DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the application as originally filed on 04/15/2025.
Status of the Claim:
Claims 1-25 were pending.
Claims 18, 20, 23-25 are cancelled.
Claims 1-17, 19, 21-22 are pending. The detail office action to the pending claims is as shown below.
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
Receipt is acknowledged of Applicant’s request for entry of the Preliminary Amendment filed 04/15/2025, prior to the examination on the merits. By this amendment, the Original Specification, Abstract of the Disclosure and the Claim has been amended. The Applicant’s Remarks Made in an Amendment and filed along with the Preliminary Amendment informs that “the Specification has been amended to include the cross-reference to related applications information; the Abstract has been amended to place the Abstract in better form; Claims 1-17, 19, 21 and 22 have been amended to place the claims in better form under U.S. patent practice; and Claims 18, 20 and 23-25 have been cancelled, without prejudice and without disclaimer of subject matter. No new matter has been added.”
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-17, 19, 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US2023/0254031 to Gurelli et al. (“Gurelli”) in view of US2024/0162939 to Elshafie et al. (“Elshafie”) (The remarks and/or references placed in the parentheses apply to the prior art)
RE claims 1, 21, 22, Gurelli discloses a reconfigurable intelligent surface (114, 502), a method for controlling a reconfigurable intelligent surface (e.g. Figs. 6-7, 12-13), and a controller for controlling a reconfigurable intelligent surface (206, 502), comprising: antenna elements (404) provided in a reflective array (e.g. Gurelli Fig. 4, Para [0066]:the elements are implemented as reflectarray or metasurfcaes with antenna arrays), each antenna element having a controllable reflection phase (e.g. Gurelli, Figs. 4-5, para [0066]: each antenna element 114 having a controllable reflection phase element 404), only a strict subset of the antenna elements is being arranged for obtaining radio measurements and being distributed across the reflective array (e.g. Gurelli, Figs. 5, 10, paras [0051], [0066], [0069]: only subareas (516) of the antenna elements (114) is being arranged for reflecting or re-radiating obtaining radio measurements and being distributed across the reflective array); and a controller (216) the controller being configured to evaluate radio signal characteristics of the reflective array from the radio measurements and to control the reflection phases of the antenna elements as a function of the evaluated radio signal characteristics (e.g. Gurelli, paras [0051], [0069], [0072]: reflection elements of the IRS may be configured/controlled by the controller 216 to reradiate radio signals with certain phase shifts or amplitude changes as controlled by the controller 216; the controller 216 may adjust the phase shifts applied at subareas 516 of reflecting elements for co-phasing/beamforming; and subareas segmentation of the IRS may be based on similarity of the surface phase gradients and measured properties of received signals (e.g. RSRP)).
The subject matter of claims 1, 21, 22 differ from the teachings of Gurelli in that Gurelli does not expressly recite the term “strict subset”, as recited by the claims. However, given the broadest reasonable interpretation, in light of the specification as it would be interpreted by one of ordinary skill in the art, Gurelli’s disclosure of only subareas 516 (subset or strict subset) of the antenna elements (114), as taught by Gurelli can be construed broadly as Gurelli clearly teaches or suggests said term. Also, the term subset or strict subset in the field related to Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface is rather firmly established. For example, Elshafie’s invention also related to a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) teaches or fairly suggests said claim term. See for example, Figs. 2-5 and paras [0070], [0078], [0096] of Elshafie, which discusses a subset of the antenna elements of the RIS being arranged for obtaining on or more reference signals, parameters (i.e. measurements) for distributing using subset of sub-array elements on the RIS. Hence the prior art includes each element/feature as claimed, although not necessarily in a single prior art reference, with the only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art being the lack of actual combination of the elements in a single prior art reference. Thus, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person of ordinary skill in the art (POSITA) to modify the method/system disclosed by Gurelli with the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art or with Elshafie’s teaching or suggestion to specify one or more subset of the antenna elements of the RIS. Therefore one of ordinary skill in the art, such as an individual working in a field related to reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) or intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), could have combined the features/elements as claimed by known methods, and that in combination, each feature/method step merely performs the same function as it does separately, with each feature/method step retaining its advantageous function, yielding the predictable result/s. It is for at least the aforementioned reasons that the Examiner has reached a conclusion of obviousness with respect to claims 1, 21, 22.
