PDCP Duplication Enhancement

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method, system, apparatus, and computer program for selecting a radio link control (RLC) entity to transmit a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU). In one aspect, the method includes the following actions: accessing, by a device in a wireless communication system, data representing RLC entity indexes and RLC activation status information of data radio bearers (DRBs) / PDCP entities, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity in the RLC entity indexes are activated or deactivated; selecting, by the device in the wireless communication system, a subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on an index position in the indexes and the activation status information of each RLC entity in the RLC entities; and transmitting the PDCP control PDU using the selected subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity.

Description

[0001] Cross - Reference to Related Applications

[0002] This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 824,965, filed Mar. 27, 2019, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

[0003] Various embodiments generally relate to the field of wireless communications. Specifically, at least some of these embodiments relate to fifth generation mobile technology (5G). In the present disclosure, we may use 5G and NR interchangeably. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

[0004] According to an innovative aspect of the present disclosure, a method for selecting a radio link control (RLC) entity to transmit a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) is disclosed. In one aspect, the method may include the following actions: accessing, by a device in a wireless communication system, data representing RLC entity indexes and RLC activation status information of data radio bearers (DRBs) / PDCP entities, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities in the RLC entity indexes are activated or deactivated; selecting, by the device in the wireless communication system, a subset of RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities based on the index positions in the indexes and the activation status information of each of these RLC entities; and transmitting, by the device in the wireless network, PDCP control PDUs using the selected subset of RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities.

[0005] Other forms include corresponding systems, devices, and computer programs to perform the actions of the methods defined by instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage device.

[0006] These forms and other forms may optionally include one or more of the following features. For example, in some embodiments, for each specific RLC entity, the activation status information may indicate whether the specific RLC is activated or deactivated.

[0007] In some embodiments, selecting, by the device in the wireless communication system, a subset of RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities based on the index positions in the indexes and the activation status information of each of these RLC entities may include: selecting, by the device in the wireless communication system, an RLC entity having activation status information indicating that the RLC entity is activated.

[0008] In some specific implementations, the selection by a device in a wireless communication system of a subset of RLC entities for a DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information of each of these RLC entities may include: the device in the wireless communication system selects the activated RLC entity with the lowest index position.

[0009] In some specific implementations, the selection by a device in a wireless communication system of a subset of RLC entities for a DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information of each of these RLC entities may include: the device in the wireless communication system selects the activated RLC entity with the highest index position.

[0010] In some specific implementations, the selection by a device in a wireless communication system of a subset of RLC entities for a DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information of each of these RLC entities may include: the device in the wireless communication system selects the first activated RLC entity with the lowest index position and the second activated RLC entity with the second lowest index position.

[0011] In some specific implementations, the selection by a device in a wireless communication system of a subset of RLC entities for a DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information of each of these RLC entities may include: the device in the wireless communication system selects the first activated RLC entity with the highest index position and the second activated RLC entity with the second highest index position.

[0012] In some specific implementations, the selection by a device in a wireless communication system of a subset of RLC entities for a DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information of each of these RLC entities may include: the device in the wireless communication system selects the first activated RLC entity with the highest index position and the second activated RLC entity with the lowest index position.

[0013] In some specific implementations, each DRB / PDCP entity is an association between a single DRB and a single PDCP entity.

[0014] In some specific implementations, the device is an access node of a radio access network (RAN).

[0015] In some specific implementations, the device is a user equipment (UE).

[0016] According to another innovative aspect of the present disclosure, a method for activating or deactivating radio link control (RLC) is disclosed. In one aspect, the method may include the following actions: generating, by a device in a wireless communication system, a MAC CE that provides an indication of the activation status information of each RLC entity among a plurality of radio link control (RLC) entities, wherein each field among the plurality of fields of the MAC CE represents a specific RLC entity for a DRB for retransmission; and encoding, by the device in the wireless communication system, the MAC CE for transmission to a user equipment.

[0017] Other forms include corresponding systems, devices, and computer programs to perform the actions of the methods defined by instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage device.

[0018] These forms and other forms may optionally include one or more of the following features. For example, in some specific implementations, any RLC entity of a DRB can be activated or deactivated as long as there is at least one RLC entity activated for the DRB.

[0019] In some specific implementations, the size of the MAC CE can be fixed. In other specific implementations, the size of the MAC CE can be variable.

[0020] In some specific implementations, generating the MAC CE may include: specifying the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the maximum number of DRBs for packet repetition associated with the MAC entity; and specifying the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE as the maximum number of configured RLC entities for each DRB / PDCP.

[0021] In some specific implementations, generating the MAC CE may include: specifying the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the total number of DRBs configured for packet repetition of the MAC entity; and separately specifying the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE based on the configured number of RLC entities of the corresponding DRB / PDCP entity.

[0022] According to another innovative aspect of the present disclosure, a method for selecting a Radio Link Control (RLC) entity to transmit a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) control protocol data unit (PDU) is disclosed. In one aspect, the method may include the following actions: accessing, by a device in a wireless communication system, data representing RLC entity indices and RLC activation status information of Data Radio Bearers (DRBs) / PDCP entities, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities in the RLC entity indices are activated or deactivated; obtaining, by the device in the wireless communication system, auxiliary information generated by a User Equipment (UE) in the wireless communication system; selecting, by the device in the wireless communication system, a subset of RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities based on the index positions in the indices, the activation status information of each RLC entity among these RLC entities, and the obtained auxiliary information; and transmitting, by the device in the wireless network, a PDCP control PDU using the selected subset of RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities.

[0023] Other forms include corresponding systems, devices, and computer programs to perform the actions of the methods defined by instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage device.

[0024] These forms and other forms may optionally include one or more of the following features. For example, in some specific implementations, the device is an access node of a Radio Access Network (RAN). In some specific implementations, the device is a UE that generates auxiliary information.

[0025] In some specific implementations, the auxiliary information may include a status report of UE performance or UE attributes.

[0026] In some specific implementations, the status report may include data indicating the priorities of one or more services requested by the UE, data indicating one or more problems the UE has encountered, or data indicating UE preferences for one or more connection parameters.

[0027] These aspects and other aspects of the present disclosure are discussed in more detail in the detailed description below with reference to the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] Figure 1 An exemplary architecture of a network system is shown.

[0029] Figure 2 An exemplary architecture of a system including a first CN is shown.

[0030] Figure 3 An architecture of a system including a second CN is shown.

[0031] Figure 4 An example of infrastructure equipment is shown.

[0032] Figure 5 Shows an example of a platform.

[0033] Figure 6 Shows exemplary components of a baseband circuit and a radio front-end module (REFM).

[0034] Figure 7 Shows various protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication device.

[0035] Figure 8 Shows components of a core network.

[0036] Figure 9 Is a block diagram showing components of a system supporting NFV.

[0037] Figure 10 Is a block diagram showing components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and executing any one or more of the methods discussed herein.

[0038] Figure 11 Is a flowchart of an example of a process for selecting an RLC entity for transmitting a PDCP control PDU.

[0039] Figure 12 Is an example of a fixed-size MAC CE that can be used to select a subset of RLC entities for PDCP retransmission.

[0040] Figure 13 Is an example of a variable-size MAC CE that can be used to select a subset of RLC entities for PDCP retransmission.

[0041] Figure 14 Is another example of a variable-size MAC CE that can be used to select a subset of RLC entities for PDCP retransmission.

[0042] Figure 15 Is another example of a variable-size MAC CE that can be used to select a subset of RLC entities for PDCP retransmission.

[0043] Figure 16 Is a flowchart of an example of a process for activating or deactivating an RLC.

[0044] Figure 17 Is a flowchart of an example of a process for selecting an RLC entity to transmit a PDCP control PDU. Detailed Description

[0045] The present disclosure relates to a method, system, apparatus, and computer program for selecting an RLC entity that can be used to transmit PDCP control PDUs. Specifically, aspects of the present disclosure achieve flexible activation or deactivation of configured RLC entities, thereby maximizing the performance of PDCP retransmission. In some specific implementations, this flexibility can be achieved by allowing any RLC entity of a DRB to be activated or deactivated as long as at least one RLC entity activated for the DRB already exists. In some specific implementations, the MAC CE disclosed in the present disclosure can be used to activate or deactivate configured RLC entities. In other specific implementations, a method for activating or deactivating an RLC entity using UE assistance information is disclosed.

[0046] Figure 1 An exemplary architecture of a network system 100 according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure is shown. The following description is provided for an exemplary system 100 operating in conjunction with the LTE system standard and the 5G or NR system standard provided in the 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary specific implementations are not limited in this regard, and the specific implementations can 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.

[0047] As Figure 1 shown, the system 100 includes UEs 101a and 101b (collectively referred to as "UE 101"). In this example, UE 101 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device that can be connected to one or more cellular networks), but can also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronic devices, mobile phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablets, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) devices, instrument clusters (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, on-board diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDT), electronic engine management systems (EEMS), electronic / engine electronic control units (ECU), electronic / engine electronic control modules (ECM), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or "smart" appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, etc.

[0048] In some specific implementations, any one of the UEs 101 can be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE can utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via a PLMN, ProSe, or D2D communication, a sensor network, or an IoT network. The M2M or MTC data exchange can be machine-initiated data exchange. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE can execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connection of the IoT network.

[0049] The UE 101 can be configured to connect to the RAN 110, e.g., communicatively coupled. In a specific implementation, the RAN 110 can be an NG RAN or 5G RAN, E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN" etc. can refer to the RAN 110 operating in an NR or 5G system 100, while the term "E-UTRAN" etc. can refer to the RAN 110 operating in an LTE or 4G system 100. Multiple UEs 101 respectively utilize connections (or channels) 103 and 104, each connection including a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0050] In this example, the connections 103 and 104 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communicative coupling and can be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as the GSM protocol, CDMA network protocol, PTT protocol, POC protocol, UMTS protocol, 3GPP LTE protocol, 5G protocol, NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In a specific implementation, the UE 101 can directly exchange communication data via the ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 can alternatively be referred to as the SL interface 105 and can include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0051] The UE 101b is shown configured to access the AP 106 (also referred to as "WLAN node 106", "WLAN106", "WLAN terminal 106", "WT 106", etc.) via the connection 107. The connection 107 can include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE802.11 protocol, where the AP 106 will include Wi-Fi Router. In this example, it is shown that AP 106 is connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, UE 101b, RAN 110, and AP 106 may be configured to operate using LWA and / or LWIP. LWA operation may involve the RAN nodes 111a-b configuring the UE 101b in the RRC_CONNECTED state to utilize the radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE 101b using the WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 107) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt the packets (e.g., IP packets) sent through connection 107. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header to protect the original header of the IP packet.

[0052] RAN 110 may include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 111a and 111b (collectively referred to as "RAN nodes 111") that enable connections 103 and 104. As used herein, terms such as "access node", "access point", etc. 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 BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, or TRP, etc., and may include terrestrial stations (e.g., land access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographical area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the term "NG RAN node" etc. may refer to the RAN node 111 (e.g., gNB) operating in the NR or 5G system 100, while the term "E-UTRAN node" etc. may refer to the RAN node 111 (e.g., eNB) operating in the LTE or 4G system 100. According to various embodiments, the RAN nodes 111 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices such as macrocell base stations and / or low-power (LP) base stations for providing femtocells, picocells, or other similar cells with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

[0053] In some specific implementations, all or part of the RAN node 111 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer and as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a Cloud RAN (CRAN) and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these specific implementations, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN function partitioning, such as PDCP partitioning, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and other L2 protocol entities are operated by the respective RAN nodes 111; MAC / PHY partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by the respective RAN nodes 111; or "lower PHY" partitioning, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers, and the upper part of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower part of the PHY layer is operated by the respective RAN nodes 111. This virtualization framework allows the idle processor cores of multiple RAN nodes 111 to execute other virtualized applications. In some specific implementations, individual RAN nodes 111 may represent respective gNB-DUs connected to the gNB-CU via respective F1 interfaces ( Figure 1 not shown). In these specific implementations, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, for example, Figure 4 ), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 110 or by a pool of servers in a manner similar to the CRAN / vBBUP. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 111 may be a next-generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations to multiple UEs 101 and is connected to the 5GC via an NG interface (discussed below) (e.g., Figure 3 the CN 320).

