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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 02/27/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The 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 non-obviousness.
Claims 1-2 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang et al. (EP 4358621 A1), Hwang hereinafter, and further in view of Dai et al. (US 20240039592), Dai hereinafter.
Re. Claim 1,
Hwang teaches a first wireless communication device for wireless communication, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: transmit, to a second wireless communication device, coordination information (Fig. 14, 17 & Page 30, ¶6 - FIG. 14 is a flow chart illustrating a method of transmitting, by a first UE, inter-UE coordination information in a wireless communication system … Page 32, ¶7 - In the step S 1420, the first UE transmits the inter-UE coordination information to the second UE);
Yet, Hwang does not explicitly teach associated with receiving a multi-layer communication from a network node via multiple transmissive surfaces; and receive the multi-layer communication from the network node via the multiple transmissive surfaces.
However, in the analogous art, Dai teaches associated with receiving a multi-layer communication from a network node via multiple transmissive surfaces; and receive the multi-layer communication from the network node via the multiple transmissive surfaces (Fig. 1-4A, 5, 6B & ¶0063 - FIG. 1 illustrates a UE, a multi-layer transmissive RIS having R transmissive layers, and a base station. Each transmissive layer of the multi-layer transmissive RIS, indexed by r, has N.sub.r elements, and we assume that each transmissive layer has the same number of elements for simplicity (such that N.sub.r is equal to N for all values of r). The base station has M antennas and the UE has K antennas. ¶0036 - The multi-layer transmissive RIS may include one or more intermediate transmissive RIS layers and the transmission of the wireless signal from the transmitter to the receiver passes through the first transmissive RIS layer, each intermediate transmissive RIS layer and the last transmissive RIS layer … ¶0124 - The skilled person will also understand that the present disclosure may be applied to a downlink communication (that is, from the base station to the UE) where the UE receives the downlink communication through each layer of the multi-layer RIS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Dai to the teaching of Hwang. The motivation would be because the invention relates to a wireless telecommunications network having a reconfigurable intelligent surface (¶0002, Dai).
Re. Claim 2, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Hwang further teaches the first wireless communication device comprises a first user equipment (UE) and the second wireless communication device comprises a second UE (Fig. 14, 16, 17 & Page 32, ¶7 - In the step S 1420, the first UE transmits the inter-UE coordination information to the second UE).
Re. Claim 12, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Hwang further teaches the one or more processors are further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: receive a control message from the network node and forward, via a sidelink communication channel, the control message to the second wireless communication device (Page 12, ¶2 - For example, the UE 1 may transmit a sidelink control information (SCI) to the UE 2 through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), and thereafter transmit data based on the SCI to the UE 2 through a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH). Page 15, ¶2 - Control information transmitted by a BS to a UE through a PDCCH may be referred to as downlink control information (DCI), whereas control information transmitted by the UE to another UE through a PSCCH may be referred to as SCI);
Yet, Hwang does not explicitly teach via one or more of the multiple transmissive surfaces;
However, in the analogous art, Dai explicitly teaches via one or more of the multiple transmissive surfaces; (Fig. 1-4A, 5, 6B & ¶0006 - there is provided a method of controlling a transmission of a wireless signal in a wireless telecommunications network, the wireless telecommunications network including a transmitter, a multi-layer transmissive Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface, RIS, including a first transmissive RIS layer and a last transmissive RIS layer, and a receiver, the method comprising determining a beamforming vector to be applied by the transmitter … and, in a transmission of a wireless signal from the transmitter to the receiver, the wireless signal passing through the first transmissive RIS layer and the last transmissive RIS layer … ¶0124 - The skilled person will also understand that the present disclosure may be applied to a downlink communication (that is, from the base station to the UE) where the UE receives the downlink communication through each layer of the multi-layer RIS).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Dai to the teaching of Hwang. The motivation would be because the invention relates to a wireless telecommunications network having a reconfigurable intelligent surface (¶0002, Dai).
Claims 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of Ganesan et al. (US 20250220686), Ganesan hereinafter.
Re. Claim 3, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the first wireless communication device comprises a first user equipment and the second wireless communication device comprises a customer premises equipment.
