Obviousness

Obviousness Analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 103 for US9647918

1. Level of Ordinary Skill in the Art (PHOSITA)
A person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) in January 2009 (the priority date of US9647918) would likely possess a bachelor's or master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, along with several years of experience in mobile telecommunications, network architecture, mobile operating systems, and application development. This PHOSITA would be familiar with wireless network protocols (e.g., 2G/3G, Wi-Fi), Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms, traffic management, data accounting, and the design of software applications for mobile devices. They would also be aware of the challenges associated with managing network capacity and user data consumption on mobile networks.

2. Scope and Content of the Prior Art
The "Prior art keywords" provided for US9647918 are "network", "service", "qos", "application", and "wireless". These keywords reflect fundamental concepts known and developed in the mobile telecommunications and computing industry prior to 2009. While specific prior art documents published before the 2009-01-28 priority date are not explicitly detailed in the "Prior art section" of the provided patent information, the background of US9647918 itself describes the state of the art and the existing problems, which serves as strong evidence of what was known and what motivations existed for a PHOSITA.

Specifically, the patent's background acknowledges:

• A "network capacity crunch" due to increasing network congestion on wireless networks, including mobile networks.
• High data demand from "a relatively small number of users" and from "very high bandwidth applications and content that can quickly consume the available capacity".
• The existence of various "wireless networks" and "mobile devices".
• The use of "streaming media protocols (e.g., audio, video, etc)" and "gaming protocols" that contribute to high network demand.
• The need for "intelligent network monitoring to provide real-time traffic monitoring network service usage (e.g., at the packet level/layer, network stack application interface level/layer, and/or application level/layer) of the wireless network (e.g., radio access networks and/or core networks) and to effectively manage the network service usage for protecting network capacity".
• The desire for "network carriers/operators" to gain "greater insight into what devices, which users and what applications, and when and where network congestion problems occur," enabling them to "differentially control network service usage, and/or to differentially charge for network service usage based on, for example, a network busy state, for protecting network capacity."
• Existing network resources, including "base station or base station controller resources, media access control (MAC) resources, traffic transport resources, AAA resources, security or authentication resources, home agent (HA) resources, DNS resources, resources that play a part in network discovery, gateway or router resources, data session reservation or establishment resources... bandwidth reservation resources, QoS reservation or coordination resources, QoS transport resources, service charging resources, traffic analysis resources, network security resources".

These statements indicate that by the priority date, the following concepts were known in the art:

• Mobile devices running applications that request network services.
• Network sessions for various services, including media streaming.
• Network congestion issues, particularly with high-bandwidth applications.
• The general concept of monitoring network usage.
• The existence of network elements for managing, billing, and controlling network access.
• The idea of Quality of Service (QoS) to differentiate traffic.

3. Obviousness Analysis of Claims 1, 9, and 17

The independent claims of US9647918 describe a method and mobile device for attributing media services network usage to the requesting application, and for reporting this usage to a network element.

Core Elements of Independent Claims (1, 9, 17):

• Application Request: A mobile device receives an indication that an application is requesting access to a media service.
• Session Enablement: A media services network session is enabled for that media service.
• Usage Attribution: Network usage for that media services network session is attributed to the requesting application.
• Reporting (Claim 17 only): The associated network usage is reported to a network element.

Combination of Prior Art for Obviousness (Claims 1 and 9):

1. Prior Art Reference 1 (System for Application-Specific Network Usage Monitoring): Prior to 2009, systems and methods existed (e.g., in desktop operating systems or network diagnostic tools, and in nascent forms on mobile platforms) for monitoring network traffic and identifying the application or process responsible for generating that traffic. Such systems were used for debugging, performance analysis, or providing users with basic data usage statistics. This reference would disclose a mobile device with a processor and memory, capable of receiving application requests for network access, enabling network sessions, and monitoring network usage.
2. Prior Art Reference 2 (Media Services on Mobile Devices): Prior to 2009, mobile devices widely supported media services, such as streaming audio and video, through various applications. These applications would request and establish network connections specifically for delivering media content. The fact that US9647918 mentions "streaming media protocols (e.g., audio, video, etc)" in its background indicates this was a known type of network usage.

Motivation to Combine References 1 and 2 (for Claims 1 and 9):
A PHOSITA would have been highly motivated to combine the application-specific network usage monitoring of Reference 1 with the execution of media services on mobile devices of Reference 2. The patent itself provides this motivation by explicitly stating the problem: "What is needed is intelligent network monitoring to provide real-time traffic monitoring network service usage... and to effectively manage the network service usage for protecting network capacity". Given the known "network capacity crunch" caused by data-intensive media applications, a PHOSITA would recognize the critical need to identify which specific applications were consuming bandwidth for media services. Applying existing application-level monitoring techniques (Reference 1) specifically to media service sessions (Reference 2) on a mobile device would be a logical and straightforward step to gain the granular insights necessary for network management, capacity planning, and user experience improvement. This combination does not require any inventive step beyond applying known monitoring techniques to a specific, problematic type of network traffic.

Combination of Prior Art for Obviousness (Claim 17):

1. Prior Art Combination A (Attribution on Device): The combination of Prior Art References 1 and 2, as described above, which makes obvious the steps of receiving a media service request, initiating a network connection, and associating network usage with the application on the mobile device.
2. Prior Art Reference 3 (Network Usage Reporting to Network Elements): Prior to 2009, it was a routine practice in mobile networks for devices or network infrastructure to report network usage data to various "network elements" such as billing systems, Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) servers, Home Location Registers (HLRs), or service controllers. These reports were essential for billing, network optimization, and enforcing service policies. The patent explicitly mentions "service charging resources" and that "the network collects service usage charges for different QoS classes", and refers to the "service controller" as a network element for receiving usage reports.

Motivation to Combine Combination A and Reference 3 (for Claim 17):
Building upon the obvious attribution of media service network usage to the requesting application on the mobile device (Combination A), a PHOSITA would be strongly motivated to report this granular information to a network element (Reference 3). The patent's background again clearly outlines this motivation: "network carriers/operators would be provided greater insight into what devices, which users and what applications... enabling operators to intelligently add additional resources... to differentially control network service usage, and/or to differentially charge for network service usage based on, for example, a network busy state, for protecting network capacity." To achieve these goals, the granular usage data collected at the device must be transmitted to a centralized network entity for aggregation, analysis, and subsequent action (e.g., dynamic QoS adjustments, differential billing, or policy enforcement). This reporting mechanism was a known component of telecommunication networks, and extending it to include newly available application-attributed media usage data would be an obvious design choice for optimizing network operations and business models.

4. Conclusion on Obviousness
Based on the foregoing analysis, the claims of US9647918 would have been obvious to a PHOSITA at the time of the invention. The inventive concept appears to be a combination of existing and well-known techniques for network monitoring, application management, and data reporting within the context of mobile devices and media services. The motivation to combine these elements is clearly articulated in the patent's own problem statement and background, driven by the recognized challenges of network congestion, capacity management, and the desire for more granular control and billing in mobile networks experiencing high demand from media consumption. The claimed invention essentially applies known solutions to a known problem in a predictable manner, without requiring any non-obvious inventive step.