Method and apparatus for improving quality of service in communication system

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. A method performed by a base station in a communication system is provided. The method includes receiving a packet including metadata from a user plane function (UPF), identifying a packet delay budget (PDB) for a quality of service (QoS) flow of the packet, identifying a delay time of the packet based on the metadata, determining an access network (AN) PDB based on the PDB and the delay time, and performing scheduling for transmission of the packet to a terminal based on the AN PDB.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a communication system and more particularly to a method and apparatus for improving Quality of Service (QoS). Background Art

[0002] 5G mobile communication technology defines a wide frequency band so that high transmission rates and new services are possible, and can be realized not only in "below 6 GHz" frequency bands such as 3.5 GHz, but also in "above 6 GHz" frequency bands called mmWave including 28 GHz and 39 GHz. In addition, 6G mobile communication technology (called super 5G system) has been considered to be implemented in terahertz frequency bands (e.g., 95 GHz to 3 THz frequency bands) in order to achieve a transmission rate fifty times faster than 5G mobile communication technology and an ultra-low latency one-tenth of 5G mobile communication technology.

[0003] At the beginning of the development of 5G mobile communication technology, in order to support services and meet the performance requirements of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC) and massive machine-type communication (mMTC), standardization has been carried out for the following aspects: beamforming and massive multiple-input multiple-output (massive MIMO) for alleviating propagation path loss in the ultra-high frequency band and increasing the propagation reach in the ultra-high frequency band, support for various parameter sets for effectively using ultra-high frequency resources (operation of multiple subcarrier spacings, etc.), dynamic operation of time slot formats, initial access technology for supporting multi-beam transmission and broadband, definition and operation of bandwidth parts (BWP), new channel coding methods such as low-density parity check (LDPC) codes for large-capacity data transmission and polar codes for highly reliable transmission of control information, L2 preprocessing, and network slicing that provides dedicated networks dedicated to specific services, etc.

[0004] Currently, in view of the services to be supported by 5G mobile communication technology, discussions are ongoing on improvements and performance enhancements of initial 5G mobile communication technology, and there is already physical layer standardization on technologies such as V2X (Vehicle to Everything) for assisting driving determination of autonomous vehicles based on information about the location and status of the vehicle sent by the vehicle and for enhancing user convenience, NR-U (New Radio Unlicensed) for system operation intended to comply with various regulatory-related requirements in unlicensed bands, NR UE power saving, non-terrestrial networks (NTN) (which is UE satellite direct communication for providing coverage in areas where communication with terrestrial networks is unavailable), and positioning.

[0005] In addition, there is ongoing standardization of air interface architecture / protocol aspects of technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for supporting new services through interworking and convergence with other industries, IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul) for providing nodes for network service area expansion by supporting wireless backhaul links and access links in an integrated manner, mobility enhancements including conditional handover and DAPS (Dual Active Protocol Stack) handover, and two-step random access (two-step RACH for NR) for simplifying the random access procedure. There is also ongoing standardization of 5G baseline architecture (e.g., service-based architecture or service-based interface) for combining network function virtualization (NFV) and software defined network (SDN) technologies, and system architecture / services for mobile edge computing (MEC) for receiving services based on UE location.

[0006] With the commercialization of 5G mobile communication systems, the number of connected devices, which has been growing exponentially, will be connected to the communication network, and it is expected that enhanced functions and performance of the 5G mobile communication system and integrated operation of the connected devices will be necessary accordingly. To this end, new research related to the following items is arranged: extended reality (XR) for effectively supporting AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), MR (mixed reality), etc., 5G performance improvement and complexity reduction by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), AI service support, meta-service support, and drone communication.

[0007] Furthermore, such development of 5G mobile communication systems will serve as a foundation for developing not only new waveforms for providing coverage in the terahertz band for 6G mobile communication technology, multi-antenna transmission technologies such as full-dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, and massive antennas, metamaterial-based lenses and antennas for improving coverage of terahertz band signals, high-dimensional spatial multiplexing technology using OAM (orbital angular momentum), and RIS (reconfigurable smart surface), but also full-duplex technology for improving the frequency efficiency of 6G mobile communication technology and improving system networks, AI-based communication technology for achieving system optimization by utilizing satellites and AI (artificial intelligence) from the design stage and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions, and next-generation distributed computing technology for achieving services at a complexity level that exceeds the limits of UE operating capabilities by utilizing ultra-high performance communication and computing resources.

[0008] The access network packet delay budget (AN PDB) defines an upper limit on the packet delay time between the UE and the base station, and the base station can perform uplink or downlink scheduling on the UE based on the AN PDB. In this case, the base station can determine the AN PDB based on the CN PDB defined as a static value and the PDB determined according to the 5G QoS identifier (5GI). However, if the CN PDB value is defined as a static value, the packet delay time between the base station and the user plane function (UPF) may exceed the CN PDB (e.g., tail delay), thereby reducing the end-to-end quality of service (QoS). Therefore, the base station needs to determine the accurate AN PDB by determining the core network packet delay (CN PD).

[0009] The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above may be applicable as prior art with respect to the present disclosure. Summary of the invention

[0010] Technical issues

[0011] Aspects of the present disclosure at least address the above-mentioned problems and / or disadvantages and provide at least the advantages described below. Therefore, an aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a method and apparatus for improving end-to-end (E2E) quality of service (QoS) by performing scheduling with respect to UEs to reflect packet delays in a wired network.

[0012] Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the presented embodiments.

[0013] Solution to the problem

[0014] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method performed by a base station in a communication system is provided. The method includes: receiving a packet including metadata from a user plane function (UPF), identifying a packet delay budget (PDB) for a quality of service (QoS) flow for the packet, identifying a delay time of the packet based on the metadata, determining an access network (AN) PDB based on the PDB and the delay time, and performing scheduling for transmission of the packet to a terminal based on the AN PDB.

[0015] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method performed by a UPF in a communication system is provided. The method includes receiving a packet from a data network (DN), identifying whether the packet includes information related to a DN packet delay (PD), inserting metadata into the packet, and sending the packet with the inserted metadata to a base station.

[0016] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a base station in a communication system is provided. The base station includes a transceiver and at least one processor coupled to the transceiver. The at least one processor is configured to: receive a packet including metadata from a UPF, identify a PDB for a QoS flow of the packet, identify a delay time of the packet based on the metadata, determine an ANPDB based on the PDB and the delay time, and perform scheduling for transmission of the packet to a terminal based on the ANPDB.

[0017] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a UPF in a communication system is provided. The UPF includes a transceiver and at least one processor coupled to the transceiver. The at least one processor is configured to: receive a packet from a data network, identify whether the packet includes information related to a DN PD, insert metadata into the packet, and send the packet with the inserted metadata to a base station.