However, in the analogous art, Ganesan explicitly teaches the first wireless communication device comprises a first user equipment and the second wireless communication device comprises a customer premises equipment (Fig. 1 & ¶0019 - Different coordination schemes can be provided for inter-UE coordination as part of UE-to-UE wireless communication. For instance, in some scenarios a first UE (e.g. UE-A) receives a request from a second UE (e.g., UE-B) for wireless resources to be used for communication between the first UE and the second UE. ¶0024 - A UE 104 may include or may be referred to as a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a handheld device, a customer premise equipment (CPE) … Examiner interprets the first UE may be implemented as a first UE and the second UE as a customer premise equipment based on its definition).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Ganesan to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because different coordination schemes can be provided for inter-UE coordination as part of UE-to-UE wireless communication (¶0019, Ganesan).
Re. Claim 4, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the first wireless communication device comprises a first customer premises equipment (CPE) and the second wireless communication device comprises a second CPE.
However, in the analogous art, Ganesan explicitly teaches the first wireless communication device comprises a first customer premises equipment (CPE) and the second wireless communication device comprises a second CPE (Fig. 1 & ¶0019 - Different coordination schemes can be provided for inter-UE coordination as part of UE-to-UE wireless communication. For instance, in some scenarios a first UE (e.g. UE-A) receives a request from a second UE (e.g., UE-B) for wireless resources to be used for communication between the first UE and the second UE. ¶0024 - A UE 104 may include or may be referred to as a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a handheld device, a customer premise equipment (CPE) … Examiner interprets the first UE and the second UE may include a customer premise equipment based on its definition).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Ganesan to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because different coordination schemes can be provided for inter-UE coordination as part of UE-to-UE wireless communication (¶0019, Ganesan).
Re. Claim 5, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the first wireless communication device comprises a customer premises equipment and the second wireless communication device comprises a user equipment.
However, in the analogous art, Ganesan explicitly teaches the first wireless communication device comprises a customer premises equipment and the second wireless communication device comprises a user equipment (Fig. 1 & ¶0019 - Different coordination schemes can be provided for inter-UE coordination as part of UE-to-UE wireless communication. For instance, in some scenarios a first UE (e.g. UE-A) receives a request from a second UE (e.g., UE-B) for wireless resources to be used for communication between the first UE and the second UE. ¶0024 - A UE 104 may include or may be referred to as a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a handheld device, a customer premise equipment (CPE) … Examiner interprets the first UE may include a customer premise equipment and the second UE may be implemented as a second UE based on its definition).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Ganesan to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because different coordination schemes can be provided for inter-UE coordination as part of UE-to-UE wireless communication (¶0019, Ganesan).
Claims 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of Landis et al. (US 20220201695), Landis hereinafter.
Re. Claim 6, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the coordination information indicates a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state associated with the multi-layer communication.
However, in the analogous art, Landis explicitly teaches the coordination information indicates a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state associated with the multi-layer communication (Fig. 4-9 & ¶0002 - In wireless communication systems, such as those specified under standards for 5G New Radio (NR), a base station and user equipment (UE) may utilize beamforming for spatial division multiplexing of multiple streams from the base station to the UE. To facilitate beamformed multi-stream communication, the base station may provide the UE with a set of transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states). ¶0003 - For multi-stream communication, a different TCI state can be selected for each of the streams … ).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Landis to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because aspects relate to transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state configuration in multi-stream communication between a radio access network (RAN) entity and a user equipment (UE) (Abstract, Landis).
Re. Claim 7, Hwang and Dai and Landis teach Claim 6.
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the TCI state corresponds to a line-of-sight (LoS) path via a transmissive surface, of the multiple transmissive surfaces, or a dominant non-LoS path via the transmissive surface.
