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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This final office action is prepared in response to amendments and arguments filed by Applicant on July 21, 2026 as a reply to the non-final office action mailed on May 18, 2026.
Claims 6-7 and 19 have been cancelled.
Claims 21-23 are newly added.
Claims 1-5, 8-18 and 20-23 are pending.
Claims 1-5, 8-18 and 20-23 are rejected.
Response to Arguments
The claim amendments and Applicant’s arguments filed on July 21, 2026 have been carefully considered but deemed unpersuasive in view of the new grounds of rejection as set forth below, necessitated by Applicant’s substantial amendments to the claims which significantly affected the scope thereof, and will require further search and consideration.
Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
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.
Claims 1-2, 4-5, 8-21 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Chun et al. (U.S. 2024/0114441, hereinafter referred to as “Chun”) in view of the article “Session Timers” published by Cisco on its website as a chapter of the Book “Ultra Cloud Core 5G Access and Mobility Management Function, Release 2022.02 - Configuration and Administration Guide - Cisco” (herein after referred to as “Cisco-SessionTimers”)
Regarding claim 1, Chun disclosed a communication method wherein the communication method is applicable to a first core network device, and the method comprising:
obtaining first condition information indicating a first condition for obtaining of a first service (Chun disclosed in Fig. 22 and [0262, 0266, 0268, 0394] that “based on the request sent to the network or the AF, the SoR-AF may receive the network access assistance information from the AF or the network (e.g., hosting network) and/or authorization information” Said SoR-AF, as well as the AMF, UDM/UDR disclosed in Figs. 20-22, can anticipate the core network device in the claim. Chun’s “network access assistance information” is an embodiment of the “first condition information” in the claim. The “service reject message” sent by the AMF to the UE as disclosed by Chun in paragraphs [0266, 0294] may also anticipate the “first condition information” in the claim. Chun further disclosed in [0238-0241] that the “network access assistance information” may include “information of time (when), information of location (where)” of UEs. Regarding “obtaining of a first service”, Chun disclosed in [0265] that “UE may send a first NAS message (e.g., a UL NAS Transport message) to an AMF. For example, the UE may send the first NAS message, if the UE requests a network access information and/or if the UE does not have the network access information.” Chun’s “UE requests a network access information” anticipates “obtaining of a first service” in the claim);
obtaining a first parameter of a terminal device, wherein the first parameter corresponds to the first condition information of the first service (Chun disclosed in [0068] that “The AMF 312 may manage a registration area of UE 301, enabling the network to track the physical location of UE 301 within the network.” And in [0073] that “NEF 340 may determine a location or reachability status of UE 301 based on reports from AMF 312, and provide status information to an external element.” The “physical location of UE 301” disclosed by Chun anticipates the “first parameter of a terminal device” in the claim); and
sending first information in association with the first parameter not meeting the first condition, wherein the first information is used to stop the terminal device from obtaining the first service (Chun disclosed in [0255] that “ the UE may not have a capability (e.g., eSOR capability) for the service of the network access information. Based on that the UE does not have the capability for the service of the network access information, the SoR-AF may reject the SoR-AF service request from the NEF.” The rejection from SoR-AF is used to stop the UE from obtaining the network access.).
Chun might not have explicitly disclosed but Cisco disclosed that
the first condition information comprises time information that includes any of:
time period information or use duration information, in association with the time information including the time period information, and the first condition including a time period range in which the first service is available, the first parameter comprises a current time at which the first core network device serves the terminal device with the first service (Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed in pages 4-5 that the Registration Rejection message may include timers T3346, T3502, which are embodiments of the “time information” in this claim clause), and
sending the first information in association with the first parameter not meeting the first condition comprises:
sending the first information in association with the current time at which the first core network device serves the terminal device with the first service not being within the time period range in which the first service is available (Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed in page 2 and pages 4-5 that AMF sends the Registration Reject message to the UE when network congestion is encountered. Said Registration Reject is an embodiment of the “first information” in the claim).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers because Chun disclosed the processes for a UE to register with a 5G network and obtain services while Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the details regarding all the timers that are used in this registration process, therefore supplements Chun’s teaching and would be obvious reference for one to use to obtain details on how to implement the UE service registration.
