Lightweight support for message-centric network services in cellular networks

Abstract

Methods of operating an information centric network (ICN) control function (CF). At least one of the methods includes: processing an ICN create service request received from an access and mobility management function (AMF); allocating one or more ICN attachment points (ICN‑PoA) based on the ICN create service request; and forwarding the ICN create service request to at least one of the allocated one or more ICN‑PoA.

Description

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 836,479, filed on April 19, 2019, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, including methods, apparatus, and systems for supporting Information Centric Network (ICN) services in next generation networks. Background Art

[0004] The use of wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. In addition, wireless communication technology has evolved from voice-only communications to also include the transmission of data (such as the Internet and multimedia content) to various devices. In order to accommodate the increasing number of devices that transmit both voice and data signals, many wireless communication systems share available communication channel resources between devices.

[0005] Some current networking architectures are based on the Internet Protocol (IP) and may be host-centric. Thus, communications may be host-to-host, and content delivery may rely on a session between two endpoints.

[0006] The fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication technology can support cellular data networks. The spectrum of 5G can be divided into millimeter wave, mid-band and low-band. The low-band can use a frequency range similar to the fourth generation (4G) network that preceded 5G. 5G millimeter wave can be the fastest, with actual speeds typically being 1Gbit / s-2Gbit / s downlink. The frequency can be higher than 24GHz, reaching up to 72GHz, which can be higher than the lower boundary of the extremely high frequency band. The reachable range may be shorter, so more cells may be required. 5G New Radio (NR) can refer to a new radio access technology (RAT) developed for 5G mobile networks. In some cases, it is designed as a global standard for the air interface of 5G networks. Summary of the invention

[0007] In general, in one aspect, a method of operating an information centric network (ICN) control function (CF) is provided. The method includes processing an ICN create service request received from an access and mobility management function (AMF). The method includes allocating one or more ICN attachment points (ICN-PoAs) based on the ICN create service request. The method includes forwarding the ICN create service request to at least one of the allocated one or more ICN-PoAs.

[0008] The ICN create service request may include ICN context information. The ICN context information may include an ICN service preference for indicating receiving ICN services through the control plane. Allocating one or more ICN-PoAs may be based on location or one or more ICN-PoA capabilities.

[0009] The method may also include processing an ICN create service response including ICN context information, wherein the ICN create service response is received from an ICN-PoA of the one or more assigned ICN-PoAs. The ICN context information may include an indication that an ICN interest message has been sent and that ICN data will be delivered over the control plane. The ICN context information may include an address of the ICN-PoA.

[0010] The method may also include forwarding the ICN create service response to the AMF. The method may also include receiving ICN data corresponding to the ICN context information from the ICN-PoA in one or more ICN-PoAs. The method may also include forwarding the ICN data to the AMF.

[0011] In one aspect, a method for operating an ICN-PoA is provided. The method includes processing an ICN create proxy service request received from an ICN-CF, the ICN create proxy service request including ICN information. The method includes acquiring ICN data based on the ICN information. The method includes transmitting the ICN data to the ICN-CF.

[0012] Obtaining the ICN data may include accessing a cache of the ICN-PoA to retrieve the ICN data. Obtaining the ICN data may include transmitting an ICN interest packet over a data plane to retrieve the ICN data.

[0013] In one aspect, a method of operating a UE is provided. The method includes generating a first NAS message including ICN context information to be transmitted to an AMF. The method includes processing a second NAS message including ICN data corresponding to the ICN context information.

[0014] The ICN context information may include an indication of an ICN service preference for receiving ICN services over the control plane.

[0015] In one aspect, a method of operating a UE is provided. The method includes processing a first NAS message received from an AMF including ICN context information. The method includes generating a second NAS message to be transmitted to the AMF including ICN data referenced by the ICN context information.

[0016] In one aspect, a method of operating an AMF is provided. The method includes processing a first NAS message received from a UE including ICN context information. The method includes generating a second NAS message to be transmitted to the UE including ICN data referenced by the ICN context information. The method includes authenticating the UE based on subscription and authentication information. The method includes allocating an ICN-CF to serve the UE based on the authentication.

[0017] The method may further include sending an ICN create proxy service request with the ICN context information to the ICN-CF.

[0018] In one aspect, a method of operating an AMF is provided. The method includes generating a first NAS message including ICN context information to be transmitted to a UE. The method includes processing a second NAS message including ICN data referenced by the ICN context information to be transmitted to the UE.

[0019] Any of the ICN contexts described in this specification may include a preference indicator. The preference indicator may indicate a preference for receiving ICN services only through a control plane or receiving ICN services through a control plane and a data plane.

[0020] In one aspect, a method is provided for transmitting ICN service related information to an ICN-PoA via a NAS message to support a UE without an ICN stack for ICN services. The UE may be a consumer. The UE may be a producer.

[0021] In an aspect, a method is provided that includes indicating an ICN service preference via a control plane and / or a data plane.

[0022] In one aspect, a method is provided that includes transmitting ICN data piggybacked by a NAS message via a control plane.

[0023] In one aspect, a method is provided that includes transmitting an ICN interest via a control plane and transmitting data via a data plane.

[0024] In one aspect, an apparatus is provided, the apparatus comprising means for performing one or more elements of the aforementioned method.

[0025] In one aspect, one or more non-transitory computer-readable media are provided, which include instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform one or more elements of the aforementioned method.

[0026] In one aspect, an apparatus is provided that includes logical components, modules, or circuits for performing one or more elements of the aforementioned method.

[0027] In one aspect, a device is provided that includes one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media, the one or more computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more elements of the aforementioned method.

[0028] In one aspect, an electromagnetic signal carrying computer readable instructions is provided, wherein execution of the computer readable instructions by one or more processors will cause the one or more processors to perform one or more elements of the aforementioned method.

[0029] In one aspect, a processing element comprising instructions is provided, wherein execution of the program by the processing element causes the processing element to perform one or more elements of the aforementioned method.

[0030] The details of one or more specific implementations are set forth in the drawings and description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the detailed description and drawings, and from the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0031] Figures 1 to 3 An exemplary wireless communication system is shown.

[0032] Figure 4 An example of infrastructure equipment is shown.

[0033] Figure 5 Examples of platforms or devices are shown.

[0034] Figure 6 Exemplary components of baseband circuitry and radio front-end circuitry are shown.

[0035] Figure 7 Exemplary components of a cellular communications circuit are shown.

[0036] Figure 8 Example protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication system are shown.

[0037] Fig. 9 Exemplary components of a core network are shown.

[0038] Fig.10 An exemplary system supporting network function virtualization is shown.

[0039] Fig.11 An exemplary computer system is shown.

[0040] Fig.12 Shows Figure 3 A modified architecture of the system.

[0041] Fig.13 An exemplary method for operating an ICN control function (CF) is shown.

[0042] Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] Some current networking architectures may be based on the Internet Protocol (IP) and host-centric. Therefore, communications may be host-to-host, and content delivery may rely on a session between two endpoints. Maintenance of these end-to-end sessions may be complex and error-prone. In addition, bottlenecks may form anywhere in the network because multiple users may be requesting the same content, but the network has no way of knowing this, resulting in suboptimal utilization of link resources. Furthermore, within the network, content may not be shared between different users requesting the same content.

[0044] Information Centric Networking (ICN) can be implemented in a pull-based model where two types of packets are defined: interest packets and data packets. In some implementations, ICN is based on a data structure including a pending interest table (PIT), a forwarding information base (FIB), and a content store (CS). It can also utilize an interest forwarding strategy that takes input from both the FIB and measurements to make interest forwarding decisions. When a node receives an ICN interest packet, it can check its CS to see if it has already cached the content. If not, the interest packet can be passed to the PIT to find a matching name; if no match is found, the node can record the interest in its PIT and forward the interest to the next hop towards the requested content based on the information in its FIB.

[0045] In some specific implementations, the requester (consumer / client) issues an interest packet with a prefix that names the content it wants. A uniform resource identifier (URI) can be used to name resources, which is constructed based on a certain naming convention. Each of the forwarding nodes can check the prefix of the interest packet and reply to the data packet that matches the prefix of the cached data. If there is no match, the forwarding node can forward the interest to one or more nodes based on its FIB table. The interest packet can also reach the source (producer / server) and obtain the data packet from the source. If there is more than one node that can act as a source (producer / server) or more than one consumer is requesting the same content, multi-homing and multicast can be automatically enabled. Unlike end-to-end sessions, the ICN request / response mechanism can be sessionless and anchorless, which utilizes any available cache and automatically combines content-related routing. ICN can be a sessionless protocol in which the consumer (client) requests content (e.g., data blocks) from the network and retrieves the data from anywhere in the network where the content is located. In some cases, ICN brings application layer optimization down to the networking layer. That is, functions currently implemented in the application layer, such as edge computing (caching), are naturally supported by ICN in the network layer (L3).

[0046] Current 5G architecture (e.g. Figure 3 The 5G network is designed according to the control and user plane splitting (CUPS) as shown in the figure. Some key features defined include network slicing (NS), ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC), everything as a service (XaaS), etc. The 5G network can be designed according to a communication model in which the UE sends IP (and / or Ethernet and / or non-IP) packets to the data network (DN) through sessions ((PDU) sessions). On the data plane, the user plane function (UPF) in 5G or the packet data network gateway (P-GW) in 4G can be used as an anchor and interact with other core network (CN) entities to manage sessions. Data transmission in a session can be based on tunneling protocols and preset routes. Services with high mobility and low latency requirements such as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication can result in a relatively large amount of signaling redundancy for modifying sessions.

[0047] When experiencing a dramatic increase in subscribers and a diversity of services, it may be advantageous for cellular networks to evolve from transport-like networks to data-centric networks. Mobile devices may be content providers and / or consumers. ICN is a promising technology for meeting the needs of efficient data delivery and leveraging new hardware capabilities such as opportunistic caching and multi-access edge computing (MEC). However, leveraging the benefits / capabilities of ICN in 5G networks can be challenging because conventional 5G architectures target different communication models.

[0048] An architecture for supporting ICN in next generation cellular networks may be considered. One option for supporting ICN services may be to transmit ICN traffic as data plane traffic. Generally speaking, this mechanism reuses the concept of data radio bearers (DRBs) over the air and may facilitate combining quality of service (QoS), data rate, and effective intercept (LI). However, this may also result in longer delays because the device may be required to go through a signaling radio bearer (SRB) setup process and a DRB setup / activation process before transmitting ICN traffic. This may not be efficient for some services with different business characteristics. On the other hand, as previously noted, ICN data exchange may be based on a pull-based model. Interest packets may typically refer to small packets that occur periodically, similar to some Internet of Things (IoT) type of services. In this case, transmitting ICN traffic as control plane traffic is an efficient option.

[0049] According to the specific implementation of the present disclosure, based on the architecture supporting ICN in the next generation cellular network, a process for supporting UEs with ICN stacks with / without ICN services is proposed. The information required for the ICN service can be carried by NAS messages. The ICN attachment point (ICN-PoA) is then used as an ICN agent to send ICN packets. ICN data can be piggybacked by NAS messages via the control plane or sent to the UE as data packets via the data plane.

[0050] According to a specific implementation of the present disclosure, a mechanism for enabling a UE with an ICN stack without ICN services can make the UE agnostic to the ICN services provided by the CN. Compared with conventional techniques, this can be beneficial for providing a better user experience and low maintenance for equipment manufacturers. When compared with conventional techniques, even for UEs with an ICN stack, less latency can be caused by transmitting lightweight ICN traffic on the control plane. This mode can be activated by the UE or the cellular network based on ICN traffic characteristics and network status.

[0051] Figure 1 An exemplary wireless communication system 100 is shown. For convenience and not limitation, the exemplary system 100 is described in the context of LTE and 5G NR communication standards defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technical specifications. However, the techniques described herein may also be implemented in other communication systems using other communication standards such as other 3GPP standards or IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN or WiMAX).

[0052] System 100 includes UE 101a and UE 101b (collectively referred to as "UE 101"). In this example, UE 101 is shown as a smartphone (eg, a handheld, touch-screen mobile computing device that can connect to one or more cellular networks). In other examples, any of the multiple UEs 101 may include other mobile computing devices or non-mobile computing devices, such as consumer electronic devices, cellular phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (ICs), heads-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, on-board mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine control units (ECUs), electronic / engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or "smart" appliances, machine type communication (MTC) devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, or combinations thereof, etc.