However, in the analogous art, Landis explicitly teaches the TCI state corresponds to a line-of-sight (LoS) path via a transmissive surface, of the multiple transmissive surfaces, (Fig. 4-9 & ¶0115 - The RAN entity 504, acting as a multi-TRP (m-TRP), can be configured to provide S independent streams on S separate beams … Each transmit beam 514a, 514b, and 514c may be directed (e.g., via a line-of-sight path or reflection off of one or more objects 518) towards the UE 502 and received via a respective receive beam 516a, 516b, and 516c on the UE 502. ¶0116 - In various aspects, the RAN entity 504 may select the transmit beams 514a-514c (e.g., downlink serving beams) for SDM of multiple streams of a PDSCH based on TCI state groups configured for the UE 502);
or a dominant non-LoS path via the transmissive surface.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Landis to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because aspects relate to transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state configuration in multi-stream communication between a radio access network (RAN) entity and a user equipment (UE) (Abstract, Landis).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of Fan et al. (US 20260019108), Fan hereinafter.
Re. Claim 8, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
However, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the one or more processors are further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: measure or process a reference signal, wherein a cross transmissive surface interference associated with the multiple transmissive surfaces is determined based at least in part on the reference signal.
However, in the analogous art, Fan explicitly teaches the one or more processors are further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: measure or process a reference signal, wherein a cross transmissive surface interference associated with the multiple transmissive surfaces is determined based at least in part on the reference signal (Fig. 1, 3-4 & ¶0027 - UE 110 can receive the original or direct reference signal from base station 120, forwarded signaling 1 from RIS 130-1, and forwarded signaling 2 from RIS 130-2 … UE 110 can measure, process, and/or evaluate signals of the different paths for different characteristics or qualities (at 1.4). Examples of this information may include a path loss, delay, angle of arrival (AOA), angle of departure (AOD), time difference of arrival (TDOA), signal interference, etc).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Fan to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because RIS selection can be directed to reducing signal degradation, addressing dynamic signal blocking, reducing outage probabilities, interference, and more (Abstract, Fan).
Claims 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai, and further in view of Sharvirala et al. (Optimal Placement of Transmissive RIS in the Near Field for Capacity Maximization in THz Communications, IEEE), Sharvirala hereinafter.
Re. Claim 9, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach a distance between the multiple transmissive surfaces is based at least in part on a distance between a location of the multiple transmissive surfaces and a location of the network node.
However, in the analogous art, Sharvirala explicitly teaches a distance between the multiple transmissive surfaces is based at least in part on a distance between a location of the multiple transmissive surfaces and a location of the network node (Fig. 1-2, 7 & Abstract - … simulation results underline that the optimal placement of the RIS in the near-field is not solely contingent on proximity to the transmitter (Tx) or receiver (Rx) but relies on the inter-antenna spacing of the Tx and Rx. Page 2, Introduction - The main contributions of this work include: • The computation of the optimal positioning of the RIS in the near-field. • The examination of variation of optimal position with inter-antenna distance using the singular values of the effective channel matrix. Page 2, System Model and Assumptions, B. Channel Model - The entries of the channel from the Tx to the RIS are denoted as [8] …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Sharvirala to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because placing an adequately sized RIS between base stations has the potential to make the wavefront curvature discernible across the arrays, leading to an enhancement in the channel matrix’s rank (Page 1, Introduction, ¶4 Sharvirala).
Re. Claim 10, Hwang and Dai and Sharvirala teach Claim 9.
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the distance between the multiple transmissive surfaces is further based at least in part on a quantity of elements included in an antenna array of the network node.
However, in the analogous art, Sharvirala explicitly teaches the distance between the multiple transmissive surfaces is further based at least in part on a quantity of elements included in an antenna array of the network node (Fig. 1-2 & Abstract - … the optimal placement of the RIS in the near-field is not solely contingent on proximity to the transmitter (Tx) or receiver (Rx) but relies on the inter-antenna spacing of the Tx and Rx. Page 2, Introduction - The main contributions of this work include: • The computation of the optimal positioning of the RIS in the near-field. • The examination of variation of optimal position with inter-antenna distance using the singular values of the effective channel matrix. Page 4, IV Simulation Results, ¶2 - We assess a MIMO configuration with Nt = Nr = 4, i.e., 2 ×2-element uniform planar arrays, and a RIS of 1600 elements, i.e., 40 × 40 for different inter-antenna spacing in the Tx and Rx. Fig. 8 & IV Simulation Results, ¶3 - As depicted in Fig. 8, the maximum achievable capacity of LoS MIMO demonstrates a progressive increase with the augmentation of the inter-antenna spacing at the Tx and Rx. This is because, a greater spacing between the antennas enables improved spatial signal separation and enhances the curvature of the wavefront across the arrays, as discussed in prior studies [3] and [11]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Sharvirala to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because placing an adequately sized RIS between base stations has the potential to make the wavefront curvature discernible across the arrays, leading to an enhancement in the channel matrix’s rank (Page 1, Introduction, ¶4 Sharvirala).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of Li et al. (WO 2020034055), Li hereinafter.
