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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment, filed 16 March 2026, has been entered and carefully considered.
Claims 1, 3-7 and 9 are amended.
Claims 1-10 are currently pending.
The outstanding rejection of Claims 6-8 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) is withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to Claims 6 and 7.
The outstanding rejections of Claims 9 and 10 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) and Claims 1-8 under 35 U.S.C. 103 are withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to Claims 1, 5 and 9.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 5 and 9 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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1, 2, 4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Elshafie et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20240048188), hereinafter Elshafie, in view of Baligh et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20230327714), hereinafter Baligh, and Cai et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20200389238), hereinafter Cai.
Regarding Claim 1, Elshafie discloses a base station (Figure 2 – base station 110), comprising:
a control circuit (Figure 2 and paragraph 0056 - base station 110 comprises a controller/processor 240) configured to determine configuration information regarding a reconfigurable surface device (paragraph 0056 – the processor has a training manager to perform codebook training with a RIS controller in order to adjust weights on the RIS elements); and
a transmitting circuit (Figure 2 and paragraphs 0052-0053 – the base station comprises a chain comprising a transmit processor, TX MIMO processor, modulator/demodulator, and antennas) configured to transmit the configuration information to the reconfigurable surface device so that the reconfigurable surface device determines a codebook used by the reconfigurable surface device based on the configuration information (Figure 4 and paragraphs 0068-0069 – during a training sequence between a base station and UE (as shown in Figure 6A), RIS controller (which is located on the RIS panel in paragraph 0064) receives feedback with an indication of results of the training, which are then used to reconfigure the RIS).
While Elshafie discloses the RIS controller performing a training procedure when the transmitter or receiver (e.g., a UE) has moved to another location (paragraph 0069), Elshafie does not disclose configuration information based on location of a user equipment. In an analogous art, Baligh discloses this. Specifically, Baligh discloses the UE performing a process of measurement and feedback to obtain sensing information about where the UE is located (Figure 16; paragraphs 0256 and 0265 and paragraph 0265), sending the feedback on a measured RS to a base station (Figure 9B at step 955 and paragraph 0398 – the UE sends feedback on the measured RS to the base station), and the base station configuring respective RIS based on the received feedback (Figure 9B at steps 960 and 965; paragraph 0398). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Elshafie and Baligh. One would have been motivated to do so in order to assist fast beamforming through the use of accurate beamforming and overcome blockage effects (e.g., line of sight impacts).
However, the aforementioned references do not disclose wherein the codebook is associated with an array element state of a reconfigurable panel of the reconfigurable surface device, the codebook includes an intra-subarray codebook for array elements within a subarray and an inter-subarray codebook for array elements across subarrays. In an analogous art, Cai discloses this. Specifically, Cai discloses codebooks that indicate a particular number of beams associated with a subarray (i.e., intra-subarray) and comprise subarray information that identifies one or more antenna subarrays used to generate a plurality of beams (i.e., inter-subarray) (refer to Figure 3, paragraphs 0069, 0079-0080). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Elshafie / Baligh and Cai. One would have been motivated to do so in order to improve accuracy and utility of codebook generation (refer to paragraphs 0005-0006 of Cai).
Regarding Claim 2, Elshafie further discloses the configuration information includes at least one of:
information associated with operating mode of the reconfigurable surface device (paragraph 0068 – the indication may be an index corresponding to one of the RSs used in the training or metrics such as signal strength that are used to reconfigure the codebook and precoding),
information associated with codebook of the reconfigurable surface device (paragraph 0066-0068 – the training sequence utilizes a certain codebook for precoding the RIS elements and feedback is generated related to reference signals transmitted via the RIS elements), and
information associated with how the reconfigurable surface device uses the codebook (Note: this is claimed in the alternative).
Regarding Claim 4, Elshafie discloses the transmitting circuit is further configured to:
transmit the configuration information to the reconfigurable surface device through an IP interface or an Xn interface (Note: this is claimed in the alternative); or
transmit the configuration information to the reconfigurable surface device through a wireless interface (the base station communicates with the RIS panel (which houses the RIS controller) wirelessly as shown in Figures 1, 2, and 6A).
Regarding Claim 5, Elshafie discloses a reconfigurable surface device (Figure 1 – RIS 104; paragraph 0064 – a RIS controller can be integrated with a RIS), comprising:
a receiving circuit (Figure 11, device 1100 comprises a RIS interface/transceiver 1108) configured to receive configuration information (paragraph 0099 – the transceiver 1108 receives signal from communication devices; Figure 4 and paragraphs 0068-0069 – during a training sequence between a base station and UE (as shown in Figure 6A), RIS controller receives feedback with an indication of results of the training, which are then used to reconfigure the RIS);
a control circuit (Figure 11 and paragraph 0100, device 1100 comprises a processor 1104) configured to determine a codebook used by the reconfigurable surface device based on the configuration information, wherein the codebook is associated with array element state of a reconfigurable panel (paragraphs 0099-0100 and Figure 11 – circuitry 1138 applies precoding to the RIS elements based on the received feedback); and
the reconfigurable panel configured to reflect or transmit a message sent by the base station to the user equipment (Figure 6A and paragraph 0075 – the RIS panel reflects a beam sent by the first wireless communication device (base station) to the second wireless communication device (UE)).
