Adaptation layer enhancement in relay networks

Abstract

The present invention discloses methods, systems, devices and computer programs for adaptation layer enhancement in a New Radio (NR) Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) network. In one aspect, a method includes: performing header compression on one or more headers of a packet by an adaptation layer of an IAB node of the IAB network for transmission in the IAB network; and transmitting the packet with the one or more compressed headers to a destination IAB node of the IAB network.

Description

[0001] Priority declaration

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 844,974, filed on May 8, 2019, entitled “METHODS FOR ADAPTATION LAYERENHANCEMENT IN RELAY NETWORK,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Background Art

[0003] User Equipment (UE) can transmit data wirelessly using a wireless communication network. To transmit data wirelessly, the UE connects to a node of a Radio Access Network (RAN) and synchronizes with the network. Summary of the invention

[0004] The present disclosure relates to methods, systems, apparatus, computer programs, or combinations thereof for adaptation layer enhancement in New Radio (NR) Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) networks.

[0005] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method includes: performing, by an adaptation layer of an IAB node of an IAB network, header compression on one or more headers of a packet for transmission in the IAB network; and transmitting the packet having the one or more compressed headers to a destination IAB node of the IAB network.

[0006] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs for performing the actions of the method defined by the instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage device.These and other versions may optionally include one or more of the following features.

[0007] In some implementations, the packets are transported via a user equipment (UE) bearer, and the IAB network implements the UE bearer for backhaul channel mapping and routing.

[0008] In some implementations, the one or more headers are at least one of a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) header, a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header, or an Internet Protocol (IP) header.

[0009] In some embodiments, performing header compression on one or more headers includes compressing a message type field in the one or more headers.

[0010] In some implementations, header compression is based on a Robust Header Compression (ROHC) framework, and header compression is performed using a ROHC compression profile.

[0011] In some specific implementations, performing header compression on one or more headers includes: determining a load status of the IAB network relative to the number of contexts required for UEs served by the IAB network to carry; and determining a context identifier for the ROHC channel based on the load status, wherein the number of bits of the context identifier is one of 8 bits, 16 bits, or 24 bits.

[0012] In some specific implementations, the ROHC channel corresponds to an end-to-end backhaul link between the IAB node and the destination IAB node, and the process also includes: determining a routing path ID of the end-to-end backhaul link based on the context identifier, wherein the routing path ID identifies each hop in the end-to-end backhaul link between the IAB node and the destination IAB node.

[0013] In some implementations, the packet is transmitted between the IAB donor and the IAB access node over an end-to-end backhaul link, the IAB node is one of the IAB donor and the IAB access node, and the destination IAB node is the other of the IAB donor and the IAB access node.

[0014] In some implementations, the IAB network further includes an intermediate node between the IAB donor and the IAB access node, and the process further includes routing the packet through an adaptation layer of the intermediate IAB node and the IAB donor node, wherein the packet is routed through the adaptation layer without passing through an upper Internet Protocol (IP) layer.

[0015] In some implementations, the one or more headers are at least one of a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header or an Internet Protocol (IP) header, and the header compression of the UDP header or the IP header is UDP / IP header compression using a Robust Header Compression (ROHC) framework.

[0016] In some implementations, the one or more headers further include a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) header, and the UDP / IP header compression is aggregated with the GTP header compression.

[0017] In some implementations, the process further includes classifying the GTP header fields based on the ROHC framework by assigning each GTP header field to one of the following categories: INFERRED, STATIC, STATIC-DEF, STATIC-KNOWN, and CHANGING.

[0018] In some implementations, header compression is independently configured in each hop between the IAB node and the destination IAB node through the corresponding backhaul link.

[0019] In some implementations, the process also includes determining a corresponding compression efficiency of a backhaul link between the IAB node and the destination IAB node.

[0020] In some implementations, the process further includes determining whether to perform header compression on the first backhaul link based on a corresponding compression efficiency of the first backhaul link. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] Figure 1 An exemplary integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network is shown in accordance with some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 2 An example of UDP / IP header compression on an end-to-end (E2E) backhaul link is shown according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 3 An example 300 of header compression for each backhaul link between adjacent IAB nodes is shown according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 4 A flowchart illustrating an exemplary method according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure is shown.

[0025] Figure 5 An exemplary architecture of a system of networks according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure is shown.

[0026] Figure 6 An exemplary architecture of a system including a CN according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure is shown.

[0027] Figure 7 A block diagram illustrating an example of infrastructure equipment according to some implementations of the present disclosure is shown.

[0028] Figure 8 A block diagram illustrating various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0029] Fig. 9 A block diagram of some specific implementations according to the present disclosure is shown, which shows components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods described herein.

[0030] Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] The present disclosure relates to an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network, which is a feature that implements multi-hop routing (e.g., as described in 3GPP Release 16 (Rel-16)). The architecture of the IAB network generally includes an IAB donor node (or "IAB donor") that serves multiple IAB nodes that operate as relays. The IAB donor is a network node (e.g., a base station) that terminates a new generation (NG) interface. Specifically, the IAB donor can be used as an interface from a user equipment (UE) to a core network and / or can provide wireless backhaul functionality to multiple IAB nodes. Multiple IAB nodes can act as access nodes to the UE and can provide backhaul links to other IAB nodes.

[0032] IAB support in New Radio (NR) may include enhancing wireless transmission by introducing a layer called an "adaptation layer", which is located above the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer. One of the functions of the adaptation layer is to forward traffic over the wireless backhaul (BH) link of the IAB network. To this end, depending on the data forwarding to be performed, the adaptation layer may include an identifier. The identifier may be, for example, a path identifier (ID) that indicates the entire backhaul path between the IAB donor and the IAB access node. Thus, the identifier may be used within an IAB network (e.g., under one donor central unit (CU)) and the same identifier may be reused in another IAB network.

