End-to-end Radio Access Network (RAN) deployment in Open RAN (O-RAN)

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer programs for configuring a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO). In one aspect, a method may include the following actions: generating, by one or more computers, a message including data representing a request to upload a virtual network function (VNF) package; encoding, by the one or more computers, the generated message including the VNF package for transmission to a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO); and transmitting, by the one or more computers, the encoded message to the NFVO.

Description

[0001] Cross-references to related patent applications

[0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 859,559, filed on June 10, 2019, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Background Art

[0003] Various implementations may generally relate to the field of wireless communications. Summary of the invention

[0004] Even as the investments required to deploy next-generation networks, such as 5G networks, become increasingly expensive to meet growing capacity demands, the monthly fees paid by each mobile user remain more or less the same. As a result, mobile operators may be under pressure to find ways to cut costs. The advent of software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) enables the construction of more agile and cheaper core networks.

[0005] The Radio Access Network (RAN) represents approximately 65%-70% of the total cost of ownership of a network in both construction and operation. Therefore, organizations like the Open RAN (O-RAN) Alliance have been formed to open up the RAN architecture with standard interfaces, thus enabling multi-vendor deployments and a more competitive and distinct vendor ecosystem. In addition, O-RAN aims to add more intelligence to RAN nodes by defining a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) to automate network operations and reduce OPEX.

[0006] Therefore, some specific implementations of the present disclosure involve end-to-end RAN deployment in O-RAN. In addition, end-to-end RAN deployment using virtual network functions (VNFs) and physical network functions (PNFs) enables operators to deploy O-DU, O-CU-UP, O-CU-CP, AMF, and UPF, where O-DU is connected to O-RU. Such deployment significantly reduces the deployment cost of conventional methods.

[0007] According to an innovative aspect of the present disclosure, a method for configuring a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) is disclosed. In one aspect, the method may include generating a message by one or more computers, the message including data representing a request to upload a virtual network function (VNF) package; encoding the generated message including the VNF package by the one or more computers for transmission to the network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO); and transmitting the encoded message to the NFVO by the one or more computers.

[0008] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs for performing the actions of the method defined by the instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage device.

[0009] These and other versions may optionally include one or more of the following features. For example, in some implementations, NFVO is a component of an infrastructure management framework (IMFW).

[0010] In some specific implementations, the method may further include receiving a message from the NFVO after transmitting the encoded message, wherein the received message includes data indicating that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded to the NFVO.

[0011] In some embodiments, the generated message including the upload VNF package request includes an identifier of the VNF.

[0012] In some embodiments, the generated message including the upload VNF package request includes an identifier of a physical network function (PNF).

[0013] In some embodiments, a service management and orchestration framework (SMOFW) is used to perform one or more of the following: (i) generating a message including a request to upload a VNF, (ii) encoding the generated message including the VNF packet for transmission to a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO), or (iii) transmitting the encoded message to the NVFO.

[0014] According to another innovative aspect of the present disclosure, a method is disclosed, which includes: generating a first request message by a device of a service management and orchestration framework (SMOFW), the first request message including data representing a request to upload a virtual network function (VNF) package; transmitting the generated first request message by the device of the SMOFW to a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO); receiving a first response message by the device of the SMOFW from the NFVO, the first response message including data indicating that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded; generating a second request message by the device of the SMOFW, the second request message including data representing a request to upload a physical network function (PNF) descriptor (PNFD); transmitting the generated second request message by the device of the SMOFW to the NFVO; and receiving a second response message by the device of the SMOFW from the NFVO, the second response message including data indicating that the PNFD has been successfully uploaded.

[0015] Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs for performing the actions of the method defined by the instructions encoded on a computer-readable storage device.

[0016] These versions and other versions may optionally include one or more of the following features. For example, in some specific implementations, the method may further include: generating, by the SMOFW device, a third request message, the third request message including data indicating a request to update to a network service descriptor (NSD) associated with a previously uploaded VNF package and PNFD; transmitting, by the SMOFW device, the generated third request message to the NFVO; receiving, by the SMOFW device, a third response message from the NFVO, the third response message including data indicating that the NSD update was successful.

[0017] In some specific implementations, the method may further include: generating, by the SMOFW device, a fourth request message, the fourth request message including data representing a request to update a network service (NS) instance associated with the updated NSD; transmitting, by the SMOFW device, the generated fourth request message to the NFVO; receiving, by the SMOFW device, a fourth response message from the NFVO, wherein the fourth response message includes data indicating that the NS instance update has started; and receiving, by the SMOFW device, a fifth response message from the NFVO, wherein the fifth response message includes data indicating a result of the NS instance update.

[0018] In some embodiments, the result of the NS instance update includes: (i) data indicating that the NS instance update was successful, or (ii) data indicating that the NS instance update was unsuccessful.

[0019] In some implementations, the VNF package may include one or more of the following: a VNF for O-CU-CP, a VNF for O-CU-UP, or a VNF for O-DU.

[0020] In some implementations, the VNF package includes a VNF descriptor for each VNF of the VNF package.

[0021] In some implementations, the SMOFW apparatus includes one or more computers.

[0022] These and other aspects of the disclosure are discussed in more detail below in the detailed description with reference to the accompanying figures. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] Figure 1 An example of a diagram of a service-based architecture (SBA) is shown.

[0024] Figure 2 An example of a diagram showing the mapping between the 3GPP management system, NFV-MANO and O-RAN with managed O-RUs.

[0025] Figure 3An example of a diagram showing the mapping between 3GPP Management System, NFV-MANO and O-RAN.

[0026] Figure 4 An example of an end-to-end 5G network that can be launched as a network service (NS) is shown.

[0027] Figure 5 A flow chart illustrating an example of a process for configuring a network functions virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) is shown.

[0028] Figure 6 A flow chart illustrating an example of a process flow for configuring a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO).

[0029] Figure 7 A flow chart illustrating an example of a process for configuring a network functions virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) is shown.

[0030] Fig. 8A An example of mapping of O-RAN with ETSI NFV MANO architecture is shown.

[0031] Figure 8B An example of an O-RAN architecture is shown.

[0032] Figure 8C An example of the ETSI NFV MANO architecture is shown.

[0033] Fig. 9 An example of an architecture of a system of networks is shown.

[0034] Fig.10 An example of a platform is shown.

[0035] Fig.11 Exemplary components of a baseband circuit and a radio front end module (RFEM) are shown.

[0036] Fig.12 Various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device are shown.

[0037] Fig.13 is a block diagram illustrating components of a system supporting NFV.

[0038] Fig.14 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (eg, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0039] In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to end-to-end RAN deployment in O-RAN. In addition, end-to-end RAN deployment using virtual network functions (VNFs) and physical network functions (PNFs) enables operators to deploy O-DU, O-CU-UP, O-CU-CP, AMF, and UPF, where O-DU is connected to O-RU.

[0040] Figure 1 An example of a diagram of a service-based architecture (SBA) is shown. In this example, the SBA is represented as defined by 3GPP TS 28.533. However, other service-based architectures may fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0041] The service-based architecture may include management services (MnS) 110 and management functions (MnF) 120, 130, 140. Management services (MnS) may provide capabilities for management and orchestration of networks and services. In some implementations, management services may include MnS producers and MnS consumers. MnS producers are entities that generate MnS. MnS consumers are entities that consume MnS. MnS generated by an entity may be consumed by any entity with authorization and authentication to use the service.

[0042] Management functions (MnFs) 120, 130, 140 may be management entities whose externally observable behaviors and interfaces are specified by, for example, 3GPP as management services. In SBA, MnFs may be defined using MnS consumers, MnS producers, or both MnS consumers and producers. By way of example, MnF 120 may be defined as MnS producers 122, 124, MnF 130 may be defined as MnS consumers 136, 137 and both MnS producers 132, 134, and MnF 140 may be defined as MnS consumers 146, 148.

[0043] Figure 2 An example of a diagram of a system 200 mapping between a 3GPP management system, NFV-MANO and an O-RAN with managed O-RUs is shown. Figure 2 In the example, the mapping is based on 5GSBA. Figure 2 As shown in FIG. 1 , the service management and orchestration framework and the non-real-time RIC (RAN intelligent controller) can be implemented as NFMF (network function management function). The near real-time RIC can be implemented as NRTNFMF (near real-time network function management function) that supports 5G SON functions with near real-time requirements. As another example, the infrastructure management framework can be implemented as Figure 3ETSI NFV-MANO is shown, which shows the system 300 mapping between the 3GPP management system, NFV-MANO and O-RAN, where the O-RU is managed via pro13 of the O-CU.

[0044] Fig. 8A Another example of mapping of an O-RAN 800A with an ETSI NFV MANO architecture 800B is shown in system 800 of FIG. Figure 8B It is shown in Fig. 8A Exploded view of the O-RAN 800A. Figure 8C It is shown in Fig. 8A Exploded diagram of the ETSI NFVMANO architecture 800B.

[0045] 5.1 End-to-end RAN deployment using PNF and VNF

[0046] Figure 4 An example of an end-to-end 5G network 400 that can be initiated as a network service (NS) is shown. In some implementations, such a system can be instantiated as a network service (NS) 410. In some implementations, this can be achieved by using aspects of the present disclosure to configure one or more of the VNFs 420, 421, 422, 423, 424, 425, 426, one or more of the PNFs 430, 431, or a combination thereof.