While Elshafie discloses the RIS controller performing a training procedure when the transmitter or receiver (e.g., a UE) has moved to another location (paragraph 0069), Elshafie does not disclose configuration information based on location of a user equipment. In an analogous art, Baligh discloses this. Specifically, Baligh discloses the UE performing a process of measurement and feedback to obtain sensing information about where the UE is located (Figure 16; paragraphs 0256 and 0265 and paragraph 0265), sending the feedback on a measured RS to a base station (Figure 9B at step 955 and paragraph 0398 – the UE sends feedback on the measured RS to the base station), and the base station configuring respective RIS based on the received feedback (Figure 9B at steps 960 and 965; paragraph 0398). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Elshafie and Baligh. One would have been motivated to do so in order to assist fast beamforming through the use of accurate beamforming and overcome blockage effects (e.g., line of sight impacts).
However, the aforementioned references do not disclose the codebook includes an intra-subarray codebook for array elements within a subarray and an inter- subarray codebook for array elements across subarrays. In an analogous art, Cai discloses this. Specifically, Cai discloses codebooks that indicate a particular number of beams associated with a subarray (i.e., intra-subarray) and comprise subarray information that identifies one or more antenna subarrays used to generate a plurality of beams (i.e., inter-subarray) (refer to Figure 3, paragraphs 0069, 0079-0080). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Elshafie / Baligh and Cai. One would have been motivated to do so in order to improve accuracy and utility of codebook generation (refer to paragraphs 0005-0006 of Cai).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Elshafie in view of Baligh and Cai, as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Duan (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20240056129), hereinafter Duan.
Regarding Claim 3, the combination of Elshafie, Baligh and Cai discloses the limitations of Claim 1, as described above. However, the aforementioned references do not disclose the transmitting circuit is further configured to transmit to the reconfigurable surface device control information including information of a time period corresponding to codewords associated with the codebook. In an analogous art, Duan discloses this. Specifically, Duan discloses a configuration for sounding reference signals in a system comprising RIS 1320, where different types of SRS have different transmission characteristic values (such as different slots or time offsets (i.e., time period) and different codewords) (paragraph 0212). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Elshafie/Baligh/Cai with Duan. One would have been motivated to do so in order to assist fast beamforming through the use of accurate beamforming and overcome blockage effects (e.g., line of sight impacts).
Claims 6 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Elshafie in view of Baligh and Cai, as applied to claim 5 above, and further in view of Manolakos et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20240329183), hereinafter Manolakos.
Regarding Claim 6, the combination of Elshafie, Baligh and Cai discloses the limitations of Claim 5, as described above. Elshafie further discloses the reconfigurable surface device further comprises a transmitting circuit (Figure 11, device 1100 comprises a RIS interface/transceiver 1108). However, the aforementioned references do not disclose the transmitting unit further configured to feed back to the base station a configuration response message indicating a configuration success or configuration failure. In an analogous art, Manolakos discloses this. Specifically, Manolakos discloses a base station sending a positioning reference signal to the RIS, where the RIS sends a configuration response message indicating that the RIS is or is not configured (i.e., success or failure) to reflect positioning reference signals to/from the UE (paragraph 0113). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Elshafie/Baligh/Cai with Manolakos. One would have been motivated to do so in order to manage power consumption and extend coverage in a 5G network (see paragraphs 0084-0085 of Manolakos).
Regarding Claim 8, the combination of Elshafie, Baligh, Cai and Manolakos further discloses the configuration information associated with the location of the user equipment is received through a downlink channel, and the configuration response message is sent through an uplink channel (Manolakos at Figure 9 and paragraphs 0112 – step 940, the network node sends the configuration message downlink to the RIS, and a configuration response is sent back (over uplink)). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Elshafie/Baligh/Cai with Manolakos. One would have been motivated to do so in order to manage power consumption and extend coverage in a 5G network (see paragraphs 0084-0085 of Manolakos).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Elshafie in view of Baligh, Cai and Manolakos, as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of Sahraei et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2024/0015797), hereinafter Sahraei.
