DETAILED ACTION
Claim(s) 1-20 have been examined and are pending.
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 Remarks/Arguments
Specification - Title
Applicants’ amendment of title in response to the title being objected to for being non-descriptive, is effective. Accordingly, the objection to the title has been withdrawn
Prior Art Rejection(s)
In the Non-Final Rejection mailed 11 September 2025, the status of the claim(s) in light of the prior art of record was as follow(s): Claim(s) 1, 6, 11, and 16 were rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by MOON (US 20240429994 A1). Claim(s) 2-5, 7-10, 12-15, and 17-20 were 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.
Responsive to the Non-Final Rejection, Applicants’ have amended each of independent claim(s) 1, 6, 11, 16, to include some of the limitation(s) seen in dependent claim(s) 2, 7, 12, and 17 (…plurality of formats of RIS control information...). However, as the amendments did not incorporate all of the limitation(s) of said dependent claim(s), an additional search and consideration was necessary in order to determine the status of the claim(s) in light of the amendments. Accordingly, a new ground of rejection has been made in view of ALI (US 20230030324 A1). Furthermore Applicant' s arguments with respect to the amended claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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, 6, 11, and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MOON (US 20240429994 A1) in view of ALI (US 20230030324 A1)
In regards to claim 1, MOON (US 20240429994 A1) teaches a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a reconfigurable intelligence surface (RIS) controller,( MOON teaches transmitting to a RIS controller, repeater configured as a intelligent reflecting surface, RRC message, signaling such as DCI/PDCCH/MAC CE/ RRC or the like including RIS codebook configuration information,
“[0012] When the repeater is configured as an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), the information on the backhaul transmission beam and/or the information on the access link transmission beam may include phase shift values for a plurality of phase control elements constituting the IRS… [0107] The codebooks may be predefined in the technical specification. A plurality of codebooks may be defined, and the codebooks may be defined for each dimension (e.g., M, N, etc.) of the access link transmission/reception signal of the repeater. Alternatively, the size or dimension of the codebook may be determined by the dimension (e.g., M, N, etc.) the access link transmission/reception signal. Information on the codebooks, for example, the size or dimension of the codeword, number of codewords (or oversampling coefficient), codebook type, transmission direction (e.g., downlink or uplink), and/or the like may be predefined in the technical specifications. In addition, the codewords may be predefined in technical specifications. For example, the codewords may be defined as (oversampled) discrete Fourier transform (DFT) vectors (i.e., columns of a (oversampled) DFT matrix). Alternatively, at least a portion of the information on the codebook may be transmitted from the base station to the repeater through a signaling procedure (e.g., DCI, PDCCH, MAC CE or signaling equivalent thereto, RRC message or signaling equivalent thereto, and/or the like).”);
determining a format of RIS control information
generating the RIS control information based on the determined format of the RIS control information,
transmitting, to the RIS controller, the generated RIS control information (“[0109] The base station may select or determine a codebook in consideration of the dimension of the access link transmission/reception signal, the number of transmission layers, the number of antennas or antenna ports, the transmission direction, and the like of the repeater. The base station may select one codeword (or a plurality of codewords) from the determined codebook, and may signal information on the selected codeword(s) to the repeater. For example, the base station may notify the repeater of index(es) (or beam index(es)) of the selected codeword(s). For example, the signaling may be dynamic signaling (e.g., DCI, PDCCH, physical layer signaling, MAC CE transmitted from the base station to the repeater, etc.). The repeater may determine the access link transmission beam or access link reception beam based on the information on the codeword(s) (e.g., codeword index(es), beam index(es)) received from the base station. The above-described beam indication method using the codebook may correspond to a method of explicitly signaling beam information. The method described above may be referred to as (Method 110). (Method 110) may also be used to determine the backhaul transmission beam or the backhaul reception beam of the repeater.”).
The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) feature of MOON differs from that of claim 1, in that MOON is silent on the format of RIS control information being from among a plurality of formats of RIS control information and in that MOON is silent on wherein the RIS control information includes information indicating a slot and a format indicator. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving reconfigurable intelligent surfaces.
