DETAILED ACTION
The non-final office action is responsive to the filing of U.S. Patent Application 19/094,318 on 03/28/2025. Claims 1-10 are pending; claims 1-20 are rejected.
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/16/2025 was filed before the mailing date of the non-final office action. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 4 is objected to because of the following informalities: “wherein the response message comprises at least one of information related to NF services provided by the NF instances, a number of calls received per unit time, a number of responses with success per unit time, a number of responses with failure per unit time”. It is not clear the “at least one of information” should be treated with “and” or “or”. For examination purpose, Examiner will treat the limitation with “or” so the limitation will be “wherein the response message comprises at least one of information related to NF services provided by the NF instances, a number of calls received per unit time, a number of responses with success per unit time, or a number of responses with failure per unit time”. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 2022/0103443 A1 to MARY et al. (hereinafter MARY) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2023/0136287 A1 to Singh et al. (hereinafter Singh).
As to claim 1, MARY teaches a method performed by a network data analytic function (NWDAF) entity in a communication system (A method, carried out in a network data analytics function entity configured for operation in a mobile telecommunications network, MARY, claim 8, Abstract), the method comprising:
receiving, from a consumer network function (NF) entity, an analytic information request message or subscription message (The operations performed in FIG. 6 are similar to the operations described in conjunction with FIG. 2. Thus operations 601-602 correspond to and can be performed in accordance with 201-202 described above. Further, during 603, the NWDAF is configured to retrieve the NF load from NRF using Nnrf_NFManagement_NFStatusSubscribe service operation for each NF, MARY, [0092]-[0124], [0080]-[0091]. Note: MARY’s operations 201-202 show “FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram illustrating operations performed by the NWDAF 2 in an example where the signalling in FIG. 1 is performed. First, during 201, a request for analytics is obtained from a network function, NF, service consumer. This can be an Analytics Info_Request/Subscribe request (type of analytics=NF load information, target of analytics=NF id/NF Set ID, Analytic Filter Information=Instance ID(s)/UE Internal Group ID(s)/NF Service Set ID(s)/NF Set D(s) or any of the combination listed. Then, during 202, data collection from OAM can be performed.” in [0080]-[0091]) including threshold information (The consumer of these analytics can indicate in the request:… Analytic Filter Information containing: optional maximum number of results, Target Load Level and Reporting Load Level, Area of Interest (list of TA or Cells) which restricts the area in focus (this can be mandatory if Target Of Event Reporting is set to any UE, optional otherwise), Notification Period…, MARY, [0092]-[0124]);
in response to the reception of the analytic information request message or the subscription message, collecting first analytic information from an orchestration and management (OAM) entity, a network repository function (NRF) entity (The operations performed in FIG. 6 are similar to the operations described in conjunction with FIG. 2. Thus operations 601-602 correspond to and can be performed in accordance with 201-202 described above. Further, during 603, the NWDAF is configured to retrieve the NF load from NRF using Nnrf_NFManagement_NFStatusSubscribe service operation for each NF, MARY, [0092]-[0124], [0080]-[0091]. Note: MARY’s operations 201-202 show “FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram illustrating operations performed by the NWDAF 2 in an example where the signalling in FIG. 1 is performed. First, during 201, a request for analytics is obtained from a network function, NF, service consumer. This can be an Analytics Info_Request/Subscribe request (type of analytics=NF load information, target of analytics=NF id/NF Set ID, Analytic Filter Information=Instance ID(s)/UE Internal Group ID(s)/NF Service Set ID(s)/NF Set D(s) or any of the combination listed. Then, during 202, data collection from OAM can be performed.” in [0080]-[0091]), or
deriving second analytic information based on the first analytic information (Next, during 305, the NWDAF 2 derives the requested analytics based on the NF analytics consumer provided “Desired Load Level(s)”, MARY, [0092]-[0124], [0080]-[0091]); and
transmitting, to the consumer NF entity, the second analytic information related to the at least one NF that operates abnormally (Then, during 306, the NWDAF 2 sends Nnwdaf_AnalyticsSubscription_Notify or Nnwdaf_AnalyticsInfo_Request response (one or more instances of Performance Information SubscriptionCorrelationId, indicated “Desired Load Level(s)”, Probability of assertion), MARY, [0092]-[0124], [0080]-[0091]).
MARY does not explicitly disclose receiving analytic data from at least one NF entity.
Singh discloses receiving analytic data from at least one NF entity (In response to the received subscription request from analytics function 116, the at least one other NF and/or AF may transmit said information to analytics function 116 and analytics function 116 may determine the at least one compromised NF based on the received information, Singh, [0053]-[0059]).
Note MARY states “The tables below show the information provided to the NWDAF by the source NF. The source NF is not limited to the OAM and it can be any NF in the 5G system that contains the NF load and performance level information” in [0106], it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to collect analytic data from NF or AF as taught by Singh to modify the method of MARY in order to provide a way to reduce a risk of being compromised that affects adversely network paths and perform attack mitigation based on collected information for enhancing security of 5G core networks.
