Entity and method for integrating communication and computing systems

Abstract

The present application relates to an integrated communication and computing (ICC) system, in particular to an integrated communication and computing (ICC) system. The invention provides an application entity, a data plane entity and a control plane entity for the ICC system. A corresponding method and a computer program performing the method are also provided. The scheme of the application is based on outsourcing application-related functions at a PHY and an optional MAC to the application entity.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to an integrated communication and computing (ICC) system. This application provides application entities, data plane entities, and control plane entities for the ICC system. This application also provides corresponding methods and computer programs for performing various methods. Background Technology

[0002] ICC refers to a specialized communication system (ICC system) in which the processing required for transmitting information (i.e., communication-related processing, such as encoding and modulation) and the processing required for generating application information (i.e., application-related processing, such as video, audio, or image compression) are completed in a single step. This contrasts sharply with traditional communication systems, where communication-related processing is independent of application-related processing and is completed in two separate steps.

[0003] Figure 1 It shows Figure 1 The ICC system shown in (b) is similar to Figure 1 These differences between conventional communication systems are shown in (a) above. An exemplary variant of the ICC system is:

[0004] • Joint source and channel coding (JSCC);

[0005] • Semantic communication (SemCom);

[0006] • Goal-oriented communication (GOCom);

[0007] • Over-the-air computation (OAC).

[0008] The benefits of an ICC system can vary considerably depending on the specific application and variant used. However, generally, significant improvements in efficiency can be expected compared to traditional communication systems—that is, a substantial reduction in the amount of communication and computing resources required to achieve the same performance—as well as greater robustness to channel aging and communication impairments. The simplest form of the first three exemplary variants mentioned above (i.e., JSCC, SemCom, and GOCom) represents the focus of this application, while OAC in multi-user environments is beyond the scope of this application.

[0009] ICC systems have recently garnered significant attention, primarily due to the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly deep learning (DL). However, despite rapid progress in ICC system design, the challenges of deploying these systems commercially and integrating them with existing systems remain unresolved, with few and problematic solutions proposed.

[0010] Most traditional solutions focus on point-to-point communication without integrating higher-level functionalities into the design. This is impractical for real-world systems because the physical layer (PHY) performs only a subset of all the functions required for communication. The few traditional solutions that focus on system architecture in ICC propose entirely new redesigns of the protocol stack, making them incompatible with standards based on the separation of source and channel coding (a principle followed by all standards to this day). Typically, two major problems with traditional solutions are the difficulty in maintaining privacy and security between the application and the communication system, as the application needs to provide raw data to the communication system, and / or each individual application (e.g., image / video transmission, XR / VR) requires a new implementation of the PHY layer, thus lacking universal communication system support for multiple applications. Therefore, there are few solutions for integrating ICC systems into current commercial communication systems. Summary of the Invention

[0011] In summary, the purpose of this application is to provide a solution for integrating an ICC system into a commercial communication system. Furthermore, since traditional ICC systems require the exchange of proprietary information (especially sensitive data and algorithms, which is undesirable) between the application and the communication system, another objective is to avoid this exchange of proprietary information. Additionally, since traditional ICC systems require a complete redesign of the lower layers (MAC / PHY) for each application, and this has several drawbacks, another objective is to avoid the need for such a redesign.

[0012] in this regard, Figure 2 A diagram illustrating an exemplary conventional ICC system is shown, highlighting its limitations, namely the need to exchange proprietary information and incompatibility with conventional layer stacks.

[0013] The above-mentioned objectives are achieved by the solutions of this application as described in the independent claims. Advantageous implementations are further described in the dependent claims.

[0014] A first aspect of this application provides an application entity for an ICC system, wherein the application entity is configured to: send a first message including first ICC application data to a data plane entity of the ICC system and / or receive a second message including second ICC application data from the data plane entity; perform one or more communication-related processing operations on the first application data to generate the first ICC application data and / or perform one or more communication-related processing operations on the second ICC application data to obtain the second application data; wherein the one or more communication-related processing operations include one or more application-related PHY layer operations.

[0015] According to a first aspect of this application, the communication-related processing operations, including the application-related PHY layer operations, can be outsourced to the application entity. This avoids the need to exchange proprietary information. Furthermore, since the communication system still only handles high-level functions and application-independent PHY layer operations, it avoids redesigning the PHY layer for each application.

[0016] In one implementation of the first aspect, one or more communication-related processing operations further include one or more application-related medium access control (MAC) layer operations, such as control mechanisms or link adaptation mechanisms for hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operations.

[0017] Accordingly, application-related MAC layer operations can be outsourced to the application entity. The communication system only handles application-independent MAC layer operations. Therefore, it is possible to avoid redesigning the MAC layer for each application.

[0018] In one implementation of the first aspect, the one or more application-related PHY layer operations include one or more of the following: hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation; cyclic redundancy check (CRC) operation; data encoding or decoding operation; and data modulation or demodulation operation.

