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 remarks, see pages 10-11 concerning claims 1-30
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-30 under 35 USC 102(a)(1) have been considered and deemed persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Walker et al (WO 2023025888 A2), hereinafter Walker.
Regarding claim 1, Walker discloses:
an apparatus for wireless communication at a network device, comprising (Walker et al WO 2023025888 A2, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2, According to a first aspect related to an access device (e.g. base station (gNB) or access point), an apparatus is provided for controlling a communication path in a wireless network, the apparatus comprising: a registration controller for discovering and registering a reconfigurable relay device in the wireless network; a path establisher for determining and establishing a wireless communication path to at least one target terminal device via at least one registered reconfigurable relay device; and a state controller for controlling a redirection pattern of the at least one reconfigurable relay device in accordance with the established wireless communication path) Examiner interprets the bases station as a network device:
a memory (Walker, p. 9, lines 8-9: Fig. 9 schematically shows a communication path establishment process according to an embodiment with beam path memory);
and at least one processor coupled to the memory and, based at least in part on information stored in the memory, the at least one processor is configured to (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7: A single processor or other unit may fulfil the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. The foregoing description details certain embodiments of the invention. It will be appreciated, however, that no matter how detailed the foregoing appears in the text, the invention may be practiced in many ways, and is therefore not limited to the embodiments disclosed):
obtain an indication of a characteristic distance associated with a configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 10, lines 15-20: These surfaces may be switchable between different states, where each state reflects or transmits the radio waves in a different way. A difference existing within these types of surfaces is that some have an intrinsic ability to determine signal strengths, for example they include an ability of a receiver as well as a reflector/transmitter, and therefore can act as an independent “relay-like” system, for example performing their own beam path search (albeit with reflected/transmitted signals originating elsewhere)) and (further reference, p. 21, lines 14-20: The access device may use such state of the RIS to perform detection of the RIS and/or distance/angle measurement between the access device and the RIS (e.g. by measuring the timing between sending a signal and receiving the reflected signal and/or beams by the RIS and/or by measuring a time difference between antennas and/or signal characteristics (measured by multiple antennas of the access device)). Using such mechanism provides an efficient way to find and register a RIS for which its location is not (yet) known to the network/BS) Examiner refers to the detection of the RIS and/or distance/angle measurements between the access device and the RIS as the character distance;
and provide a communication for a wireless device using a beam focusing configuration of the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 14, lines 7-9: A configuration state may be represented by a discrete number of state identifiers (e.g. state 1, state 2, state 3), or a collection of signal characteristics as a representation of the redirection pattern (e.g. (desired) reflection angle, focus point, number of beams, absorption/dampening factor, etc.) and (p. 19, lines 3-6: Then, in a beam directing and state commanding (BD/SC) step S204, if the path found in step S202 is a path which achieves good quality communication, and the network/BS is able to command/ control the RIS 20, the network/BS directs its beam-formed (directed) signal towards the RIS 20 and commands the RIS 20 to the relevant state);
with a first focusing distance based on the characteristic distance (Walker, p. 6, lines 6-9: According to a fourth option which can be combined with any of the first and third options or any of the above first to sixth aspects, a timing advance can be applied in path establishment to compensate for a longer transmission path length via the reconfigurable relay device. The measure ensures that reception times at the target terminal device can be properly controlled) and (further reference p. 18, lines 17-20 and p. 37, lines 29-32)
Regarding claim 2, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 1 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the indication is a first indication (Walker, p. 13, lines 23-35: An optional beam direction and/or UE location log (BD/UE LOG) 1440 which associates beam directions with the location (acquired during communication with the UE 10) of all UEs it has communicated with over some time period. This log 1440 can be analyzed using a beam direction and/or UE location log analysis to identify beam directions with a large variation in UE locations, consistent with an RIS being present in that beam direction. In an example, the locations of UEs may be estimated by the BS 10 for each UE while it communicates with it. In another example, a self-reported UE location may be refined by additional estimates performed by the BS.
Furthermore, the RIS 20 may comprise at least one of the following components or functions: i. A reconfigurable surface (REC-SF) 270 which may be a multi -element electronically controllable surface which can be set to a number of configuration “states” each of which result in a different redirection pattern of radio waves of the frequencies associated with the communication) Examiner interprets the indication as an estimate,
the at least one processor further configured to (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7):
obtain a second indication of a first distance between the wireless device and the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 13, lines 23-35) Examiner interprets the additional estimate as a second indication between the locations RIS and of the wireless devices (UEs),
wherein the at least one processor is configured to provide the communication using the beam focusing configuration of the configurable array of reflective elements with the first focusing distance based on the first distance between the wireless device and the configurable array of reflective elements being less than a threshold distance (Walker, p. 16, lines 22-27: Capabilities (e.g. radio/communication capabilities, relay capabilities (e.g. support for/compatibility with IAB relay, smart repeater, ProSe relay), number/type of sensors, characteristics and (relative) positions of RIS elements, maximum/minimum reflection angles, supported and/or non-supported frequencies or frequency ranges, supported reflection angles, (number of) motors to physically control the angle of the RIS and/or elements of the RIS and the Degrees of Freedom they allow)).
