DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . In virtue of the Application filed on 11/15/2024, in which claims 1-20 are presented for examination, wherein claims 1, 9, 17 are recited in independent form. The present Application is a Continuation of 17/466,942 (Now US Pat. No. 11,785,636 ) and 18/460,267 (now US Pat. No. 12,177,888).
Claim Interpretation
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, without importing limitations from the specification. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is only limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
Double Patenting
The Examiner has reviewed the Application and has determined that no rejection with respect to Double Patenting is present with respect to claims 1-20 of the present Application in view of US Pat. Nos. 12,177,888 and 11,785,636. The claims of the present application are drawn to a distinct invention.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over United States Patent Application Publication US-20180376364 to Keller et al (hereinafter d1) in view of United States Patent Application Publication US-20210359912 to Tervonen et al (hereinafter d2) in view of WIPO publication WO-2020125941 to Shariatmadari et al (hereinafter d3).
Regarding claim 1, as to the limitations “A method comprising:” d1 discloses a system which includes a network (see d1 Figs. 1, 2, 5, 8) wherein the network includes devices fairly construed as: network functions (see d1 para. 0015-0017, 0022), Radio network or radio access nodes (see d1 para. 0002, 0014 Figs. 13-14); wherein the nodes include at least elements which are fairly construed as a control system (see d1 Figs. 13-14), and which are controlled to perform a method (see d1 Fig. 11);
as to the limitation “determining a combination of communication slices for a user communication device; selecting a scheduling priority for the user communication device based on the combination of the communication slices; scheduling data transfers for the user communication device based on the selected scheduling priority; and transferring user data for the user communication device based on the scheduling of the data transfers” d1 discloses the network as the environment for the nodes thereof to be controlled to perform actions including: a radio network node 12 receives, from the first network node 13 during the connection setup for the wireless device 10, the transmission of the indication. The indication indicates the supported first set of functionalities. The transmission may further comprise the tuning parameter (see d1 para. 0095-0096);
D1 also discloses in action 1102 that the radio network node 12 may further receive from the second network node 14 a second indication. The second network node 14 supports a second set of functionalities out of the total set of functionalities in the core network of the communication network. The second set of functionalities belongs to the second network slice of the core network, and is separated from the first set of functionalities out of the total set of functionalities in the core network. The second indication indicates a second set of functionalities supported by the second network slice (i.e. determining a combination of communication slices for a user communication device) (see d1 para. 0097);
D1 also discloses in action 1103 that the radio network node 12 schedules one or more resources for communicating with the wireless device 10 taking into account the indication. In addition, the radio network node 12 may take the tuning parameter into account when providing priority to the scheduling of the one or more resources. In addition, the radio network node 12 may take quality class identifier of a bearer supporting communication from the network node 13 to the wireless device 10 into account. When the radio network node 12 receives the second indication, the radio network node 12 may schedule the one or more resources taking the first indication and the second indication into account. An association between the wireless device 10 and the received indication may be stored at the radio network node 12 (i.e. selecting a scheduling priority for the user communication device based on the combination of the communication slices; scheduling data transfers for the user communication device based on the selected scheduling priority) (see d1 para. 0098);
As to the limitation “transferring user data for the user communication device based on the scheduling of the data transfers” d1 suggests that the allocated slices are used for data communication (see d1 para. 0098, 0102).