[0019] In one implementation of the first aspect, the application entity is further configured to: in addition to the one or more communication-related processing operations, perform one or more application-related processing operations on the first application data to generate the first ICC application data and / or perform one or more application-related processing operations on the second ICC application data to obtain the second application data.

[0020] In one implementation of the first aspect, the one or more application-related processing operations include one or more of the following: video processing operations; image processing operations; audio processing operations; text processing operations; augmented reality or virtual reality processing operations; sensor data processing operations; first sub-function calculation operations and / or second sub-function calculation operations of a segmentation learning algorithm; local model update operations and / or global model update operations of a federated learning algorithm.

[0021] In one implementation of the first aspect, the one or more application-related processing operations and the one or more communication-related processing operations are executed together and / or in the same processing stage or step.

[0022] Therefore, this application retains the advantages of compatibility between ICC applications and commercial communication systems, as well as the avoidance of exchanging application-related information with communication systems for privacy and security reasons.

[0023] In one implementation of the first aspect, the application entity is further configured to send the first ICC application data to the data plane entity and / or receive the second ICC application data from the data plane entity on multiple resources allocated by the control plane entity of the ICC system, respectively.

[0024] In one implementation of the first aspect, the application entity is further configured to receive a resource quality indicator (RQI) from the control plane entity; wherein the RQI indicates the amount of communication resources.

[0025] Communication resources are resources available for communication in a communication system. For example, in a communication system based on multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM), a communication resource is a resource element comprising a subcarrier during the duration of one OFDM symbol transmitted on an antenna element. Typically, a communication resource can be used by a single channel, regardless of the number of degrees of freedom the channel has or how many independent communication resources those degrees of freedom are divided into.

[0026] In one implementation of the first aspect, the application entity is further configured to: receive channel state information (CSI) from the control plane entity; and further configured to: adjust and send the first ICC application data of the first message based on the CSI; and / or receive and adjust the second ICC application data of the second message based on the CSI.

[0027] A second aspect of this application provides a control plane entity for an ICC system, wherein the control plane entity is configured to: receive scheduling requests from user equipment for channel quality and / or running applications; obtain a resource allocation scheme (RAS) associated with the application, wherein the RAS indicates the amount of resources available for the channel quality; and output an RQI indicating the amount of resources available for the application to send first ICC application data to the data plane entity of the ICC system and / or receive second ICC application data from the data plane entity.

[0028] According to a second aspect of this application, the control plane entity can act as a scheduler for the ICC application data. This enables the solution of the first aspect to outsource application-related PHY layer and optional MAC layer processing to the application entity, especially in the case of multiple applications and application entities.

[0029] In one implementation of the second aspect, the RAS includes a mapping between multiple resources and multiple channel qualities.

[0030] In one implementation of the second aspect, the RQI indicates the amount of resources the application has in each time period.

[0031] In one implementation of the second aspect, the control plane entity is further configured to select the amount of resources for the application based on the RAS and the received channel quality.

[0032] In one implementation of the second aspect, the control plane entity is used to further select the number of resources for the application based on the number of users and / or the number of available resources in the network used by the ICC system.

[0033] A third aspect of this application provides a data plane entity for an ICC system, wherein the data plane entity is configured to: receive a first message including first ICC application data from an application entity of the ICC system and / or send a second message including second ICC application data to the application entity; at the MAC layer, separate the first ICC application data from other data added to the first message, and / or at the MAC layer, combine the second ICC application data with other data added to the second message; send the first ICC application data directly to a resource mapping function of the PHY layer and / or receive the second ICC application data directly from the resource mapping function; and when sending the other data to the resource mapping function and / or receiving the other data from the resource mapping function, perform one or more application-independent PHY layer operations on the other data.

[0034] According to a third aspect of this application, the ICC application data can be separated or combined with the other data, and the ICC application data can be generated or processed based on the principle of outsourcing the application-related PHY and MAC layer operations to the application entity. This allows for outsourcing to the application entity.

[0035] In one implementation of the third aspect, directly sending the first ICC application data and / or receiving the second ICC application data does not require performing any further processing operations on the first ICC application data and / or the second ICC application data respectively.

[0036] In one implementation of the third aspect, the first ICC application data and / or the second ICC application data are respectively the payloads of the first message and / or the second message, while the other data are respectively the headers of the first message and / or the second message.

[0037] In one implementation of the third aspect, the data plane entity is further configured to perform one or more application-independent MAC layer operations on the other data when sending the other data to the resource mapping function and / or receiving the other data from the resource mapping function.

