DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Continued Examination under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 09/22/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 09/22/2026.
Claims 1, 4, 26 and 29 have been amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims filed on 09/22/2026 have been considered but are moot because the arguments are related solely to newly added limitations addressed in the instant Office Action with newly identified prior art, thus rendering the applicant’s arguments moot.
The applicant also presented other arguments drawn to the various dependent claims. However, said other arguments are all dependency based, depending from the arguments drawn to the independent claims’ limitations discussed above.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 9-11, 13, 26 and 29 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 2024/0014860, “Wang”) in view of Park et al. (US 2023/0107283, “Park”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Wang unless otherwise mentioned. Wang is relied upon for the RIS surface element partitioning, surface configuration codebook, relative configuration, and UE selection teachings. Park is relied upon for performing initial access, receiving a BS originated response containing LIS configuration information in response to the initial access signaling, and using the LIS for communication between the UE and the BS. The claimed network device is the BS, not another UE.
Wang and Park comprise the following features:
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim 1, a method for wireless communications at a user equipment (UE),comprising:
performing an initial access procedure to access a wireless network comprising a network device ([Park, 0299] “the UE may transmit the initial access signal to the BS through the LIS based on the resource allocation information included in the UE search signal (S903).”);
receiving, from the network device, a message indicating a configuration of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)) ([Park, 0302] “the UE may receive the initial access response signal reflected from the LIS (S907). The initial access response signal is a signal transmitted by the BS through the LIS. The UE may obtain, from the initial access response signal, first information on the LIS beam for uplink selected or indicated by the BS and second information on the LIS beam for the downlink.” Note that the uplink and downlink LIS beam information indicates a configuration of the configurable reflecting surface.), the RIS comprising a plurality of subsets of elements ([0127, Fig. 5 and Fig. 11] “Alternatively or additionally, the coordinating UEs 901 and 904 apportion APD-access using configurable-surface-element partitioning, where the coordinating UEs agree to use (and/or configure) different subsets of configurable surface elements that form the RIS of the APD 180.”),
wherein the configuration of the RIS is based at least in part on a respective relative configuration of each subset of the plurality of subsets ([0066 and Fig. 5] “The surface-configuration information stored in a codebook can correspond to a full configuration that specifies an exact configuration (e.g., configure with this value) or a delta configuration that specifies a relative configuration (e.g., modify a current state by this value)…. the phase configuration 0 can specify an angular adjustment configuration for element 502 such that the configurable surface element 502 reflects the incident waveform with a “phase configuration 0” relative angular or directional shift…. As shown in FIG. 5, the base station 120 and/or the UE 110 communicate an indication to the APD 180 that specifies a surface configuration. In the present example, the indication specifies a surface configuration index 510 (SC index 510) that maps to a corresponding surface configuration of the APD 180. In response to receiving the indication, the APD manager 320 retrieves the surface configuration from the surface-configuration codebook 508 using the index and applies the surface configuration to the RIS.” See the table in Fig. 5 for phase configurations per index.), and
wherein the message is received in response to performing the initial access procedure ([Park, 0307] “The BS may transmit, to the UE, the initial access response signal indicating a response of the initial access signal, through the LIS based on the initial access signal. The initial access response signal may include the first link information.”);
selecting a first subset of element of the plurality of subsets of elements of the RIS ([0090] “the coordinating UE further apportions the reflection-access between the UEs 110, such as by apportioning a first subset of configurable surface elements to a first UE of the UEs 110, a second subset of configurable surface elements to a second UE of the UEs 110, and so forth.”, and [0096] “At 745, the UE 111 selects a surface configuration for the APD. In some aspects, a coordinating UE (e.g., the UE 111) selects the proposed surface configuration indicated by the base station at 740.”) to facilitate communications with the network device based at least in part on the configuration of the RIS ([0059] “the coordinating UE and/or the base station 120 select a surface configuration for the RIS 404 that transforms at least a portion of a first wireless signal (e.g., signal ray 492) into a second wireless signal (e.g., signal ray 494) to mitigate the channel impairments by improving a received signal quality.”); and
communicating with the network device via the first subset of elements of the plurality of subsets of elements of RIS based at least in part on the selecting ([Park, 0200] “In this regard, the BS and/or the UE may perform communication using the LIS relay by controlling a beam transition operation of the LIS in the process of performing the initial access procedure. That is, the BS and/or the UE may perform communication using the reflection function of the LIS by controlling uplink/downlink (UL/DL) reflection patterns of the LIS within a shadow area of the BS.”),
wherein a second subset of elements of the plurality of subsets of elements of the RIS is allocated for a second UE, the first subset of elements being different from the second subset of elements ([0090 and Fig. 5] “the coordinating UE further apportions the reflection-access between the UEs 110, such as by apportioning a first subset of configurable surface elements to a first UE of the UEs 110, a second subset of configurable surface elements to a second UE of the UEs 110, and so forth.”).