Re. Claim 11, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the multi-layer communication is received from a plurality of network nodes.
However, in the analogous art, Li explicitly teaches the multi-layer communication is received from a plurality of network nodes (Fig. 7 & ¶0076 - … data (e.g., a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)) is sent to the UE as a multiple TRP (multi-TRP) transmission. For example, a TB can be transmitted via multiple TRPs as a non-coherent joint transmission (NC-JT) , which can be considered as a multi-layer transmission. ¶0079 - In a general example, there may be N TRPs involved in a multi-TRP transmission, a number of TBs, and numbers of layers used by the N TRPs for the number of TBs. Please also see ¶0085-¶0086).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Li to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for layer mapping for multiple transmission reception point (TRP) transmission (Abstract, Li).
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai as applied to Claim 1 above, and Rusek et al. (WO 2024094591), Rusek hereinafter, and further in view of Majonen et al. (US 20090215399), Majonen hereinafter.
Re. Claim 13, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Yet, Hwang does not explicitly teach the first wireless communication device comprises multiple antenna modules, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: transmit, to the network node, an indication of an availability of the multiple antenna modules for communicating uncorrelated streams via the multiple transmissive surfaces.
However, in the analogous art, Dai explicitly teaches via the multiple transmissive surfaces (Fig. 1-4A, 5, 6B & ¶0063 - FIG. 1 illustrates a UE, a multi-layer transmissive RIS having R transmissive layers, and a base station. Each transmissive layer of the multi-layer transmissive RIS, indexed by r, has N.sub.r elements, and we assume that each transmissive layer has the same number of elements for simplicity (such that N.sub.r is equal to N for all values of r). The base station has M antennas and the UE has K antennas. ¶0036 - The multi-layer transmissive RIS may include one or more intermediate transmissive RIS layers and the transmission of the wireless signal from the transmitter to the receiver passes through the first transmissive RIS layer, each intermediate transmissive RIS layer and the last transmissive RIS layer … ¶0069 - An uplink wireless signal from the UE 11 to the base station 20 may be transmitted through the first transmissive RIS 13, then through the second transmissive RIS 15, and then to the base station 20);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Dai to the teaching of Hwang. The motivation would be because the invention relates to a wireless telecommunications network having a reconfigurable intelligent surface (¶0002, Dai).
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the first wireless communication device comprises multiple antenna modules, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: transmit, to the network node, an indication of an availability of the multiple antenna modules for communicating uncorrelated streams
However, in the analogous art, Rusek explicitly teaches the first wireless communication device comprises multiple antenna modules, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: transmit, to the network node, an indication of an availability of the multiple antenna modules (Fig. 1, 4 & Page 5, ¶2 - The CED 800, such as the control unit 800A of the CED 800, may transmit, to the radio network node 400, a module arrangement message 702 indicative of a plurality of antenna modules comprised in the CED and their relative orientation. The relative orientation of the antenna modules can herein be seen as the orientation of the antenna elements in relation to each other and/or in relation to a base plane, such as to a base plane of the CED … Page 6, ¶1 - The wireless device 300 sends a first measurement report 710, such as an enhanced RSRP measurement report or a channel state information report, to the radio network node 400 via the CED 800, such as via the active antenna module 800BA. The measurement report 710 may comprise first phase information related to the first antenna module 800BA … In one or more example methods, such as when the radio network node determines that the CED has rank 2 capability but no beam split capacity, the radio network node may send a first configuration message 712 configuring both antenna modules 800BA and 800BB based on the measurement report received from the WD 300 … The WD 300 may measure on the reference signals and may transmit a second measurement report 718 to the radio network node 400, such as via the CED 800. The measurement report may comprise second phase information related to the second antenna module 800BB);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Rusek to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because the invention describes a method that comprises transmitting, to a radio network node, a module arrangement message indicative of a plurality of antenna modules comprised in the CED and their relative orientation (Abstract, Rusek).
