Ethernet header compression

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method, system, apparatus, and computer program for compressing Ethernet packets. In one aspect, the method involves mapping a portion of the Ethernet packet to a connection identifier to compress the Ethernet packet. In another aspect, the method involves encoding the connection identifier in a data structure for transmission in a user plane protocol stack layer.

Description

[0001] Priority claim

[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 824,905, entitled “Methods for Ethernet Header Compression,” filed on March 27, 2019, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Background Art

[0003] A 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 a method, system, apparatus, computer program, or combination thereof for compressing Ethernet headers.

[0005] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method for compressing an Ethernet header is disclosed. In one aspect, the method involves mapping a portion of an Ethernet packet to a connection identifier to compress the Ethernet packet. In addition, the method involves encoding the connection identifier in a data structure for transmission in a user plane protocol stack layer.

[0006] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs to perform the actions of the methods 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 user plane protocol stack layer is a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer or a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer.

[0008] In some implementations, the portion of the Ethernet packet is one or more of: an Ethernet packet header or an Ethernet packet trailer.

[0009] In some implementations, the connection identifier represents one or more fields of the portion of the Ethernet packet.

[0010] In some implementations, the portion of the Ethernet packet is an Ethernet header that includes at least one of: a destination address field, a source address field, a type field, a length field, or an 802.1Q tag field.

[0011] In some implementations, the Ethernet packet further includes an IP header, and the method further includes compressing the IP header using Robust Header Compression (ROHC), wherein the compression of the Ethernet header and the IP header is performed separately.

[0012] In some implementations, the data structure also includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of the Ethernet header before compression.

[0013] In some embodiments, the data structure further includes a length / type field indicating a payload type, and the method further includes: mapping the payload type to a payload identifier, where the payload identifier is a one-bit value; and including a payload identifier corresponding to the payload type of the Ethernet packet in the length / type field.

[0014] In some implementations, the data structure is a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) data Protocol Data Unit (PDU).

[0015] In some implementations, the data structure includes a type field that indicates a format of the data structure, where the data structure format indicates information included in the data structure.

[0016] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for transmitting compressed Ethernet packets is disclosed. The method includes sending one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets by a transmitter to a receiver. The one or more Ethernet packets include data indicating a connection identifier that is partially mapped to a source / destination address pair, and the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets include an Ethernet header source field and an Ethernet header destination field. The method also involves generating, by the transmitter, a compressed Ethernet packet by including the connection identifier in the compressed Ethernet packet. The compressed Ethernet packet does not include the Ethernet header source field and the Ethernet header destination field. Furthermore, the method involves sending, by the transmitter, the compressed Ethernet packet to the receiver.

[0017] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs to perform the actions of the methods 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.

[0018] In some implementations, the method further includes receiving, by the transmitter, feedback from the receiver before sending the compressed Ethernet packets to the receiver. The feedback indicates whether the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets have been successfully received by the receiver.

[0019] In some implementations, the feedback includes multiple feedback transmissions, and the number of the multiple feedback transmissions is based on one or more of the following: a mobility state of the receiver, a measurement of reference signal received power / reference signal received quality / signal to noise and interference ratio (RSRP / RSRQ / SINR), or a desired degree of transmission reliability.

[0020] In some implementations, sending, by the transmitter, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the receiver includes determining whether to send the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the receiver before sending compressed Ethernet packets to the receiver. The determination is based on at least one of: (i) a link quality between the transmitter and the receiver, or (ii) a desired degree of transmission reliability.

[0021] In some implementations, the number of one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is based on one or more of the following: a mobility state of the receiver, a measurement of reference signal received power / reference signal received quality / signal to noise and interference ratio (RSRP / RSRQ / SINR), or a desired degree of transmission reliability.

[0022] In some implementations, the number of one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is configured by a network serving the transmitter.

[0023] In some implementations, the number of one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is predetermined. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] Figure 1 An exemplary Ethernet packet is shown according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figure 2 A block diagram illustrating a functional view of a packet data convergence protocol layer according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0026] Figure 3 Connection identification to Ethernet header field mapping according to some implementations of the present disclosure is shown.

[0027] Figure 4 、 Figure 5 、 Figure 6 and Figure 7 Each shows an exemplary data structure for carrying an Ethernet header according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure.

[0028] Figure 8 An example Ethernet header compression messaging diagram is shown according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0029] Figure 9A and Figure 9B Each shows an exemplary method according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure.

[0030] Figure 10 An exemplary architecture of a system 1000 of a network according to some implementations of the present disclosure is shown.

[0031] Figure 11An exemplary architecture of a system including a first CN according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure is shown.

[0032] Figure 12 The architecture of a system including a second CN according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure is shown.

[0033] Figure 13 Examples of infrastructure equipment according to some implementations of the present disclosure are shown.

[0034] Figure 14 An example of a platform according to some implementations of the present disclosure is shown.

[0035] Figure 15 Exemplary components of a baseband circuit and a radio front end module (RFEM) according to some implementations of the present disclosure are shown.

[0036] Figure 16 Various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device according to some implementations of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0037] Figure 17 Components of a core network according to some implementations of the present disclosure are shown.

[0038] Figure 18 is a block diagram illustrating components of an NFV-enabled system according to some implementations of the present disclosure.

[0039] Figure 19 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (eg, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some implementations.

[0040] Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicate like elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR), the fifth generation of mobile technology, is positioned to enable a fully mobile and connected society. To support new use cases such as factory automation, transportation, and power distribution, the new mobile technology supports Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN). One of the most widely used protocols in TSN is Ethernet. However, one issue with Ethernet is that the Ethernet header has significant overhead, especially when the payload size of the Ethernet packet is small.

[0042] The present disclosure describes systems and methods for Ethernet header compression. The disclosed systems and methods reduce the overhead of Ethernet headers, thereby improving resource efficiency and reliability, and reducing latency. In addition, the efficient use of radio and network resources helps to increase system capacity and improve spectrum usage footprint. In one embodiment, the compression method can be applied to one or more fields in an Ethernet packet, such as a header (e.g., source / destination address, length / type, etc.) and a trailer (e.g., padding, frame check sequence, etc.). For simplicity, the term "Ethernet header" is used in this disclosure to refer to both the header and the trailer. In addition, in this disclosure, the description of Ethernet header compression is generally described in the context of the 3GPP 5G NR standard. However, the disclosed systems and methods may also be applied to other communication systems and standards, such as the 3GPP LTE standard.

[0043] Figure 1 An exemplary Ethernet packet 100 is shown according to some implementations. Figure 1 As shown, Ethernet packet 100 may include an Ethernet header 102, an RTP / ESP / TCP / UDP / IP header 104, a payload 106, and an Ethernet trailer 108. In an example, payload 106 may carry data using one or more of the following protocols: Internet Protocol (IP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), and / or Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP). In the present disclosure, RTP / ESP / TCP / UDP / IP may be used to represent a combination of protocols used in an Ethernet packet (e.g., IP, TCP / IP, UDP / IP, ESP / IP, RTP / UDP / IP). Thus, RTP / ESP / TCP / UDP / IP header 104 may be a protocol header used in payload 106.

[0044] In one embodiment, compressing the Ethernet packet 100 may involve compressing the Ethernet header 102 and the RTP / ESP / TCP / UDP / IP header 104, respectively. In one example, the RTP / ESP / TCP / UDP / IP header 104 may be compressed using Robust Header Compression (ROHC). The ROHC operation may determine the starting position of the RTP / ESP / TCP / UDP / IP header 104 in order to compress the header. This determination is similar to the NR protocol processing of ROHC in the presence of a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer, where ROHC determines the length of the SDAP header (e.g., zero bytes or one byte). Figure 1 102 and RTP / ESP / TCP / UDP / IP header 104. Figure 1As shown, Ethernet header 102 and Ethernet trailer 108 may be compressed together using the disclosed compression method to form compressed data 110. RTP / ESP / TCP / UDP / IP header 104 may be separately compressed into compressed data 112 using ROHC.

[0045] In one example, compression of Ethernet headers (e.g., Ethernet header 102 and trailer 108) can be incorporated into the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer or the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer. In NR systems, the Layer 2 user plane protocol stack includes layers SDAP, PDCP, Radio Link Control (RLC), and Medium Access Control (MAC). In another example, the disclosed Ethernet header compression can be incorporated into a new layer.

[0046] Figure 2 A block diagram illustrating a functional view of the PDCP layer according to some specific implementations is shown. Figure 2 As shown, header compression 202 at the transmitter side can be modified to combine ROHC and Ethernet header compression. Header decompression 204 at the receiver side can be modified to combine ROHC and Ethernet header decompression.

[0047] In an embodiment, header compression 202 may determine which information to compress in an Ethernet frame. Generally, an Ethernet frame includes a preamble, a start frame delimiter (SFD) field, destination and source addresses, a length / type field, an 802.1Q tag, a padding field, and a frame check sequence (FCS) field. The preamble allows the physical signaling (PLS) circuit to achieve steady-state synchronization with the timing of the received packet. Given that it is a fixed sequence, header compression 202 may determine not to transmit the preamble after compression (i.e., the preamble is not included in the compressed packet). The SFD is a fixed bit sequence (e.g., 10101011), so header compression 202 may determine not to transmit the field after compression. The FCS field is used for error detection. Header compression 202 may determine not to transmit the FCS field after compression because lower layers provide cyclic redundancy check (CRC) checks. The padding field may be used to meet minimum MAC frame size constraints. If the length of the Ethernet payload can be determined from the Ethernet header and / or by packet inspection of the payload, header compression 202 determines not to transmit that field. With respect to the destination address, source address, length / type field, and 802.1Q tag, header compression 202 may determine to compress one or more of these fields.

[0048] In one embodiment, to compress the Ethernet header, header compression 202 may use a connection identifier (ID) to represent a portion of the Ethernet header. In one example, header compression 202 may use the connection identifier to represent a source address and destination address pair. In this example, the variable (x, y) may be used to represent source address x and destination address y. Header compression 202 may store these mappings in a connection identifier table.

[0049] In some examples, the connection identifier may be associated with the link direction. In wireless communications, the downlink is the direction from a node of the network to a terminal (e.g., user equipment), and the uplink (UL) is the direction from the terminal to a network node. Therefore, the relationship between the connection identifier and the link direction can be represented in one of two ways. In the first method (referred to as joint representation), the connection identifier applies to both the downlink and the uplink. In this method, if the connection identifier n corresponds to a source / destination address pair (x, y) in the downlink, then the same connection identifier n corresponds to a source / destination address pair (y, x) in the uplink. In the second method (referred to as independent representation), the connection identifiers of the downlink and uplink are independent. In this method, there is no relationship between the source / destination address pairs associated with the same connection identifier of the downlink and uplink.

[0050] In some examples, the connection identifier can also be unique to a data radio bearer (DRB). This can increase the use of the connection identifier because the same connection identifier can be reused across different DRBs to map to different information.

[0051] In some examples, in addition to representing a source / destination address pair, a connection identifier can also represent a subset of Ethernet header fields. For example, a connection identifier can represent a unique combination of Ethernet header fields: (i) destination address, (ii) source address, (iii) type / length, and (iv) 802.1Q tag. In another example, a connection identifier can represent a unique combination of Ethernet header fields: (i) destination address, (ii) source address, and (iii) type / length. Furthermore, in examples where the connection identifiers for the downlink and uplink are independent, the same connection identifier can refer to different unique combinations of Ethernet header fields for the downlink and uplink.

[0052] In some examples, the virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier (VID) in the 802.1Q tag can also be compressed. For example, the VID can be represented by the connection identifier along with other Ethernet header fields. Alternatively, delta encoding can be introduced for the VID. In this example, delta encoding encodes the difference between the current VID and the VID signaled in the previous packet.

[0053] In one embodiment, the connection identifier can be mapped to Ethernet header fields that are present when an uncompressed Ethernet header is transmitted (as opposed to representing a fixed set of Ethernet header fields). For example, when connection identifier m is used first, and the Ethernet header fields destination address, source address, and type / length are present (but the 802.1Q tag is not present), then connection identifier m can represent the values ​​of the corresponding destination address, source address, and type / length in the compressed header. Similarly, when connection identifier n is used first, and the Ethernet header fields destination address, source address, type / length, and 802.1Q tag are present, then connection identifier n can represent the values ​​of the corresponding destination address, source address, type / length, and 802.1Q tag in the compressed header.