ALI teaches a RIS feature that involves identifying/determining a RIS format from a plurality of formats of RIS control information. ALI also teaches where the RIS control information comprises information indicating a slot such as slot format indication (SFI) and a format indicator such as a specific Zadoff-Chu sequence. (“[0057] In some embodiments, a gNB may be used to signal RIS control information, such as: 1) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for an RIS specific synchronization signal for enabling time synchronization at a RIS controller receiver with a frame and/or slot timing for downlink (“DL”) and/or uplink (“UL”); 2) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for an RIS control channel that carries control information to a RIS controller; 3) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for RIS specific sequences that indicate different RIS control information; and/or 4) applying an on pattern and/or an off pattern with an on mask and/or off mask for some DL symbols, where the pattern represents a RIS control payload… [0078] In a second embodiment, an RIS control indication may be made using a sequence transmission. In such an embodiment, a network node transmits control information to an RIS controller that is equipped with a low complexity receiver to perform correlation of a pre-defined sequence, such as Zadoff-Chu (“ZC”) sequence, transmitted by the network node. The sequence may be generated with cyclic shifts. Each sequence may correspond to few bits of the payload that carry RIS control information (e.g., PSMI) to indicate a suitable phase matrix for the RIS. The length of the RIS control information payload depends on the length of the sequence and the number of the orthogonal generated sequences. The network node may send multiple sequences in multiple symbols with each sequence carrying part of the RIS control information. In one implementation of the second embodiment, the RIS control payload is divided into multiple parts. Each part may be used to generate a corresponding sequence by cyclic shifting a base sequence based on a bit field of the part. The RIS controller applies a correlation search for each symbol to detect the bits and concatenates the results from the different symbols to retrieve the RIS control payload. In another implementation of the second embodiment, each symbol and/or sequence carries a specific bit field of the RIS control payload as depicted in the embodiment of FIG. 10. Specifically, FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram 1000 illustrating one embodiment of using ZC sequences to carry RIS control information. A first RIS ZC sequence 1002 (RISZCSequence0), a second RIS ZC sequence 1004 (RISZCSequence1), and a third RIS ZC sequence 1006 (RISZCSequence2) are transmitted. PSMI may be sent using one or more sequences (e.g., the first RIS ZC sequence 1002 and the second RIS ZC sequence 1004) and a number of affected slots is sent in another sequence and/or symbol (e.g., the third RIS ZC sequence 1006), the SFI is sent in another sequence and/or symbol, and so forth.”).
Thus, based upon the teachings of ALI it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify RIS feature of MOON by incorporating different formats of RIS control information as seen in ALI to thus arrive at claim 1, in order to provide a benefit of flexible encoding of the RIS control information taught by MOON, through use of different sequences.
In regards to claim 11, MOON (US 20240429994 A1) teaches a base station in a wireless communication system, the base station comprising:
a transceiver; and a processor operably connected to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to (“[0047] FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a first exemplary embodiment of a communication system. [0048] Referring to FIG. 1, a communication system 100 may comprise a plurality of communication nodes 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, 120-2, 130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130-4, 130-5, and 130-6… [0050] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a first exemplary embodiment of a communication node constituting a communication system. [0051] Referring to FIG. 2, a communication node 200 may comprise at least one processor 210, a memory 220, and a transceiver 230 connected to the network for performing communications. Also, the communication node 200 may further comprise an input interface device 240, an output interface device 250, a storage device 260, and the like. The respective components included in the communication node 200 may communicate with each other as connected through a bus 270… [0053] Referring again to FIG. 1, the communication system 100 may comprise a plurality of base stations 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, 120-1, and 120-2, and a plurality of terminals 130-1, 130-2, 130-3, 130-4, 130-5, and 130-6.”):
transmit, to a reconfigurable intelligence surface (RIS) controller, a radio resource control (RRC) message including RIS codebook configuration information ( MOON teaches transmitting to a RIS controller, repeater configured as a intelligent reflecting surface, RRC message, signaling such as DCI/PDCCH/MAC CE/ RRC or the like including RIS codebook configuration information,