Yet, Hwang, Dai and Rusek do not explicitly teach for communicating uncorrelated streams
However, in the analogous art, Majonen explicitly teaches for communicating uncorrelated streams (Fig. 1-3 & ¶0004 - mobile stations may also determine the number of independent (or sufficiently uncorrelated), spatially parallel communication streams and transmit also this information to the base station. ¶0020 - the mobile station 100 may also determine the number of independent (or sufficiently uncorrelated), spatially parallel communication streams and include also this information in the CQI transmitted to the base station. To enable this type of transmission scheme known as multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communications, both the base station 110 and the mobile station 100 are equipped with an antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Majonen to the teachings of Hwang, Dai and Rusek. The motivation would be because the invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer program for estimating a rank, i.e. the number of uncorrelated spatial channels, of a radio channel (Abstract, Majonen).
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of Khaira et al. (US 20250343575), Khaira hereinafter.
Re. Claim 14, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach a transmissive surface, of the multiple transmissive surfaces, is patterned with a phase profile to achieve aperture magnification.
However, in the analogous art, Khaira explicitly teaches a transmissive surface, of the multiple transmissive surfaces, is patterned with a phase profile to achieve aperture magnification (Fig. 1, 8-10, 23, 24A, 28 & ¶0034 - For example, in FIG. 1, the reconfigurable intelligent surface 102(1) currently has a relatively small aperture determined by four turned-on subarrays (of thirty-six available subarrays in this example), the reconfigurable intelligent surface 102(2) currently has a maximum aperture determined by all thirty-six turned-on subarrays, and the reconfigurable intelligent surface 102(n) currently has a medium aperture determined by sixteen turned-on subarrays. ¶0053 - The direction of the reflected signal from the active aperture arrays of the reconfigurable intelligent surface is dictated by a phase profile over the reconfigurable intelligent surface. The phase profile corresponds to how much phase shift each element in the reconfigurable intelligent surface presents, such that the phase shifts combine (e.g., constructively interfere) to reflect the incoming signal in the desired direction along with a certain gain. Closed-form equations can be used to determine the phase profiles for the expected reflected angle direction and gain for any a m×n reconfigurable intelligent surface array).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Khaira to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because adaptive shaping of a reconfigurable intelligent surface's geometry by the model produces a desired coverage pattern, including signal strength determined by a model-determined aperture of subarrays of unit cells, and beam direction via controlled phase shifts of the unit cells (Abstract, Khaira).
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai and Khaira applied to Claim 14 above, and further in view of Jornet et al. (US 20220393363), Jornet hereinafter.
Re. Claim 15, Hwang and Dai and Khaira teach Claim 14.
Yet, Hwang and Dai and Khaira do not explicitly teach the aperture magnification is achieved based at least in part on a beam-focusing pattern that assumes a source at a first reference position associated with an antenna array of the network node and a receiver at a second reference position associated with an antenna array of the first wireless communication device.
However, in the analogous art, Jornet explicitly teaches the aperture magnification is achieved based at least in part on a beam-focusing pattern that assumes a source at a first reference position associated with an antenna array of the network node and a receiver at a second reference position associated with an antenna array of the first wireless communication device (Fig. 11 & ¶0082 - Operation of the reflectarrays of the described embodiments is equivalent to an aperture system that intercepts an incident wave and transcribes a desired wavefront on it. Thus, in the absence of active elements, with dynamic phase control of the hybrid reflectarray as described herein, the hybrid reflectarray of the described embodiments acts as a dynamically adjustable phase transformation matrix. ¶0085 - While beamforming is suitable in the far field, a viable approach at any distance from the reflectarray 1100 is beamfocusing. If the exact position of the TX and RX target is known (where TX is a transmitter that transmits an EM signal to the reflectarray 1100, and RX is a receiver that receives a signal reflected from the reflectarray 1100), it is possible to create a phase transformation that generates a wavefront that converges exactly at the RX position. The required phase shifts are exact conjugates of the individual path distance from each element to the RX. EM radiation map 1108 of FIG. 11 presents an example of this scenario. As is shown, the convergence occurs at a specific spot 1112. The inset 1114 shows the beam profile, with the resolution (beam-spot) governed by the Abbe limit).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Jornet to the teachings of Hwang and Dai and Khaira. The motivation would be because the invention is directed to an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) that reflects electromagnetic (EM) radiation at terahertz (THz) frequencies (¶0005, Jornet).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai and Khaira and Jornet as applied to Claim 15 above, and further in view of Sharvirala.