[0054] In a V2X scenario, one or more nodes in RAN node 111 can be or act as an RSU. The term "road side unit" or "RSU" can refer to any transportation infrastructure entity for V2X communication. The RSU can be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, where the RSU implemented in or by the UE can be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by the eNB can be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", the RSU implemented in or by the gNB can be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the road side, and the computing device provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs 101 (vUE 101). The RSU can also include an internal data storage circuit for storing intersection map geometries, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU can operate on the 5.9 GHz direct short range communication (DSRC) band to provide extremely low latency communication required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. In addition or alternatively, the RSU can operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communication and other cellular communication services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU can 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 communication. Some or all of the computing device and the radio frequency circuit of the RSU can be encapsulated in a weather-resistant package suitable for outdoor installation, and can include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or a backhaul network.

[0055] Any one of the nodes in RAN node 111 can be the end point of an air interface protocol and can be the first contact point of UE 101. In some specific embodiments, any one of the nodes in RAN node 111 can perform various logical functions of RAN 110, including but not limited to the functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0056] In a specific embodiment, UE 101 can be configured to communicate with each other or with any one of the RAN nodes 111 on a multi-carrier communication channel using OFDM communication signals according to various communication technologies, such as but not limited to OFDMA communication technology (e.g., for downlink communication) or SC-FDMA communication technology (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communication), but the scope of the specific embodiment is not limited in this regard. The OFDM signal can include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

[0057] In some specific implementations, the downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmission from any one of the RAN nodes 111 to the UE 101, and uplink transmission can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink for each time slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice, which makes wireless resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid correspond to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one time slot in the radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this can represent the smallest amount of resources that can be currently allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0058] According to various specific implementations, the UE 101 and the RAN nodes 111 transmit data (e.g., transmit data and receive data) via a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and / or "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum" and / or "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum can include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum can include the 5 GHz band.

[0059] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 101 and the RAN nodes 111 can use the LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms to operate. In these specific implementations, the UE 101 and the RAN nodes 111 can 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 can be performed according to the listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0060] LBT is a mechanism by which equipment (e.g., UE 101, RAN nodes 111, etc.) senses the medium (e.g., channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a specific channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation can include CCA, which uses at least ED to determine whether there are other signals on the channel to determine whether the channel is occupied or idle. This LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED can include sensing the RF energy on the expected transmission frequency band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy with a predefined or configured threshold.

[0061] Generally, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. The WLAN adopts a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 101, AP 106, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits simultaneously, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions. This backoff mechanism can be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS, which exponentially increases in case of a collision and is reset to the minimum value upon successful transmission. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA / CA of the WLAN. In some specific implementations, the LBT process for DL or UL transmission bursts (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions) may have a variable-length LAA contention window between X and Y ECCA time slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values of the CWS of LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission can be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and the MCOT (e.g., transmission burst) can be based on government regulatory requirements.

[0062] The LAA mechanism is built on the CA technology of the LTE-Advanced system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is called a CC. A CC can have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 MHz, and up to five CCs can be aggregated, so the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In an FDD system, for DL and UL, the number of aggregated carriers can be different, 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 from other CCs. In a TDD system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are usually the same for DL and UL.

[0063] CA also includes respective serving cells to provide respective CCs. The coverage of the serving cells can be different, e.g., because the CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell can provide the PCC for both UL and DL, and can handle the activities related to RRC and NAS. The other serving cells are called SCell, and each SCell can provide respective SCCs for both UL and DL. The SCCs can be added and removed as needed, while changing the PCC may require the UE 101 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCell can operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCell"), and the LAA SCell is assisted by the PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE can receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCell, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0064] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to multiple UEs 101. Among other information, the PDCCH carries information about the transmission format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It can also notify multiple UEs 101 about the transmission format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Generally, downlink scheduling (allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to the UEs 101b within the cell) can be performed at any of the RAN nodes 111 based on the channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 101. Downlink resource allocation information can be sent on the PDCCH for each UE among the UEs 101 (e.g., allocated to).

[0065] The PDCCH uses CCEs to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruples, and then can be permuted 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, 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 can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L = 1, 2, 4, or 8).

[0066] Some specific implementations may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some specific implementations may utilize the EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. One or more ECCEs may be used to transmit the EPDCCH. Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets each including four physical resource elements, called EREG. In some cases, an ECCE may have other numbers of EREG.

[0067] RAN nodes 111 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 112. In a specific implementation where system 100 is an LTE system (e.g., when CN 120 is an EPC 220 as in Figure 2 ), interface 112 may be the X2 interface 112. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to EPC 120, and / or between two eNBs connected to EPC 120. In some specific implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted through the X2 interface and may be used to convey information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information about the successful in-sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 101 for user data; information about PDCP PDUs not delivered to the UE 101; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and so on. The X2-C may provide access mobility functions within LTE, including context transfer from the source eNB to the target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0068] In a case where system 100 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN 120 is Figure 3In a specific implementation when the 5GC is 320, the interface 112 can be the Xn interface 112. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., gNB) connected to the 5GC 120 and an eNB, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 120. 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 can provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and traffic control functions. The Xn-C can provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; the mobility support for the UE 101 in the connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functions for managing the UE mobility of the connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 111. This mobility support may include the context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 111 to the new (target) serving RAN node 111; and the control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) serving RAN node 111 and the new (target) serving RAN node 111. The protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer for carrying user plane PDUs on top of the UDP and / or IP layer. 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 can be on top of the IP layer and can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0069] RAN 110 is shown as communicatively coupled to a core network - in this particular implementation, communicatively coupled to core network (CN) 120. CN 120 may include a plurality of network elements 122, which are configured to provide various data and telecommunications services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of a plurality of UEs 101) connected to CN 120 via RAN 110. Components of CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, which include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some particular implementations, NFV may be used to virtualize any one or all of the above 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 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a part of CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. The NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources that include a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0070] Generally speaking, application server 130 may be an element that provides an application that uses IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). Application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for UE 101 via EPC 120 (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social network services, etc.).

[0071] In a particular implementation, CN 120 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5GC 120", etc.), and RAN 110 may be connected to CN 120 via NG interface 113. In a particular implementation, NG interface 113 may be divided into two parts: the NG user plane (NG-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between RAN node 111 and UPF; and the S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 111 and AMF. Refer to Figure 3 A particular implementation where CN 120 is 5GC 120 is discussed in more detail.

[0072] In a specific implementation, CN 120 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5GC 120", etc.), and in other specific implementations, CN 120 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 120 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 120", etc.), RAN 110 may be connected to CN 120 via the S1 interface 113. In a specific implementation, the S1 interface 113 may be divided into two parts: the S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 111 and the S-GW; and the S1-MME interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 111 and the MME.

[0073] Figure 2 An exemplary architecture of a system 200 including a first CN according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 2 An exemplary architecture of a system 200 including a first CN 220 according to various specific implementations is shown. In this example, the system 200 may implement the LTE standard, where CN 220 is an EPC 220 corresponding to Figure 1 the CN 120. Additionally, UE 201 may be the same as or similar to Figure 1 the UE 101, and E-UTRAN 210 may be a RAN that is the same as or similar to Figure 1 the RAN 110, and it may include the RAN node 111 discussed previously. CN 220 may include an MME 221, an S-GW 222, a P-GW 223, an HSS 224, and an SGSN 225.

[0074] Functionally, the MME 221 may be similar to the control plane of a traditional SGSN and may implement MM functions to keep track of the current location of the UE 201. The MME 221 may perform various MM procedures to manage aspects of mobility in access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as "EPS MM" or "EMM" in the E-UTRAN system) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data storage, etc. for maintaining knowledge of the current location of the UE 201, providing user identity confidentiality to the user / subscriber, and / or performing other similar services. Each UE 201 and the MME 221 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and when the attachment process is successfully completed, an MM context may be established in the UE 201 and the MME 221. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information of the UE 201. The MME 221 may be coupled to the HSS 224 via the S6a reference point, to the SGSN 225 via the S3 reference point, and to the S-GW 222 via the S11 reference point.

[0075] The SGSN 225 can be a node that serves the UE 201 by tracking the location of the individual UE 201 and performing security functions. Additionally, the SGSN 225 can 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 221; handling of the UE 201 time zone function as specified by the MME 221; and MME selection for handover to the E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between the MME 221 and the SGSN 225 can be enabled for user and bearer information exchange for 3GPP inter-access network mobility in the idle state and / or the active state.

[0076] The HSS 224 can include a database for network users that includes subscription-related information to support network entity handling of communication sessions. The EPC 220 can include one or several HSS 224s, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capacity of the devices, the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 224 can provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing solutions, location dependency, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 224 and the MME 221 can enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing user access to the EPC 220 between the HSS 224 and the MME 221.

[0077] The S-GW 222 can terminate the S1 interface 113 ( Figure 2 the “S1-U” in ) towards the RAN 210 and route data packets between the RAN 210 and the EPC 220. Additionally, the S-GW 222 can be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handover and can also provide an anchor for 3GPP inter-mobility. Other responsibilities can include lawful interception, charging, and enforcement of certain policies. The S11 reference point between the S-GW222 and the MME 221 can provide a control plane between the MME 221 and the S-GW 222. The S-GW 222 can be coupled to the P-GW 223 via the S5 reference point.

[0078] The P-GW 223 can terminate the SGi interface towards the PDN 230. The P-GW 223 can route data packets between the EPC 220 and an external network such as a network including the application server 130 (alternatively referred to as the “AF”) via the IP interface 125 (see, for example, Figure 1 ). In a particular implementation, the P-GW223 can be communicatively coupled to the application server ( Figure 1 ) via the IP communication interface 125 (see, for example, Figure 1 the application server 130 of or Figure 2in the PDN 230). The S5 reference point between the P-GW 223 and the S-GW 222 can provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 223 and the S-GW 222. Due to the mobility of the UE 201 and whether the S-GW 222 needs to be connected to a non-collocated P-GW 223 for the required PDN connectivity, the S5 reference point can also be used for S-GW 222 relocation. The P-GW 223 may also include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (e.g., PCEF (not shown)). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the P-GW 223 and the packet data network (PDN) 230 can be an external public, private PDN of the operator or an internal operator packet data network, e.g., for providing IMS services. The P-GW 223 can be coupled to the PCRF 226 via the Gx reference point.

[0079] The PCRF 226 is the policy and charging control element of the EPC 220. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 226 in the home public land mobile network (HPLMN) associated with the Internet protocol connectivity access network (IP-CAN) session of the UE 201. In a roaming scenario with local traffic breakout, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of the UE 201: the home PCRF (H-PCRF) in the HPLMN and the visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in the visited public land mobile network (VPLMN). The PCRF 226 can be communicatively coupled to the application server 230 via the P-GW 223. The application server 230 can send a signal to notify the PCRF 226 to indicate a new service flow and select appropriate QoS and charging parameters. The PCRF 226 can configure the rule as a PCEF (not shown) with appropriate TFT and QCI, and start QoS and charging as specified by the application server 230. The Gx reference point between the PCRF 226 and the P-GW 223 can allow the transmission of QoS policies and charging rules from the PCRF 226 to the PCEF in the P-GW 223. The Rx reference point can reside between the PDN 230 (or "AF 230") and the PCRF 226.

[0080] Figure 3Shows the architecture of a system 300 including a second CN according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure. The system 300 is shown to include a UE 301, which may be the same as or similar to the previously discussed UE 101 and UE 201; a (R)AN 310, which may be the same as or similar to the previously discussed RAN 110 and RAN 210, and which may include the previously discussed RAN node 111; and a DN 303, which may be, for example, a carrier service, Internet access, or a third-party service; and a 5GC 320. The 5GC 320 may include an AUSF 322; an AMF 321; an SMF 324; a NEF 323; a PCF 326; an NRF 325; a UDM 327; an AF 328; a UPF 302; and an NSSF 329.

[0081] The UPF 302 may act as an anchor point for mobility within and between RATs, an external PDU session point for interconnecting with the DN 303, and a branching point for supporting multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 302 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform the user plane part of policy rules, legally intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), perform transport-level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 302 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to data networks. The DN 303 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. The DN 303 may include or be similar to the previously discussed application server 130. The UPF 302 may interact with the SMF 324 via the N4 reference point between the SMF 324 and the UPF 302.

[0082] The AUSF 322 may store authentication data for the UE 301 and handle authentication-related functions. The AUSF 322 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 322 may communicate with the AMF 321 via the N12 reference point between the AMF 321 and the AUSF 322; and may communicate with the UDM 327 via the N13 reference point between the UDM 327 and the AUSF 322. Additionally, the AUSF 322 may present an interface based on the Nausf service.