d1 appears to address all the limitation of the claim, may meet the requirements under a broadest reasonable interpretation, in order to provide the most complete and effective examination, or in the event d1 is shown to not teach any of the limitations noted above, attention is directed to d2 which, in a similar field of endeavor of wireless communication, teaches methods, devices, systems and computer readable medium embodiments directed to wireless communication in application to network slicing (see d2 para. 0001) including detecting contention as well as prioritization (see d2 Figs. 5 and 7, paras. 0071-0072, 0094, 0096, 0097). D2 also suggests in Fig. 6 at steps 500 and 502 may be performed in the above-described manner, and frame transmissions may be carried out in block 600, as described above with reference to steps 504 to 526. During the association, uplink And/or downlink management frames may be transmitted in step 602, and the transmitter and receiver addresses in the management frames may be the default MAC addresses of the station 100 and the access node 104. This embodiment is applicable to the above-described embodiments as well (see d2 para. 0088). D2 also suggests in block 604, the station or the access node determines to terminate station's subscription to a network slice (URLLC slice in this example). The determination may result from terminating an application using the service of the network slice in the apparatus 100. As a result of block 604, a deassociation procedure may be started for the network slice, and the deassociation may be confined only to the network slice. The other network slice(s) and the default connection may be maintained and frame transmissions conducted. If the station initiated the deassociation of step 606, the station may transmit a deassociation request frame comprising the transmitter MAC address of the network slice under deassociation (the MAC address mapped to the URLLC network slice in this example). Upon receiving the deassociation request with the MAC address of the specific (URLLC) network slice as the transmitter MAC address, or with the default MAC address as the transmitter address and the request comprising the MAC address associated with the specific network slice in a payload, the access node may determine that the deassociation is confined to the specified network slice and start the deassociation for only the specified network slice. As a consequence, the access node may perform the deassociation and, optionally, deauthentication for only the specified network slice. Upon completing the deassociation, the access node may transmit a deassociation response frame with an indication of the MAC address of the specified (URLLC) network slice. After the deassociation of the (URLLC) network slice, the channel contention and frame transmissions may continue within the association in other network slice(s) and over the default data connection (block 608) (see d2 para. 0089). D1 also suggests the network and nodes to carry out the functionality (see d2 Figs. 1, 8-9). Therefore, d2 also appears to teach the limitations of the claims, certainly when considered in combination with d1.
D2 contain ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve optimized provision resources for the specific service and traffic and improve how resources are shared across different network slices (see d2 para. 0053). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2 as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (network slicing) for similar purposes (prioritization) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success. one of ordinary skill in the art
In order to provide the most complete and effective examination, and to address any limitations shown in the future to no be taught by the combination of d1 in view of d2, attention is directed to d3 which, in a similar field of endeavor of wireless communication, teaches methods, devices, systems and computer readable medium embodiments directed to wireless communication in application to network slicing (see d2 page 1, (see d3 page 4 lines 16-34) and scheduling (i.e. allocating) (see d3 page 13 line 12- page 14 line 7). D3 also suggests proactive resource allocation (see d3 page. 9 lines 21-25; page 10 lines 26-page 11 line 6; Fig. 5 page 13 line 12-page 14 line 27; page 12 lines 30-36);
D3 contain ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including improving network performance (see d3 page 13 line 12- page 14 line 7). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d3 as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d3 in order to achieve the stated advantages. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (network slicing) for similar purposes (prioritization) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success. one of ordinary skill in the art
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system and/or method of d1 regarding wireless communication, to incorporate the details of scheduling as taught by d3. One of ordinary skill in the art as of the effective filing date would be motivated to combine the teaching of d1 and d3 to at least achieve any one of the plurality of desired results found throughout d3 including at least: improving network performance (see d3 page 13 line 12- page 14 line 7) as is suggested by d3. D3 is related to d1 in a similar field of endeavor (wireless communication) and one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would be motivated to apply the known techniques of d3 to the implementation of d1 to yield the predictable result of improving network performance, with no undue experimentation and without altering the function thereof, wherein both techniques were known and used as of the effective filing date. It is also noted that many of the noted sections of d3 can equally be applied to the other limitations of the claims rejected under this section when d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 is considered as a whole and not individually.
Regarding claim 2, as to the limitation “The method of claim 1 further comprising the combination of the communication slices transferring at least some of the user data” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests using the allocated resources to transfer user data (see d1 para 0098, 0102; d2 para. 0060-0061, 0073).