[0053] In some examples, any of the plurality of UEs 101 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device utilizing, for example, a public land mobile network (PLMN), a short-range service (ProSe), a device-to-device (D2D) communication, a sensor network, an IoT network, or a combination thereof. The M2M or MTC data exchange may be a machine-initiated data exchange. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages or status updates) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0054] UE 101 is configured to connect (e.g., be communicatively coupled) to an access network (AN) or radio access network (RAN) 110. In some examples, RAN 110 may be a next generation RAN (NG RAN), an evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), or a legacy RAN, such as a UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) or a GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN). As used herein, the term "NG RAN" may refer to a RAN 110 operating in a 5G NR system 100, while the term "E-UTRAN" may refer to a RAN 110 operating in an LTE or 4G system 100.

[0055] In order to connect to RAN 110, multiple UEs 101 utilize connections (or channels) 103 and 104, respectively, each of which may include a physical communication interface or layer, as described below. In this example, connections 103 and 104 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling, and may be consistent with cellular communication protocols, such as global system for mobile communications (GSM) protocols, code division multiple access (CDMA) network protocols, push-to-talk (PTT) protocols, cellular PTT (POC) protocols, universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) protocols, 3GPP LTE protocols, 5G NR protocols, or combinations thereof, as well as other communication protocols. In some examples, multiple UEs 101 may use interfaces 105 such as ProSe interfaces to directly exchange communication data. Interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as sidelink interface 105 and may include one or more logical channels, such as physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), physical sidelink downlink channel (PSDCH) or physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) or combinations thereof, etc.

[0056] UE 101b is shown configured to access access point (AP) 106 (also referred to as "WLAN node 106", "WLAN 106", "WLAN termination 106", "WT 106", etc.) using connection 107. Connection 107 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 106 will include wireless fidelity Router. In this example, AP 106 is shown connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system, as described in further detail below. In various examples, UE 101b, RAN 110 and AP 106 may be configured to use LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) operation or LTW / WLAN radio level operation integrated with IPsec tunnel (LWIP). LWA operation may involve UE 101b in RRC_CONNECTED state being configured by RAN nodes 111a, 111b to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve UE 101b using IPsec protocol tunnel to use WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 107) to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent through connection 107. IPsec tunnel transmission may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0057] The RAN 110 includes one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 111a and 111b (collectively referred to as "RAN nodes 111") that enable connections 103 and 104. As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functions for data or voice connections or both between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as base stations (BS), gNodeBs, gNBs, eNodeBs, eNBs, NodeBs, RAN nodes, road side units (RSUs), transmit receive points (TRxPs or TRPs), etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell), etc. As used herein, the terms "NG RAN nodes" and the like may refer to RAN nodes 111 (e.g., gNBs) operating in a 5G NR system 100, while the term "E-UTRAN node" may refer to RAN nodes 111 (e.g., eNBs) operating in an LTE or 4G system 100. In some examples, multiple RAN nodes 111 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices such as macrocell base stations or low power (LP) base stations for providing femtocells, picocells, or other similar cells with smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than macrocells.

[0058] In some examples, some or all of the multiple RAN nodes 111 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a cloud RAN (CRAN) or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). The CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional partitioning, such as a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) partitioning, where the radio resource control (RRC) and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and other layer 2 (e.g., data link layer) protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; a medium access control (MAC) / physical layer (PHY) partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, MAC, and radio link control (RLC) layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 111; or a "lower PHY" partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers and the upper portion of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portion of the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 111. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of the RAN nodes 111 to execute, for example, other virtualized applications. In some examples, individual RAN nodes 111 may represent nodes using respective F1 interfaces ( Figure 1 In some examples, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Figure 4 ), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 110 or by a server pool in a manner similar to the CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 111 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), including a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to the UE 101 and is connected to a 5G core network (e.g., the core network 120) using a next generation interface.

[0059] In a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 111 may be or act as an RSU. The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" refers to any traffic infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, wherein an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In some examples, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the road side that provides connectivity support to a passing vehicle UE 101 (vUE 101). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications or other software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communications (DSRC) band to provide extremely low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communications as well as other cellular communications services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications, or both. Some or all of the computing device and the RSU's RF circuitry may be packaged in a weather-resistant enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network, or both.

[0060] Any of the RAN nodes 111 may serve as an endpoint for the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 101. In some examples, any of the multiple RAN nodes 111 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 110, including but not limited to functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0061] In some examples, multiple UEs 101 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any of multiple RAN nodes 111 over a multi-carrier communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals according to various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the techniques described herein is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0062] In some examples, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of a plurality of RAN nodes 111 to a plurality of UEs 101, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is common practice, which makes wireless resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0063] In some examples, multiple UEs 101 and multiple RAN nodes 111 communicate (e.g., transmit and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as a "licensed spectrum" or "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as an "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz band.

[0064] To operate in an unlicensed spectrum, multiple UEs 101 and multiple RAN nodes 111 may operate using licensed assisted access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), or additional enhanced LAA (feLAA) mechanisms. In these specific implementations, multiple UEs 101 and multiple RAN nodes 111 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations or carrier sensing operations or both to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operation may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol. LBT is a mechanism for equipment (e.g., multiple UEs 101, multiple RAN nodes 111) to sense a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include a clear channel assessment (CCA), which uses energy detection to determine whether there are other signals on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or clear. The LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. Energy detection may include sensing RF energy over an intended transmission band over a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0065] The existing system in the 5 GHz band may be a WLAN based on IEEE 802.11 technology. The WLAN adopts a contention-based channel access mechanism (e.g., CSMA with collision avoidance (CSMA / CA). In some examples, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 101, AP 106, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmitting. In addition, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid conflicts. The backoff mechanism can be a counter randomly drawn within the contention window size (CWS), which increases exponentially when a conflict occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. In some examples, the LBT mechanism designed for LAA is similar to CSMA / CA for WLAN. In some examples, the LBT process for a DL or UL transmission burst (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmission) may have a LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y extended CAA (ECCA) time slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values ​​of the CWS for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and the maximum channel occupancy time (e.g., transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0066] In some examples, the LAA mechanism is built on the carrier aggregation technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a component carrier. In some examples, the component carrier may have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five component carriers may be aggregated to provide a maximum aggregate bandwidth of 100 MHz. In a frequency division duplex (FDD) system, the number of aggregated carriers may be different for DL ​​and UL. For example, the number of UL component carriers may be equal to or less than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, each component carrier may have a different bandwidth from other component carriers. In a time division duplex (TDD) system, the number of component carriers and the bandwidth of each component carrier are typically the same for DL ​​and UL.

[0067] Carrier aggregation may also include separate service cells to provide separate component carriers. The coverage of the service cells may be different, for example, because component carriers on different frequency bands may experience different path losses. The primary service cell (PCell) may provide the primary component carrier for both UL and DL, and may handle RRC and non-access stratum (NAS) related activities. Other service cells are referred to as secondary component carriers (SCells), and each SCell may provide a separate secondary component carrier for both UL and DL. Secondary component carriers may be added and removed as needed, and changing the primary component carrier may require UE 101 to undergo switching. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in an unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by the PCells operating in the licensed spectrum. When the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL authorizations on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0068] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to multiple UEs 101. The PDCCH carries, among other information, information about transport formats and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel. It may also inform the UE 101 about transport formats, resource allocations, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to uplink shared channels. Downlink scheduling (e.g., allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 101b within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 111 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 101. Downlink resource allocation information may be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the UEs 101.

[0069] PDCCH uses control channel elements (CCE) to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. In some examples, one or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to four sets of nine physical resource elements, collectively referred to as resource element groups (REGs). Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. In LTE, there may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0070] Some implementations may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some implementations may utilize an enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more enhanced CCEs (ECCEs) may be used to transmit EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, collectively referred to as enhanced REGs (EREGs). In some examples, ECCEs may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0071] The RAN nodes 111 are configured to communicate with each other using the interface 112. In an example, such as if the system 100 is an LTE system (eg, when the core network 120 is Figure 2101 ), the interface 112 may be an X2 interface 112. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 120, or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 120, or both. In some examples, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted over the X2 interface, and may be used to transmit information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the primary eNB to the secondary eNB; information about successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP protocol data units (PDUs) from the secondary eNB to the UE 101 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 101; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the secondary eNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from the source eNB to the target eNB, or user plane transmission control; load management function; inter-cell interference coordination function; and so on.

[0072] In some examples, such as when system 100 is a 5G NR system (e.g., when core network 120 is such as Figure 3), the interface 112 may be an Xn interface 112. The Xn interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5G core network 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5G core network 120, or between two eNBs connected to the 5G core network 120, or a combination of the above. In some examples, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE 101 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED), including functions for managing UE mobility in a connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 111; and the like. Mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 111 to the new (target) serving RAN node 111, and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 111 and the new (target) serving RAN node 111. The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP-U) layer for carrying user plane PDUs on top of a user datagram protocol (UDP) or IP layer or both. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on a stream control transmission protocol (SCTP). SCTP may be on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack or the Xn-C protocol stack or both may be the same or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0073] RAN 110 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network 120 (referred to as "CN 120"). CN 120 includes one or more network elements 122 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 101) connected to CN 120 using RAN 110. Components of CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes and may include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some examples, network function virtualization (NFV) may be used to virtualize some or all of the network node functions described herein using executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, as will be described in further detail below. A logical instance of CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, a NFV system may be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations, or both, of one or more network components or functions.

[0074] In general, the application server 130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS packet service (PS) domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). The application server 130 may also be configured to utilize the CN 120 to support one or more communication services for the UE 101 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.).

[0075] In some examples, CN 120 may be a 5G core network (referred to as "5GC 120"), and RAN 110 may be connected to CN 120 using a next generation interface 113. In some examples, next generation interface 113 may be divided into two parts: a next generation user plane (NG-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between multiple RAN nodes 111 and a user plane function (UPF); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 111 and an access and mobility management function (AMF). Reference Figure 3 Discussed in more detail, CN 120 is an example of 5GC 120.

[0076] In some examples, CN 120 may be an EPC (referred to as “EPC 120” or the like), and RAN 110 may be connected to CN 120 using an S1 interface 113. In some examples, S1 interface 113 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between RAN node 111 and a serving gateway (S-GW); and an S1-MME interface 115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 111 and a mobility management entity (MME).

[0077] Figure 2 An exemplary architecture of a system 200 including a first CN 220 is shown. In this example, the system 200 may implement the LTE standard such that the CN 220 is a Figure 1 In addition, UE 201 may communicate with EPC 220 of CN 120. Figure 1 The UE 101 is the same as or similar to the UE 101, and the E-UTRAN 210 may be Figure 1 The CN 220 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to the RAN 110 of the present invention and may include the RAN node 111 discussed previously. The CN 220 may include an MEE 221, an S-GW 222, a PDN Gateway (P-GW) 223, a High Speed ​​Packet Access (HSS) function 224, and a Serving GPRS Support Node (GENEVA) 225.

[0078] The MME 221 may be similar in function to the control plane of a traditional SGSN, and may implement mobility management (MM) functions to keep track of the current location of the UE 201. The MME 221 may perform various mobility management processes to manage mobility aspects of the access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. Mobility management (also referred to as "EPSMM" or "EMM" in the E-UTRAN system) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data stores, etc. for maintaining knowledge of the current location of the UE 201, providing user identity confidentiality to users / subscribers, or performing other similar services, or a combination thereof, etc. Each UE 201 and the MME 221 may include an EMM sublayer, and when the attachment process is successfully completed, a mobility management context may be established in the UE 201 and the MME 221. The mobility management context may be a data structure or database object that stores mobility management related information of the UE 201. MME 221 may be coupled to HSS 224 using an S6a reference point, to SGSN 225 using an S3 reference point, and to S-GW 222 using an S11 reference point.