[0018] Advantageous Effects of the Invention

[0019] The apparatus and method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can improve the end-to-end (E2E) quality of service (QoS) in a communication system.

[0020] Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the present disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description which, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, discloses various embodiments of the present disclosure. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] The above and other aspects, features and advantages of certain embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent through the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0022] Figure 1 A communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0023] Figure 2 is a diagram for explaining in-band network telemetry (INT) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 3 An INT-based communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0025] Figure 4 An INT-based communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0026] Figure 5 The figure shows a signal flow based on INT in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0027] Figure 6 The operation of the base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0028] Figure 7An INT-based communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0029] Figure 8 The operation of a user plane function (UPF) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0030] Fig. 9 An INT-based communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0031] Fig.10 An INT-based packet structure according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0032] Fig.11 The operation of the base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0033] Fig.12 A network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0034] Fig.13 A base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0035] Fig.14 A terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0036] Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of the various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in understanding, but these details should be considered as merely exemplary. Therefore, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes and modifications may be made to the various embodiments described herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and structures may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

[0038] The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Therefore, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustrative purposes only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0039] It should be understood that the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a component surface" includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.

[0040] In the present disclosure, in order to determine whether a specific condition is satisfied or met, the expression more / higher / larger or less / smaller may be used, but this is only a description for expressing an example, and does not exclude a description of equal to or more / higher / larger or a description of equal to or less / smaller. A condition described as "equal to or more / higher / larger" may be replaced with "more / higher / larger", a condition described as "equal to or less than / less than" may be replaced with "less than / less than", and a condition described as "equal to or more / higher / larger, and less than / less than" may be replaced with "more / higher / larger, and equal to or less than / less than".

[0041] In the present disclosure, the embodiments will be described using terms adopted in some communication standards (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) and New Radio (NR) defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), but they are only for illustrative purposes. The embodiments of the present disclosure can be easily applied to other communication systems by modification.

[0042] Figure 1 A communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 1 A terminal 110, a base station 120, a user plane function (UPF) 130 are shown as being part of a node of a communication system.

[0043] The terminal 110 can access the data network (DN) through the base station 120 and the UPF 130. In order for the terminal 110 to send or receive data through the UPF 130, a protocol data unit (PDU) session needs to be generated, and a PDU session may include one or more quality of service (QoS) flows. Figure 1 , the PDU session may include a first QoS flow, a second QoS flow, and a third QoS flow. The terminal 110 may be referred to as a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a subscriber station, a remote terminal, a wireless terminal, and a user device, a customer premises equipment (CPE), an electronic device, or other terms having equivalent technical meanings thereof.

[0044] The base station 120 is a radio access network (RAN) node and is a network infrastructure that provides radio access to the terminal. The base station 120 may perform mapping between a QoS flow and a specific data radio bearer (DRB) based on information (QoS flow identifier (QFI), QoS profile) received from one of the control plane network functions (e.g., session management function (SMF)) of the core network (CN). For example, referring to Figure 1, the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow may be mapped to the first DRB, and the third QoS flow may be mapped to the second DRB. The base station 120 may be referred to as an access point (AP), an eNodeB (eNB), a fifth generation node (5G node), a next generation nodeB (gNB), a radio point, a transmission and reception point (TRP), or other terms having equivalent technical meanings thereof.

[0045] UPF 130 is a network function responsible for the user plane in the core network. UPF 130 can perform the function of transmitting the uplink packet received from the base station through a specific PDU session to the data network corresponding to the corresponding PDU session. In addition, UPF 130 can perform the function of mapping the downlink packet received from the data network to a specific QoS flow included in the specific PDU session.

[0046] Here, the QoS flow may be associated with a QoS feature set. In this case, the QoS feature set may be defined according to a 5G QoS identifier (5QI), and may be configured, for example, as shown in Table 1 below. However, Table 1 below is only an example of a standardized 5QI, and a non-standardized 5QI may be defined separately by the network.

[0047] [Table 1]

[0048]

[0049] QoS characteristics may include resource type, priority level, packet delay budget (PDB), packet error rate (PER), maximum data burst size (MDBV), and averaging window.

[0050] The resource type can be one of guaranteed bit rate (GBR), non-GBR, and delay critical GBR. GBR can provide a guaranteed streaming bit rate (GFBR) to the end user and can be used for time-sensitive applications (e.g., phone calls, real-time gaming (RTG), and vehicle-to-everything (V2X)). Non-GBR does not provide GFBR to the end user and can be used for time-insensitive applications (e.g., web browsing). Delay critical GBR is able to provide much shorter delays than GBR, where a GBR QoS flow may allow a PDB of 100ms, while a delay critical GBR may allow a PDB of 10ms. Here, GFBR may be defined as the minimum bit transmission rate that can be expected in a QoS flow when measured in an averaging window.

[0051] In an embodiment according to the present disclosure, in addition to the above-mentioned GBR, non-GBR and delay-critical GBR, the resource type may also include an object delay GBR. Since GBR, non-GBR and delay-critical GBR are based on PDB operations, there may be a problem that the target packet delay time cannot be stably provided. That is, since the base station 120 schedules the packet to be transmitted to the terminal 110 within the range of the PDB, the packet may experience various delays within the range of the PDB. On the other hand, the object delay GBR can support the packet to stably experience a specific delay time. For example, the object delay GBR can be configured as shown in Table 2 below.

[0052] [Table 2]

[0053]

[0054] Here, the object delay budget (OPD) may refer to a target delay time for a corresponding packet. In addition, the object packet delay bound (OPDB) may refer to an allowable error range of the OPD. For example, when the 5QI is configured as 123 as shown in Table 2, the corresponding packet may be scheduled to experience a delay between 40 ms and 60 ms.

[0055] However, the above Table 2 is only an example, and in an embodiment according to the present disclosure, the object delay GBR may be configured differently based on OPD and OPDB. In addition, the object delay GBR, OPD, and OPDB are only names, and in an embodiment according to the present disclosure, the corresponding names may be referenced in various ways according to the purpose.

[0056] Priority levels may be used to specify priorities between QoS flows, and low values ​​may correspond to high priorities. PER may be defined as the ratio of higher layer packets that were not successfully transmitted. MDBV may be defined as the maximum amount of data that a base station should support within a specific time period (e.g., 9 ms).

[0057] The PDB may be defined as an upper limit of a packet delay time between the terminal 110 and the UPF 130. More specifically, the PDB may be defined as an upper limit of a packet delay time between the terminal 110 and the N6 termination point of the UPF 130.