RE claim 2, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1, wherein the radio measurements pertain to channel sensing in at least one direction (e.g. Gurelli, Figs. 4, 5, 7and paras [0070], [0075]: as pertains to channel capacity or channel quality in the line-of-sight path being low.)
RE claim 3, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1, wherein the radio measurements pertain to angle-of-arrival of signals received via the strict subset of the antenna elements (e.g. Gurelli, para [0081], [0084], [0101]: pertain to angle-of-arrival of signals received via the subareas of the IRS.)
RE claim 4, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to demodulate and decode information within signals received via the strict subset of the antenna elements (e.g. Gurelli Fig. 7, and para [0069]: wireless device 502 which include the IRS, controller and transceiver which may be configured to transmit (encode) and receive (decode) signals for the wireless device)
RE claim 5, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1, wherein the strict subset of the antenna elements is arranged for power amplified signal transmission (e.g. Gurelli, para [0066]: the IRS may receive signal power proportional to the number of reflecting elements.)
RE claim 6, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1, wherein the radio measurements pertain to reception of reference signals in at least one other direction than as defined by the controllable reflection phases (e.g. Gurelli, para [0072], [0120]: based on similarity of the surface phase gradients and measured properties of received signals (e.g. RSRP) indicative of the orientation of the radiation pattern from the IRS and/or another the direction from the IRS.)
RE claim 7, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to obtain information of in what time and frequency resource the reference signals are to be transmitted (e.g. Gurelli, para [01119]: the UE may configure the IRS with separate beamforming information or parameters for reflecting signals from the UE and for reflecting signals from the network entity. For example, the UE may indicate the wavelength or frequency of transmissions to be reflected, and the controller of the IRS may determine the surface phase for uplink and/or downlink
transmissions using the parameters corresponding to a resource allocation.)
RE claim 8, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 6, wherein the reference signals are received from an access point or a user equipment (see for example, Fig. 7 of Gurelli), and wherein the strict subset of the antenna elements is, by the controller , controlled to track movement of the access point or the user equipment (e.g. Gurelli, para [0119]: given the beamforming information such as azimuth and elevation per subarea, the controller of the IRS may determine the surface phase for uplink and/or downlink transmissions using the wavelength corresponding to a resource allocation.)
RE claim 9, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 8, wherein the radio signal characteristics are evaluated by the controller to control the reflection phases of the antenna elements for reflection from and/or towards the access point or the user equipment (e.g. Gurelli, para [01119]: the UE may configure the IRS with beamforming information or parameters for reflecting signals and the controller of the IRS may determine the surface phase for uplink and/or downlink transmissions using the parameters corresponding to a resource allocation given the beamforming information
such as azimuth and elevation per subarea.)
RE claim 10, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 6, wherein the controllable reflection phases of the antenna elements are controlled for reflection from and/or towards a first access point (e.g. 704 of Fig. 7), and wherein the reference signals are received from a second access point (e.g. Gurelli, paras [0051], [0069], [0072]: reflection elements of the IRS may be configured/controlled by the controller 216 to reradiate radio signals with certain phase shifts or amplitude changes as controlled by the controller 216; the controller 216 may adjust the phase shifts applied at subareas 516 of reflecting elements for co-phasing/beamforming; and subareas segmentation of the IRS may be based on similarity of the surface phase gradients and measured properties of received signals (e.g. RSRP). Furthermore, see Fig. 7 of Gurelli which illustrate the reference signals being received from a second access point 702 and reflected (sent) towards a first access point 704.)