[0079] SGSN 225 may be a node that serves UE 201 by tracking the location of individual UE 201 and performing security functions. In addition, SGSN 225 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G / 3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 221; handling of UE 201 time zone functions, as specified by MME 221; and MME selection for handover to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network, etc. The S3 reference point between MME 221 and SGSN 225 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in an idle state or an active state or both.

[0080] The HSS 224 may include a database for network users, which includes subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. The EPC 220 may include one or more HSSs 224, depending on the number of mobile users, the capacity of the equipment, the organization of the network, or a combination thereof, etc. For example, the HSS 224 may provide support for routing, roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing resolution, location dependency, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 224 and the MEE 221 may enable the transmission of subscription and authentication data between the HSS 224 and the MEE 221 for authenticating or authorizing user access to the EPC 220.

[0081] The S-GW 222 may terminate the S1 interface 113 toward the RAN 210 ( Figure 2 The S-GW 222 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and enforcement of certain policies. The S11 reference point between the S-GW 222 and the MME 221 may provide a control plane between the MME 221 and the S-GW 222. The S-GW 222 may be coupled to the P-GW 223 using the S5 reference point.

[0082] The P-GW 223 may terminate the SGi interface toward the PDN 230. The P-GW 223 may use the IP interface 125 (see, e.g., Figure 1 ) routes data packets between EPC 220 and external networks such as a network including application server 130 (sometimes referred to as "AF"). In some examples, P-GW 223 can use IP communication interface 125 (see, e.g., Figure 1 ) is communicatively coupled to an application server (e.g., Figure 1 Application server 130 or Figure 2The S5 reference point between the P-GW 223 and the S-GW 222 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 223 and the S-GW 222. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 222 relocation due to the mobility of the UE 201 and whether the S-GW 222 needs to be connected to a non-colocated P-GW 223 for the required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 223 may also include nodes for policy enforcement and charging data collection, such as a PCEF (not shown). In addition, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 223 and the packet data network (PDN) 230 may be an operator-external public, private PDN, or an internal operator packet data network, such as for providing IMS services. The P-GW 223 may be coupled to a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) 226 using the Gx reference point.

[0083] PCRF 226 is a policy and charging control element of EPC 220. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 226 in a domestic public land mobile network (HPLMN) associated with an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of UE 201. In a roaming scenario with local traffic breakout, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of UE 201: a domestic PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). PCRF 226 may be communicatively coupled to application server 230 using P-GW 223. Application server 230 may signal PCRF 226 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate quality of service (QoS) and charging parameters. PCRF 226 may configure the rule to a PCEF (not shown) with an appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class identifier (QCI), which initiates QoS and charging specified by application server 230. The Gx reference point between PCRF 226 and P-GW 223 may allow for the transfer of QoS policies and charging rules from PCRF 226 to PCEF in P-GW 223. The Rx reference point may reside between PDN 230 (or "AF 230") and PCRF 226.

[0084] Figure 3The architecture of a system 300 including a second CN 320 is shown. The system 300 is shown to include a UE 301, which may be the same or similar to the previously discussed UE 101 and UE 201; a (R) AN 310, which may be the same or similar to the previously discussed RAN 110 and RAN 210, and which may include the previously discussed RAN node 111; and a data network (DN) 303, which may be, for example, an operator service, Internet access, or a 3rd party service; and a 5GC 320. The 5GC 320 may include an authentication server function (AUSF) 322; an access and mobility management function (AMF) 321; a session management function (SMF) 324; a network exposure function (NEF) 323; a policy control function (PCF) 326; a network repository function (NRF) 325; a unified data management (UDM) function 327; an AF 328; a user plane function (UPF) 302; and a network slice selection function (NSSF) 329.

[0085] UPF 302 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with DN 303, and a branch point to support multi-host PDU sessions. UPF 302 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform the user plane portion of policy rules, lawful interception of packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement) on the user plane, perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 302 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to data networks. DN 303 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. DN 303 may include or be similar to the application server 130 discussed previously. UPF 302 may interact with SMF 324 using the N4 reference point between SMF 324 and UPF 302.

[0086] AUSF 322 stores data for authentication of UE 301 and handles authentication-related functions. AUSF 322 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. AUSF 322 may communicate with AMF 321 using the N12 reference point between AMF 321 and AUSF 322, and may communicate with UDM 327 using the N13 reference point between UDM 327 and AUSF 322. In addition, AUSF 322 may present an interface based on Nausf services.

[0087] AMF 321 is responsible for registration management (e.g., responsible for registering UE 301, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, as well as access authentication and authorization. AMF 321 can be the termination point of the N11 reference point between AMF 321 and SMF 324. AMF 321 can provide for the transmission of SM messages between UE 301 and SMF 324, and act as a transparent agent for routing SM messages. AMF 321 can also provide UE 301 and SMSF ( Figure 3 AN 310 and UE 301). The AMF 321 may act as a security anchor function (SEAF), which may include interaction with the AUSF 322 and the UE 301 to, for example, receive intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 301 authentication process. In the case of using universal user identity module (UMTS)-based authentication, the AMF 321 may retrieve security materials from the AUSF 322. The AMF 321 may also include a security context management (SCM) function that receives keys from the SEAF to derive access network specific keys. In addition, the AMF 321 may be a termination point for the RAN control plane interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the (R)AN 310 and the AMF 321. In some examples, the AMF 321 may be a termination point for NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0088] The AMF 321 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 301 via an N3 interworking function (IWF) interface (referred to as "N3IWF"). The N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3IWF may be the termination point for the N2 interface between the (R)AN 310 and the AMF 321 for the control plane, and may be the termination point for the N3 reference point between the (R)AN 310 and the UPF 302 for the user plane. Thus, the AMF 321 may process N2 signaling for PDU sessions and QoS from the SMF 324 and the AMF 321, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnels, mark N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and perform QoS corresponding to N3 packet markings, taking into account QoS requirements associated with such markings received over N2. The N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE 301 and the AMF 321 using the N1 reference point between the UE 301 and the AMF 321, and relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE 301 and the UPF 302. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with the UE 301. The AMF 321 may present an interface based on the Namf service, and may be an N14 reference point between the two AMFs 321 and an N14 reference point between the AMF 321 and the 5G Equipment Identity Register (EIR) ( Figure 3 The termination point of the N17 reference point between the two (not shown).

[0089] UE 301 may register with AMF 321 in order to receive network services. Registration Management (RM) is used to register UE 301 with the network (e.g., AMF 321) or deregister UE 301, and to establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 321). UE 301 may operate in an RM-REGISTERED state or an RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM DEREGISTERED state, UE 301 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 321 does not maintain valid location or routing information of UE 301, so AMF 321 cannot reach UE 301. In the RM REGISTERED state, UE 301 is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 321 may maintain valid location or routing information of UE 301, so AMF 321 may reach UE 301. In the RM-REGISTERED state, UE 301 may perform a mobility registration update procedure, perform a periodic registration update procedure triggered by the expiration of a periodic update timer (e.g., to notify the network that UE 301 is still active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network, etc.

[0090] AMF 321 may store one or more RM contexts for UE 301, each RM context being associated with a specific access to the network. The RM context may be, for example, a data structure or a database object, etc., which indicates or stores the registration status and periodic update timer for each access type. AMF 321 may also store a 5GC mobility management (MM) context that may be the same or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. In some examples, AMF 321 may store coverage enhancement mode B restriction parameters for UE 301 in an associated MM context or RM context. AMF 321 may also derive values ​​from the UE's usage setting parameters already stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context) when necessary.

[0091] Connection Management (CM) may be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 301 and the AMF 321 over the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE 301 and the CN 320, and includes a signaling connection between the UE and the AN (e.g., an RRC connection or a UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPP access) and an N2 connection of the UE 301 between the AN (e.g., the RAN 310) and the AMF 321. In some examples, the UE 301 may operate in one of two CM modes: a CM-IDLE mode or a CM-CONNECTED mode. When the UE 301 operates in the CM-IDLE mode, the UE 301 may not have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 321 over the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 310 signaling connection for the UE 301 (e.g., an N2 or N3 connection, or both). When UE 301 operates in CM-CONNECTED mode, UE 301 may have a NAS signaling connection established with AMF 321 through an N1 interface, and there may be a (R) AN 310 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connection) for UE 301. Establishing an N2 connection between (R) AN 310 and AMF 321 may cause UE 301 to transition from CM-IDLE mode to CM-CONNECTED mode, and when the N2 signaling between (R) AN 310 and AMF 321 is released, UE 301 may transition from CM-CONNECTED mode to CM-IDLE mode.

[0092] SMF 324 may be responsible for session management (SM), such as session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between UPF and AN nodes; UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP functions; configuring traffic steering at UPF to route traffic to the correct destination; terminating the interface toward the policy control function; control portion of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interface with LI system); terminating the SM portion of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information sent to AN via N2 using AMF; and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session (or "session") may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between a UE 301 and a data network (DN) 303 identified by a data network name (DNN). The PDU session may be established upon request by UE 301, modified upon request by UE 301 and 5GC 320, and released upon request by UE 301 and 5GC 320 using NAS SM signaling exchanged between UE 301 and SMF 324 over the N1 reference point. Upon request from an application server, 5GC 320 may trigger a specific application in UE 301. In response to receiving a trigger message, UE 301 may deliver the trigger message (or relevant parts / information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in UE 301. The identified applications in UE 301 may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. SMF 324 may check whether the UE 301 request complies with user subscription information associated with UE 301. In this regard, SMF 324 may retrieve and / or request to receive update notifications about SMF 324 level subscription data from UDM 327.

[0093] The SMF 324 may include some or all of the following roaming functions: handling local execution to apply QoS service level agreements (SLAs) (e.g., in a VPLMN); charging data collection and charging interfaces (e.g., in a VPLMN); lawful interception (e.g., SM events and interfaces with LI systems in a VPLMN); and supporting interaction with external DNs to convey signaling for PDU session authorization / authentication through external DNs. An N16 reference point between two SMFs 324 may be included in the system 300, which in a roaming scenario may be between another SMF 324 in a visited network and an SMF 324 in a home network. In addition, the SMF 324 may present an interface based on Nsmf services.

[0094] NEF 323 may provide components for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF 328), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In some examples, NEF 323 may authenticate, authorize and / or restrict AF. NEF 323 may also convert information exchanged with AF 328 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, NEF 323 may convert between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. NEF 323 may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on their exposure capabilities. The information may be stored at NEF 323 as structured data or at a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be re-exposed to other NFs and AFs by NEF 323, or used for other purposes such as analysis, or both. In addition, NEF 323 may present an interface based on Nnef services.

[0095] NRF 325 may support service discovery functionality, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information about discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 325 also maintains information about available NF instances and services supported by these instances. As used herein, the term "instantiation" and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to the specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of a program code. In addition, NRF 325 may present an interface based on Nnrf services.

[0096] The PCF 326 may provide for control plane functions to enforce their policy rules, and may also support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. The PCF 326 may also implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the unified data repository (UDR) of the UDM 327. The PCF 326 may communicate with the AMF 321 using the N15 reference point between the PCF 326 and the AMF 321, which may include the PCF 326 in the visited network and the AMF 321 in the case of a roaming scenario. The PCF 326 may communicate with the AF 328 using the N5 reference point between the PCF 326 and the AF 328; and communicate with the SMF 324 using the N7 reference point between the PCF 326 and the SMF 324. The system 300 or the CN 320 or both may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF 326 (in the home network) and the PCF 326 in the visited network. Additionally, PCF 326 may present an interface based on Npcf services.

[0097] UDM 327 may process subscription-related information to support network entities in handling communication sessions, and may store subscription data for UE 301. For example, subscription data may be transferred between UDM 327 and AMF 321 using the N8 reference point between UDM 327 and AMF. UDM 327 may include two parts: an application front end and a UDR ( Figure 3 The front end and UDR are not shown). The UDR may store subscription data and policy data of the UDM 327 and PCF 326, or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFD for application detection, application request information of multiple UEs 301) of the NEF 323, or both. The Nudr service-based interface may be presented by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 327, PCF 326, and NEF 323 to access a specific set of stored data, as well as read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of related data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM front end, which is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. In different transactions, several different front ends may serve the same user. The UDM front end accesses the subscription information stored in the UDR, and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. The UDR may interact with the SMF 324 using the N10 reference point between the UDM 327 and the SMF 324. UDM 327 may also support SMS management, where the SMS front end implements application logic similar to that discussed previously. Additionally, UDM 327 may present an interface based on Nudm services.