[0083] The AMF 321 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., responsible for registering the UE 301, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 321 may be the termination point of the N11 reference point between the AMF 321 and the SMF 324. The AMF 321 may provide transmission for SM messages between the UE 301 and the SMF 324 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 321 may also provide transmission for SMS messages between the UE 301 and the SMSF ( Figure 3 not shown in the figure). The AMF 321 may act as the SEAF, which may include interactions with the AUSF 322 and the UE 301 and receive the intermediate key established due to the UE 301 authentication process. In the case of using USIM-based authentication, the AMF 321 may retrieve security material from the AUSF 322. The AMF 321 may also include the SCM function, which receives the key for deriving access network-specific keys from the SEA. In addition, the AMF 321 may be the termination point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be the N2 reference point between the (R)AN 310 and the AMF 321; and the AMF 321 may be the termination point of the NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS encryption and integrity protection.

[0084] The AMF 321 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 301 through the N3 IWF interface. The N3 IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3 IWF may be the termination point of the N2 interface between the (R)AN 310 of the control plane and the AMF 321, and may be the termination point of the N3 reference point between the (R)AN 310 of the user plane and the UPF 302. Therefore, the AMF 321 may process the N2 signaling for PDU sessions and QoS from the SMF 324 and the AMF 321, encapsulate / decapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnels, mark the N3 user plane packets on the uplink, and perform QoS corresponding to the N3 packet marking, taking into account the QoS requirements associated with such markings received through the N2. The N3 IWF may also relay the uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE 301 and the AMF 321 via the N1 reference point between the UE 301 and the AMF 321, and relay the uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE 301 and the UPF 302. The N3 IWF also provides a mechanism for establishing an IPsec tunnel with the UE 301. The AMF 321 may present an interface based on the Namf service and may be the termination point of the N14 reference point between two AMF 321s and the N17 reference point between the AMF 321 and the 5G-EIR ( Figure 3 not shown).

[0085] UE 301 may need to register with the AMF 321 to receive network services. The RM is used to register the UE 301 with the network (e.g., the AMF 321) or deregister the UE, and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., the AMF 321). The UE 301 can operate in the RM-REGISTERED state or the RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM DEREGISTERED state, the UE 301 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in the AMF 321 does not hold the valid location or routing information of the UE 301, so the AMF 321 cannot reach the UE 301. In the RM REGISTERED state, the UE 301 is registered with the network, and the UE context in the AMF 321 can hold the valid location or routing information of the UE 301, so the AMF 321 can reach the UE 301. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 301 can perform a mobility registration update procedure, perform a periodic registration update procedure triggered by the expiration of a periodic update timer (e.g., to notify the network that the UE 301 is still active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network, etc.

[0086] The AMF 321 can store one or more RM contexts for the UE 301, where each RM context is associated with a specific access to the network. The RM context can be a data structure, a database object, etc., which indicates or stores, in particular, the registration status and the periodic update timer for each access type. The AMF 321 can also store a 5GC MM context that can be the same as or similar to the previously discussed (E)MM context. In various specific implementations, the AMF 321 can store the CE mode B restriction parameters of the UE 301 in the associated MM context or RM context. The AMF 321 can also derive values from the usage setting parameters of the UE that have been stored in the UE context (and / or MM / RM context) when needed.

[0087] CM can be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE 301 and the AMF 321 via the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE 301 and the CN 320, and includes a signaling connection between the UE and the AN (e.g., an RRC connection for non-3GPP access or a UE-N3IWF connection) and an N2 connection of the UE 301 between the AN (e.g., the RAN 310) and the AMF 321. The UE 301 can operate in one of two CM states (CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode). When the UE 301 operates in the CM-IDLE state / mode, the UE 301 may not have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 321 via the N1 interface, and there may be an (R)AN 310 signaling connection for the UE 301 (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connections). When the UE 301 operates in the CM-CONNECTED state / mode, the UE 301 may have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF 321 via the N1 interface, and there may be an (R)AN 310 signaling connection for the UE 301 (e.g., N2 and / or N3 connections). Establishing an N2 connection between the (R)AN 310 and the AMF 321 may cause the UE 301 to transition from the CM-IDLE mode to the CM-CONNECTED mode, and when the N2 signaling between the (R)AN 310 and the AMF 321 is released, the UE 301 may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode.

[0088] The SMF 324 may be responsible for session management (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between the UPF and the AN node); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of the UPF function; configuration of the UPF traffic steering to route traffic to the correct destination; termination of the interface towards the policy control function; the policy enforcement and the control part of QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and the interface with the LI system); termination of the SM part of the NAS message; downlink data notification; initiation of AN-specific SM information sent to the AN via the AMF over N2; and determination of the SSC mode of the session. Session management may refer to the management of the PDU session, and the PDU session or "session" may refer to the PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the PDU exchange between the UE 301 identified by the data network name (DNN) and the data network (DN) 303. The PDU session may be established upon request by the UE 301 using the NAS SM signaling exchanged between the UE 301 and the SMF 324 over the N1 reference point, modified upon request by the UE 301 and the 5GC 320, and released upon request by the UE 301 and the 5GC 320. When requested from the application server, the 5GC 320 may trigger a specific application in the UE 301. In response to receiving the trigger message, the UE 301 may pass the trigger message (or the relevant part / information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in the UE 301. The identified applications in the UE 301 may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. The SMF 324 may check whether the UE301 request complies with the user subscription information associated with the UE 301. In this regard, the SMF324 may retrieve and / or request to receive an update notification on the subscription data at the SMF 324 level from the UDM 327.

[0089] The SMF 324 may include the following roaming functions: handling local enforcement to apply the QoS SLA (VPLMN); charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawful interception (for SM events and the interface with the LI system, in the VPLMN); and support for interaction with the external DN to transport the signaling for PDU session authorization / authentication over the external DN. In the roaming scenario, the N16 reference point between two SMF 324s may be included in the system 300, which may be between the SMF 324 in the visited network and another SMF 324 in the home network. Additionally, the SMF 324 may present an interface based on the Nsmf service.

[0090] The NEF 323 may provide components for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions to third parties, internal exposure / re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF 328), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such specific implementations, the NEF 323 may authenticate, authorize, and / or restrict the AF. The NEF 323 may also transform information exchanged with the AF 328 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 323 may transform between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 323 may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on the exposure capabilities of the other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 323 as structured data, or stored at a data storage NF using a standardized interface. Then, the stored information may be re-exposed by the NEF 323 to other NFs and AFs, and / or used for other purposes such as analysis. Additionally, the NEF 323 may present an interface based on the Nnef service.

[0091] The NRF 325 may support a service discovery function, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information on the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. The NRF 325 also maintains information on available NF instances and the services supported by these instances. As used herein, terms such as "instantiation" may refer to the creation of an instance, and an "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 325 may present an interface based on the Nnrf service.

[0092] The PCF 326 may provide components for control plane functions to enforce their policy rules, and may also support a unified policy framework for managing network behavior. The PCF 326 may also implement an FE to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM 327. The PCF 326 may communicate with the AMF 321 via the N15 reference point between the PCF 326 and the AMF 321, which may include the PCF 326 in a visited network and the AMF 321 in a roaming scenario. The PCF 326 may communicate with the AF 328 via the N5 reference point between the PCF 326 and the AF 328; and communicate with the SMF 324 via the N7 reference point between the PCF 326 and the SMF 324. The system 300 and / or the CN 320 may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF 326 (in a home network) and the PCF 326 in a visited network. Additionally, the PCF 326 may present an interface based on the Npcf service.

[0093] The UDM 327 can process subscription-related information to support the handling of communication sessions by network entities and can store the subscription data of the UE 301. For example, subscription data can be transmitted between the UDM 327 and the AMF 321 via the N8 reference point between the UDM 327 and the AMF. The UDM 327 can include two parts: the Application FE and the UDR ( Figure 3 The FE and the UDR are not shown). The UDR can store the subscription data and policy data of the UDM 327 and the PCF 326, and / or the structured data for exposure and application data of the NEF 323 (including the PFD for application detection, the application request information of multiple UEs 301). The interface based on the Nudr service can be presented by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 327, the PCF 326, and the NEF 323 to access a specific set of the stored data, and to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM can include the UDM-FE, which is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. In different transactions, several different front-ends can 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 324 via the N10 reference point between the UDM 327 and the SMF 324. The UDM 327 can also support SMS management, where the SMS-FE implements similar application logic as previously discussed. Additionally, the UDM327 can present an interface based on the Nudm service.

[0094] The AF 328 can provide the influence of the application on traffic routing, provide access to the NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. The NCE can be a mechanism that allows the 5GC 320 and the AF328 to provide information to each other via the NEF 323, which can be used for edge computing implementations. In such implementations, the network operator and third-party services can be hosted near the access point of the attached UE 301 to achieve effective service delivery by reducing the end-to-end latency and the load on the transport network. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC can select the UPF 302 near the UE 301 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 302 to the DN 303 via the N6 interface. This can be based on the UE subscription data, the UE location, and the information provided by the AF 328. In this way, the AF 328 can influence the UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator deployment, when the AF 328 is considered a trusted entity, the network operator can allow the AF 328 to directly interact with the relevant NF. Additionally, the AF 328 can present an interface based on the Naf service.

[0095] The NSSF 329 selects a set of network slice instances that can serve the UE 301. If needed, the NSSF 329 can also determine the allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAI. The NSSF 329 can also determine, based on appropriate configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 325, a set of AMFs or a list of candidate AMFs 321 for serving the UE 301. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 301 can be triggered by the AMF 321, where the UE 301 registers by interacting with the NSSF 329, which can cause a change in the AMF 321. The NSSF 329 can interact with the AMF 321 via the N22 reference point between the AMF 321 and the NSSF 329; and can communicate with another NSSF 329 in the visited network via the N31 reference point ( Figure 3 not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 329 can present an interface based on the Nnssf service.

[0096] As previously discussed, the CN 320 can include an SMSF, which can be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification and relaying SM messages to / from the UE 301 to / from other entities such as SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS routers. The SMS can also interact with the AMF 321 and the UDM 327 for a notification procedure that the UE 301 can use for SMS transmission (e.g., setting the UE unreachable flag and notifying the UDM 327 when the UE 301 is available for SMS).

[0097] The CN 120 can also include Figure 3 other elements not shown, such as data storage systems / architectures, 5G-EIR, SEPP, etc. The data storage system can include SDSF, UDSF, etc. Any NF can store unstructured data into or retrieve it from the UDSF (e.g., UE context) via the N18 reference point between any NF and the UDSF ( Figure 3 not shown). A single NF can share the UDSF for storing its corresponding unstructured data, or each NF can have its own UDSF located at or near the single NF. Additionally, the UDSF can present an interface based on the Nudsf service ( Figure 3 not shown). The 5G-EIR can be an NF that checks the status of the PEI to determine whether to blacklist a specific piece of equipment / entity from the network; and the SEPP can be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on the inter-PLMN control plane interface.

[0098] Additionally, there can be more reference points and / or service-based interfaces between the NF services in the NF; however, for clarity, Figure 3These interfaces and reference points are omitted. In one embodiment, CN 320 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME 221) and an AMF 321 to enable interworking between CN 320 and CN 220. Other example interfaces / reference points may include an interface based on N5g-EIR services presented by a 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.

[0099] Figure 4 An example of infrastructure equipment 400 according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure is shown. Infrastructure equipment 400 (or "system 400") may be implemented as a base station, a radio headend, a RAN node (such as the RAN nodes 111 and / or AP 106 shown and described previously), an application server 130, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. In other examples, system 400 may be implemented in or by a UE.

[0100] System 400 includes: an application circuit 405, a baseband circuit 410, one or more radio front-end modules (RFEMs) 415, a memory circuit 420, a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 425, a power triple circuit 430, a network controller circuit 435, a network interface connector 440, a satellite positioning circuit 445, and a user interface 450. In some specific implementations, device 400 may include additional elements, such as, for example, a memory / storage device, a display, a camera, a sensor, or an input / output (I / O) interface. In other specific implementations, the following components may be included in more than one device. For example, the circuits may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other similar specific implementations.

[0101] The application circuit 405 includes, but is not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), a cache memory, and one or more low-dropout regulators (LDOs) in the low-dropout regulators, an interrupt controller, a serial interface such as SPI, l 2C or a general-purpose programmable serial interface module, a real-time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval timers and watchdog timers, general-purpose input / output (I / O or IO), a memory card controller such as a Secure Digital (SD) multimedia card (MMC) or the like, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, a Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interface, and a Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 405 may be coupled to or may include a memory / storage element and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage element to enable various application programs or operating systems to run on the system 400. 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.