[0038] A fourth aspect of this application provides a method for an ICC system, wherein the method is performed by an application entity and includes: sending a first message including first ICC application data to a data plane entity of the ICC system and / or receiving a second message including second ICC application data from the data plane entity; performing one or more communication-related processing operations on the first application data to generate the first ICC application data and / or performing one or more communication-related processing operations on the second ICC application data to obtain second application data; wherein the one or more communication-related processing operations include one or more application-related PHY layer operations.

[0039] The fourth aspect can have an implementation method corresponding to the application entity implementation method of the first aspect. Therefore, the fourth aspect and its implementation method achieve the same advantages as described above for the application entity of the first aspect and its corresponding implementation method.

[0040] A fifth aspect of this application provides a method for an ICC system, wherein the method is performed by a control plane entity and includes: receiving a scheduling request for channel quality and / or a user equipment running an application; obtaining a resource allocation scheme (RAS) associated with the application, wherein the RAS indicates the amount of resources available for the channel quality; and outputting a resource quality indicator (RQI) indicating the amount of resources available for the application to send first ICC application data to and / or receive second ICC application data from the data plane entity of the ICC system.

[0041] In particular, RAS can indicate the number of resource units required for an application to perform its operations.

[0042] For example, an example of a scheduling request is provided in section 5.4.4 of 3GPP TS 38.321v17.4.0.

[0043] The method of the fifth aspect can have an implementation method corresponding to the implementation method of the control plane entity of the second aspect. Therefore, the method of the fifth aspect and its implementation method achieves the same advantages as described above for the control plane entity of the second aspect and its corresponding implementation method.

[0044] A sixth aspect of this application provides a method for an ICC system, wherein the method is performed by a data plane entity and includes: receiving a first message including first ICC application data from an application entity of the ICC system and / or sending a second message including second ICC application data to the application entity; separating the first ICC application data from other data added to the first message at the MAC layer, and / or combining the second ICC application data with other data added to the second message at the MAC layer; sending the first ICC application data directly to a resource mapping function of the PHY layer and / or receiving the second ICC application data directly from the resource mapping function; and performing one or more application-independent PHY layer operations on the other data when sending the other data to the resource mapping function and / or receiving the other data from the resource mapping function.

[0045] Application-independent PHY layer operations can refer to resource mapping functions (such as beamforming, power adaptation, channel estimation and equalization, and RF chain operations).

[0046] The sixth aspect can have an implementation method corresponding to the data plane entity implementation method of the third aspect. Therefore, the sixth aspect and its implementation method achieve the same advantages as those described above for the data plane entity of the third aspect and its corresponding implementation method.

[0047] The seventh aspect of this application provides a computer program including instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method described in accordance with the fourth, fifth, or sixth aspect or any implementation thereof.

[0048] The eighth aspect of this application provides a non-transitory storage medium for storing executable program code that, when executed by a processor, performs the method described according to the fourth, fifth, or sixth aspect or any implementation thereof.

[0049] In the overview of the above aspects and implementation methods, the solution of this application achieves the above objectives by outsourcing application-related functions at the PHY layer and optional MAC layer (i.e., one or more application-related PHY layer operations and optional one or more application-related MAC layer operations) to the application entity and the corresponding one or more applications. Specifically, these outsourced application-related low-level operations may include HARQ, CRC, modulation, demodulation, encoding, and decoding, etc. The communication system is still responsible for performing higher-level functions / operations at the PHY layer and radio frequency (RF) chain operations, including resource mapping and / or demapping, etc. These operations include application-independent PHY layer and MAC layer operations.

[0050] It should be noted that all devices, elements, units, and modules described in this application can be implemented in software or hardware elements or any combination thereof. All steps performed by the various entities described in this application, and the functions described as being performed by the various entities, are intended to indicate that the respective entities are suitable for or used to perform the respective steps and functions. Although in the following description of specific embodiments, the specific functions or steps performed by external entities are not reflected in the detailed description of the specific elements of the entities performing the specific steps or functions, those skilled in the art will understand that these methods and functions can be implemented by corresponding software or hardware elements or any combination thereof. Attached Figure Description

[0051] The above aspects and implementation methods will be explained in the following detailed description of specific embodiments, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0052] Figure 1 A comparison is shown between the traditional communication system in (a) and the ICC system in (b);

[0053] Figure 2 An exemplary design of a conventional ICC system is shown;

[0054] Figure 3 Various entities of the ICC system provided in this application are shown;

[0055] Figure 4 An exemplary design of the ICC system provided in this application is shown;

[0056] Figure 5 A comparison is shown between the layered architecture of a conventional communication system in (a), the layered architecture of a conventional ICC system in (b), and the layered architecture of the ICC system provided in this application in (c).

[0057] Figure 6 The control plane entity (also referred to as the "scheduler") provided in this application is shown;

[0058] Figure 7 An exemplary RAS (message) is shown, which contains a mapping between RQI, resource element quantity, and channel quality (SNR in this case); other options for channel quality include, for example, channel quality indicator (CQI), reference signal received power (RSRP), signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SINR), or reference signal received quality (RSRQ).

