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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see p. 12-13, filed 1/20/2026, with respect to 112(b) rejection of claims 3-4, 15, and 21-23 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of the claims has been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 4 recites “… at least one of …” along with several elements. However, it is unclear and indefinite as to whether the applicants intended the elements to have at least one of all of the elements by reciting “and” or to recited in the alternative by reciting “or.” The claim omits the necessary wording of “and” or “or” to make this distinction. Thus, the claim fails to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 5-8, 10, 11, 14, 20 and 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhinong et al. US 2019/0007121 (Zhinong) in view of Khalid et al. US 2021/0227396 A1 (Khalid).
Regarding claim 1, Zhinong teaches a device (10 or 20 in Fig.1, note [0034]) comprising: and a processor (controller or logic 21 in Fig.1, [0035]) configured to: determine, based on first cell data representative of conditions of a cell of a mobile communication network at a first stage associated with a first instance of time (at time t, through Training Sequence, 201 in Fig.2, current figure of merit FOM is determined that indicates quality and performance of current data transmission in the cell between the base station and the terminal in Fig.1, note [0041-0043]), a set of configurations for an antenna array comprising a plurality of antenna elements (antenna array configuration, note [0042]) , wherein each configuration of the set of configurations comprises a configuration in which a subset of the plurality of antenna elements are to be used to perform communications within the cell (current data transmission in the cell between the base station and the terminal in Fig.1, using antenna array, note [0041-0042]),
; and select one or more antenna configurations for the antenna array from the determined set of configurations, wherein each antenna configuration of the one or more antenna configurations are selected based on further cell data representative of the conditions of the cell at a further stage associated with a further instance of time after the first instance of time (select antenna array at 206 in Fig.2 at different or real time, by looping from 201 thru 206, note [0041-0043]).
However, Zhinong does not explicitly teach the device comprising a memory. Khalid teaches, in a similar field of endeavor, of a device (BS or terminal see Fig.5) further comprising a memory (850 in Fig.8, note [0154, 0157]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Khalid in the system of Zhinong wherein the BS or terminal would include the memory for the purpose of properly accessing data, as is well known in the art (note [0157]).
Regarding claim 2, Zhinong further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to cause the antenna array to be configured with the selected one or more antenna configurations (note [0040-0043] antenna array 23 and 32 in Fig.1 can be configured).
Regarding claim 5, Zhinong further teaches wherein the plurality of antenna elements are provided in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns of the antenna array (see 22 and 32 having its respective rows and columns (x / y axis or vertical and horizontal circular elements 23 in Fig.1 representing antenna array); wherein each configuration of the determined set of configurations comprises a configuration in which a subset of the plurality of rows and/or a subset of the plurality of columns are to be used to perform communications within the cell (current data transmission in the cell between the base station and the terminal in Fig.1, using antenna array, note [0041-0042]).
Regarding claim 6, Zhinong further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to determine the set of configurations for a period of time (for a period of time determined at 203 in Fig.2) comprising a plurality of time intervals (for each t in a loop as shown in Fig.2); wherein each antenna configuration is selected for one of the plurality of time intervals (206 in Fig.2).
Regarding claim 7, Zhinong teaches all as applied to claim 1. Zhinong further teaches the system configured to receive input based on the first cell data and provide output representative of the determined set of configurations (at time t, through Training Sequence, 201 in Fig.2, current figure of merit FOM is determined that indicates quality and performance of current data transmission in the cell between the base station and the terminal in Fig.1, note [0041-0043]). However, Zhinong does not explicitly teach wherein the processor is configured to determine the set of configurations for the antenna array using a first trained machine learning model.
Khalid teaches wherein the processor is configured to determine the set of configurations for the antenna array using a first trained machine learning model (note [0051]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further incorporate the teaching of Khalid in the system of Zhinong configured to use machine learning model for the purpose of increasing automation using artificial intelligence that is well-known in the art.
Regarding claim 8, Zhinong in view of Khalid further teaches wherein the first trained machine learning model is trained based on an objective function (note [0051] of Khalid) comprising a performance parameter associated with communication performance within the cell and a power consumption parameter associated with consumption of power to transmit and receive radio communication signals via the antenna array (note [0041-0043] of Zhinong).
Regarding claim 10, Zhinong further teaches wherein the processor is configured to predict one or more performance metrics associated with communication performance within the cell (communication performance is predicted by basing on what is optimal currently would be also optimal for the future, note [0041]); wherein the processor is configured to select each antenna configuration based on the predicted one or more performance metrics (note [0041] wherein antenna array configuration is optimized).
Regarding claim 11, Zhinong further teaches wherein the one or more performance metrics are predicted based on the further cell data comprising performance metric data representative of estimated performance metrics associated with the communication performance within the cell (note [0041] performance metric of current data transmission within the cell).