[0102] The processor of the application circuit 405 may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC machines (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 specific implementations, the application circuit 405 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to the various specific implementations herein. As an example, the processor of the application circuit 405 may include one or more Apple A-series processors, Intel or processors; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processors, accelerated processing units (APUs), or processors; ARM-based processors licensed by ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A series processors provided by Cavium (TM), Inc., and MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior P-class processors; and so on. In some specific implementations, the system 400 may not utilize the application circuit 405 and, instead, may include a dedicated processor / controller to process, for example, IP data received from the EPC or 5GC.

[0103] In some specific embodiments, the application circuit 405 may include one or more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, etc. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. For example, the programmable processing device may be one or more field programmable devices (FPDs), such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable system-on-chips (PSoCs); and so on. In such specific embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 405 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnected resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various specific embodiments discussed herein. In such specific embodiments, the circuits of the application circuit 405 may include memory units (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), flash memories, static memories (e.g., static random access memories (SRAMs), antifuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs), etc.

[0104] The baseband circuit 410 may be implemented as, for example, a soldered-in substrate, including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to the main circuit board, or a multi-chip module including two or more integrated circuits. Various hardware electronic components of the baseband circuit 410 are discussed below with reference to Figure 6 discussed various hardware electronic components of the baseband circuit 410.

[0105] The user interface circuit 450 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable a user to interact with the system 400 or a peripheral component interface, and the peripheral component interface is designed to enable a peripheral component to interact with the system 400. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., reset buttons), 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 emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0106] The radio frequency front-end module (RFEM) 415 may include a millimeter-wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter-wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some specific embodiments, the one or more sub-millimeter-wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter-wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, belowFigure 6 Antenna array 611), and the RFEM can be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative implementation, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions can be implemented in the same physical RFEM 415 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0107] The memory circuit 420 may include one or more of the following: a volatile memory such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), a non-volatile memory (NVM) including a high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as a "flash memory"), a phase change random access memory (PRAM), a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may be combined with and The memory circuit 420 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

[0108] The PMIC 425 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources, such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a brownout (undervoltage) and a surge (overvoltage) condition. The power tee circuit 430 may provide power extracted from the network cable to provide both power and data connections for the infrastructure equipment 400 using a single cable.

[0109] The network controller circuit 435 can provide a connection to the network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet based on a GRE tunnel, Ethernet based on a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. A physical connection can be used to provide a network connection to / from the infrastructure equipment 400 via a network interface connector 440, which can be an electrical connection (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), an optical connection, or a wireless connection. The network controller circuit 435 may include one or more dedicated processors and / or FPGAs for communicating using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some specific implementations, the network controller circuit 435 may include multiple controllers for providing connections to other networks using the same or different protocols.

[0110] The positioning circuit 445 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by the positioning network of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States, the Global Navigation System (GLONASS) of Russia, the Galileo system of the European Union, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System of China, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., for navigation using the Indian Constellation (NAVIC), the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) of Japan, the Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) of France, etc.). The positioning circuit 445 includes various hardware components (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating OTA communication such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some specific implementations, the positioning circuit 445 may include a Microtechnology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a primary timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 445 may also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 410 and / or the RFEM 415 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 445 may also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuit 405, which may use this data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN node 111, etc.).

[0111] Figure 4 The components shown may communicate with each other using an interface circuit, which may 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 may be a proprietary bus, e.g., used in an SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems may be included, such as 2 I2C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface, and power buses, etc.

[0112] Figure 5 An example of a platform 500 according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure is shown. In a specific implementation, the computer platform 500 may be adapted to be used as the UE 101, 201, 301, the application server 130, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. The platform 500 may include any combination of the components shown in the example. The components of the platform 500 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), parts of ICs, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof adapted within the computer platform 500, or as components otherwise incorporated within the chassis of a larger system. Figure 5The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of computer platform 500. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may exist, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other specific implementations.

[0113] Application circuitry 505 includes circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and an LDO, an interrupt controller, a serial interface (such as SPI), I 2 C or a general-purpose programmable serial interface module, an RTC, timers (including interval timers and watchdog timers), 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, among one or more of them. The processor (or core) of application circuitry 505 may be coupled to the memory / storage element or may include the 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 500. 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.

[0114] The processor of application circuitry 405 may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, a multi-threaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some specific implementations, application circuitry 405 may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to the various specific implementations herein.

[0115] As an example, the processor of application circuitry 505 may include an Apple A series processor. The processor of application circuitry 505 may also be one or more of the following: based on Architecture Core TM processor, such as Quark TM , Atom TM , i3, i5, i7, or MCU-class processor, or may be purchased from Santa Clara, California Company ( Another such processor from Corporation, Santa Clara, CA); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor or Accelerated Processing Unit (APU); from Snapdragon from Technologies, Inc. TM Processor, Texas Instruments, Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP) TM Processor; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some specific embodiments, application circuitry 505 may be part of a system-on-chip (SoC), where application circuitry 505 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package.

[0116] Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry 505 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs, etc.; programmable logic devices (PLDs), such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), etc.; ASICs, such as structured ASICs, etc.; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); etc. In such specific embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 505 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, as well as other interconnect resources that can be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various specific embodiments discussed herein. In such specific embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 505 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), antifuse, etc.)) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs), etc.

[0117] Baseband circuitry 510 may be implemented, for example, as a soldered-in substrate that includes one or more integrated circuits, a single package integrated circuit soldered to the main circuit board, or a multi-chip module that includes two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuitry 510 are discussed below with reference to Figure 6 discussed.

[0118] RFEM 515 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some embodiments, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the millimeter wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, for example, antenna array 611 below Figure 6 ), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In an alternative embodiment, the radio functions of both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave may be implemented in the same physical RFEM 515 that combines both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0119] The memory circuit 520 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a given amount of system memory. For example, the memory circuit 520 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, which includes random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), which includes high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuit 520 may be developed according to Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) low-power double data rate (LPDDR)-based designs such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 520 may be implemented as one or more of the following: a soldered-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 embodiment, the memory circuit 520 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 505. To provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 520 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may particularly include solid state disk drives (SSDDs), hard disk drives (HDDs), micro HDDs, resistive change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, etc. For example, the computer platform 500 may incorporate 3D cross-point (XPOINT) memory from and .

[0120] The removable memory circuit 523 may include a device, circuit, housing / case, port, or socket, etc. for coupling a portable data storage device to the platform 500. These portable data storage devices can 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 discs, external HDDs, etc.

[0121] The platform 500 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 500. External devices connected to the platform 500 via this interface circuitry include the sensor circuit 521 and the electromechanical component (EMC) 522, as well as a removable memory device coupled to the removable memory circuit 523.

[0122] The sensor circuit 521 includes devices, modules, or subsystems intended to detect events or changes in its environment and send information (sensor data) about the detected events to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors particularly include: Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and / or magnetometers; Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) or Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS) including three-axis accelerometers, three-axis gyroscopes, and / or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors; barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiation detectors, etc.), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonic transceivers; microphones or other similar audio capture devices; etc.

[0123] The EMC 522 includes devices, modules, or subsystems intended to enable the platform 500 to change its state, position, and / or orientation or move or control an actuator or (sub)system. Additionally, the EMC 522 may be configured to generate messages / signaling and send messages / signaling to other components of the platform 500 to indicate the current state of the EMC 522. The EMC 522 includes 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 a specific implementation, the platform 500 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 522 based on one or more captured events and / or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and / or various clients.

[0124] In some specific implementations, the interface circuit can connect the platform 500 to the positioning circuit 545. The positioning circuit 545 includes circuitry for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcast by the positioning network of GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) can include GPS of the United States, GLONASS of Russia, Galileo system of the European Union, Beidou Navigation Satellite System of China, regional navigation systems, or GNSS augmentation systems (e.g., NAVIC, QZSS of Japan, DORIS of France, etc.). The positioning circuit 545 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices for facilitating OTA communication such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some specific implementations, the positioning circuit 545 can include a micro PNT IC that uses the main timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 545 can also be part of or interact with the baseband circuit 410 and / or the RFEM 515 to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuit 545 can also provide position data and / or time data to the application circuit 505, which can use this data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures (e.g., radio base stations) for turn-by-turn navigation applications, etc.

[0125] In some specific implementations, the interface circuit can connect the platform 500 to the near field communication (NFC) circuit 540. The NFC circuit 540 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards, where magnetic field sensing is used to enable communication between the NFC circuit 540 and NFC-enabled devices external to the platform 500 (e.g., "NFC contact points"). The NFC circuit 540 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 circuit 540 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 circuit 540, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 540 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smart phone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) near the platform 500.

[0126] The drive circuit 546 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 500. The drive circuit 546 may include individual drivers, thereby allowing other components of the platform 500 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present within or connected to the platform 500. For example, the drive circuit 546 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touchscreen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touchscreen interface of the platform 500, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 521 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 521, an EMC driver for obtaining the actuator position of the EMC 522 and / or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 522, a camera driver for controlling and allowing access to an embedded image capture device, and an audio driver for controlling and allowing access to one or more audio devices.

[0127] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 525 (also referred to as “power management circuit 525”) may manage the power provided to various components of the platform 500. Specifically, with respect to the baseband circuit 510, the PMIC 525 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. When the platform 500 is capable of being powered by a battery 530, e.g., when the device is included in the UE 101, 201, 301, the PMIC 525 is typically included.

[0128] In some specific embodiments, the PMIC 525 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 500. For example, if the platform 500 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform remains connected to a RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 500 may power down for short intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period, the platform 500 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the device is disconnected from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The platform 500 enters a very low power state and performs paging, in which the device wakes up periodically again to listen for the network and then powers down again. The platform 500 may not receive data while in this state; to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power saving modes may make the device unavailable to the network for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this period, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and may be completely powered down. Any data sent during this period will incur a significant delay, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0129] The battery 530 can power the platform 500. However, in some examples, the platform 500 can be installed in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to the power grid. The battery 530 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 specific implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 530 can be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

[0130] In some specific implementations, the battery 530 can be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS can be included in the platform 500 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 530. The BMS can be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 530, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery 530 to provide fault prediction. The BMS can transmit information about the battery 530 to the application circuit 505 or other components of the platform 500. The BMS can also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 505 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 530 or the current from the battery 530. Battery parameters can be used to determine actions that the platform 500 can perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0131] A power block or other power source coupled to the power grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 530. In some examples, the power block XS30 can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to wirelessly obtain power, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 500. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit can be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuit selected can depend on the size of the battery 530 and thus on the current required. 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.

[0132] The user interface circuit 550 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present in or connected to the platform 500, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to implement user interaction with the platform 500 and / or a peripheral component interface designed to implement interaction with peripheral components of the platform 500. The user interface circuit 550 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. The input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual device for accepting input, particularly including one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual device for displaying information or otherwise communicating 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, particularly including 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 a touchscreen (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), an LED display, a quantum dot display, a projector, etc.), where the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. is generated or produced by the operation of the platform 500. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printers, etc. In some specific implementations, the sensor circuit 521 may be used as input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, a motion capture device, etc.) and one or more EMCs may be used as output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator for providing haptic feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, and the NFC circuit includes an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. The peripheral component interface may include, but is not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power interface, etc.

[0133] Although not shown, the components of the platform 500 may communicate with each other using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, Time-Triggered Protocol (TTP) systems, FlexRay systems, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus / IX, for example, used in an SoC-based system. Other bus / IX systems may be included, such as an 2 I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, etc.

[0134] Figure 6 Exemplary components of a baseband circuit 610 and a radio frequency front-end module (RFEM) 615 are shown in accordance with some specific implementations of the present disclosure. The baseband circuit 610 corresponds respectively to Figure 4 the baseband circuit 410 andFigure 5 of the baseband circuit 510. The RFEM 615 corresponds to the Figure 4 RFEM 415 of Figure 5 and the RFEM 515 of

[0135] As shown, the RFEM 615 may include at least a radio frequency (RF) circuit 606, a front-end module (FEM) circuit 608, and an antenna array 611 coupled together as shown. Figure 4 and Figure 5 ) to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of the RF circuit 606. The baseband circuit 610 may handle various radio control functions.