“[0012] When the repeater is configured as an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), the information on the backhaul transmission beam and/or the information on the access link transmission beam may include phase shift values for a plurality of phase control elements constituting the IRS… [0107] The codebooks may be predefined in the technical specification. A plurality of codebooks may be defined, and the codebooks may be defined for each dimension (e.g., M, N, etc.) of the access link transmission/reception signal of the repeater. Alternatively, the size or dimension of the codebook may be determined by the dimension (e.g., M, N, etc.) the access link transmission/reception signal. Information on the codebooks, for example, the size or dimension of the codeword, number of codewords (or oversampling coefficient), codebook type, transmission direction (e.g., downlink or uplink), and/or the like may be predefined in the technical specifications. In addition, the codewords may be predefined in technical specifications. For example, the codewords may be defined as (oversampled) discrete Fourier transform (DFT) vectors (i.e., columns of a (oversampled) DFT matrix). Alternatively, at least a portion of the information on the codebook may be transmitted from the base station to the repeater through a signaling procedure (e.g., DCI, PDCCH, MAC CE or signaling equivalent thereto, RRC message or signaling equivalent thereto, and/or the like).”),
determine a format of RIS control information
generate the RIS control information based on the determined format of the RIS control information,
transmit, to the RIS controller, the generated RIS control information (“[0109] The base station may select or determine a codebook in consideration of the dimension of the access link transmission/reception signal, the number of transmission layers, the number of antennas or antenna ports, the transmission direction, and the like of the repeater. The base station may select one codeword (or a plurality of codewords) from the determined codebook, and may signal information on the selected codeword(s) to the repeater. For example, the base station may notify the repeater of index(es) (or beam index(es)) of the selected codeword(s). For example, the signaling may be dynamic signaling (e.g., DCI, PDCCH, physical layer signaling, MAC CE transmitted from the base station to the repeater, etc.). The repeater may determine the access link transmission beam or access link reception beam based on the information on the codeword(s) (e.g., codeword index(es), beam index(es)) received from the base station. The above-described beam indication method using the codebook may correspond to a method of explicitly signaling beam information. The method described above may be referred to as (Method 110). (Method 110) may also be used to determine the backhaul transmission beam or the backhaul reception beam of the repeater.”).
The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) feature of MOON differs from that of claim 11, in that MOON is silent on the format of RIS control information being from among a plurality of formats of RIS control information and in that MOON is silent on wherein the RIS control information includes information indicating a slot and a format indicator. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving reconfigurable intelligent surfaces.
ALI teaches a RIS feature that involves identifying/determining a RIS format from a plurality of formats of RIS control information. ALI also teaches where the RIS control information comprises information indicating a slot such as slot format indication (SFI) and a format indicator such as a specific Zadoff-Chu sequence. (“[0057] In some embodiments, a gNB may be used to signal RIS control information, such as: 1) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for an RIS specific synchronization signal for enabling time synchronization at a RIS controller receiver with a frame and/or slot timing for downlink (“DL”) and/or uplink (“UL”); 2) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for an RIS control channel that carries control information to a RIS controller; 3) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for RIS specific sequences that indicate different RIS control information; and/or 4) applying an on pattern and/or an off pattern with an on mask and/or off mask for some DL symbols, where the pattern represents a RIS control payload… [0078] In a second embodiment, an RIS control indication may be made using a sequence transmission. In such an embodiment, a network node transmits control information to an RIS controller that is equipped with a low complexity receiver to perform correlation of a pre-defined sequence, such as Zadoff-Chu (“ZC”) sequence, transmitted by the network node. The sequence may be generated with cyclic shifts. Each sequence may correspond to few bits of the payload that carry RIS control information (e.g., PSMI) to indicate a suitable phase matrix for the RIS. The length of the RIS control information payload depends on the length of the sequence and the number of the orthogonal generated sequences. The network node may send multiple sequences in multiple symbols with each sequence carrying part of the RIS control information. In one implementation of the second embodiment, the RIS control payload is divided into multiple parts. Each part may be used to generate a corresponding sequence by cyclic shifting a base sequence based on a bit field of the part. The RIS controller applies a correlation search for each symbol to detect the bits and concatenates the results from the different symbols to retrieve the RIS control payload. In another implementation of the second embodiment, each symbol and/or sequence carries a specific bit field of the RIS control payload as depicted in the embodiment of FIG. 10. Specifically, FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram 1000 illustrating one embodiment of using ZC sequences to carry RIS control information. A first RIS ZC sequence 1002 (RISZCSequence0), a second RIS ZC sequence 1004 (RISZCSequence1), and a third RIS ZC sequence 1006 (RISZCSequence2) are transmitted. PSMI may be sent using one or more sequences (e.g., the first RIS ZC sequence 1002 and the second RIS ZC sequence 1004) and a number of affected slots is sent in another sequence and/or symbol (e.g., the third RIS ZC sequence 1006), the SFI is sent in another sequence and/or symbol, and so forth.”).