Regarding claim 3, as to the limitations “The method of claim 1 further comprising the combination of the communication slices controlling the transfer of at least some of the user data” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests controlling the allocated resources to transfer user data (see d1 para 0098, 0102; d2 para. 0060-0061, 0073).
Regarding claim 4, as to the limitation “the method of claim 1 wherein: scheduling the data transfers comprises allocating wireless resource blocks to the user communication device based on the selected scheduling priority; and transferring the user data comprises wirelessly transferring the user data in the wireless resource blocks” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests allocating wireless resource blocks to the user communication device based on the selected scheduling priority; and transferring the user data comprises wirelessly transferring the user data in the wireless resource blocks (see d1 para. 0076, 0080, 0094, 0098; d2 para. 0071-0072, 0094-0096).
Regarding claim 5, as to the limitation “the method of claim 1 wherein selecting the scheduling priority based on the combination of the communication slices comprises selecting the scheduling priority based on a low-latency one of the communication slices” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests selecting the scheduling priority based on a low-latency one of the communication slices (see d2 Fig. 6 para. 0087-0089).
Regarding claim 6, as to the limitation “The method of claim 1 wherein selecting the scheduling priority based on the combination of the communication slices comprises selecting the scheduling priority based on a fixed-wireless one of the communication slices” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests selecting the scheduling priority based on a fixed-wireless one of the communication slice (see d2 para. 0074).
Regarding claim 7, as to the limitation “The method of claim 1 wherein selecting the scheduling priority based on the combination of the communication slices comprises selecting the scheduling priority based on an amount of the communication slices” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests selecting the scheduling priority based on an amount of the communication slices (see d2 para. 0078).
Regarding claim 8, as to the limitation “The method of claim 1 wherein scheduling the data transfers based on the selected scheduling priority comprises proactively scheduling at least some of the data transfers by granting wireless communication resources to the user communication device without requiring the user communication device to request the wireless communication resources” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests proactively scheduling at least some of the data transfers by granting wireless communication resources to the user communication device without requiring the user communication device to request the wireless communication resources (see d3 page. 9 lines 21-25; page 10 lines 26-page 11 line 6; Fig. 5 page 13 line 12-page 14 line 27; page 12 lines 30-36).
Regarding claim 9, as to the limitations “A wireless access node comprising: a node control system” d1 discloses a system which includes a network (see d1 Figs. 1, 2, 5, 8) wherein the network includes devices fairly construed as: network functions (see d1 para. 0015-0017, 0022), Radio network or radio access nodes (see d1 para. 0002, 0014 Figs. 13-14); wherein the nodes include at least elements which are fairly construed as a control system (see d1 Figs. 13-14), and which are controlled to perform a method (see d1 Fig. 11);
as to the limitation “determine a combination of communication slices for a user communication device; the node control system to select a scheduling priority for the user communication device based on the combination of the communication slices; the node control system to schedule data transfers for the user communication device based on the selected scheduling priority; and a radio to wirelessly transfer user data for the user communication device based on the scheduling of the data transfers” d1 discloses the network as the environment for the nodes thereof to be controlled to perform actions including: a radio network node 12 receives, from the first network node 13 during the connection setup for the wireless device 10, the transmission of the indication. The indication indicates the supported first set of functionalities. The transmission may further comprise the tuning parameter (see d1 para. 0095-0096);
D1 also discloses in action 1102 that the radio network node 12 may further receive from the second network node 14 a second indication. The second network node 14 supports a second set of functionalities out of the total set of functionalities in the core network of the communication network. The second set of functionalities belongs to the second network slice of the core network, and is separated from the first set of functionalities out of the total set of functionalities in the core network. The second indication indicates a second set of functionalities supported by the second network slice (i.e. determining a combination of communication slices for a user communication device) (see d1 para. 0097);
D1 also discloses in action 1103 that the radio network node 12 schedules one or more resources for communicating with the wireless device 10 taking into account the indication. In addition, the radio network node 12 may take the tuning parameter into account when providing priority to the scheduling of the one or more resources. In addition, the radio network node 12 may take quality class identifier of a bearer supporting communication from the network node 13 to the wireless device 10 into account. When the radio network node 12 receives the second indication, the radio network node 12 may schedule the one or more resources taking the first indication and the second indication into account. An association between the wireless device 10 and the received indication may be stored at the radio network node 12 (i.e. selecting a scheduling priority for the user communication device based on the combination of the communication slices; scheduling data transfers for the user communication device based on the selected scheduling priority) (see d1 para. 0098);
As to the limitation “transferring user data for the user communication device based on the scheduling of the data transfers” d1 suggests that the allocated slices are used for data communication (see d1 para. 0098, 0102).