[0059] Figure 8 An exemplary message exchange for the uplink (UL) is shown between an application entity (UE in this example) and a control plane entity (basestation (BS) in this example);

[0060] Figure 9 The data plane entity provided in this application is shown, which includes an "extract / combine" function;

[0061] Figure 10 An exemplary data transmission process in the ICC application of this application is illustrated;

[0062] Figure 11 Exemplary functions and flows of the packet at the user equipment (UE) are shown;

[0063] Figure 12 Exemplary functions and flows of a packet at the BS (particularly the gNB) are shown;

[0064] Figure 13This application illustrates a modification to the MAC implementation proposed in 3GPP TS 38.321 by adding extraction / combination functions, ICC multiplexing / demultiplexing functions, and ICC transport channels (both UL and downlink (DL)).

[0065] Figure 14 This application illustrates a modification to the PHY implementation proposed in 3GPP TS 38.202V17.3.0 by adding both the ICC transport channel (UL and downlink (DL)).

[0066] Figure 15 This application illustrates an exemplary message exchange between an application and a gNB in ​​a 3GPP system.

[0067] Figure 16 Notifications of ICC scheduling information for UL in (a) and DL in (b) are shown;

[0068] Figure 17 The method provided in this application, performed by an application entity, is illustrated;

[0069] Figure 18 The method provided in this application, performed by a control plane entity, is illustrated;

[0070] Figure 19 The method provided in this application, performed by a data plane entity, is illustrated.

[0071] Figure 20 An example of the scheduling process for an ICC application is shown. Detailed Implementation

[0072] Figure 3 Various entities 310, 320, and 330 for an ICC system provided in this application are shown. In particular, Figure 3 Data plane entity 310, control plane entity 320, and application entity 330 are shown respectively. Control plane entity 330 can be a "scheduler," typically a management entity, such as that implemented in a BS, gNB, etc. Application entity 330 can be any entity used to run an application, for example, it can be implemented at an application server or user entity (e.g., UE) running the application.

[0073] Application entity 330 may send a first message 301, including first ICC application data 302, to data plane entity 310. Alternatively, application entity 330 may receive a second message 303, including second ICC application data 304, from data plane entity 310. Accordingly, data plane entity 310 may receive the first message 301 and / or may send the second message 303.

[0074] Application entity 330 is configured to perform one or more communication-related processing operations 305 on first application data 306, particularly in conjunction with one or more application-related processing operations, to generate first ICC application data 302. The first application data 306 may be generated by an application. Alternatively or additionally, application entity 330 is configured to perform one or more communication-related processing operations 305 on second ICC application data 304, particularly in conjunction with application-related processing operations, to obtain second application data 307. The one or more communication-related processing operations 305 include one or more application-related PHY layer operations.

[0075] Data plane entity 310 is used at the MAC layer to separate first ICC application data 302 from other data 312 added to first message 301, and / or at the MAC layer to combine second ICC application data 304 with other data 312 added to second message 303. Data plane entity 310 directly sends the first ICC application data 302 to the resource mapping function 313 of the PHY layer. Data plane entity 310 also directly receives the second ICC application data 304 from the resource mapping function 313. Here, "directly" can mean without performing any further processing operations on the first ICC application data 302 and / or the second ICC application data 304 respectively. In any case, data plane entity 310 is also used to perform one or more application-independent PHY layer operations 314 on the other data 312, respectively, when or before sending the other data 312 to the resource mapping function 313, and / or when or after receiving the other data 312 from the resource mapping function 313.

[0076] Control plane entity 320 is used to receive channel quality 308a, for example, from an entity in the ICC system responsible for performing channel quality measurements, and / or to receive scheduling requests 308b from user equipment running an application. For example, application entity 330 may run an application at / on a user equipment. The control plane entity is also used to obtain application-related RAS 309, where RAS 309 indicates the amount of resources available for the received channel quality 308a and the time period. Control plane entity 320 may receive RAS 309 and / or channel quality 308a and / or scheduling requests 308b from user equipment (e.g., from application entity 330 running an application) or from another device or entity in the system.

[0077] Then, the control plane entity 320 outputs RQI 311, wherein RQI 311 indicates the amount of resources (indicated by RAS 309) available for the application (or, specifically, the application entity 330 running the application on the user equipment) to send first ICC application data 302 to the data plane entity 310 of the ICC system and / or receive second ICC application data 304 from the data plane entity 310, for example, as described above for... Figure 1 As shown in the application entity 330. The control plane entity 320 can send an RQI 311 to the application entity 330 indicating the amount of resources available for each time period.