[0054] Figure 3 FIGURE 1 shows a connection identifier to Ethernet header field mapping according to some implementations. Figure 3 In the example of FIG, the connection identifier is stored in the connection identifier table 300. For example, the connection identifier m is stored in the field 310, and the connection identifier n is stored in the field 322. Figure 3 As shown, the connection identifier m is mapped to the header field 302, which includes the destination address 304, the source address 306 and the type / length 308. Therefore, the connection identifier m represents the value of the header field 302 when it is in the corresponding compressed header. Figure 3 As shown, connection identifier n is mapped to header field 312, which includes destination address 314, source address 316, 802.1Q flags 318, and type / length 320. Therefore, connection identifier n represents the value of header field 312 in the corresponding compressed header. As shown in this example, connection identifier table 300 can dynamically support multiple Ethernet frame formats without requiring reconfiguration.

[0055] In one embodiment, signaling can be used to map the connection identifier and header fields. In one example, RRC signaling can be used to signal the mapping. In this example, RRC signaling can be used to add, modify, and / or remove the mapping between the connection identifier and Ethernet header fields. The signaling can be added to an information element (IE) such as PDCP-Config, DRB-ToAddMod, or possibly a new IE. In another example, a PDCP control PDU can be used to signal the mapping. In this example, a new PDCP control PDU can be introduced to add, modify, and / or remove the mapping between the connection identifier and Ethernet header fields. The "PDU Type" field in the PDCP control PDU can be 010 (or another higher value) to indicate that the control PDU is used to signal the mapping between the connection identifier and Ethernet header fields. In examples where Ethernet header compression is performed in the SDAP layer, the SDAP control PDU can be used to signal the mapping. In examples where Ethernet header compression is performed in a new layer, the mapping relationship can be signaled in the control PDU of the new layer. In yet another example, a PDCP data PDU can be used to signal the mapping. This example may be considered "in-band" signaling and is referred to below with respect to Figures 4 to 7 Further details are discussed. In the example where Ethernet header compression is performed in the SDAP layer, the mapping can be signaled in the SDAP data PDU. And in the example where Ethernet header compression is performed in a new layer, the mapping relationship can be signaled in the data PDU of the new layer.

[0056] Figure 4 、 Figure 5 、 Figure 6 and Figure 7 Example data structures according to some implementations are shown. These data structures may be used to transmit an Ethernet header and may signal a connection identifier in the transmitted header. In one example, the data structure for the length of the connection identifier may be fixed, configured by RRC signaling, or signaled in the data PDU itself. In one example, the connection identifier may have a length of 6 bits, but other bit lengths such as 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 32, and 64 are also contemplated herein. The Ethernet header may also include a "type" field. This field may correspond to different types of packet headers, such as Figures 4 to 7 In one example, the length of the "Type" field can be determined based on how many types of headers are supported. Thus, the field can have any appropriate length, such as 2 bits, 3 bits, and 4 bits.

[0057] Figure 4 An exemplary header 400 is shown. In this example, the header 400 is an uncompressed header. Figure 4As shown, header 400 includes a connection ID field 402, a type field 404, a destination address field 406, a source address field 408, a length / type and 802.1Q tag field 410, and a data field 412. In this example, the destination address, source address, length / type, and 802.1Q tag may be signaled as is (without any compression). Furthermore, an 802.1Q tag is inserted into header 400. Note that other Ethernet header fields, such as the preamble, SFD, and FCS, are not transmitted in header 400. In one example, when a connection is first established, such as when a new source / destination address pair is first used in a link, an uncompressed header 400 may be transmitted. This header may be used, for example, by a transmitter to indicate a mapping between a connection identifier and Ethernet header fields in a PDCP data PDU. For example, header 400 may indicate that the connection identifier included in connection identifier field 402 may be mapped to one or more of fields 406-410. Additionally, the transmitter may include an uncompressed header 400 in one or more packets to improve transmission reliability. The decision to send an uncompressed header in one or more packets is configurable and may be made by the transmitter at runtime, for example, based on link quality and / or desired reliability targets.

[0058] Figure 5 An exemplary header 500 is shown. Figure 5 As shown, header 500 includes a connection ID field 502, a type field 504, a length / type field 508, an 802.1Q tag field 506, and a data field 510. In this example, the Ethernet field length / type and 802.1Q tag are signaled without compression. However, the destination address and source address are compressed. Therefore, unlike header 400, header 500 does not include "destination address" and "source address" fields. In addition, in header 500, an 802.1Q tag is inserted in field 506. In one example, a transmitter may use header 500 when it has already sent source and destination addresses mapped to a connection identifier, so these fields may not be included in header 500. The connection identifier included in the connection ID 502 field may represent the source and destination addresses. Note that this header format can accommodate any changes to the Ethernet header format regarding length / type and 802.1Q tags.

[0059] Figure 6 An exemplary header 600 is shown. Figure 6As shown, header 600 includes a connection ID field 602, a type field 604, an 802.1Q tag field 606, and a data field 608. In this example, an 802.1Q tag can be transmitted without a tag protocol identifier (TPID) because the TPID is a fixed value for 802.1Q (e.g., 0x8100). Furthermore, it is assumed that an 802.1Q tag is inserted into field 606. Fields not included in header 600 can be represented by the connection identifier included in connection ID field 602. For example, the "destination address," "source address," and "length / type" fields can be represented by the connection identifier. If the length / type field indicates the payload size, it can be removed from the header because the payload size can be determined from lower layers. However, if the length / type field indicates the payload type (e.g., the length / type field is an Ethernet type), a mapping table from a long Ethernet type (e.g., 2 bytes) to a list of short identifiers (IDs) can be designed. In one example, a 4-bit short payload type field can be used to indicate the Ethernet type. In this example, "0" may indicate an IPv4 payload (Ethernet type 0x0800), and "1" may indicate an IPv6 payload (Ethernet type 0x86DD). Additionally, a special value (e.g., 15) may indicate an Ethertype that is not in the mapping table. In this case, the actual Ethertype may follow the Short Payload Type field. Note that the Short Payload Type field is not in the Figure 6 Shown in.

[0060] Figure 7 An exemplary header 700 is shown. Figure 7 As shown, header 700 includes a connection ID field 702, a type field 704, and a data field 708. In this example header, the connection identifier can represent a unique combination of Ethernet header fields: (i) destination address, (ii) source address, (iii) type / length, and / or (iv) 802.1Q tag. In one embodiment, the transmitter can transmit the compressed header 700 after transmitting an uncompressed header (e.g., header 400) including a connection identifier corresponding to the compressed header 700. Figure 7 As shown in Figure 1, the fields present within the PDCP PDU payload are "Connection ID" and "Type". In this example, the Ethernet header fields (e.g., destination / source address, length / type, and 802.1Q tag) are represented by the "Connection ID" and are therefore not included in the payload. Note that in Figures 4 to 7 In the example shown, the "Type" field is a two-bit field. In other examples, the "Type" field can be a one-bit field to distinguish between compressed and uncompressed Ethernet header fields. In addition, the length of the "Connection ID" field can be configured to different lengths, such as 7 bits, 14 bits, 15 bits, etc.

[0061] It should be noted that the above are just a few non-limiting examples to illustrate the header format of Ethernet header compression. Different combinations / variations are possible.

[0062] In some embodiments, the Ethernet header may also include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of the original Ethernet header before compression. This allows the receiver to verify that the decompression operation was performed correctly. In some embodiments, feedback may be provided by the receiver to the transmitter to indicate the status of the receiver. For example, the status may indicate whether the uncompressed header was successfully received. The feedback may be sent in a PDCP data PDU, possibly using one of the header formats disclosed herein. Specifically, a dedicated "Type" field for feedback may be used. Additionally and / or alternatively, the feedback may be sent with a PDCP control PDU, possibly using a new value for "PDU Type" to indicate Ethernet header compression feedback.

[0063] In one embodiment, the network may configure multiple transmissions for feedback for a particular connection identifier. In addition and / or alternatively, the network may provide criteria to the UE so that the UE can select the number of transmissions for feedback. The criteria may include the UE's mobility state, reference signal received power / reference signal received quality / signal to noise and interference ratio (RSRP / RSRQ / SINR) measurements, source / destination address pairs, UL / DL directions and / or the desired degree of reliability. The network may configure the UE using RRC signaling or PDCP control PDUs. In one example, when a receiver UE receives an uncompressed header for a particular connection identifier for the first time, the receiver UE may transmit feedback for the connection identifier according to the number of transmissions configured by the network. After transmitting an uncompressed Ethernet header for a particular connection identifier, the transmitter UE may transmit a compressed header if feedback for the connection identifier is received.

[0064] In another embodiment, the receiver UE may not be configured to provide feedback. In this embodiment, the transmitter UE may transmit a compressed header only after multiple transmissions of the corresponding uncompressed header have been completed. The multiple transmissions of the uncompressed header may be fixed / predetermined (e.g., fixed to 2 or 3 transmissions) or configured by the network. The network may configure the number of transmissions of the uncompressed header using RRC signaling or PDCP control PDU. The number of transmissions of the uncompressed header may be configured for each UE, each cell group, each DRB, each cell, each link direction (UL / DL), or any combination thereof. The number of transmissions of the uncompressed header may be defined or configured based on specific conditions, such as the mobility state of the UE, the measured RSRP / RSRQ / SINR values, the source / destination address pair, the UL / DL direction, and / or the desired degree of reliability.

[0065] Figure 8 An exemplary Ethernet header compression messaging diagram 800 is shown according to some implementations. Figure 8 As shown, transmitter 802 sends one or more packets with uncompressed Ethernet headers (e.g., uncompressed transmissions 806, 808) followed by packets with compressed Ethernet headers (compressed transmissions 812, 814, and 816) to receiver 804. In some examples, receiver 804 can be configured to send feedback 810 in response to successful receipt of the uncompressed transmissions to trigger compressed transmissions 812, 814, 816.

[0066] If the UE undergoes PDCP reestablishment (e.g., handover), the network may notify the UE whether to reset the Ethernet header compression operation. For example, the network may notify the UE whether to maintain the connection identifier. This may be accomplished using RRC signaling, PDCP control PDUs, etc. In one example, the RRC signaling for configuring Ethernet header compression may include:

[0067]

[0068] As indicated by the RRC signaling, the IE PDCP-config may be modified to include Ethernet header compression signaling. Similar changes may apply to other IEs. In this example, Ethernet header compression is enabled for the DRB when compression is signaled instead of unused. The field maxCID may be used to configure the maximum number of connection identifiers. If the field drb-ContinueEthernetCompression is signaled, the UE may continue the Ethernet header compression operation without resetting the mapping relationship between the connection identifiers to the source / destination addresses (and other fields like VLAN identifiers). Otherwise, the Ethernet header compression operation may be reset. In this example, the configuration of Ethernet header compression is based on the DRB. It is also possible that Ethernet header compression is configured independently for DL ​​and UL in the DRB.

[0069] Figure 9A and Figure 9B Each shows a flow chart of an exemplary process 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, process 900 can be performed by Figure 2 The PDCP layer shown is performed, and process 910 can be performed by Figure 10 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 implementations, the steps of the process may be executed in parallel, in combination, in a loop, or in any order.

[0070] Figure 9A 9 is a flow chart of an exemplary process 900 for compressing an Ethernet packet. At step 902, the method involves mapping a portion of the Ethernet packet to a connection identifier to compress the Ethernet packet. At step 904, the process involves encoding the connection identifier in a data structure for transmission in a user plane protocol stack layer.

[0071] In some implementations, the user plane protocol stack layer is a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer or a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer. In some implementations, the portion of the Ethernet packet is one or more of the following: an Ethernet packet header or an Ethernet packet trailer. In some implementations, the connection identifier represents one or more fields of the portion of the Ethernet packet. In some implementations, the portion of the Ethernet packet is an Ethernet header, the Ethernet header comprising at least one of the following: a destination address field, a source address field, a type field, a length field, or an 802.1Q tag field. In some implementations, the Ethernet packet also includes an IP header, and the method further includes compressing the IP header using Robust Header Compression (ROHC), wherein compression of the Ethernet header and the IP header is performed separately. In some implementations, the data structure further includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) of the Ethernet header before compression. In some implementations, the data structure further includes a length / type field indicating a payload type, and the method further includes: mapping the payload type to a payload identifier, wherein the payload identifier is a one-bit value; and including the payload identifier corresponding to the payload type of the Ethernet packet in the length / type field. In some implementations, the data structure is a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) data protocol data unit (PDU). In some implementations, the data structure includes a type field indicating a format of the data structure, wherein the format of the data structure indicates information included in the data structure.