Regarding claim 3, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 2 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the wireless device is a first user equipment (UE) in a first angular region around the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 5, lines 27-36: According to a second option which may be combined with the first option or any of the above first to sixth aspects, the path establishment may be configured to apply a transmission modelling within a local radio transmission model of a local environment to search for suitable beam paths, or to use results of previous beam directions plus relay states and UE locations stored in a database, or to use a feedback loop by using measurements from a target terminal device to change the angles or further narrowing a beam of the signals transmitted via the reconfigurable relay device, or to use an artificial intelligence model for learning a relation or association between beam settings and parameters, relay states of nearby reconfigurable relay devices and/or UE location(s) as input parameters and link quality and/or performance to the target terminal device as output parameters. Thus, communication paths which include relevant reconfigurable relay systems can be planned, avoiding exhaustive real-world search through beam directions of access devices and relay states.),
and wherein the communication is a first communication,
the at least one processor further configured to (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7):
obtain an additional indication of a second distance between a second UE and the configurable array of reflective elements that is larger than the threshold distance (Walker, p. 13, lines 23-35);
and provide a second communication for the second UE using a beamforming configuration of the configurable array of reflective elements based on the second distance being greater than the threshold distance (Walker, p. 13, lines 23-35).
Regarding claim 4, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 3 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the second UE is in the first angular region around the configurable array of reflective elements ((Walker, p. 13, lines 23-35) and (p. 13, line 35 – p. line 6: Such redirection could include at least one of: reflection with a given reflection angle; transmission; • focusing or defocusing;
• generation of multiple beams;
• refraction with a given refraction angle (this option can be important to allow for communications, e.g., within a building); and
• absorption (this option can be used to reduce noise, and/or isolate a given environment)) .
Regarding claim 5, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 3 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
the at least one processor further configured to (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7):
obtain updated configuration information for the configurable array of reflective elements for an updated beam focusing configuration and an updated beamforming configuration based on an updated number of reflective elements of the configurable array of reflective elements to use to provide a subsequent communication for one of the first UE and the second UE (Walker, p. 13, lines 23-35; and p. 38, line 29- p. 38, line 19: To achieve this, the gNB does not command the RIS to go to a particular state but commands the RIS to target a particular end-user UE of a list of known end-user UEs that is available to the RIS. During a procedure, possibly executed by the gNB (or location service or other core network service and transmitted via the gNB), the RIS may have been supplied with the list of end-user UEs to serve and optionally their estimated locations and/or angle between the RIS and the end-user UE (e.g. in relation to a reference line) and/or beam angle to use (e.g. in relation to a reference line). After receiving a command from gNB (whereby the gNB providing the information about the end-user UEs (or the gNB forwarding the information from location service or other core network service) can also be seen as a command), the RIS may change its state (in particular the state of the reflective surface 270) so as to steer or focus the beam received from the gNB towards a particular end-user UE. This assumes that the RIS can collect the right information to be able to focus or steer the “reflected” beam on the particular end-user UE, as requested (in particular if the end-user UE is moving). If the RIS knows its own position (e.g. based on GPS module) and the position of the gNB and the position of the end-user UE it can calculate the angle to reflect/refract/redirect an incoming beam from the gNB towards the end-user UE, and modify its state accordingly. The gNB may provide the RIS with updates to the location information and/or angle between the RIS and the end-user and/or beam angle to use, if the end-user UE is moving, so that the RIS can update its state accordingly. Alternatively or additionally, if the RIS employs a RIS-UE 50 that supports sidelink, the RIS-UE 50 and the end-user UE 40 may perform ranging over sidelink (e.g. to calculate a distance and/or angle based on positioning reference signals transmitted over sidelink) and/or may perform other D2D measurements and/or LoS detection that the RIS may be doing with a particular end-user UE, e.g., using proximity services (ProSe) and/or vehicle to everything (V2X) sidelink (SL) communication. Based on this information, the RIS may determine the angle to reflect/refract/redirect an incoming beam from the gNB towards the end-user UE, and modify its state accordingly. The RIS may repeatedly perform such ranging/measurements over side link and modify its state accordingly when the end-user UE is moving) ,
wherein a second threshold distance associated with the updated configuration information is one of less than the first distance (Walker, p. 38, line 29-p. 38, line 19)
or greater than the second distance based on the updated number of reflective elements (Walker, p. 38, line 29-p. 38, line 19);
and provide, based on the updated configuration information (Walker, p. 38, line 29-p. 38, line 19),
the subsequent communication for the first UE or the second UE using one of the updated beamforming configuration based on the first distance
