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 .
Status of Claims
This Office Action is in response to claims filed on 7/6/2023.
Claims 1-30 remain pending in the application.
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.
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.
Claims 1, 3, 5, 9-11, 22 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini et al. (WO 2012/175629); in view of Zenkyu et al. (US 2021/0028560 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 22; Tamburini discloses receiving, from the second wireless communication device, an OAM mode to use for reception of an OAM signal at the OAM antennas that are operational (control signals SYNC are transmitted in order to provide information about the OAM modes; each of the synchronization sequences SYNC is indicative of a specific OAM mode; each OAM mode is identified by the phase shift between a transmitting antenna and the following one; see paragraph 10 of page3, paragraph 8 of page 14, paragraph 4 of page 17 and Fig. 1); and receiving, from the second wireless communication device according to the OAM mode, the OAM signal at the OAM antennas that are operational (generating and transmitting EM waves associated with corresponding OAM modes; see paragraph 1 of page 4).
Tamburini discloses receiving an OAM signal associated with an OAM mode at an OAM antenna.
Tamburini does not explicitly disclose transmitting information indicating which OAM antennas are operational.
Zenkyu discloses transmitting, to a second wireless communication device, information indicating positions of orbital angular momentum (OAM) antennas of a partial receive circle of the first wireless communication device that are operational, wherein the partial receive circle is part of a full receive circle that includes the positions with the OAM antennas that are operational and one or more positions that do not have OAM antennas that are operational (in a 4x4 OAM mode multiplex transmission in which an antenna device having four antenna elements arranged on a circumference having a radius of r is used on the transmission side and the reception side is achieved in each polarized wave; in a circle, four antennas are used for V polarized wave and four antennas are used for H polarized wave; V polarized wave and H polarized wave can be switched; see paragraphs [0049], [0058] and Fig. 6B).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini and Zenkyu to transmit information indicating positions of OAM antennas that are operational and non-operational in order to use multiplex transmission waves actively and effectively (see paragraph [0004] of Zenkyu).
Specifically for claim 1; Tamburini discloses a first wireless communication device for wireless communication (a telecommunication apparatus; see paragraph 4 of page 7), comprising: a memory (memory stores steps of performing the method; see paragraph 6 of page 7); and one or more processors, coupled to the memory (a processor performs method of telecommunication; see paragraph 6 of page 7).
Regarding claim 3; Tamburini discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to: receive, from the second wireless communication device, a plurality of OAM modes to use for reception of a plurality of OAM signals at the OAM antennas that are operational (control signals SYNC are transmitted in order to provide information about the OAM modes; each of the synchronization sequences SYNC is indicative of a specific OAM mode; each OAM mode is identified by the phase shift between a transmitting antenna and the following one; see paragraph 10 of page3, paragraph 8 of page 14, paragraph 4 of page 17 and Fig. 1); and receive, from the second wireless communication device according to the plurality of OAM modes, the plurality of OAM signals at the OAM antennas that are operational (generating and transmitting EM waves associated with corresponding OAM modes; see paragraph 1 of page 4).
Regarding claims 9 and 26; Tamburini discloses transmitting, to the second wireless communication device, an OAM mode to use for reception of an OAM signal, based at least in part on the information (control signals SYNC are transmitted in order to provide information about the OAM modes; each of the synchronization sequences SYNC is indicative of a specific OAM mode; each OAM mode is identified by the phase shift between a transmitting antenna and the following one; see paragraph 10 of page3, paragraph 8 of page 14, paragraph 4 of page 17 and Fig. 1); and transmitting, to the second wireless communication device, the OAM signal using the OAM mode (generating and transmitting EM waves associated with corresponding OAM modes; see paragraph 1 of page 4).
Tamburini discloses receiving an OAM signal associated with an OAM mode at an OAM antenna.
Tamburini does not explicitly disclose transmitting information indicating which OAM antennas are operational.