Regarding claim 2, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 1.
Chun further disclosed wherein the first condition information comprises location information that includes any of: tracking area information, coordinate information, or cell identifier information (Chun, [0241], “the information of location may indicate an area, one or more geographical coordinates, one or more tracking areas, one or more cells, and/or the like”).
Regarding claim 4, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 2.
Chun further disclosed wherein in association with the location information including the cell identifier information, the first condition comprises a cell range in which the first service is available (Chun, [0349], “ the one or more location information may comprise at least one of …, an information of one or more cell identifiers, …”);
obtaining the first parameter of the terminal device comprises:
sending a second message to an access network device corresponding to the terminal device, wherein the second message is for requesting a cell in which the terminal device is located (Chun, [0351], “ the UE may send a registration request message to the selected network. The registration request message may comprise at least one of an identity of the UE, a cause of registration, one or more identifier of network slices, an identifier of the first network, an identifier of the home network, and/or a capability of the UE” Chun further disclosed in Fig. 10 that the AN receives the registration request from the UE, select and AMF and then sends a registration request to the AMF); and
obtaining, from the access network device, the cell in which the terminal device is located, wherein the first parameter comprises the cell in which the terminal device is located (Chun, [0344], “ the UE may receive from a core network node (e.g., AMF, PCF, UDM, SoR-AF), a network access information. The network access information may comprise at least one of information of one or more networks (e.g., networks that UE is allowed to access, networks that the UE needs to switch to, target networks, hosting networks), and/or an activation information”); and
sending the first information in association with the first parameter not meeting the first condition comprises:
sending the first information in association with the cell in which the terminal device is located not being within the cell range in which the first service is available (Chun, [0351], “In response to sending the registration request message, the UE may receive from the second network, a registration accept message. For example, if the UE fails find a cell of the second network, the UE may not select the second network.”).
Regarding claim 5, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 2.
Chun further disclosed wherein in association with the location information including the tracking area information, the first condition comprises a tracking area range in which the first service is available (Chun, [0349], “the one or more location information may comprise at least one of … an information of one or more tracking areas.”);
obtaining the first parameter of the terminal device comprises:
sending a third message to a mobility management device corresponding to the terminal device, wherein the third message is for requesting a tracking area of the terminal device (Chun, [0351], “ the UE may send a registration request message to the selected network. The registration request message may comprise at least one of an identity of the UE, a cause of registration, one or more identifier of network slices, an identifier of the first network, an identifier of the home network, and/or a capability of the UE” Chun further disclosed in Fig. 10 that the AN receives the registration request from the UE, select and AMF and then sends a registration request to the AMF); and
obtaining the tracking area of the terminal device from the mobility management device, wherein the first parameter comprises the tracking area of the terminal device (Chun, [0344], “ the UE may receive from a core network node (e.g., AMF, PCF, UDM, SoR-AF), a network access information. The network access information may comprise at least one of information of one or more networks (e.g., networks that UE is allowed to access, networks that the UE needs to switch to, target networks, hosting networks), and/or an activation information”); and
sending the first information in association with the first parameter not meeting the first condition comprises:
sending the first information when-in association with the tracking area of the terminal device not being within the tracking area range in which the first service is available (Chun, [0351], “In response to sending the registration request message, the UE may receive from the second network, a registration accept message. For example, if the UE fails find a cell of the second network, the UE may not select the second network.”).
Regarding claim 8, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 6.