[0098] AF 328 can provide the influence of application on traffic routing, provide access to network capability exposure (NCE), and interact with the policy framework for policy control. NCE can be a mechanism that allows 5GC 320 and AF 328 to provide information to each other using NEF 323, which can be used for edge computing implementation. In such implementation, network operators and third-party services can be hosted near the UE 301 access point of the attachment to achieve effective service delivery through reduced end-to-end delay and load on the transmission network. For edge computing implementation, 5GC can select UPF 302 near UE 301 and perform traffic steering from UPF 302 to DN 303 using N6 interface. This can be based on UE subscription data, UE location and information provided by AF 328. In this way, AF 328 can affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 328 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow AF 328 to interact directly with the relevant NF. In addition, AF 328 can present an interface based on Naf service.

[0099] NSSF 329 may select a set of network slice instances to serve UE 301. If necessary, NSSF 329 may also determine the allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI). NSSF 329 may also determine a set of AMFs to serve UE 301, or a list of candidate AMFs 321, based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying NRF 325. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 301 may be triggered by AMF 321, where UE 301 registers by interacting with NSSF 329, which may cause AMF 321 to change. NSSF 329 may interact with AMF 321 using the N22 reference point between AMF 321 and NSSF 329; and may utilize the N31 reference point ( Figure 3 The NSSF 329 may communicate with another NSSF 329 in the visited network (not shown). In addition, the NSSF 329 may present an interface based on the Nnssf service.

[0100] As previously discussed, CN 320 may include SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SM messages to or from UE 301 to or from other entities, such as SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS routers. SMS may also interact with AMF 321 and UDM 327 for notification procedures that UE 301 is available for SMS transmission (e.g., setting a UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM 327 when UE 301 is available for SMS).

[0101] CN 120 may also include Figure 3 Other elements not shown, such as a data storage system, 5G-EIR, a security edge protection proxy (SEPP), etc. The data storage system may include a structured data storage function (SDSF), an unstructured data storage function (UDSF), or both. Any network function may utilize any NF and UDSF ( Figure 3 The N18 reference point between the UDSF (not shown) stores or retrieves unstructured data to or from the UDSF (e.g., UE context). Each network function may share the UDSF for storing its corresponding unstructured data, or each network function may each have its own UDSF located at or near each network function. In addition, the UDSF may present an interface based on the Nudsf service ( Figure 3 (not shown). 5G-EIR may be a network function that checks the status of a Permanent Equipment Identifier (PEI) to determine whether to blacklist a particular equipment or entity from the network; and SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on the inter-PLMN control plane interface.

[0102] In some examples, there may be additional or alternative reference points or service-based interfaces or both between network function services in a network function. However, for clarity, Figure 3 These interfaces and reference points are omitted. In one example, CN 320 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME 221) and an AMF 321, so as to achieve intercommunication between CN 320 and CN 220. Other exemplary interfaces or reference points may include an interface based on N5g-EIR services presented by 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between an NRF in a visited network and an NRF in a home network, or an N31 reference point between an NSSF in a visited network and an NSSF in a home network, etc.

[0103] Figure 4 An example of infrastructure equipment 400 is shown. Infrastructure equipment 400 (or "system 400") can be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node (such as the RAN node 111 or AP 106 shown and described previously), an application server 130, or any other component or device described herein. In other examples, system 400 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0104] System 400 includes: application circuit 405, baseband circuit 410, one or more radio front end modules (RFEM) 415, memory circuit 420, power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 425, power tee circuit 430, network controller circuit 435, network interface connector 440, satellite positioning circuit 445 and user interface circuit 450. In some examples, system 400 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory, storage, display, camera, one or more sensors or input / output (I / O) interface or a combination thereof. In other examples, the components described with reference to system 400 may be included in more than one device. For example, various circuits may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU or other specific implementations.

[0105] The application circuit 405 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, one or more of the following: a low dropout regulator (LDO), an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, I2C or a general programmable serial interface module, a real-time clock (RTC), a timer-counter including an interval timer and a watchdog timer, a general input / output (I / O or IO), a memory card controller such as a secure digital (SD) multimedia card (MMC) or similar products, a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) interface, and a joint test access group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 405 may be coupled to or may include a memory or storage element, and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory or storage element to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 400. In some examples, the memory or storage element may include an on-chip memory circuit, which may include any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, or a combination thereof, etc.

[0106] The processor of the application circuit 405 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or a combination thereof, etc. In some examples, the application circuit 405 may include or may be a dedicated processor or controller configured to perform various techniques described herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 405 may include one or more Intel FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or a combination thereof. or Processor: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor, Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) or processors; ARM-based processors licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium(TM), Inc. and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior P-class processor; etc. In some examples, system 400 may not utilize application circuit 405, and instead may include a dedicated processor or controller to process IP data received, for example, from an EPC or 5GC.

[0107] In some examples, the application circuit 405 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) or deep learning (DL) accelerators or both. In some examples, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs) or high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs); ASICs, such as structured ASICs; programmable SoCs (PSoCs), or combinations thereof, etc. In such specific implementations, the circuits of the application circuit 405 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions described herein. In some examples, the circuitry of application circuit 405 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), or anti-fuse)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, or other data in a look-up table (LUT), etc.

[0108] Baseband circuit 410 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure X T discusses the various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 410.

[0109] The user interface circuit 450 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system 400 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the system 400. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio transmitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, or a combination thereof, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0110] The radio front end module (RFEM) 415 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some examples, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., Figure X The antenna array 611 of T) and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In some examples, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 415 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0111] Memory circuit 420 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), such as high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), or magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), or a combination thereof. In some examples, memory circuit 420 may include a memory device obtained from and For example, the memory circuit 420 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0112] The PMIC 425 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 430 may provide power extracted from the network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 400 using a single cable.

[0113] The network controller circuit 435 may provide connectivity to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to and from the infrastructure equipment 400 using a network interface connector 440 using a physical connection, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 435 may include one or more dedicated processors or FPGAs, or both, for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some examples, the network controller circuit 435 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0114] The positioning circuit 445 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted or broadcast by a positioning network of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of GNSS include the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States, the Global Navigation System (GLONASS) of Russia, the Galileo system of the European Union, the Beidou Navigation Satellite System of China, a regional navigation system or a GNSS augmentation system (e.g., using the Indian constellation (NAVIC), the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) of Japan, the Doppler Orbit Chart and Satellite Integrated Radio Positioning (DORIS) of France for navigation), etc. The positioning circuit 445 may include various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communication) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some examples, the positioning circuit 445 may include a micro technology (micro PNT) IC for positioning, navigation and timing, which uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking and estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 445 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 410 or RFEM 415 or both to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry 445 may also provide data (eg, location data, time data) to the application circuitry 405 , which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (eg, RAN node 111 , etc.).

[0115] Figure 4 The components shown can communicate with each other using interface circuits that can include any number of bus or interconnect (IX) technologies, such as industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus or IX can be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC-based system. Other bus or IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0116] Figure 5 An example of a platform 500 (or "device 500") is shown. In some examples, the computer platform 500 may be suitable for use as a UE 101, 201, 301, an application server 130, or any other component or device discussed herein. The platform 500 may include any combination of the components shown in the examples. The components (or portions thereof) of the platform 500 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof adapted in the computer platform 500, or as components otherwise incorporated within the chassis of a larger system. Figure 5The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of platform 500. However, in some examples, platform 500 may include fewer, additional, or alternative components, or include Figure 5 Different arrangements of components are shown.

[0117] The application circuit 505 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces (such as SPI), I2C or general programmable serial interface modules, RTCs, timers-counters (including interval timers and watchdog timers), general I / Os, memory card controllers (such as SD MMC or similar controllers), USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces, and JTAG test access ports. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 505 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element, and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory or storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 500. In some examples, the memory or storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit, which may include any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, or a combination thereof.

[0118] The processor of application circuit 405 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some examples, application circuit 405 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for performing techniques described herein.

[0119] As an example, the processor of the application circuit 505 may include a processor based on Architecture TM Processors such as Quark TM 、Atom TM , i3, i5, i7 or MCU class processors, or available from Santa Clara, CA The processor of application circuit 505 may also be one or more of the following: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor or Accelerated Processing Unit (APU); from Inc.'s A5-A9 processors, Snapdragon by Technologies, Inc. TM Processor, Texas Instruments, Open Multimedia Applications Platform(OMAP) TM processors; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some examples, application circuit 505 can be part of a system on a chip (SoC), in which application circuit 505 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package, such as company( Edison Corporation TM or Galileo TM SoC board.

[0120] Additionally or alternatively, the application circuit 505 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs); ASICs, such as structured ASICs; programmable SoCs (PSoCs), or combinations thereof, etc. In some examples, the application circuit 505 may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions described herein. In some examples, the application circuit 505 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM) or antifuse)) for storing logic blocks, logic structures, data or other data in a lookup table (LUT), etc.

[0121] Baseband circuit 510 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure X T discusses the various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 510.

[0122] The RFEM 515 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some examples, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., Figure X The antenna array 611 of T) and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In some examples, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 515 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0123] The memory circuit 520 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a fixed amount of system memory. As an example, the memory circuit 520 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), such as high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), or magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) or a combination thereof. The memory circuit 520 may be developed according to the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) based low power double data rate (LPDDR) design such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 520 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a single die package (SDP), a dual die package (DDP) or a quad die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) including a micro DIMM or a mini DIMM, or soldered to a motherboard using a ball grid array (BGA). In a low-power implementation, the memory circuit 520 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 505. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 520 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, for example, a solid-state disk drive (SSDD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, a resistive change memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory. In some examples, the computer platform 500 may be combined with a computer obtained from and Three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory.

[0124] The removable memory circuit 523 may include a device, circuit, housing, casing, port or socket, etc., for coupling a portable data storage device to the platform 500. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD picture cards), as well as USB flash drives, optical disks, or external HDDs, or combinations thereof, etc.

[0125] The platform 500 may further include an interface circuit (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 500. External devices connected to the platform 500 using the interface circuit include a sensor circuit 521 and an electromechanical component (EMC) 522, and a removable memory device coupled to a removable memory circuit 523.

[0126] Sensor circuit 521 includes a device, module, or subsystem that is intended to detect events or changes in its environment and send information about the detected events (e.g., sensor data) to one or more other devices, modules, or subsystems. Examples of such sensors include: an inertial measurement unit (IMU), such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, or magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, or a magnetometer; a liquid level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravity meter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other audio capture device, or a combination thereof, etc.

[0127] The EMC 522 includes devices, modules or subsystems that are intended to enable the platform 500 to change its state, position, or orientation or to move or control a mechanism, system or subsystem. In addition, the EMC 522 may be configured to generate messages or signaling and send messages or signaling to other components of the platform 500 to indicate the current state of the EMC 522. Examples of EMC 522 include one or more power switches, relays (such as electromechanical relays (EMRs) or solid-state relays (SSRs)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors or stepper motors), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, or combinations thereof, in addition to other electromechanical components. In some examples, the platform 500 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 522 based on one or more capture events, instructions or control signals received from a service provider or client or both.

[0128] In some examples, the interface circuit may connect the platform 500 to the positioning circuit 545. The positioning circuit 545 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted or broadcast by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples of GNSS may include the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou navigation satellite system, a regional navigation system or a GNSS augmentation system (e.g., NAVIC), Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc. The positioning circuit 545 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communications) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some examples, the positioning circuit 545 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking or estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 545 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 410 or RFEM 515 or both to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. Positioning circuitry 545 may also provide data (eg, position data, time data) to application circuitry 505, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (eg, radio base stations), for turn-by-turn navigation applications, and the like.

[0129] In some examples, the interface circuit may connect the platform 500 with a near field communication (NFC) circuit 540. The NFC circuit 540 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, wherein a magnetic field is sensed to enable communication between the NFC circuit 540 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touch point") external to the platform 500. The NFC circuit 540 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip or IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 540 by executing an NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit a short-range RF signal. The RF signal may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuit 540, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 540 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smart phone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) close to the platform 500.