[0047] 5.2 Entities / Resources Involved

[0048] A plurality of entities or resources may be used to implement configuration of the network 400 as a network service 410. For example, in some implementations, these entities or services may include one or more of the following, or any combination thereof: a service management and orchestration framework (SMOFW), an infrastructure management framework (IMFW), one or more physical network functions (PNFs) such as O-RU-1 and O-RU-2, one or more virtual network functions (VNFs) such as O-DU-1, O-DU-2, O-CU-UP-1, O-CU-UP-2, O-CU-CP, AMF, and UPF. In some implementations, configuration of the network 400 may be implemented using a virtual network function (VNF) package. In some implementations, the VNF package may include data identifying one or more VNFs designated for configuration.

[0049] 5.3 Example of Configuring NVFO

[0050] Figure 5A flowchart of an example of a process 500 for configuring a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) is shown. In general, the process 500 may include: using one or more computers to generate a message including data representing a request to upload a virtual network function (VNF) package (502); encoding the generated message including the VNF package for transmission to the network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) (504); and transmitting the encoded message to the NVFO (506). In some embodiments, the NFVO may be a component of an infrastructure management framework (IMFW). In some embodiments, a service management and orchestration framework (SMOFW) is used to perform one or more of the following: (i) generating a message including a request to upload a VNF, (ii) encoding the generated message including the VNF package for transmission to the network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO), or (iii) transmitting the encoded message to the NVFO.

[0051] In some implementations, after receiving and processing a message including a VNF package, one or more computers that generate and transmit a message encoded with the VNF package may receive a message from the NFVO after transmitting the encoded message. In such implementations, the received message includes data indicating that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded to the NFVO.

[0052] The one or more computers may also include the same generated message of stage 502 or different and subsequent message data representing a request to upload a VNF package, the message data including an identifier of a physical network function (PNF), thereby enabling configuration of both the VNF and the PNF.

[0053] 5.3 Sequence Description

[0054] Figure 6 A flow chart showing an example of a process flow 600 for configuring a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) is shown. Figure 6 In the example, it is assumed that based on nsdInfo#1, NS instance identification nsInstanceId#1 with AMF VNF vnfInstanceId#7 and UPF VNFvnfInstancaId#8 has been instantiated. In addition, Figure 6 The examples also assume that the O-RU has an O1 interface with the SMOFW. However, the scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to these examples.

[0055] Process flow 600 describes a series of messages exchanged between service management and orchestration FW 602 and infrastructure management FW (NFVO) 604. The first portion of process calls and responses are for VNF package upload 600A, and the second portion of process calls and responses are for PNFD upload 600B. The remaining process calls involve, for example, one or more NSD updates.

[0056] The process flow 600 begins with the SMOFW requesting the Network Function Virtualization Orchestration (NFVO) in the IMFW to upload the VNF package vnfPkgInfo (ETSI GS NFV-IFA 013[6]) of O-DU-1 with VNFD#1 (610A). The process flow 600 continues with the NFVO in the IMFW, which responds to indicate that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded (612A). The process flow 600 continues with the SMOFW requesting the NFVO in the IMFW to upload the VNF package vnfPkgInfo (ETSIGS NFV-IFA 013[6]) of O-DU-2 with VNFD#2 (620A). The process flow 600 continues with the NFVO in the IMFW, which responds to indicate that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded (622A). The processing flow 600 continues with the SMOFW, which requests the NFVO in the IMFW to upload the VNF package vnfPkgInfo with VNFD#3 of O-CU-UP-1 (630A). The processing flow 600 continues with the NFVO in the IMFW, which responds to indicate that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded (632A). The processing flow 600 continues with the SMOFW, which requests the NFVO in the IMFW to upload the VNF package vnfPkgInfo with VNFD#4 of O-CU-UP-2 (640A). The processing flow 600 continues with the NFVO in the IMFW, which responds to indicate that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded (642A). The processing flow 600 continues with the SMOFW, which requests the NFVO in the IMFW to upload the VNF package vnfPkgInfo with VNFD#5 of O-CU-CP (650A). Process flow 600 continues with the NFVO in the IMFW, which responds to indicate that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded (652A).

[0057] In some implementations, the process flow 600 may continue with the SMOFW, which requests the NFVO in the IMFW to upload the PNFD pnfd#1 of O-RU-1 (610B). The process flow 600 may continue with the NFVO in the IMFW, which responds to indicate that the PNFD has been successfully uploaded (612B). The process flow 600 may continue with the SMOFW, which requests the NFVO in the IMFW to upload the PNFD pnfd#2 of O-RU-2 (620B). The process flow 600 may continue with the NFVO in the IMFW, which responds to indicate that the PNFD has been successfully uploaded (622B).

[0058] In some implementations, the process flow 600 can continue with the SMOFW requesting the NFVO in the IMFW to update (630B) the NSD identified by nsdInfo#1 including the following information:

[0059] · vnfPkgInfo for O-DU-1, O-DU-2, O-CU-UP-1, O-CU-UP-2, and O-CU-CP VNFs.

[0060] pnfdInfo for O-RU-1 and O-RU-2 PNFs.

[0061] NSD, which contains the following information:

[0062] oNsVirtualLinkDesc, which defines the latency requirements of NS virtual links (such as D1 / 2, U1 / 2, P1 / 2, UP1 / 2 / 3, and A1)

[0063] o vnfprofiles for O-DU-1, O-DU-2, O-CU-UP-1, O-CU-UP-2, and O-CU-CP VNFs, which contain nsVirtualLinkConnectivity attributes to show the connection of VNF to NS virtual links. For example, O-DU-2 VNF to NS virtual link D2.

[0064] o Pnfprofile of O-RU-1 and O-RU-2 PNFs, which contains pnfVirtualLinkConnectivity attribute to show the connection of PNF to NS virtual link. For example, O-RU-2 PNF to NS virtual link D2.

[0065] The processing flow 600 may continue with the NFVO in the IMFW, which responds to indicate that the NSD has been successfully updated (632B). The processing flow 600 may continue with the SMOFW, which requests the NFVO in the IMFW to update the nsInstanceId#1 identified by the NS instance by instantiating a new VNF based on the updated NSD (640B). The processing flow 600 may continue with the NFVO in the IMFW, which sends a NS lifecycle change notification indicating the start of the NS update (642. The NFVO in the IMFW may update the NS and instantiate the VNF instance based on the NSD (644B). The processing flow 600 may continue with the NFVO in the IMFW, which sends a NS lifecycle change notification indicating the result of the NS update (646B).

[0066] In the example of process flow 600, each request to upload or update is successfully executed. However, it is also within the scope of the present disclosure that one or more of these requests to upload or update may fail. In such examples, a message can be sent from the NVFO to the SMOFW, which is transmitted from the NVFO to the SMOFW to inform that the upload or update has failed. In such examples, multiple options can be followed. For example, the upload or update process can be terminated, the upload or update process can be automatically restarted and tried again, the upload or update process can be programmed to occur at a predetermined time in the future, etc.

[0067] In addition, the example of process flow 600 describes the process of communication between SMOFW and NVFO. It is noted that the process call of the request or update of SMOFW includes generating an electronic message, which includes the data represented by each of the process calls. The execution of the process call by SMOFW may include, for example, encoding the generated message and transmitting the generated message to NFVO using one or more communication media. Similarly, the message conveying the upload or update result from NVFO to SMOFW can be generated, encoded and transmitted across one or more communication media to facilitate the communication sequence described in process flow 600.

[0068] In some implementations, the NSD update may include adding a VNF package for one or more new VNFs, adding a VNF package for one or more PNF descriptors of a new PDF, or adding a VNF package for one or more NS virtual link descriptors. In some implementations, the NS virtual link descriptor may include a VNF overview and a PNF overview. In some implementations, the VNF overview may include a nsVirtualLinkConnectivity attribute to show the connection of the VNF to the NS virtual link. For example, O-DU VNF to NS virtual link D2. In some implementations, the PNF overview may include a pnfVirtualLinkConnectivity attribute to show the connection of the PNF to the NS virtual link. For example, O-RU VNF to NS virtual link D2.

[0069] In some implementations, the service management and orchestration framework may be implemented as a NFMF (Network Function Management Function). In some implementations, the near real-time RIC may be implemented as a NRTNFMF (Near Real-time Network Function Management Function) supporting 5G SON functions with near real-time requirements.

[0070] In some implementations, the infrastructure management framework may be implemented as ETSI NFV-MANO. In some implementations, the NFVO in IMFW updates the NS and instantiates the VNF instances according to the NSD.

[0071] 5.4UML Sequence Diagram (PlantUML)

[0072] Figure 7 Shown for Figure 6 700 is a flowchart of an example of a UML sequence diagram of a process flow. Figure 7 As shown, the UML sequence has parts corresponding to VNF package upload 700A, PNFD upload 700B, and NSD update (700C).