Zenkyu discloses receiving, from a second wireless communication device, information indicating positions of orbital angular momentum (OAM) antennas of a partial receive circle of the second wireless communication device that are operational, wherein the partial receive circle is part of a full receive circle that includes the positions with the OAM antennas that are operational and one or more positions that do not have OAM antennas that are operational (in a 4x4 OAM mode multiplex transmission in which an antenna device having four antenna elements arranged on a circumference having a radius of r is used on the transmission side and the reception side is achieved in each polarized wave; in a circle, four antennas are used for V polarized wave and four antennas are used for H polarized wave; V polarized wave and H polarized wave can be switched; see paragraphs [0049], [0058] and Fig. 6B).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini and Zenkyu to transmit information indicating positions of OAM antennas that are operational and non-operational in order to use multiplex transmission waves actively and effectively (see paragraph [0004] of Zenkyu).
Specifically for claim 9; Tamburini discloses a first wireless communication device for wireless communication (a telecommunication apparatus; see paragraph 4 of page 7), comprising: a memory (memory stores steps of performing the method; see paragraph 6 of page 7); and one or more processors, coupled to the memory (a processor performs method of telecommunication; see paragraph 6 of page 7).
Regarding claims 5 and 11; Tamburini discloses transmitting an OAM signal associated with an OAM mode at an OAM antenna.
Tamburini does not explicitly disclose transmitting a radius of the full receive circle information.
Zenkyu discloses wherein the information includes a radius of the full receive circle (the radius of the circle in which the antenna elements are arranged is set to a radius r in which MIMO GAIN has a desired property in each OAM mode for a certain link distance; see paragraph [0055]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini and Zenkyu to transmitting a radius of the full receive circle information to use reflection of radio waves actively and effectively (see paragraph [0004]).
Regarding claim 10; Tamburini discloses transmit, to the second wireless communication device, a plurality of OAM modes to use for reception of a plurality of OAM signals, based at least in part on the information (control signals SYNC are transmitted in order to provide information about the OAM modes; each of the synchronization sequences SYNC is indicative of a specific OAM mode; each OAM mode is identified by the phase shift between a transmitting antenna and the following one; see paragraph 10 of page3, paragraph 8 of page 14, paragraph 4 of page 17 and Fig. 1); and transmit, to the second wireless communication device, the plurality of OAM signals using the plurality of OAM modes (generating and transmitting EM waves associated with corresponding OAM modes; see paragraph 1 of page 4).
Claims 2 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini; in view of Zenkyu; and in further view of Adachi et al. (US 2019/0028165 A1).
Regarding claims 2 and 23; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses receiving OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose deriving OAM signals based on OAM coefficients.
Adachi discloses deriving the OAM signal for the positions that do not have OAM antennas that are operational based at least in part on virtual rotational OAM coefficients that are applied to the OAM signal received at the positions of the OAM antennas that are operational (OAM phase shift weighting unit applies weighting by multiplying a signal by a weighting coefficient of OAM phase shift; OAM phase shift indicates the OAM phase shift with respect to the transmission signal of the n-order OAM mode in antenna element; see paragraphs [0012] and [0056]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Adachi to derive OAM signals based on OAM coefficients in order to perform communication using wireless signals having the plurality of OAM propagation modes (see paragraph [0010] of Adachi).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini; in view of Zenkyu; and in further view of Luddy et al. (US 2017/0187442 A1).
Regarding claim 4; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses receiving OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose demultiplexing the plurality of OAM signals at the OAM antennas.
Luddy discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to demultiplex the plurality of OAM signals at the OAM antennas that are operational based at least in part on virtual rotational OAM coefficients that are applied to the plurality of OAM signals received at the positions of the OAM antennas that are operational (the received OAM signal is demultiplexed by beamsplitters and provide to filters having the inverse phase reflection of corresponding transmitter filters respectively; see paragraph [0051]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Luddy to demultiplex the plurality of OAM signals at the OAM antennas to achieve better performance (see paragraph [0054] of Luddy).
Claims 6, 12 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini; in view of Zenkyu; and in further view of Yamada et al. (US 2024/0014553 A1).
Regarding claims 6 and 24; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose transmitting change information indicating phase difference.