[0033] According to the existing protocol stack architecture of the IAB network, the IAB network can transmit encapsulated IP packets based on General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol / User Datagram Protocol / Internet Protocol (GTP / UDP / IP). In this architecture, the adaptation layer of the IAB node is responsible for routing and data forwarding. However, the existing architecture does not take into account limited radio resources. Due to its limited nature, it is important to effectively utilize backhaul radio resources.

[0034] The present disclosure describes enhancements to backhaul packet transmission that enable efficient use of backhaul radio resources. Specifically, the present invention describes methods and systems for employing header compression for backhaul packets in order to further improve the spectrum efficiency of BH communications. The header compression functionality may be applied in the adaptation layer of one or more IAB nodes of an IAB network. This enhancement is particularly useful when the IAB network is delivering a large number of small backhaul packets.

[0035] In a first method, header compression is applied on an end-to-end backhaul link between an IAB donor and an IAB access node. In this method, the IAB access node and the IAB donor have access to different layers of a backhaul packet based on GTP / UDP / IP. Therefore, the backhaul layer headers (e.g., GTP, UDP, and IP) can be compressed to improve backhaul spectrum efficiency. In a first specific implementation of the method, a robust header compression (ROHC) framework is used to compress UDP and IP headers based on a ROHC UDP / IP compression profile (e.g., defined in RFC 3095, RFC 4815, and RFC 5225). In a second specific implementation of the method, the ROHC profile for UDP / IP header compression is further aggregated by GTP header compression.

[0036] In a second method, header compression is applied to each backhaul link between adjacent IAB nodes in the IAB network. In this method, header compression is independently configured through a backhaul channel (also referred to as a "backhaul link") in each hop of the IAB network. However, because the intermediate IAB nodes and the IAB donor distributed unit (DU) can only access the IP layer of the backhaul traffic flow, only IP header compression is performed. Specifically, the adaptation layer of each IAB node may perform IP header compression based on RFC 3843, RFC 4815, and RFC 5225. In some examples, whether to perform header compression for a specific backhaul link (e.g., between adjacent IAB nodes) may depend on the achievable compression efficiency of the backhaul channel.

[0037] Both methods enable header compression functionality in the adaptation layer of the IAB node, so that backhaul spectrum efficiency can be improved, especially for small backhaul packet transmissions in the IAB network. Note that in some specific implementations, a data transmission is considered a small packet if the data does not exceed a predetermined threshold, such as a transmission of less than N bytes, where N is a predetermined value, such as 100, 128, 256, 512, and 1024. Other values ​​of N are also possible. It is also noted that although the present disclosure generally describes header compression, the disclosed methods and systems can also be configured for header decompression.

[0038] Figure 1 An exemplary IAB network 100 is shown according to some implementations. Figure 1As shown, the IAB network 100 includes an IAB donor 102 and four child nodes. The four child nodes include three intermediate IAB nodes 104 ("IAB-#1"), 106 ("IAB-#2"), and 108 ("IAB-#3"). In addition, the child nodes also include an IAB access node 110 serving a user equipment (UE) 112. In this example, IAB-#1 is the parent node of IAB-#2 and IAB-#3. Conversely, both IAB-#2 and IAB-#3 are child nodes of IAB-#1. Both IAB-#2 and IAB-#3 are parent nodes of IAB access node 112. IAB access node 112 is a child node of IAB-#2 and IAB-#3. In addition, the IAB network 100 may have a network architecture including a central unit-distributed unit (CU-DU) partition. In this architecture, the IAB donor 102 includes a central unit and a distributed unit ( Figure 1 100). In addition, each IAB node has DU and mobile terminal (MT) functions. Generally speaking, the IAB node can use the MT function to connect to its parent IAB node or IAB donor 102. And the IAB node can use the DU function to communicate with the UE and the MT of the child IAB node. In one example, the IAB network 100 can implement UE bearers for backhaul channel mapping and routing (based on the tunnel endpoint ID (TEID)).

[0039] In one embodiment, in addition to UE bearers for backhaul channel mapping and routing, the adaptation layer in the IAB node can be enhanced to include header compression (HC) functionality to improve the spectral efficiency of backhaul link communications in the IAB network. Specifically, header compression can be performed between different peer entities in the IAB network. Two header compression methods that can be implemented in the IAB network are disclosed.

[0040] Method 1: Header compression on the end-to-end backhaul link between the IAB donor CU and the IAB access node

[0041] In the first method, header compression is applied on the end-to-end backhaul (E2E) link between the IAB donor CU and the IAB access node. The IAB access node and the IAB donor have access to different layers of the backhaul UE packet based on GTP / UDP / IP. Therefore, in this method, the backhaul layer headers (e.g., GTP, UDP, and IP) are compressed to improve the backhaul spectrum efficiency. This is particularly useful when the IAB network delivers low-latency critical data with medium to small payload sizes.

[0042] In one specific implementation of the first method, the adaptation layer (of the IAB access node or the IAB donor) uses the Robust Header Compression (ROHC) framework to compress UDP and / or IP headers with a ROHC UDP / IP compression profile (such as the ROHC profile defined in RFC 3095, RFC 4815, or RFC 5225).

[0043] Figure 2 An example of UDP / IP header compression on an end-to-end (E2E) backhaul link according to some specific implementations is shown. In this example, an IAB network 200 includes an IAB donor 202, an intermediate IAB node 204 (IAB-#1), and an IAB access node 206. Figure 2 As shown, the access IAB node 206 serves the UE 208. In one embodiment, header compression / decompression may be performed in the IAB donor CU user plane (CU-UP) 210 and the IAB access node MT 212 for downlink (DL) packets and / or uplink (UL) packets. More specifically, the adaptation layers 214, 216 of the IAB donor CU-UP 210 and the IAB access node MT 212 may be configured with header compression functions for UDP / IP header compression / decompression, respectively.