Thus, based upon the teachings of ALI it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify RIS feature of MOON by incorporating different formats of RIS control information as seen in ALI to thus arrive at claim 11, in order to provide a benefit of flexible encoding of the RIS control information taught by MOON, through use of different sequences.
In regards to claim 6, MOON (US 20240429994 A1) teaches a method performed by a reconfigurable intelligence surface (RIS) controller in a wireless communication, the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including RIS codebook configuration information ( MOON teaches a RIS controller, repeater configured as a intelligent reflecting surface, receiving a RRC message, signaling such as DCI/PDCCH/MAC CE/ RRC or the like including RIS codebook configuration information, from a base station
“[0012] When the repeater is configured as an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), the information on the backhaul transmission beam and/or the information on the access link transmission beam may include phase shift values for a plurality of phase control elements constituting the IRS… [0107] The codebooks may be predefined in the technical specification. A plurality of codebooks may be defined, and the codebooks may be defined for each dimension (e.g., M, N, etc.) of the access link transmission/reception signal of the repeater. Alternatively, the size or dimension of the codebook may be determined by the dimension (e.g., M, N, etc.) the access link transmission/reception signal. Information on the codebooks, for example, the size or dimension of the codeword, number of codewords (or oversampling coefficient), codebook type, transmission direction (e.g., downlink or uplink), and/or the like may be predefined in the technical specifications. In addition, the codewords may be predefined in technical specifications. For example, the codewords may be defined as (oversampled) discrete Fourier transform (DFT) vectors (i.e., columns of a (oversampled) DFT matrix). Alternatively, at least a portion of the information on the codebook may be transmitted from the base station to the repeater through a signaling procedure (e.g., DCI, PDCCH, MAC CE or signaling equivalent thereto, RRC message or signaling equivalent thereto, and/or the like).”);
receiving, from the base station, RIS control information including a format indicator and information indicating a slot;
identifying a format of the RIS control information
identifying reflection patterns related to symbols of the slot based on the RIS control information; and
controlling a reflection plane of an RIS based on the identified reflection patterns (“[0109] The base station may select or determine a codebook in consideration of the dimension of the access link transmission/reception signal, the number of transmission layers, the number of antennas or antenna ports, the transmission direction, and the like of the repeater. The base station may select one codeword (or a plurality of codewords) from the determined codebook, and may signal information on the selected codeword(s) to the repeater. For example, the base station may notify the repeater of index(es) (or beam index(es)) of the selected codeword(s). For example, the signaling may be dynamic signaling (e.g., DCI, PDCCH, physical layer signaling, MAC CE transmitted from the base station to the repeater, etc.). The repeater may determine the access link transmission beam or access link reception beam based on the information on the codeword(s) (e.g., codeword index(es), beam index(es)) received from the base station. The above-described beam indication method using the codebook may correspond to a method of explicitly signaling beam information. The method described above may be referred to as (Method 110). (Method 110) may also be used to determine the backhaul transmission beam or the backhaul reception beam of the repeater…[0170] The beam indication information (e.g., access link beam indication information) may include information on a time period to which the beam indication information is applied, beam information for the time period, and the like. The time period may be slot(s). For example, the beam indication information may include beam information corresponding to each symbol (or each symbol group) belonging to the time period, and information on each beam may include a codeword index of a codebook, information on coefficients or phase values of the beam, and the like, as described above. In this case, the number of beam information may coincide with the number of symbols (or the number of symbol groups) belonging to the time period. The relay node may receive information on a time granularity to which the beam indication information is applied, that is, a time unit (e.g., symbol or symbol group) to which each beam indication information is applied, from the base station. In addition, the beam indication information may further include information on a frequency region (e.g., RBs, subband, RB set, bandwidth part, carrier, etc.) to which the beam indication information is applied. At least a part of the above-described information may be transmitted from the base station to the relay node by semi-static signaling (e.g., RRC signaling or signaling equivalent thereto). For example, the number of slots K3 included in the time period to which the beam indication information is applied may be set semi-statically. The relay node may consider that the beam indication information included in DCI is for K3 slots. In addition, the relay node may determine the size of a field of the DCI (or R-DCI, SCI, etc.) including the beam indication information based on the length of the time period, and monitor the DCI (or R-DCI, SCI, etc.) in accordance therewith.