[0058] The PDB may include an access network (AN) PDB defined as an upper limit of a packet delay time between the terminal 110 and the base station 120 and a CN PDB defined as an upper limit of a packet delay time between the base station 120 and the UPF 130. Here, the CN PDB may be configured as a static value (e.g., one of 1 ms, 2 sm, 5 ms, 10 ms, and 20 ms) for each 5QI. For example, when the 5QI value is 1, the CN PDB may be configured as 20 ms. As another example, when the 5QI value is 82, the CN PDB may be configured as 1 ms .

[0059] Therefore, the AN PDB can be determined based on the 5QI of the QoS flow. That is, since the PDB and CNPDB are determined according to the 5QI, the AN PDB can be determined based on the PDB and CN PDB. In this case, the AN PDB can be calculated according to the following equation 1.

[0060] [Equation 1]

[0061] ANPDB=PDB-CNPDB

[0062] The base station 120 may perform uplink or downlink scheduling for the terminal based on the calculated PDB. In this case, the base station 120 may determine the scheduling weight of a specific packet based on the AN PDB. This may be understood to mean that the scheduling weight of a specific packet increases according to time, and a specific packet is assigned a scheduling weight that increases as the time consumed in the transmit buffer approaches the AN PDB. Therefore, the lower the PDB, the higher the assigned scheduling weight, and thus packet transmission can be performed without delay.

[0063] As described above, since the PDB and CN PDB are determined according to the 5QI configured in the QoS flow, the AN PDB may also be static. In this case, depending on the packet delay between the base station 120 and the UPF 130, a problem of quality of service (QoS) degradation may occur.

[0064] For example, according to 5QI, the PDB may be configured to be 50 ms, the CN PDB may be configured to be 20 ms, and the AN PDB may be configured to be 30 ms.

[0065] As a first example, the packet delay (e.g., 10ms) between the base station 120 and the UPF 130 may be less than the CN PDB. In this case, since the packet of the QoS flow arrives earlier than the upper limit of the configured packet delay, the base station 120 may be allowed to prioritize scheduling another QoS flow. However, according to the method of deriving the AN PDB based on the CN PDB, since the base station 120 is unable to know the above-mentioned actual packet delay time (e.g., 10ms), the base station may not prioritize scheduling another QoS flow. Therefore, degradation of the overall QoS flow may occur.

[0066] As a second example, the packet delay (e.g., 28ms) between the base station 120 and the UPF 130 may exceed the CN PDB. Therefore, although the AN PDB is configured as 30ms, the actual guaranteed time is only 22ms, and therefore priority scheduling of packets for the corresponding QoS flow is required. That is, the scheduling weight of the corresponding packet needs to be configured to be higher than the target weight. However, according to the method of deriving the AN PDB based on the CN PDB, since the base station 120 cannot know the above-mentioned actual packet delay time (e.g., 28ms), the base station cannot prioritize the scheduling of the corresponding QoS flow. Therefore, QoS degradation of the corresponding QoS flow may occur. In addition, in the case of delay-critical GBR and GBR sensitive to delay time, when the actual packet delay time exceeds the CN PDB, it may be advantageous for the base station 120 not to send the corresponding packet to the terminal in terms of overall QoS and radio resources. However, according to the method of deriving the AN PDB based on the CN PDB, since the base station 120 cannot know the above-mentioned actual packet delay time (e.g., 28ms), the corresponding packet is sent to the terminal.

[0067] Therefore, it is necessary to measure the actual packet delay time between the base station 120 and the UPF 130 instead of deriving the AN PDB based on the CN PDB as described above. Hereinafter, an In-Band Network Telemetry (INT) technique as a method of measuring the packet delay time between the base station 120 and the UPF 130 will be described.

[0068] Figure 2 An in-band network telemetry (INT) based communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0069] refer to Figure 2 , a method will be described in which nodes of a communication system generate, store and send metadata based on in-band network telemetry (INT).

[0070] The complexity of communication systems increases with the number of connected devices, traffic volume, and the number of supported protocols and services. In such communication systems, existing methods have limitations in network monitoring. To overcome this limitation, network telemetry has been proposed.

[0071] According to the method of obtaining network status information, network telemetry can be divided into an in-band method and an out-of-band method. In the out-of-band method, network status information is obtained through a separate detection packet, while in the in-band method, network status information can be obtained by inserting a telemetry packet into a data packet. Here, the in-band method can be referred to as in-band network telemetry (INT).

[0072] According to INT, a network device can obtain network status information in the data plane (or user plane) without intervention from the control plane. Here, the network status information can be referred to as metadata. Such metadata is sent by being inserted into a data packet and may include timestamps and buffer related information (e.g., queue usage, queue congestion status), etc.

[0073] refer to Figure 2 , the terminal 110 may send an uplink packet to the base station 120. In this case, the header may include a source IP address (e.g., an IP address of the terminal) and a destination IP address (e.g., a server IP address of a data network). The base station 120 may insert an INT header and INT data #1 into the received uplink packet. Here, the INT header may indicate the type of INT data #1. For example, the INT header may indicate that the type of INT data #1 is a timestamp. After inserting the INT header and INT data #1, the base station 120 may send an uplink packet to the UPF 130. The uplink packet may be transmitted to the UPF 130 via the first switch. In this case, after inserting INT data #2, the first switch may send the uplink packet to the UPF 130. The UPF 130 may identify the type of INT data based on the header of the received uplink packet, and identify INT data #1, INT data #2, and INT data #3, and thus may identify the delay time of the uplink packet during transmission from the base station 120 to the UPF 130. The UPF 130 may send a segment of the INT data to the device 210 for monitoring the network status. In this case, the device for monitoring the network status may perform an in-band network telemetry function (INTF). INTF corresponds to a control plane network function and may perform application and management of INT. For example, INTF may perform functions such as telemetry triggering, telemetry instruction setting, telemetry instruction type setting, telemetry report periodicity setting, and telemetry layer setting. Although already in Figure 2 A case where uplink transmission is performed is described in , but a case where downlink transmission is performed can be similarly described.

[0074] Figure 3 An in-band network telemetry (INT) based communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0075] refer to Figure 3 , compares and describes the case where the CN PDB is static and the case where the CN PD is measured, and describes a process in which a base station determines an access network packet delay budget (ANPDB) by further considering a data network packet delay (DN PD) of a data network.

[0076] refer to Figure 3 , a first packet from a first server may be transmitted to terminal 110 via a first IP flow, and a second packet from a second server may be transmitted to terminal 110 via a second IP flow. Here, the first IP flow may be mapped to a first QoS flow, and the second IP flow may be mapped to a second QoS flow. In addition, the first QoS flow may be mapped to a first DRB, and the second QoS flow may be mapped to a second DRB. However, this is merely an example, and in an embodiment of the present disclosure, IP flows, QoS flows, and DRBs may be mapped in various ways.