[0044] In addition, for UE bearers with header compression on the E2E backhaul channel, compressed packets are exchanged between the corresponding DU-MT pair of the intermediate IAB node and the corresponding adaptation layer of the DU-CU pair of the IAB donor without passing through the upper IP layer. Figure 2 As shown, the compressed packets may be transmitted through the adaptation layer of the DU-MT pair 218 of IAB-#1 and reach the adaptation layer of the DU-CU pair of the IAB Donor 202 without passing through the upper IP layer.

[0045] In addition, the context identifier associated with each ROHC channel corresponding to the directional E2E backhaul channel between the IAB donor CU-UP and the IAB access MT can be used as a routing path ID uniquely allocated within the IAB network under the IAB donor CU-UP. Specifically, the context ID (i.e., routing path ID) of each UE bearer can be allocated by the IAB donor CU and used as an identifier of the UE bearer. For example, the context identifier associated with the ROHC channel corresponding to the E2E backhaul channel between the IAB donor CU-UP 210 and the IAB access node MT 212 can be used as a routing path ID uniquely allocated within the IAB network.

[0046] In another specific implementation of the first method, the ROHC profile for UDP / IP header compression can be further aggregated with GTP header compression. In this specific implementation, based on the ROHC framework, the following categories can be used to classify the GTP header fields: INFERRED; STATIC; STATIC-DEF; STATIC-KNOWN; CHANGING. The INFERRED field contains a value that can be inferred from other values ​​and therefore does not need to be transmitted. As an example, the size of the frame carrying the packet can be classified as an INFERRED field. The STATIC field is expected to be constant throughout the life of the packet stream. Static information is transmitted once, for example, through an initialization and refresh (IR) packet. The STATIC-DEF field is a STATIC field whose value defines the packet stream. They are generally treated as STATIC. STATIC-KNOWN is a STATIC field that is expected to have a known value and therefore does not need to be transmitted. The CHANGING field is expected to change in some way (e.g., randomly, within a finite value set or range, or in some other way).

[0047] Table 1 shows the classification of GTP header fields using the described ROHC classification.

[0048] Table 1 shows the classification of GTP header fields using the described ROHC classification.

[0049] Header fields Classification Version (3 digits) STATIC-DEF Protocol type (1 bit) STATIC-DEF Reserved (1 bit) STATIC-DEF Extension header flag (1 bit) CHANGING Serial number flag (1 digit) CHANGING N-PDU number flag (1 bit) STATIC-KNOWN (set to 0) Message type (8 bits) CHANGING Tunnel endpoint identifier (32 bits) STATIC-DEF Serial number (optional, 16 digits) CHANGING (if present) N-PDU number (optional, 8 digits) INFERRED Next extension header type (optional, 8 bits) CHANGING (if present)

[0050] In one embodiment, the number of bits of the context identifier (CID) may be determined based on the load of the IAB network, possibly in terms of the number of contexts required for all UEs served by the IAB donor. For example, depending on the load state of the IAB network, the context ID may be selected from 8 bits, 16 bits, and 24 bits. More specifically, an 8-bit context ID may be selected for a low-load IAB network, a 16-bit context ID may be selected for a medium-load IAB network, and a 24-bit context ID may be selected for a high-load IAB network. The threshold for each type of load may be predetermined. In the case of a low-load IAB network, by virtue of having an 8-bit CID (and thus reducing the header size from 64 bits to 34 bits), the compression efficiency may reach almost 50%. In addition, if the new message type definition is used for the NR IAB network, the message type field (e.g., 8 bits) may be further compressed, which then allows the removal of messages for other radio access network (RAN) systems.

[0051] Method 2: Header compression for each BH link between adjacent IAB nodes

[0052] In a second approach, header compression may be independently configured through the corresponding backhaul channel of each hop in the IAB network.

[0053] Figure 3 An example 300 of header compression for each backhaul link between adjacent IAB nodes according to some implementations is shown. In this example, the IAB network 300 includes an IAB donor 302, an intermediate IAB node 304 (IAB-#1), and an IAB access node 306. Figure 3 As shown, access IAB node 306 serves UE 308. In one embodiment, the header compression function can be configured for the adaptation layer of the IAB node of the IAB network 300. Figure 3 As shown, the adaptation layers of the IAB donor 302, the intermediate IAB node 304, and the IAB access node 306 may be configured with a header compression function. Because the intermediate IAB node and the IAB donor DU can only access the IP layer of the traffic flow, the header compression function can only perform IP header compression based on RFC 3843, RFC 4815, and RFC 5225, for example. In the example, the IAB network 300 may perform a second method to implement header compression on one or more backhaul channels between the IAB nodes of the IAB network 300.

[0054] In one embodiment, whether to perform header compression for a particular return hop depends on the achievable compression efficiency of the hop. Therefore, within the IAB network, header compression may be performed for some return hops but not for other return hops. In one example, the achievable compression efficiency of the return channel (e.g., a hop of the IAB network) may be determined based on a configured context identifier associated with an adaptation layer entity of a particular IAB node. For example, the configured context identifier of the adaptation layer entity of a particular IAB node may correspond to the local path ID used by the IAB node. Therefore, for an IAB node serving a small number of child nodes, the length of the CID may be smaller and result in better compression efficiency. On the other hand, for an IAB node serving a large number of child nodes (e.g., an IAB donor), the size of the CID required when configuring HC may be larger, and therefore it is unlikely to obtain acceptable compression efficiency. In this case, whether to use header compression may depend on the achievable compression efficiency.

[0055] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components shown in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes and / or methods described in the following examples section. As an example, the baseband circuit described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below. As another example, the circuits associated with UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in conjunction with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples set forth below in the examples section.