[0171] In addition, the duration of the above-described time period, symbol, etc. may be determined by a specific numerology (e.g., reference numerology). Here, the numerology may mean a subcarrier spacing. Alternatively, the numerology may mean a subcarrier spacing and a CP length. The specific numerology (e.g., reference numerology) may be configured to the relay node through semi-static signaling, or may be indicated to the relay node as being included in the DCI. The information on the reference numerology may be included in slot format information or transmitted together with the slot format information (e.g., as being included in the same DCI (format) as the slot format information). In addition, the above-described beam indication information may be included in the slot format information or transmitted together with the slot format information (e.g., as being included in the same DCI (format) as the slot format information). Alternatively, the relay node may be configured with a carrier and/or bandwidth part from the base station, and one of numerology(s) (or subcarrier spacing(s)) used in the carrier or bandwidth part may be determined as the reference numerology (or reference subcarrier spacing). For example, the duration of the time period, symbol, etc. may be determined based on the smallest subcarrier spacing among the subcarrier spacing(s) configured in the carrier or bandwidth part(s) configured in the relay node. Alternatively, the duration of the time period, symbol, etc. may be determined based on a subcarrier spacing of a carrier or bandwidth part activated (or indicated to be activated) in the relay node.”).
The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) feature of MOON differs from that of claim 6, in that MOON is silent on the identified format of RIS control information being from among a plurality of formats of RIS control information. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving reconfigurable intelligent surfaces.
ALI teaches a RIS feature that involves identifying/determining a RIS format from a plurality of formats of RIS control information. ALI also teaches where the RIS control information comprises information indicating a slot such as slot format indication (SFI) and a format indicator such as a specific Zadoff-Chu sequence. (“[0057] In some embodiments, a gNB may be used to signal RIS control information, such as: 1) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for an RIS specific synchronization signal for enabling time synchronization at a RIS controller receiver with a frame and/or slot timing for downlink (“DL”) and/or uplink (“UL”); 2) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for an RIS control channel that carries control information to a RIS controller; 3) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for RIS specific sequences that indicate different RIS control information; and/or 4) applying an on pattern and/or an off pattern with an on mask and/or off mask for some DL symbols, where the pattern represents a RIS control payload… [0078] In a second embodiment, an RIS control indication may be made using a sequence transmission. In such an embodiment, a network node transmits control information to an RIS controller that is equipped with a low complexity receiver to perform correlation of a pre-defined sequence, such as Zadoff-Chu (“ZC”) sequence, transmitted by the network node. The sequence may be generated with cyclic shifts. Each sequence may correspond to few bits of the payload that carry RIS control information (e.g., PSMI) to indicate a suitable phase matrix for the RIS. The length of the RIS control information payload depends on the length of the sequence and the number of the orthogonal generated sequences. The network node may send multiple sequences in multiple symbols with each sequence carrying part of the RIS control information. In one implementation of the second embodiment, the RIS control payload is divided into multiple parts. Each part may be used to generate a corresponding sequence by cyclic shifting a base sequence based on a bit field of the part. The RIS controller applies a correlation search for each symbol to detect the bits and concatenates the results from the different symbols to retrieve the RIS control payload. In another implementation of the second embodiment, each symbol and/or sequence carries a specific bit field of the RIS control payload as depicted in the embodiment of FIG. 10. Specifically, FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram 1000 illustrating one embodiment of using ZC sequences to carry RIS control information. A first RIS ZC sequence 1002 (RISZCSequence0), a second RIS ZC sequence 1004 (RISZCSequence1), and a third RIS ZC sequence 1006 (RISZCSequence2) are transmitted. PSMI may be sent using one or more sequences (e.g., the first RIS ZC sequence 1002 and the second RIS ZC sequence 1004) and a number of affected slots is sent in another sequence and/or symbol (e.g., the third RIS ZC sequence 1006), the SFI is sent in another sequence and/or symbol, and so forth.”).
Thus, based upon the teachings of ALI it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify RIS feature of MOON by incorporating different formats of RIS control information as seen in ALI to thus arrive at claim 6, in order to provide a benefit of flexible encoding of the RIS control information taught by MOON, through use of different sequences.