[0077] Hereinafter, as an example, it is assumed that the PDB of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow is configured to be 50 ms, and the CNPDB is configured to be 20 ms.

[0078] The following will describe a case where QoS adjustment is performed through the CN PDB. UPF 130 may receive a first IP flow including a first packet from a first server. In addition, UPF 130 may receive a second IP flow including a second packet from a second server. UPF 130 may map the first IP flow to a first QoS flow and map the second IP flow to a second QoS flow based on a service data flow (SDF) template. UPF 130 may send a first packet to a base station 120 based on the first QoS flow. In addition, UPF 130 may send a second packet to a base station 120 based on the second QoS flow.

[0079] Here, the base station 120 may determine the AN PDB of the first packet and the AN PDB of the second packet. Since the PDB of the first QoS flow and the second QoS flow is configured as 50ms and the CN PDB is configured as 20ms, the base station 120 may determine the AN PDB of the first packet and the AN PDB of the second packet as 30ms. The base station 120 may schedule the first packet and the second packet with respect to the terminal 110 based on the determined PDB (30ms). That is, one or more first packets and one or more second packets may be processed with the same QoS.

[0080] However, here, it may happen that the (actual) core network packet delay (CN PD) of the first packet is different from the CN PD of the second packet. For example, the CN PD of the first packet may be 28 ms, and the CN PD of the second packet may be 12 ms. Even when QoS adjustment is performed based on the CN PDB, the first packet and the second packet are processed with the same QoS, so QoS degradation may occur.

[0081] The case of adjusting QoS by CN PD can be described as follows. UPF 130 may receive a first IP flow including a first packet from a first server. In addition, UPF 130 may receive a second IP flow including a second packet from a second server. UPF 130 may map the first IP flow to the first QoS flow, and may insert metadata into the header of at least one packet in the first packet. UPF 130 may map the second IP flow to the second QoS flow, and may insert metadata into the header of at least one packet in the second packet. The frequency at which metadata is inserted into the packet may be determined by a network function of the control plane. For example, the network function may be an in-band network telemetry function (INTF). Here, the header may be a header of a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol-user plane (GTP-U). In addition, the metadata is about a transport network and may be referred to as a telecommunications company telemetry metadata (T-TM). UPF 130 may send a first packet in which metadata is inserted to the base station 120 based on the first QoS flow. In addition, UPF 130 may send a second packet in which metadata is inserted to the base station 120 based on the second QoS flow.

[0082] Here, the base station 120 may determine a first AN PDB for the first group and a second AN PDB for the second group. The base station 120 may determine the CN PD of the first group based on metadata included in at least one of the first groups. In addition, the base station 120 may determine the CN PD of the second group based on metadata included in at least one of the second groups. Here, the AN PDB may be calculated according to the following equation 2.

[0083] [Equation 2]

[0084] AN PDB=PDB-CN PD

[0085] As in the previous example, when the CN PD of the first packet is 28 ms and the CN PD of the second packet is 12 ms, the first AN PDB may be determined as 22 ms, and the second AN PDB may be determined as 38 ms. sTherefore, even when the PDB and the CNPDB are identically configured, the base station 120 can schedule the first packet and the second packet differently according to the delay time of the wired network. As a result, end-to-end QoS can be guaranteed.

[0086] In addition to the above description, the delay between the UPF 130 and the data network (DN) may also be reflected in the scheduling of the base station 120 based on the INT. In this case, the header of at least one packet in the IP packet may include metadata. Here, the header may be a transmission control protocol / user datagram protocol (TCP / UDP) header. The metadata included in the TCP / UDP header is related to the data network and may be referred to as data network telemetry metadata (DN-TM).

[0087] Hereinafter, header processing in the case where DN-TM is included in the header and received will be described.

[0088] Figure 4 An in-band network telemetry (INT) based communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 4 The terminal 110, the base station 120, the first switch, the second switch, the UPF 130 and the network function of the control plane as part of the node of the communication system are illustrated. Here, the switch may be a software defined network (SDN) switch.

[0089] refer to Figure 4 , the UPF 130 may receive a downlink packet from a data network (DN). Here, the TCP / UDP header of the downlink packet may include data network telemetry metadata (DN-TM). The UPF 130 may perform a telemetry conversion function (TTF). The TTF may be a function of copying the DN-TM included in the TCP / UDP header and adding the copied DN-TM to the GPRS Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GTP-U) header. In addition, the UPF 130 may add a telecommunications company telemetry metadata (T-TM) 1, which is telemetry metadata of the UPF 130, to the GTP-U header. The UPF 130 may perform the TTF, may add the T-TM1 to the GTP-U header, and may then send the downlink packet to the base station 120. In this case, it is assumed that the downlink packet is transmitted to the base station 120 via the first switch and the second switch.

[0090] The first switch and the second switch may each add their own T-TM to the GTP-U header. For example, after adding T-TM2 to the GTP-U header of the downlink packet, the first switch may send the downlink packet to the second switch. Additionally, after adding T-TM3 to the GTP-U header of the downlink packet, the second switch may send the downlink packet to the base station 120.

[0091] The base station 120 may receive a downlink packet from the UPF 130 through the first switch and the second switch. In this case, the downlink packet may include DN-TM, T-TM1, T-TM2, and T-TM3. The base station 120 may insert T-TM4 into the GTP-U header of the received downlink packet. Thereafter, the base station 120 may perform a telemetry merging function (TMF). TMF may be a function that merges DN-TM and T-TM. For example, the base station 120 may copy the DN-TM and T-TM of the GTP-U header to the TCP / UDP header, and may remove the GTP-U header. The above-mentioned TTF and TMF may be integrated into a telemetry information converter (TIT).

[0092] The base station 120 may determine a data network packet delay (DN PD) based on the DN-TM. In addition, the base station 120 may determine a core network packet delay (CN PD) based on the T-TM. The base station 120 may identify a packet delay budget (PDB) based on a 5G quality of service identifier (5QI). Here, the PDB may be defined as an upper limit of a packet delay between the terminal 110 and the UPF 130. In another embodiment, the PDB may be defined as an upper limit of a packet delay between the terminal 110 and the data network. The base station 120 may determine an access network packet delay budget (AN PDB) based on the PDB, the DN PD, and the CN PD. For example, the AN PDB may be calculated according to the following equation 3.

[0093] [Equation 3]

[0094] AN PDB=PDB-DN PD-CN PD

[0095] Base station 120 may schedule downlink packets based on the determined PDB.Base station 120 may send downlink packets to terminal 110 based on the determined PDB.