[0078] Entities 310, 320, and 330 may each include a processor or processing circuitry (not shown) for performing, implementing, or initiating various operations of the respective entities 310, 320, or 330 described herein. The processing circuitry may include hardware and / or may be software-controlled. The hardware may include analog or digital circuitry, or both. The digital circuitry may include components such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), or multi-purpose processors. Entities 310, 320, and 330 may also each include memory circuitry storing one or more instructions executable by the processor or processing circuitry, particularly under software control. For example, the memory circuitry may include a non-transitory storage medium storing executable software code that, when executed by the processor or processing circuitry, causes the respective entity 310, 320, or 330 to perform various operations. In one embodiment, the processing circuitry includes one or more processors and a non-transitory memory connected to the one or more processors. Non-transient memory may carry executable program code that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the corresponding entity 310, 320, or 303 to perform, implement, or initiate the operations or methods described herein.

[0079] Entities 310, 320, and 330 of this application can solve the technical problems of conventional ICC systems by outsourcing application-related functions at the PHY and optional MAC layers to application entity 320. For example, the outsourced functions / operations may include HARQ, CRC, modulation, demodulation, encoding, and decoding. That is, for example, one or more application-related PHY layer operations may include one or more of HARQ operations, CRC operations, data encoding or decoding operations, and data modulation or demodulation operations.

[0080] Figure 4 A block diagram of the proposed solution is shown, where PHY* represents the aforementioned application-related functions / operations, which are outsourced to application entity 330 (i.e., executed at the application layer). The communication system continues to be responsible for executing higher-level functions and the RF chain at the PHY layer, including resource mapping / demapping.

[0081] To gain a more detailed understanding of the scheme in this application, Figure 5 The layered architecture of the ICC system of this application in (c) is compared with that of the conventional communication system in (a) and the conventional ICC system in (b).

[0082] Although traditional communication systems encompass a fixed set of functions layered by packets, each function focuses on specific communication tasks (e.g., networking, congestion control, scheduling, modulation, etc.) and is application-independent. In traditional ICC systems, the application provides raw data to the communication system. Following the application layer, traditional ICC systems then require a specific implementation of the PHY layer for that particular application. In contrast, Figure 5 The ICC system of this application shown in (c) is based on the above-described scheme of outsourcing application-related functions (including PHY*) to application entity 330 (running at the application layer). That is, one or more communication-related processing operations 305, including at least one or more application-related physical (PHY) layer operations, are executed by application entity 330. Then, data plane entity 310 of the ICC system focuses on higher layers, high-level MAC operations, resource mapping, and RF chains. For example, the one or more communication-related processing operations 305 outsourced to application entity 330 may also include one or more application-related MAC layer operations, while data plane entity 310 is used to execute one or more application-independent MAC layer operations.

[0083] In general, the solution of this application is based on a new scheduling function (feature 1) in the control plane entity 320, particularly at the MAC layer, new control messages called RAS 309 and RQI 311 between the application entity 330 and the control plane entity 320 (feature 2), and a new function called extraction / combination (feature 3) at the MAC layer for the data plane entity 310 to use, for example, to separate ICC data 302 from other data 312.

[0084] Figure 6The control plane entity 320 provided in this application is illustrated, also referred to as a "scheduler" that can be used for ICC applications. Control plane entity 320 (corresponding to feature 1) collects channel (quality) information 308a from one or more user equipments, scheduling requests 308b from one or more user equipments, and RAS 309 (feature 2) for each application or user equipment as input. It should be noted that in this application, user or user equipment and application can be used interchangeably; however, typically a user or user equipment may have multiple applications running in parallel that require scheduling, for example, scheduling based on different quality of service (QoS). Therefore, application is the most accurate term.

[0085] As output Figure 6 The control plane entity 302 generates resource allocation for each application, that is, determines which application each resource belongs to and provides RQI 311 (feature 2) for each application.

[0086] RAS 309 and RQI 311 can be exchanged between application entity 330 (both transmitter and receiver) and control plane entity 320 (scheduler). RAS 309 is a mapping of the number of resources per second for a given channel quality (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio, SNR). Figure 7 An example of information contained in RAS 309 is shown. As illustrated, RAS 309 may include a mapping between multiple resources 601 and multiple channel qualities 308a. Each resource element quantity 601 may also be associated with one of multiple RQIs 311. That is, each RQI 311 indicates the resource quantity 601 according to the channel quality 311. Based on the channel quality 308a received from the user equipment running the application, control plane entity 320 can use RAS 309 to determine the resource quantity 601, and may also determine the RQI 311 associated with the determined resource quantity 601.

[0087] In other words, control plane entity 320 can use RAS 309 to select the number of resources 601, such as the number of resource elements (NREs) per second, which can be allocated to applications. This selection can be made based on network conditions (i.e., the channel quality 308a of the user equipment running the application), but optionally also based on the number of users in the network, available physical resources, etc. Once control plane entity 320 has selected the number of resources 601 (which can be selected individually for each of multiple applications), it can send back one or more corresponding RQIs 311 to the corresponding application entities 330, so that each application entity 330 knows how many resources are available to generate transmission symbols.