[0073] Fig. 9 An exemplary architecture of a system 900 of a network according to various implementations is shown. The following description is provided for an exemplary system 900 operating in conjunction with LTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards provided by 3GPP technical specifications. However, the exemplary implementations are not limited in this regard, and the implementations may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), and the like.

[0074] like Fig. 9As shown, system 900 includes UE 901a and UE 901b (collectively referred to as "multiple UEs 901" or "UE 901"). In this example, UE 901 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touch screen mobile computing device that can connect to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a consumer electronic device, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a feature phone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a wireless handheld device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), an in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) device, an instrument panel (IC), a head-up display (HUD) device, an on-board diagnostic (OBD) device, a dashtop mobile equipment (DME), a mobile data terminal (MDT), an electronic engine management system (EEMS), an electronic / engine electronic control unit (ECU), an electronic / engine electronic control module (ECM), an embedded system, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system (EMS), a networked or "smart" appliance, an MTC device, an M2M, an IoT device, etc.

[0075] In some implementations, any of the UEs 901 may be an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. The IoT UE may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with an MTC server or device via PLMN, ProSe or D2D communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. M2M or MTC data exchanges may be machine-initiated data exchanges. The IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity to the IoT network.

[0076] UE 901 may be configured to be connected, e.g., communicatively coupled, to RAN 910. In a specific implementation, RAN 910 may be an NG RAN or a 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN or a GERAN. As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to a RAN 910 operating in an NR or 5G system 900, while the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to a RAN 910 operating in an LTE or 4G system 900. UE 901 utilizes connections (or channels) 903 and 904, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

[0077] In this example, connections 903 and 904 are shown as air interfaces to achieve communication coupling, and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and / or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In a specific implementation, the UE 901 may directly exchange communication data via the ProSe interface 905. The ProSe interface 905 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface 905, and may include one or more logical channels, including but not limited to PSCCH, PSSCH, PSDCH, and PSBCH.

[0078] UE 901b is shown as being configured to access AP 906 (also referred to as "WLAN node 906", "WLAN 906", "WLAN terminal 906", "WT 906", etc.) via connection 907. Connection 907 may include a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein AP 906 will include wireless fidelity router. In this example, AP 906 is shown connected to the Internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various specific implementations, UE 901b, RAN 910, and AP 906 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and / or LWIP operation. LWA operation may involve UE 901b in RRC_CONNECTED state being configured by RAN nodes 911a-b to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve UE 901b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 907) via an IPsec protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over connection 907. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packet.

[0079] The RAN 910 may include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 911a and 911b (collectively referred to as "RAN nodes 911") that enable connections 903 and 904. As used herein, the terms "access node", "access point", etc. may describe equipment that provides radio baseband functions for data and / or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP or TRP, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the terms "NG RAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 911 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system 900, while the terms "E-UTRAN node" and the like may refer to a RAN node 911 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 900. According to various specific implementations, the RAN node 911 may be implemented as one or more of dedicated physical devices such as a macrocell base station and / or a low power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

[0080] In some implementations, all or part of the RAN node 911 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network that may be referred to as a CRAN and / or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these implementations, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional splits, such as PDCP splits, where the RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, while other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 911; MAC / PHY splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 911; or "lower PHY" splits, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers, and upper portions of the PHY layers are operated by the CRAN / vBBUP, and the lower portions of the PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes 911. This virtualization framework allows idle processor cores of the RAN node 911 to execute other virtualized applications. In some implementations, individual RAN nodes 911 may represent a plurality of RAN nodes 911 that are virtualized via individual F1 interfaces ( Fig. 9In some implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs, and the gNB-CUs may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 910 or by a server pool in a manner similar to CRAN / vBBUP. In addition or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 911 may be a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), which is a RAN node that provides E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminals to the UE 901 and is connected to the 5GC via an NG interface (discussed below).

[0081] In a V2X scenario, one or more of the RAN nodes 911 may be an RSU or act as an RSU. The term "road side unit" or "RSU" may refer to any traffic infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, wherein an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", an RSU implemented in or by a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to a radio frequency circuit located on the road side that provides connectivity support to a passing vehicle UE 901 (vUE 901). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide extremely low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communications as well as other cellular communication services. In addition or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and / or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. Some or all of the computing device and the RSU's RF circuitry may be packaged in a weather-resistant enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller and / or backhaul network.

[0082] Any of the RAN nodes 911 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 901. In some implementations, any of the RAN nodes 911 may perform various logical functions of the RAN 910, including but not limited to functions of a radio network controller (RNC), such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

[0083] In a specific implementation, UE 901 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any one of RAN nodes 911 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 implementation is not limited in this respect. OFDM signals may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0084] In some implementations, a downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 911 to the UE 901, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or a time-frequency resource grid, which is a physical resource in the downlink in each time slot. For OFDM systems, such a time-frequency plane representation is common practice, which makes the allocation of radio resources intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to an OFDM symbol and an OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to a time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. Such resource blocks are used to transmit several different physical downlink channels.

[0085] According to various specific implementations, the UE 901 and the RAN node 911 communicate data (e.g., transmit data and receive data) through a licensed medium (also referred to as a "licensed spectrum" and / or a "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as an "unlicensed spectrum" and / or an "unlicensed band"). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, and the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5 GHz band.

[0086] To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 901 and the RAN node 911 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 901 and the RAN node 911 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and / or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied before transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium / carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0087] LBT is a mechanism by which equipment (e.g., UE 901, RAN node 911, etc.) senses a medium (e.g., a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include a CCA that utilizes at least an ED to determine whether other signals are present on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or idle. The LBT mechanism allows cellular / LAA networks to coexist with existing systems in unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy over a period of time on an expected transmission band and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

[0088] Typically, existing systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs use a contention-based channel access mechanism called CSMA / CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE 901, AP 906, etc.) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. In addition, in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid conflicts. The backoff mechanism may be a counter randomly introduced within the CWS that increases exponentially when a conflict occurs and is reset to a minimum value when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA / CA of WLAN. In some specific implementations, the LBT process for a DL or UL transmission burst (including PDSCH or PUSCH transmission) may have a LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are the minimum and maximum values ​​of the CWS of LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmissions may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and MCOT (eg, transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

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

[0090] CA also includes individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. The primary serving cell or PCell may provide the PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle activities related to RRC and NAS. Other serving cells are called SCells, and each SCell may provide individual SCCs for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, and changing PCCs may require the UE 901 to undergo switching. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in an unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA SCells"), and the LAA SCells are assisted by the PCells operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells, indicating different PUSCH start positions within the same subframe.

[0091] The PDSCH carries user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 901. The PDCCH carries, among other information, information about the transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel. It may also inform the UE 901 about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UE 901b within a cell) may be performed on any of the RAN nodes 911 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 901. Downlink resource allocation information may be sent on the PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each of the UEs 901.

[0092] PDCCH uses CCE to transmit control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols can first be organized into quadruplets, which can then be arranged using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. One or more of these CCEs can be used to transmit each PDCCH, where each CCE can correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements, respectively, called REGs. Four quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols can be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of the DCI and channel conditions, one or more CCEs can be used to transmit the PDCCH. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation levels, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

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

[0094] The RAN nodes 911 may be configured to communicate with each other via an interface 912. In a specific implementation where the system 900 is an LTE system, the interface 912 may be an X2 interface 912. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 911 (e.g., two or more eNBs, etc.) connected to the EPC 920, and / or between two eNBs connected to the EPC 920. In some specific implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user packets transmitted over the X2 interface, and may be used to transmit information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information about user data transmitted from the MeNB to the SeNB; information about the successful delivery of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 901 in sequence for user data; information about PDCP PDUs that are not delivered to the UE 901; information about the current minimum expected buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and the like. X2-C can provide intra-LTE access mobility functions, including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transmission control, etc.; load management functions; and inter-cell interference coordination functions.

[0095] In a specific implementation where the system 900 is a 5G or NR system, the interface 912 may be an Xn interface 912. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 911 (e.g., two or more gNBs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 920, between a RAN node 911 (e.g., a gNB) and an eNB connected to the 5GC 920, and / or between two eNBs connected to the 5GC 920. In some specific implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support / provide data forwarding and flow control functions. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions for managing the functions of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for the UE 901 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functions for managing UE mobility in a connected mode between one or more RAN nodes 911. The mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) service RAN node 911 to the new (target) service RAN node 911; and control of the user plane tunnel between the old (source) service RAN node 911 and the new (target) service RAN node 911. The protocol stack of Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and / or IP layer for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as the Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP may be on top of the IP layer and may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other specific implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and / or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same or similar to the user plane and / or control plane protocol stacks shown and described herein.

[0096] RAN 910 is shown as being communicatively coupled to a core network, in this specific implementation, communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 920. CN 920 may include a plurality of network elements 922 configured to provide various data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UE 901) connected to CN 920 via RAN 910. The components of CN 920 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including components for reading and executing instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some specific implementations, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the above-mentioned network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). A logical instance of CN 920 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instance of a portion of CN 920 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches (alternatively performed by proprietary hardware). In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components / functions.

[0097] Generally speaking, the application server 930 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). The application server 930 may also be configured to support one or more communication services for the UE 901 via the EPC 920 (e.g., VoIP session, PTT session, group communication session, social network service, etc.).