[0096] Figure 5 A signal flow based on in-band network telemetry (INT) in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 5 A terminal 110, a base station 120, a switch 125, a UPF 130, an in-band network telemetry function (INTF), and a data network 410 are illustrated as being part of a node of an INT-based communication system.

[0097] refer to Figure 5 , when the data network 410 is a trusted data network (trusted DN), the signal flow based on INT will be described.

[0098] refer to Figure 5In operation 501, the UPF 130 may receive a downlink packet from the data network 410. In operation 503, the UPF 130 may identify a source Internet Protocol (IP) address of the received downlink packet. The UPF 130 may identify whether the data network 410 is a trusted data network or an untrusted data network (untrusted DN) based on the identified IP address. In operation 505, if the identified data network 410 is a trusted data network, the UPF 130 may perform a telemetry conversion function (TTF). That is, the UPF 130 may copy a DN-TM included in a transmission control protocol / user datagram protocol (TCP / UDP) header and add the copied DN-TM to the GTP-U header. On the other hand, if the identified data network 410 is an untrusted DN, operation 505 may not be performed. That is, if operation 505 is not performed, the TTF is not performed, and thus the DN TM may not be recognized by the UPF 130, the switch 125, or the base station 120. In operation 507, the UPF 130 may add T-TM1, which is metadata of the UPF 130, to the GTP-U header of the downlink packet. In operation 509, the UPF 130 may transmit the downlink packet including the DN-TM and the T-TM1 to the base station 120. In this case, the downlink packet may be transferred to the base station 120 via the switch.

[0099] In operation 511, the switch 125 may add T-TM2, which is metadata of the switch 125, to the GTP-U header of the downlink packet. In operation 513, the switch 125 may transmit the downlink packet to the base station 120.

[0100] In operation 515, the base station 120 may add T-TM3, which is metadata of the base station 120, to the GTP-U header of the downlink packet. After adding T-TM3, the base station 120 may perform a telemetry merging function (TMF). That is, the base station 120 may add T-TM and DN TM included in the GTP-U header to the TCP / UDP header. The base station 120 may perform scheduling based on the GTP-U header. For example, when the data network 410 is a trusted data network, the GTP-U header may include DN TM and T-TM (T-TM1, T-TM2, and T-TM3). In this case, the base station 120 may perform scheduling based on the reference Figure 4 As another example, when the data network 410 is an untrusted DN, the GTP-U header may include T-TMs (T-TM1, T-TM2, and T-TM3). In this case, the base station 120 may determine the AN PDB according to the equation 3 described above. Figure 3The AN PDB is determined by using the equation 2 described above. The base station 120 may perform downlink scheduling for the terminal 110 based on the determined PDB, and may transmit a downlink packet to the terminal 110 in operation 517. In this case, the TCP / UDP header of the downlink packet may include DN-TM and T-TM (T-TM1, T-TM2, and T-TM3).

[0101] Figure 6 The operation of the base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0102] refer to Figure 6 In operation 601, the base station may receive a packet from the UPF. In this case, the packet may be received from the UPF through an entity of a transport network (TN), for example, a software defined network (SDN) switch.

[0103] In operation 603, the base station may identify whether the received packet includes telemetry-related metadata. The telemetry-related metadata may be included in the GPRS Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GTP-U) header of the received packet. Therefore, the base station may identify whether the received packet includes telemetry-related metadata based on the GTP-U header of the packet. If the received packet includes telemetry-related metadata, the base station may perform operation 607. On the other hand, if the received packet does not include telemetry-related metadata, the base station may perform operation 605. In this case, the base station may identify the packet data budget (PDB) and the CN PDB based on the 5G QoS identifier (5QI) of the QoS flow of the received packet. The base station may determine the ANPDB based on the PDB and the CN PDB.

[0104] In operation 607, the base station may identify whether the received packet includes metadata of the DN. In this case, the metadata of the DN may be referred to as data network-telemetry metadata (DN-TM). When the received packet includes metadata of the DN, the base station may perform operation 609. On the other hand, when the received packet does not include metadata of the DN, the base station may perform operation 615.

[0105] In operation 609, the base station may calculate a data network packet delay (DN PD) based on metadata of the DN. In operation 611, the base station may calculate a core network packet delay (CN PD) based on metadata. Here, metadata is metadata inserted into a packet by a transport network (TN) entity and may be referred to as telecommunication company telemetry metadata (T-TM). In operation 613, the base station may calculate an AN PDB based on PDB, DN PD, and CN PD.

[0106] In operation 615, the base station may calculate the CN PD based on the metadata. Thereafter, in operation 617, the base station may calculate the AN PDB based on the PDB and the CN PD. The calculated PDB may be used to perform scheduling for the terminal by the base station.

[0107] Figure 7 An in-band network telemetry (INT) based communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0108] refer to Figure 7 , respectively describing the case where the data network is a trusted data network (trusted DN) and the case where the data network is an untrusted data network (untrusted DN).

[0109] If the data network is an untrusted DN, a problem may occur due to the lack of synchronization between the entities of the transport network (TN) and the data network. Therefore, the UPF may first identify whether the corresponding data network is a trusted data network based on the packet received from the data network. In this case, the Internet Protocol (IP) header of the received packet may include a source IP address. The base station may determine whether the data network is a trusted data network based on the source IP address.

[0110] If the data network is a trusted data network, the UPF may copy the metadata of the data network included in the Transmission Control Protocol / User Datagram Protocol (TCP / UDP) header of the packet and add the copied metadata to the GTP-U header. That is, the UPF may perform a telemetry conversion function (TTF). Therefore, when the base station receives the corresponding packet later, the metadata of the data network may be used to calculate the access network packet delay budget (AN PDB). That is, the data network packet delay (DN PD) may also be reflected when calculating the AN PDB.

[0111] On the other hand, when the data network is an untrusted DN, the UPF does not perform TTF. Therefore, the metadata of the data network is not included in the GTP-U header of the packet, and thus the base station may not reflect the DN PD when calculating the AN PDB. However, the TCP / UDP header may be transmitted to the terminal by including the metadata of the data network for use in identifying the end-to-end (E2E) delay.

[0112] Figure 8 The operation of the UPF according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0113] refer to Figure 8 In operation 801, the UPF may receive a data packet from a data network (DN). An Internet Protocol (IP) header of the data packet may include information about a source IP address of the corresponding data packet. Therefore, the UPF may identify the source IP address of the data packet based on the IP header of the data packet.