[0072] Figure 9B 9 is a flow chart of an exemplary process 910 for transmitting compressed Ethernet packets. At step 912, the process includes sending one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets by a transmitter to a receiver. The one or more Ethernet packets include data indicating a connection identifier that is partially mapped to a source / destination address pair, and the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets include an Ethernet header source field and an Ethernet header destination field. At step 914, the method includes generating, by the transmitter, a compressed Ethernet packet by including the connection identifier in the compressed Ethernet packet. The compressed Ethernet packet does not include the Ethernet header source field and the Ethernet header destination field. At step 916, the process includes sending, by the transmitter, the compressed Ethernet packet to the receiver.

[0073] In some implementations, the process further includes receiving, by the transmitter, feedback from the receiver before sending the compressed Ethernet packets to the receiver. The feedback indicates whether the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets have been successfully received by the receiver. In some implementations, the feedback includes multiple feedback transmissions, and the number of the multiple feedback transmissions is based on one or more of the following: a mobility state of the receiver, a measurement of reference signal received power / reference signal received quality / signal to noise and interference ratio (RSRP / RSRQ / SINR), or a desired degree of transmission reliability. In some implementations, sending, by the transmitter, the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the receiver includes determining whether to send the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the receiver before sending the compressed Ethernet packets to the receiver. The determination is based on at least one of the following: (i) a link quality between the transmitter and the receiver, or (ii) a desired degree of transmission reliability. In some implementations, the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is based on one or more of the following: a mobility state of the receiver, a measurement of reference signal received power / reference signal received quality / signal to noise and interference ratio (RSRP / RSRQ / SINR), or a desired degree of transmission reliability. In some implementations, the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is configured by a network serving the transmitter. In some implementations, the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is predetermined.

[0074] Figure 9A and Figure 9B The exemplary processes shown may be modified or reconfigured to include additional, fewer, or different steps ( Figure 9A and Figure 9B ), which may be performed in the order shown or in a different order.

[0075] Figure 10 An exemplary architecture of a system 1000 of a network according to various embodiments is shown. The following description is provided for an exemplary system 1000 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 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.

[0076] like Figure 10As shown, system 1000 includes UE 1001a and UE 1001b (collectively referred to as "UE 1001"). In this example, multiple UEs 1001 are shown as smart phones (e.g., handheld touch screen mobile computing devices capable of connecting to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing devices, such as consumer electronic devices, mobile phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (ICs), head-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine electronic control units (ECUs), electronic / engine electronic control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), connected or "smart" appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, etc.

[0077] In some embodiments, any of the UEs 1001 may include 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 a PLMN, ProSe or D2D communications, a sensor network, or an IoT network. 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-term connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0078] UE 1001 may be configured to connect, e.g., be communicatively coupled, to RAN 1010. In an embodiment, RAN 1010 may be an NG RAN or 5G RAN, E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NGRAN," etc., may refer to the RAN 1010 operating in an NR or 5G system 1000, while the term "E-UTRAN," etc., may refer to the RAN 1010 operating in an LTE or 4G system 1000. UE 1001 utilizes connections (or channels) 1003 and 1004, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0079] In this example, connections 1003 and 1004 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 1001 may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 1005. The ProSe interface 1005 may alternatively be referred to as an SL interface 1005 and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a PSCCH, a PSSCH, a PSDCH, and a PSBCH.

[0080] UE 1001b is shown as being configured to access AP 1006 (also referred to as "WLAN node 1006," "WLAN 1006," "WLAN terminal 1006," "WT 1006," etc.) via connection 1007. Connection 1007 may comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 1006 would include Wireless Fidelity. router. In this example, AP 1006 is shown as being connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, UE 1001b, RAN 1010, and AP 1006 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. LWA operation may involve RAN nodes 1011a-b configuring UE 1001b in the RRC_CONNECTED state to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve UE 1001b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 1007) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over connection 1007. 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.

[0081] The RAN 1010 includes one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 1011a and 1011b (collectively referred to as "RAN nodes 1011") that enable connections 1003 and 1004. As used herein, the terms "access node," "access point," and the like may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functionality for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BSs, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxPs, or TRPs, 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 nodes" and the like may refer to RAN nodes 1011 (e.g., gNBs) operating in NR or 5G systems 1000, while the terms "E-UTRAN nodes" and the like may refer to RAN nodes 1011 (e.g., eNBs) operating in LTE or 4G systems 1000. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 1011 may be implemented as one or more 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.

[0082] In some embodiments, all or part of the RAN node 1011 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 splits such as PDCP splits, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 1011; MAC / PHY splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 1011; or "lower PHY" splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers, and upper portions of the PHY layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portions of the PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes 1011. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of the RAN node 1011 to execute other virtualized applications. In some implementations, a separate RAN node 1011 may represent a plurality of RAN nodes 1011 connected to the RAN via individual F1 interfaces ( Figure 10 In these implementations, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., Figure 13), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 1010 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 1011 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a next generation eNB that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to multiple UEs 1001 and is connected to the 5GC (e.g., via an NG interface (discussed below)). Figure 12 RAN node of CN 1220).

[0083] In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 1011 may be or function 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, where 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 RF circuitry located on the roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs 1001 (vUEs 1001). 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 vehicular 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, and the like. Additionally 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. Additionally 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 weatherproof 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.

[0084] Any of the RAN nodes 1011 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 1001. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 1011 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 1010, including but not limited to functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0085] In an embodiment, UEs 1001 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any of RAN nodes 1011 using OFDM communication signals over 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), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. OFDM signals may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0086] In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 1011 to the UE 1001, while similar techniques can be used for uplink transmissions. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which represents the physical resources in the downlink during each time slot. This type of time-frequency plane representation is common for OFDM systems, making radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and 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 multiple resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this can represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0087] According to various embodiments, the UE 1001 and the RAN node 1011 communicate data (e.g., transmit data and receive data) via a licensed medium (also referred to as a "licensed spectrum" and / or a "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as an "unlicensed spectrum" and / or an "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz band.

[0088] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 1001 and the RAN node 1011 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 1001 and the RAN node 1011 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 in accordance with a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0089] LBT is a mechanism for equipment (e.g., UE 1001, RAN node 1011, etc.) to sense the medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmit when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine whether other signals are present on the channel 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 intended transmission band and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0090] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs employ a contention-based channel access mechanism known as CSMA / CA. At this point, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 1001, AP 1006, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmitting. Additionally, in the event that more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits simultaneously, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS that increases exponentially when a collision occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA / CA for WLAN. In some implementations, the LBT process for a DL or UL transmission burst (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmission) may have an 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 for 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.

[0091] The LAA mechanism is built on the Carrier Adaptation (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, resulting in a maximum aggregate bandwidth of 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 can have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are generally the same for DL ​​and UL.

[0092] 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. The 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 the PCC may require the UE 1001 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in 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 starting positions within the same subframe.

[0093] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 1001. The PDCCH carries, among other information, information about the transport format and resource allocation associated with the PDSCH channel. It can also inform the UE 1001 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information associated with the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 1001b within a cell) can be performed at any of the RAN nodes 1011 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 1001. Downlink resource allocation information can be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the multiple UEs 1001.

[0094] PDCCH uses CCE to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruples, 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 the 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).

[0095] 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 a set of nine physical resource elements, called EREGs, including four physical resource elements. In some cases, an ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

[0096] RAN nodes 1011 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 1012. In embodiments where system 1000 is an LTE system (eg, when CN 1020 is a Figure 11 1001 ), the interface 1012 may be an X2 interface 1012. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 1011 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 1020, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 1020. In some 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 convey information regarding the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information regarding user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information regarding successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs for user data from the SeNB to the UE 1001; information regarding PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to the UE 1001; information regarding the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C provides intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from the source eNB to the target eNB, user plane transmission control, load management functions, and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0097] When the system 1000 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when the CN 1020 is Figure 12In some implementations (when the 5GC 1220 is included in the 5GC 1020), the interface 1012 may be an Xn interface 1012. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 1011 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 1020, between a RAN node 1011 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5GC 1020, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 1020. 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 interface may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. The Xn-C interface may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for the UE 1001 in connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functions for managing UE mobility in connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 1011. Mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 1011 to the new (target) serving RAN node 1011, as well as control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 1011 and the new (target) serving RAN node 1011. The Xn-U protocol stack may include a transport network layer built on the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer built on top of the UDP and / or IP layers 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 built on top of the IP layer and provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. Within the transport IP layer, signaling PDUs are delivered using point-to-point transport. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0098] RAN 1010 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network—in this embodiment, to a core network (CN) 1020. CN 1020 may include multiple network elements 1022 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 1001) connected to CN 1020 via RAN 1010. Components of CN 1020 may be implemented in a single physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from machine-readable or computer-readable media (e.g., non-transitory machine-readable storage media). In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the aforementioned network node functions (described in further detail below) via executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media. A logical instance of CN 1020 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 1020 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 can be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0099] Generally speaking, the application server 1030 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 1030 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for the UE 1001 via the EPC 1020 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.).

[0100] In an embodiment, the CN 1020 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC 1020" or the like), and the RAN 1010 may be connected to the CN 1020 via an NG interface 1013. In an embodiment, the NG interface 1013 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 1014, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 1011 and the UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 1015, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 1011 and the AMF. Figure 12 Discussed in more detail, CN 1020 is an implementation of 5GC 1020.

[0101] In an embodiment, CN 1020 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC 1020," etc.), while in other embodiments, CN 1020 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 1020 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 1020," etc.), RAN 1010 may be connected to CN 1020 via an S1 interface 1013. In an embodiment, S1 interface 1013 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 1014, which carries traffic data between RAN node 1011 and S-GW; and an S1-MME interface 1015, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 1011 and MME.

[0102] Figure 11 FIG2 shows an exemplary architecture of a system 1100 including a first CN 1120 according to various embodiments. In this example, the system 1100 may implement the LTE standard, wherein the CN 1120 is a Figure 10 In addition, UE 1101 can communicate with Figure 10 The UE 1001 is the same as or similar to the UE 1001, and the E-UTRAN 1110 may be the same as Figure 10 The CN 1120 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to the RAN 1010 of the mobile network and may include the RAN node 1011 discussed previously. The CN 1120 may include an MME 1121 , an S-GW 1122 , a P-GW 1123 , an HSS 1124 and an SGSN 1125 .

[0103] MME 1121 may be functionally similar to the control plane of a traditional SGSN and may implement MM functionality to track the current location of UE 1101. MME 1121 may perform various MM procedures to manage mobility aspects of access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as "EPS MM" or "EMM" in E-UTRAN systems) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data stores, etc. used to maintain knowledge of the current location of UE 1101, provide user identity confidentiality to users / subscribers, and / or perform other similar services. Each UE 1101 and MME 1121 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and upon successful completion of the attach procedure, an MM context may be established in UE 1101 and MME 1121. An MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information for UE 1101. The MME 1121 may be coupled to the HSS 1124 via an S6a reference point, to the SGSN 1125 via an S3 reference point, and to the S-GW 1122 via an S11 reference point.

[0104] The SGSN 1125 may be a node that serves UE 1101 by tracking the location of individual UE 1101 and performing security functions. Furthermore, the SGSN 1125 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 the MME 1121; handling of UE 1101 time zone capabilities, as specified by the MME 1121; and MME selection for handover to the E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between the MME 1121 and the SGSN 1125 may enable the exchange of user and bearer information for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle and / or active states.

[0105] HSS 1124 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information used to support network entities handling communication sessions. EPC 1120 may include one or more HSSs 1124, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, equipment capacity, network organization, and the like. For example, HSS 1124 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / address resolution, location dependency, and the like. The S6a reference point between HSS 1124 and MME 1121 may enable the transfer of subscription data and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing user access to EPC 1120 between HSS 1124 and MME 1121.