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Elshafie, Baligh, Cai and Manolakos discloses the limitations of Claim 6, as described above. However, the aforementioned references do not disclose the transmitting circuit is further configured to: report information related to type of the reconfigurable surface device to the base station in an RRC procedure, the information related to type of reconfigurable surface device indicating that the reconfigurable surface device is a base station type; and transmit information required for initial access to the user equipment. In an analogous art, Sahraei discloses this. Specifically, Sahraei discloses a base station transmitting multiple SSBs on a first Tx beam, which is then reflected by a RIS onto multiple beams. A UE then selects a RACH occasion based on the SSB and transmits multiple PRACH communications which are also reflected by the RIS (see figure 10 and paragraphs 0103-0111). Note that the SSBs transmitted are specific to RIS-assisted initial access procedures that establish a communication channel between the base station and UE (paragraph 0093), where the UE selects a RACH occasion based on a mapping between RACH occasions and SSB types, including a type-1 SSB which is configured for RIS-assisted procedures (i.e., base station type) (paragraph 0111). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Elshafie/Baligh/Manolakos with Sahraei. One would have been motivated to do so in order to mitigate signal blockages due to line-of-sight issues (see paragraph 0087 of Sahraei).
Claims 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Baligh in view of Cai.
Regarding Claim 9, Baligh discloses a user equipment (UE) (Figure 9A, UE 909), comprising:
a control circuit (Figure 3A and paragraph 0137, the electronic device (UE) comprises a processing unit 200) configured to acquire location information of the UE (Figure 16; paragraphs 0256 and 0265 and paragraph 0265 – the UE performs a process of measurement and feedback to obtain sensing information about where the UE is located; Figure 9B at step 950 and paragraph 0397 – the UE measures reference signals (RS) from both reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS));
a transmitting circuit (Figure 3A and paragraph 0138, the electronic device (UE) comprises a transceiver 202) configured to transmit the location information to a base station (Figure 9B at step 955 and paragraph 0398 – the UE sends feedback on the measured RS to the base station);
a receiving circuit (Figure 3A and paragraph 0138, the electronic device (UE) comprises a transceiver 202 (noting the transmitting unit and receiving unit are both comprised in a communication device)) configured to receive a UE-specific message (Figure 9B at steps 940 and 945 and paragraphs 0393-0394 – the UE receives measurement RS from the base stations)
wherein the UE-specific message is emitted by the base station to a reconfigurable surface device and reflected or transmitted by the reconfigurable surface device to the UE (Figure 9B and paragraphs 0393-0394 – the respective measurement RS from the base station are reflected by RIS#1 and RIS#2).
However, the aforementioned references do not disclose a codebook associated with location information of the UE, wherein the codebook is associated with an array element state of a reconfigurable panel and the codebook includes an intra-subarray codebook for array elements within a subarray and an inter-subarray codebook for array elements across subarrays. In an analogous art, Cai discloses this. Specifically, Cai discloses codebooks that indicate a particular number of beams associated with a subarray (i.e., intra-subarray) and comprise subarray information that identifies one or more antenna subarrays used to generate a plurality of beams (i.e., inter-subarray) (refer to Figure 3, paragraphs 0069, 0079-0080). Further Cai discloses the codebook may include information identifying pairs of beams (e.g., pairs of radio frequency ports corresponding to the pairs of beams) that can be used for communication in various spatial regions (i.e., location) and/or conditions at the UE (paragraph 0076). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to Baligh and Cai. One would have been motivated to do so in order to improve accuracy and utility of codebook generation (refer to paragraphs 0005-0006 of Cai).
Regarding Claim 10, Baligh discloses the location information is included in a CSI report transmitted by the user equipment to the base station (Figure 16; paragraphs 0256 and 0265 and paragraph 0265 – the UE performs a process of measurement and feedback to obtain sensing information about where the UE is located; Figure 9B at step 955 and paragraph 0398 – the UE sends feedback on the measured RS to the base station)
wherein the CSI report is at least one of periodic CSI report, semi-periodic CSI report or semi-static CSI report (Note: this is claimed in the alternative); or
the location information is included in a CSI report transmitted by the user equipment to the base station, wherein the CSI report only includes the location information (Note: this is claimed in the alternative); or
the location information is included in an RS transmitted by the user equipment to the base station (Figure 9B at step 955 and paragraph 0398 – the UE sends feedback on the measured RS to the base station).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Raghavan et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2022/0166596) discloses communications between first and second devices based on codebook parameters and antenna subarrays (Figure 5).
Yuan et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2023/0412218) discloses a base station determining an indicator that indicates whether UL MIMO communication is to be codebook-based or non-codebook based (Figure 5).
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new grounds 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW W. CHRISS whose telephone number is (571)272-1774. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm ET.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kevin Bates can be reached at (571) 272-3980. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANDREW W CHRISS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
Prosecution Insights