[0130] The driver circuit 546 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 500. The driver circuit 546 may include various drivers to allow other components of the platform 500 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present in or connected to the platform 500. For example, the driver circuit 546 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touch screen interface of the platform 500, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 521 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 521, an EMC driver for obtaining an actuator position of the EMC 522 or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 522, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0131] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 525 (also referred to as “power management circuit 525”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform 500. Specifically, the PMIC 525 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion with respect to the baseband circuit 510. The PMIC 525 may be included when the platform 500 is capable of being powered by a battery 530, for example, when the device is included in a UE 101, 201, 301.

[0132] In some examples, the PMIC 525 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 500. For example, if the platform 500 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform is still connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 500 may be powered off for short time intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for a longer period of time, the platform 500 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which it is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback or switching. This may allow the platform 500 to enter a very low power state in which it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers off again. In some examples, the platform 500 may not receive data in the RRC_Idle state, but must transition back to the RRC_Connected state to receive data. Additional power saving modes may prevent the device from using the network for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to a few hours). During this period, the device may not be able to connect to the network and may be completely powered off. Any data sent during this period may be significantly delayed, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0133] Battery 530 can power platform 500, but in some examples, platform 500 can be deployed in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to a power grid. Battery 530 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, or a lithium-air battery, etc. In some examples, such as in V2X applications, battery 530 can be a typical lead-acid car battery.

[0134] In some examples, the battery 530 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 500 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 530. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 530, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 530 to provide fault prediction. The BMS may transmit information about the battery 530 to the application circuit 505 or other components of the platform 500. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 505 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 530 or the current from the battery 530. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 500 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0135] A power block or other power source coupled to the grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 530. In some examples, the power block 530 can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 500. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit can be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected can depend on the size of the battery 530 and therefore the required current. Charging can be performed using the aviation fuel standard published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance.

[0136] The user interface circuit 550 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present in or connected to the platform 500, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to implement user interaction with the platform 500 or peripheral component interfaces designed to implement interaction with peripheral components of the platform 500. The user interface circuit 550 includes input device circuits and output device circuits. The input device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, or a headset, or a combination thereof, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other information). The output device circuitry may include any number or combination of audio or visual displays, including one or more simple visual outputs or indicators (e.g., binary state indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs, such as a display device or touch screen (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), an LED display, a quantum dot display, or a projector), where the output of characters, graphics, or multimedia objects is generated or produced by the operation of the platform 500. The output device circuitry may also include a speaker or other audio emitting device, or a printer. In some examples, the sensor circuitry 521 may be used as an input device circuit (e.g., an image capture device or a motion capture device) and one or more EMCs may be used as an output device circuit (e.g., an actuator for providing tactile feedback). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuitry including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, or a power interface.

[0137] Although not shown, the components of platform 500 can communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which can include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, time-triggered protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus or IX can be a proprietary bus or IX, for example, used in a SoC-based system. Other bus or IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0138] Figure X T shows exemplary components of a baseband circuit 610 and a radio front end module (RFEM) 615. The baseband circuit 610 may correspond to Figure 4 The baseband circuit 410 and Figure 5The baseband circuit 510 of FIG. RFEM 615 may correspond to Figure 4 RFEM 415 and Figure 5 RFEM 515. As shown in the figure, RFEM 615 may include a radio frequency (RF) circuit 606, a front end module (FEM) circuit 608, and an antenna array 611 coupled together.

[0139] The baseband circuit 610 includes circuits or control logic components or both, which are configured to execute various radio or network protocols and control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks using the RF circuit 606. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation and demodulation, encoding and decoding, and radio frequency shifting. In some examples, the modulation and demodulation circuits of the baseband circuit 610 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding or constellation mapping and demapping functions. In some examples, the encoding and decoding circuits of the baseband circuit 610 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder and decoder functions. The modulation and demodulation and encoder and decoder functions are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other examples. The baseband circuit 610 is configured to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 606 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 606. The baseband circuit 610 is configured to communicate with application circuits (e.g., Figure 4 and Figure 5 The application circuits 405 and 505 are shown to interact to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuit 606. The baseband circuit 610 can handle various radio control functions.

[0140] The aforementioned circuits and control logic components of the baseband circuit 610 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 604A, a 4G or LTE baseband processor 604B, a 5G or NR baseband processor 604C, or some other baseband processor 604D for other existing generations, generations under development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., the sixth generation (6G)). In some examples, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 604A-D may be included in a module stored in the memory 604G and executed using a central processing unit (CPU) 604E. In some examples, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 604A-D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., FPGA or ASIC) loaded with an appropriate bitstream or logic block stored in a corresponding memory unit. In some examples, the memory 604G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which, when executed by the CPU 604E (or other baseband processor), is used to enable the CPU 604E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuit 610, schedule tasks, or perform other operations. Examples of RTOS may include Operating System Embedded (OSE) provided TM , by Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided TM , by Mentor Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Express Provided by ThreadX TM ,Depend on FreeRTOS and REX OS provided by OpenKernel (OK) OKL4 is provided, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuit 610 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 604F. The audio DSP 604F includes elements for compression and decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in some examples.

[0141] In some examples, each of processors 604A-604E includes a corresponding memory interface to send data to and receive data from memory 604G. Baseband circuit 610 may also include one or more interfaces for communicatively coupling to other circuits or devices, such as an interface for sending data to and receiving data from a memory external to baseband circuit 610; an interface for sending data to and receiving data from a memory external to the baseband circuit; Figure 4 and Figure XApplication circuit interface for sending data to and receiving data from the application circuit 405, 505 of T; Figure X RF circuit interface for sending data to and receiving data from the RF circuit 606 of T; for receiving data from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., near field communication (NFC) components, Low power consumption components, components, etc.) to send data and receive data from these wireless hardware elements; and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to the PMIC 525 and receiving power or control signals from the PMIC.

[0142] In some examples (which may be combined with the above examples), the baseband circuit 610 includes one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled to each other and to the CPU subsystem, the audio subsystem, and the interface subsystem using an interconnection subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed signal baseband subsystem using another interconnection subsystem. Each of the interconnection subsystems may include a bus system, a point-to-point connector, a network on chip (NOC) structure, or some other suitable bus or interconnection technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include a DSP circuit, a buffer memory, a program memory, a voice processing accelerator circuit, a data converter circuit such as an analog-to-digital converter circuit and a digital-to-analog converter circuit, an analog circuit including one or more of an amplifier and a filter, etc. In some examples, the baseband circuit 610 may include a protocol processing circuit having one or more control circuit instances (not shown) to provide control functions for a digital baseband circuit or a radio frequency circuit (e.g., a radio front end module 615).

[0143] although Figure XT is not shown, but in some examples, the baseband circuit 610 includes various processing devices (e.g., "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuit") for operating one or more wireless communication protocols and various processing devices for implementing PHY layer functions. In some examples, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In some examples, the protocol processing circuit operates or implements various protocol layers or entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. For example, when the baseband circuit 610 or the RF circuit 606 or both are part of a millimeter wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit, the protocol processing circuit may operate an LTE protocol entity or a 5G NR protocol entity or both. In this example, the protocol processing circuit may operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In some examples, when the baseband circuit 610 or the RF circuit 606 or both are part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuit may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In this example, the protocol processing circuit may operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 604G) for storing program code and data for operating protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing program code and performing various operations using data. The baseband circuitry 610 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.

[0144] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 610 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In some examples, the components of the baseband circuit 610 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some examples, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 610 and the RF circuit 606 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system on a chip (SoC) or a system-level package (SiP). In some examples, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 610 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuit 606 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 606). In some examples, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 610 and the application circuits 405, 505 may be implemented together as a separate SoC mounted to the same circuit board (e.g., a "multi-chip package").

[0145] In some examples, baseband circuitry 610 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, baseband circuitry 610 may support communications with E-UTRAN or other WMANs, WLANs, or WPANs. Examples in which baseband circuitry 610 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0146] RF circuit 606 can use modulated electromagnetic radiation to achieve communication with a wireless network through a non-solid medium. In some examples, RF circuit 606 may include components such as switches, filters, or amplifiers to facilitate communication with a wireless network. RF circuit 606 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuits for down-converting RF signals received from FEM circuit 608 and providing baseband signals to baseband circuit 610. RF circuit 606 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuits for up-converting baseband signals provided by baseband circuit 610 and providing RF output signals for transmission to FEM circuit 608.

[0147] The receive signal path of the RF circuit 606 includes a mixer circuit 606a, an amplifier circuit 606b, and a filter circuit 606c. In some examples, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 606 may include a filter circuit 606c and a mixer circuit 606a. The RF circuit 606 also includes a synthesizer circuit 606d for synthesizing frequencies used by the mixer circuit 606a for the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some examples, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 608 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 606d. The amplifier circuit 606b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 606c may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuit 610 for further processing. In some examples, the output baseband signal can be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not required.In some examples, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path can include a passive mixer.

[0148] In some examples, mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path can be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 606d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 608. The baseband signal can be provided by baseband circuit 610 and can be filtered by filter circuit 606c.

[0149] In some examples, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for orthogonal down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some examples, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some examples, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some examples, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0150] In some examples, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals. In some examples, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be electronic baseband signals, and the RF circuit 606 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 610 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuit 606.

[0151] In some dual-mode examples, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, but the techniques described herein are not limited in this respect.

[0152] In some examples, synthesizer circuit 606d can be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, although other types of frequency synthesizers can be used. For example, synthesizer circuit 606d can be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0153] Synthesizer circuit 606d can be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by mixer circuit 606a of RF circuit 606. In some examples, synthesizer circuit 606d can be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0154] In some examples, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuit 610 or the application circuit 405 / 505 according to the desired output frequency. In some examples, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application circuit 405, 505.

[0155] The synthesizer circuit 606d of the RF circuit 606 may include a frequency divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some examples, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some examples, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some examples, the DLL may include a cascaded, tunable, delay element, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. The delay element may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0156] In some examples, the synthesizer circuit 606d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other examples, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and can be used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals with multiple different phases relative to each other at the carrier frequency. In some examples, the output frequency can be an LO frequency (fLO). In some examples, the RF circuit 606 can include an IQ or polarity converter.

[0157] FEM circuitry 608 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antenna array 611, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to RF circuitry 606 for further processing. FEM circuitry 608 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by RF circuitry 606 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in antenna array 611. Amplification by either the transmit signal path or the receive signal path may be accomplished only in RF circuitry 606, only in FEM circuitry 608, or in both RF circuitry 606 and FEM circuitry 608.

[0158] In some examples, FEM circuit 608 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. FEM circuit 608 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of FEM circuit 608 may include an LNA to amplify a received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to RF circuit 606). The transmit signal path of FEM circuit 608 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuit 606), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of antenna array 611.

[0159] The antenna array 611 includes one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured to convert an electrical signal into a radio wave to travel through the air and convert the received radio wave into an electrical signal. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 610 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which is amplified and transmitted using the antenna elements of the antenna array 611 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed into a variety of arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. The antenna array 611 may include a microstrip antenna or a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 611 may be formed as a patch of metal foil (e.g., a patch antenna) of various shapes and may be coupled to the RF circuit 606 and / or the FEM circuit 608 using a metal transmission line or the like.

[0160] The processors of the application circuits 405 / 505 and the processors of the baseband circuits 610 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 610 may be used alone or in combination to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processors of the application circuits 405, 505 may utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a PHY layer of a UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0161] Figure 7 2 shows exemplary components of communication circuit 700. In some examples, communication circuit 700 may be implemented as Figure 4 and Figure 5 The communication circuit 700 may be communicatively coupled (e.g., directly or indirectly) to one or more antennas, such as antennas 702a-c. In some examples, the communication circuit 700 includes or is communicatively coupled to dedicated receive chains for multiple RATs (e.g., a first receive chain for LTE and a second receive chain for 5G NR), a processor, or a radio component, or a combination thereof. For example, as Figure 7 As shown, the communication circuit 700 includes a modem 710 and a modem 720, which may correspond to or may be Figure 4 and Figure 5Modem 710 may be configured to communicate in accordance with a first RAT, such as LTE or LTE-A, and modem 720 may be configured to communicate in accordance with a second RAT, such as 5G NR.