[0106] The S-GW 1122 may terminate the S1 interface 1013 towards the RAN 1110 (at Figure 11 The S-GW 1122 is a RAN ("S1-U") gateway that routes data packets between the RAN 1110 and the EPC 1120. Additionally, the S-GW 1122 can serve as the local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handovers and can also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and policy enforcement. The S11 reference point between the S-GW 1122 and the MME 1121 can provide a control plane between the MME 1121 and the S-GW 1122. The S-GW 1122 can couple to the P-GW 1123 via the S5 reference point.

[0107] The P-GW 1123 may terminate the SG connection towards the PDN 1130. The P-GW 1123 may communicate with the PDN 1130 via the IP interface 1025 (see, e.g., Figure 10 ) routes data packets between EPC 1120 and external networks such as a network including application server 1030 (alternatively referred to as "AF"). In an embodiment, P-GW 1123 can communicate with the EPC 1120 via IP communication interface 1025 (see, e.g., Figure 10 ) is communicatively coupled to an application server ( Figure 10Application server 1030 or Figure 11 1130). The S5 reference point between the P-GW 1123 and the S-GW 1122 may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 1123 and the S-GW 1122. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 1122 relocation due to UE 1101 mobility and if the S-GW 1122 needs to connect to a non-co-located P-GW 1123 for required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 1123 may also include nodes for policy enforcement and charging data collection, such as a PCEF (not shown). In addition, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 1123 and the packet data network (PDN) 1130 may be an operator external public, private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for providing IMS services. The P-GW 1123 may be coupled to the PCRF 1126 via a Gx reference point.

[0108] PCRF 1126 is the policy and charging control element of EPC 1120. In a non-roaming scenario, a single PCRF 1126 may exist in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with UE 1101's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local traffic breakout, two PCRFs may be associated with UE 1101's IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in the Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). PCRF 1126 may be communicatively coupled to application server 1130 via P-GW 1123. Application server 1130 may signal PCRF 1126 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate QoS and charging parameters. PCRF 1126 may configure the rules to a PCEF (not shown) with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which initiates the QoS and charging specified by application server 1130. The Gx reference point between PCRF 1126 and P-GW 1123 may allow QoS policies and charging rules to be transferred from PCRF 1126 to the PCEF in P-GW 1123. The Rx reference point may reside between PDN 1130 (or "AF 1130") and PCRF 1126.

[0109] Figure 12The architecture of a system 1200 including a second CN 1220 according to various embodiments is shown. The system 1200 is shown to include: a UE 1201, which may be the same as or similar to the previously discussed UE 1001 and UE 1101; an (R)AN 1210, which may be the same as or similar to the previously discussed RAN 1010 and RAN 1110, and may include the previously discussed RAN node 1011; and a DN 1203, which may be, for example, an operator service, internet access, or a third-party service; and a 5GC 1220. The 5GC 1220 may include an AUSF 1222; an AMF 1221; an SMF 1224; an NEF 1223; a PCF 1226; an NRF 1225; an UDM 1227; an AF 1228; a UPF 1202; and an NSSF 1229.

[0110] The UPF 1202 can serve as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with the DN 1203, and a branch point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 1202 can also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane portion of policy rules, lawful interception of packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic validation (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 1202 can include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network. The DN 1203 can represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. The DN 1203 can include or be similar to the application server 1030 discussed previously. UPF 1202 may interact with SMF 1224 via the N4 reference point between SMF 1224 and UPF 1202.

[0111] The AUSF 1222 may store data used to authenticate the UE 1201 and handle authentication-related functions. The AUSF 1222 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 1222 may communicate with the AMF 1221 via the N12 reference point between the AMF 1221 and the AUSF 1222; and may communicate with the UDM 1227 via the N13 reference point between the UDM 1227 and the AUSF 1222. In addition, the AUSF 1222 may present an interface based on the NAUSF service.

[0112] The AMF 1221 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., responsible for registering the UE 1201, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, as well as access authentication and authorization. The AMF 1221 may be the termination point of the N11 reference point between the AMF 1221 and the SMF 1224. The AMF 1221 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 1201 and the SMF 1224 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 1221 may also provide transport for the UE 1201 and the SMSF ( Figure 12 1201). The AMF 1221 may act as a SEAF, which may include interaction with the AUSF 1222 and the UE 1201, receiving intermediate keys established as a result of the UE 1201 authentication process. In the case of USIM-based authentication, the AMF 1221 may retrieve security material from the AUSF 1222. The AMF 1221 may also include an SCM function that receives keys for deriving access network specific keys from the SEA. In addition, the AMF 1221 may be the termination point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be the N2 reference point between the (R)AN 1210 and the AMF 1221; and the AMF 1221 may be the termination point of NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0113] The AMF 1221 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 1201 over the N3 IWF interface. The N3 IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3 IWF may be the termination point for the N2 interface between the (R)AN 1210 and the AMF 1221 for the control plane, and may be the termination point for the N3 reference point between the (R)AN 1210 and the UPF 1202 for the user plane. Thus, the AMF 1221 may process N2 signaling for PDU sessions and QoS from the SMF 1224 and the AMF 1221, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnels, mark N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and perform QoS corresponding to N3 packet markings, taking into account the QoS requirements associated with such markings received over N2. The N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE 1201 and the AMF 1221 via the N1 reference point between the UE 1201 and the AMF 1221, and relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE 1201 and the UPF 1202. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with the UE 1201. The AMF 1221 may present an interface based on Namf services and may be an N14 reference point between two AMFs 1221 and an N14 reference point between the AMF 1221 and the 5G-EIR ( Figure 12 The termination point of the N17 reference point between the two reference points (not shown).

[0114] UE 1201 may need to register with AMF 1221 in order to receive network services. RM is used to register UE 1201 with the network (e.g., AMF 1221) or deregister the UE and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 1221). UE 1201 may operate in RM-REGISTERED state or RM-DEREGISTERED state. In RM-DEREGISTERED state, UE 1201 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 1221 does not hold valid location or routing information for UE 1201, so UE 1201 is not accessible to AMF 1221. In RM-REGISTERED state, UE 1201 is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 1221 may hold valid location or routing information for UE 1201, so UE 1201 is accessible to AMF 1221. In the RM-REGISTERED state, UE 1201 can perform a mobility registration update procedure, perform a periodic registration update procedure triggered by the expiration of a periodic update timer (for example, to notify the network that UE 1201 is still active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network, etc.

[0115] The AMF 1221 may store one or more RM contexts for the UE 1201, where each RM context is associated with a specific access right for the network. The RM context may be a data structure, a database object, or the like that indicates or stores, among other things, the registration status and periodic update timer for each access type. The AMF 1221 may also store a 5GC MM context that may be the same as or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. In various embodiments, the AMF 1221 may store the CE Mode B restriction parameters for the UE 1201 in the associated MM context or RM context. The AMF 1221 may also derive values ​​from the UE's usage setting parameters already stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context) when necessary.

[0116] The CM can be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 1201 and the AMF 1221 over the N1 interface. Signaling connections are used to enable NAS signaling exchanges between the UE 1201 and the CN 1220, and include signaling connections between the UE and the AN (e.g., an RRC connection for non-3GPP access or a UE-N3IWF connection) and the UE 1201's N2 connection between the AN (e.g., the RAN 1210) and the AMF 1221. The UE 1201 can operate in one of two CM states: CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode. When the UE 1201 is operating in the CM-IDLE state / mode, the UE 1201 may not have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 1221 over the N1 interface, and a (R)AN 1210 signaling connection (e.g., an N2 and / or N3 connection) may exist for the UE 1201. When the UE 1201 is operating in the CM-CONNECTED state / mode, the UE 1201 may have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 1221 through the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 1210 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connection) for the UE 1201. The establishment of the N2 connection between the (R)AN 1210 and the AMF 1221 may cause the UE 1201 to transition from the CM-IDLE mode to the CM-CONNECTED mode, and when the N2 signaling between the (R)AN 1210 and the AMF 1221 is released, the UE 1201 may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode.

[0117] The SMF 1224 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between the UPF and AN nodes); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP functions; configuring the UPF's traffic steering to route traffic to the correct destination; terminating the interface towards the policy control function; control portion of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interface with the LI system); terminating the SM portion of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information sent to the AN via the AMF over N2; and determining the SSC mode for the session. SM may refer to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 1201 and the data network (DN) 1203 identified by a data network name (DNN). A PDU session can be established at the request of UE 1201, modified at the request of UE 1201 and 5GC 1220, and released at the request of UE 1201 and 5GC 1220 using NAS SM signaling exchanged over the N1 reference point between UE 1201 and SMF 1224. Upon request from an application server, 5GC 1220 can trigger a specific application in UE 1201. In response to receiving the trigger message, UE 1201 can deliver the trigger message (or relevant parts / information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in UE 1201. The identified applications in UE 1201 can establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. SMF 1224 can check whether the UE 1201 request complies with the user subscription information associated with UE 1201. In this regard, SMF 1224 can retrieve and / or request to receive update notifications regarding SMF 1224-level subscription data from UDM 1227.

[0118] SMF 1224 may include the following roaming functions: handling local execution to apply QoS SLAs (VPLMN); charging data collection and billing interfaces (VPLMN); lawful interception (for SM events and interfaces with LI systems, in VPLMN); and support for interaction with external DNs to transport signaling for PDU session authorization / authentication through external DNs. In roaming scenarios, an N16 reference point between two SMFs 1224 may be included in system 1200, which may be located between another SMF 1224 in the visited network and an SMF 1224 in the home network. In addition, SMF 1224 may present an interface based on Nsmf services.

[0119] NEF 1223 can provide a means for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions to third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF 1228), edge computing or fog computing systems, and the like. In such embodiments, NEF 1223 can authenticate, authorize, and / or restrict the AF. NEF 1223 can also convert information exchanged with AF 1228 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, NEF 1223 can convert between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. NEF 1223 can also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on their exposed capabilities. This information can be stored in NEF 1223 as structured data or in a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by NEF 1223 to other NFs and AFs and / or used for other purposes such as analysis. In addition, NEF 1223 can present an interface based on NNEF services.

[0120] NRF 1225 can support service discovery functionality, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information about discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 1225 also maintains information about available NF instances and the services they support. As used herein, the term "instantiation" and the like can refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" can refer to the specific occurrence of an object, which can occur, for example, during the execution of program code. In addition, NRF 1225 can present an interface based on Nnrf services.

[0121] PCF 1226 can provide control plane functions for enforcing their policy rules and can also support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. PCF 1226 can also enable FEs to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDM 1227's UDR. PCF 1226 can communicate with AMF 1221 via the N15 reference point between PCF 1226 and AMF 1221, which can include the PCF 1226 in the visited network and the AMF 1221 in roaming scenarios. PCF 1226 can communicate with AF 1228 via the N5 reference point between PCF 1226 and AF 1228, and with SMF 1224 via the N7 reference point between PCF 1226 and SMF 1224. System 1200 and / or CN 1220 can also include an N24 reference point between PCF 1226 (in the home network) and PCF 1226 in the visited network. Additionally, PCF 1226 may present an interface based on Npcf services.

[0122] The UDM 1227 may process subscription-related information to support network entities in handling communication sessions and may store subscription data for the UE 1201. For example, subscription data may be transferred between the UDM 1227 and the AMF 1221 via the N8 reference point between the UDM 1227 and the AMF. The UDM 1227 may include two parts: the application FE and the UDR ( Figure 12 FE and UDR are not shown). The UDR can store subscription data and policy data of the UDM 1227 and PCF 1226, and / or structured data for exposure and application data of the NEF 1223 (including PFD for application detection, application request information of multiple UEs 1201). An interface based on Nudr service can be presented by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 1227, PCF 1226 and NEF 1223 to access specific sets of stored data, as well as read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete and subscribe to notifications of changes to relevant data in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. In different transactions, several different front ends may serve the same user. The UDM-FE accesses the subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration / mobility management and subscription management. The UDR can interact with the SMF 1224 via the N10 reference point between the UDM 1227 and the SMF 1224. UDM 1227 may also support SMS management, where SMS-FE implements similar application logic discussed previously. Additionally, UDM 1227 may present an interface based on Nudm services.