Regarding claim 14, Zhinong in view of Khalid teaches all as applied to claim 1. And although Zhinong does not explicitly teach wherein the processor is configured to select each antenna configuration based on further a mapping information that is configured to map one or more predefined power consumption parameters and one or more predefined data throughputs, Zhinong further teaches antenna array configuration is optimized by considering The figure of merit may indicate the quality and performance of the current data transmission and may comprise for example a received signal strengths, a rank of the transmission, a transmission bandwidth, a transmission bit rate and/or a received signal quality indicator. In case the transmission quality has not degraded compared to the previously determined figure of merit, i.e. the current figure of merit indicates at least the quality of the previous figure of merit, the activated antenna array configuration is optimised based on the transmitted training sequence in step 204 and the method continues in step 201, note [0041]. Based on the teaching above, one of ordinary skilled in the art would recognize that antenna array configuration would be optimized based on power consumption or received signal quality indicator (as low signal quality would equate to higher power consumption to properly receive signals) and predefined data throughputs (transmission bit rate). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to recognize that mere different wording of the technical concepts stated in the claims are not patentably distinct from the teaching of Zhinong in view of Khalid for the purpose of effectively implementing antenna array configuration taught by Zhinong.
Regarding claim 20, Zhinong further teaches a transceiver circuit (10, 20 in Fig.1 and note [0034-0035] wherein one of ordinary skilled in the art would recognize that BS and terminals include a transmitter and a receiver or a transceiver in order to communicate with each other) coupled to the antenna array (10 and 20 having its respective transceivers are coupled to antenna array 22, 32, 33 in Fig.1), wherein the transceiver circuit comprises components coupled to the plurality of antenna elements (as explained previously); wherein the processor is configured to control the transceiver circuit to transmit and/or send radio communication signals using selected antenna elements of the plurality of antenna elements of the antenna array based on the selected antenna configuration (current data transmission in the cell between the base station and the terminal in Fig.1, using antenna array, note [0041-0042]).
Regarding claim 24, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 1.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhinong et al. US 2019/0007121 (Zhinong) in view of Khalid et al. US 2021/0227396 A1 (Khalid) and Schonbrod et al. US 2024/0063866 (Schonbrod).
Regarding claim 9, Zhinong in view of Khalid teaches all as applied to claim 8, however, does not explicitly teach wherein hyperparameters of the first trained machine learning model is determined using a Bayesian optimization.
Schonbrod teaches wherein hyperparameters of the first trained machine learning model is determined using a Bayesian optimization (note [0094]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Schonbrod in the system of Zhinong in view of Khalid for the purpose of generating a properly operating predicting model (note [0094]).
Claim(s) 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhinong et al. US 2019/0007121 (Zhinong) in view of Khalid et al. US 2021/0227396 A1 (Khalid) and Raghavan et al. US 12,531,626 (Raghavan).
Regarding claim 21, Zhinong in view of Khalid teaches all as applied to claim 1, however, does not explicitly teach wherein a further device that is external to the device is further configured to cause the antenna array to be configured with the selected antenna configuration; wherein the processor is further configured to encode antenna configuration information representative of the selected antenna configuration for a transmission to the further device.
Raghavan teaches wherein a further device that is external to the device is further configured to cause the antenna array to be configured with the selected antenna configuration; wherein the processor is further configured to encode antenna configuration information representative of the selected antenna configuration for a transmission to the further device (two separate devices each having its respective antenna array in Fig.3 wherein antenna array configuration would be encoded, note col.16, lines 13-37). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Raghavan into the system of Zhinong and Khalid for the purpose of effectively communicating between two devices.
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhinong et al. US 2019/0007121 (Zhinong) in view of Khalid et al. US 2021/0227396 A1 (Khalid) and Raghavan et al. US 12,531,626 (Raghavan) and in further view of Zhang WO 2024/064760.
Regarding claim 22, Zhinong in view of Khalid and Raghavan teaches all as applied to claim 21, however, does not explicitly teach wherein the mobile communication network comprises an open radio access network (0-RAN); wherein the further device comprises a controller entity of the O-RAN, wherein the controller entity comprises a control unit (CU) or a distributed unit (DU); wherein a radio unit (RU) comprises the antenna array, the RU communicatively coupled to the CU and/or the DU.
Zhang teaches wherein the mobile communication network (see Fig.1) comprises an open radio access network (0-RAN, note [0060]); wherein the further device comprises a controller entity of the O-RAN, wherein the controller entity comprises a control unit (CU) or a distributed unit (DU) (note [0060]); wherein a radio unit (RU) comprises the antenna array, the RU communicatively coupled to the CU and/or the DU (105 in Fig.1). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Zhang into the system of Zhinong in view of Khalid and Raghavan for the purpose of complying with O-RAN Alliance standards, note [0060]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 12, 13, 15-19, 23 and 25 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: prior art does not explicitly teach “wherein the first cell data and the further cell data comprises data representative of, for the first instance of time and the further instance of time, respectively, at least one of user density of the cell, location of the cell, topology associated with the location of the cell, load of the cell, mobility of mobile communication devices served by the cell, cross-interference between the cell and other interfering cells; estimated power consumption for the antenna array to transmit and receive radio communication signals within the cell; data throughput associated with the cell; and estimated spectral efficiency of the cell” (emphasis added). The claim is interpreted in light of the specification wherein the first cell data and the further cell data comprises all of the data in combination, as recited in claims 3 and 25. Prior art does not explicitly teach also the limitations recited in the objected claims above.
Conclusion
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/SAM K AHN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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