[0136] The foregoing circuitry and / or control logic of baseband circuitry 610 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 604A, a 4G / LTE baseband processor 604B, a 5G / NR baseband processor 604C, or some other baseband processor 604D for other existing generations, generations under development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other specific implementations, some or all of the functions of baseband processors 604A - 604D may be included in modules stored in a memory 604G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 604E. In other specific implementations, some or all of the functions of baseband processors 604A - 604D may be provided as hardware accelerators (e.g., FPGA, ASIC, etc.) loaded with appropriate bitstreams or logic blocks stored in corresponding memory cells. In various specific implementations, memory 604G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS) that, when executed by CPU 604E (or other baseband processor), will cause CPU 604E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of baseband circuitry 610, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of RTOS may include Operating System Embedded (OSE) provided by Nucleus RTOS provided by Mentor TM ,Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided by TM Mentor Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor, ThreadX provided by Express ThreadX provided by Express TM , FreeRTOS, REX OS provided by OKL4 provided by OpenKernel (OK), or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. Additionally, baseband circuitry 610 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 604F. The audio DSP 604F includes elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other specific implementations.

[0137] In some specific implementations, each of processors 604A - XT104E includes a corresponding memory interface to send data to / from memory 604G. Baseband circuitry 610 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 circuitry 610; for sending to Figures 4 to XAn application circuit interface for the application circuit 405 / 505 of T to send data to / receive data from the application circuit; for sending data to / receiving data from Figure 6 the RF circuit 606; an RF circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from the RF circuit; for sending data to / receiving data from one or more wireless hardware components (e.g., near field communication (NFC) components, low-power components, components, etc.) of the wireless hardware connection interface; and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to the PMIC 525 / receiving power or control signals from the PMIC.

[0138] In an alternative specific implementation (which may be combined with the above specific implementation), the baseband circuit 610 includes one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled to each other via an interconnection subsystem and coupled to the CPU subsystem, the audio subsystem, and the interface subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed-signal baseband subsystem via another interconnection subsystem. Each of the interconnection subsystems may include a bus system, point-to-point connectors, a network-on-chip (NOC) structure, and / or some other suitable bus or interconnection technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSP circuits, buffer memories, program memories, voice processing accelerator circuits, data converter circuits such as analog-to-digital converter circuits and digital-to-analog converter circuits, analog circuits including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and / or other similar components. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the baseband circuit 610 may include protocol processing circuits 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 615).

[0139] Although Figure 6Not shown, but in some embodiments, baseband circuit 610 includes various processing devices for operating one or more wireless communication protocols (e.g., "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuitry") 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 circuit 610 and / or RF circuit 606 is part of a millimeter-wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit, the protocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and / or 5G / NR protocol entities. In the first example, the protocol processing circuitry will operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, when baseband circuit 610 and / or RF circuit 606 is part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In the 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., 604G) for storing program code and data for operating protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing the program code and performing various operations using the data. Baseband circuit 610 may also support radio communication for more than one wireless protocol.

[0140] The various hardware elements of baseband circuit 610 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a soldered-in substrate that includes one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single-packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module that includes two or more ICs. In one example, the components of baseband circuit 610 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the components of baseband circuit 610 and RF circuit 606 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system-on-chip (SoC) or a system-in-package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the components of baseband circuit 610 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to RF circuit 606 (or multiple instances of RF circuit 606). In yet another example, some or all of the components of baseband circuit 610 and application circuit 405 / 505 may be implemented together as separate SoCs (e.g., "multi-chip package") mounted to the same circuit board.

[0141] In some specific embodiments, the baseband circuit 610 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some specific embodiments, the baseband circuit 610 may support communications with E-UTRAN or other WMAN, WLAN, WPAN. Specific embodiments in which the baseband circuit 610 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0142] The RF circuit 606 may communicate with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various specific embodiments, the RF circuit 606 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communications with the wireless network. The RF circuit 606 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry for down-converting an RF signal received from the FEM circuit 608 and providing a baseband signal to the baseband circuit 610. The RF circuit 606 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry for up-converting a baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 610 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to the FEM circuit 608.

[0143] In some specific embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 606 may include a mixer circuit 606a, an amplifier circuit 606b, and a filter circuit 606c. In some specific embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 606 may include the filter circuit 606c and the mixer circuit 606a. The RF circuit 606 may also include a synthesizer circuit 606d for synthesizing frequencies for use by the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some specific embodiments, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert an RF signal received from the FEM circuit 608 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 606d. The amplifier circuit 606b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 606c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF), which is configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to the baseband circuit 610 for further processing. In some specific embodiments, although not required, the output baseband signal may be a zero-frequency baseband signal. In some specific embodiments, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, but the scope of specific embodiments is not limited in this regard.

[0144] In some specific embodiments, the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 606d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 608. The baseband signal may be provided by the baseband circuit 610 and may be filtered by the filter circuit 606c.

[0145] In some specific implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion respectively. In some specific implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some specific implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion respectively. In some specific implementations, the mixer circuit 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0146] In some specific implementations, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, but the scope of specific implementations is not limited in this regard. In some alternative specific implementations, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative specific implementations, the RF circuit 606 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 610 may include a digital baseband interface for communicating with the RF circuit 606.

[0147] In some dual-mode specific implementations, a separate radio IC circuit may be provided to process signals of each spectrum, but the scope of specific implementations is not limited in this regard.

[0148] In some specific implementations, the synthesizer circuit 606d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of specific implementations is not limited in this regard because other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 606d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0149] The synthesizer circuit 606d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on a frequency input and a frequency divider control input for use by the mixer circuit 606a of the RF circuit 606. In some specific implementations, the synthesizer circuit 606d may be a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0150] In some specific implementations, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), but this is not necessary. The frequency divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuit 610 or the application circuit 405 / 505 according to the desired output frequency. In some specific implementations, the frequency divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by the application circuit 405 / XS205.

[0151] The synthesizer circuit 606d of the RF circuit 606 may include a frequency divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide an input signal by N or N + 1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some exemplary embodiments, the DLL may include cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to divide the VCO period into Nd equal phase bins, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. Thus, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO period.

[0152] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 606d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and may be used with an in-phase / quadrature (IQ) generator and a frequency divider circuit to generate multiple signals having multiple different phases relative to each other at that carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the local oscillator frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 606 may include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0153] The FEM circuit 608 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on an RF signal received from the antenna array 611, amplify the received signal, and provide an amplified version of the received signal to the RF circuit 606 for further processing. The FEM circuit 608 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify a transmit signal provided by the RF circuit 606 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in the antenna array 611. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit signal path or the receive signal path may be done only in the RF circuit 606, only in the FEM circuit 608, or in both the RF circuit 606 and the FEM circuit 608.

[0154] In some specific implementations, the FEM circuit 608 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operations. The FEM circuit 608 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 608 may include an LNA to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 606). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 608 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 606), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 611.

[0155] The antenna array 611 includes one or more antenna elements, each antenna element being configured to convert an electrical signal into a radio wave to travel through the air and convert the received radio wave into an electrical signal. For example, the digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 610 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which will be amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of the antenna array 611 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements can be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements can form various arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. The antenna array 611 may include a microstrip antenna or a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 611 can be formed as a patch of metal foil in various shapes (e.g., a patch antenna), and can be coupled to the RF circuit 606 and / or the FEM circuit 608 using metal transmission lines, etc.

[0156] The processors of the application circuit 405 / XS205 and the baseband circuit 610 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 610 can be used, either alone or in combination, to execute layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuit 405 / XS205 can utilize the data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further execute layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include the RRC layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include the MAC layer, the RLC layer, and the PDCP layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include the PHY layer of the UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0157] Figure 7 Various protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication device according to some specific implementations of the present disclosure are shown. Specifically, Figure 7 Arrangement 700 including an interconnection between various protocol layers / entities is shown. For various protocol layers / entities operating in conjunction with 5G / NR system standards and LTE system standards,Figure 7 the following description of, but Figure 7 some or all aspects of may also apply to other wireless communication network systems.

[0158] In addition to other higher layer functions not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 700 may also include one or more of PHY 710, MAC 720, RLC 730, PDCP 740, SDAP 747, RRC 755, and NAS layer 757. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points that can provide communication between two or more protocol layers (e.g., Figure 7 items 759, 756, 750, 749, 745, 735, 725, and 715 in).

[0159] PHY 710 can transmit and receive physical layer signals 705, which can be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 705 may include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 710 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 755). PHY 710 may further perform error detection on the transport channel, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of the transport channel, modulation / demodulation of the physical channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. In a specific implementation, an instance of PHY 710 may process requests from an instance of MAC 720 via one or more PHY-SAPs 715 and provide indications thereto. According to some specific implementations, the requests and indications transmitted via PHY-SAP 715 may include one or more transport channels.

[0160] An instance of MAC 720 may process requests from an instance of RLC 730 via one or more MAC-SAPs 725 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via MAC-SAP 725 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 720 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplex MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto the TB to be delivered to PHY 710 via the transport channel, demultiplex MAC SDUs from the TB delivered from PHY 710 via the transport channel onto one or more logical channels, multiplex MAC SDUs onto the TB, schedule information reporting, perform error correction via HARQ, and perform logical channel prioritization.

[0161] Instances of RLC 730 may process requests from and provide indications to instances of PDCP 740 via one or more Radio Link Control Service Access Points (RLC-SAPs) 735. These requests and indications transmitted via RLC-SAP 735 may include one or more logical channels. RLC 730 may operate in multiple operation modes, including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). RLC 730 may perform the transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction by Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 730 may also perform re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, re-ordering of RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detection of duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discarding of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detection of protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0162] Instances of PDCP 740 may process requests from and provide indications to instances of RRC 755 and / or instances of SDAP 747 via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Access Points (PDCP-SAPs) 745. These requests and indications transmitted via PDCP-SAP 745 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 740 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain a PDCP Sequence Number (SN), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs upon re-establishment of the lower layer, eliminate lower layer duplicates when re-establishing lower layer SDUs for radio bearers mapped to RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discarding, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0163] Instances of SDAP 747 can process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP-SAPs 749 and provide indications thereto. These requests and indications transmitted via SDAP-SAP 749 can include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 747 can map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and can also mark QFIs in DL packets and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 747 can be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 110 can control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflection mapping or explicit mapping). For reflection mapping, the SDAP 747 of UE 101 can monitor the QFI of DL packets of each DRB, and can apply the same mapping to the packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP 747 of UE 101 can map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow that corresponds to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of that DRB. To implement reflection mapping, NG-RAN 310 can mark DL packets with the QoS flow ID via the Uu interface. Explicit mapping can involve RRC 755 configuring SDAP 747 with an explicit mapping rule of QoS flows to DRBs, which can be stored and followed by SDAP 747. In a specific implementation, SDAP 747 can be used only in NR specific implementations and not in LTE specific implementations.

[0164] RRC 755 can configure aspects of one or more protocol layers via one or more management service access points (M-SAPs), and the one or more protocol layers can include one or more instances of PHY 710, MAC 720, RLC 730, PDCP 740, and SDAP 747. In a specific implementation, an instance of RRC 755 can process requests from one or more NAS entities 757 via one or more RRC-SAPs 756 and provide indications thereto. The main services and functions of RRC 755 can include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in the MIB or SIB related to NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of the RRC connection between UE 101 and RAN 110 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, mobility between RATs, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. These MIBs and SIBs can include one or more IEs, each of which can include separate data fields or data structures.

[0165] The NAS 757 can form the top layer of the control plane between the UE 101 and the AMF 321. The NAS 757 can support the mobility and session management procedures of the UE 101 to establish and maintain an IP connection between the UE 101 and the P-GW in the LTE system.

[0166] According to various specific implementations, one or more protocol entities of the arrangement 700 can be implemented in the UE 101, the RAN node 111, the AMF 321 in the NR implementation or the MME 221 in the LTE implementation, the UPF 302 in the NR implementation or the S-GW 222 and the P-GW 223 in the LTE implementation, etc., for the control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the foregoing devices. In such implementations, one or more protocol entities that can be implemented in one or more of the UE 101, the gNB 111, the AMF 321, etc. can communicate with the corresponding peer protocol entities that can be implemented in another device or on another device (using the services of the corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some implementations, the gNB-CU of the gNB 111 can host the RRC 755, the SDAP 747, and the PDCP 740 that control one or more gNB-DU operations of the gNB, and the gNB-DUs of the gNB 111 can each host the RLC 730, the MAC 720, and the PHY 710 of the gNB 111.

[0167] In a first example, the control plane protocol stack can include, in order from the top layer to the bottom layer, the NAS 757, the RRC 755, the PDCP 740, the RLC 730, the MAC 720, and the PHY 710. In this example, the upper layer 760 can be built on top of the NAS 757, which includes the IP layer 761, the SCTP 762, and the application layer signaling protocol (AP) 763.