[0123] AF 1228 can provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to the NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. The NCE can be the mechanism that allows the 5GC 1220 and AF 1228 to provide information to each other via the NEF 1223, which can be used in edge computing implementations. In such implementations, network operators and third-party services can be hosted near the UE 1201 access point to achieve efficient service delivery with reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC can select a UPF 1202 near the UE 1201 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 1202 to the DN 1203 via the N6 interface. This can be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 1228. In this way, the AF 1228 can influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator's deployment, when the AF 1228 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow the AF 1228 to interact directly with the relevant NF. Additionally, AF 1228 may present an interface based on Naf services.

[0124] The NSSF 1229 may select a set of network slice instances to serve the UE 1201. If required, the NSSF 1229 may also determine the allowed NSSAIs and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs. The NSSF 1229 may also determine the set of AMFs to serve the UE 1201, or a list of candidate AMFs 1221, based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 1225. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 1201 may be triggered by the AMF 1221, where the UE 1201 registers by interacting with the NSSF 1229, which may result in a change in the AMF 1221. The NSSF 1229 may interact with the AMF 1221 via the N22 reference point between the AMF 1221 and the NSSF 1229; and may communicate via the N31 reference point ( Figure 12 (not shown) communicates with another NSSF 1229 in the visited network. In addition, the NSSF 1229 may present an interface based on the Nnssf service.

[0125] As previously discussed, CN 1220 may include an SMSF that may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SMS messages from other entities, such as SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS routers, to UE 1201 or from the UE to other entities. The SMS may also interact with AMF 1221 and UDM 1227 for notification procedures, making UE 1201 available for SMS transmission (e.g., setting a UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM 1227 when UE 1201 is available for SMS).

[0126] CN 120 may also include Figure 12 Other elements not shown, such as data storage system / architecture, 5G-EIR, SEPP, etc. The data storage system may include SDSF, UDSF, etc. Any NF can communicate with any NF and UDSF ( Figure 12 The N18 reference point between the NF and the NF (not shown) stores or retrieves unstructured data into or from the UDSF (e.g., UE context). A single NF may share a UDSF for storing its respective unstructured data, or each NF may have its own UDSF located at or near a single NF. In addition, the UDSF may present an interface based on Nudsf services ( Figure 12 (not shown). The 5G-EIR may be a NF that checks the status of the PEI to determine whether to blacklist a specific device / entity from the network; and the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on the inter-PLMN control plane interface.

[0127] Additionally, there may be more reference points and / or service-based interfaces between NF services in a NF; however, for clarity, Figure 12 These interfaces and reference points are omitted. In one example, CN 1220 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME 1121) and an AMF 1221, to enable interworking between CN 1220 and CN 1120. Other example interfaces / reference points may include an interface based on N5g-EIR services presented by 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between an NRF in a visited network and an NRF in a home network; and an N31 reference point between an NSSF in a visited network and an NSSF in a home network.

[0128] Figure 13 An example of infrastructure equipment 1300 according to various embodiments is shown. Infrastructure equipment 1300 (or "system 1300") can be implemented as a base station, a radio head, a RAN node (such as the RAN node 1011 and / or AP 1006 shown and described previously), an application server 1030, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, system 1300 can be implemented in or by a UE.

[0129] System 1300 includes application circuitry 1305, baseband circuitry 1310, one or more radio front-end modules (RFEMs) 1315, memory circuitry 1320, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 1325, power tee circuitry 1330, network controller circuitry 1335, a network interface connector 1340, satellite positioning circuitry 1345, and user interface circuitry 1350. In some embodiments, device 1300 may include additional components such as, for example, memory / storage, a display, a camera, sensors, or input / output (I / O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device. For example, the circuitry described may be separately included in more than one device for a CRAN, vBBU, or other similar implementation.

[0130] Application circuit 1305 may include circuitry 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 voltage regulator (LDO), an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, I2C, or a general-purpose programmable serial interface module, a real-time clock (RTC), a timer (including an interval timer and a watchdog timer), general-purpose 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 application circuit 1305 may be coupled to or include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on system 1300. In some embodiments, 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.

[0131] The processor of the application circuit 1305 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 1305 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating in accordance with various embodiments herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 1305 may include one or more Apple A series processors, Intel Processor; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor, Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), or processors; ARM Holdings, Ltd. licensed ARM-based processors, such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium (TM), Inc. and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior P-class processor; etc. In some embodiments, system 1300 may not utilize application circuitry 1305 and instead may include a dedicated processor / controller to process IP data received, for example, from an EPC or 5GC.

[0132] In some implementations, the application circuit 1305 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, and the like. 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); programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs) and high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs); ASICs, such as structured ASICs; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 1305 may include logic blocks or logic fabrics, as well as other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, and the like of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such an embodiment, the circuitry of the application circuit 1305 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 look-up table (LUT), etc.

[0133] The baseband circuit 1310 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure 15 The various hardware electronic components of the baseband circuit 1310 are discussed.

[0134] The user interface circuitry 1350 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system 1300 or a peripheral component interface designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the system 1300. 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 touchpad, 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 port, etc.

[0135] The radio front end module (RFEM) 1315 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 separate from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, below). Figure 15 The antenna array 1511 is configured such that the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative embodiment, both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave radio functionality can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 1315, combining both millimeter-wave antennas and sub-millimeter-wave antennas.

[0136] The memory circuit 1320 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as "flash memory"), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may be combined with and Memory circuit 1320 may be implemented as one or more of: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0137] PMIC 1325 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as batteries or capacitors. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. Power T-circuit 1330 may provide electrical power drawn from the network cable to provide both power and data connectivity to infrastructure equipment 1300 using a single cable.

[0138] The network controller circuit 1335 can provide connectivity to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on GRE tunnels, Ethernet based on Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity can be provided to / from the infrastructure equipment 1300 via the network interface connector 1340 using a physical connection, which can be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 1335 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 1335 may include multiple controllers for providing connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0139] The positioning circuit 1345 includes circuits 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., navigation using the Indian constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France's Doppler Orbit Chart and Satellite Integrated Radiolocation (DORIS), etc.). The positioning circuit 1345 may include 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 1345 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 1345 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 1310 and / or RFEM 1315 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 1345 may also provide location data and / or time data to the application circuit 1305, which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN node 1011, etc.).

[0140] Figure 13 The components shown can communicate with each other using interface circuitry 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, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus / IX systems can be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, among others.

[0141] Figure 14 An example of a platform 1400 (or "device 1400") according to various embodiments is shown. In an embodiment, computer platform 1400 may be suitable for use as UE 1001, 1101, 1201, application server 1030, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. Platform 1400 may include any combination of components shown in the examples. Components of platform 1400 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions of ICs, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof adapted within computer platform 1400, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. Figure 14The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of computer platform 1400. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

[0142] Application circuitry 1405 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of an LDO, an interrupt controller, a serial interface (such as SPI), I2C or a general-purpose programmable serial interface module, an RTC, a timer (including an interval timer and a watchdog timer), general-purpose I / O, a memory card controller (such as an SD MMC or similar controller), a USB interface, a MIPI interface, and a JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of application circuitry 1405 may be coupled to or include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on platform 1400. In some embodiments, the memory / storage element may be an on-chip memory circuit that may 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.

[0143] The processor of the application circuit 1305 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, a multi-threaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, some other known processing element, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuit 1305 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various embodiments herein.

[0144] As an example, the processor of the application circuit 1405 may include an Apple A series processor. The processor of the application circuit 1405 may also be one or more of the following: Architecture Core TM Processors such as Quark TM 、Atom TM , i3, i5, i7 or MCU class processors, or available from Santa Clara, CA company( Another such processor is from Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor or Accelerated Processing Unit (APU); from Snapdragon by Technologies, Inc. TM processors, Texas Instruments, Open Multimedia ApplicationsPlatform(OMAP) TM processors; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some implementations, the application circuit 1405 can be part of a system on a chip (SoC), in which the application circuit 1405 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package.

[0145] Additionally or alternatively, application circuit 1405 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs); ASICs such as structured ASICs; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuit 1405 may include logic blocks or logic fabrics, as well as other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, and the like of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuit 1405 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), antifuse), and the like) for storing logic blocks, logic fabrics, data, and the like in lookup tables (LUTs) and the like.

[0146] The baseband circuit 1410 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Figure 15 The various hardware electronic components of the baseband circuit 1410 are discussed.

[0147] The RFEM 1415 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 separate from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, below). Figure 15 The antenna array 1511 is configured such that the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative embodiment, both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave radio functionality can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 1415, which combines both millimeter-wave antennas and sub-millimeter-wave antennas.

[0148] Memory circuit 1420 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a fixed amount of system memory. For example, memory circuit 1420 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase-change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. Memory circuit 1420 may be developed according to a Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) low-power double data rate (LPDDR)-based design, such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 1420 may be implemented as one or more of a solder-in package integrated circuit, a single die package (SDP), a dual die package (DDP), or a quad die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) including a micro DIMM or a mini DIMM, and / or soldered to a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In a low-power implementation, the memory circuit 1420 may be on-chip memory or registers associated with the application circuit 1405. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 1420 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, among others, a solid-state disk drive (SSDD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, a resistive change memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory. For example, the computer platform 1400 may be combined with a computer system obtained from and Three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory.

[0149] Removable storage circuitry 1423 may include devices, circuitry, housings / casings, ports or receptacles, etc., for coupling portable data storage devices to platform 1400. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD picture cards, etc.), as well as USB flash drives, optical disks, external HDDs, etc.

[0150] Platform 1400 may also include an interface circuit (not shown) for connecting external devices to platform 1400. External devices connected to platform 1400 via the interface circuit include sensor circuit 1421 and electromechanical components (EMC) 1422, as well as a removable memory device coupled to removable memory circuit 1423.

[0151] Sensor circuitry 1421 comprises a device, module, or subsystem whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and to send information about the detected events (sensor data) to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, among others: an inertial measurement unit (IMU) including an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope, and / or a magnetometer; a fluid level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravity meter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; etc.

[0152] The EMC 1422 includes devices, modules, or subsystems designed to enable the platform 1400 to change its state, position, and / or orientation, or to move or control mechanisms or (sub)systems. Additionally, the EMC 1422 can be configured to generate and send messages / signaling to other components of the platform 1400 to indicate the current state of the EMC 1422. Examples of EMCs 1422 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and / or solid-state relays (SSRs)), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), audible sound generators, visual warning devices, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and / or other similar electromechanical components. In an embodiment, the platform 1400 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 1422 based on one or more capture events and / or instructions or control signals received from service providers and / or various clients.

[0153] In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect platform 1400 to positioning circuitry 1445. Positioning circuitry 1445 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by a GNSS positioning network. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.). Positioning circuitry 1445 may include various hardware components (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating over-the-air (OTA) communications, such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to communicate with components of the positioning network, such as nodes of the navigation satellite constellation. In some embodiments, positioning circuitry 1445 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. Positioning circuitry 1445 may also be part of or interact with baseband circuitry 1310 and / or RFEM 1415 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. Positioning circuitry 1445 may also provide location data and / or time data to application circuitry 1405 , which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (eg, radio base stations) for use in turn-by-turn navigation applications, and the like.

[0154] In some implementations, the interface circuitry can connect the platform 1400 to a near-field communication (NFC) circuitry 1440. The NFC circuitry 1440 is configured to provide contactless, short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, where magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between the NFC circuitry 1440 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touchpoint") external to the platform 1400. The NFC circuitry 1440 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller can be a chip / IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuitry 1440 by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack can be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware can be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit short-range RF signals. The RF signals can power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuitry 1440, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuitry 1440 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) in close proximity to the platform 1400.

[0155] Driver circuitry 1446 may include software and hardware components for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to platform 1400. Driver circuitry 1446 may include various drivers to allow other components of platform 1400 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present within or connected to platform 1400. For example, driver circuitry 1446 may include a display driver for controlling and enabling access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and enabling access to a touch screen interface of platform 1400, a sensor driver for acquiring sensor readings from sensor circuitry 1421 and controlling and enabling access to sensor circuitry 1421, an EMC driver for acquiring actuator positions of EMC 1422 and / or controlling and enabling access to EMC 1422, a camera driver for controlling and enabling access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and enabling access to one or more audio devices.