The proposed modification is to provide Wang’s subset specific surface configuration indication to the accessing UE using Park’s BS originated initial access response, and to apply the indicated configuration to the selected RIS subset for BS UE communication. This retains Wang’s surface partitioning and configuration mechanism while adopting Park’s access response signaling and BS-UE reflecting-surface path. It does not requires replacing all of Wang’s coordinating UE functions or treating a coordinating UE message as a BS originated message.
Therefore, it is obvious to a PHOSITA to modify Wang by providing its subset specific RIS configuration information to an accessing UE in a BS originated initial access response, as taught by Park, in order to establish a usable reflecting surface communication path during initial access such that “The initial access response signal may include first information on a beam of the LIS for uplink instructed by the base station, and second information on a beam of the LIS for downlink.” [Park, 0028].
Regarding claim 26, it is an apparatus claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitations, “a processor; memory in electronic communication with the processor; and instructions stored in the memory” (See Fig. 2 for 208 Processor(s) and CRM 210.), and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claims 4 and 29, the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 26, respectively,
the message assigns the UE the first subset of elements of the plurality of subsets of elements of the RIS for communication ([0090] “such as by apportioning a first subset of configurable surface elements to a first UE of the UEs 110, a second subset of configurable surface elements to a second UE of the UEs 110, and so forth.” See also [0091]).
Regarding claim 9, the method of claim 1, wherein: the message assigns the RIS to the UE for a set of time resources, a set of frequency resources, or both (See below [0114].); and the communicating comprises communicating with the network device via the assigned RIS for the set of time resources, the set of frequency resources, or both ([0114] “the base station 120 apportions and communicates control-access, such as by communicating a configuration that indicates an allocation of the physical resources of an APD-control channel (e.g., time-partitioned resources, frequency-partitioned resources, coding-scheme partitioned resources).”).
Regarding claim 10, the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration of the RIS indicates a set of time resources, a set of frequency resources, or both assigned to the RIS ([0114] “the base station 120 apportions and communicates control-access, such as by communicating a configuration that indicates an allocation of the physical resources of an APD-control channel (e.g., time-partitioned resources, frequency-partitioned resources, coding-scheme partitioned resources).”.
Regarding claim 11, the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration of the RIS comprises a location of the RIS ([0080] “the base station 120 indicates APD information to the coordinating UE (e.g., the UE 111). This includes indicating any combination of APD identification information, APD position information, APD control channel information, surface-configuration codebooks, and so forth.”), an uplink reflection angle of the RIS, a downlink reflection angle of the RIS, or a combination thereof (These alternatives are not examined.).
Regarding claim 13, the method of claim 1, wherein the message comprises a downlink control information message (This alternative is not examined.), a radio resource control configuration message ([0072] “the base station 120 transmits a (respective) radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message (not illustrated) that directs each UE to perform measurements. In response to the RRC reconfiguration message,”), a medium access control control element, or a combination thereof (These alternatives are not examined.).