Chun further disclosed wherein in association with the time information including the use duration information, the first condition comprises a duration for which the first service is available (Chun, [0241], “the one or more networks indicated by the network list information may provide the connectivity services to the one or more UEs indicated by the UE list information, during a time period indicated by the information of the time. The time period may comprise a start time, an end time, and/or a duration.”);
obtaining the first parameter of the terminal device comprises:
starting a first timer used to obtain a duration for which the terminal device uses the first service, wherein the first parameter comprises the duration for which the terminal device uses the first service (Chun, [0192], “The wireless device 1310, base station 1320, and/or deployment 1330 may implement timers and/or counters. A timer/counter may start at an initial value”); and
sending the first information in association with the first parameter not meeting the first condition comprises:
sending the first information in association with the duration for which the terminal device uses the first service being greater than the duration for which the first service is available (Chun disclosed in [0277] that “ The validity time may indicate when the network access information may be used, when (e.g., the start time) the UE needs to start to use the network access information associated with the validity time, when (e.g., the end time) the UE needs to stop using the network access information, and/or how long (e.g., duration) the UE may use the network access information”, implying that when the start time or duration does not match the UE may not be able to use the selected network)
Regarding claim 9, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 1.
Chun further disclosed obtaining a session request message, wherein the session request message comprises at least one of: a data network name, slice information, a session type, or a service identifier of the first service (Chun disclosed in Fig. 12 and [0170] that “At 1210, the UE initiates PDU session establishment. The UE may transmit a PDU session establishment request to an AMF via an AN. The PDU session establishment request may be a NAS message. The PDU session establishment request may indicate: a PDU session ID; a requested PDU session type (new or existing); a requested DN (DNN); a requested network slice (S-NSSAI); a requested SSC mode; and/or any other suitable information”), wherein obtaining the first condition information of the first service comprises:
obtaining the first condition information of the first service based on the session request message (Chun disclosed in Fig. 12 and [0172] that “Based on the PDU session context request, the SMF may retrieve subscription data from a UDM. The subscription data may be session management subscription data of the UE”).
Regarding claim 10, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 9.
Chun further disclosed wherein the session request message further comprises the first condition information indicating the first condition for obtaining the first service (Chun disclosed in Fig. 12 and [0170] that “The PDU session establishment request may indicate: a PDU session ID; a requested PDU session type (new or existing); a requested DN (DNN); a requested network slice (S-NSSAI); a requested SSC mode; and/or any other suitable information”).
Regarding claim 11, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 9.
Chun further disclosed wherein in association with the session request message including the service identifier of the first service:
obtaining the first condition information of the first service based on the session request message comprises:
obtaining the first condition information of the first service based on the service identifier of the first service in the session request message (Chun, [0171], “the AMF may select the SMF based on a determination that the SMF is prepared to handle the requested PDU session. For example, the requested PDU session may be associated with a particular DNN and/or S-NSSAI, and the SMF may be selected based on a determination that the SMF can manage a PDU session associated with the particular DNN and/or S-NSSAI”).
Regarding claim 12, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 11.
Chun further disclosed sending a fourth message to a unified data management device, wherein the fourth message is used to subscribe to condition information of a service from the unified data management device (Chun, Fig. 12 and [0172], “Based on the PDU session context request, the SMF may retrieve subscription data from a UDM.”); and
receiving condition information of each of at least one service from the unified data management device, wherein each service corresponds to one piece of condition information (Chun, Fig. 12 and [0172], “Based on the PDU session context request, the SMF may retrieve subscription data from a UDM. The subscription data may be session management subscription data of the UE. The SMF may subscribe for updates to the subscription data, so that the PCF will send new information if the subscription data of the UE changes”), wherein obtaining the first condition information of the first service based on the service identifier of the first service in the session request message comprises:
determining the condition information of the first service from the condition information of each of the at least one service based on the service identifier of the first service in the session request message.
Regarding claim 13, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 11.