[0162] The modem 710 includes one or more processors 712 and a memory 716 in communication with the processor 712. The modem 710 is in communication with a radio frequency (RF) front end 730, which may correspond to or may be Figure 4 and Figure 5 The RF front end 730 may include circuits for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 730 includes a receiving circuit (RX) 732 and a transmitting circuit (TX) 734. In some examples, the receiving circuit 732 communicates with the DL front end 750, which may include circuits for receiving radio signals from the antenna 702a. The switch 770 may selectively couple the modem 710 to the UL front end 772, which may include circuits for transmitting radio signals using the antenna 702c.

[0163] Similarly, the modem 720 includes one or more processors 722 and a memory 726 in communication with the processor 722. The modem 720 is in communication with an RF front end 740, which may correspond to or may be Figure 4 and Figure 5 702c. The RF front end 740 may include circuits for transmitting and receiving radio signals. For example, the RF front end 740 includes a receiving circuit 742 and a transmitting circuit 744. In some examples, the receiving circuit 742 communicates with the DL front end 760, which may include circuits for receiving radio signals from the antenna 702b. The switch 770 may selectively couple the modem 720 to the UL front end 772 for transmitting radio signals using the antenna 702c.

[0164] The modem 710 may include hardware and software components for time division multiplexing UL data (e.g., for NSA NR operation) and various other techniques described herein. The processor 712 may include one or more processing elements configured to implement the various features described herein, such as by executing program instructions stored on a memory 716 (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In some examples, the processor 712 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA or an ASIC. In some examples, the processor 712 may include one or more ICs configured to perform the functions of the processor 712. For example, each IC may include a circuit configured to perform the functions of the processor 712.

[0165] The modem 720 may include hardware and software components for time division multiplexing UL data (e.g., for NSA NR operation) and various other techniques described herein. The processor 722 may include one or more processing elements configured to implement the various features described herein, such as by executing instructions stored on a memory 726 (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In some examples, the processor 722 may be configured as a programmable hardware element, such as an FPGA or an ASIC. In some examples, the processor 722 may include one or more ICs configured to perform the functions of the processor 722. For example, each IC may include a circuit configured to perform the functions of the processor 522.

[0166] Figure 8 Various protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication device are shown. Specifically, Figure 8 An arrangement 800 is included to illustrate the interconnection between various protocol layers / entities. Various protocol layers and entities operating in conjunction with the 5G NR system standard and the LTE system standard are provided. Figure 8 The following description, but Figure 8 Some or all aspects of the invention may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0167] In addition to other higher layer functions not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 800 may also include one or more of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, SDAP 847, RRC 855, and NAS layer 857. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., Figure 8 Items 859, 856, 850, 849, 845, 835, 825 and 815).

[0168] PHY 810 can transmit and receive physical layer signals 805, which can be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 805 may include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 810 may also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and switching purposes) and other measurement items used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 855). PHY 810 may also further perform error detection on the transmission channel, forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding of the transmission channel, modulation and demodulation of the physical channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. In some examples, an instance of PHY 810 may use one or more PHY-SAP 815 to process a request from an instance of MAC 820 and provide an indication thereof. In some examples, the request and indication transmitted using PHY-SAP 815 may include one or more transmission channels.

[0169] An instance of MAC 820 may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of RLC 830 using one or more MAC-SAPs 825. These requests and indications transmitted using MAC-SAPs 825 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 820 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto transport blocks (TBs) to be delivered to PHY 810 using transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY 810 using transport channels to one or more logical channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[0170] An instance of RLC 830 may utilize one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 835 to process requests from an instance of PDCP 840 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted using RLC-SAPs 835 may include one or more logical channels. RLC 830 may operate in a variety of operating modes, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). RLC 830 may perform transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 830 may also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0171] An instance of PDCP 840 may utilize one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Access Points (PDCP-SAP) 845 to process requests from an instance of RRC 855 or an instance of SDAP 847, or both, and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted using PDCP-SAP 845 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 840 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-order delivery of higher layer PDUs when lower layers are reestablished, eliminate duplication of lower layer SDUs when lower layers are reestablished for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discard, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, or integrity verification).

[0172] An instance of SDAP 847 may utilize one or more SDAP-SAPs 849 to process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities and provide instructions thereto. These requests and instructions transmitted using SDAP-SAPs 849 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 847 may map QoS flows to data radio bearers (DRBs) and vice versa, and may also mark QoS flow identifiers (QFIs) in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 847 may be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 110 may control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflective mapping or explicit mapping). For reflective mapping, SDAP 847 of UE 101 may monitor the QFI of the DL packets of each DRB, and may apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. For DRBs, SDAP 847 of UE 101 may map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow corresponding to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of the DRB. To implement the reflective mapping, the NG-RAN 310 may mark the DL packets with a QoS flow ID over the Uu interface. The explicit mapping may involve the RRC 855 configuring the SDAP 847 with explicit mapping rules of QoS flows to DRBs, which may be stored and followed by the SDAP 847. In some examples, the SDAP 847 may be used only in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

[0173] The RRC 855 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers using one or more management service access points (M-SAPs), which may include one or more instances of PHY 810, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, and SDAP 847. In some examples, instances of the RRC 855 may process requests from one or more NAS entities 857 using one or more RRC-SAPs 856 and provide indications thereto. The main services and functions of the RRC 855 may include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in a master information block (MIB) or system information block (SIB) related to NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of an RRC connection between the UE 101 and the RAN 110 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The MIB and SIB may include one or more information elements, each of which may include separate data fields or data structures.

[0174] NAS 857 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 101 and AMF 321. NAS 857 may support the mobility and session management procedures of UE 101 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 101 and P-GW in the LTE system.

[0175] In some examples, one or more protocol entities of arrangement 800 may be implemented in UE 101, RAN node 111, AMF 321 in NR implementation or MME 221 in LTE implementation, UPF 302 in NR implementation or S-GW 222 and P-GW 223 in LTE implementation, etc., for control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the aforementioned devices. In some examples, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 101, gNB 111, AMF 321, etc. may communicate with corresponding peer protocol entities that may be implemented in or on another device (using services of corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some examples, the gNB-CU of gNB 111 may host the gNB's RRC 855, SDAP 847, and PDCP 840 that control operations of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of gNB 111 may each host the RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810 of gNB 111.

[0176] In some examples, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, NAS 857, RRC 855, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810. In this example, upper layers 860 may be built on top of NAS 857, which includes an IP layer 861, SCTP 862, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 863.

[0177] In some examples such as NR implementations, AP 863 may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 863 for an NG interface 113 defined between an NG-RAN node 111 and an AMF 321, or AP 863 may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 863 for an Xn interface 112 defined between two or more RAN nodes 111.

[0178] The NG-AP 863 may support the functionality of the NG interface 113 and may include an elementary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321. The NG-AP 863 services may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 101) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321). These services may include functions such as, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 111 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 321 to establish, modify or release the UE context in the AMF 321 and the NG-RAN node 111; a mobility function for the UE 101 in ECM-CONNECTED mode, for intra-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transfer function for transferring or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 101 and the AMF 321; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 321 and the UE 101; an NG interface management function for setting up the NG interface and monitoring errors over the NG interface; a warning message transfer function for providing a means to transfer a warning message using the NG interface or to cancel an ongoing warning message broadcast; a function for transferring a warning message using the CN 120 is a configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (eg, SON information, or performance measurement (PM) data) between two RAN nodes 111; or a combination thereof, etc.

[0179] The XnAP 863 may support the functions of the Xn interface 112 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 111 (or E-UTRAN 210), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, or procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures not related to a specific UE 101, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, or cell activation procedures, etc.

[0180] In an LTE specific implementation, AP 863 can be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 for the S1 interface 113 defined between the E-UTRAN node 111 and the MME, or AP 863 can be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 863 for the X2 interface 112 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 111.

[0181] The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 may support the functionality of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may include an S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 111 and the MME 221 within the LTE CN 120. The S1-AP 863 services may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0182] The X2AP 863 may support the functions of the X2 interface 112 and may include an X2AP basic mobility procedure and an X2AP global procedure. The X2AP basic mobility procedure may include a procedure for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 120, such as a handover preparation and cancellation procedure, an SN state transfer procedure, a UE context retrieval and a UE context release procedure, a RAN paging procedure, or a procedure related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedure may include a procedure not related to a specific UE 101, such as an X2 interface setup and reset procedure, a load indication procedure, an error indication procedure, or a cell activation procedure, etc.

[0183] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 862 may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). The SCTP 862 may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 111 and the AMF 321 / MME 221 based in part on the IP protocol supported by the IP 861. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 861 may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 861 may deliver and transmit PDUs using point-to-point transport. In this regard, the RAN node 111 may include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0184] In some examples, the user plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, SDAP 847, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 810. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 101, RAN node 111, and UPF 302 in a NR implementation, or communication between S-GW 222 and P-GW 223 in a LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layer 851 may be built on top of the SDAP 847 and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP / IP) 852, a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol layer (GTP-U) 853 for the user plane, and a user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 863.

[0185] The transport network layer 854 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of the IP transport, and the GTP-U 853 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 852 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry the user plane PDU (UP-PDU). The IP layer (also referred to as the "Internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets, for example, in any of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

[0186] GTP-U 853 may be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the transmitted user data may be packets in any of the IPv4, IPv6 or PPP formats. UDP / IP 852 may provide a checksum for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of selected data flows. The RAN node 111 and the S-GW 222 may utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data using a protocol stack including an L1 layer (e.g., PHY 810), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840 and / or SDAP 847), a UDP / IP layer 852, and a GTP-U 853. The S-GW 222 and the P-GW 223 may utilize an S5 / S8a interface to exchange user plane data using a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP / IP layer 852, and a GTP-U 853. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support mobility of UE 101 and session management procedures to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 101 and P-GW 223 .

[0187] In addition, despite Figure 8Not shown, but an application layer may exist above AP 863 and / or transport network layer 854. The application layer may be a layer where a user of UE 101, RAN node 111, or other network element interacts with a software application, for example, executed by application circuitry 405 or application circuitry 505, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with a communication system (such as baseband circuitry 610) of UE 101 or RAN node 111. In some examples, the IP layer or the application layer, or both, may provide functionality the same or similar to layers 5 to 7 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, or portions thereof (e.g., OSI layer 7—application layer, OSI layer 6—presentation layer, and OSI layer 5—session layer).

[0188] Fig. 9 Components of the core network 220 are shown. The components of CN 220 may be implemented in one physical node or in separate physical nodes and may include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some examples, the components of CN 320 can be implemented in the same or similar manner as discussed herein with respect to the components of CN 220. In some examples, NFV is used to virtualize any or all of the above-mentioned network node functions using executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media, as will be described in further detail below. A logical instance of CN 220 may be referred to as a network slice 901, and each logical instance of CN 220 may provide specific network functions and network characteristics. A logical instance of a portion of CN 220 may be referred to as a network sub-slice 902 (e.g., network sub-slice 902 is shown as including P-GW 223 and PCRF 226).

[0189] As used herein, the terms "instantiation" and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to the concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. A network instance may refer to information identifying a domain, which may be used for traffic detection and routing in different IP domains or in the case of overlapping IP addresses. A network slice instance may refer to a set of network function (NF) instances and the resources (e.g., computing, storage, and network resources) required to deploy a network slice.

[0190] Regarding 5G systems (see e.g. Figure 3), a network slice may include a RAN part and a CN part. Support for network slicing relies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled by different PDU sessions. The network can implement different network slices by scheduling or by providing different L1 / L2 configurations or both. If provided by NAS, the UE 301 provides auxiliary information for network slice selection in an appropriate RRC message. Although the network can support a large number of slices, in some examples, the UE does not need to support more than 8 slices at the same time.