[0168] In the NR implementation, the AP 763 can be the NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 763 for the NG interface 113 defined between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321, or the AP 763 can be the Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 763 for the Xn interface 112 defined between two or more RAN nodes 111.

[0169] The NG-AP 763 can support the functions of the NG interface 113 and may include a primary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP can be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321. The NG-AP763 services can include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 101) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 111 and the AMF 321). These services can include functions, including but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 111 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF 321 to establish, modify, and / or release the UE context in the AMF 321 and the NG-RAN node 111; a mobility function for the UE101 in the ECM-CONNECTED mode, for in-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transmission function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 101 and the AMF 321; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF 321 and the UE 101; an NG interface management function for setting the NG interface and monitoring errors through the NG interface; a warning message sending function for providing a means to transmit a warning message via the NG interface or cancel the ongoing broadcast of a warning message; a configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 111 via the CN 120; and / or other similar functions.

[0170] The XnAP 763 can support the functions of the Xn interface 112 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures can include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 111 (or E-UTRAN 210), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures can include procedures that are not related to a specific UE 101, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0171] In an LTE embodiment, the AP 763 can be the S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 763 for the S1 interface 113 defined between the E-UTRAN node 111 and the MME, or the AP 763 can be the X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 763 for the X2 interface 112 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 111.

[0172] The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 763 can support the functions of the S1 interface, and similar to the previously discussed NG-AP, the S1-AP can include S1-AP EPs. The S1-AP EP can be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 111 and the MME 221 within the LTE CN 120. The S1-AP 763 services can include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN radio access bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN information management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0173] The X2AP 763 can support the functions of the X2 interface 112, and can include X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. The X2AP basic mobility procedures can include procedures for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 120, such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN status transmission procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedures can include procedures that are not related to a specific UE 101, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0174] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 762 can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in an NR implementation, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in an LTE implementation). The SCTP 762 can ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 111 and the AMF 321 / MME 221, partially based on the IP protocol supported by the IP 761. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 761 can be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 761 can use point-to-point transmission to deliver and transfer PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 111 can include communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the L2 and L1 layers of the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0175] In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, SDAP 747, PDCP 740, RLC 730, MAC 720, and PHY 710. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between the UE 101, RAN node 111, and UPF 302 in an NR implementation, or for communication between the S-GW 222 and P-GW 223 in an LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layer 751 may be built on top of SDAP 747 and may include the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Internet Protocol Security layer (UDP / IP) 752, the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol layer for the user plane (GTP-U) 753, and the User Plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 763.

[0176] The transport network layer 754 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of IP transport, and GTP-U 753 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 752 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also referred to as the "Internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets in any one of, for example, IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

[0177] GTP-U 753 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 user data transmitted may be packets in any one of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats. UDP / IP 752 may provide a checksum for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication for selected data flows. The RAN node 111 and S-GW 222 may exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including the L1 layer (e.g., PHY 710), L2 layer (e.g., MAC 720, RLC 730, PDCP 740, and / or SDAP 747), UDP / IP layer 752, and GTP-U 753 using the S1-U interface. The S-GW 222 and P-GW 223 may exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including the L1 layer, L2 layer, UDP / IP layer 752, and GTP-U 753 using the S5 / S8a interface. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support the mobility and session management procedures of the UE 101 to establish and maintain an IP connection between the UE 101 and the P-GW 223.

[0178] In addition, although Figure 7Not shown, but the application layer may exist above the AP 763 and / or the transport network layer 754. The application layer may be a layer in which users of the UE 101, RAN node 111, or other network elements interact with software applications, such as those executed by the application circuit 405 or application circuit 505, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software applications to interact with the communication system (such as the baseband circuit 610) of the UE 101 or RAN node 111. In some specific embodiments, the IP layer and / or the application layer may provide the same or similar functions as those of layers 5 to 7 or parts thereof of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (e.g., OSI layer 7 - application layer, OSI layer 6 - presentation layer, and OSI layer 5 - session layer).

[0179] Figure 8 Components of a core network according to some specific embodiments of the present disclosure are shown. The components of the CN 220 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, and include components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In specific embodiments, the components of the CN 320 can be implemented in the same or similar manner as those discussed herein with respect to the components of the CN 220. In some specific embodiments, NFV is used to virtualize any one or all of the above network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of the CN 220 may be referred to as a network slice 801, and each logical instance of the CN 220 may provide specific network functions and network characteristics. A logical instance of a part of the CN 220 may be referred to as a network sub-slice 802 (e.g., the network sub-slice 802 is shown as including the P-GW 223 and the PCRF 226).

[0180] As used herein, terms such as "instantiation" may refer to the creation of an instance, and an "instance" may refer to a specific 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 cases of different IP domains or overlapping IP addresses. A network slice instance may refer to a set of network function (NF) instances and the resources (e.g., computing, storage, and networking resources) required to deploy a network slice.

[0181] Regarding 5G systems (see, for example Figure 3) A network slice always includes a RAN part and a CN part. Support for network slicing relies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled by different PDU sessions. The network can implement different network slices by scheduling and also by providing different L1 / L2 configurations. If the NAS provides an RRC message, the UE 301 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 eight slices simultaneously.

[0182] A network slice can include the CN 320 control plane and user plane NFs, the NG-RAN 310 in the serving PLMN, and the N3IWF function in the serving PLMN. Each network slice can have a different S-NSSAI and / or can have a different SST. The NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and each network slice is uniquely identified by the S-NSSAI. Network slices can be different in terms of supported features and network function optimizations, and / or multiple network slice instances can deliver the same one or more services but be different for different groups of UEs 301 (e.g., enterprise users). For example, each network slice can deliver different promised services and / or can be dedicated to a specific customer or enterprise. In this example, each network slice can have a different S-NSSAI with the same SST but with different slice differentiators. Additionally, a single UE can be served simultaneously by one or more network slice instances via the 5G AN and be associated with eight different S-NSSAIs. Furthermore, the AMF 321 instance serving a single UE 301 can belong to each network slice instance serving that UE.

[0183] Network slicing in the NG-RAN 310 involves RAN slice awareness. RAN slice awareness includes differentiated handling of traffic for different pre-configured network slices. Slice awareness in the NG-RAN 310 is introduced at the PDU session level by indicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to the PDU session in all signaling including PDU session resource information. How the NG-RAN 310 supports enabling slices in terms of NG-RAN functions (e.g., including a set of network functions for each slice) depends on the specific implementation. The NG-RAN 310 uses assistance information provided by the UE 301 or the 5GC 320 to select the RAN part of the network slice, and this assistance information explicitly identifies one or more network slices among the pre-configured network slices in the PLMN. The NG-RAN 310 also supports resource management and policy enforcement between slices according to the SLA. A single NG-RAN node can support multiple slices, and the NG-RAN 310 can also appropriately apply the appropriate RRM policies for the SLA to each supported slice. The NG-RAN 310 can also support QoS differentiation within a slice.

[0184] The NG-RAN 310 may also use UE assistance information to select the AMF 321 (if available) during initial attachment. The NG-RAN 310 uses the assistance information to route the initial NAS to the AMF 321. If the NG-RAN 310 cannot use the assistance information to select the AMF 321, or the UE 301 does not provide any such information, the NG-RAN 310 sends the NAS signaling to the default AMF 321, which may be in the AMF 321 pool. For subsequent accesses, the UE 301 provides the temporary ID assigned to the UE 301 by the 5GC 320 to enable the NG-RAN 310 to route the NAS message to the appropriate AMF 321, as long as the temporary ID is valid. The NG-RAN 310 knows and can reach the AMF 321 associated with the temporary ID. Otherwise, the method for initial attachment is applied.

[0185] The NG-RAN 310 supports resource isolation between slices. The NG-RAN 310 resource isolation can be achieved through RRM policies and protection mechanisms, which should avoid shared resource shortages in the case where the service level agreement of one slice is interrupted in another slice. In some specific implementations, the NG-RAN 310 resources can be fully assigned to a certain slice. How the NG-RAN 310 supports resource isolation depends on the specific implementation.

[0186] Some slices may be only partially available in the network. The NG-RAN 310 knows that the slices supported in its neighboring cells may be beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in the connected mode. Within the registration area of the UE, the slice availability may not change. The NG-RAN 310 and the 5GC 320 are responsible for handling service requests for slices that may or may not be available in a given area. Permitting or denying access to a slice may depend on factors such as the support for the slice, the availability of resources, and the support of the NG-RAN 310 for the requested service.

[0187] The UE 301 may be associated with multiple network slices simultaneously. In the case where the UE 301 is associated with multiple slices simultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained, and for intra-frequency cell reselection, the UE 301 attempts to preoccupy the best cell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, dedicated priorities can be used to control the frequencies preoccupied by the UE 301. The 5GC 320 will verify that the UE 301 has the right to access the network slices. Before receiving the initial context setup request message, based on knowing the specific slice that the UE 301 is requesting access to, the NG-RAN 310 may be allowed to apply some temporary / local policies. During the initial context setup, the slice that is requesting its resources is notified to the NG-RAN 310.

[0188] The NFV architecture and infrastructure can be used to virtualize one or more NFs onto physical resources that include 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 a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0189] Figure 9 FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing components of an NFV-enabled system 900 according to some implementations of the present disclosure. The system 900 is shown to include a VIM 902, an NFVI 904, a VNFM 906, a VNF 908, an EM 910, an NFVO 912, and an NM 914.

[0190] The VIM 902 manages the resources of the NFVI 904. The NFVI 904 can include physical or virtual resources and applications (including hypervisors) for executing the system 900. The VIM 902 can utilize the NFVI 904 to manage the lifecycle of virtual resources (e.g., creation, maintenance, and demolition 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.

[0191] The VNFM 906 can manage the VNF 908. The VNF 908 can be used to execute EPC components / functions. The VNFM 906 can manage the lifecycle of the VNF 908 and track the performance, faults, and security of the virtual aspects of the VNF 908. The EM 910 can track the performance, faults, and security of the functional aspects of the VNF 908. The tracking data from the VNFM 906 and the EM 910 can include, for example, PM data used by the VIM 902 or the NFVI 904. Both the VNFM 906 and the EM 910 can scale up / down the number of VNFs of the system 900.

[0192] The NFVO 912 can coordinate, authorize, release, and engage the resources of the NFVI 904 to provide the requested services (e.g., execute EPC functions, components, or slices). The NM 914 can provide an end-user function grouping responsible for network management, which may include network elements with VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of VNFs can occur via the EM 910).

[0193] Figure 10 FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein according to some implementations of the present disclosure. Specifically,Figure 10 A schematic diagram of hardware resource 1000 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1010, one or more memory / storage devices 1020, and one or more communication resources 1030, each of which can be communicatively coupled via bus 1040. For a specific implementation that utilizes node virtualization (e.g., NFV), a hypervisor 1002 can be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize hardware resource 1000.

[0194] Processor 1010 can include, for example, processor 1012 and processor 1014. Processor 1010 can 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.

[0195] Memory / storage device 1020 can include main memory, disk memory, or any suitable combination thereof. Memory / storage device 1020 can 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 devices, etc.

[0196] Communication resource 1030 can include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1004 or one or more databases 1006 via network 1008. For example, communication resource 1030 can include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or (low power consumption) components, components, and other communication components.

[0197] Instruction 1050 may include software, a program, an application, an applet, an application, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 1010 to execute any one or more of the method sets discussed herein. Instruction 1050 may reside entirely or partially in at least one of the processors 1010 (e.g., within the cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 1020, or any suitable combination thereof. Additionally, any part of Instruction 1050 may be transmitted from any combination of the peripheral device 1004 or the database 1006 to the hardware resource 1000. Accordingly, the memory of the processor 1010, the memory / storage device 1020, the peripheral device 1004, and the database 1006 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0198] For one or more specific implementations, at least one of the components shown in one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods described in the embodiments section below. For example, the baseband circuitry described above in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the following embodiments. As another example, the circuitry associated with the UE, base station, network element, etc. described above in connection with one or more of the foregoing figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the embodiments shown in the embodiments section below.

[0199] Select the RLC entity for transmitting PDCP control PDU

[0200] In one specific implementation, a method is proposed for selecting a subset of RLC entities from the active radio link control (RLC) entities for transmitting PDCP control PDUs. In such specific implementations, a unique index may be assigned to each RLC entity associated with a DRB / PDCP entity. Assume that in one specific implementation, there may be m RLC entities associated with a DRB / PDCP entity, then the index may be 0, 1, …, m−1. For example, and based on the above assumption, if there are 4 RLC entities associated with a DRB / PDCP entity, then the index is in the set {0, 1, 2, 3}. Through RRC signaling, for example, when associating an RLC entity with a DRB in the IE RLC-BearerConfig, the configuration of the RLC entity index is performed.