Chun further disclosed wherein in association with the first core network device being a mobility management device, the method further comprises:
receiving a fifth message from the terminal device, wherein the fifth message is used to register with a core network that provides the first service, and the fifth message comprises the service identifier of the first service (Chun disclosed in Fig. 19 and [0231], “a first network node (e.g., AMF) may receive the NAS message sent by the UE”);
sending a sixth message to a unified data management device, wherein the sixth message is for requesting the first condition information of the first service identified by the service identifier of the first service (Chun disclosed in Fig. 19 and [0232] that “for the received NAS message from the UE, the first network may send to a third network node (e.g., UDM, UDR), a UDM service request (e.g., Nudm_SDM_Get request and/or the like) message.”); and
obtaining, from the unified data management device, the first condition information of the first service identified by the service identifier (Chun disclosed in Fig. 19 and [0232] that “For the received UDM service request message and/or based on the SoR service response message, the third network node may send to the first network node, a UDM service response (e.g., Nudm_SDM_Get response and/or the like) message”), wherein obtaining the first condition information of the first service based on the service identifier of the first service in the session request message comprises:
determining the first condition information of the first service corresponding to the service identifier of the first service in the session request message (Chun disclosed in Fig. 19 and [0232] that “Based on the determination to provide the UE with the service of the network access information, the third network node may send a SoR service request (e.g., Nsoraf_SoR_Get Request) message to a fourth network node (e.g., SoR-AF). The SoR service request message may comprise the eSOR capability and/or the eSOR support indicator (e.g., of the first network, of the third network). Based on the eSOR capability and/or the eSOR support indicator, the fourth network node may determine whether to provide the UE with the service of the network access information”).
Regarding claim 14, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 1.
Chun further disclosed wherein in association with the first core network device being a mobility management device, sending the first information comprises:
sending the first information to a session management device or a policy management device, wherein the first information specifically indicates that the first service for the terminal device does not meet the first condition (Chun, Fig. 12 and [0172], “PDU session context request” or Fig. 19 and [0231], “Policy_Request(eSOR capability)”).
Regarding claim 15, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 14.
Chun further disclosed sending the service identifier of the first service to the session management device or the policy management device, wherein the first information indicates that the first service identified by the service identifier does not meet the first condition (Chun, Fig. 12 and [0172], “the SMF may transmit a PDU session context response to the AMG. The PDU session context response may be a Nsmf_PDUSession_CreateSMContext Response and/or a Nsmf_PDUSession_UpdateSMContext Response. The PDU session context response may include a session management context ID.”; or Chun, Fig. 19 and [0232-0233], “ in response to the NAS message received from the UE, the first network node may send to the UE, a DL NAS message (e.g., registration accept message, UE configuration update message). The DL NAS message may comprise information of whether the network supports eSOR. The information of whether the network support eSOR may indicate whether the network may provide the UE with the service of the network access information and/or whether the network may provide the network access information”).
Regarding claim 16, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 14.
Chun further disclosed receiving a seventh message sent by the policy management device, wherein the seventh message is used to subscribe to whether the first service identified by the service identifier meets the first condition, and the first core network device is configured to send the first information to the policy management device (Chun disclosed in Fig. 12 and [0174] the “policy association” between SMF and PCF; Chun also disclosed in Fig. 19 and [0231-0232] the “Policy_Request(eSOR capability)”).
Regarding claim 17, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed communication method applicable to a session management device, the method comprising:
receiving first information from a mobility management device, wherein the first information indicates that a first service for a terminal device does not meet a first condition (Chun, [0249], “ the network node (e.g., NEF) may receive from the data management node, the UDM service response message”); and
sending a first instruction to a user plane device based on the first information, wherein the first instruction indicates the user plane function device to stop sending the first service to the terminal device (Chun, [0249], “In response to the received UDM service response message and/or based on the received NEF service request message, the NEF may send to the AF, a NEF service response” and “the NEF service response message may indicate outcome (e.g., successful, unsuccessful, and/or the like) of processing of the NEF service request message. The outcome may indicate to the AF whether the request of the AF is accepted/processed or not.”).