In regards to claim 16, MOON (US 20240429994 A1) teaches a reconfigurable intelligence surface (RIS) controller in a wireless communication system, the RIS controller comprising:
a transceiver; and
a processor operably connected to the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to (“[0020] A repeater, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure for achieving the above-described another objective, may comprise: a processor; at least one transceiver connected to the processor; and a memory storing at least one instruction executable by the processor, wherein when executed by the processor, the at least one instruction causes the repeater to…”):
receive, from a base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including RIS codebook configuration information ( MOON teaches a RIS controller, repeater configured as a intelligent reflecting surface, receiving a RRC message, signaling such as DCI/PDCCH/MAC CE/ RRC or the like including RIS codebook configuration information, from a base station
“[0012] When the repeater is configured as an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), the information on the backhaul transmission beam and/or the information on the access link transmission beam may include phase shift values for a plurality of phase control elements constituting the IRS… [0107] The codebooks may be predefined in the technical specification. A plurality of codebooks may be defined, and the codebooks may be defined for each dimension (e.g., M, N, etc.) of the access link transmission/reception signal of the repeater. Alternatively, the size or dimension of the codebook may be determined by the dimension (e.g., M, N, etc.) the access link transmission/reception signal. Information on the codebooks, for example, the size or dimension of the codeword, number of codewords (or oversampling coefficient), codebook type, transmission direction (e.g., downlink or uplink), and/or the like may be predefined in the technical specifications. In addition, the codewords may be predefined in technical specifications. For example, the codewords may be defined as (oversampled) discrete Fourier transform (DFT) vectors (i.e., columns of a (oversampled) DFT matrix). Alternatively, at least a portion of the information on the codebook may be transmitted from the base station to the repeater through a signaling procedure (e.g., DCI, PDCCH, MAC CE or signaling equivalent thereto, RRC message or signaling equivalent thereto, and/or the like).”),
receive, from the base station, RIS control information including a format indicator and information indicating a slot,
identify a format of the RIS control information
identify reflection patterns related to symbols of the slot based on the RIS control information, and
control a reflection plane of an RIS based on the identified reflection patterns (“[0109] The base station may select or determine a codebook in consideration of the dimension of the access link transmission/reception signal, the number of transmission layers, the number of antennas or antenna ports, the transmission direction, and the like of the repeater. The base station may select one codeword (or a plurality of codewords) from the determined codebook, and may signal information on the selected codeword(s) to the repeater. For example, the base station may notify the repeater of index(es) (or beam index(es)) of the selected codeword(s). For example, the signaling may be dynamic signaling (e.g., DCI, PDCCH, physical layer signaling, MAC CE transmitted from the base station to the repeater, etc.). The repeater may determine the access link transmission beam or access link reception beam based on the information on the codeword(s) (e.g., codeword index(es), beam index(es)) received from the base station. The above-described beam indication method using the codebook may correspond to a method of explicitly signaling beam information. The method described above may be referred to as (Method 110). (Method 110) may also be used to determine the backhaul transmission beam or the backhaul reception beam of the repeater…[0170] The beam indication information (e.g., access link beam indication information) may include information on a time period to which the beam indication information is applied, beam information for the time period, and the like. The time period may be slot(s). For example, the beam indication information may include beam information corresponding to each symbol (or each symbol group) belonging to the time period, and information on each beam may include a codeword index of a codebook, information on coefficients or phase values of the beam, and the like, as described above. In this case, the number of beam information may coincide with the number of symbols (or the number of symbol groups) belonging to the time period. The relay node may receive information on a time granularity to which the beam indication information is applied, that is, a time unit (e.g., symbol or symbol group) to which each beam indication information is applied, from the base station. In addition, the beam indication information may further include information on a frequency region (e.g., RBs, subband, RB set, bandwidth part, carrier, etc.) to which the beam indication information is applied. At least a part of the above-described information may be transmitted from the base station to the relay node by semi-static signaling (e.g., RRC signaling or signaling equivalent thereto). For example, the number of slots K3 included in the time period to which the beam indication information is applied may be set semi-statically. The relay node may consider that the beam indication information included in DCI is for K3 slots. In addition, the relay node may determine the size of a field of the DCI (or R-DCI, SCI, etc.) including the beam indication information based on the length of the time period, and monitor the DCI (or R-DCI, SCI, etc.) in accordance therewith.