Claim(s) 2 and 27 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. 9US 2024/0014860, “Wang”) in view of Park et al. (US 2023/0107283, “Park”) and further in view of Zegrar et al. (US 2023/0421412, “Zegrar”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Wang unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 2 and 27, it is noted that while disclosing a phase changing device, Wang does not specifically teach about UE performing beamforming operations. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Zegrar as follows;
the method of claim 1 and the apparatus of claim 26, respectively, wherein communicating with the network device comprises:
performing a beamforming operation in a direction corresponding to the RIS ([Zegrar, Fig. 2 and 0058] “a two-stage beam training method is employed, comprising a primary and an auxiliary beam search”);
selecting a communication beam based at least in part on the beamforming operation ([Zegrar, 0067] “This beam may selected and the search may further continue by selecting the beam direction with higher SNR potential and performing the beam scanning to find some pair with maximum SNR.”); and
communicating with the network device via the first subset of elements of the plurality of subsets of elements of the RIS using the selected communication beam ([Zegrar, 0109] “the UE (in general, the receiving device) may be configured to signal to the BS (in general, the transmitting device) some information regarding the channel estimation.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Wang by using the features of Zegrar in order to improve mmWave communications that “Methods and techniques are described for estimating channel in communication system comprising receiving and transmitting device, communicating with each other via a configurable surface” [Zegrar, 0006].
Claim(s) 5-8 and 12 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. 9US 2024/0014860, “Wang”) in view of Park et al. (US 2023/0107283, “Park”) and further in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0327714, “Baligh”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Wang unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 5, it is noted that while disclosing a phase changing device, Wang does not specifically teach about multiple RISs. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Baligh as follows;
the method of claim 1, wherein the message indicates a plurality of configurations for a plurality of RISs in a wireless network (See [Baligh, Fig. 8] for RIS #1 and RIS #2, and [Baligh, 0341] “messages 812 and 815 may only be sent to the UE 808 if the UE 808 is going to be made aware of the one or both of the RISs 804 and 806.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Wang by using the features of Baligh in order to improve mmWave communications that “methods and devices for utilizing controllable metasurface devices capable of redirecting a wavefront” [Baligh, 0008].
Regarding claim 6, the method of claim 5, wherein selecting the first subset of elements of the plurality of subsets of elements of the RIS of the plurality of RIS comprises:
selecting the RISs for communication based at least in part on a position of the UE, a position of the network device, a position of the RIS indicated by the configuration of the RIS, an uplink reflection angle of the RIS indicated by the configuration of the RIS, a downlink reflection angle of the RIS indicated by the configuration of the RIS (These alternatives are not examined.), a reference signal measurement associated with the RIS ([Baligh, 0343] “At the 840, the UE 808 measures RS redirected from each of the RIS 804 and 806.”, [Baligh, 0346] “At 848, the BS 802 selected RIS#1 804 as the RIS panel that will be used to redirect signals to the UE 808”), or a combination thereof.
Regarding claim 7, the method of claim 6, further comprising: transmitting, to the network device, a feedback message indicating the selected RIS ([0060] “the base station obtains an estimated UE-location using information indicated by the link-quality measurements, measurement reports, and/or other values, and accesses historical data records using the estimated UE-location, where the historical data records include surface configurations that result in acceptable performance levels at the estimated UE-location.”).
Regarding claim 8, the method of claim 7, wherein the feedback message comprises a channel state information feedback message (See aforesaid [0060] “link quality measurements”).
Regarding claim 12, the method of claim 11, wherein: the RIS comprises a first sub-RIS of a total RIS; and the location of the RIS comprises a relative location of the first sub-RIS relative to a second sub-RIS of the total RIS ([Baligh, 0254] “Information about the location of the RIS may be absolute location information such as longitude/latitude/altitude/orientation or relative location information in respect to some other location that is known by the UE”), the uplink reflection angle of the RIS comprises a relative uplink reflection angle of the first sub-RIS relative to an uplink reflection angle of the second sub-RIS of the total RIS, the downlink reflection angle of the RIS comprises a relative downlink reflection angle of the first sub-RIS relative to a downlink reflection angle of the second sub-RIS of the total RIS, or a combination thereof (These alternatives are not examined.).
The rational and motivation for adding this teaching of Baligh are the same as for claim 5.
Reasons for Allowance
Claims 14-22, 25 and 30-33 are allowed. Said claims were allowed with allowable subject matter in the previous office action dated 06/26/2026 with reasons for allowance given then, and said claims remain allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Harry H. Kim whose telephone number and email address are as follows; 571-272-5009, harry.kim2@uspto.gov.
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/HARRY H KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