[0114] In operation 803, the UPF may identify whether the data packet includes metadata of the DN. Here, the metadata of the DN may be referred to as data network-telemetry metadata (DN-TM). In this case, the UPF may identify whether a transmission control protocol / user datagram protocol (TCP / UDP) header of the data packet includes metadata of the DN. When the TCP / UDP header of the data packet includes metadata of the DN, the UPF may perform operation 805. On the other hand, when the TCP / UDP header of the data packet does not include metadata of the DN, the UPF may add metadata of the UPF to a GPRS Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GTP-U) header of the data packet, and then transmit the data packet to the destination in operation 813.

[0115] In operation 805, the UPF may identify whether the data network is a trusted data network (trusted DN). In this case, the UPF may identify whether the data network is a trusted DN based on the source IP address identified in operation 801. When the data network is a trusted DN, the UPF may perform operation 807. On the other hand, when the data network is an untrusted DN, the UPF may perform operation 811.

[0116] In operation 807, the UPF may add metadata of the DN to the GTP-U header. In this case, the UPF may copy the metadata of the DN included in the TCP / UDP header of the data packet and add the copied metadata of the DN to the GTP-U header. That is, the UPF may perform a telemetry conversion function (TTF).

[0117] The UPF may add metadata of the UPF to the GTP-U header in operation 809. Therefore, the GTP-U header may include metadata of the DN and metadata of the UPF.

[0118] In operation 811, when the data network is an untrusted DN, the UPF may only add metadata of the UPF to the GTP header. That is, the UPF may not perform TTF.

[0119] The UPF may transmit the data packet to the destination in operation 813. In this case, the destination of the data packet may be identified based on a destination IP address included in an IP header of the data packet.

[0120] Fig. 9 An in-band network telemetry (INT) based communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0121] refer to Fig. 9 , a case where packets corresponding to a specific IP flow are discarded when the quality of service (QoS) is not satisfied within a predetermined period of time will be described. Fig. 9, assuming that two Internet Protocol (IP) flows are mapped to the same QoS flow and Data Radio Bearer (DRB).

[0122] When the QoS requirements are not met within a predetermined time period, the base station 120 may release the DRB corresponding to the QoS flow. However, this release of the DRB causes all IP flows to be discarded, and therefore the service cannot be continued. Therefore, when the QoS requirements are not met within a predetermined time period, a method in which the base station 120 can selectively discard a specific IP flow instead of the DRB can be considered. In this case, as a measure for identifying a specific IP flow, a core network packet delay (CN PD) and a data network packet delay (DN PD) can be used. For example, the base station 120 may identify at least one of the first CN PD and the first DN PD of the first packet based on metadata included in the GPRS Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GTP-U) header of the first packet corresponding to the first IP flow. In addition, the base station 120 may identify at least one of the second CN PD and the second DN PD of the second packet based on metadata included in the GTP-U header of the second packet corresponding to the second IP flow. Thereafter, the base station 120 may identify the first time period in which the first packet is delayed in the data network and / or the transport network (TN) based on at least one of the first CN PD and the first DN PD. In addition, the base station 120 can identify the second time period in which the second packet is delayed in the data network and / or TN based on at least one of the second CN PD and the second DN PD. The base station 120 can discard one of the first packet corresponding to the first IP flow and the second packet corresponding to the second IP flow based on the first time period and the second time period. For example, when the first time period is 27ms and the second time period is 13ms, the base station 120 can discard the first packet that is delayed more. Therefore, since the second packet can be continuously transmitted to the terminal, the service corresponding to some IP flows can be continued.

[0123] Fig.10 The structure of a data packet based on in-band network telemetry (INT) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0124] refer to Fig.10 , a method of high-speed processing by grouping of 1-bit information will be described.

[0125] refer to Fig.10, the GPRS Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GTP-U) header may include an instruction field indicating information that needs to be included in the metadata. That is, the instruction field may indicate the type of information that needs to be inserted into the GTP-U header by the entity of the transport network (TN). For example, the instruction field may indicate that the information that needs to be inserted into the GTP-U header by the entity of the TN is a timestamp. As another example, the instruction field may indicate that the information that needs to be inserted into the GTP-U header by the entity of the TN is buffer related information (e.g., queue usage and queue congestion status). However, these are only examples, and the instruction field is information required to monitor the network status and is not limited to the above examples.

[0126] As described above, the GTP-U header may include an instruction field. However, if the TN entity interprets the instruction field in all cases, the speed of processing the packet may be reduced. Therefore, the GTP-U header may include 1 bit of information before the instruction field. The 1 bit of information may be referred to as the IsInstruction field 1010. The 1 bit of information may indicate whether the information that needs to be inserted into the GTP-U header by the TN entity has changed. For example, when the 1 bit of information is 1 (indicated by reference numeral 1020), the TN entity may interpret the instruction field to identify the information that needs to be inserted into the GTP-U header. As another example, when the 1 bit of information is 0 (indicated by reference numeral 1030), the TN entity may not interpret the instruction field. That is, this situation may indicate that the information that needs to be inserted into the GTP-U header has not changed, and the instruction field may be filled with 0. Therefore, by allowing the TN entity to interpret the instruction field only when the information that needs to be inserted into the GTP-U header has changed, high-speed processing of packets may be possible.

[0127] Fig.11 The operation of the base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0128] refer to Fig.11 , the telemetry frequency adjustment of the core network packet delay (CN_PD) according to the quality of service (QoS) flow will be described.

[0129] refer to Fig.11, in operation 1110, the base station may identify a core network packet delay budget (CN PDB) and a CN PD. Here, the CN PDB may be defined as an upper limit of a packet delay time between the base station and the UPF, and the CN PD may be defined as an actual packet delay time between the base station and the UPF. The base station may identify the CN PDB based on a 5G QoS identifier (5QI) of a QoS flow of a received packet. The base station may identify the CN PD based on metadata included in a header of a received packet (e.g., a GPRS Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GTP-U) header). Here, the metadata may include telecommunications company telemetry metadata (T-TM) inserted into a packet when the packet is sent in a transport network (TN).

[0130] At operation 1120, the base station may identify whether the CN PD exceeds the CN PDB. The case where the CN PD exceeds the CN PDB may be understood to mean that a delay occurs in the TN from the perspective of QoS. For example, when queue congestion occurs due to a surge in QoS flows, the CN PD may exceed the CN PDB. On the other hand, the case where the CN PD is equal to or less than the CN PDB may be understood to mean that no delay is generated in the TN from the perspective of QoS.

[0131] In operation 1130, the base station may send a control message to the network device for performing a control plane network function. Here, the control plane network function corresponds to an in-band network telemetry function (INTF), and the control message may be referred to as a telemetry rate control message. The control message may be periodically sent to the control plane network function. In this case, the period for sending the control message may be configured by the control plane network function (e.g., INTF). The situation where the CN PD exceeds the CN PDB may be understood as queue congestion occurring, and therefore the control message may include information for requesting an increase in the telemetry frequency. That is, by increasing the metadata insertion frequency, the queue congestion state may be monitored in real time. On the other hand, the situation where the CN PD is equal to or less than the CN PDB may be understood as meaning that there is no problem with the delay of the TN, and therefore the control message may include information for requesting a reduction in the telemetry frequency. That is, the network load may be reduced by reducing the metadata insertion frequency.