d1 appears to address all the limitation of the claim, may meet the requirements under a broadest reasonable interpretation, in order to provide the most complete and effective examination, or in the event d1 is shown to not teach any of the limitations noted above, attention is directed to d2 which, in a similar field of endeavor of wireless communication, teaches methods, devices, systems and computer readable medium embodiments directed to wireless communication in application to network slicing (see d2 para. 0001) including detecting contention as well as prioritization (see d2 Figs. 5 and 7, paras. 0071-0072, 0094, 0096, 0097). D2 also suggests in Fig. 6 at steps 500 and 502 may be performed in the above-described manner, and frame transmissions may be carried out in block 600, as described above with reference to steps 504 to 526. During the association, uplink And/or downlink management frames may be transmitted in step 602, and the transmitter and receiver addresses in the management frames may be the default MAC addresses of the station 100 and the access node 104. This embodiment is applicable to the above-described embodiments as well (see d2 para. 0088). D2 also suggests in block 604, the station or the access node determines to terminate station's subscription to a network slice (URLLC slice in this example). The determination may result from terminating an application using the service of the network slice in the apparatus 100. As a result of block 604, a deassociation procedure may be started for the network slice, and the deassociation may be confined only to the network slice. The other network slice(s) and the default connection may be maintained and frame transmissions conducted. If the station initiated the deassociation of step 606, the station may transmit a deassociation request frame comprising the transmitter MAC address of the network slice under deassociation (the MAC address mapped to the URLLC network slice in this example). Upon receiving the deassociation request with the MAC address of the specific (URLLC) network slice as the transmitter MAC address, or with the default MAC address as the transmitter address and the request comprising the MAC address associated with the specific network slice in a payload, the access node may determine that the deassociation is confined to the specified network slice and start the deassociation for only the specified network slice. As a consequence, the access node may perform the deassociation and, optionally, deauthentication for only the specified network slice. Upon completing the deassociation, the access node may transmit a deassociation response frame with an indication of the MAC address of the specified (URLLC) network slice. After the deassociation of the (URLLC) network slice, the channel contention and frame transmissions may continue within the association in other network slice(s) and over the default data connection (block 608) (see d2 para. 0089). D1 also suggests the network and nodes to carry out the functionality (see d2 Figs. 1, 8-9). Therefore, d2 also appears to teach the limitations of the claims, certainly when considered in combination with d1.