[0088] Figure 8 An exemplary message exchange between control plane entity 320 and application entity 330 at the MAC layer of the BS is shown for UL (i.e., at the user equipment (UE)).

[0089] Communication in ICC applications involves two processes: session establishment and data transmission. During session establishment, the sending or receiving application transmits RAS 309 to the control plane entity 330 in the MAC layer at the BS (see...). Figure 8 The first message in the process). Once the session is established and the control plane entity 330 has the RAS 309 from the ICC application, data transmission can proceed. To this end, the control plane entity 330 transmits the RQI 311 obtained from the scheduling decision to both the transmitter and receiver applications. Afterward, the transmitter application can generate the ICC symbol ( Figure 8 The second, third, and fourth messages in the diagram). The entire data transmission flowchart is in Figure 10 A more detailed description is provided below.

[0090] Feature 3 can be implemented through a pair of functions in the MAC data plane, referred to in this application as extraction (at the transmitter MAC) and combination (at the receiver MAC). The extraction function works by extracting the payload (first ICC application data 302) of the ICC application from the header (other data 312), so that the payload can be directly transmitted to the physical layer resource mapping function 313, while the header is sent via a standard path, i.e., standard PHY layer functions are applied to the header because they represent unstructured data that requires encoding, modulation, and other operations. To implement this extraction function, the data plane entity 310 of this application is used to separate the first ICC application data 302 from the other data 312 added to the first message 301 at the MAC layer, and also to send the first ICC application data 302 directly to the resource mapping function 313.

[0091] At the receiving end, the combination function collects the received payload information (second ICC application data 304) and header (other data 312), and combines them into a message (second message 303) for transmission at a higher layer. For this purpose, the data plane entity 310 of this application is used at the MAC layer to combine the second ICC application data 304 with the other data 312 added to the second message 303. Figure 9 A data plane diagram is shown, including the pair of new extract / combine functions in data plane entity 310.

[0092] Hereinafter, some specific but exemplary embodiments of this application are described. The first embodiment relates to a scheduler implementation (i.e., an implementation of control plane entity 330). How the scheduler is implemented can depend on the requirements and the communication system itself, for example, if the system is implemented as a standalone communication system, if it is part of 3GPP, or if it is for a non-coordinated system such as Wi-Fi. Figure 20 The document describes a general scheduling process 2000 for an ICC application. In step 2001, based on each user's RAS information, the next user to be allocated resources is selected according to specific criteria (e.g., maximum throughput, round-robin scheduling, or proportional fairness). In step 2002, resources are allocated to the selected user according to the criteria. In step 2003, parameters and counters are updated. In step 2004, the process repeats steps 2001, 2002, and 2003 one or more times until all resources are allocated, or until no more users need resources. In step 2005, the RQI for each user is obtained and transmitted to the user.

[0093] In any situation, there are many general-purpose schedulers that can serve as the scheduler for an ICC system. Three such examples are provided below.

[0094] The first example is a round-robin scheduler. In this case, let's say... γ i,r , and These are, respectively, the set of indexes for resources available for scheduling, the set of indexes for ICC applications to be scheduled, and the user. In resources The SNR, the set of non-zero RQI of user i, and user i at level The required number of resource units. The polling scheduler for ICC applications can be implemented as follows:

[0095] 1. Initialize the necessary parameters

[0096] 2. When or hour:

[0097] 2.1 Select the next user

[0098]

[0099] 2.4

[0100] 2.5 If

[0101]

[0102] The second example is the maximum throughput scheduler. In this case, let's assume... γ i,r , and As previously defined. Furthermore, let q i It is the size of The vector q i,n It is q i The nth entry. The maximum throughput scheduler for ICC applications can be implemented as follows:

[0103] 1. Initialize parameters

[0104] 2. When or hour:

[0105] 2.1r←r+1

[0106] 2.2 Select the next user

[0107] 2.3

[0108] 2.4

[0109] 2.5 If

[0110] 2.6 Otherwise

[0111]

[0112] Entry q i,n This indicates the priority in the selection of user i, which can be related to the amount of resources already allocated to that user. How to select q? i,n Here are some examples:

[0113] ·for Where L is the highest RQI of user i, i.e.

[0114] · for

[0115] This allocation ensures that user i's highest priority equals the total number of available resources. Subtract the minimum number of resource units that user i needs to operate on, i.e. exist After a resource is allocated to user i, the value q i,n Reduced to the difference between the NRE of the last RQI 311 guaranteed for user i and the NRE of the current RQI 311 to be allocated.