[0132] Fig.12 A network device (or network entity) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0133] refer to Fig.12, the network device 1200 may include a processor 1210, a memory 1220, and a transceiver 1230. Here, the network device 1200 may correspond to an in-band network telemetry function (INTF). Alternatively, the network device 1200 may correspond to a UPF. Alternatively, the INTF and the UPF may be implemented together in the network device 1200.

[0134] The processor 1210 may control the overall operation of the network device 1200. For example, the processor 1210 may control the transceiver 1230 to send or receive a signal. In addition, the processor 1210 may perform the functions of the protocol stack required by the communication standard. To this end, the processor 1210 may include at least one processor. In addition, the processor 1210 may control the network device 1200 to perform the above-mentioned INTF function.

[0135] The memory 1220 may store data such as basic programs, applications, and configuration information for the operation of the network device 1200. The memory 1220 may be configured as a volatile memory, a nonvolatile memory, or a combination of a volatile memory and a nonvolatile memory. The memory 1220 may provide stored data according to a request of the processor 1210.

[0136] The transceiver 1230 may perform a function for transmitting or receiving a signal through a wired channel. For example, the transceiver 1230 may perform a function of transmitting or receiving a signal with other network devices 1200 or a base station.

[0137] Fig.13 A base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0138] refer to Fig.13 , the base station 1300 may include a processor 1310 , a memory 1320 , and a transceiver 1330 .

[0139] The processor 1310 may control the overall operation of the base station 1300. For example, the processor 1310 may control the transceiver 1330 to send or receive a signal. In addition, the processor 1310 may perform the functions of the protocol stack required by the communication standard. To this end, the processor 1310 may include at least one processor. In addition, the processor 1310 may control the base station 1300 to perform the operations according to the above-described embodiments.

[0140] The memory 1320 may store data such as basic programs, applications, and configuration information for the operation of the base station 1300. The memory 1320 may be configured as a volatile memory, a nonvolatile memory, or a combination of a volatile memory and a nonvolatile memory. The memory 1320 may provide stored data according to a request of the processor 1310.

[0141] The transceiver 1330 may perform a function for transmitting or receiving a signal through a wired channel or a wireless channel. For example, the transceiver 1330 may perform a function of converting between a baseband signal and a bit stream according to the physical layer standard of the system. For example, when transmitting data, the transceiver 1330 may generate a complex symbol by encoding and modulating the transmission bit stream. In addition, when receiving data, the transceiver 1330 may recover the received bit stream by demodulating and decoding the baseband signal. In addition, the transceiver 1330 may up-convert the baseband signal to a radio frequency (RF) band signal, and then may transmit the signal via an antenna, and may down-convert the RF band signal received via the antenna to a baseband signal. To this end, the transceiver 1330 may include a transmit filter, a receive filter, an amplifier, a mixer, an oscillator, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), etc. In addition, the transceiver 1330 may include an antenna unit. The transceiver 1330 may include at least one antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements. In terms of hardware, the transceiver 1330 may be configured by digital and analog circuits (e.g., radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC)). Here, the digital and analog circuits may be implemented in one package. In addition, the transceiver 1330 may include multiple RF chains. In addition, the transceiver 1330 may send or receive signals. To this end, the transceiver 1330 may include at least one transceiver.

[0142] Fig.14 A terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0143] refer to Fig.14 , the terminal 1400 may include a processor 1410 , a memory 1420 , and a transceiver 1430 .

[0144] The processor 1410 may control the overall operation of the terminal 1400. For example, the processor 1410 may control the transceiver 1430 to send or receive a signal. In addition, the processor 1410 may perform the functions of the protocol stack required by the communication standard. To this end, the processor 1410 may include at least one processor. In addition, the processor 1410 may control the terminal 1400 to perform the operations according to the above-described embodiments.

[0145] The memory 1420 may store data such as basic programs, applications, and configuration information for the operation of the terminal 1400. The memory 1420 may be configured as a volatile memory, a nonvolatile memory, or a combination of a volatile memory and a nonvolatile memory. The memory 1420 may provide stored data according to a request of the processor 1410.

[0146] The transceiver 1430 may perform a function for transmitting or receiving a signal through a wireless channel. For example, the transceiver 1430 may perform a function of converting between a baseband signal and a bit stream according to the physical layer standard of the system. For example, when transmitting data, the transceiver 1430 may generate a complex symbol by encoding and modulating the transmission bit stream. In addition, when receiving data, the transceiver 1430 may recover the received bit stream by demodulating and decoding the baseband signal. In addition, the transceiver 1430 may up-convert the baseband signal to a radio frequency (RF) band signal, and then may transmit the signal via an antenna, and may down-convert the RF band signal received via the antenna to a baseband signal. To this end, the transceiver 1430 may include a transmit filter, a receive filter, an amplifier, a mixer, an oscillator, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), etc. In addition, the transceiver 1430 may include an antenna unit. The transceiver 1430 may include at least one antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements. In terms of hardware, the transceiver 1430 may be configured by digital and analog circuits (e.g., radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC)). Here, the digital and analog circuits may be implemented in one package. In addition, the transceiver 1430 may include multiple RF chains. In addition, the transceiver 1430 may send or receive signals. To this end, the transceiver 1430 may include at least one transceiver.

[0147] It should be understood that the various embodiments of the present disclosure and the terms used therein are not intended to limit the technical features set forth herein to specific embodiments, and include various changes, equivalents or substitutes of the corresponding embodiments. With regard to the description of the accompanying drawings, similar reference numerals may be used to represent similar or related elements. Unless otherwise clearly stated in the relevant context, the singular form of the noun corresponding to the project may include one or more projects. As used herein, each of the phrases such as "A or B", "at least one of A and B", "at least one of A or B", "A, B or C", "at least one of A, B and C" and "at least one of A, B or C" may include all possible combinations of the projects listed together in a corresponding phrase. As used herein, terms such as "first", "second", "first" and "second" may be used to simply distinguish a corresponding element from another element, and do not limit the element in other aspects (e.g., importance or order). It should be understood that if an element (e.g., a first element) is referred to as being “coupled with / coupled to another element (e.g., the second element)” or “connected with / connected to another element (e.g., the second element)” with or without the term “operably” or “communicatively”, it means that the element can be coupled / connected / connected to another element directly (e.g., wired), wirelessly, or via a third element.