D2 contain ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve optimized provision resources for the specific service and traffic and improve how resources are shared across different network slices (see d2 para. 0053). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2 as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (network slicing) for similar purposes (prioritization) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success. one of ordinary skill in the art
In order to provide the most complete and effective examination, and to address any limitations shown in the future to no be taught by the combination of d1 in view of d2, attention is directed to d3 which, in a similar field of endeavor of wireless communication, teaches methods, devices, systems and computer readable medium embodiments directed to wireless communication in application to network slicing (see d2 page 1, (see d3 page 4 lines 16-34) and scheduling (i.e. allocating) (see d3 page 13 line 12- page 14 line 7). D3 also suggests proactive resource allocation (see d3 page. 9 lines 21-25; page 10 lines 26-page 11 line 6; Fig. 5 page 13 line 12-page 14 line 27; page 12 lines 30-36);
D3 contain ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including improving network performance (see d3 page 13 line 12- page 14 line 7). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d3 as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d3 in order to achieve the stated advantages. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (network slicing) for similar purposes (prioritization) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success. one of ordinary skill in the art
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system and/or method of d1 regarding wireless communication, to incorporate the details of scheduling as taught by d3. One of ordinary skill in the art as of the effective filing date would be motivated to combine the teaching of d1 and d3 to at least achieve any one of the plurality of desired results found throughout d3 including at least: improving network performance (see d3 page 13 line 12- page 14 line 7) as is suggested by d3. D3 is related to d1 in a similar field of endeavor (wireless communication) and one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would be motivated to apply the known techniques of d3 to the implementation of d1 to yield the predictable result of improving network performance, with no undue experimentation and without altering the function thereof, wherein both techniques were known and used as of the effective filing date. It is also noted that many of the noted sections of d3 can equally be applied to the other limitations of the claims rejected under this section when d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 is considered as a whole and not individually.
Regarding claim 10, as to the limitation “the wireless access node of claim 9 wherein the node control system comprises a Radio Resource Control (RRC) to determine the combination of the communication slices for the user communication device” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests and RRC context using the allocated resources to transfer user data (see d1 para. 0004, 0098, 0102; d2 para. 0060-0061, 0073).
Regarding claim 11, as to the limitations “The wireless access node of claim 9 wherein the node control system comprises a Media Access Control (MAC) to select the scheduling priority for the user communication device based on the combination of the communication slices” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests the well-known and commonly used MAC as the basis for controlling the allocated resources to transfer user data (see d2 para. 0049, 0060-0069; d1 para. 0098, 0102; d2 para. 0060-0061, 0073).
Regarding claim 12, as to the limitation “The wireless access node of claim 9 wherein the node control system comprises a Radio Resource Control (RRC) to select the scheduling priority for the user communication device based on the combination of the communication slices” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests and RRC context for selectin wireless resource blocks to the user communication device based on the selected scheduling priority; and transferring the user data comprises wirelessly transferring the user data in the wireless resource blocks (see d1 para. 0004, 0076, 0080, 0094, 0098 Fig. 11 para. 0095-00098; d2 para. 0071-0072, 0094-0096).
Regarding claim 13, as to the limitation “The wireless access node of claim 9 wherein the node control system comprises a Media Access Control (MAC) to schedule the data transfers for the user communication device based on the selected scheduling priority” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests the well-known and commonly used context of MAC for scheduling the priority (see d1 para. 0076, 0080, 0094, 0098; d2 Fig. 6 para. 0087-0089).
Regarding claim 14, as to the limitation “The wireless access node of claim 9 wherein the node control system is to select the scheduling priority based on a low-latency one of the communication slices” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests selecting the scheduling priority based on a low-latency one of the communication slices (see d2 Fig. 6 para. 0087-0089)
Regarding claim 15, as to the limitation “The wireless access node of claim 9 wherein the node control system is to select the scheduling priority based on an amount of the communication slices” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests selecting the scheduling priority based on an amount of the communication slices (see d2 para. 0078).
Regarding claim 16, as to the limitation “The wireless access node of claim 9 wherein the node control system is to proactively schedule at least some of the data transfers by granting wireless communication resources to the user communication device without requiring the user communication device to request the wireless communication resources” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests proactively scheduling at least some of the data transfers by granting wireless communication resources to the user communication device without requiring the user communication device to request the wireless communication resources (see d3 page. 9 lines 21-25; page 10 lines 26-page 11 line 6; Fig. 5 page 13 line 12-page 14 line 27; page 12 lines 30-36).