[0201] In some specific implementations, one RLC entity in the RLC entities may be selected to be activated for transmitting PDCP control PDUs. In some specific implementations, the RLC entity with the smallest index among the activated RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity may be used to transmit PDCP control PDUs. For example, if the RLC entity with index 0 in the set {0, 1, 2, 3} is deactivated, then it is the turn of the RLC entity with index 1 (if activated) to be responsible for transmitting PDCP control PDUs. Alternatively, in other specific implementations, the RLC entity with the largest index among the activated RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity may be used to transmit PDCP control PDUs. In other specific implementations, any activated RLC entity of the DRB / PDCP entity may be selected and used to transmit PDCP control PDUs.

[0202] In another specific implementation, two or more RLC entities may be selected from multiple activated RLC entities for transmitting PDCP control PDUs. Taking the transmission via two RLC entities as an example, the specific implementation may select the RLC entities with the two smallest indexes among the activated RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity for transmitting PDCP control PDUs. Another option is that the RLC entities with the two largest indexes among the activated RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity may be selected and used to transmit PDCP control PDUs. Yet another alternative is that the RLC entity with the smallest index and the RLC entity with the largest index among the activated RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity are used to transmit PDCP control PDUs.

[0203] In some specific implementations, for BSR reporting, the PDCP data volume may be indicated to the MAC entity associated with one or more RLC entities selected in this specific implementation, and the PDCP data volume excluding PDCP control PDUs may be indicated to the MAC entity associated with other RLC entities.

[0204] Figure 11FIG. is a flowchart of an example of process 1100 for selecting an RLC entity for transmitting PDCP control PDUs. Generally speaking, process 1100 may include: accessing, by a device in a wireless communication system, data representing an RLC entity index and RLC activation status information of a data radio bearer (DRB) / PDCP entity, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity in the RLC entity index are activated or deactivated (1110); selecting, by the device in the wireless communication system, a subset of RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information of each of these RLC entities (1120); and transmitting PDCP control PDUs using the selected subset of RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity (1130). Process 1100 is described in more detail as being performed by a system such as system 100.

[0205] The system may start executing process 1100 as follows: accessing, by a device in a wireless communication system, data representing an RLC entity index and RLC activation status information of a data radio bearer (DRB) / PDCP entity, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity in the RLC entity index are activated or deactivated (1110). For each specific RLC entity, the activation status information indicates whether the specific RLC is activated or deactivated.

[0206] A DRB / PDCP entity is an association between a single DRB and a single PDCP entity. However, in some specific implementations, multiple DRBs may be associated with any one specific PDCP entity. The system may include multiple devices, such as access nodes of a radio access network (RAN) and user equipment (UE). In some specific implementations, an access node or UE may execute method 1100 or a part thereof.

[0207] The system may continue executing process 100 as follows: selecting, by a device in the wireless communication system, a subset of RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information of each of these RLC entities (1120). The selection phase may occur in various ways. For example, in some specific implementations, the selection phase may include: the system selecting an RLC entity having activation status information indicating that the RLC entity is activated. In some specific implementations, the system selection phase may include: selecting the activated RLC entity having the lowest index position. In some specific implementations, the selection phase may include: the system selecting the activated RLC entity having the highest index position.

[0208] In some specific embodiments, the selection phase may include: the system selects a plurality of active RLC entities. For example, in some specific embodiments, the selection phase may include: the system selects a first active RLC entity with the lowest index position and a second active RLC entity with the second lowest index position. In other specific embodiments, the selection phase may include: the system selects a first active RLC entity with the highest index position and a second active RLC entity with the second highest index position. In other specific embodiments, the selection phase may include a first active RLC entity with the highest index position and a second active RLC entity with the lowest index position.

[0209] MAC control element (CE) for activating or deactivating the RLC entity

[0210] The present disclosure provides a plurality of specific embodiments of using MAC CE to select a subset of RLC entities for PDCP duplication. In some specific embodiments, the MAC CE may select a subset of RLC entities for PDCP duplication by, for example, activating or deactivating RLC entities.

[0211] In some specific embodiments, a fixed-size MAC CE may be used to select a subset of RLC entities. In such specific embodiments, the number of DRBs in the MAC CE may be set to the maximum number of DRBs for packet duplication associated with the MAC entity, and the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE may be set to the maximum number of RLC entities for each DRB / PDCP entity. In this particular embodiment, the MAC CE size is immutable because the size neither depends on the actual configured number of DRBs for packet duplication nor on the actual configured number of RLC entities for a DRB / PDCP entity. Additionally, in this particular specific embodiment, it is assumed that any RLC entity of a DRB can be activated or deactivated as long as there is at least one RLC entity activated for the DRB.

[0212] For example, assume that up to 8 DRBs configured for packet duplication are associated with a MAC entity, and a DRB / PDCP entity has up to 4 RLC entities. Then the fixed-size MAC CE for this example is as Figure 12 shown. Each field RE ij such as field 1210 indicates whether the RLC entity j (configured index) of DRB i is used for retransmission. In this example, i is the ascending DRB ID among the DRBs configured with PDCP duplication and RLC entities associated with the MAC entity, and j is the unique RLC entity index within DRB i. Each field may include activation status information indicating whether the specific RLC entity used for retransmission is activated or deactivated. For example, field RE 011210 may include activation status information indicating whether the RLC entity 1 1210b of DRB 0 is used for retransmission. In some specific implementations, the RE ij field may be set to "1" to indicate that the RLC entity j of DRB i is selected for PDCP retransmission (e.g., activation), and the RE ij field is set to "0" to indicate that the RLC entity j of DRB i is not selected for PDCP retransmission (e.g., deactivation).

[0213] In another fixed-size MAC CE implementation, a similar fixed-size MAC CE may be used to select a subset of RLC entities. In this specific implementation, the number of DRBs in the MAC CE may be set to the maximum number of DRBs for packet repetition associated with the MAC entity. In this specific implementation, the MAC CE size is immutable because the size depends neither on the actual configured number of DRBs for packet repetition nor on the actual configured number of RLC entities for one DRB / PDCP entity. The difference from this implementation is that in this implementation, it is assumed that there is a primary RLC entity that is always active for the DRB and can only be changed by RRC signaling. Therefore, if there are at most n RLC entities associated with one DRB / PDCP entity, only n - 1 bits are needed to select a subset of the RLC entities of a DRB / PDCP entity because the primary RLC entity is always active. For example, assume that at most 8 DRBs configured for packet repetition are associated with one MAC entity, and one DRB / PDCP entity has at most 4 RLC entities, then the fixed-size MAC CE is as Figure 13 shown. The field RE ij , such as the field RE Figure 13 in 01 1310, has the same meaning as the previous example field 1210 of the MAC CE discussed in reference Figure 12 .

[0214] The above-described specific implementations of the fixed-size MAC CE can be distinguished by whether a primary RLC entity is defined. The key difference is that if there are at most n RLC entities associated with a DRB / PDCP entity, then in the presence of a primary RLC entity, n - 1 bits are required to select a subset of the RLC entities of a DRB / PDCP entity, and in the absence of a primary RLC entity, n bits are required to select a subset of the RLC entities of a DRB / PDCP entity (e.g., any RLC entity of a DRB can be activated / deactivated as long as there is at least one RLC entity activated for the DRB). In the following specific implementations of the MAC CE, it can be assumed that there is no primary RLC entity (e.g., any RLC entity of a DRB can be activated / deactivated as long as there is at least one RLC entity activated for the DRB). However, it should be understood that in view of the above description, these following specific implementations can also be extended to the case where a defined primary RLC entity exists, and such specific implementations are also in line with the present disclosure.

[0215] In some specific implementations, a variable-size MAC CE can be used to select a subset of RLC entities for PDCP duplication. In such specific implementations, the number of DRBs in the MAC CE is set to the maximum number of DRBs for packet duplication associated with the MAC entity, and the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE is set according to the maximum number of RLC entities configured for each DRB / PDCP entity. For example, assume that up to 8 DRBs configured for packet duplication are associated with a MAC entity, and a DRB / PDCP entity has up to 4 RLC entities, but only up to 3 RLC entities are configured for a DRB / PDCP entity. The variable-size MAC CE is shown above Figure 13 (the same example as described above using a fixed-size MAC CE and a defined primary RLC entity). The field RE ij , such as Figure 13 the field RE in 01 1310, has the same meaning as the meaning of the previous example field 1210 of the MAC CE discussed in reference Figure 12 .

[0216] In another embodiment of the variable - size MAC CE, the number of DRBs in the MAC CE can be set to the total number of DRBs configured for packet duplication of the MAC entity, and the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE is set according to the maximum number of RLC entities per DRB / PDCP entity. For example, assume that 4 DRBs configured for packet duplication are associated with the MAC entity (although up to 8 DRBs configured for packet duplication can be associated with the MAC entity), and there are at most 4 RLC entities configured for one DRB / PDCP entity. Then the variable - size MAC CE 1400 is as Figure 14 shown. The field RE ij , such as Figure 14 the field RE in 01 1410, has the same meaning as the previous example fields 1210, 1310 of the MAC CEs 1200, 1300 discussed with reference to Figure 12 and Figure 13 respectively. Since 4 DRBs configured for packet duplication are associated with the MAC entity, the index i ranges from 0 - 3.

[0217] In another embodiment of the variable - size MAC CE, the number of DRBs in the MAC CE is set to the total number of DRBs configured for packet duplication of the MAC entity, and for each DRB, only whether the configured RLC entity is activated / deactivated is indicated. This means that the number of bits for each DRB varies in the MAC CE. For the MAC CE, this embodiment has the least overhead. For example, assume that 4 DRBs configured for packet duplication are associated with the MAC entity (although up to 8 DRBs configured for packet duplication can be associated with the MAC entity), and the number of configured RLC entities for DRBs 0, 1, 2, 3 are 4, 3, 3, 2 respectively. The variable - size MAC CE is as Figure 15 shown. The "R" field means reserved bit. The field RE ij , such as Figure 15 the field RE in 01 1510, has the same meaning as the previous example fields 1210, 1310, 1410 of the MAC CEs 1200, 1300, 1400 discussed with reference to Figure 12 , Figure 13 and Figure 14 respectively. Since 4 DRBs configured for packet duplication are associated with the MAC entity, the index i ranges from 0 - 3. Since 2 RLC entities are configured for DRB 3, there are two fields associated with DRB 3: RE 30 and RE 31 .

[0218] Figure 16 It is a flowchart of an example of process 1600 for activating or deactivating RLC. Generally speaking, process 1600 may include: generating, by a device in a wireless communication system, a MAC CE that provides an indication of the activation status information of each radio link control (RLC) entity among a plurality of RLC entities, where each field among the plurality of fields of the MAC CE represents a specific RLC entity (1610) of a DRB for retransmission; and encoding, by a device in the wireless communication system, the MAC Ce for transmission to a user equipment (1620). Process 11600 is described in more detail as being executed by a system such as system 100.

[0219] The system may start to execute process 1600 as follows: generating, by a device in a wireless communication system, a MAC CE that provides an indication of the activation status information of each radio link control (RLC) entity among a plurality of RLC entities, where each field among the plurality of fields of the MAC CE represents a specific RLC entity (1610) of a DRB for retransmission. In some specific embodiments, the size of the MAC CE may be fixed. In other specific embodiments, the size of the MAC CE may be variable.

[0220] In some specific embodiments, generating the MAC CE may include: specifying the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the maximum number of DRBs for packet retransmission associated with the MAC entity; and specifying the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE as the maximum number of configured RLC entities for each DRB / PDCP. In other specific embodiments, generating the MAC CE may include: specifying the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the total number of DRBs configured for packet retransmission of the MAC entity; and separately specifying the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE based on the configured number of RLC entities of the corresponding DRB / PDCP entity.

[0221] UE - assisted information for repeated activation or deactivation

[0222] In some specific implementations, the UE may generate auxiliary information, and the network may use this auxiliary information to select a subset of RLC entities for PDCP retransmission (for PDCP data PDUs). In some specific implementations, the auxiliary information generated by the UE may be transmitted to a network device, such as an access node. For example, in some specific implementations, although optional, the UE may provide auxiliary information to the network to select a subset of RLC entities to transmit PDCP control PDUs. The set of RLC entities for transmitting PDCP control PDUs may be a subset of the RLC entities for transmitting PDCP data PDUs. In other specific implementations, the UE may use the generated auxiliary information to perform one or more selection operations locally on the UE. When transmitted, the auxiliary information may be sent via RRC signaling or via a MAC CE.