[0056] Figure 4 400 according to some specific implementations. For clarity of presentation, the following description generally describes the process in the context of other figures in this specification. For example, the process 400 may be performed by an IAB node or an entity thereof (e.g., Figure 1 , Figure 2 or Figure 3 However, it should be understood that these processes may be performed by any suitable system, environment, software and hardware or a combination of systems, environments, software and hardware as appropriate. In some specific implementations, the various steps of the process may be run in parallel, in combination, in a loop or in any order.

[0057] Figure 4 4 is a flow chart of an exemplary process 400 for header compression performed in an IAB network. At step 402, the process involves, by an adaptation layer of an IAB node, performing header compression on one or more headers of a packet for transmission in the IAB network. At step 404, the process involves transmitting the packet with the compressed one or more headers to a destination IAB node. Note that the exemplary process 400 and the description herein may be adapted for header decompression. For example, upon receiving a compressed packet, the destination IAB may perform header decompression on one or more headers of the compressed packet.

[0058] In some implementations, packets are transported via user equipment (UE) bearers, and the IAB network implements the UE bearers for backhaul channel mapping and routing.

[0059] In some implementations, the one or more headers are at least one of a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) header, a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header, or an Internet Protocol (IP) header.

[0060] In some embodiments, performing header compression on one or more headers includes compressing a message type field in the one or more headers.

[0061] In some implementations, header compression is based on a Robust Header Compression (ROHC) framework, and header compression is performed using a ROHC compression profile.

[0062] In some specific implementations, performing header compression on one or more headers includes: determining a load status of the IAB network relative to the number of contexts required for UEs served by the IAB network to carry; and determining a context identifier for the ROHC channel based on the load status, wherein the number of bits of the context identifier is one of 8 bits, 16 bits, or 24 bits.

[0063] In some specific implementations, the ROHC channel corresponds to an end-to-end backhaul link between the IAB node and the destination IAB node, and the process also includes: determining a routing path ID of the end-to-end backhaul link based on the context identifier, wherein the routing path ID identifies each hop in the end-to-end backhaul link between the IAB node and the destination IAB node.

[0064] In some implementations, the packet is transmitted between the IAB donor and the IAB access node over an end-to-end backhaul link, the IAB node is one of the IAB donor and the IAB access node, and the destination IAB node is the other of the IAB donor and the IAB access node.

[0065] In some implementations, the IAB network further includes an intermediate node between the IAB donor and the IAB access node, and the process further includes routing the packet through an adaptation layer of the intermediate IAB node and the IAB donor node, wherein the packet is routed through the adaptation layer without passing through an upper Internet Protocol (IP) layer.

[0066] In some implementations, the one or more headers are at least one of a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header or an Internet Protocol (IP) header, and the header compression of the UDP header or the IP header is UDP / IP header compression using a Robust Header Compression (ROHC) framework.

[0067] In some implementations, the one or more headers further include a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) header, and the UDP / IP header compression is aggregated with the GTP header compression.

[0068] In some implementations, the process further includes classifying the GTP header fields based on the ROHC framework by assigning each GTP header field to one of the following categories: INFERRED, STATIC, STATIC-DEF, STATIC-KNOWN, and CHANGING.

[0069] In some implementations, header compression is independently configured in each hop between the IAB node and the destination IAB node through the corresponding backhaul link.

[0070] In some implementations, the process also includes determining a corresponding compression efficiency of a backhaul link between the IAB node and the destination IAB node.

[0071] In some implementations, the process further includes determining whether to perform header compression on the first backhaul link based on a corresponding compression efficiency of the first backhaul link.

[0072] Figure 4The exemplary processes shown may be modified or reconfigured to include additional, fewer, or different steps ( Figure 4 ), these steps can be performed in the order shown or in a different order.

[0073] Figure 5 An exemplary architecture of a system 500 of a network according to various embodiments is shown. The following description is provided for an exemplary system 500 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this regard, and the embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), and the like.

[0074] like Figure 5 As shown, system 500 includes UE 501a and UE 501b (collectively referred to as "multiple UEs 501" or "UE 501"). In this example, UE 501 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touch screen mobile computing device that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a consumer electronic device, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a feature phone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a wireless handheld device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), an in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) device, an instrument panel (IC), a head-up display (HUD) device, an on-board diagnostic (OBD) device, a dashtop mobile equipment (DME), a mobile data terminal (MDT), an electronic engine management system (EEMS), an electronic / engine electronic control unit (ECU), an electronic / engine electronic control module (ECM), an embedded system, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system (EMS), a networked or "smart" appliance, an MTC device, an M2M, an IoT device, etc.

[0075] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 501 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via PLMN, ProSe or D2D communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. M2M or MTC data exchanges may be machine-initiated data exchanges. 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, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0076] UE 501 may be configured, for example, to be communicatively coupled to RAN 510. In an embodiment, RAN 510 may be an NGRAN or 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to RAN 510 operating in an NR or 5G system 500, while the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 510 operating in an LTE or 4G system 500. UE 501 utilizes connections (or channels) 503 and 504, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0077] In this example, connections 503 and 504 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling, and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an embodiment, the UE 501 may directly exchange communication data via the ProSe interface 505. The ProSe interface 505 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface 505, and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0078] UE 501b is shown as being configured to access AP 506 (also referred to as "WLAN node 506", "WLAN 506", "WLAN terminal 506", "WT 506", etc.) via connection 507. Connection 507 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 506 will include wireless fidelity Router. In this example, the AP 506 shown is connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE 501b, the RAN 510, and the AP 506 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE 501b in the RRC_CONNECTED state being configured by the RAN nodes 511a-b to utilize the radio resources of LTE and WLAN. The LWIP operation may involve the UE 501b using the WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 507) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent through the connection 507. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0079] The RAN 510 includes one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 511a and 511b (collectively referred to as "multiple RAN nodes 511" or "RAN node 511") that enable connections 503 and 504. As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functions for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP or TRP, 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). As used herein, the terms "NG RAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 511 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system 500, while the terms "E-UTRAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 511 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 500. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 511 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0080] In some embodiments, all or part of the multiple RAN nodes 511 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 CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional partitioning such as PDCP partitioning, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 511; MAC / PHY partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 511; or "lower PHY" partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layer, and upper portions of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portions of the PHY layer are operated by individual RAN nodes 511. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of multiple RAN nodes 511 to execute other virtualized applications. In some specific implementations, separate RAN nodes 511 may represent a single RAN node 511 connected to the network via a separate F1 interface ( Figure 5 In these embodiments, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Figure 7 ), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 510 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 511 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to multiple UEs 501 and is connected to the 5GC via an NG interface (discussed below).