Regarding claim 18, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 17. Chun further disclosed
receiving a service identifier of the first service from the mobility management device, wherein the first information specifically indicates that the first service identified by the service identifier does not meet the first condition (Chun, [0244], “the UE may not have a capability (e.g., eSOR capability) for the service of the network access information. Based on that the UE does not have the capability, the data management node may reject the UDM service request from the network node (e.g., NEF)”).
Regarding claim 19, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 17. Chun further disclosed
receiving second information from the mobility management device, wherein the second information indicates that a second service for the terminal device does not meet a second condition (Chun, Fig. 23, “UL NAS Transport(Network Access Information Request)”); and
sending a second instruction to the user plane device based on the second information, wherein the second instruction indicates the user plane device to stop sending the second service to the terminal device (Chun, Fig. 23, “Policy Response(e.g. Network access information)”), wherein in association with services corresponding to a session being the first service and the second service, the communication method further comprises:
sending third information to the user plane device, wherein the third information is used to release the session (Chun, Fig. 23, “DL NAS Transport (e.g. Network access information)”).
Claim 20 recites substantially the same subject matter as claim 1, in apparatus form rather than method form, therefore the rejection rationale for claim 1 applies to claim 20.
Regarding claim 21, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication apparatus according to claim 20.
Chun further disclosed wherein the first condition information comprises location information that includes any of: tracking area information, coordinate information, or cell identifier information (Chun, [0133], “tracking area identifier”).
Claim 23 lists substantially the same elements as claim 8, but in apparatus form rather than method form. Therefore, the rejection rationale for claim 8 applies equally as well to claim 23.
Claims 3 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers as applied to claim 2 above, in view of the 5G ETSI standards document “5G system: Location Management Services, stage 3”, hereinafter referred to as “ETSI-5G”.
Regarding claim 3, Chun and Cisco-SessionTimers disclosed the communication method according to claim 2.
Chun further disclosed wherein in association with the location information including the coordinate information, the first condition comprises a coordinate range in which the first service is available (Chun disclosed in [0241] that “the information of location may indicate an area, one or more geographical coordinates, one or more tracking areas, one or more cells, and/or the like” implicit in this disclosure is that the location may comprise a coordinate range.);
obtaining the first parameter of the terminal device comprises:
sending the first information in association with the first parameter not meeting the first condition comprises:
sending the first information in association with the coordinates of the terminal device not being within the coordinate range in which the first service is available (Chun disclosed in [0255] that “ the UE may not have a capability (e.g., eSOR capability) for the service of the network access information. Based on that the UE does not have the capability for the service of the network access information, the SoR-AF may reject the SoR-AF service request from the NEF.” The rejection from SoR-AF is used to stop the UE from obtaining the network access.).
Chun might not have explicitly disclosed but ETSI-5G disclosed
sending a first message to a location management device, wherein the first message is used to obtain coordinates of the terminal device; and obtaining the coordinates of the terminal device from the location management device, wherein the first parameter comprises the coordinates of the terminal device (ETSI-5G disclosed in pages 7-8 that a network function (NF) may send a request message to the LMF to obtain coordinates of the UE and receives a corresponding response from the LMF).
One of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the instant application, would have been motivated to combine Chun et al. and ETSI-5G because Chun disclosed using 5G infrastructure to manage the services provided to a user equipment (UE) based on its location while the ETSI-5G reference disclosed specifically the location management related standards in 5G networks therefore complements Chun’s teaching.
Claim 22 lists substantially the same elements as claim 3, but in apparatus form rather than method form. Therefore, the rejection rationale for claim 3 applies equally as well to claim 22.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHIRLEY X ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-5012. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am - 5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joon H Hwang can be reached at 571-272-4036. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHIRLEY X ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447
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