Re. Claim 16, Hwang and Dai and Khaira and Jornet teach Claim 15.
Yet, Hwang and Dai and Khaira and Jornet do not explicitly teach the first reference position comprises a center of the antenna array of the network node, the second reference position comprises a center of the antenna array of the first wireless communication device, or a combination thereof.
However, in the analogous art, Sharvirala explicitly teaches the first reference position comprises a center of the antenna array of the network node, the second reference position comprises a center of the antenna array of the first wireless communication device, or a combination thereof (Fig. 1-2 & Page 3, IV Simulation Results - . It is assumed that the arrays and the RIS are all in the same plane (the XY-plane),with their centers in alignment. Page 4, IV Simulation Results - We consider the Tx, Rx, and RIS centers at (x = 0.0122,y = 0.0122) and fix the Tx and Rx at equal distances from the plane z = 0, with the z-coordinates 0.2629 and −0.2629, respectively).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Sharvirala to the teachings of Hwang and Dai and Khaira and Jornet. The motivation would be because placing an adequately sized RIS between base stations has the potential to make the wavefront curvature discernible across the arrays, leading to an enhancement in the channel matrix’s rank (Page 1, Introduction, ¶4 Sharvirala).
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai and Khaira and Jornet and Sharvirala as applied to Claim 16 above, and further in view of Ho et al. (US 20240347922), Ho hereinafter.
Re. Claim 17, Hwang and Dai and Khaira and Jornet and Sharvirala teach Claim 16.
Yet, Hwang and Dai and Khaira and Jornet and Sharvirala do not explicitly teach the transmissive surface is patterned to compensate for curvatures on incident and refracted wavefronts associated with the transmissive surface.
However, in the analogous art, Ho explicitly teaches the transmissive surface is patterned to compensate for curvatures on incident and refracted wavefronts associated with the transmissive surface (Fig. 5, 7 & ¶0003 - Conductive scattering elements are arranged on the first surface, the second surface or both the first surface and the second surface. The conductive scattering elements are configured to change a first phase of the electromagnetic waves passing through the plurality of conductive scattering elements with respect to a second phase of the electromagnetic waves passing through the axial region. ¶0015 - the method further includes delivering the electromagnetic waves having a wavefront curvature to an outer portion of the at least one lamina located adjacent an outer perimeter of the at least one lamina and to an inner portion of the lamina located between the outer portion and the axis region, and reducing the wavefront curvature in response to passing the electromagnetic waves through the outer portion and the inner portion. Please also see ¶0073).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Ho to the teachings of Hwang and Dai and Khaira and Jornet and Sharvirala. The motivation would be because the invention relates to antennas, and in particular, to the configuration and application of a metasurface lens to modify the performance of an antenna (¶0001, Ho).
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang and Dai as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view of Majonen.
Re. Claim 18, Hwang and Dai teach Claim 1.
Yet, Hwang does not explicitly teach the one or more processors are further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: transmit, to the network node, an indication of a quantity of uncorrelated streams that can be communicated via the multiple transmissive surfaces.
However, in the analogous art, Dai explicitly teaches via the multiple transmissive surfaces (Fig. 1-4A, 5, 6B & ¶0069 - An uplink wireless signal from the UE 11 to the base station 20 may be transmitted through the first transmissive RIS 13, then through the second transmissive RIS 15, and then to the base station 20);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Dai to the teaching of Hwang. The motivation would be because the invention relates to a wireless telecommunications network having a reconfigurable intelligent surface (¶0002, Dai).