[0098] In a specific implementation, the CN 920 may be a 5GC (referred to as “5GC 920”, etc.), and the RAN 910 may be connected to the CN 920 via an NG interface 913. In a specific implementation, the NG interface 913 may be divided into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 914, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 911 and the UPF; and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 915, which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 911 and the AMF.

[0099] In a specific implementation, CN 920 may be a 5G CN (referred to as “5GC 920”, etc.), while in other specific implementations, CN 920 may be an EPC. In the case where CN 920 is an EPC (referred to as “EPC 920”, etc.), RAN 910 may be connected to CN 920 via an S1 interface 913. In a specific implementation, S1 interface 913 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 914, which carries traffic data between RAN node 911 and S-GW; and an S1-MME interface 915, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 911 and MME.

[0100] Fig.10 Examples of platform 1000 (or "device 1000") according to various implementations are shown. In specific implementations, computer platform 1000 may be suitable for use as UE 901, application server 930, and / or any other element / device discussed herein. Platform 1000 may include any combination of components shown in the examples. The components of platform 1000 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions of ICs, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof adapted in computer platform 1000, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. Fig.10 The block diagram is intended to show a high-level view of the components of computer platform 1000. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangements of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

[0101] Application circuit 1005 includes circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and LDO, interrupt controller, serial interface (such as SPI), I 2 C or general programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer (including interval timer and watchdog timer), general I / O, memory card controller (such as SD MMC or similar controller), USB interface, MIPI interface and JTAG test access port. The processor (or core) of the application circuit 1005 can be coupled with or can include a memory / storage element, and can be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory / storage device to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system 1000. In some specific implementations, the memory / storage element can be an on-chip memory circuit, which can include any suitable volatile and / or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory, solid-state memory and / or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein.

[0102] The processor of the application circuit may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSPs, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, multi-threaded processors, ultra-low voltage processors, embedded processors, some other known processing elements, or any suitable combination thereof. In some specific implementations, the application circuit may include or may be a dedicated processor / controller for operating according to various specific implementations herein.

[0103] As an example, the processor of the application circuit 1005 may include an Apple A series processor. The processor of the application circuit 505 may also be one or more of the following: based on Architecture Core TM Processors such as Quark TM 、Atom TM , i3, i5, i7 or MCU class processors, or available from Santa Clara, CA company( Another such processor is Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Processor or Accelerated Processing Unit (APU); from Snapdragon by Technologies, Inc. TM Processor, Texas Instruments, Open Multimedia ApplicationsPlatform(OMAP) TM processors; MIPS-based designs from MIPS Technologies, Inc., such as the MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; ARM-based designs licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M series processors; etc. In some implementations, the application circuit 1005 can be part of a system on a chip (SoC), in which the application circuit 1005 and other components are formed as a single integrated circuit or a single package.

[0104] Additionally or alternatively, the application circuit 1005 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more field programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs, programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), ASICs such as structured ASICs, programmable SoCs (PSoCs), and the like. In such implementations, the circuits of the application circuit 1005 may include logic blocks or logic structures, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions such as the processes, methods, functions, and the like of the various implementations discussed herein. In such implementations, the circuits of the application circuit 1005 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuse, and the like)) for storing logic blocks, logic structures, data, and the like in a lookup table (LUT), and the like.

[0105] The baseband circuit 1010 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Fig.11 The various hardware electronic components of baseband circuit 1010 are discussed.

[0106] The RFEM 1015 may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see, e.g., below). Figure X The antenna array 1111 of T) 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 1015 combining both millimeter wave antennas and sub-millimeter waves.

[0107] The memory circuit 1020 may include any number and type of memory devices for providing a quantitative system memory. For example, the memory circuit 1020 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and / or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM); and non-volatile memory (NVM), including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuit 1020 may be developed according to the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) based low power double data rate (LPDDR) design such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, etc. The memory circuit 1020 may be implemented as one or more of a solder-in package integrated circuit, a single die package (SDP), a dual die package (DDP), or a quad die package (Q17P), a socketed memory module, a dual in-line memory module (DIMM) including a micro DIMM or a mini DIMM, and / or soldered to a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In a low-power implementation, the memory circuit 1020 may be an on-chip memory or register associated with the application circuit 1005. In order to provide persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems, etc., the memory circuit 1020 may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, among others, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, a resistive change memory, a phase change memory, a holographic memory, or a chemical memory. For example, the computer platform 1000 may be combined with a computer obtained from and Three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory.

[0108] Removable memory circuitry 1023 may include devices, circuitry, housings / casings, ports or receptacles, etc., for coupling portable data storage devices to platform 1000. These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, micro SD cards, xD picture cards, etc.), as well as USB flash drives, optical disks, external HDDs, etc.

[0109] The platform 1000 may further include an interface circuit (not shown) for connecting external devices to the platform 1000. External devices connected to the platform 1000 via the interface circuit include a sensor circuit 1021 and an electromechanical component (EMC) 1022, and a removable memory device coupled to the removable memory circuit 1023.

[0110] Sensor circuit 1021 comprises a device, module or subsystem that is intended to detect events or changes in its environment and to send information about the detected events (sensor data) to some other device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, among others: an inertial measurement unit (IMU) including an accelerometer, a gyroscope and / or a magnetometer; a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) or a nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) including a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis gyroscope and / or a magnetometer; a level sensor; a flow sensor; a temperature sensor (e.g., a thermistor); a pressure sensor; a barometric pressure sensor; a gravity meter; an altimeter; an image capture device (e.g., a camera or a lensless aperture); a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor; a proximity sensor (e.g., an infrared radiation detector, etc.), a depth sensor, an ambient light sensor, an ultrasonic transceiver; a microphone or other similar audio capture device; etc.

[0111] The EMC 1022 includes devices, modules or subsystems that are intended to enable the platform 1000 to change its state, position and / or orientation or to move or control a mechanism or (sub) system. In addition, the EMC 1022 can be configured to generate messages / signaling and send messages / signaling to other components of the platform 1000 to indicate the current state of the EMC 1022. Examples of EMC 1022 include one or more power switches, relays (including electromechanical relays (EMR) and / or solid-state relays (SSR)), 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 1000 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 1022 based on one or more capture events and / or instructions or control signals received from service providers and / or various clients.

[0112] In some specific implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 1000 to the positioning circuit 1045. The positioning circuit 1045 includes circuits for receiving and decoding signals transmitted / broadcasted by the positioning network of the GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the GPS of the United States, the 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., NAVIC, QZSS of Japan, DORIS of France, etc.), etc. The positioning circuit 1045 includes various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc. for facilitating OTA communication) to communicate with components of the positioning network such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some specific implementations, the positioning circuit 1045 may include a micro PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking / estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuit 1045 may also be part of the baseband circuit and / or the RFEM 1015 or interact with it to communicate with nodes and components of the positioning network. Positioning circuitry 1045 may also provide position data and / or time data to application circuitry 1005 , which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructures (eg, radio base stations) for use in turn-by-turn navigation applications, and the like.

[0113] In some implementations, the interface circuit may connect the platform 1000 with a near field communication (NFC) circuit 1040. The NFC circuit 1040 is configured to provide contactless short-range communication based on the radio frequency identification (RFID) standard, where magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between the NFC circuit 1040 and an NFC-enabled device (e.g., an "NFC touch point") external to the platform 1000. The NFC circuit 1040 includes an NFC controller coupled to an antenna element and a processor coupled to the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip / IC that provides NFC functionality to the NFC circuit 1040 by executing an NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to transmit a short-range RF signal. The RF signal may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transfer stored data to the NFC circuit 1040, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuit 1040 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) proximate to the platform 1000.

[0114] The driver circuit 1046 may include software and hardware elements for controlling specific devices embedded in, attached to, or otherwise communicatively coupled to the platform 1000. The driver circuit 1046 may include various drivers to allow other components of the platform 1000 to interact with or control various input / output (I / O) devices that may be present in or connected to the platform 1000. For example, the driver circuit 1046 may include: a display driver for controlling and allowing access to a display device, a touch screen driver for controlling and allowing access to a touch screen interface of the platform 1000, a sensor driver for obtaining sensor readings of the sensor circuit 1021 and controlling and allowing access to the sensor circuit 1021, an EMC driver for obtaining an actuator position of the EMC 1022 and / or controlling and allowing access to the EMC 1022, 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.

[0115] A power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 1025 (also referred to as “power management circuit 1025”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform 1000. Specifically, the PMIC 1025 may control power selection, voltage regulation, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion relative to the baseband circuit 1010. When the platform 1000 is capable of being powered by a battery 1030, for example, when the device is included in the UE 901, the PMIC 1025 may be generally included.

[0116] In some implementations, the PMIC 1025 can control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of the platform 1000. For example, if the platform 1000 is in the RRC_Connected state, in which the platform is still connected to the RAN node because it expects to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity, the platform may enter a state known as discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the platform 1000 may be powered off for short intervals, thereby saving power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the platform 1000 may transition to the RRC_Idle state, in which the device is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handovers, etc. are performed. The platform 1000 enters a very low power state and performs paging, in which the device wakes up periodically again to listen to the network and then powers off again. The platform 1000 may not receive data in this state; in order to receive data, the platform must transition back to the RRC_Connected state. Additional power saving modes may prevent the device from using the network for longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to several hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to connect to the network and can be completely powered off. Any data sent during this time will be significantly delayed, and it is assumed that the delay is acceptable.