or the second distance being greater than the second threshold distance
or the updated beam focusing configuration based on the first distance
or the second distance being less than the second threshold distance (Walker, p. 38, line 29-p. 38, line 19),
Regarding claim 6, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 3 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the beam focusing configuration is associated with a first phase matrix and the beamforming configuration is associated with a second phase matrix (Walker, p. 14, lines 11-18: The configuration state may also be the individual state of each element in a multielement RIS which may be represented as a bitmap (e.g. identifying on/off state of each element) or a multi-dimensional array (e.g. identifying the phase shift, absorption, focus information, angle information, etc. of each element). Elements within a RIS may be electronically controllable (to change their individual state and/or desired properties), but may be also be physically controlled (e.g. by motors to physically control the angle of the RIS). For control of optical communication, the RIS may also have elements consisting of lenses of which the focus, opacity, curvature, polarization/filter state and reflection angles may be (individually) controlled),
and wherein the network device comprises a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) comprising the configurable array (Walker, p. 13, lines 23-35; and p. 38, line 29- p. 38, line 19),
of reflective elements the at least one processor further configured to (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7):
receive, from a network node (Walker, p. 13, lines 23-35; and p. 38, line 29- p. 38, line 19), phase-matrix configuration information indicating the first phase matrix and the second phase matrix (Walker, p. 31, lines 12-19: Once registration on the network has been completed, and the RIS is able to provide its full RIS metadata to the network, the RIS may be entered into the RIS database and depending on implementation details either becomes a new RIS-DU under direct control of the gNB central unit (CU) in case the RIS implements an IAB node, or becomes a new RIS-UE which can be controlled by multiple networks. In the latter case, data access to this RIS may be provided by a single gNB (e.g., nearest, or highest-signal -quality gNB).
For the command/query process, the CU in the gNB can both query the RIS and command the RIS configuration via the UE in the RIS) and (further reference p; 31, lines 20-35) Examiner interprets gNB as a network node; nearest as the first phase matrix and distances as being multiple distance and interpreted as may be short and/or long distance for the second phase matrix.
Regarding claim 7, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 3 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the network device is at least a component of a base station and the configurable array of reflective elements is a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20: The access device may use such state of the RIS to perform detection of the RIS and/or distance/angle measurement between the access device and the RIS (e.g. by measuring the timing between sending a signal and receiving the reflected signal and/or beams by the RIS and/or by measuring a time difference between antennas and/or signal characteristics (measured by multiple antennas of the access device)). Using such mechanism provides an efficient way to find and register a RIS for which its location is not (yet) known to the network/BS),
the at least one processor further configured to (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7):
transmit, to the RIS, configuration information indicating the beam focusing configuration and the beamforming configuration (Walker, p. 51, lines 19-34: Hence, the term RIS 20 can be replaced by smart repeater 20 in the above embodiments. In the device architecture and the embodiments, the reconfigurable surface (REC-SF) 270 can be replaced with a transceiver comprising a RF receiver frontend and an RF transmission frontend, coupled to one or more antennas, whereby the controllable states may include states/settings to control the on/off state, beam steering (e.g. number of beams, beam direction), transmission power and/or frequency and/or timings of transmitted RF signals (e.g. configurable delay), and whereby redirection patterns may include generation of multiple beams, focusing or defocusing a beam, directing a beam in a certain angle (whereby the angle may be in relation to a reference line or magnetic north, or an angle between an incoming beam and an outgoing beam (i.e. similar to deflection/refraction angle)), amplifying the incoming signal (e.g. by providing an amplify gain in a command), delaying the signal (e.g. by providing a delay time or specific timing for outgoing signals in a command). The transceiver may be the same as the RIS transmission and reception system (RIS-TRX) 2110 or may reuse/share components within the RIS-TRX 2110, or it may be a separate subsystem)
Regarding claim 8, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 7 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein to provide the first communication the at least one processor is configured to transmit the first communication to the RIS for reflection to the first UE based on the beam focusing configuration (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7; and p. 4, lines 23-28: Additional independent communication paths can be established, for example two UEs located in the same direction from the access device can be served on the same frequency by beam forming directly towards one and beam forming via a reconfigurable relay device to the other, or for two access devices beaming towards two UEs respectively, for one to use a path via the reconfigurable relay device (even though there is a direct line of sight (LoS) to that UE) to again avoid interference if that LoS path would impact the other UE and the relay-directed path would not),
and wherein to provide the second communication the at least one processor is configured to transmit the first communication to the RIS for reflection to the second UE based on the beamforming configuration (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7; and p. 4, lines 23-28).