[0191] The network slice may include the CN 320 control plane and user plane NF, the NG-RAN 310 in the serving PLMN, and the N3IWF function in the serving PLMN. Each network slice may have a different S-NSSAI or a different SST, or both. The NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and each network slice is uniquely identified by the S-NSSAI. The network slices may be different for supported features and network function optimizations. In some examples, multiple network slice instances may deliver the same service or feature, but for different groups of UEs 301 (e.g., enterprise users). For example, each network slice may deliver different committed services or may be dedicated to a specific customer or enterprise, or both. In this example, each network slice may have a different S-NSSAI with the same SST but with a different slice differentiator. In addition, a single UE may be served simultaneously by one or more network slice instances using a 5G AN, and the UE may be associated with eight different S-NSSAIs. In addition, an AMF 321 instance serving a single UE 301 may belong to each network slice instance serving the UE.

[0192] Network slicing in NG-RAN 310 involves RAN slice awareness. RAN slice awareness includes differentiated handling of traffic for different network slices that have been pre-configured. Slice awareness in NG-RAN 310 is introduced at the PDU session level by indicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to the PDU session in all signaling including PDU session resource information. How NG-RAN 310 supports enabling slices in terms of NG-RAN functions (e.g., a set of network functions including each slice) depends on the specific implementation. NG-RAN310 selects the RAN part of the network slice using auxiliary information provided by UE 301 or 5GC 320, which explicitly identifies one or more network slices in the pre-configured network slices in the PLMN. NG-RAN 310 also supports resource management and policy enforcement between slices according to SLA. A single NG-RAN node can support multiple slices, and NG-RAN310 can also appropriately apply appropriate RRM policies for SLA to each supported slice. NG-RAN 310 can also support QoS differentiation within a slice.

[0193] The NG-RAN 310 may also use the UE assistance information to select an AMF 321 during the initial attach, if available. The NG-RAN 310 routes the initial NAS to the AMF 321 using the assistance information. If the NG-RAN 310 cannot select an AMF 321 using the assistance information, or the UE 301 does not provide any such information, the NG-RAN 310 sends the NAS signaling to a default AMF 321, which may be in the AMF 321 pool. For subsequent access, the UE 301 provides a temporary ID assigned to the UE 301 by the 5GC 320 to enable the NG-RAN 310 to route the NAS message to the appropriate AMF 321, as long as the temporary ID is valid. The NG-RAN 310 knows and can reach the AMF 321 associated with the temporary ID. Otherwise, the method for initial attach applies.

[0194] The NG-RAN 310 supports resource isolation between slices. NG-RAN 310 resource isolation can be achieved through RRM policies and protection mechanisms that should avoid starvation of shared resources in the case where one slice disrupts the service level agreement of another slice. In some examples, NG-RAN 310 resources can be fully assigned to a slice. How the NG-RAN 310 supports resource isolation depends on the specific implementation.

[0195] Some slices may be only partially available in the network. The NG-RAN 310 is aware of slices supported in its neighboring cells that may be beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in connected mode. Slice availability may not change within the registration area of ​​the UE. The NG-RAN 310 and 5GC 320 are responsible for handling service requests for slices that may or may not be available in a given area. Granting or denying access to a slice may depend on factors such as support for the slice, availability of resources, and support of the requested service by the NG-RAN 310.

[0196] UE 301 may be associated with multiple network slices simultaneously. In the case where UE 301 is associated with multiple slices simultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained and for intra-frequency cell reselection, UE 301 attempts to camp on the best cell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, dedicated priorities may be used to control the frequency that UE 301 camps on. 5GC 320 will verify that UE 301 has the right to access the network slice. Knowing the specific slice that UE 301 is requesting access to before receiving the Initial Context Setup Request message may allow NG-RAN 310 to apply some temporary or local policies. During the Initial Context Setup, NG-RAN 310 is informed of the slice whose resources are being requested.

[0197] NFV architecture and infrastructure can be used to virtualize one or more NFs onto physical resources including a combination of industry standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system can be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components and functions.

[0198] Fig.10 100 is a block diagram illustrating components of a NFV-enabled system 1000. The system 1000 is shown to include a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) 1002, a network function virtualization infrastructure (NFVI) 1004, a virtualized network function manager (VNFM) 1006, a virtualized network function (VNF) 1008, an element manager (EM) 1010, a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) 1012, and a network manager (NM) 1014.

[0199] The VIM 1002 manages resources of the NFVI 1004. The NFVI 1004 may include physical or virtual resources and applications (including a hypervisor) for executing the system 1000. The VIM 1002 may utilize the NFVI 1004 to manage the lifecycle of virtual resources (e.g., creation, maintenance, and teardown of VMs associated with one or more physical resources), track VM instances, track performance, failures, and security of VM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instances and associated physical resources to other management systems.

[0200] The VNFM 1006 can manage the VNF 1008. The VNF 1008 can be used to perform, for example, EPC components and functions. The VNFM 1006 can manage the life cycle of the VNF 1008 and track the performance, failures, and security of the virtual aspects of the VNF 1008. The EM 1010 can track the performance, failures, and security of the functional aspects of the VNF 1008. The tracking data from the VNFM 1006 and the EM 1010 can include, for example, PM data used by the VIM 1002 or the NFVI 1004. The VNFM 1006 and the EM 1010 can both scale up or down the number of VNFs of the system 1000.

[0201] The NFVO 1012 may coordinate, authorize, release, and engage the resources of the NFVI 1004 in order to provide the requested service (e.g., to execute an EPC function, component, or slice). The NM 1014 may provide an end-user functional package responsible for network management, which may include network elements with VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of the VNFs may occur using the EM 1010).

[0202] Fig.11is a block diagram illustrating components for reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the techniques described herein. Specifically, Fig.11 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 1100 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1110, one or more memories or storage devices 1120, and one or more communication resources 1130, each of which may be communicatively coupled using a bus 1140. For specific implementations in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1102 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices or sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1100.

[0203] Processor 1110 may include processor 1112 and processor 1114. Processor 1110 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0204] The memory / storage device 1120 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1120 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, or solid-state storage devices, or combinations thereof.

[0205] The communication resources 1130 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1104 or one or more databases 1106 using the network 1108. For example, the communication resources 1130 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling using USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or Low power consumption) components, components and other communication components.

[0206] The instructions 1150 may include software, programs, applications, applet, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 1110 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1150 may reside in whole or in part in at least one of the processor 1110 (e.g., in a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 1120, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 1150 may be transmitted to the hardware resources 1100 from any combination of the peripheral device 1104 or the database 1106. Thus, the memory of the processor 1110, the memory / storage device 1120, the peripheral device 1104, and the database 1106 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0207] Fig.12 A modified architecture of system 300 is shown. Fig.12 As shown, Figure 3 The system 300 is modified to include ICN-PoA 1211, ICN-GW 1212 and ICN-CF 1210. In the illustrated implementation, ICN-PoA 1211 is used as the first ICN-aware user plane entity of UE 301 running an ICN application. ICN-GW 1212 is a user plane ICN entity that interfaces with DN 303. In the illustrated implementation, DN 303 also supports ICN-based services. ICN-GW 1212 and UPF302PSA (PDU Session Anchor) can be located in the same entity. That is, the ICN-UPF entity can be instantiated, wherein the function of ICN-GW1212 can be part of UPF 302 (PSA). ICN-CF 1211 processes ICN-related information and policies, and generates ICN transaction history between other ICN-related functions. These entities are functional entities and can enter the existing CN320 entity for flexible implementation.

[0208] ICN-related information identified as ICN context information may include, but is not limited to: UE information; ICN application information; ICN service class / QoS information; ICN naming information; and ICN content publishing / subscription information. The ICN context information may also include ICN service preferences, which may include the following options, among others: data plane only; control plane only; data plane and control plane (e.g., control plane for interest packets and data plane for data packets); preferred data plane; and preferred control plane. This information may be included in the service registration process or in the service request process of UE 301 to indicate its ICN preference. In addition, the core network may decide on an indication based on its capabilities, network status, etc. and send it to UE 301. ICN service provision for the data plane may be considered. Specific implementations of the present disclosure may include ICN service provision through a control plane or a mixture of a control plane and a data plane.

[0209] Specific implementations of the present disclosure include a process for enabling ICN services through the control plane for a UE that does not have an ICN stack. In such specific implementations, it is assumed that the UE 301 does not have a built-in ICN stack, but it has installed an ICN application. ICN service related information can be transmitted via the control plane through NAS messages. Service related information includes, but is not limited to: an indicator of the ICN-PoA service; a target ICN-PoA identity, if assigned to the CN during the registration process; the name of the content requested 320; the identity required to authenticate the UE for ICN services; and ICN service preferences.

[0210] In some implementations, UE 301 may act as a consumer. In such implementations, ICN service related information may be carried by a NAS message, which transmits the relevant information to the ICN-CF and then to the ICN-PoA 1211. If a cached copy of the requested content is found, the ICN data may be piggybacked back by the NAS message via the control plane. In some implementations, the ICN-PoA 1211 generates an ICN interest packet for the UE 301 as an ICN proxy, and issues an ICN interest packet via the data plane to pull the content. The ICN data may then be delivered to the ICN-PoA 1211 along the reverse path of the interest packet. In this case, an intermediate NAS message may be used to notify the UE 301. In some implementations, the process proceeds as follows:

[0211] 1) The UE sends a NAS message with ICN context information and ICN service preference for receiving ICN services through the control plane.

[0212] 2)AMF checks the UE's subscription and authentication information. If the user is authenticated, AMF allocates ICN-CF to serve the UE

[0213] 3) The AMF sends an ICN Create Proxy Service Request to the ICN-CF, together with additional information, such as ICN context information including an ICN service preference for receiving ICN services only through the control plane.

[0214] 4) The ICN-CF allocates an ICN-PoA to the UE based on the information provided in step 3. There may be additional policies that the AMF may pull from the PCF. The ICN-PoA allocation may be based on different rules. For example, some implementations may use a mechanism for managing names, and the ICN-CF may check the content status by name. If the content exists in one of the ICN-PoAs, the ICN-CF may allocate that ICN-PoA to the user. Allocation may also be based on location, ICN-PoA capabilities, etc.

[0215] 5) ICN-CF sends an ICN create proxy service request and other ICN information to ICN-PoA.

[0216] 6) a. ICN-PoA searches / searches its ICN cache memory and finds a copy of the data. In step 4, it is mentioned that ICN-CF can know from the management of the name whether the content exists in ICN-PoA. This step presents the scenario where the content exists. In this case, steps 7-11 are skipped.

[0217] b. The ICN-PoA does not have a cached copy of the data and then acts as an ICN proxy to generate an ICN Interest Packet for the requested content.

[0218] 7) ICN-PoA sends ICN interest packets through the data plane.

[0219] 8) The ICN-PoA sends an ICN Create Proxy Service Response including ICN context information, such as an indication that the ICN Interest message has been sent and that ICN data will be delivered through the control plane, the address of the ICN-PoA, and the like.

[0220] 9) ICN-CF sends a Create Proxy Service Response to AMF using the ICN context information mentioned in step 4.

[0221] 10) [Optional] AMF sends the NAS message with ICN context information to the gNB. The gNB forwards the NAS message with ICN context information to the UE

[0222] 11) ICN data arrives at ICN-PoA.

[0223] 12) Use the Create Service Response from ICN-PoA to ICN-CF to carry the ICN data.

[0224] 13) Use the Create Service Response from ICN-CF to AMF to carry the ICN data.

[0225] 14)AMF generates a NAS message response piggybacked with ICN data (ICN data may be segmented and reassembled).

[0226] In some implementations, UE 301 acts as a producer. In this case, it can be assumed that UE 301 has published / registered content by name and also indicated its ICN preference to receive services only through the control plane. It is also assumed that there is an ICN-PoA 1211 assigned to UE 301. When ICN-PoA 1211 receives an ICN interest packet, the process of delivering the information of the ICN interest packet through the control plane is as follows:

[0227] 1) An ICN Interest Packet arrives at the producer’s ICN-PoA to request content.

[0228] 2) If there is a cached copy of the requested data, the ICN-PoA may respond with an ICN data packet. If the ICN-PoA does not have a cached copy of the data, the ICN-PoA knows based on historical data that the UE has the content. For example, if data has been requested from the UE before, the ICN-PoA may record a mapping between the content name and the ID of the UE as the producer. Alternatively, the ICN-PoA may look up the content by name. The ICN-PoA also has information that the UE prefers to send interests over the control plane.