RE claim 11, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 10, wherein the radio signal characteristics are evaluated by the controller to control the reflection phases of the antenna elements for reflection one or both from and towards the second access point (e.g. Gurelli, paras [0051], [0069], [0072]: reflection elements of the IRS may be configured/controlled by the controller 216 to reradiate radio signals with certain phase shifts or amplitude changes as controlled by the controller 216; the controller 216 may adjust the phase shifts applied at subareas 516 of reflecting elements for co-phasing/beamforming; and subareas segmentation of the IRS may be based on similarity of the surface phase gradients and measured properties of received signals (e.g. RSRP). Furthermore, see Fig. 7 of Gurelli which illustrate the reference signals being received from a second access point 702 and reflected (sent) towards a first access point 704.)
RE claim 12, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1, wherein the radio measurements pertain to relative received signal phases between pairs of antenna elements in the strict subset of the antenna elements (e.g. Gurelli, Fig. 10 and para [0097]: in certain aspects, the orthogonal cover code may be used to estimate the channel from each subarea elements and/or received signal phases at various operations of using the IRS. For example, channel estimates per subarea elements may be used to obtain co-phasing coefficients.)
RE claim 13, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 12, wherein the radio signal characteristics are evaluated according to a linear or a non-linear gradient interpolation function operating on the relative received signal phases (e.g. Gurelli, Fig. 6 and para [0072]: Segmentation of the subareas may be updated by merging and/or dividing the segments based on similarity of the surface phase gradients.)
RE claim 14, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1,wherein the antenna elements of the strict subset of the antenna elements are irregularly distributed across the reflective array (e.g. Fig. 4 of Gurelli illustrates irregularly distributed subsets of the antenna elements across the reflective array.)
RE claim 15, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1,wherein the reflective array has sub-panels, and wherein the antenna elements of the strict subset of the antenna elements are irregularly distributed per each of the sub-panels and with a repetitive pattern across all the sub-panels (e.g. Fig. 4 of Gurelli illustrates the reflective array having sub-panels which are irregularly distributed subsets of the antenna elements across the reflective array.)
.
RE claim 16, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1,wherein the controller is configured to, at a time, activate only a subgroup of antenna elements composed of less than all the antenna elements of the strict subset of the antenna elements for obtaining the radio measurements (e.g. Gurelli, Fig. 10 and para [0077]: activating a single subarea of interest with a specific surface phase in any given measurement time interval, for example, as described with respect to Fig. 10.)
RE claim 17, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 1,wherein the strict subset of the antenna elements is divided into at least a first subgroup of antenna elements and a second subgroup of antenna elements , and wherein the controller is configured to, at a time, activate only one of the subgroups of antenna elements for obtaining the radio measurements (e.g. Gurelli, Fig. 10 and paras [0097]-[0099]: In certain cases, the IRS may reflect (or re-radiate) reflection patterns from the M subareas 516 using an orthogonal cover. In certain cases, the IRS may activate subareas of the IRS one at a time with each of the respective virtual focal point locations, for example, in certain cases, where the dx and/or dy movements may be smaller than a half wavelength of the operating frequency.)
18. (Cancelled).
RE claim 19, Gurelli discloses the reconfigurable intelligent surface according to claim 16, wherein which subgroup of antenna elements to activate depends on at least one of: radio environment characteristics of the reconfigurable intelligent surface size of the reflective array, number of antenna elements provided in the reflective array and characteristics of a radio communication link between an access point and a user equipment as reflected by the antenna elements (e.g. Gurelli, Fig. 11, and para [0099]: in certain cases, when the virtual focal points are moved in the different directions of the operating frequency, the IRS may
activate the subareas of the IRS one at a time with each of the respective virtual focal point locations, wherein the phase differences may be converted to virtual angle-of-arrivals (AoAs) and/or angle-of-departures (AoDs) for different subareas to beamform the reflection patterns towards the access point.)
20. (Cancelled)
23- 25. (Cancelled)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure are (See the attached Notice of References Cited (PTO-892)). These prior arts are considered pertinent because they relate generally to electronic circuits, and in particular implementations, to relate to a reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BERHANU TADESE whose telephone number is (571)272-2478. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday (9 - 5 PM EST).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh M. Fan can be reached on 571.272.3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BERHANU TADESE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632
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