[0148] The methods according to various embodiments described in the claims or specification of the present disclosure may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software.

[0149] When the method is implemented by software, a computer-readable storage medium for storing one or more programs (software modules) may be provided. One or more programs stored in the computer-readable storage medium may be configured to be executed by one or more processors in an electronic device. At least one program may include instructions for causing an electronic device to perform the method according to the various embodiments of the present disclosure defined by the attached claims and / or disclosed herein.

[0150] The program (software module or software) can be stored in a non-volatile memory, including random access memory and flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disk storage device, compact disk-ROM (CD-ROM), digital versatile disk (DVD) or other type of optical storage device or tape cassette. Alternatively, any combination of some or all of them can form a memory storing the program. In addition, a plurality of such memories can be included in the electronic device.

[0151] In addition, the program can be stored in an attachable storage device that can access the electronic device through a communication network such as the Internet, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WLAN), and a storage area network (SAN) or a combination thereof. Such a storage device can access the electronic device via an external port. In addition, a separate storage device on a communication network can access the portable electronic device.

[0152] In the above detailed embodiments of the present disclosure, the elements included in the present disclosure are expressed in the singular or plural, depending on the detailed embodiments presented. However, for ease of description, the singular form or plural form is appropriately selected for the presented situation, and the present disclosure is not limited to the elements expressed in the singular or plural. Therefore, an element expressed in the plural may also include a single element, or an element expressed in the singular may also include multiple elements.

[0153] While the present disclosure has been shown and described with reference to various embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A method performed by a base station in a communication system, the method include: receiving a packet including metadata from a user plane function (UPF); identifying a packet delay budget (PDB) for a packet quality of service (QoS) flow; Identifying the delay of packets based on metadata; Determining an access network (AN) PDB based on the PDB and the delay time; as well as Scheduling for transmission of packets to the terminal is performed based on the PDB.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: include: identifying whether the metadata includes information related to Data Network Packet Delay (DN PD), The metadata includes information related to the core network packet delay (CN PD), Wherein, if the metadata includes information related to the DN PD, the delay time is determined based on the PDB, the DN PD and the CN PD, and If the metadata does not include the information related to the DN PD, the delay time is determined based on the PDB and the CN PD.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: include: Identify the CN PD budget (PDB) corresponding to the PDB; Identify whether CN PD exceeds CN PDB; as well as Send telemetry rate control messages to network devices that perform control plane network functions, wherein if the CN PD exceeds the CN PDB, information for requesting an increase in the telemetry frequency is included in the telemetry rate control message, and If the CN PD is equal to or less than the CN PDB, information for requesting a reduction in the telemetry frequency is included in the telemetry rate control message.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: include: Add metadata to the packet's Transmission Control Protocol / User Datagram Protocol (TCP / UDP) header, wherein if the metadata includes information related to the DN PD, the PDB corresponds to the end-to-end PDB, and Among them, if the metadata does not include information related to DN PD, the PDB corresponds to the upper limit of the delay time between the terminal and the UPF.

5. A method performed by a user plane function (UPF) in a communication system, the method include: Receiving packets from a data network (DN); identifying whether the packet includes information related to DN packet delay (PD); Insert metadata into the group; as well as The packet with the inserted metadata is sent to the base station.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising: include: If the packet includes information related to the DN PD, identifying whether the DN is a trusted DN based on a source Internet Protocol (IP) address included in the packet; as well as If the DN is a trusted DN, the information related to the DN PD is copied and inserted into the header of the packet. The header of the packet is a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GTP-U) header.

7. The method according to claim 6, in, If the DN is not a trusted DN, no information related to the DN PD is inserted into the header of the packet, and Among them, the information related to DN PD is associated with the in-band network telemetry function (INTF) of the control plane network function.

8. The method according to claim 5, in, The metadata is used to identify the Core Network (CN) PD, and The CN PD and the DN PD are used to identify the access network (AN) PD budget (PDB), and the AN PD budget (PDB) is used for scheduling packets by the base station.

9. A base station in a communication system, the base station include: Transceiver; as well as at least one processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to: receiving a packet including metadata from a user plane function (UPF), Identify the packet delay budget (PDB) for the packet quality of service (QoS) flow, Identify the latency of packets based on metadata, determining an access network (AN) PDB based on the PDB and the delay time, and Scheduling for transmission of packets to the terminal is performed based on the PDB.

10. The base station according to claim 9, in, The processor is further configured to identify whether the metadata includes information related to data network packet delay (DN PD), The metadata includes information related to the core network packet delay (CN PD), Wherein, if the metadata includes information related to the DN PD, the delay time is determined based on the PDB, the DN PD and the CN PD, and If the metadata does not include information related to the DN PD, the delay time is determined based on the PDB and the CN PD.

11. The base station according to claim 10, in, The processor is further configured to: Identify the CN PD budget (PDB) corresponding to the PDB, Identify whether CN PD exceeds CN PDB, and Send telemetry rate control messages to network devices that perform control plane network functions, wherein if the CN PD exceeds the CN PDB, information for requesting an increase in the telemetry frequency is included in the telemetry rate control message, and If the CN PD is equal to or less than the CN PDB, information for requesting a reduction in the telemetry frequency is included in the telemetry rate control message.

12. The base station according to claim 9, in, The processor is further configured to add metadata to a Transmission Control Protocol / User Datagram Protocol (TCP / UDP) header of the packet, wherein if the metadata includes information related to the DN PD, the PDB corresponds to the end-to-end PDB, and Among them, if the metadata does not include information related to DN PD, the PDB corresponds to the upper limit of the delay time between the terminal and the UPF.

13. A user plane function (UPF) in a communication system, the UPF include: Transceiver; as well as at least one processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to: Receive packets from the data network (DN), Identify whether the packet includes information related to DN Packet Delay (PD), insert metadata into the group, and The packet with the inserted metadata is sent to the base station.

14. The UPF according to claim 13, in, The processor is further configured to: If the packet includes information related to the DN PD, identifying whether the DN is a trusted DN based on a source Internet Protocol (IP) address included in the packet, and If the DN is a trusted DN, the information related to the DN PD is copied and inserted into the header of the packet. The header of the packet is a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol-User Plane (GTP-U) header, Wherein, if the DN is not a trusted DN, the information related to the DN PD is not inserted into the header of the packet, and Among them, the information related to DN PD is associated with the in-band network telemetry function (INTF) of the control plane network function.

15. The UPF according to claim 13, in, The metadata is used to identify the Core Network (CN) PD, and The CN PD and DN PD are used to identify the (AN) PD budget (AN PDB), and the AN PD budget is used to schedule packets by the base station.

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