routing information corresponding to the second data network access identifier comprises comprising:
receiving, the routing information corresponding to the second data network access identifier from a network exposure function (NEF) network element (fig. 4 step 2c & para. 128 or 273, SMF receives form NEF the relocation info message which includes the target traffic routing information)
Regarding claims 4, 11, 18, Xiong describes:
receiving, the routing information corresponding to the second data network access identifier from the network exposure function network element comprises:
receiving, second edge application server deployment information from the network exposure function network element, wherein the second edge application server deployment information comprises at least one data network access identifier, and routing information corresponding to each of the at least one data network access identifier, and wherein the at least one data network access identifier comprises the second data network access identifier (fig. 4 step 2c & para. 128 or 273, SMF receives from NEF the relocation info message which includes the target traffic routing information. The target routing information comprising also the target (second) data network access identifier, see abstract).
Regarding claims 6, 13, 19, Xiong describes:
receiving, from an edge application server discovery function network element, the address of the edge application server corresponding to the service accessed by the terminal device (fig. 5 & para. 123, SMF receives the target relocation message from NEF (edge application server discovery function)).
Regarding claims 7, 14, 20, Xiong describes:
wherein the packet processing rule is a forwarding action rule (para. 7, based on the packet processing rule, causes the target network device to forward).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 12 and 19 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.
Regarding claims 5, 12, 19, the prior art fails to further explicitly describe:
based on the address of the edge application server being within an address range indicated by a first address range information included in the second edge application server deployment information, determining, in the second edge application server deployment information, the second data network access identifier corresponding to the first address range information.
The closest prior art, Zhu (US 2022/0060970) describing routing rule configuration method involving generation of routing rule to first & second UPF (fig. 5),
in combination with Xiong, fails to further explicitly describe the above additional features as a whole obvious.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Hu (US 2026/0143339) describing terminal sending first network information of a second network to a first network, where the first network information includes first indication information of the second network, and the first indication information indicating that the terminal requests to access the second network (abstract), Fromentoux (US 2025/0119818) describing method of updating access policy (title & fig. 1-2), Kim (US 2025/0227002) describing UPF sending a UE policy to serving gateway, but not to a UPF (fig. 5B), Rommer (US 2025/0211537) describing SMF receiving PCC rule comprising SDF filters, Application ID, TSP IDs) & sends N4 rules to the UPF (fig. 5), De Foy (US 2023/0413212) describing that SMF retrieves subscript & profiles before configuring UPF2, Salkintzis (US 2020/0022069) describing accessing 1+ service via local data network in response to determining first data connection provides acess to local data network (fig. 6 #615), Velev (US 2025/0168759) describing network enabling UE to use a localized service in a hosting network, the method comprising determining one or more available networks; from the determined one or more available networks, UE selecting a hosting network of the identified one or more hosting networks; and establishing a network connection with the selected hosting network, Tonesi (US 2024/0154931) describing edge application service where UE requests to SMF a PDU session establishment request & SMF exchanges with UPF regarding the session, establishment/modification (fig. 13), Chong (US 2020/0275332) describing network handover method and a session management network element comprising receiving, by a session management network element, first indication information and second indication information from an access management network element, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate that a terminal device is handed over from a first network to a second network to set up a voice service, and the second indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device needs to return to the first network after the voice service ends; and sending, by the session management network element, the first indication information and the second indication information to an access network device of the second network (abstract), Zhu (US 2020/0304983) describing user policy acquisition method, comprising URSP acquisition method wherein a first PCF network element of a VPLMN receiving a first URSP of an HPLMN comprising a first rule from a second PCF network element of the HPLMN; and sending, a second URSP of the VPLMN comprising a second rule and a third rule to a UE, wherein the first rule indicates an association between a first S-NSSAI, a first application, and a first DNN, the first DNN is used to identify a first DN, the first DN allows LBO and supports the first application (abstract), Qiao (US 2023/0328596) describing handover for a session of a wireless device. The handover request indicates an internet protocol (IP) address, of the wireless device, used by a first user plane function (UPF) to a second network, Xu (US 20210160186) describing policy mapping method for a PDU session establishment (fig. 5), Kiss (US 2023/0319681) - USER EQUIPMENT (UE) ROUTING SELECTION POLICY (URSP) RULES FOR A ROAMING UE (title), Gundavelli (US 2023/0063570) describing network service configuration comprising URSP policies for the UE and PDU establishment request steps/procedure to/from L-UPF #204 * 206 (fig. 2A & clm. 1), Yu (US 2020/0128087) describing Session establishment method using PPPoE session identifier and/or the IP address to the UPF (fig. 3A-B), Tang (US 2020/0412559) describing method and apparatus for updating a UE policy (title), Zhu (US 20220060970) describing routing rule configuration method involving generation of routing rule to first & second UPF (fig. 5), and Sun (US 20210045033) & (US 2021/0385284) describing variation step to a PDU session establishment procedure (fig. 7A-9B).
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WARNER WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2469
/WARNER WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
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