[0229] 3) ICN-PoA sends a Create Proxy Service Request to ICN-CF with context information from the received ICN Interest Group

[0230] 4) ICN-CF sends a Create Proxy Service Request with ICN context information to AMF

[0231] 5) AMF verifies the UE’s service and sends the ICN context information to the UE via NAS message

[0232] 6) The UE responds with a NAS message piggybacked with ICN data.

[0233] 7) AMF sends an ICN create service response to ICN-CF using the requested ICN data

[0234] 8) ICN-CF sends an ICN create service response to ICN-PoA using the requested ICN data

[0235] 9) Based on the received data, ICN-PoA constructs ICN data packets on behalf of the UE

[0236] 10) ICN data packets are sent by ICN-PoA in response to corresponding ICN interest packets

[0237] 1) Some implementations provide a process for enabling ICN services through the control plane for a UE with an ICN stack. In this case, if the ICN packets are adapted into NAS messages according to the previously described process, the UE 301 can still receive ICN data packets as a consumer, or send ICN data packets through the control plane as a producer. Therefore, the scenario where the interest packets are transmitted via the control plane but the data packets are sent via the data plane is as follows: The UE sends a NAS message with ICN context information and a preference for receiving ICN services through the control plane and the data plane.

[0238] 2)AMF checks the UE's subscription and authentication information. If the user is authenticated, AMF allocates ICN-CF to serve the UE

[0239] 3) AMF sends an ICN Create Proxy Service Request to the ICN-CF, along with additional information such as ICN context information and preferences for receiving ICN services over the control plane and data plane.

[0240] 4) ICN-CF allocates an ICN-PoA to the UE based on the information provided in step 3. There may be additional policies that the AMF may pull from the PCF. ICN-PoA allocation may be based on different rules. For example, naming management techniques may be used and the ICN-CF may check the content status by name. If the content exists in one of the ICN-PoAs, the ICN-CF may allocate that ICN-PoA to the user. Allocation may also be based on location, ICN-PoA capabilities, etc.

[0241] 5) ICN-CF sends an ICN create proxy service request and other ICN information to ICN-PoA.

[0242] 6) ICN-PoA searches its ICN cache memory and finds a copy of the data. In step 4, it is mentioned that ICN-CF can know from the naming management whether the content exists in ICN-PoA. This step presents the scenario where the content exists. By checking the content and the UE's preference for ICN services, ICN-PoA decides to send the data through the data plane. For example, the data size is large.

[0243] 7) ICN-PoA sends an ICN Create Service Response to ICN-CF and indicates that data packets will be sent via the data plane.

[0244] 8) ICN-CF sends an ICN create service response to AMF and indicates that the data packets will be sent via the data plane

[0245] 9)AMF sends a NAS message to the UE, indicating that the data packets will be sent via the data plane.

[0246] 10) NAS messages can also activate data bearers between ICN-PoA and gNB for data packets

[0247] 11) The ICN data packet is sent to the UE via the data plane.

[0248] Fig.13 An exemplary method 1300 for operating an ICN control function (CF) is shown. The method 1300 includes processing an ICN create service request received from an AMF (box 1302), allocating one or more ICN attachment points (ICN-PoA) based on the ICN create service request (box 1304), and forwarding the ICN create service request to at least one of the allocated one or more ICN-PoA (box 1306). In some embodiments, the ICN create service request includes ICN context information. In some embodiments, the ICN context information includes an ICN service preference for indicating receiving ICN services through a control plane. In some embodiments, allocating one or more ICN-PoA is based on location or ICN-PoA capabilities.

[0249] In some implementations, method 1300 also includes processing an ICN create service response including ICN context information. In some implementations, the ICN create service response is received from an ICN-PoA in one or more allocated ICN-PoAs. In some implementations, the ICN context information includes an indication that an ICN interest message that has been sent in the ICN data will be delivered via the control plane. In some implementations, the ICN context information includes an address of the ICN-PoA. In some implementations, method 1300 includes forwarding the ICN create service response to the AMF. In some implementations, method 1300 includes receiving ICN data corresponding to the ICN context information from an ICN-PoA in one or more ICN-PoAs, and forwarding the ICN data to the AMF.

[0250] It is understood that the use of personally identifiable information should be subject to privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized to meet or exceed industry or government requirements for maintaining user privacy. Specifically, personally identifiable information data should be managed and processed to minimize the risk of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of the authorized use should be clearly stated to users.

[0251] In different specific implementations, the methods described herein can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. In addition, the order of the blocks of the method can be changed, and various elements can be added, reordered, combined, omitted, modified, etc. Various modifications and changes can be made, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art who benefit from this disclosure. The various specific implementations described herein are intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvements are possible. Therefore, multiple examples can be provided for the components described herein as a single example. The boundaries between various components, operations, and data repositories are arbitrary to a certain extent, and specific operations are shown in the context of a specific exemplary configuration. Other allocations of functions are contemplated, and they may fall within the scope of the appended claims. Finally, the structure and function presented as discrete components in the exemplary configuration may be implemented as a combined structure or component.

[0252] The following terms and definitions may apply to the examples described herein.

[0253] As used herein, the term "circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes a hardware component such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and / or a memory (shared, dedicated, or group) configured to provide the described functions, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), a digital signal processor (DSP), etc. In some embodiments, the circuit may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functions. The term "circuit" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements and a program code for performing the functions of the program code (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system). In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a specific type of circuit.

[0254] As used herein, the term "processor circuit" refers to, is part of, or includes a circuit capable of sequentially and automatically performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations or recording, storing, and / or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions (such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes). The terms "application circuit" and / or "baseband circuit" may be considered synonymous with "processor circuit" and may be referred to as "processor circuit".

[0255] As used herein, the term "interface circuit" refers to a circuit that enables, is a part of, or includes information exchange between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuit" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, etc.

[0256] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device that has radio communication capabilities and can describe a remote user of network resources in a communication network. In addition, the terms "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous and may be referred to as a client, mobile phone, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. In addition, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0257] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure for providing wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and / or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN equipment, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, etc.

[0258] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to one another. Furthermore, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computer devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to one another and configured to share computing and / or networking resources.

[0259] As used herein, the terms "appliance", "computer appliance", etc. refer to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide specific computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a device equipped with a hypervisor that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or is otherwise dedicated to providing specific computing resources.

[0260] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and / or a physical or virtual component within a specific device, such as a computer device, a mechanical device, a memory space, a processor / CPU time and / or a processor / CPU usage rate, a processor and accelerator load, a hardware time or usage rate, a power supply, an input / output operation, a port or a network socket, a channel / link allocation, throughput, memory usage rate, storage, a network, a database and an application, a unit of work, etc. "Hardware resources" may refer to computing, storage and / or network resources provided by physical hardware elements. "Virtualized resources" may refer to computing, storage and / or network resources provided by a virtualized infrastructure to an application, a device, a system, etc. The term "network resources" or "communication resources" may refer to resources that a computer device / system can access via a communication network. The term "system resources" may refer to any kind of shared entity that provides a service, and may include computing resources and / or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services that can be accessed through a server, wherein such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and can be clearly identified.

[0261] As used herein, the term "channel" refers to any tangible or intangible transmission medium for transmitting data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous and / or equivalent to "communication channel", "data communication channel", "transmission channel", "data transmission channel", "access channel", "data access channel", "link", "data link", "carrier", "radio frequency carrier" and / or any other similar terms representing a path or medium through which data is transmitted. In addition, the term "link" as used herein refers to a connection between two devices for transmitting and receiving information over a RAT.

[0262] As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instantiate," and the like refer to the creation of an instance. "Instance" also refers to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code.

[0263] The terms "coupled," "communicatively coupled," and their derivatives are used herein. The term "coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, may mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements said to be coupled to each other. The term "directly coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with each other by means of communication, including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, etc.

[0264] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to the individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains the contents.

[0265] The term "SMTC" refers to the SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

[0266] The term "SSB" refers to SS / PBCH block.

[0267] The term "primary cell" refers to an MCG cell operating on a primary frequency, where the UE either performs an initial connection establishment procedure or initiates a connection re-establishment procedure.

[0268] The term "primary SCG cell" refers to an SCG cell in which a UE performs random access when reconfiguration is performed using a synchronization procedure for DC operation.

[0269] The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources on top of a special cell for a UE configured with CA.

[0270] The term "secondary cell group" refers to a subset of serving cells including a PSCell for a UE configured with DC and zero or more secondary cells.

[0271] The term "serving cell" refers to a primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED without CA / DC configured, where there is only one serving cell including the primary cell.

[0272] The term "serving cell" refers to a cell group including a special cell for a UE configured with CA / DC and in RRC_CONNECTED and all secondary cells.

[0273] The term "special cell" refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to the Pcell.

Claims

1. A method for operating an information center network ICN control function CF, the method comprising: The ICN-CF processes an ICN create service request received from an access and mobility management function AMF, the AMF providing user device registration management; allocating, by the ICN-CF and based at least on the ICN create service request, one or more ICN points of attachment ICN-PoA, the one or more ICN-PoA being each user plane entity for routing data packets; The ICN-CF forwards the ICN creation service request to at least one ICN-PoA of the allocated one or more ICN-PoA; receiving an ICN create service response including ICN context information from an ICN-PoA of the allocated one or more ICN-PoAs; Processing, by the ICN-CF, the ICN create service response including the ICN context information; as well as The ICN-CF forwards the ICN create service response to the AMF. 2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ICN create service request includes ICN context information. 3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the ICN context information comprises an ICN service preference, wherein the ICN service preference is used to indicate receiving the ICN service through a control plane to route the data packet instead of receiving the ICN service through a data plane to route the data packet. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein allocating the one or more ICN-PoAs is based on location or one or more ICN-PoA capabilities. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the ICN context information includes an indication that an ICN interest message has been sent and that ICN data is to be delivered over a control plane.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ICN context information includes the ICN- The address of PoA.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from an ICN-PoA of the one or more ICN-PoAs, ICN data corresponding to the ICN context information; as well as The ICN data is forwarded by the ICN-CF to the AMF.

8. A method for operating an ICN-PoA, the method comprising: Processing an ICN create proxy service request received from the ICN-CF, wherein the ICN create proxy service request is used to include ICN information; Transmit ICN interest packets over the data plane to retrieve ICN data; as well as The ICN data is transmitted to the ICN-CF.

9. A method of operating a UE, the method comprising: generating a first NAS message comprising ICN context information to be transmitted to the AMF, wherein the ICN context information comprises an indication of an ICN service preference for receiving ICN services over the control plane; as well as A second NAS message including ICN data corresponding to the ICN context information is processed.

10. A method of operating a UE, the method comprising: processing a first NAS message including ICN context information received from the AMF, wherein the ICN context information includes an indication of an ICN service preference for receiving ICN services over a control plane; as well as generating a second NAS message including the ICN data referenced by the ICN context information to be transmitted to the AMF.

11. A method of operating an AMF, the method comprising: processing a first NAS message received from a UE including ICN context information, wherein the ICN context information includes a preference indicator; generating a second NAS message to be transmitted to the UE including the ICN data referenced by the ICN context information; authenticating the UE based on subscription and authentication information; as well as An ICN-CF is allocated based on the authentication to serve the UE.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising: Sending an ICN create proxy service request with the ICN context information to the ICN-CF.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the preference indicator indicates a preference for: Receive ICN services only through the control plane; or Receive ICN services through the control plane and data plane.

14. A method of operating an AMF, comprising: generating a first NAS message including ICN context information to be transmitted to the UE, wherein the ICN context information includes a preference indicator; as well as and processing a second NAS message to be transmitted to the UE including the ICN data referenced by the ICN context information.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the preference indicator indicates a preference for: Receive ICN services only through the control plane; or Receive ICN services through the control plane and data plane.

16. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising means for performing the method according to any one of claims 1-15.

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media, comprising instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-15.

18. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: one or more processors; and One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-15.

19. A computer program product comprising instructions, wherein execution of the instructions by a processing element causes the processing element to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-15.

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