[0117] The battery 1030 can power the platform 1000, but in some examples, the platform 1000 can be mounted in a fixed location and can have a power source coupled to a power grid. The battery 1030 can be a lithium-ion battery, a metal-air battery such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, etc. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 1030 can be a typical lead-acid car battery.

[0118] In some implementations, the battery 1030 may be a "smart battery" that includes or is coupled to a battery management system (BMS) or a battery monitoring integrated circuit. The BMS may be included in the platform 1000 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 1030. The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery 1030, such as the state of health (SoH) and state of function (SoF) of the battery 1030, to provide fault prediction. The BMS may transmit information about the battery 1030 to the application circuit 1005 or other components of the platform 1000. The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter that allows the application circuit 1005 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 1030 or the current from the battery 1030. The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform 1000 may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, etc.

[0119] A power block or other power source coupled to the grid can be coupled to the BMS to charge the battery 1030. In some examples, the power block can be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform 1000. 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 1030 and therefore the required current. Charging can be performed using the aviation fuel standard published by the Aviation Fuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance, or the Rezence charging standard published by the Wireless Power Alliance.

[0120] The user interface circuit 1050 includes various input / output (I / O) devices present in or connected to the platform 1000, and includes one or more user interfaces designed to implement user interaction with the platform 1000 and / or a peripheral component interface designed to implement interaction with the peripheral components of the platform 1000. The user interface circuit 1050 includes input device circuits and output device circuits. The input device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for accepting input, including, in particular, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a microphone, a scanner, a headset, etc. The output device circuit includes any physical or virtual means for displaying information or otherwise conveying information (such as sensor readings, actuator positions, or other similar information). The output device circuitry may include any number and / or combination of audio or visual displays, including, in particular, one or more simple visual outputs / indicators (e.g., binary status indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs, such as display devices or touch screens (e.g., liquid crystal displays (LCDs), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), where outputs of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, etc. are generated or produced by the operation of the platform 1000. The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printers, etc. In some implementations, the sensor circuitry 1021 may be used as an 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 tactile feedback, etc.). In another example, an NFC circuit may be included to read an electronic tag and / or connect to another NFC-enabled device, the NFC circuitry including an NFC controller and a processing device coupled to an antenna element. 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.

[0121] Although not shown, the components of platform 1000 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, a time-triggered protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus / IX may be a proprietary bus / IX, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus / IX systems, such as I 2 C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface and power bus, etc.

[0122] Fig.11 Exemplary components of a baseband circuit and a radio front end module (RFEM) are shown.

[0123] Figure X FIG. 1 shows exemplary components of a baseband circuit 1110 and a radio front end module (RFEM) 1115 according to various implementations. The baseband circuit 1110 corresponds to Fig.10 The baseband circuit 1010. RFEM 1115 corresponds to Fig.10 RFEM 1015. As shown, RFEM 1115 may include radio frequency (RF) circuit 1106, front end module (FEM) circuit 1108, and antenna array 1111 coupled together at least as shown.

[0124] The baseband circuit 1110 includes circuits and / or control logic components configured to execute various radio / network protocols and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuit 1106. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation / demodulation, encoding / decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some specific implementations, the modulation / demodulation circuit of the baseband circuit 1110 may include a fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping / demapping function. In some specific implementations, the encoding / decoding circuit of the baseband circuit 1110 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder / decoder functions. The specific implementation of the modulation / demodulation and encoder / decoder functions is not limited to these examples, and may include other suitable functions in other aspects. The baseband circuit 1110 is configured to process the baseband signal received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 1106 and generate a baseband signal for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 1106. The baseband circuit 1110 is configured to communicate with the application circuit 1005 (see Fig.10 ) to generate and process baseband signals and control the operation of RF circuit 1106. Baseband circuit 1110 can handle various radio control functions.

[0125] The aforementioned circuits and / or control logic components of the baseband circuit 1110 may include one or more single-core or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 1104A, a 4G / LTE baseband processor 1104B, a 5G / NR baseband processor 1104C, or some other baseband processors 1104D for other existing generations, generations under development or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., the sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other specific implementations, part or all of the functions of the baseband processors 1104A-1104D may be included in a module stored in the memory 1104G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 1104E. In other specific implementations, part or all of the functions of the baseband processors 1104A-1104D may be provided as a hardware accelerator (e.g., FPGA, ASIC, etc.) loaded with an appropriate bitstream or logic block stored in a corresponding memory unit. In various specific implementations, the memory 1104G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which, when executed by the CPU 1104E (or other baseband processor), enables the CPU 1104E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuit 1110, schedule tasks, etc. Examples of RTOS may include: Operating System Embedded (OSE) provided TM , by Mentor Nucleus RTOS provided TM , by Mentor Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Express Provided by ThreadX TM ,Depend on FreeRTOS and REX OS provided by Open Kernel (OK) OKL4 is provided, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuit 1110 includes one or more audio digital signal processors (DSPs) 1104F. The audio DSP 1104F includes elements for compression / decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other specific implementations.

[0126] In some implementations, each of the processors 1104A-1104E includes a corresponding memory interface for sending data to / receiving data from the memory 1104G. The baseband circuit 1110 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 the baseband circuit 1110; an interface for sending data to / receiving data from a memory external to the baseband circuit 1110; Figure X Application circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from the application circuit 1005 of T; Figure X RF circuit interface for sending data to / receiving data from the RF circuit 1106 of T; for receiving data from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., near field communication (NFC) components, Low power consumption components, components, etc.) to send data / receive data from these wireless hardware elements; and a power management interface for sending power or control signals to / receiving power or control signals from the PMIC 1025.

[0127] In an alternative specific implementation (which can be combined with the above specific implementation), the baseband circuit 1110 includes one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled to each other and to the CPU subsystem, the audio subsystem and the interface subsystem via an interconnection subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem can 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, a point-to-point connector, 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 a DSP circuit, a buffer memory, a program memory, a voice processing accelerator circuit, a data converter circuit such as an analog-to-digital converter circuit and a digital-to-analog converter circuit, an analog circuit including one or more of an amplifier and a filter, and / or other similar components. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the baseband circuit 1110 may include a protocol processing circuit having one or more control circuit instances (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuit and / or the radio frequency circuit (e.g., the radio front end module 1115).

[0128] although Figure XT is not shown, but in some specific implementations, the baseband circuit 1110 includes various processing devices (e.g., "multi-protocol baseband processor" or "protocol processing circuit") to operate one or more wireless communication protocols and various processing devices to implement PHY layer functions. In these specific implementations, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these specific implementations, the protocol processing circuit operates or implements various protocol layers / entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, when the baseband circuit 1110 and / or the RF circuit 1106 are part of a millimeter wave communication circuit or some other suitable cellular communication circuit, the protocol processing circuit may operate LTE protocol entities and / or 5G / NR protocol entities. In the first example, the protocol processing circuit will operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, when the baseband circuit 1110 and / or the RF circuit 1106 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system, the protocol processing circuit may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols. In the second example, the protocol processing circuit will operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 1104G) for storing program code and data for operating protocol functions, and one or more processing cores for executing program code and performing various operations using data. The baseband circuitry 1110 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.

[0129] The various hardware elements of the baseband circuit 1110 discussed herein may be implemented as, for example, a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuit 1110 may be appropriately combined in a single chip or a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 1110 and the RF circuit 1106 may be implemented together, such as, for example, a system on a chip (SOC) or a system-level package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 1110 may be implemented as a separate SoC communicatively coupled to the RF circuit 1106 (or multiple instances of the RF circuit 1106). In yet another example, some or all of the components of the baseband circuit 1110 and the application circuit 1005 may be implemented together as a separate SoC mounted to the same circuit board (e.g., a "multi-chip package").

[0130] In some implementations, the baseband circuit 1110 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some implementations, the baseband circuit 1110 may support communications with E-UTRAN or other WMANs, WLANs, WPANs. Implementations in which the baseband circuit 1110 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuits.

[0131] The RF circuit 1106 may enable communication with a wireless network through a non-solid medium using modulated electromagnetic radiation. In various specific implementations, the RF circuit 1106 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate communication with the wireless network. The RF circuit 1106 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuits for down-converting RF signals received from the FEM circuit 1108 and providing baseband signals to the baseband circuit 1110. The RF circuit 1106 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuits for up-converting baseband signals provided by the baseband circuit 1110 and providing an RF output signal for transmission to the FEM circuit 1108.

[0132] In some implementations, the receive signal path of the RF circuit 1106 may include a mixer circuit 1106a, an amplifier circuit 1106b, and a filter circuit 1106c. In some implementations, the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 1106 may include a filter circuit 1106c and the mixer circuit 1106a. The RF circuit 1106 may also include a synthesizer circuit 1106d for synthesizing frequencies used by the mixer circuit 1106a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some implementations, the mixer circuit 1106a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 1108 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1106d. The amplifier circuit 1106b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 1106c may be a low pass filter (LPF) or a band pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuit 1110 for further processing. In some implementations, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some implementations, the mixer circuit 1106a of the receive signal path may include a passive mixer, but the scope of the implementation is not limited in this regard.