Regarding claim 17, as to the limitations “A wireless communication network comprising: network functions” d1 discloses a system which includes a network (see d1 Figs. 1, 2, 5, 8) wherein the network includes devices fairly construed as: network functions (see d1 para. 0015-0017, 0022), Radio network or radio access nodes (see d1 para. 0002, 0014 Figs. 13-14); wherein the nodes include at least elements which are fairly construed as a control system (see d1 Figs. 13-14), and which are controlled to perform a method (see d1 Fig. 11);
as to the limitation “elect combinations of wireless network slices for individual User Equipment (UEs); wireless access nodes to determine scheduling priorities for the individual UEs based on their combinations of the wireless network slices; the wireless access nodes to schedule wireless resources for the individual UEs based on the scheduling priorities; the wireless access nodes to exchange user data between the individual UEs and the wireless network slices based on the wireless resource scheduling; and the wireless network slices to exchange the user data with the wireless access nodes and process the user data to deliver wireless network services to the individual UEs” d1 discloses the network as the environment for the nodes thereof to be controlled to perform actions including: a radio network node 12 receives, from the first network node 13 during the connection setup for the wireless device 10, the transmission of the indication. The indication indicates the supported first set of functionalities. The transmission may further comprise the tuning parameter (see d1 para. 0095-0096);
D1 also discloses in action 1102 that the radio network node 12 may further receive from the second network node 14 a second indication. The second network node 14 supports a second set of functionalities out of the total set of functionalities in the core network of the communication network. The second set of functionalities belongs to the second network slice of the core network, and is separated from the first set of functionalities out of the total set of functionalities in the core network. The second indication indicates a second set of functionalities supported by the second network slice (i.e. determining a combination of communication slices for a user communication device) (see d1 para. 0097);
D1 also discloses in action 1103 that the radio network node 12 schedules one or more resources for communicating with the wireless device 10 taking into account the indication. In addition, the radio network node 12 may take the tuning parameter into account when providing priority to the scheduling of the one or more resources. In addition, the radio network node 12 may take quality class identifier of a bearer supporting communication from the network node 13 to the wireless device 10 into account. When the radio network node 12 receives the second indication, the radio network node 12 may schedule the one or more resources taking the first indication and the second indication into account. An association between the wireless device 10 and the received indication may be stored at the radio network node 12 (i.e. selecting a scheduling priority for the user communication device based on the combination of the communication slices; scheduling data transfers for the user communication device based on the selected scheduling priority) (see d1 para. 0098);
As to the limitation “transferring user data for the user communication device based on the scheduling of the data transfers” d1 suggests that the allocated slices are used for data communication (see d1 para. 0098, 0102).
d1 appears to address all the limitation of the claim, may meet the requirements under a broadest reasonable interpretation, in order to provide the most complete and effective examination, or in the event d1 is shown to not teach any of the limitations noted above, attention is directed to d2 which, in a similar field of endeavor of wireless communication, teaches methods, devices, systems and computer readable medium embodiments directed to wireless communication in application to network slicing (see d2 para. 0001) including detecting contention as well as prioritization (see d2 Figs. 5 and 7, paras. 0071-0072, 0094, 0096, 0097). D2 also suggests in Fig. 6 at steps 500 and 502 may be performed in the above-described manner, and frame transmissions may be carried out in block 600, as described above with reference to steps 504 to 526. During the association, uplink And/or downlink management frames may be transmitted in step 602, and the transmitter and receiver addresses in the management frames may be the default MAC addresses of the station 100 and the access node 104. This embodiment is applicable to the above-described embodiments as well (see d2 para. 0088). D2 also suggests in block 604, the station or the access node determines to terminate station's subscription to a network slice (URLLC slice in this example). The determination may result from terminating an application using the service of the network slice in the apparatus 100. As a result of block 604, a deassociation procedure may be started for the network slice, and the deassociation may be confined only to the network slice. The other network slice(s) and the default connection may be maintained and frame transmissions conducted. If the station initiated the deassociation of step 606, the station may transmit a deassociation request frame comprising the transmitter MAC address of the network slice under deassociation (the MAC address mapped to the URLLC network slice in this example). Upon receiving the deassociation request with the MAC address of the specific (URLLC) network slice as the transmitter MAC address, or with the default MAC address as the transmitter address and the request comprising the MAC address associated with the specific network slice in a payload, the access node may determine that the deassociation is confined to the specified network slice and start the deassociation for only the specified network slice. As a consequence, the access node may perform the deassociation and, optionally, deauthentication for only the specified network slice. Upon completing the deassociation, the access node may transmit a deassociation response frame with an indication of the MAC address of the specified (URLLC) network slice. After the deassociation of the (URLLC) network slice, the channel contention and frame transmissions may continue within the association in other network slice(s) and over the default data connection (block 608) (see d2 para. 0089). D1 also suggests the network and nodes to carry out the functionality (see d2 Figs. 1, 8-9). Therefore, d2 also appears to teach the limitations of the claims, certainly when considered in combination with d1.