[0081] In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 511 may be an RSU or act as an RSU. The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" may refer 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 one example, 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 501 (vUE 501). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide extremely low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. 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 communication services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and / or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. 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 and / or backhaul network.

[0082] Any of the multiple RAN nodes 511 may serve as an endpoint for the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for multiple UEs 501. In some embodiments, any of the multiple RAN nodes 511 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 510, including but not limited to the 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.

[0083] In an embodiment, UE 501 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any AN node in RAN node 511 using OFDM communication signals on a multi-carrier communication channel according to various communication techniques, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communication) or SC-FDMA communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), but the scope of the embodiment is not limited in this respect. OFDM signals may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0084] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 511 to the UE 501, 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 a 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.

[0085] According to various embodiments, UE 501 and RAN node 511 communicate data (e.g., transmit data and receive data) through a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and / or "licensed frequency band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed frequency 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 frequency band.

[0086] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 501 and the RAN node 511 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 501 and the RAN node 511 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and / or carrier sensing operations 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 operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0087] LBT is a mechanism by which equipment (e.g., UE 501, RAN node 511, etc.) senses a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits 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 CCA that utilizes at least an ED to determine whether other signals are present on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or idle. The LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy over a period of time on an expected transmission band and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0088] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs use a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 501, AP 506, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. 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 may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS that increases exponentially when a conflict occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA / CA of WLAN. In some specific implementations, 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 ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values ​​of the CWS of LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmissions may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and MCOT (eg, transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0089] The LAA mechanism is built on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL ​​and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, each CC may have a different bandwidth from other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are typically the same for DL ​​and UL.

[0090] CA also includes individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell may provide the PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle activities related to RRC and NAS. Other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell may provide individual SCCs for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, and changing PCCs may require the UE 501 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 a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0091] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to multiple UEs 501. The PDCCH carries, among other information, information about the transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It can also inform the UE 501 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 501b within a cell) can be performed on any of the RAN nodes 511 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 501. Downlink resource allocation information can be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the multiple UEs 501.

[0092] PDCCH uses 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. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, respectively, called REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0093] Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may utilize EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs may be used to transmit EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, referred to as EREG. In some cases, ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0094] RAN nodes 511 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 512. In embodiments where system 500 is an LTE system (eg, when CN 520 is a Figure 6 ), the interface 512 may be an X2 interface 512. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 511 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 520, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 520. In some specific implementations, 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 MeNB to the SeNB; information about the successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 501 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 501; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0095] In an embodiment where the system 500 is a 5G or NR system, the interface 512 may be an Xn interface 512. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 511 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 520, between a RAN node 511 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5GC 520, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 520. In some specific implementations, 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 the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for the UE 501 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functions for managing UE mobility in a connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 511. The mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 511 to the new (target) serving RAN node 511; and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 511 and the new (target) serving RAN node 511. The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and / or IP layer for carrying user plane PDUs. 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 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 and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0096] RAN 510 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network—in this embodiment, communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 520. CN 520 may include a plurality of network elements 522 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / users (e.g., users of UE 501) connected to CN 520 via RAN 510. The components of CN 520 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including 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 embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the above-mentioned network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of CN 520 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 520 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, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0097] Generally speaking, the application server 530 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 530 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for the UE 501 via the EPC 520 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.).

[0098] In an embodiment, CN 520 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC 520" or the like), and RAN 510 may be connected to CN 520 via an NG interface 513. In an embodiment, NG interface 513 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 514, which carries traffic data between RAN node 511 and UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 515, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 511 and AMF.

[0099] In an embodiment, CN 520 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC 520", etc.), while in other embodiments, CN 520 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 520 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 520", etc.), RAN 510 may be connected to CN 520 via an S1 interface 513. In an embodiment, S1 interface 513 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 514, which carries traffic data between RAN node 511 and S-GW; and an S1-MME interface 515, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 511 and MME.

[0100] Figure 6 FIG. 6 shows an exemplary architecture of a system 600 including a first CN 620 according to various embodiments. In this example, the system 600 may implement the LTE standard, wherein the CN 620 is a Figure 5 In addition, UE 601 can communicate with Figure 5 UE 501 is the same as or similar to UE 501, and E-UTRAN 610 may be Figure 5 The CN 620 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to the RAN 510 of the mobile network, and may include the RAN node 511 discussed previously. The CN 620 may include an MME 621, an S-GW 622, a P-GW 623, an HSS 624, and an SGSN 625.

[0101] The MME 621 may be similar in function to the control plane of a traditional SGSN, and may implement MM functions to keep track of the current location of the UE 601. The MME 621 may perform various MM procedures to manage mobility aspects in access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as "EPS MM" or "EMM" in an E-UTRAN system) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data stores, etc. for maintaining knowledge of the current location of the UE 601, providing user identity confidentiality to users / subscribers, and / or performing other similar services. Each UE 601 and MME 621 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and when the attachment procedure is successfully completed, an MM context may be established in the UE 601 and the MME 621. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information of the UE 601. The MME 621 may be coupled to the HSS 624 via an S6a reference point, to the SGSN 625 via an S3 reference point, and to the S-GW 622 via an S11 reference point.