Yet, Hwang and Dai do not explicitly teach the one or more processors are further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: transmit, to the network node, an indication of a quantity of uncorrelated streams that can be communicated
However, in the analogous art, Majonen explicitly teaches the one or more processors are further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: transmit, to the network node, an indication of a quantity of uncorrelated streams that can be communicated (Fig. 1-3 & ¶0004 - mobile stations may also determine the number of independent (or sufficiently uncorrelated), spatially parallel communication streams and transmit also this information to the base station. ¶0020 - the mobile station 100 may also determine the number of independent (or sufficiently uncorrelated), spatially parallel communication streams and include also this information in the CQI transmitted to the base station. Fig. 2 & ¶0022 - FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a radio receiver configured to perform the rank estimation in order to determine the number of available, spatially parallel communication streams).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Majonen to the teachings of Hwang and Dai. The motivation would be because the invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer program for estimating a rank, i.e. the number of uncorrelated spatial channels, of a radio channel (Abstract, Majonen).
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rusek and Majonen, and further in view of Dai.
Re. Claim 19, Rusek teaches a wireless communication device for wireless communication, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the wireless communication device to: (Fig. 1, 4, 7 & Page 5, ¶2 - . The CED 800 may comprise a control unit 800A, such as processor circuitry, a first antenna module 800BA, and a second antenna module 800BB. Page 10 - The CED 800 comprises memory circuitry 801, processor circuitry 802, and a wireless interface 803. The CED 800 may be configured to perform any of the methods disclosed in Fig. 5 … The CED 800 is configured to communicate with a radio network node, such as the radio network node disclosed herein, and/or a wireless device, using a wireless communication system … The operations of the CED 800 may be embodied in the form of executable logic routines (for example, lines of code, software programs, etc.) that are stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium (for example, memory circuitry 801) and are executed by processor circuitry 802);
transmit, to a network node, information indicating an availability of multiple antenna modules (Fig. 1, 4 & Page 5, ¶2 - The CED 800, such as the control unit 800A of the CED 800, may transmit, to the radio network node 400, a module arrangement message 702 indicative of a plurality of antenna modules comprised in the CED and their relative orientation. The relative orientation of the antenna modules can herein be seen as the orientation of the antenna elements in relation to each other and/or in relation to a base plane, such as to a base plane of the CED … Page 6, ¶1 - The wireless device 300 sends a first measurement report 710, such as an enhanced RSRP measurement report or a channel state information report, to the radio network node 400 via the CED 800, such as via the active antenna module 800BA. The measurement report 710 may comprise first phase information related to the first antenna module 800BA … In one or more example methods, such as when the radio network node determines that the CED has rank 2 capability but no beam split capacity, the radio network node may send a first configuration message 712 configuring both antenna modules 800BA and 800BB based on the measurement report received from the WD 300 … The WD 300 may measure on the reference signals and may transmit a second measurement report 718 to the radio network node 400, such as via the CED 800. The measurement report may comprise second phase information related to the second antenna module 800BB);
Yet, Rusek does not explicitly teach for communicating uncorrelated streams via multiple transmissive surfaces; and receive a multi-layer communication from the network node via the multiple transmissive surfaces.
However, in the analogous art, Majonen explicitly teaches for communicating uncorrelated streams (Fig. 1-3 & ¶0004 - mobile stations may also determine the number of independent (or sufficiently uncorrelated), spatially parallel communication streams and transmit also this information to the base station. ¶0020 - the mobile station 100 may also determine the number of independent (or sufficiently uncorrelated), spatially parallel communication streams and include also this information in the CQI transmitted to the base station. To enable this type of transmission scheme known as multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communications, both the base station 110 and the mobile station 100 are equipped with an antenna array comprising a plurality of antennas);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Majonen to the teachings of Rusek. The motivation would be because the invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer program for estimating a rank, i.e. the number of uncorrelated spatial channels, of a radio channel (Abstract, Majonen).
Yet, Rusek and Majonen do not explicitly teach via multiple transmissive surfaces; and receive a multi-layer communication from the network node via the multiple transmissive surfaces.