[0223] UE auxiliary information may include, for example, data representing a status report of UE performance, UE attributes, or both. In some specific implementations, the status report may include data indicating the priority of one or more services requested by the UE, data indicating one or more problems the UE has encountered, and data indicating UE preferences for one or more connection parameters.

[0224] Figure 17 FIG. 1700 is a flowchart of an example of a process 1700 for selecting an RLC entity to transmit a PDCP control PDU. The process 1700 may be performed by a system such as system 100 and includes: accessing, by a device in a wireless communication system, data representing RLC entity indices and RLC activation status information of data radio bearers (DRBs) / PDCP entities, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities in the RLC entity indices are activated or deactivated (1710); obtaining, by the device in the wireless communication system, auxiliary information generated by a user equipment (UE) in the wireless communication system (1720); selecting, by the device in the wireless communication system, a subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities based on the index positions in the indices, the activation status information of each of these RLC entities, and the obtained auxiliary information (1730); and using the selected subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entities to transmit PDCP control PDUs (1740).

[0225] In some specific implementations, a wireless communication system may include multiple devices that generate auxiliary information, such as access nodes of a radio access network (RAN) and user equipment (UE). In some specific implementations, an access node or UE may perform method 1700 or a portion thereof. The auxiliary information generated by the UE may include a status report of UE performance, UE attributes, or both. In some specific implementations, the status report may include data indicating the priority of one or more services requested by the UE, data indicating one or more problems the UE has encountered, and data indicating UE preferences for one or more connection parameters.

[0226] Other specific implementations

[0227] Multiple specific implementations have been described. However, it should be understood that various modifications can be made without departing from the essence and scope of the present invention. Additionally, the logical flows shown in the figures do not require the specific order or sequential order shown to achieve the desired result. Moreover, other steps may be provided or steps may be eliminated from the process, and other components may be added to or removed from the system. Therefore, other specific implementations are within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A method for communication, the method comprising: Access data representing an index of radio link control (RLC) entities for data radio bearer (DRB) / packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entities and RLC activation status information, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity in the index of RLC entities are activated or deactivated; Select a subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information for each of the RLC entities among the RLC entities; And Use the selected subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity to transmit PDCP control protocol data units (PDUs), where selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information for each of the RLC entities among the RLC entities includes: Selecting an activated RLC entity having the lowest index position.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein for each specific RLC entity, the activation status information indicates whether the specific RLC is activated or deactivated.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity of the RLC entities comprises: Selecting an RLC entity having activation status information indicating that the RLC entity is activated.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity of the RLC entities comprises: Selecting a first activated RLC entity having the lowest index position and a second activated RLC having the second lowest index position.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity of the RLC entities comprises: Selecting a first activated RLC entity having the highest index position and a second activated RLC entity having the lowest index position.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein each DRB / PDCP entity is an association between a single DRB and a single PDCP entity.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein accessing the data comprises accessing, by an access node of a radio access network (RAN), the data representing the index and the RLC activation status information of the RLC entity of the data radio bearer (DRB) / PDCP entity.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein accessing the data comprises accessing, by a user equipment (UE), the data representing the index and the RLC activation status information of the RLC entity of the data radio bearer (DRB) / PDCP entity.

9. A device for communication, comprising: One or more processors configured to perform operations, the operations including: Access data representing an index of RLC entities for DRB / PDCP entities and RLC activation status information, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity in the index of RLC entities are activated or deactivated; Select a subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information for each of the RLC entities among the RLC entities; and Use the selected subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity to transmit PDCP control protocol data units (PDUs); where selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index positions in the index and the activation status information for each of the RLC entities among the RLC entities includes: Selecting an activated RLC entity having the lowest index position.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein for each specific RLC entity, the activation status information indicates whether the specific RLC is activated or deactivated.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities comprises: Selecting an RLC entity having activation status information indicating that the RLC entity is activated.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities comprises: Selecting a first activated RLC entity having the lowest index position and a second activated RLC entity having the second lowest index position.

13. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities comprises: Selecting a first activated RLC entity having the highest index position and a second activated RLC entity having the lowest index position.

14. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein each DRB / PDCP entity is an association between a single DRB and a single PDCP entity.

15. The apparatus according to claim 9, comprising an access node of a radio access network RAN, the access node comprising the one or more processors.

16. The apparatus according to claim 9, comprising a user equipment UE, the UE comprising the one or more processors.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more processors, such that when executed, the one or more processors perform operations, the operations comprising: Access data indicating an index of an RLC entity accessing a data radio bearer DRB / packet data convergence protocol PDCP entity and an RLC activation status information, where the activation status information indicates whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity in the index of the RLC entity are activated or deactivated; Select a subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities; And Use the selected subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity to transmit a PDCP control protocol data unit PDU, where selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities includes: Selecting an activated RLC entity with the lowest index position.

18. The computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein for each specific RLC entity, the activation status information indicates whether the specific RLC is activated or deactivated.

19. The computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities comprises: Selecting an RLC entity with activation status information indicating that the RLC entity is activated.

20. The computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities comprises: Selecting a first activated RLC entity with the lowest index position and a second activated RLC entity with the second lowest index position.

21. The computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities comprises: Selecting a first activated RLC entity with the highest index position and a second activated RLC entity with the lowest index position.

22. The computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein each DRB / PDCP entity is an association between a single DRB and a single PDCP entity.

23. A method for communication, the method comprising: Generate a MAC CE that provides an indication of the activation status information of each RLC entity among a plurality of radio link control RLC entities, where each field among the plurality of fields of the MAC CE represents a specific RLC entity for a DRB for retransmission; and Encode the MAC CE for transmission to a user equipment, where generating the MAC CE includes: Specifying the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the maximum number of DRBs for packet repetition associated with the MAC entity; and Specifying the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE as the maximum number of configured RLC entities for each DRB / PDCP; or where generating the MAC CE includes: Specifying the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the total number of DRBs configured for packet repetition for the MAC entity; and Individually specifying the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE based on the configured number of RLC entities of the corresponding DRB / PDCP entity.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein any RLC entity of the DRB can be activated or deactivated as long as there is at least one RLC entity activated for the DRB.

25. The method according to claim 23, wherein the MAC CE has a fixed size.

26. The method according to claim 23, wherein the MAC CE has a variable size.

27. A device for communication, comprising: One or more processors configured to perform operations including: Generate a MAC CE that provides an indication of the activation status information of each RLC entity among a plurality of radio link control RLC entities, where each field among the plurality of fields of the MAC CE represents a specific RLC entity for a DRB for retransmission; and Encode the MAC CE for transmission to a user equipment; where generating the MAC CE includes: Specifying the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the maximum number of DRBs for packet repetition associated with the MAC entity; and Specify the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE as the maximum number of RLC entities configured for each DRB / PDCP; or where generating the MAC CE includes: specify the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the total number of DRBs configured for packet duplication for the MAC entity; and individually specify the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE based on the configured number of RLC entities for the corresponding DRB / PDCP entity.

28. The apparatus according to claim 27, wherein any RLC entity of the DRB can be activated or deactivated as long as there is at least one RLC entity activated for the DRB.

29. The apparatus according to claim 27, wherein the MAC CE has a fixed size.

30. The apparatus according to claim 27, wherein the MAC CE has a variable size.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software including instructions executable by one or more processors, such that upon such execution, the one or more processors perform operations including: Generate a MAC CE that provides an indication of the activation status information of each RLC entity among a plurality of radio link control (RLC) entities, wherein each field among the plurality of fields of the MAC CE represents a specific RLC entity for a DRB for retransmission; and encode the MAC CE for transmission to a user equipment; where generating the MAC CE includes: specify the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the maximum number of DRBs configured for packet duplication associated with the MAC entity; and specify the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE as the maximum number of RLC entities configured for each DRB / PDCP; or where generating the MAC CE includes: specify the number of DRBs in the MAC CE as the total number of DRBs configured for packet duplication for the MAC entity; and individually specify the number of bits for each DRB in the MAC CE based on the configured number of RLC entities for the corresponding DRB / PDCP entity.

32. The computer-readable medium according to claim 31, wherein any RLC entity of the DRB can be activated or deactivated as long as there is at least one RLC entity activated for the DRB.

33. The computer-readable medium according to claim 31, wherein the MAC CE has a fixed size.

34. The computer-readable medium according to claim 31, wherein the MAC CE has a variable size.

35. A method for communication, the method comprising: Access data representing an index of radio link control (RLC) entities for data radio bearer (DRB) / packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entities and RLC activation status information, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity in the index of RLC entities are activated or deactivated; Obtain auxiliary information generated by a user equipment (UE); Select a subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index, the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities, and the obtained auxiliary information; and Transmit a PDCP control protocol data unit (PDU) using the selected subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity, where selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity among the RLC entities includes: Selecting the activated RLC entity with the lowest index position.

36. The method according to claim 35, wherein accessing the data comprises accessing, by an access node of a radio access network RAN, the data of the index of the RLC entity representing the DRB / PDCP entity and the RLC activation status information.

37. The method according to claim 35, wherein accessing the data comprises accessing, by the UE that generates the auxiliary information, the data of the index of the RLC entity representing the DRB / PDCP entity and the RLC activation status information.

38. The method according to claim 35, wherein the auxiliary information comprises a status report of UE performance or UE attributes.

39. The method according to claim 38, wherein the status report comprises data indicating the priority of one or more services requested by the UE, data indicating one or more problems encountered by the UE, or data indicating UE preferences for one or more connection parameters.

40. A device for communication, comprising: One or more processors configured to perform operations including: Access data representing an index of radio link control (RLC) entities for data radio bearer (DRB) / packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entities and RLC activation status information, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity in the index of RLC entities are activated or deactivated; Obtain auxiliary information generated by a user equipment (UE); Select a subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index, the activation status information for each RLC entity in the RLC entity, and the obtained auxiliary information; and Use the selected subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity to transmit PDCP control protocol data units (PDUs); wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity in the RLC entity includes: Select the activated RLC entity with the lowest index position.

41. The device according to claim 40, wherein accessing the data comprises accessing, by an access node of a radio access network RAN, the data of the index of the RLC entity representing the DRB / PDCP entity and the RLC activation status information.

42. The device according to claim 40, wherein accessing the data comprises accessing, by the UE that generates the auxiliary information, the data of the index of the RLC entity representing the DRB / PDCP entity and the RLC activation status information.

43. The device according to claim 40, wherein the auxiliary information comprises a status report of UE performance or UE attributes.

44. The apparatus according to claim 43, wherein the status report includes data indicating the priority of one or more services requested by the UE, data indicating one or more problems the UE has encountered, or data indicating the UE preferences for one or more connection parameters.

45. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software including instructions executable by one or more processors, which when executed cause the one or more processors to perform operations including: Access data representing the index of the RLC entity of the data radio bearer (DRB) / PDCP entity and the RLC activation status information, the activation status information indicating whether one or more RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity in the index of the RLC entity are activated or deactivated; Obtain auxiliary information generated by the user equipment (UE); Select a subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index, the activation status information for each RLC entity in the RLC entity, and the obtained auxiliary information; and Use the selected subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity to transmit PDCP control protocol data units (PDUs); wherein selecting the subset of the RLC entities of the DRB / PDCP entity based on the index position in the index and the activation status information for each RLC entity in the RLC entity includes: Select the activated RLC entity with the lowest index position.

46. The computer-readable medium according to claim 45, wherein accessing the data includes an access node of a radio access network (RAN) accessing the data representing the index of the RLC entity of the DRB / PDCP entity and the RLC activation status information.

47. The computer-readable medium according to claim 45, wherein accessing the data includes the UE that generates the auxiliary information accessing the data representing the index of the RLC entity of the DRB / PDCP entity and the RLC activation status information.

48. The computer-readable medium according to claim 45, wherein the auxiliary information includes a status report of UE performance or UE attributes.

49. The computer-readable medium according to claim 48, wherein the status report includes data indicating the priority of one or more services requested by the UE, data indicating one or more problems the UE has encountered, or data indicating the UE preferences for one or more connection parameters.

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