[0102] SGSN 625 may be a node that serves UE 601 by tracking the location of individual UE 601 and performing security functions. In addition, SGSN 625 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 621; handling of UE 601 time zone functions, as specified by MME 621; and MME selection for handover to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between MME 621 and SGSN 625 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in an idle state and / or an active state.

[0103] The HSS 624 may include a database for network users, which includes subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. The EPC 620 may include one or several HSSs 624, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capacity of the equipment, the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 624 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing solutions, location dependencies, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 624 and the MME 621 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing users to access the EPC 620 between the HSS 624 and the MME 621.

[0104] The S-GW 622 may terminate the S1 interface 513 ( Figure 6 The S-GW 622 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 622 and the MME 621 may provide a control plane between the MME 621 and the S-GW 622. The S-GW 622 may be coupled to the P-GW 623 via the S5 reference point.

[0105] The P-GW 623 may terminate the SGi interface toward the PDN 630. The P-GW 623 may communicate with the PDN 630 via the IP interface 525 (see, e.g., Figure 5 ) routes data packets between EPC 620 and external networks, such as a network including application server 530 (alternatively referred to as "AF"). In an embodiment, P-GW 623 may communicate with the EPC 620 via IP communication interface 525 (see, e.g., Figure 5 ) is communicatively coupled to an application server ( Figure 5 Application server 530 or Figure 6The S5 reference point between the P-GW 623 and the S-GW 622 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 623 and the S-GW 622. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 622 relocation due to the mobility of the UE 601 and whether the S-GW 622 needs to be connected to a non-colocated P-GW 623 for the required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 623 may also include nodes for policy implementation and charging data collection, such as a PCEF (not shown). In addition, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 623 and the packet data network (PDN) 630 may be an operator-external public, private PDN, or an internal operator packet data network, such as for providing IMS services. The P-GW 623 may be coupled to the PCRF 626 via a Gx reference point.

[0106] PCRF 626 is a policy and charging control element of EPC 620. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 626 in a domestic public land mobile network (HPLMN) associated with an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of UE 601. In a roaming scenario with local traffic breakout, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of UE 601: a home PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in a visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). PCRF 626 may be communicatively coupled to application server 630 via P-GW 623. Application server 630 may signal PCRF 626 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate QoS and charging parameters. PCRF 626 may configure the rule to a PCEF (not shown) with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which function starts QoS and charging as specified by application server 630. The Gx reference point between PCRF 626 and P-GW 623 may allow for the transfer of QoS policies and charging rules from PCRF 626 to PCEF in P-GW 623. The Rx reference point may reside between PDN 630 (or "AF 630") and PCRF 626.

[0107] Figure 7 An example of infrastructure equipment 700 according to various embodiments is shown. Infrastructure equipment 700 (or "system 700") can be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node (such as the RAN node 511 and / or AP 506 shown and described previously), an application server 530, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, system 700 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0108] System 700 may include: application circuit 705, baseband circuit 710, one or more radio front end modules 715, memory circuit 720, power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 725, power tee circuit 730, network controller circuit 735, network interface connector 740, satellite positioning circuit 745 and user interface 750. In some embodiments, device 700 may include additional elements, such as, for example, memory / storage, display, camera, sensor, or input / output (I / O) interface. In other embodiments, the following components may be included in more than one device. For example, the circuit may be included separately in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU or other similar implementations.

[0109] The application circuit 705 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and 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 product, 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 705 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element, and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage element to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 700. In some implementations, the memory / storage element can be an on-chip memory circuit that can include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory, and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0110] The processor of the application circuit 705 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 any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 705 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 705 may include one or more Intel FPGAs. or Processor: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor, Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) or Processor; 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 MIPSWarrior P-class processor; etc. In some embodiments, the system 700 may not utilize the application circuit 705, and instead may include a dedicated processor / controller to process IP data received, for example, from the EPC or 5GC.

[0111] In some implementations, the application circuit 705 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) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, 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), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such implementations, the circuits of the application circuit 705 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such an embodiment, the circuitry of the application circuit 705 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), anti-fuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in a lookup table (LUT), etc.

[0112] Baseband circuit 710 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.

[0113] The user interface circuit 750 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system 700 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the system 700. 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, 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.

[0114] The radio front end module (RFEM) 715 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, 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, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave and sub-millimeter wave radio functionality may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 715 incorporating both mmWave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0115] The memory circuit 720 may include one or more of the following: a volatile memory including a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as a "flash memory"), a phase change random access memory (PRAM), a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may be combined with and The memory circuit 720 may be implemented as one or more of: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0116] The PMIC 725 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 730 may provide power extracted from a network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 700 using a single cable.

[0117] The network controller circuit 735 may provide a connection 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. A physical connection may be used to provide a network connection to / from the infrastructure equipment 700 via a network interface connector 740, which may be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 735 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some specific implementations, the network controller circuit 735 may include multiple controllers for providing connections to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0118] The positioning circuit 745 includes a circuit for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by a positioning network of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union's Galileo system, China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System, regional navigation systems or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., using the Indian constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbit Chart and Satellite Integrated Radio Positioning (DORIS), etc. for navigation), etc. The positioning circuit 745 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 embodiments, the positioning circuit 745 may include a micro technology (micro PNT) IC for positioning, navigation, and timing that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 745 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 710 and / or RFEM 715 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 745 may also provide location data and / or time data to the application circuit 705, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN node 511, etc.), etc.