Yamada discloses transmitting, to the second wireless communication device, change information indicating a change of one or more OAM coefficients for one or more OAM antennas of the partial receive circle (when the reception device moves to another position, the control unit can supply the signal having phase difference (coefficient); see paragraph [0083]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Yamada to transmit a change information indicating phase difference in order to follow the movement of the reception device (see paragraph [0083] of Yamada).
Regarding claim 12; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses receiving OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose receiving change information indicating phase difference.
Yamada discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to receive change information indicating a value change of one or more OAM coefficients of one or more OAM antennas of the partial receive circle (when the reception device moves to another position, the control unit can supply the signal having phase difference (coefficient); see paragraph [0083]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Yamada to receive a change information indicating phase difference in order to follow the movement of the reception device (see paragraph [0083] of Yamada).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini; in view of Zenkyu; and in further view of Hirabe (US 2021/0288699 A1).
Regarding claim 7; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose transmitting an indication to use a rotational OAM scheme.
Hirabe discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to transmit an indication to use a virtual rotational OAM scheme (the plurality of reception antenna elements are aligned in a rotationally symmetric manner and at equal distances from the center of rotational symmetry in the OAM mode; see paragraph [0045]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Hirabe to transmit an indication to use a rotational OAM scheme to improve the accuracy of the calibration of array antennas used for OAM mode multiplex transmission (see paragraph [0008] of Hirabe).
Claims 8, 16-17, 20, 25, 29-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini; in view of Zenkyu; and in further view of Ashrafi (US 2018/0248592 A1).
Regarding claims 8 and 25; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose transmitting a value indicating a proportion of a SNR.
Ashrafi discloses transmitting, to the second wireless communication device, a value of a partial circle coefficient that indicates a proportion of a channel gain or a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the partial receive circle relative to a channel gain or an SNR for the full receive circle, or a value change of the partial circle coefficient (the gain from adding one or more antenna is equal to SNR multiplied by a delta increased in SNR; the delta increase diminishes as more and more antennas are added; a received signal in a MIMO system and a transmitted signal can be represented in a matrix; each of the matrix entries is a distortion coefficient acting on the transmitted signal amplitude and phase in time-domain; see paragraphs [0111] – [0112] and [0157]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Ashrafi to transmit a value indicating a proportion of a SNR to improve decoding (see paragraph [0134] of Ashrafi)
Regarding claims 16 and 29; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose transmitting a value indicating a proportion of a SNR.
Ashrafi discloses calculating a channel gain or an SNR of an OAM mode based at least in part on a proportion of a channel gain or an SNR for the partial receive circle relative to the channel gain or an SNR for the full receive circle (the gain from adding one or more antenna is equal to SNR multiplied by a delta increased in SNR; the delta increase diminishes as more and more antennas are added; see paragraphs [0111] - [0112] and [0157]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Ashrafi to calculate a value indicating a proportion of a SNR to improve decoding (see paragraph [0134] of Ashrafi).
Regarding claims 17 and 30; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose transmitting a value indicating a proportion of a SNR.
Ashrafi discloses calculating a channel gain or an SNR of an OAM mode based at least in part on a value of a partial circle coefficient that indicates a proportion of a channel gain or an SNR for the partial receive circle relative to the channel gain or an SNR for the full receive circle (the gain from adding one or more antenna is equal to SNR multiplied by a delta increased in SNR; the delta increase diminishes as more and more antennas are added; each of the matrix entries is a distortion coefficient acting on the transmitted signal amplitude and phase in time-domain; see paragraphs [0112] and [0157]), or that indicates a value change of the partial circle coefficient, wherein the value of the partial circle coefficient or the value change of the partial circle coefficient is received from the second wireless communication device (no patentable weight is given due to the claim language or).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Ashrafi to calculate an SNR of an OAM mode based on a coefficient to improve decoding (see paragraph [0134] of Ashrafi).
Regarding claim 20; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose updating an SNR based on a value change of a coefficient.