[0156] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 1425 (also referred to as "power management circuit 1425") can manage the power provided to various components of the platform 1400. Specifically, the PMIC 1425 can control power source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion with respect to the baseband circuit 1410. When the platform 1400 is capable of being powered by a battery 1430, for example, when the device is included in UE 1001, 1101, or 1201, the PMIC 1425 may generally be included.

[0157] In some embodiments, PMIC 1425 can control or otherwise be part of various power-saving mechanisms of platform 1400. For example, if platform 1400 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which it remains connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, after a period of inactivity, the platform can enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, platform 1400 can be powered down for short intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, platform 1400 can transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the platform is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handovers, etc. Platform 1400 enters a very low-power state and performs paging, in which the platform periodically wakes up again to listen to the network, and then powers down again. Platform 1400 cannot receive data in this state; to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power-saving modes can prevent a device from using the network for periods exceeding the paging interval (which can range from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered off. Any data sent during this time will incur significant delays, assuming that the delay is acceptable.

[0158] Battery 1430 can power platform 1400, but in some examples, platform 1400 can be installed in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to the power grid. Battery 1430 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, battery 1430 can be a typical lead-acid car battery.

[0159] In some implementations, the battery 1430 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 1400 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 1430. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 1430, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 1430 to provide fault prediction. The BMS may transmit information about the battery 1430 to the application circuit 1405 or other components of the platform 1400. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 1405 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 1430 or the current from the battery 1430. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 1400 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0160] A power block or other power source coupled to the grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge battery 1430. In some examples, the power block XS30 can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to wirelessly acquire power, for example, via a loop antenna in computer platform 1400. In these examples, wireless battery charging circuitry can be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected can depend on the size of battery 1430 and, therefore, the required current. Charging can be performed using the aviation fuel standard published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Consortium.

[0161] The user interface circuit 1450 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present within or connected to the platform 1400, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to implement user interaction with the platform 1400 and / or peripheral component interfaces designed to implement interaction with peripheral components of the platform 1400. The user interface circuit 1450 includes input device circuits and output device circuits. The input device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including, in particular, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a trackpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information). The output device circuitry may include any number and / or combination of audio or visual displays, including, in particular, one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., binary state indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as a display device or touch screen (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), an LED display, a quantum dot display, a projector, etc.), wherein the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. is generated or produced by the operation of the platform 1400. The output device circuitry may also include a speaker or other audio emitting device, a printer, etc. In some embodiments, the sensor circuitry 1421 may function as an input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.) and one or more EMCs may function as output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator for providing tactile feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuitry including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power port, etc.

[0162] Although not shown, the components of platform 1400 can communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which can include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, a time-triggered protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX can be a proprietary bus / IX, such as 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.

[0163] Figure 15 Exemplary components of a baseband circuit 1510 and a radio front end module (RFEM) 1515 are illustrated according to various embodiments. The baseband circuit 1510 corresponds to Figure 13 and Figure 14 Baseband circuits 1310 and 1410. RFEM 1515 corresponds to Figure 13 and Figure 14 RFEM 1315 and 1415. As shown, RFEM 1515 may include at least a radio frequency (RF) circuit 1506, a front end module (FEM) circuit 1508, and an antenna array 1511 coupled together as shown.

[0164] The baseband circuitry 1510 includes circuitry and / or control logic configured to execute various radio / network protocols and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 1506. Radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. In some embodiments, the modulation / demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1510 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding / decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1510 may include convolution, tail-biting, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. The implementation of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions is not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments. The baseband circuitry 1510 is configured to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1506 and generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1506. The baseband circuit 1510 is configured to communicate with the application circuit 1305 / 1405 (see Figure 13 and Figure 14 ) are connected to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of RF circuit 1506. Baseband circuit 1510 can handle various radio control functions.

[0165] The aforementioned circuits and / or control logic components of the baseband circuitry 1510 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 1504A, a 4G / LTE baseband processor 1504B, a 5G / NR baseband processor 1504C, or some other baseband processor 1504D for other existing, developing, or future generations (e.g., the sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 1504A-1504D may be included in modules stored in memory 1504G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 1504E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 1504A-1504D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., an FPGA, an ASIC, etc.) loaded with appropriate bitstreams or logic blocks stored in corresponding memory units. In various embodiments, the memory 1504G may store program code for a real-time OS (RTOS) that, when executed by the CPU 1504E (or other baseband processor), enables the CPU 1504E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuit 1510, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of RTOS may include: Operating System Embedded (OSE) TM , by Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided TM , by Mentor Versatile Real-TimeExecutive (VRTX) provided by Express ThreadX TM ,Depend on FreeRTOS and REX OS provided by Open Kernel (OK) The baseband circuit 1510 may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 1504F. The audio DSPs 1504F may include components for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing components in other embodiments.

[0166] In some embodiments, each of processors 1504A-1504E includes a corresponding memory interface to send data to / receive data from memory 1504G. Baseband circuit 1510 may also include one or more interfaces for communicatively coupling to other circuits / devices, such as an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to baseband circuit 1510; an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to baseband circuit 1510; Figures 13 to X Application circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from the application circuit 1305 / 1405 of T; Figure 15 RF circuit 1506 to send data / receive data from the RF circuit RF circuit interface; for receiving data from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., near field communication (NFC) components, Low power consumption components, components, etc.) to send data / receive data from these wireless hardware elements; and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to / from the PMIC 1425.

[0167] In an alternative embodiment (which may be combined with the above embodiment), the baseband circuit 1510 includes one or more digital baseband systems that are coupled to each other and to the CPU subsystem, audio subsystem, and interface subsystem via an interconnect subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, a point-to-point connection, a network on chip (NOC) structure, and / or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include a DSP circuit, a buffer memory, a program memory, a voice processing accelerator circuit, a data converter circuit such as an analog-to-digital converter circuit and a digital-to-analog converter circuit, an analog circuit including one or more of an amplifier and a filter, and / or other similar components. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the baseband circuit 1510 may include a protocol processing circuit having one or more control circuit instances (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuit and / or the radio frequency circuit (e.g., the radio front end module 1515).

[0168] although Figure 15Although not shown, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1510 includes various processing devices (e.g., a "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuitry") for operating one or more wireless communication protocols and various processing devices for implementing PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry operates or implements various protocol layers / entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, when baseband circuitry 1510 and / or RF circuitry 1506 are part of millimeter wave communication circuitry or some other suitable cellular communication circuitry, the protocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and / or 5G / NR protocol entities. In this first example, the protocol processing circuitry will operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, when baseband circuitry 1510 and / or RF circuitry 1506 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In this second example, the protocol processing circuitry will operate Wi-Fi MAC and Logical Link Control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 1504G) for storing program code and data for operating protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing program code and performing various operations using data. The baseband circuitry 1510 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.

[0169] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 1510 discussed herein may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate comprising one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuit 1510 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 1510 and the RF circuit 1506 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system on a chip (SOC) or a system in a package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 1510 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuit 1506 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 1506). In yet another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 1510 and the application circuits 1305 / 1405 may be implemented together as a separate SoC mounted to the same circuit board (e.g., a "multi-chip package").

[0170] In some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1510 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 1510 may support communications with E-UTRAN or other WMANs, WLANs, or WPANs. Embodiments in which baseband circuitry 1510 is configured to support radio communications using more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

[0171] RF circuitry 1506 can enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, RF circuitry 1506 can include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 1506 can include a receive signal path, which can include circuitry for downconverting RF signals received from FEM circuitry 1508 and providing baseband signals to baseband circuitry 1510. RF circuitry 1506 can also include a transmit signal path, which can include circuitry for upconverting baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 1510 and providing an RF output signal to FEM circuitry 1508 for transmission.

[0172] In some embodiments, the receive signal path of RF circuitry 1506 may include mixer circuitry 1506a, amplifier circuitry 1506b, and filter circuitry 1506c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 1506 may include filter circuitry 1506c and mixer circuitry 1506a. RF circuitry 1506 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1506d for synthesizing frequencies used by mixer circuitry 1506a in the receive and transmit signal paths. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1506a in the receive signal path may be configured to downconvert the RF signal received from FEM circuitry 1508 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 1506d. Amplifier circuitry 1506b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and filter circuitry 1506c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 1510 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal can be a zero-frequency baseband signal, although this is not required.In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1506a of the receive signal path can include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0173] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 1506a of the transmit signal path can be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 1506d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuit 1508. The baseband signal can be provided by baseband circuit 1510 and can be filtered by filter circuit 1506c.

[0174] In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1506a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1506a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1506a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1506a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1506a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1506a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1506a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1506a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0175] In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, RF circuitry 1506 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and baseband circuitry 1510 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with RF circuitry 1506.

[0176] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0177] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1506 d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 1506 d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0178] Synthesizer circuit 1506d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by mixer circuit 1506a of RF circuit 1506. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 1506d may be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0179] In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by baseband circuitry 1510 or application circuitry 1305 / 1405 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by application circuitry 1305 / 1405.

[0180] The synthesizer circuit 1506d of the RF circuit 1506 may include a frequency divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-modulus frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a cascaded, tunable delay element, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. In these embodiments, the delay element may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0181] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1506d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and can be used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency can be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 1506 can include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0182] FEM circuitry 1508 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antenna array 1511, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to RF circuitry 1506 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1508 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by RF circuitry 1506 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in antenna array 1511. In various embodiments, amplification by either the transmit or receive signal path may be performed only in RF circuitry 1506, only in FEM circuitry 1508, or in both RF circuitry 1506 and FEM circuitry 1508.

[0183] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1508 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit and receive modes of operation. The FEM circuitry 1508 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 1508 may include an LNA to amplify a received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1506). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1508 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuitry 1506), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 1511.

[0184] Antenna array 1511 includes one or more antenna elements, each configured to convert electrical signals into radio waves for propagation through the air and to convert received radio waves into electrical signals. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by baseband circuitry 1510 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which is amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of antenna array 1511, which includes one or more antenna elements (not shown). Antenna elements can be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. Antenna elements can be formed into various arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. Antenna array 1511 can include microstrip antennas or printed antennas fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. Antenna array 1511 can be formed as patches of metal foil of various shapes (e.g., patch antennas) and can be coupled to RF circuitry 1506 and / or FEM circuitry 1508 using metal transmission lines, etc.

[0185] The processors of the application circuitry 1305 / 1405 and the processors of the baseband circuitry 1510 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuitry 1510 may be used, alone or in combination, to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuitry 1305 / 1405 may utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include the RRC layer, which is described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include the MAC layer, the RLC layer, and the PDCP layer, which are described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include the PHY layer of the UE / RAN node, which is described in further detail below.

[0186] Figure 16 Various protocol functions that can be implemented in wireless communication devices according to various embodiments are shown. Specifically, Figure 16The present invention includes an arrangement 1600 showing the interconnection between various protocol layers / entities. The present invention provides various protocol layers / entities for operating in conjunction with the 5G / NR system standard and the LTE system standard. Figure 16 The following description, but Figure 16 Some or all aspects of the present invention may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0187] In addition to other higher layer functionality not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 1600 may include one or more of PHY 1610, MAC 1620, RLC 1630, PDCP 1640, SDAP 1647, RRC 1655, and NAS layer 1657. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., Figure 16 Items 1659, 1656, 1650, 1649, 1645, 1635, 1625, and 1615).

[0188] PHY 1610 can send and receive physical layer signals 1605, which can be received from or sent to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 1605 may include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 1610 may also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes) and other measurements used by higher layers (e.g., RRC 1655). PHY 1610 may further perform error detection on transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of transport channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In an embodiment, an instance of PHY 1610 may process a request from an instance of MAC 1620 and provide an indication thereto via one or more PHY-SAPs 1615. According to some embodiments, the request and indication transmitted via PHY-SAP 1615 may include one or more transport channels.

[0189] Instances of MAC 1620 may process requests from instances of RLC 1630 and provide indications thereto via one or more MAC-SAPs 1625. These requests and indications conveyed via MAC-SAP 1625 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 1620 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY 1610 via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY 1610 via transport channels onto one or more logical channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction via HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[0190] Instances of RLC 1630 can process requests from instances of PDCP 1640 and provide indications thereto via one or more Radio Link Control Service Access Points (RLC-SAPs) 1635. These requests and indications conveyed via RLC-SAPs 1635 can include one or more logical channels. RLC 1630 can operate in multiple modes of operation, including Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). RLC 1630 can perform transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction via Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 1630 can also resegment 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.