[0119] Figure 7 The components shown can communicate with each other using interface circuits that can include any number of bus and / 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 / IX can be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0120] Figure 8 Various protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication device according to various embodiments are shown. Specifically, Figure 8 An arrangement 800 is included to show the interconnection between various protocol layers / entities. Various protocol layers / entities operating in conjunction with 5G / NR system standards and LTE system standards 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.

[0121] 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 1015).

[0122] PHY 1010 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 1010 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 measurements used by higher layers (such as RRC 855). PHY 1010 may also further perform error detection on transmission channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of transmission channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels and MIMO antenna processing. In an embodiment, an instance of PHY 1010 may process a request from an instance of MAC 820 via one or more PHY-SAP 1015 and provide an indication thereof. According to some embodiments, the request and indication transmitted via PHY-SAP 1015 may include one or more transmission channels.

[0123] An instance of MAC 820 may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of RLC 830 via one or more MAC-SAPs 825. These requests and indications transmitted via MAC-SAP 825 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 820 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplex MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY 1010 via transport channels, demultiplex MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY 1010 via transport channels to one or more logical channels, multiplex MAC SDUs onto TBs, schedule information reporting, perform error correction via HARQ, and perform logical channel prioritization.

[0124] An instance of RLC 830 may process requests from an instance of PDCP 840 and provide indications thereto via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 835. These requests and indications transmitted via 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.

[0125] An instance of PDCP 840 may process requests from an instance of RRC 855 and / or an instance of SDAP 847 via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Points (PDCP-SAP) 845 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via 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 upper layer PDUs when lower layers are reestablished, eliminate duplication of lower layers when reestablishing lower layer SDUs 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, integrity verification, etc.).

[0126] An instance of SDAP 847 may process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities and provide indications thereto via one or more SDAP-SAPs 849. These requests and indications transmitted via SDAP-SAPs 849 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 847 may map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL packets and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 847 may be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 510 may control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflective mapping or explicit mapping). For reflective mapping, the SDAP 847 of UE 501 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, the SDAP 847 of UE 501 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 reflective mapping, NG-RAN may mark DL packets with QoS flow IDs over the Uu interface. Explicit mapping may involve RRC 855 configuring SDAP 847 with explicit mapping rules for QoS flows to DRBs, which may be stored and followed by SDAP 847. In an embodiment, SDAP 847 may be used only in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

[0127] The RRC 855 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY 1010, MAC 820, RLC 830, PDCP 840, and SDAP 847, via one or more Management Service Access Points (M-SAPs). In an embodiment, an instance of the RRC 855 may process requests from one or more NAS entities 857 and provide instructions thereto via one or more RRC-SAPs 856. The main services and functions of the RRC 855 may include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in a MIB or 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 501 and the RAN 510 (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. These MIBs and SIBs may include one or more IEs, each of which may include a separate data field or data structure.

[0128] NAS 857 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 501 and AMF. NAS 857 may support the mobility and session management procedures of UE 501 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 501 and P-GW in the LTE system.

[0129] According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of the arrangement 800 may be implemented in the UE 501, the RAN node 511, the AMF in the NR implementation or the MME 621 in the LTE implementation, the UPF in the NR implementation or the S-GW 622 and the P-GW 623 in the LTE implementation, etc., for control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of the UE 501, the gNB 511, the AMF, etc. may communicate with corresponding peer protocol entities that may be implemented in or on another device (using the services of corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some embodiments, the gNB-CU of the gNB 511 may host the RRC 855, SDAP 847, and PDCP 840 of the gNB that control the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of the gNB 511 may each host the RLC 830, MAC 820, and PHY 1010 of the gNB 511.

[0130] In a first example, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, NAS 1057, RRC 1055, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 1020, and PHY 1010. In this example, an upper layer 860 may be built on top of NAS 1057, which includes an IP layer 861, SCTP 862, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 863.

[0131] In a NR specific implementation, AP 863 can be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 863 for the NG interface 513 defined between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF, or AP 863 can be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 863 for the Xn interface 512 defined between two or more RAN nodes 511.

[0132] The NG-AP 863 may support the functionality of the NG interface 513 and may include a primary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN point 511 and the AMF. The NG-AP 863 services may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 501) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 511 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF to establish, modify and / or release the UE context in the AMF and the NG-RAN node 511; a mobility function for the UE 501 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 transmission function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 501 and the AMF; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF and the UE 501; an NG interface management function for setting up the NG interface and monitoring errors through the NG interface; a warning message sending function for providing a means for transmitting a warning message via the NG interface or cancelling an ongoing warning message broadcast; a configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 511 via the CN 520; and / or other similar functions.

[0133] The XnAP 863 may support the functions of the Xn interface 512 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 511 (or E-UTRAN 610), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures unrelated to a specific UE 501, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0134] In an LTE specific implementation, AP 863 can be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 863 for the S1 interface 513 defined between the E-UTRAN node 511 and the MME, or AP 863 can be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 863 for the X2 interface 512 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 511.

[0135] 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 511 and the MME 621 within the LTE CN 520. 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 transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0136] The X2AP 863 may support the functions of the X2 interface 512 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 520, 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, a procedure related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedure may include a procedure that is not related to a specific UE 501, such as an X2 interface setup and reset procedure, a load indication procedure, an error indication procedure, a cell activation procedure, etc.

[0137] 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 511 and the AMF / MME 621 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 511 may include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0138] In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may include SDAP 847, PDCP 840, RLC 830, MAC 1020, and PHY 1010 in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 501, RAN node 511, and UPF in NR implementation, or communication between S-GW 622 and P-GW 623 in LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layer 851 may be built on top of 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.

[0139] 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.