[0133] In some implementations, the mixer circuit 1106a of the transmit signal path can be configured to up-convert an input baseband signal based on a synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1106d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuit 1108. The baseband signal can be provided by the baseband circuit 1110 and can be filtered by the filter circuit 1106c.

[0134] In some implementations, the mixer circuit 1106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1106a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and up-conversion, respectively. In some implementations, the mixer circuit 1106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1106a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image suppression (e.g., Hartley image suppression). In some implementations, the mixer circuit 1106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1106a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and direct up-conversion, respectively. In some implementations, the mixer circuit 1106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 1106a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

[0135] In some implementations, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the implementation is not limited in this respect. In some alternative implementations, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative implementations, the RF circuit 1106 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuits, and the baseband circuit 1110 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuit 1106.

[0136] In some dual-mode implementations, separate radio IC circuits may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the implementations is not limited in this respect.

[0137] In some implementations, the synthesizer circuit 1106d can be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, but the scope of the implementation is not limited in this respect, as other types of frequency synthesizers may also be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 1106d can be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

[0138] The synthesizer circuit 1106d can be configured to synthesize an output frequency based on the frequency input and the divider control input for use by the mixer circuit 1106a of the RF circuit 1106. In some implementations, the synthesizer circuit 1106d can be a fractional-N / N+1 synthesizer.

[0139] In some implementations, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuit 1110 or the application circuit 1005 according to the desired output frequency. In some implementations, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application circuit 1005.

[0140] The synthesizer circuit 1106d of the RF circuit 1106 may include a frequency divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some implementations, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some implementations, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry output) to provide a fractional frequency division ratio. In some exemplary implementations, the DLL may include a cascaded, tunable, delay element, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a set of D-type flip-flops. In these implementations, the delay element may be configured to divide the VCO cycle into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

[0141] In some implementations, the synthesizer circuit 1106d can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as an output frequency, while in other implementations, the output frequency can be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and can be used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate multiple signals with multiple different phases relative to each other at the carrier frequency. In some implementations, the output frequency can be an LO frequency (fLO). In some implementations, the RF circuit 1106 can include an IQ / polarity converter.

[0142] The FEM circuitry 1108 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from the antenna array 1111, amplify the received signals, and provide an amplified version of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1106 for further processing. The FEM circuitry 1108 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify transmit signals provided by the RF circuitry 1106 for transmission by one or more antenna elements in the antenna array 1111. In various implementations, amplification by the transmit or receive signal paths may be accomplished only in the RF circuitry 1106, only in the FEM circuitry 1108, or in both the RF circuitry 1106 and the FEM circuitry 1108.

[0143] In some implementations, the FEM circuit 1108 may include a TX / RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit 1108 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 1108 may include an LNA to amplify a received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to the RF circuit 1106). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 1108 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal (e.g., provided by the RF circuit 1106), and one or more filters for generating an RF signal for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 1111.

[0144] The antenna array 1111 includes one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured to convert an electrical signal into a radio wave to travel through the air and convert the received radio wave into an electrical signal. For example, a digital baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 1110 is converted into an analog RF signal (e.g., a modulated waveform), which is amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of the antenna array 1111 including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed into a variety of arrangements as known and / or discussed herein. The antenna array 1111 may include a microstrip antenna or a printed antenna fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array 1111 may be formed as a patch of metal foil of various shapes (e.g., a patch antenna) and may be coupled to the RF circuit 1106 and / or the FEM circuit 1108 using a metal transmission line or the like.

[0145] The processor of the application circuit 1005 and the processor of the baseband circuit 1110 can be used to execute elements of one or more instances of the protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuit 1110 can be used alone or in combination to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuit 1005 can utilize data received from these layers (e.g., packet data) and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, which will be described in further detail below. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may include a PHY layer of a UE / RAN node, which will be described in further detail below.

[0146] Fig.12 Various protocol functions that can be implemented in a wireless communication device according to various specific implementations are shown. Specifically, Fig.12 An arrangement 1200 is included to show the interconnection between various protocol layers / entities. Various protocol layers / entities operating in conjunction with 5G / NR system standards and LTE system standards are provided. Fig.12 The following description, but Fig.12 Some or all aspects of the invention may also be applicable to other wireless communication network systems.

[0147] In addition to other higher layer functions not shown, the protocol layers of arrangement 1200 may also include one or more of PHY 1210, MAC 1220, RLC 1230, PDCP 1240, SDAP 1247, RRC 1255, and NAS layer 1257. These protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., Fig.12 Items 1259, 1256, 1250, 1249, 1245, 1235, 1225, and 1215).

[0148] PHY 1210 can send and receive physical layer signals 1205, which can be received from or sent to one or more other communication devices. Physical layer signals 1205 may include one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. PHY 1210 may also perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and switching purposes) and other measurements used by higher layers (e.g., RRC1255). PHY 1210 may also further perform error detection on transmission channels, forward error correction (FEC) encoding / decoding of transmission channels, modulation / demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping to physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In a specific implementation, an instance of PHY 1210 may process a request from an instance of MAC1220 via one or more PHY-SAP 1215 and provide an indication thereof. According to some specific implementations, the request and indication transmitted via PHY-SAP 1215 may include one or more transmission channels.

[0149] An instance of MAC 1220 may process requests from an instance of RLC 1230 and provide indications thereto via one or more MAC-SAPs 1225. These requests and indications transmitted via MAC-SAP 1225 may include one or more logical channels. MAC 1220 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY 1210 via transport channels, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs delivered from PHY 1210 via transport channels to one or more logical channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction via HARQ, and logical channel prioritization.

[0150] An instance of RLC 1230 may process requests from an instance of PDCP 1240 and provide indications thereto via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAPs) 1235. These requests and indications transmitted via RLC-SAPs 1235 may include one or more logical channels. RLC 1230 may operate in a variety of operating modes, including: transparent mode (TM), unacknowledged mode (UM), and acknowledged mode (AM). RLC 1230 may perform transmission of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. RLC 1230 may also perform resegmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transmission, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transmission, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission, detect protocol errors for AM data transmission, and perform RLC re-establishment.

[0151] An instance of PDCP 1240 may process requests from an instance of RRC 1255 and / or an instance of SDAP 1247 and provide indications thereto via one or more Packet Data Convergence Protocol Service Points (PDCP-SAPs) 1245. These requests and indications transmitted via PDCP-SAPs 1245 may include one or more radio bearers. PDCP 1240 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP sequence numbers (SNs), perform in-order delivery of upper layer PDUs when lower layers are reestablished, eliminate duplication of lower layer SDUs when lower layers are reestablished for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, encrypt and decrypt control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification on control plane data, control timer-based data discard, and perform security operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

[0152] An instance of SDAP 1247 may process requests from one or more higher layer protocol entities and provide instructions thereto via one or more SDAP-SAPs 1249. These requests and instructions transmitted via SDAP-SAPs 1249 may include one or more QoS flows. SDAP 1247 may map QoS flows to DRBs and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity 1247 may be configured for a separate PDU session. In the UL direction, NG-RAN 910 may control the mapping of QoS flows to DRBs in two different ways (reflective mapping or explicit mapping). For reflective mapping, SDAP 1247 of UE 901 may monitor the QFI of DL packets of each DRB, and may apply the same mapping to packets flowing in the UL direction. For DRBs, SDAP 1247 of UE 901 may map UL packets belonging to a QoS flow corresponding to the QoS flow ID and PDU session observed in the DL packets of the DRB. To implement the reflective mapping, the NG-RAN may mark the DL packets with a QoS flow ID over the Uu interface. The explicit mapping may involve RRC 1255 configuring SDAP 1247 with explicit mapping rules of QoS flows to DRBs, which may be stored and followed by SDAP 1247. In a specific implementation, SDAP 1247 may only be used in NR specific implementations and may not be used in LTE specific implementations.

[0153] The RRC 1255 may configure aspects of one or more protocol layers via one or more management service access points (M-SAPs), which may include one or more instances of PHY 1210, MAC 1220, RLC 1230, PDCP 1240, and SDAP 1247. In a specific implementation, an instance of the RRC 1255 may process requests from one or more NAS entities 1257 via one or more RRC-SAPs 1256 and provide instructions thereto. The main services and functions of the RRC 1255 may include broadcasting of system information (e.g., included in a MIB or SIB related to NAS), broadcasting of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance, and release of an RRC connection between the UE 901 and the RAN 910 (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. These MIBs and SIBs may include one or more IEs, each of which may include a separate data field or data structure.

[0154] NAS 1257 may form the highest layer of the control plane between UE 901 and AMF. NAS 1257 may support the mobility and session management procedures of UE 901 to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 901 and P-GW in the LTE system.