Regarding claim 9, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 2 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the threshold distance from the configurable array of reflective elements is based on one or more of a number of reflective elements associated with the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15: In another embodiment, the RIS may simultaneously be used by multiple access devices by assigning a subset of RIS elements to each of the multiple access devices. These elements may be positioned such that they can deflect/(de-)focus/refract/absorb/manipulate the signals coming from various directions (e.g. by using a two-sided or angular RIS panel), and/or by applying different types of RIS elements in the same RIS (e.g. RIS elements with (enhanced) capabilities of filtering/manipulating/deflecting signals with certain wavelengths or frequency ranges, but no/reduced capabilities of filtering/manipulating/deflecting signals of other wavelengths or frequency ranges) whereby groups of similar type of RIS elements may be clustered together. These subsets of RIS elements may be controlled by the same RIS communication module 210 or RIS-UE 50 for sending and receiving information to an access device, whereby each subset may be given a different identifier, and whereby information about the (relative) location and/or the capabilities and/or state information of each subset may be provided to the access device),
an area of each reflective element associated with the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
a wavelength associated with the communication (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
a first elevation angle associated with an incident transmission (Walker, p. 47, lines 3-6: This problem can be solved by configuring the RIS to redirect incident waves or beams, independently of the incident direction, towards a direction where they do not cause damage/interference, e.g., the basement of building, or by configuring the RIS as metamaterial absorber),
and a second elevation angle associated with a reflected incident transmission (Walker, p. 47, lines 3-6).
Regarding claim 10, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 2 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the first focusing distance is based on a first set of attributes of the configurable array of reflective elements and a second set of attributes of the communication (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
wherein the first set of attributes comprises one or more of an aperture size of the configurable array of reflective elements or an inter-element spacing of the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
and wherein the second set of attributes comprises a frequency associated with the communication (Walker, p. 16, lines 22-27: Capabilities (e.g. radio/communication capabilities, relay capabilities (e.g. support for/compatibility with IAB relay, smart repeater, ProSe relay), number/type of sensors, characteristics and (relative) positions of RIS elements, maximum/minimum reflection angles, supported and/or non-supported frequencies or frequency ranges, supported reflection angles, (number of) motors to physically control the angle of the RIS and/or elements of the RIS and the Degrees of Freedom they allow)).
Regarding claim 11, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 1 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the network device comprises a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) comprising the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20),
the at least one processor further configured to (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7):
provide a first set of attributes of the configurable array of reflective elements to a second network device (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
wherein to obtain the indication of the characteristic distance associated with the configurable array of reflective elements the at least one processor is configured to receive, from the second network device (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15) and (p. 58, lines 2-7),
configuration information for the beam focusing configuration with the first focusing distance based on the first set of attributes provided to the second network device (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15).
Regarding claim 12, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 1 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the network device comprises a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) comprising the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20),
and wherein to obtain the indication of the characteristic distance associated with the configurable array of reflective elements the at least one processor is configured to determine (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15) and (p. 58, lines 2-7),
at the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20),
the characteristic distance based on a first set of attributes of the configurable array of reflective elements and a second set of attributes of the communication (Walker, p. 16, lines 22-27) and (p. 54, lines 4-15).
Regarding claim 13, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 1 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the first focusing distance for the beam focusing configuration is independent of a first distance between the wireless device and the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15) .
Regarding claim 14, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 1 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
the at least one processor further configured to (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7):
provide a plurality of communications for a plurality of wireless devices at a plurality of distances from the configurable array of reflective elements using the beam focusing configuration with the first focusing distance (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15).
Claim 15 is rejected under the same analysis as claim 9.
Regarding claim 16, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 14 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the characteristic distance is based on a distance from the configurable array of reflective elements to a transmitter device transmitting the plurality of communications (Walker, p. 16, lines 22-27) and (p. 54, lines 4-15),
wherein the transmitter device is one of the network device or a base station (Walker, p. 11, line 32 – p. 12, line 7: The proposed system for a RIS enabled communication comprises base stations (BS) 10, at least one reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) 20 and terminal devices (UE) 40 of user.
