The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 28, 2026
Filed:
Mar. 09, 2023
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
A user equipment (UE) device may communicate with a base station using signals reflected off a network-independent intelligent reflecting surface (IRS). The UE device and the IRS may form part of a virtual UE device, the components of which communicate with each other and with other virtual UE devices over a channel control plane (CCP) separate from the control and data plane of the base station. The CCP may be used to perform control functions for the virtual UE device such as channel estimation, synchronization, scheduling, sensing, and beamforming. The IRS may be controlled by the UE device, a service controller, or itself. Grouping the UE device and IRS into a virtual UE device may keep the structure the presence of the IRS transparent to the network while allowing the UE device to have more beneficial channel propagation properties relative to when the IRS is registered to the network.