D2 contain ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including to improve optimized provision resources for the specific service and traffic and improve how resources are shared across different network slices (see d2 para. 0053). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d2 as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d2 in order to achieve the stated advantages. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (network slicing) for similar purposes (prioritization) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success. one of ordinary skill in the art
In order to provide the most complete and effective examination, and to address any limitations shown in the future to no be taught by the combination of d1 in view of d2, attention is directed to d3 which, in a similar field of endeavor of wireless communication, teaches methods, devices, systems and computer readable medium embodiments directed to wireless communication in application to network slicing (see d2 page 1, (see d3 page 4 lines 16-34) and scheduling (i.e. allocating) (see d3 page 13 line 12- page 14 line 7). D3 also suggests proactive resource allocation (see d3 page. 9 lines 21-25; page 10 lines 26-page 11 line 6; Fig. 5 page 13 line 12-page 14 line 27; page 12 lines 30-36);
D3 contain ample teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention including improving network performance (see d3 page 13 line 12- page 14 line 7). Such teaching, suggestion, and/or motivation, is found in references d1 and/or d3 as well as being found squarely within the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. One of ordinary skill in the art would look to modify d1 with the teaching of d3 in order to achieve the stated advantages. Furthermore, the techniques are employed in the same field of endeavor (wireless communication) in a similar manner (network slicing) for similar purposes (prioritization) which would yield a reasonable expectation of success. one of ordinary skill in the art
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system and/or method of d1 regarding wireless communication, to incorporate the details of scheduling as taught by d3. One of ordinary skill in the art as of the effective filing date would be motivated to combine the teaching of d1 and d3 to at least achieve any one of the plurality of desired results found throughout d3 including at least: improving network performance (see d3 page 13 line 12- page 14 line 7) as is suggested by d3. D3 is related to d1 in a similar field of endeavor (wireless communication) and one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would be motivated to apply the known techniques of d3 to the implementation of d1 to yield the predictable result of improving network performance, with no undue experimentation and without altering the function thereof, wherein both techniques were known and used as of the effective filing date. It is also noted that many of the noted sections of d3 can equally be applied to the other limitations of the claims rejected under this section when d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 is considered as a whole and not individually.
Regarding claim 18, as to the limitation “The wireless communication network of claim 17 wherein some of the wireless network slices comprise low-latency slices” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests selecting the scheduling priority based on a low-latency one of the communication slices (see d2 Fig. 6 para. 0087-0089).
Regarding claim 19, as to the limitation “The wireless communication network of claim 17 wherein some of the wireless network slices comprise fixed-wireless slices” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests selecting the scheduling priority based on a fixed-wireless one of the communication slice (see d2 para. 0074).
Regarding claim 20, as to the limitation “The wireless communication network of claim 17 wherein some of the wireless access nodes comprise Fifth Generation New Radio (5GNR) gNodeBs” d1 in view of d2 in view of d3 suggests 5G NR as a conceived environment for the invention which carries the understood implementation of gNBs (see d3 page 2 lines 2-15).
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/NATHAN S TAYLOR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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