[0116] The third example is the proportionally fair scheduler. In this case, let... γ i,r , and q i As previously defined. Furthermore, suppose... It is the average SNR of user i over a window of length W. The proportional fairness scheduler for ICC applications can be implemented as follows:

[0117] 1. Initialize parameters

[0118] 2. When or hour:

[0119] 2.1r←r+1

[0120] 2.2

[0121] 2.3 Select the next user

[0122] 2.4

[0123] 2.5

[0124] 2.6 If

[0125] 2.7 Otherwise

[0126]

[0127] The second embodiment relates to the implementation of the scheme of this application in a 3GPP system. In particular, it includes a new channel between the MAC layer and the PHY layer, modifications to the implementation of the MAC layer and the PHY layer, message exchange between 3GPP entities and applications, and the establishment and modification of PDU sessions.

[0128] First, a new channel between the MAC layer and the PHY layer is described. The scheme of this application can benefit from the connection between the MAC layer and the PHY layer to transmit payload information related to ICC applications (e.g., ICC application data 302, 304) (see [link]). Figure 9 Therefore, new transport and physical channels can be defined. Starting with the 3GPP implementation described in TS 38.321, Figure 11The new transport and physical channels at the UE are illustrated to separate the ICC application data 302 from the ICC header and to separate other packets (other data 312) from the standard application. Additionally, extra multiplexing functionality can be added to the newly created path to multiplex / demultiplex the ICC payload (ICC application data 3202 / 304) without mixing it with other packets from the standard path (further details of the MAC implementation will be provided below). Similar to the UE, Figure 12 The diagram depicts the required functionality and architecture of a BS or gNB.

[0129] The MAC implementation will be described next. It follows the MAC layer implementation method proposed in 3GPP TS 38.321. Figure 13 Modifications for adding new extraction / combination functions and new transmission channels to data plane entity 310 are shown.

[0130] The PHY implementation is described below. It follows the implementation method of the PHY layer proposed in 3GPP TS 38.202. Figure 14 This illustrates the modification of adding a new physical channel at both the transmitting and receiving ends.

[0131] The session establishment and modification are described below. As previously mentioned, RAS message 309 can communicate with the MAC scheduler (control plane entity 330) during session establishment. Therefore, the session establishment procedure in 3GPP needs to be modified to address this issue. If no session has been established between the UE and 5GS previously, RAS 309 can be included in message 1 of the session establishment procedure in 3GPP TS23.502, section 4.3.2.2.1. This message, called the PDU session establishment request message, is a non-access stratum (NAS) message sent from the UE to the AMF via the N1 interface. The AMF then forwards the RAS information to the gNB in ​​message 12 of the session establishment procedure (called the PDU session request and sent via the N2 interface).

[0132] Alternatively, RAS 309 can be provided to the gNB by the application server. In this case, there are two options. The first option is that the UE establishes a session with the 5GS, as explained in the standard procedure described in Section 4.3.2.2.1 of 3GPP TS23.502. Afterward, the application server sends RAS 309 to the UE via the user plane (as a message / in a message), and the UE then initiates the session modification procedure explained below, which includes the RAS 309 provided by the application server via the user plane. The second alternative is that the application server uses the application triggering procedure described in Section 4.13.2.2 of 3GPP TS23.502, along with RAS 309 in conjunction with Nnef_Trigger_Delivery (this message originates from the application server (described as AF in the reference) and NEF). Then, in step 8 of the application triggering procedure, the NEF sends RAS 309 along with a submission trigger message to another network entity, such as a short message service-service centre (SMS-SC). Finally, the network entity forwards the RAS to the UE via the AMF, and the UE initiates the PDU session establishment process. In the first case, the PDU session establishment request message includes RAS 309.

[0133] If a PDU session already exists, but the RAS 309 information has not yet been transmitted, or if a new RAS 309 needs to communicate with the scheduler (control plane entity 330) at the gNB, the UE can initiate a PDU session modification procedure similar to that described in Section 4.3.3.3.2 of 3GPP TS23.502V1888.0.0. In this case, the RAS 309 is sent to the AMF in the PDU session modification request message (which is a NAS message) during step 1a of the procedure. Then, during step 4 of the N2 message, the AMF transmits the RAS 309 to the gNB. Alternatively, if the RAS 309 needs to be transmitted by the application server, the same alternative procedure as the session establishment performed by the application server as explained above can be performed, but in this case, the UE initiates the PDU session modification procedure instead of the PDU session establishment request.

[0134] During PDU session modification, the UE has the opportunity to request a new QoS. If the QoS flow type is guaranteed bit rate (GBR), the UE can calculate its own GBR as follows:

[0135] GBR = 2 × NRE 0 ×bits_per_floating_point_number,

[0136] Among them, NRE 0 This is the number of resource units for the first non-zero RQI. `bits_per_floating_point_number` is the number of bits used to represent the floating-point number, typically 32. The inclusion factor of 2 is used because the application outputs complex numbers, which require twice the number of bits compared to real numbers.