Ashrafi discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to update one or more of the channel gain of an OAM mode or the SNR of an OAM mode based at least in part on the value change of the partial circle coefficient (a phase shift can be considered an enhancing or distorting agent for the signal SNR; see paragraph [0097]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Ashrafi to update an SNR based on a value change of a coefficient to improve pilot channel contamination (see paragraph [0085] of Ashrafi).
Claims 13, 21 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini; in view of Zenkyu; and in further view of Orhan et al. (US 2022/0345232 A1).
Regarding claims 13 and 27; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose selecting the OAM mode based on SNR.
Orhan discloses selecting the OAM mode from among multiple OAM modes based at least in part on a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that is calculated for each of the multiple OAM modes (selecting OAM mode based on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); see paragraph [0147] and Fig. 19A).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Orhan to select the OAM mode based on SNR to improve transmit/receive gain (see paragraph [0002] of Orhan).
Regarding claim 21; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose selecting the OAM mode based on SNR.
Orhan discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to select the OAM mode with a greatest SNR (selecting OAM mode based on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); see paragraph [0147] and Fig. 19A).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Orhan to select the OAM mode based on SNR to improve transmit/receive gain (see paragraph [0002] of Orhan).
Claims 14-15 and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini; in view of Zenkyu; and in further view of Rusek (US 20150036516 A1).
Regarding claims 14 and 28; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose calculate the SNR as a function of a square of a channel gain.
Rusek discloses wherein the SNR is calculated for each of the multiple OAM modes as a function of one or more of: a square of a channel gain for the full receive circle (the square of the channel gain is proportional to the SNR at the receiver; see paragraph [0041]), an oversampling coefficient, a total quantity of OAM antennas in a full transmit circle of the first wireless communication device, a base SNR value between a transmitting OAM antenna and a receiving OAM antenna, and a noise coefficient that is calculated from weights that are each a function of an OAM mode and a position of an OAM antenna of the second wireless communication device that is operational (no patentable weight is given due to the claim language one or more of).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Rusek to calculate the SNR as a function of a square of a channel gain to effectively detect an active eavesdropper interfering in transmissions between a transmitter and a receiver (see paragraph [0021] of Rusek).
Regarding claim 15; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose calculating the channel gain based on a radius.
Zenkyu discloses wherein the one or more processors are configured to calculate the channel gain of an OAM mode for the full receive circle based at least in part on a circle radius or aperture radius of the full receive circle (the radius of the circle in which the antennas elements are arranged is set to a radius r in which MIMO GAIN has a desire property in each OAM mode for a certain link; see paragraph [0055]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Rusek to calculate the channel gain based on a radius to maximize the substantial number of times of multiplex transmission (see paragraph [0008] of Rusek).
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini; in view of Zenkyu; and in further view of Sasaki et al. (US 2021/0111781 A1).
Regarding claim 18; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose a coefficient is channel-relevant to the OAM modes.
Sasaki discloses wherein the partial circle coefficient is channel-relevant to the multiple OAM modes (the channel estimation unit calculates weights used for compensating for interference of the signals of each OAM mode; see paragraph [0029]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Sasaki to have a coefficient that is channel-relevant to the OAM modes to compensate inter-mode interference (see paragraph [0006] of Sasaki).
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamburini; in view of Zenkyu; and in further view of Klemes (US 2020/0127709 A1).
Regarding claim 19; the combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu discloses transmitting OAM signals at the OAM antennas according to the OAM mode.
The combination of Tamburini and Zenkyu does not explicitly disclose a coefficient is channel-irrelevant to the OAM mode.
Klemes discloses wherein the partial circle coefficient is channel-irrelevant to the multiple OAM modes (the baseband signals are each multiplied by a weighting coefficient and then summed up to provide separate OAM mode baseband signal; see paragraph [0083]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Tamburini, Zenkyu and Klemes to have a coefficient that is channel-irrelevant to the OAM modes to facilitate separation of the OAM modes (see ABSTRACT of Klemes).
Conclusion
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/N.L/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
/MANSOUR OVEISSI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415