[0171] In addition, the duration of the above-described time period, symbol, etc. may be determined by a specific numerology (e.g., reference numerology). Here, the numerology may mean a subcarrier spacing. Alternatively, the numerology may mean a subcarrier spacing and a CP length. The specific numerology (e.g., reference numerology) may be configured to the relay node through semi-static signaling, or may be indicated to the relay node as being included in the DCI. The information on the reference numerology may be included in slot format information or transmitted together with the slot format information (e.g., as being included in the same DCI (format) as the slot format information). In addition, the above-described beam indication information may be included in the slot format information or transmitted together with the slot format information (e.g., as being included in the same DCI (format) as the slot format information). Alternatively, the relay node may be configured with a carrier and/or bandwidth part from the base station, and one of numerology(s) (or subcarrier spacing(s)) used in the carrier or bandwidth part may be determined as the reference numerology (or reference subcarrier spacing). For example, the duration of the time period, symbol, etc. may be determined based on the smallest subcarrier spacing among the subcarrier spacing(s) configured in the carrier or bandwidth part(s) configured in the relay node. Alternatively, the duration of the time period, symbol, etc. may be determined based on a subcarrier spacing of a carrier or bandwidth part activated (or indicated to be activated) in the relay node.”).
The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) feature of MOON differs from that of claim 16, in that MOON is silent on the identified format of RIS control information being from among a plurality of formats of RIS control information. Despite these differences similar features have been seen in other prior art involving reconfigurable intelligent surfaces.
ALI teaches a RIS feature that involves identifying/determining a RIS format from a plurality of formats of RIS control information. ALI also teaches where the RIS control information comprises information indicating a slot such as slot format indication (SFI) and a format indicator such as a specific Zadoff-Chu sequence. (“[0057] In some embodiments, a gNB may be used to signal RIS control information, such as: 1) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for an RIS specific synchronization signal for enabling time synchronization at a RIS controller receiver with a frame and/or slot timing for downlink (“DL”) and/or uplink (“UL”); 2) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for an RIS control channel that carries control information to a RIS controller; 3) transmitting a configuration and/or indication for RIS specific sequences that indicate different RIS control information; and/or 4) applying an on pattern and/or an off pattern with an on mask and/or off mask for some DL symbols, where the pattern represents a RIS control payload… [0078] In a second embodiment, an RIS control indication may be made using a sequence transmission. In such an embodiment, a network node transmits control information to an RIS controller that is equipped with a low complexity receiver to perform correlation of a pre-defined sequence, such as Zadoff-Chu (“ZC”) sequence, transmitted by the network node. The sequence may be generated with cyclic shifts. Each sequence may correspond to few bits of the payload that carry RIS control information (e.g., PSMI) to indicate a suitable phase matrix for the RIS. The length of the RIS control information payload depends on the length of the sequence and the number of the orthogonal generated sequences. The network node may send multiple sequences in multiple symbols with each sequence carrying part of the RIS control information. In one implementation of the second embodiment, the RIS control payload is divided into multiple parts. Each part may be used to generate a corresponding sequence by cyclic shifting a base sequence based on a bit field of the part. The RIS controller applies a correlation search for each symbol to detect the bits and concatenates the results from the different symbols to retrieve the RIS control payload. In another implementation of the second embodiment, each symbol and/or sequence carries a specific bit field of the RIS control payload as depicted in the embodiment of FIG. 10. Specifically, FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram 1000 illustrating one embodiment of using ZC sequences to carry RIS control information. A first RIS ZC sequence 1002 (RISZCSequence0), a second RIS ZC sequence 1004 (RISZCSequence1), and a third RIS ZC sequence 1006 (RISZCSequence2) are transmitted. PSMI may be sent using one or more sequences (e.g., the first RIS ZC sequence 1002 and the second RIS ZC sequence 1004) and a number of affected slots is sent in another sequence and/or symbol (e.g., the third RIS ZC sequence 1006), the SFI is sent in another sequence and/or symbol, and so forth.”).
Thus, based upon the teachings of ALI it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify RIS feature of MOON by incorporating different formats of RIS control information as seen in ALI to thus arrive at claim 16, in order to provide a benefit of flexible encoding of the RIS control information taught by MOON, through use of different sequences.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2-5, 7-10, 12-15, and 17-20 are 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.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/TARELL A HAMPTON/Examiner, Art Unit 2476
/PETER P CHAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476