However, in the analogous art, Dai explicitly teaches via multiple transmissive surfaces; (Fig. 1-4A, 5, 6B & ¶0069 - An uplink wireless signal from the UE 11 to the base station 20 may be transmitted through the first transmissive RIS 13, then through the second transmissive RIS 15, and then to the base station 20);
and receive a multi-layer communication from the network node via the multiple transmissive surfaces (¶0063 - FIG. 1 illustrates a UE, a multi-layer transmissive RIS having R transmissive layers, and a base station. Each transmissive layer of the multi-layer transmissive RIS, indexed by r, has Nr elements, and we assume that each transmissive layer has the same number of elements for simplicity (such that Nr is equal to N for all values of r). The base station has M antennas and the UE has K antennas. ¶0036 - The multi-layer transmissive RIS may include one or more intermediate transmissive RIS layers and the transmission of the wireless signal from the transmitter to the receiver passes through the first transmissive RIS layer, each intermediate transmissive RIS layer and the last transmissive RIS layer …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Dai to the teachings of Rusek and Majonen. The motivation would be because the invention relates to a wireless telecommunications network having a reconfigurable intelligent surface (¶0002, Dai).
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Majonen, and further in view of Dai.
Re. Claim 20, Majonen teaches a wireless communication device for wireless communication, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the wireless communication device to: transmit, to a network node, information indicating a rank denoting a quantity of uncorrelated streams that can be communicated (Fig. 1-3 & ¶0004 - mobile stations may also determine the number of independent (or sufficiently uncorrelated), spatially parallel communication streams and transmit also this information to the base station. ¶0020 - the mobile station 100 may also determine the number of independent (or sufficiently uncorrelated), spatially parallel communication streams and include also this information in the CQI transmitted to the base station. ¶0021 - Then, the mobile station 100 estimates the rank of the channel response matrix in order to determine the number of available, spatially parallel communication streams. The determination of the number of available, spatially parallel communication streams may be estimated for the entire available bandwidth by first calculating the rank (or a rank metric describing the rank) for each resource block and then averaging the calculated ranks or rank metrics. Fig. 2 & ¶0022 - FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a radio receiver configured to perform the rank estimation in order to determine the number of available, spatially parallel communication streams);
Yet, Majonen does not explicitly teach via multiple transmissive surfaces; and receive a multi-layer communication from the network node via the multiple transmissive surfaces.
However, in the analogous art, Dai explicitly teaches via multiple transmissive surfaces; (Fig. 1-4A, 5, 6B & ¶0069 - An uplink wireless signal from the UE 11 to the base station 20 may be transmitted through the first transmissive RIS 13, then through the second transmissive RIS 15, and then to the base station 20);
and receive a multi-layer communication from the network node via the multiple transmissive surfaces (¶0063 - FIG. 1 illustrates a UE, a multi-layer transmissive RIS having R transmissive layers, and a base station. Each transmissive layer of the multi-layer transmissive RIS, indexed by r, has N.sub.r elements, and we assume that each transmissive layer has the same number of elements for simplicity (such that N.sub.r is equal to N for all values of r). The base station has M antennas and the UE has K antennas. ¶0036 - The multi-layer transmissive RIS may include one or more intermediate transmissive RIS layers and the transmission of the wireless signal from the transmitter to the receiver passes through the first transmissive RIS layer, each intermediate transmissive RIS layer and the last transmissive RIS layer …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Dai to the teaching of Majonen. The motivation would be because the invention relates to a wireless telecommunications network having a reconfigurable intelligent surface (¶0002, Dai).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kim et al. (US 2026/0205164) – Please see Abstract and Fig. 1-12.
Yang et al. (US 2023/0328573) – Please see Abstract and Fig. 1-10.
Saab et al. (US 2022/0059943) – Please see Abstract and Fig. 1-9.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALYSSA WILLIAMS whose telephone number is (571)270-7673. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8-5pm. 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, Ayman Abaza can be reached on (571) 270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALYSSA WILLIAMS/Examiner, Art Unit 2465B
/AYMAN A ABAZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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