As to claim 2, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the collecting the first analytic information from the OAM entity, the NRF entity, or the at least one NF entity, comprises: transmitting, to the OAM entity, a request message that requests the first analytic information associated with the NF instances; and receiving, from the OAM entity, a response message including the first analytic information associated with the NF instances in response to the request message (MARY, [0080]-[0091], [0092]-[0124]).
As to claim 3, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the request message comprises at least one of identifier (ID) of the NF instances (the NWDAF 2 derives requested analytics based on either the NF Set ID(s) or NF Service Set ID(s) and/or UE internal group information, MARY, [0080]-[0091], [0092]-[0124]).
As to claim 4, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the response message comprises at least one of information related to NF services provided by the NF instances, a number of calls received per unit time, a number of responses with success per unit time, a number of responses with failure per unit time (Analytics function 116 may subscribe to AMF 118, AUSF 128 and/or UDM 130 at steps 504, 506 and 508, respectively. Said subscription(s) may be triggered by the received subscription request(s). Alternatively, analytics function 116 may have requested said subscriptions proactively. Said subscriptions may be invoked by transmitting “Namf/ausf/udm_EventExposure_Subscribe (Event ID, Threshold of the failure, e.g., 10 Failures/Min”, wherein analytics function 116 may provide an identity of an event (Event ID), and threshold of the failure, for example: in case of 10 failures/minute respective NF should notify analytics function 116. AMF 118, AUSF 128, and UDM 130 may reply with a notify message if the threshold (number of failures per time), as indicated in the message received above, has been reached, Singh, [0071]). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to collect analytic data from NF or AF as taught by Singh to modify the method of MARY-Singh in order to provide a way to reduce a risk of being compromised that affects adversely network paths and perform attack mitigation based on collected information for enhancing security of 5G core networks.
As to claim 5, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the collecting the first analytic information from the OAM entity, NRF entity, or at least one NF entity, comprises: transmitting, to the NRF entity, a request message that requests the first analytic information associated with the NF instances; and receiving, from the NRF entity, a response message including the first analytic information associated with the NF instances in response to the request message (the NWDAF 2 derives requested analytics based on either the NF Set ID(s) or NF Service Set ID(s) and/or UE internal group information, MARY, [0080]-[0091], [0092]-[0124]).
As to claim 6, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 5, wherein the request message comprises at least one of identifiers (IDs) of the NF instances, information related to a scheme of collecting analytic information associated with the NF instances, or information that requests load information of the NF instances (the NWDAF 2 derives requested analytics based on either the NF Set ID(s) or NF Service Set ID(s) and/or UE internal group information, MARY, [0080]-[0091], [0092]-[0124]).
As to claim 7, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 5, wherein the response message comprises at least one of information related to NF services provided by the NF instances, information related to NF services consumed by the NF instances, or load information of the NF instances (MARY, [0080]-[0091], [0092]-[0124]).
As to claim 8, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the collecting the first analytic information from the OAM entity, the NRF entity, or the at least one NF entity, comprises: transmitting, to the at least one NF entity, a request message that requests the first analytic information associated with the NF instances; and receiving, from the at least one NF entity, a response message including the first analytic information associated with the NF instances in response to the request message entity (In response to the received subscription request from analytics function 116, the at least one other NF and/or AF may transmit said information to analytics function 116 and analytics function 116 may determine the at least one compromised NF based on the received information, Singh, [0053]-[0059]). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to collect analytic data from NF or AF as taught by Singh to modify the method of MARY-Singh in order to provide a way to reduce a risk of being compromised that affects adversely network paths and perform attack mitigation based on collected information for enhancing security of 5G core networks.
As to claim 9, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 8, wherein the request message comprises at least one of identifiers (IDs) of the NF instances, information related to a scheme of collecting analytic information associated with the NF instances, or information that requests load information of the NF instances (Singh, [0071]). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to collect analytic data from NF or AF as taught by Singh to modify the method of MARY-Singh in order to provide a way to reduce a risk of being compromised that affects adversely network paths and perform attack mitigation based on collected information for enhancing security of 5G core networks.
As to claim 10, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 8, wherein the response message comprises at least one of information related to NF services provided by the NF instances, information related to NF services consumed by the NF instances, or load information of the NF instances (Singh, [0071]). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to collect analytic data from NF or AF as taught by Singh to modify the method of MARY-Singh in order to provide a way to reduce a risk of being compromised that affects adversely network paths and perform attack mitigation based on collected information for enhancing security of 5G core networks.
As to claim 11, MARY-Singh discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the analytic information request message includes at least one of an analytics ID, target of analytics reporting, analytics filter, threshold, area of interest, or required accuracy (MARY, [0080]-[0091], [0092]-[0124]).
As to claims 12-20, the same reasoning applies mutatis mutandis to the corresponding network data analytic function (NWDAF) entity claims 12-20. Accordingly, claims 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MARY in view of Singh.
Conclusion
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/RUOLEI ZONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2449 7/2/2026
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