[0191] An instance of PDCP 1640 may process requests from an instance of RRC 1655 and / or an instance of SDAP 1647 and provide instructions thereto via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Access Points (PDCP-SAPs) 1645. These requests and instructions conveyed via PDCP-SAPs 1645 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 1640 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), enforce in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs upon lower layer reestablishment, eliminate lower layer duplication upon reestablishment of lower layer SDUs for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discard, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0192] An instance of SDAP 1647 can process requests from one or more higher-layer protocol entities and provide instructions to them via one or more SDAP-SAPs 1649. These requests and instructions transmitted via SDAP-SAPs 1649 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 1647 can map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and can also mark the QFI in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 1647 can be configured for a single PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 1010 can control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways: reflective mapping or explicit mapping. For reflective mapping, SDAP 1647 of UE 1001 can monitor the QFI of DL packets for each DRB and apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, SDAP 1647 of UE 1001 can map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow corresponding to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of that DRB. To implement reflective mapping, NG-RAN 1210 may tag DL packets with a QoS flow ID over the Uu interface. Explicit mapping may involve RRC 1655 configuring SDAP 1647 with explicit mapping rules for QoS flows to DRBs, which may be stored and followed by SDAP 1647. In an embodiment, SDAP 1647 may only be used in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

[0193] The RRC 1655 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of the PHY 1610, MAC 1620, RLC 1630, PDCP 1640, and SDAP 1647, via one or more Management Service Access Points (M-SAPs). In an embodiment, instances of the RRC 1655 may process requests from one or more NAS entities 1657 and provide instructions thereto via one or more RRC-SAPs 1656. Primary services and functions of the RRC 1655 may include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in a MIB or SIB related to the NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of the RRC connection between the UE 1001 and the RAN 1010 (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.

[0194] NAS 1657 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 1001 and AMF 1221. NAS 1657 may support the mobility and session management procedures of UE 1001 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 1001 and P-GW in the LTE system.

[0195] According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of arrangement 1600 may be implemented in UE 1001, RAN node 1011, AMF 1221 in NR implementations or MME 1121 in LTE implementations, UPF 1202 in NR implementations or S-GW 1122 and P-GW 1123 in LTE implementations, etc., for control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities implemented in one or more of UE 1001, gNB 1011, AMF 1221, etc. may communicate with corresponding peer protocol entities implemented in or on another device (using services of corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some embodiments, the gNB-CU of gNB 1011 may host the gNB's RRC 1655, SDAP 1647, and PDCP 1640 that control operations of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of gNB 1011 may each host the RLC 1630, MAC 1620, and PHY 1610 of gNB 1011.

[0196] In a first example, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from highest layer to lowest layer, NAS 1657, RRC 1655, PDCP 1640, RLC 1630, MAC 1620, and PHY 1610. In this example, upper layers 1660 may be built on top of NAS 1657, including an IP layer 1661, SCTP 1662, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 1663.

[0197] In an NR specific implementation, the AP 1663 may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 1663 for the NG interface 1013 defined between the NG-RAN node 1011 and the AMF 1221, or the AP 1663 may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 1663 for the Xn interface 1012 defined between two or more RAN nodes 1011.

[0198] The NG-AP 1663 may support the functionality of the NG interface 1013 and may include an elementary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN node 1011 and the AMF 1221. NG-AP 1663 services may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 1001) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 1011 and the AMF 1221). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 1011 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 1221 to establish, modify and / or release the UE context in the AMF 1221 and the NG-RAN node 1011; a mobility function for the UE 1001 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 signalling transport function for transferring or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 1001 and the AMF 1221; a NAS signalling transport function for determining whether the AMF 1221 and the UE 1001; an NG interface management function for setting up an 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 1011 via CN1020; and / or other similar functions.

[0199] The XnAP 1663 may support the functionality of the Xn interface 1012 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 1011 (or E-UTRAN 1110), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, and procedures related to dual connectivity. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures unrelated to a specific UE 1001, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, and cell activation procedures.

[0200] In an LTE implementation, the AP 1663 may be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 1663 for the S1 interface 1013 defined between the E-UTRAN node 1011 and the MME, or the AP 1663 may be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 1663 for the X2 interface 1012 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 1011.

[0201] The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 1663 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 the interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 1011 and the MME 1121 within the LTE CN 1020. The S1-AP 1663 services may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to, E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

[0202] The X2AP 1663 may support the functions of the X2 interface 1012 and may include X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. The X2AP basic mobility procedures may include procedures for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 1020, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, and procedures related to dual connectivity. The X2AP global procedures may include procedures unrelated to a specific UE 1001, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, and cell activation procedures.

[0203] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 1662 can 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). SCTP 1662 can ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 1011 and the AMF 1221 / MME 1121 based in part on the IP protocol supported by IP 1661. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 1661 can be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 1661 can use point-to-point transport to deliver and transmit PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 1011 can include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0204] In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may include, in order from highest layer to lowest layer, SDAP 1647, PDCP 1640, RLC 1630, MAC 1620, and PHY 1610. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 1001, RAN node 1011, and UPF 1202 in an NR implementation, or for communication between S-GW 1122 and P-GW 1123 in an LTE implementation. In this example, upper layers 1651 may be built on top of SDAP 1647 and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP / IP) 1652, a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol for the user plane layer (GTP-U) 1653, and a user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 1663.

[0205] The transport network layer 1654 (also known as the "transport layer") can be built on top of the IP transport, and the GTP-U 1653 can be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 1652 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also known as the "Internet layer") can be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer can assign IP addresses to user data packets in any of the formats, such as IPv4, IPv6, or PPP.

[0206] GTP-U 1653 may be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the transmitted user data may be packets in any of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats. UDP / IP 1652 may provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of selected data flows. The RAN node 1011 and the S-GW 1122 may utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising the L1 layer (e.g., PHY 1610), the L2 layer (e.g., MAC 1620, RLC 1630, PDCP 1640, and / or SDAP 1647), the UDP / IP layer 1652, and GRP-U 1653. The S-GW 1122 and the P-GW 1123 may utilize an S5 / S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP / IP layer 1652, and a GTP-U 1653. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support the mobility and session management procedures of the UE 1001 to establish and maintain an IP connection between the UE 1001 and the P-GW 1123.

[0207] In addition, despite Figure 16Not shown, an application layer may exist above the AP 1663 and / or transport network layer 1654. The application layer may be the layer where a user of the UE 1001, RAN node 1011, or other network element interacts with, for example, software applications executed by the application circuitry 1305 or the application circuitry 1405, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software applications to interact with the communication system of the UE 1001 or RAN node 1011 (such as the baseband circuitry 1510). In some implementations, the IP layer and / or the application layer may provide functionality that is the same as or similar to layers 5 through 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).

[0208] Figure 17 Components of a core network according to various embodiments are shown. The components of CN 1120 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 an embodiment, the components of CN 1220 can be implemented in the same or similar manner as discussed herein with respect to the components of CN 1120. In some embodiments, NFV is 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 1120 may be referred to as a network slice 1701, and each logical instance of CN 1120 may provide specific network functions and network characteristics. A logical instance of a portion of CN 1120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice 1702 (e.g., network sub-slice 1702 is shown as including PGW 1123 and PCRF 1126).

[0209] As used herein, the terms "instantiation" and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to the concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. A network instance may refer to information identifying a domain, which may be used for traffic detection and routing in different IP domains or in the case of overlapping IP addresses. A network slice instance may refer to a set of network function (NF) instances and the resources required to deploy a network slice (e.g., computing, storage, and networking resources).

[0210] Regarding 5G systems (see e.g. Figure 12), a network slice always includes a RAN portion and a CN portion. Support for network slicing relies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled by different PDU sessions. The network can implement different network slices through scheduling and also by providing different L1 / L2 configurations. If the NAS has provided an RRC message, the UE 1201 provides assistance information for network slice selection in the appropriate RRC message. Although the network can support a large number of slices, the UE does not need to support more than 8 slices simultaneously.

[0211] A network slice may include the CN 1220 control plane and user plane NFs, the NG-RAN 1210 in the serving PLMN, and the N3IWF functionality in the serving PLMN. Each network slice may have a different S-NSSAI and / or may have a different SST. The NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and each network slice is uniquely identified by an S-NSSAI. Network slices may differ in supported features and network function optimizations, and / or multiple network slice instances may deliver the same one or more services but differently for different groups of UEs 1201 (e.g., enterprise users). For example, each network slice may deliver different committed services and / or may be dedicated to a specific customer or enterprise. In this example, each network slice may have a different S-NSSAI with the same SST but a different slice differentiator. In addition, a single UE may be served simultaneously by one or more network slice instances via the 5G AN and associated with eight different S-NSSAIs. Furthermore, the AMF 1221 instance serving a single UE 1201 may belong to each network slice instance serving that UE.

[0212] Network slicing in the NG-RAN 1210 involves RAN slice awareness. RAN slice awareness involves differentiated handling of traffic for different pre-configured network slices. Slice awareness in the NG-RAN 1210 is introduced at the PDU session level by indicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to the PDU session in all signaling, including PDU session resource information. How the NG-RAN 1210 supports slicing in terms of NG-RAN functionality (e.g., a set of network functions per slice) depends on the specific implementation. The NG-RAN 1210 selects the RAN portion of the network slice using assistance information provided by the UE 1201 or 5GC 1220. This assistance information explicitly identifies one or more network slices in the pre-configured network slices in the PLMN. The NG-RAN 1210 also supports resource management and policy enforcement across slices according to the SRA. A single NG-RAN node can support multiple slices, and the NG-RAN 1210 can also apply the appropriate RRM policy for each supported slice according to the SLA. The NG-RAN 1210 also supports QoS differentiation within a slice.

[0213] NG-RAN 1210 can also use UE assistance information to select an AMF 1221 during the initial attach (if available). NG-RAN 1210 uses the assistance information to route the initial NAS to AMF 1221. If NG-RAN 1210 cannot select an AMF 1221 using the assistance information, or if UE 1201 does not provide any such information, NG-RAN 1210 sends NAS signaling to a default AMF 1221, which may be in the AMF 1221 pool. For subsequent access, UE 1201 provides the temporary ID assigned to UE 1201 by 5GC 1220 to enable NG-RAN 1210 to route NAS messages to the appropriate AMF 1221, as long as the temporary ID is valid. NG-RAN 1210 is aware of and can reach the AMF 1221 associated with the temporary ID. Otherwise, the method used for initial attach applies.

[0214] The NG-RAN 1210 supports resource isolation between slices. This isolation is achieved through RRM policies and protection mechanisms that prevent shared resource starvation in situations where one slice disrupts the service-level agreement of another slice. In some implementations, NG-RAN 1210 resources can be fully dedicated to a slice. How the NG-RAN 1210 supports resource isolation is implementation-dependent.

[0215] Some slices may only be partially available in the network. The NG-RAN 1210 is aware of the slices supported in its neighboring cells that may be beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in connected mode. Slice availability may not change within the UE's registration area. The NG-RAN 1210 and 5GC 1220 are responsible for processing service requests for slices that may or may not be available in a given area. Granting or denying access to a slice may depend on factors such as support for the slice, resource availability, and NG-RAN 1210 support for the requested service.

[0216] UE 1201 can be associated with multiple network slices simultaneously. In the event that UE 1201 is associated with multiple slices simultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained, and for intra-frequency cell reselection, UE 1201 attempts to camp on the best cell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, dedicated priorities can be used to control the frequency that UE 1201 camps on. 5GC 1220 will verify that UE 1201 has the right to access the network slice. Before receiving the Initial Context Setup Request message, knowing the specific slice that UE 1201 is requesting access to allows NG-RAN 1210 to apply some temporary / local policies. During Initial Context Setup, NG-RAN 1210 is informed of the slice whose resources are being requested.

[0217] The NFV architecture and infrastructure can be used to virtualize one or more NFs onto physical resources including a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively executed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system can be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0218] Figure 18 1800 is a block diagram illustrating components of an NFV-enabled system 1800 according to some exemplary embodiments. System 1800 is shown to include a VIM 1802, an NFVI 1804, a VNFM 1806, a VNF 1808, an EM 1810, an NFVO 1812, and an NM 1814.