[0155] According to various implementations, one or more protocol entities of arrangement 1200 may be implemented in UE 901, RAN node 911, AMF in NR implementation or MME in LTE implementation, UPF in NR implementation or S-GW and P-GW in LTE implementation, etc., for control plane or user plane communication protocol stacks between the aforementioned devices. In such implementations, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 901, gNB 911, etc. may communicate with corresponding peer protocol entities that may be implemented in or on another device (using the services of corresponding lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication). In some implementations, the gNB-CU of gNB 911 may host the RRC 1255, SDAP 1247, and PDCP 1240 of the gNB that control the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of gNB 911 may each host the RLC 1230, MAC 1220, and PHY 1210 of gNB911.

[0156] In a first example, the control plane protocol stack may include, in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer, NAS 1257, RRC 1255, PDCP 1240, RLC 1230, MAC 1220, and PHY 1210. In this example, an upper layer 1260 may be built on top of NAS 1257, which includes an IP layer 1261, SCTP 1262, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 1263.

[0157] In a NR specific implementation, AP 1263 can be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP) 1263 for the NG interface 913 defined between NG-RAN nodes 911, or AP 1263 can be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 1263 for the Xn interface 912 defined between two or more RAN nodes 911.

[0158] The NG-AP 1263 may support the functionality of the NG interface 913 and may include an elementary procedure (EP). The NG-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the NG-RAN point 911 and the AMF. The NG-AP 1263 services may include two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the UE 901) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the entire NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 911 and the AMF). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for sending a paging request to the NG-RAN node 911 involved in a specific paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF to establish, modify and / or release the UE context in the AMF and the NG-RAN node 911; a mobility function for the UE 901 in ECM-CONNECTED mode, for intra-system HO to support mobility within the NG-RAN, and for inter-system HO to support mobility from / to the EPS system; a NAS signaling transmission function for transmitting or rerouting NAS messages between the UE 901 and the AMF; a NAS node selection function for determining the association between the AMF and the UE 901; an NG interface management function for setting up the NG interface and monitoring errors through the NG interface; a warning message sending function for providing a means for transmitting a warning message via the NG interface or cancelling an ongoing warning message broadcast; a configuration transmission function for requesting and transmitting RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 911 via CN920; and / or other similar functions.

[0159] The XnAP 1263 may support the functions of the Xn interface 912 and may include XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may include procedures for handling UE mobility within the NG RAN 911 (or E-UTRAN), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN state transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, procedures related to dual connectivity, etc. The XnAP global procedures may include procedures unrelated to a specific UE 901, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, etc.

[0160] In an LTE specific implementation, AP 1263 may be an S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 1263 for an S1 interface 913 defined between an E-UTRAN node 911 and an MME, or AP 1263 may be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP) 1263 for an X2 interface 912 defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes 911.

[0161] The S1 application protocol layer (S1-AP) 1263 may support the functionality of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may include an S1-AP EP. The S1-AP EP may be an interaction unit between the E-UTRAN node 911 and the MME within the LTE CN 920. The S1-AP 1263 services may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. The functions performed by these services include, but are not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transmission, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transmission.

[0162] The X2AP 1263 may support the functions of the X2 interface 912 and may include an X2AP basic mobility procedure and an X2AP global procedure. The X2AP basic mobility procedure may include a procedure for handling UE mobility within the E-UTRAN 920, such as a handover preparation and cancellation procedure, an SN state transfer procedure, a UE context retrieval and a UE context release procedure, a RAN paging procedure, a procedure related to dual connectivity, etc. The X2AP global procedure may include a procedure that is not related to a specific UE 901, such as an X2 interface setup and reset procedure, a load indication procedure, an error indication procedure, a cell activation procedure, etc.

[0163] The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP / IP layer) 1262 may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). The SCTP 1262 may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 911 and the AMF / MME based in part on the IP protocol supported by the IP 1261. The Internet Protocol layer (IP) 1261 may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. In some implementations, the IP layer 1261 may deliver and transmit PDUs using point-to-point transport. In this regard, the RAN node 911 may include L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME / AMF to exchange information.

[0164] In a second example, the user plane protocol stack may include SDAP 1247, PDCP 1240, RLC 1230, MAC 1220, and PHY 1210 in order from the highest layer to the lowest layer. The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between UE 901, RAN node 911, and UPF in NR implementation, or communication between S-GW and P-GW in LTE implementation. In this example, the upper layer 1251 may be built on top of SDAP 1247 and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP / IP) 1252, a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol for a user plane layer (GTP-U) 1253, and a user plane PDU layer (UP PDU) 1263.

[0165] The transport network layer 1254 (also referred to as the "transport layer") may be built on top of the IP transport, and the GTP-U 1253 may be used on top of the UDP / IP layer 1252 (including the UDP layer and the IP layer) to carry the user plane PDU (UP-PDU). The IP layer (also referred to as the "Internet layer") may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functions. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets, for example, in any of the IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats.

[0166] GTP-U 1253 can be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. For example, the transmitted user data can be a packet in any of the IPv4, IPv6 or PPP formats. UDP / IP 1252 can provide a checksum for data integrity, a port number for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication of the selected data stream. The RAN node 911 and the S-GW can exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer (e.g., PHY 1210), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 1220, RLC 1230, PDCP 1240 and / or SDAP 1247), a UDP / IP layer 1252, and a GTP-U 1253 using an S1-U interface. The S-GW and the P-GW can exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer, an L2 layer, a UDP / IP layer 1252, and a GTP-U 1253 using an S5 / S8a interface. As previously discussed, the NAS protocol may support the mobility of UE 901 and session management procedures to establish and maintain an IP connection between UE 901 and the P-GW.

[0167] In addition, despite Fig.12Not shown, but an application layer may exist above the AP 1263 and / or transport network layer 1254. The application layer may be a layer where a user of the UE 901, RAN node 911, or other network element interacts with, for example, software applications executed by the application circuitry 1005, respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for the software application to interact with the communication system of the UE 901 or RAN node 911, such as the baseband circuitry 1110. In some implementations, the IP layer and / or the application layer may provide functionality that is the same or similar to layers 5 to 7 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, or portions thereof (e.g., OSI layer 7—application layer, OSI layer 6—presentation layer, and OSI layer 5—session layer).

[0168] Fig.13 1300 is a block diagram illustrating components of a NFV-enabled system 1300 according to some exemplary implementations. System 1300 is shown to include a VIM 1302, a NFVI 1304, a VNFM 1306, a VNF 1308, an EM 1310, a NFVO 1312, and a NM 1314.

[0169] The VIM 1302 manages resources of the NFVI 1304. The NFVI 1304 may include physical or virtual resources and applications (including a hypervisor) for executing the system 1300. The VIM 1302 may utilize the NFVI 1304 to manage the lifecycle of virtual resources (e.g., creation, maintenance, and teardown of VMs associated with one or more physical resources), track VM instances, track performance, failures, and security of VM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instances and associated physical resources to other management systems.

[0170] The VNFM 1306 may manage the VNF 1308. The VNF 1308 may be used to perform EPC components / functions. The VNFM 1306 may manage the lifecycle of the VNF 1308 and track the performance, failures, and security of the virtual aspects of the VNF 1308. The EM 1310 may track the performance, failures, and security of the functional aspects of the VNF 1308. The tracking data from the VNFM 1306 and the EM 1310 may include, for example, PM data used by the VIM 1302 or the NFVI 1304. The VNFM 1306 and the EM 1310 may both scale up / down the number of VNFs of the system 1300.

[0171] NFVO 1312 may coordinate, authorize, release, and engage resources of NFVI 1304 in order to provide requested services (e.g., to execute EPC functions, components, or slices). NM 1314 may provide an end-user functional package responsible for network management, which may include network elements with VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of VNFs may occur via EM 1310).

[0172] Fig.14 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable medium or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some exemplary implementations. Specifically, Fig.14 A schematic diagram of hardware resources 1400 is shown, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1410, one or more memory / storage devices 1420, and one or more communication resources 1430, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1440. For specific implementations in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1402 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1400.

[0173] Processor 1410 may include, for example, processor 1412 and processor 1414. Processor 1410 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0174] The memory / storage device 1420 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage device 1420 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0175] The communication resources 1430 may include an interconnect or network interface component or other suitable device to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1404 or one or more databases 1406 via the network 1408. For example, the communication resources 1430 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via USB), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, (or Low power consumption) components, components and other communication components.

[0176] The instructions 1450 may include software, programs, applications, applet, applications, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 1410 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1450 may reside in whole or in part in at least one of the processor 1410 (e.g., in a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage device 1420, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any portion of the instructions 1450 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1400 from any combination of the peripheral device 1404 or the database 1406. Thus, the memory of the processor 1410, the memory / storage device 1420, the peripheral device 1404, and the database 1406 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0177] Other specific implementations

[0178] A number of specific implementations have been described. However, it should be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. In addition, the logic flows shown in the accompanying drawings do not require the specific order or sequential order shown to achieve the desired results. In addition, 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 embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A method for communication, comprising: Generate a message for each VNF in a plurality of virtual network functions VNFs, the message comprising data representing a request to upload a VNF package for the VNF, wherein the plurality of VNFs include one or more of a VNF for an O-CU-CP, a VNF for an O-CU-UP, or a VNF for an O-DU; Encoding the generated message including the VNF packet for transmission to a network function virtualization orchestrator NFVO; transmitting the encoded message to the NFVO; generating a request message comprising data representing a request to update to a network service descriptor NSD associated with the VNF package and a physical network function PNF descriptor PNFD; transmitting the generated request message to the NFVO; and A response message is received from the NFVO, the response message including data indicating that the NSD update is successful.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the NFVO is a component of an infrastructure management framework IMFW.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: A message is received from the NFVO after transmitting the encoded message, wherein the received message includes data indicating that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded to the NFVO.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated message including the request to upload the VNF package includes an identifier of the VNF.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the generated message including the request to upload the VNF package includes an identifier of the physical network function PNF.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a service management and orchestration framework SMOFW is used to perform one or more of the following: (i) generating the message including the request to upload the VNF, (ii) encoding the generated message including the VNF package for transmission to the network function virtualization orchestrator NFVO, or (iii) transmitting the encoded message to the NFVO.