[0140] GTP-U 853 can 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 can be a packet in any of the IPv4, IPv6 or PPP formats. UDP / IP852 can provide a checksum for data integrity, a port number for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of the selected data stream. The RAN node 511 and the S-GW 622 can exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer (e.g., PHY 1010), 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 using an S1-U interface. The S-GW 622 and the P-GW 623 can exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP / IP layer 852, and a GTP-U 853 using an S5 / S8a interface. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support mobility of UE 501 and session management procedures to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 501 and P-GW 623 .

[0141] In addition, despite Figure 8Not shown, but an application layer may exist above the AP 863 and / or transport network layer 854. The application layer may be a layer where a user of the UE 501, RAN node 511, or other network element interacts with a software application, for example, executed by the application circuit 705 or the application circuit 805, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with the communication system of the UE 501 or RAN node 511. In some implementations, the IP layer and / or the application layer may provide the same or similar functionality as 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).

[0142] Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Specifically, Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 900 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 910, one or more memory / storage devices 920, and one or more communication resources 930, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 940. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 902 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 900.

[0143] Processor 910 may include, for example, processor 912 and processor 914. Processor 910 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.

[0144] The memory / storage device 920 may include a main memory, a disk storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 920 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a static random access memory (SRAM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a solid-state storage device, etc.

[0145] The communication resources 930 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 904 or one or more databases 906 via the network 908. For example, the communication resources 930 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or Low power consumption) components, components and other communication components.

[0146] The instructions 950 may include software, programs, applications, applet, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 910 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 950 may reside completely or partially in at least one of the processors 910 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 920, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 950 may be transmitted to the hardware resources 900 from any combination of the peripheral device 904 or the database 906. Therefore, the memory of the processor 910, the memory / storage device 920, the peripheral device 904, and the database 906 are examples of computer-readable media and machine-readable media.

Claims

1. A method in an integrated access and backhaul IAB network, the IAB network comprising an IAB node, the method comprising: performing, by an adaptation layer of the IAB node, end-to-end header compression on one or more headers of a packet for transmission between the IAB node and a destination IAB access node in the IAB network over an end-to-end backhaul link, wherein performing header compression on the one or more headers comprises: determining a load state of the IAB network relative to a number of contexts required for UE bearers served by the IAB network; and determining a context identifier for the ROHC channel based on the load status, wherein the number of bits of the context identifier is one of 8 bits, 16 bits, or 24 bits; and The packets with the one or more compressed headers are transmitted to the destination IAB access node over the end-to-end backhaul link.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the packet having one or more compressed headers to the destination IAB access node comprises: The packet is transmitted via a user equipment (UE) bearer, and the method further comprises: Implements UE bearers for backhaul channel mapping and routing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more headers are at least one of a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) header, a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header, or an Internet Protocol (IP) header. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein performing header compression on the one or more headers comprises compressing a message type field in the one or more headers.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the header compression on the one or more headers of the packet comprises: The header compression is performed based on the Robust Header Compression (ROHC) framework and using a ROHC compression profile.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the ROHC channel corresponds to the end-to-end backhaul link between the IAB node and the destination IAB access node, and wherein the method further comprises: A routing path ID for the end-to-end backhaul link is determined based on the context identifier, wherein the routing path ID identifies each hop in the end-to-end backhaul link between the IAB node and the destination IAB access node.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the IAB node is an IAB donor, and wherein transmitting the packet with the one or more compressed headers to the destination IAB access node comprises: The packets are transmitted between the IAB donor and the destination IAB access node over the end-to-end backhaul link.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the IAB network further comprises an intermediate IAB node between the IAB donor and the destination IAB access node, and wherein the method further comprises: The packets are routed through an adaptation layer of the intermediate IAB node and the IAB donor node, wherein the packets are routed through the adaptation layer without passing through an upper Internet Protocol (IP) layer.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more headers are at least one of a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header or an Internet Protocol (IP) header, and wherein the header compression of the UDP header or the IP header is a UDP / IP header compression using a Robust Header Compression (ROHC) framework.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more headers further include a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) header, and wherein the UDP / IP header compression is aggregated with the GTP header compression.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising: The ROHC framework classifies GTP header fields by assigning each GTP header field to one of the following categories: INFERRED, STATIC, STATIC-DEF, STATIC-KNOWN, and CHANGING.

12. One or more processors in an integrated access and backhaul IAB network, the IAB network comprising an IAB node, the one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising: performing, by an adaptation layer of the IAB node, header compression on one or more headers of a packet for transmission in the IAB network; determining a respective compression efficiency of a respective backhaul link in each hop between the IAB node and a destination IAB node; and The packets having one or more compressed headers are transmitted to the destination IAB node, wherein the header compression is independently configured on the corresponding backhaul link in each hop between the IAB node and the destination IAB node.

13. The one or more processors of claim 12, wherein the one or more headers are at least one of a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) header, a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) header, or an Internet Protocol (IP) header.

14. The one or more processors of claim 12, wherein performing header compression on the one or more headers comprises compressing a message type field in the one or more headers.

15. The one or more processors of claim 12, wherein the header compression is based on a Robust Header Compression (ROHC) framework, and wherein the header compression is performed using a ROHC compression profile.

16. An integrated access and backhaul IAB system, the IAB system comprising: IAB node; and One or more processors and one or more storage devices storing operable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including: performing, by an adaptation layer of the IAB node, header compression on one or more headers of a packet for transmission in the IAB system; determining a corresponding compression efficiency of a corresponding backhaul link in each hop between the IAB node and a destination IAB node; as well as The packets having one or more compressed headers are transmitted to the destination IAB node, wherein the header compression is independently configured on the corresponding backhaul link in each hop between the IAB node and the destination IAB node.

17. The IAB system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise: A determination is made whether to perform header compression on a first backhaul link based at least on the corresponding compression efficiency of the first backhaul link.

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