[0219] VIM 1802 manages the resources of NFVI 1804. NFVI 1804 may include physical or virtual resources and applications (including a hypervisor) for executing system 1800. VIM 1802 may utilize NFVI 1804 to manage the lifecycle of virtual resources (e.g., the creation, maintenance, and teardown of VMs associated with one or more physical resources), track VM instances, track the performance, faults, and security of VM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instances and associated physical resources to other management systems.

[0220] VNFM 1806 can manage VNFs 1808. VNFs 1808 can be used to execute EPC components / functions. VNFM 1806 can manage the lifecycle of VNFs 1808 and track the performance, faults, and security of the virtual aspects of VNFs 1808. EM 1810 can track the performance, faults, and security of the functional aspects of VNFs 1808. Tracking data from VNFM 1806 and EM 1810 can include, for example, PM data used by VIM 1802 or NFVI 1804. Both VNFM 1806 and EM 1810 can scale up / down the number of VNFs in system 1800.

[0221] The NFVO 1812 can coordinate, authorize, release, and join the resources of the NFVI 1804 to provide the requested service (e.g., to execute an EPC function, component, or slice). The NM 1814 can provide an end-user function package responsible for network management, which can include network elements with VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of the VNFs can occur via the EM 1810).

[0222] Figure 19 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and capable of performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary embodiments. Specifically, Figure 19 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 1900 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1910, one or more memory / storage devices 1920, and one or more communication resources 1930, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1940. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1902 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / subslices to utilize the hardware resources 1900.

[0223] Processor 1910 may include, for example, processor 1912 and processor 1914. Processor 1910 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.

[0224] The memory / storage device 1920 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1920 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0225] The communication resources 1930 may include interconnect or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1904 or one or more databases 1906 via the network 1908. For example, the communication resources 1930 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellular communication components, NFC components, (or Low power consumption) components, components and other communication components.

[0226] The instructions 1950 may include software, a program, an application, an applet, an application, or other executable code for causing at least one of the processors 1910 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 1950 may reside, in whole or in part, within at least one of the processor 1910 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 1920, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1950 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1900 from any combination of the peripheral device 1904 or the database 1906. Thus, the memory of the processor 1910, the memory / storage device 1920, the peripheral device 1904, and the database 1906 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting compressed Ethernet packets, the method comprising: sending, by the first device, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the second device, wherein the one or more Ethernet packets include data indicative of a connection identification that is partially mapped to a source / destination address pair, and wherein the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets include an Ethernet header source field and an Ethernet header destination field; receiving, by the first device, from the second device, at least one feedback transmission from a plurality of feedback transmissions sent by the second device, wherein: The feedback transmission indicates whether the second device has successfully received the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets; and the number of the plurality of feedback transmissions being based on one or more of: a mobility state of the second device, a first measure of reference signal received power, a second measure of reference signal received quality, a third measure of signal to noise and interference ratio, or a desired degree of transmission reliability; generating, by the first device, the compressed Ethernet packet by including the connection identifier in a compressed Ethernet packet based at least on receiving the feedback transmission from the second device, wherein the compressed Ethernet packet does not include the Ethernet header source field and the Ethernet header destination field; and The compressed Ethernet packet is sent by the first device to the second device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending, by the first device, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the second device comprises: Determining whether to send the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the second device before sending the compressed Ethernet packets to the second device, wherein the determination is based on at least one of: (i) the quality of the link between the first device and the second device or (ii) the expected degree of transmission reliability.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is based on one or more of: a mobility state of the second device, a measurement of reference signal received power / reference signal received quality / signal to noise and interference ratio RSRP / RSRQ / SINR, or a desired degree of transmission reliability.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is configured by a network serving the first device. The method of claim 1 , wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is predetermined.

6. The method according to claim 1, comprising: determining, instead of deletion, a modification of a mapping between i) said connection identification for said one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets and ii) one or more header fields comprising at least said source / destination address pair; as well as A signal is sent using radio resource control signaling, said signal indicating said modification of said mapping between i) said connection identification and ii) said one or more header fields comprising at least said source / destination address pair.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations for transmitting compressed Ethernet packets, the operations comprising: sending, by the first device, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the second device, wherein the one or more Ethernet packets include data indicative of a connection identification that is partially mapped to a source / destination address pair, and wherein the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets include an Ethernet header source field and an Ethernet header destination field; receiving, by the first device, from the second device, at least one feedback transmission from a plurality of feedback transmissions sent by the second device, wherein: The feedback transmission indicates whether the second device has successfully received the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets; and the number of the plurality of feedback transmissions being based on one or more of: a mobility state of the second device, a first measure of reference signal received power, a second measure of reference signal received quality, a third measure of signal to noise and interference ratio, or a desired degree of transmission reliability; generating, by the first device, the compressed Ethernet packet by including the connection identifier in a compressed Ethernet packet based at least on receiving the feedback transmission from the second device, wherein the compressed Ethernet packet does not include the Ethernet header source field and the Ethernet header destination field; and The compressed Ethernet packet is sent by the first device to the second device.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein sending, by the first device, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the second device comprises: Determining whether to send the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the second device before sending the compressed Ethernet packets to the second device, wherein the determination is based on at least one of: (i) the quality of the link between the first device and the second device or (ii) the expected degree of transmission reliability.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7 , wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is based on one or more of: a mobility state of the second device, a measurement of a reference signal received power / reference signal received quality / signal to noise and interference ratio RSRP / RSRQ / SINR, or a desired degree of transmission reliability.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein a number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is configured by a network serving the first device.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein a number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is predetermined.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise: determining, instead of deletion, a modification of a mapping between i) said connection identification for said one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets and ii) one or more header fields comprising at least said source / destination address pair; as well as A signal is sent using radio resource control signaling, said signal indicating said modification of said mapping between i) said connection identification and ii) said one or more header fields comprising at least said source / destination address pair.

13. A system comprising: One or more processors and one or more storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, are operable to cause the one or more processors to perform operations for transmitting compressed Ethernet packets, the operations comprising: sending, by the first device, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the second device, wherein the one or more Ethernet packets include data indicative of a connection identification that is partially mapped to a source / destination address pair, and wherein the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets include an Ethernet header source field and an Ethernet header destination field; receiving, by the first device, from the second device, at least one feedback transmission from a plurality of feedback transmissions sent by the second device, wherein: The feedback transmission indicates whether the second device has successfully received the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets; and the number of the plurality of feedback transmissions being based on one or more of: a mobility state of the second device, a first measure of reference signal received power, a second measure of reference signal received quality, a third measure of signal to noise and interference ratio, or a desired degree of transmission reliability; generating, by the first device, the compressed Ethernet packet by including the connection identifier in a compressed Ethernet packet based at least on receiving the feedback transmission from the second device, wherein the compressed Ethernet packet does not include the Ethernet header source field and the Ethernet header destination field; and The compressed Ethernet packet is sent by the first device to the second device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein sending, by the first device, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the second device comprises: Determining whether to send the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets to the second device before sending the compressed Ethernet packets to the second device, wherein the determination is based on at least one of: (i) the quality of the link between the first device and the second device or (ii) the expected degree of transmission reliability.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is based on one or more of: a mobility state of the second device, a measurement of reference signal received power / reference signal received quality / signal to noise and interference ratio RSRP / RSRQ / SINR, or a desired degree of transmission reliability.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein a number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is configured by a network serving the first device.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein a quantity of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is predetermined.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise: determining, instead of deletion, a modification of a mapping between i) said connection identification for said one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets and ii) one or more header fields comprising at least said source / destination address pair; as well as A signal is sent using radio resource control signaling, said signal indicating said modification of said mapping between i) said connection identification and ii) said one or more header fields comprising at least said source / destination address pair.

19. A method for transmitting compressed Ethernet packets, the method comprising: identifying, by a second device, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets transmitted by a first device to the second device, wherein the one or more Ethernet packets include data indicative of a connection identification that is partially mapped to a source / destination address pair, and wherein the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets include an Ethernet header source field and an Ethernet header destination field; determining the number of the plurality of feedback transmissions based on one or more of: a mobility state of the second device, a first measurement of a reference signal received power, a second measurement of a reference signal received quality, a third measurement of a signal-to-noise-and-interference ratio, or a desired degree of transmission reliability, wherein the feedback transmission indicates whether the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets have been successfully received; prior to receiving the compressed Ethernet packet, transmitting to the first device the number of the plurality of feedback transmissions; receiving, by the second device, a compressed Ethernet packet transmitted by the first device, wherein the compressed Ethernet packet includes the connection identifier, and wherein the compressed Ethernet packet does not include the Ethernet header source field and the Ethernet header destination field; as well as Based at least in part on the connection identification, the compressed Ethernet packet is decompressed by the second device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is based on one or more of: a mobility state of the second device, a measurement of Reference Signal Received Power / Reference Signal Received Quality / Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio RSRP / RSRQ / SINR, or a desired degree of transmission reliability.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is configured by a network serving the first device for at least one of user equipment, cell group, data radio bearer, cell, or link direction.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein a quantity of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is predetermined.

23. A receiver, comprising: one or more processors; as well as one or more storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, are operable to cause the one or more processors to perform operations for transmitting compressed Ethernet packets, the operations comprising: identifying, by the receiver, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets transmitted by a transmitter to the receiver, wherein the one or more Ethernet packets include data indicative of a connection identification that is partially mapped to a source / destination address pair, and wherein the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets include an Ethernet header source field and an Ethernet header destination field; determining the number of the plurality of feedback transmissions based on one or more of: a mobility state of the receiver, a first measurement of a reference signal received power, a second measurement of a reference signal received quality, a third measurement of a signal-to-noise-and-interference ratio, or a desired degree of transmission reliability, wherein the feedback transmission indicates whether the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets have been successfully received; transmitting, to said transmitter, said number of said plurality of feedback transmissions prior to receiving the compressed Ethernet packet; receiving, by the receiver, compressed Ethernet packets transmitted by the transmitter, wherein the compressed Ethernet packet includes the connection identifier, and wherein the compressed Ethernet packet does not include the Ethernet header source field and the Ethernet header destination field; and The compressed Ethernet packet is decompressed by the receiver based at least in part on the connection identification.

24. The receiver of claim 23, wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is based on one or more of: a mobility state of the receiver, a measurement of Reference Signal Received Power / Reference Signal Received Quality / Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio RSRP / RSRQ / SINR, or a desired degree of transmission reliability.

25. The receiver of claim 23, wherein a number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is configured by a network serving the transmitter for at least one of a user equipment, a cell group, a data radio bearer, a cell, or a link direction.

26. The receiver of claim 23, wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is predetermined.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a data processing apparatus, cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations for transmitting compressed Ethernet packets, the operations comprising: identifying, by a second device, one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets transmitted by a first device to the second device, wherein the one or more Ethernet packets include data indicative of a connection identification that is partially mapped to a source / destination address pair, and wherein the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets include an Ethernet header source field and an Ethernet header destination field; determining the number of the plurality of feedback transmissions based on one or more of: a mobility state of the second device, a first measurement of a reference signal received power, a second measurement of a reference signal received quality, a third measurement of a signal-to-noise-and-interference ratio, or a desired degree of transmission reliability, wherein the feedback transmission indicates whether the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets have been successfully received; prior to receiving the compressed Ethernet packet, transmitting to the first device the number of the plurality of feedback transmissions; receiving, by the second device, a compressed Ethernet packet transmitted by the first device, wherein the compressed Ethernet packet includes the connection identifier, and wherein the compressed Ethernet packet does not include the Ethernet header source field and the Ethernet header destination field; as well as Based at least in part on the connection identification, the compressed Ethernet packet is decompressed by the second device.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device according to claim 27, wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is based on one or more of the following items: a mobility state of the second device, a measurement value of reference signal received power / reference signal received quality / signal to noise and interference ratio RSRP / RSRQ / SINR, or an expected degree of transmission reliability.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 27, wherein the number of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is configured by a network serving the first device for at least one of a user equipment, a cell group, a data radio bearer, a cell, or a link direction.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable storage device of claim 27, wherein a quantity of the one or more uncompressed Ethernet packets is predetermined.

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