7. An apparatus for communication, the apparatus comprising one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising: A message is generated for each VNF in a plurality of virtual network functions VNFs, the message comprising data representing a request to upload a VNF package for the VNF, wherein: The plurality of VNFs include one or more of a VNF for an O-CU-CP, a VNF for an O-CU-UP, or a VNF for an O-DU; Encoding the generated message including the VNF packet for transmission to a network function virtualization orchestrator NFVO; transmitting the encoded message to the NFVO; generating a request message comprising data representing a request to update to a network service descriptor NSD associated with the VNF package and a physical network function PNF descriptor PNFD; Transmitting the generated request message to the NFVO; as well as A response message is received from the NFVO, the response message including data indicating that the NSD update is successful.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the NFVO is a component of an infrastructure management framework IMFW.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise: A message is received from the NFVO after transmitting the encoded message, wherein the received message includes data indicating that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded to the NFVO.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the generated message including the request to upload the VNF package includes an identifier of the VNF.

11. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the generated message including the request to upload the VNF package includes an identifier of the physical network function PNF.

12. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein a service management and orchestration framework SMOFW is used to perform one or more of the following: (i) generating the message including the request to upload the VNF, (ii) encoding the generated message including the VNF package for transmission to the network function virtualization orchestrator NFVO, or (iii) transmitting the encoded message to the NFVO.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more processors, which when such executed cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: A message is generated for each VNF in a plurality of virtual network functions VNFs, the message comprising data representing a request to upload a VNF package for the VNF, wherein: The plurality of VNFs include one or more of a VNF for an O-CU-CP, a VNF for an O-CU-UP, or a VNF for an O-DU; Encoding the generated message including the VNF packet for transmission to a network function virtualization orchestrator NFVO; transmitting the encoded message to the NFVO; generating a request message comprising data representing a request to update to a network service descriptor NSD associated with the VNF package and a physical network function PNF descriptor PNFD; Transmitting the generated request message to the NFVO; as well as A response message is received from the NFVO, the response message including data indicating that the NSD update is successful.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the NFVO is a component of an Infrastructure Management Framework (IMFW).

15. The computer readable medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising: A message is received from the NFVO after transmitting the encoded message, wherein the received message includes data indicating that the VNF package has been successfully uploaded to the NFVO.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the generated message including the request to upload the VNF package includes an identifier of the VNF.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the generated message including the request to upload the VNF package includes an identifier of a physical network function (PNF).

18. A computer-readable medium according to claim 13, wherein a service management and orchestration framework SMOFW is used to perform one or more of the following: (i) generating the message including the request to upload the VNF, (ii) encoding the generated message including the VNF package for transmission to the network function virtualization orchestrator NFVO, or (iii) transmitting the encoded message to the NFVO.

19. A method for communication, comprising: For each VNF in a plurality of virtual network functions VNF, a first request message is generated by a device of a service management and orchestration framework SMOFW, wherein the first request message includes data representing a request to upload a VNF package for the VNF, wherein the plurality of VNFs include one or more of a VNF for an O-CU-CP, a VNF for an O-CU-UP, or a VNF for an O-DU; The device of the SMOFW transmits the generated first request message to a network function virtualization orchestrator NFVO; receiving, by the device of the SMOFW, a first response message from the NFVO, the first response message including data indicating that the VNF package was successfully uploaded; For each PNF of a plurality of physical network functions PNFs, the device of the SMOFW generates a second request message, the second request message comprising data representing a request to upload a PNF descriptor PNFD for the PNF, wherein the plurality of PNFs include a PNF for an O-RU; transmitting, by the means of the SMOFW, the generated second request message to the NFVO; receiving, by the device of the SMOFW, a second response message from the NFVO, the second response message including data indicating that the PNFD was successfully uploaded; generating, by the device of the SMOFW, a third request message, the third request message including data representing a request to update to a network service descriptor (NSD) associated with the previously uploaded VNF package and the PNFD; transmitting, by the means of the SMOFW, the generated third request message to the NFVO; and A third response message is received by the device of the SMOFW from the NFVO, the third response message including data indicating that the NSD update is successful.

20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising: generating, by the means of the SMOFW, a fourth request message, the fourth request message comprising data representing a request to update a network service NS instance associated with the updated NSD; transmitting, by the means of the SMOFW, the generated fourth request message to the NFVO; receiving, by the device of the SMOFW, a fourth response message from the NFVO, wherein the fourth response message includes data indicating that the NS instance update has started; as well as A fifth response message is received by the device of the SMOFW from the NFVO, wherein the fifth response message includes data indicating a result of the NS instance update.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the result of the NS instance update comprises: (i) data indicating that the NS instance was updated successfully, or (ii) data indicating that the NS instance was updated unsuccessfully.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the VNF package includes a VNF descriptor for each VNF in the VNF package.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein generating the first request message comprises generating the first request message by one or more baseband processors.

24. An apparatus for communication, the apparatus comprising one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising: A first request message is generated for each VNF in a plurality of virtual network functions VNF, wherein the first request message includes data representing a request to upload a VNF package for the VNF, wherein: The plurality of VNFs include one or more of a VNF for an O-CU-CP, a VNF for an O-CU-UP, or a VNF for an O-DU; Transmitting the generated first request message to a network function virtualization orchestrator NFVO; receiving a first response message from the NFVO, the first response message including data indicating that the VNF package was successfully uploaded; generating a second request message for each PNF of a plurality of physical network functions PNFs, the second request message comprising data representing a request to upload a PNF descriptor PNFD for the PNF, wherein the plurality of PNFs include a PNF for an O-RU; transmitting the generated second request message to the NFVO; receiving a second response message from the NFVO, the second response message including data indicating that the PNFD was successfully uploaded; generating a third request message, the third request message comprising data representing a request to update to a network service descriptor NSD associated with the previously uploaded VNF package and the PNFD; transmitting the generated third request message to the NFVO; and A third response message is received from the NFVO, the third response message including data indicating that the NSD update is successful.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the operations further comprise: generating a fourth request message, the fourth request message comprising data representing a request to update a network service NS instance associated with the updated NSD; transmitting the generated fourth request message to the NFVO; receiving a fourth response message from the NFVO, wherein the fourth response message includes data indicating that the NS instance update has started; as well as A fifth response message is received from the NFVO, wherein the fifth response message includes data indicating a result of the NS instance update.

26. The apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the result of the NS instance update comprises: (i) data indicating that the NS instance was updated successfully, or (ii) data indicating that the NS instance was updated unsuccessfully.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the VNF package comprises a VNF descriptor for each VNF in the VNF package.

28. The apparatus of claim 24, comprising one or more baseband processors.

29. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more processors, which when such executed cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: A first request message is generated for each VNF in a plurality of virtual network functions VNF, wherein the first request message includes data representing a request to upload a VNF package for the VNF, wherein: The plurality of VNFs include one or more of a VNF for an O-CU-CP, a VNF for an O-CU-UP, or a VNF for an O-DU; Transmitting the generated first request message to a network function virtualization orchestrator NFVO; receiving a first response message from the NFVO, the first response message including data indicating that the VNF package was successfully uploaded; generating a second request message for each PNF of a plurality of physical network functions PNFs, the second request message comprising data representing a request to upload a PNF descriptor PNFD for the PNF, wherein the plurality of PNFs include a PNF for an O-RU; transmitting the generated second request message to the NFVO; receiving a second response message from the NFVO, the second response message including data indicating that the PNFD was successfully uploaded; generating a third request message, the third request message comprising data representing a request to update to a network service descriptor NSD associated with the previously uploaded VNF package and the PNFD; transmitting the generated third request message to the NFVO; and A third response message is received from the NFVO, the third response message including data indicating that the NSD update is successful.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 29, the operations further comprising: generating a fourth request message, the fourth request message comprising data representing a request to update a network service NS instance associated with the updated NSD; transmitting the generated fourth request message to the NFVO; receiving a fourth response message from the NFVO, wherein the fourth response message includes data indicating that the NS instance update has started; as well as A fifth response message is received from the NFVO, wherein the fifth response message includes data indicating a result of the NS instance update.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the result of the NS instance update comprises: (i) data indicating that the NS instance was updated successfully, or (ii) data indicating that the NS instance was updated unsuccessfully.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the VNF package includes a VNF descriptor for each VNF in the VNF package.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the one or more processors include one or more baseband processors.

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