The RIS-controlling base station 10 comprises an RF communication capability (RF- COM) 150 according to the involved communication standard (e.g., 5G NR) and a network to RIS communication system (NW-RIS-COM) 110, also known as state controller, as a means of sending and receiving communications to/from the RIS 20, which may simply be communications to the RIS 20 using its standard communication facilities, e.g., based on the Fl-C interface extended with commands/queries for use with a RIS (e.g. to set the RIS state), or may include messages sent to a specified Internet address. It includes a BS to RIS transmission and reception system (NW-RIS-TRX) 1110, an RIS query and command capability (RIS-C/Q) 1120, and a command/query formatting for validation procedure (C/Q-F) 1130) .
Regarding claim 17, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 14 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the plurality of wireless devices are associated with a same angular region around the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20).
Regarding claim 18, Walker discloses:
the apparatus of claim 14 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the configurable array of reflective elements is a reconfigurable intelligent surface (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20),
and wherein beam focusing includes directional beamforming and additional focusing of a directional beam (Walker, p. 51, lines 19-34).
Claim 19 is rejected under the same analysis as claim 1. 1
Claim 20 is rejected under the same analysis as claim 2.
Claim 21 is rejected under the same analysis as claim 3.
Claim 22 is rejected under the same analysis as claim 4.
Claim is 23 is rejected under the same analysis as claim 5.
Claim 24 is rejected under the same analysis as claim 6.
Regarding claim 25, Walker discloses:
the method of claim 21 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the network device is at least a component of a base station and the configurable array of reflective elements is a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), the method further comprising (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20):
transmitting, to the RIS, configuration information indicating the beam focusing configuration and the beamforming configuration (Walker, p. 51, lines 19-34) ,
wherein providing the first communication comprises transmitting the first communication to the RIS for reflection to the first UE based on the beam focusing configuration (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7; and p. 4, lines 23-28),
and wherein providing the second communication comprises transmitting the first communication to the RIS for reflection to the second UE based on the beamforming configuration (Walker, p. 58, lines 2-7; and p. 4, lines 23-28).
Regarding claim 26, Walker discloses:
the method of claim 20 (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2),
wherein the threshold distance from the configurable array of reflective elements is based on one or more of a number of reflective elements associated with the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
an area of each reflective element associated with the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20),
a wavelength associated with the communication (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
a first elevation angle associated with an incident transmission (Walker, p. 47, lines 3-6),
and a second elevation angle associated with a reflected incident transmission (Walker, p. 47, lines 3-6),
and wherein the first focusing distance is based on a first set of attributes of the configurable array of reflective elements and a second set of attributes of the communication (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
wherein the first set of attributes comprises one or more of an aperture size of the configurable array of reflective elements or an inter-element spacing of the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
and wherein the second set of attributes comprises a frequency associated with the communication (Walker, p. 16, lines 22-27.
Claim 27 is rejected under the same analysis as claim11.
Claim 28 is rejected under the same analysis as claim 12.
Claim 29 is rejected under the same analysis as claim 13.
Regarding claim 30, Walker discloses:
the method of claim 19, further comprising (Walker, p. 2, line 31 – p. 3, line 2):
providing a plurality of communications for a plurality of wireless devices at a plurality of distances from the configurable array of reflective elements using the beam focusing configuration with the first focusing distance (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
wherein the plurality of wireless devices is associated with a same angular region around the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20),
wherein the characteristic distance is based on one or more of a number of reflective elements associated with the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
an area of each reflective element associated with the configurable array of reflective elements (Walker, p. 21, lines 14-20),
a wavelength associated with the plurality of communications (Walker, p. 54, lines 4-15),
a first elevation angle associated with an incident transmission (Walker, p. 47, lines 3-6),
a second elevation angle associated with a reflected incident transmission (Walker, p. 47, lines 3-6),
and a distance from the configurable array of reflective elements to a transmitter device transmitting the plurality of communications (Walker, p. 11, line 32 – p. 12, line 7),
and wherein the transmitter device is one of the network device or a base station (Walker, p. 11, line 32 – p. 12, line 7)
References Cited But Not Relied Upon
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure as thus:
Li et al US 20250175294 A1 discloses a multi-dimensional channel measurement resource configuration
Prasad et al US 20240250742 A1 discloses an equivalent off state for a reconfigurable intelligent surface
Raghavan et al US 20240031824 A1 discloses beam correlation metric reporting amongst a plurality of user equipment (UEs)
Gurelli et al US 20230291460 A1 discloses a system and method for compensation for an intelligent reflecting surface
Conclusion
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KIMBERLY JENKINS whose telephone number is (571)272-0404. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8a-5p EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vladimir Magloire can be reached at 517.270.5144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KIMBERLY JENKINS/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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