[0137] Next, the communication between the scheduler (control plane entity 330) and the UE and the server via one or more RQI 311s (as messages / in messages) is described. Figure 15 The diagram illustrates the RQI message process within a 5G system. Two communication paths need to be established in the control plane to exchange necessary RQI messages: one from the gNB to the application server, and the other from the gNB to the UE.

[0138] The first communication path is between the server application and the scheduler at the MAC address of the gNB serving the UE. This can be achieved through the network exposure function (NEF) of the 5G core network (5GC). More specifically, for RQI message communication from the scheduler in the gNB to the application server, the gNB sends the RQI message to the access and mobility management function (AMF) via the N2 interface, and then forwards the RQI message to the session management function (SMF) via the service-based bus (SBB) using the SMF-to-AMF service. Alternatively, the AMF can use the SMF-to-AMF service to forward the RQI message to the SMF via the SBB. If the SMF is a function that receives RQI messages from the AMF, then the SMF uses the NEF-to-SMF service to forward the RQI message to the NEF via the SBB. Once the RQI message arrives at the NEF, the NEF forwards the RQI message to the application server.

[0139] RQI message communication from the scheduler (control plane entity 330) at the gNB to the UE can be achieved by using fields in the physical control channel of the Uu link connecting the UE and gNB. An example of such a field is the downlink control information (DCI) field of the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), as described in 3GPP TS 38.212. In addition to RQI, the MAC scheduler also needs to transmit scheduling decisions, i.e., what physical resources are allocated to the UE. This information can also be included in the DCI of both the uplink and downlink. Figure 16 This illustrates how the uplink (left) and downlink (right) include and transmit this communication.

[0140] Figure 17 Method 1700 provided in this application is illustrated. Method 1700 can be used in an ICC system and is performed by an application entity 330. Method 1700 includes step 1701: sending a first message 301 including first ICC application data 302 to a data plane entity 310 of the ICC system and / or receiving a second message 303 including second ICC application data 304 from the data plane entity 310. Method 1700 also includes step 1702: performing one or more communication-related processing operations 305 on the first application data 306 to generate the first ICC application data 302 and / or performing one or more communication-related processing operations 305 on the second ICC application data 304 to obtain the second application data 307. The one or more communication-related processing operations 305 include one or more application-related PHY layer operations.

[0141] Figure 18 Method 1800 provided in this application is illustrated. Method 1800 can be used in an ICC system and is performed by a control plane entity 320. Method 1800 includes step 1801: receiving channel quality 308a and / or scheduling request 308b from a user equipment running an application. Method 1800 also includes step 1802: obtaining application-related RAS 309, wherein RAS 309 indicates the amount of resources available for channel quality 308a. Method 1800 also includes step 1803: outputting RQI 311, wherein RQI 311 indicates the amount of resources available for the application to send first ICC application data 302 to the data plane entity 310 of the ICC system and / or receive second ICC application data 304 from the data plane entity 310.

[0142] Figure 19Method 1900 provided in this application is illustrated. Method 1900 can be used in an ICC system and is performed by a data plane entity 310. Method 1900 includes step 1901: receiving a first message 301 including first ICC application data 302 from an application entity of the ICC system and / or sending a second message 303 including second ICC application data 304 to the application entity. Method 1900 also includes step 1902: at the MAC layer, separating the first ICC application data 302 from other data 312 added to the first message 301, and / or at the MAC layer, combining the second ICC application data 304 with other data 312 added to the second message 303. Method 1900 also includes step 1903: sending the first ICC application data 302 directly to a resource mapping function 313 in the PHY layer and / or receiving the second ICC application data 304 directly from the resource mapping function 313. Method 1900 further includes step 1904: when sending other data 312 to and / or receiving other data from the resource mapping function 313, performing one or more application-independent PHY layer operations 314 on the other data 312.

[0143] This application has been described in conjunction with various embodiments as examples and implementations. However, based on a study of the drawings, this application, and the independent claims, those skilled in the art will be able to understand and implement other variations when implementing the claimed subject matter. In the claims and the specification, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and "a" or "an" does not exclude multiple. A single element or other unit may fulfill the function of several entities or items described in the claims. Listing certain measures in dissimilar dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in advantageous implementations.

Claims

1. An application entity for an integrated communication and computation (ICC) system, characterized in that, The application entity (330) is used for: Send a first message (301) including first ICC application data (302) to the data plane entity (310) of the ICC system and / or receive a second message (303) including second ICC application data (304) from the data plane entity (310); Perform one or more communication-related processing operations (305) on the first application data (306) to generate the first ICC application data (302) and / or perform one or more communication-related processing operations (305) on the second ICC application data (304) to obtain the second application data (307); The one or more communication-related processing operations (305) include one or more application-related physical (PHY) layer operations.

2. The application entity (330) according to claim 1, characterized in that, The one or more communication-related processing operations (305) also include one or more application-related medium access control (MAC) layer operations.

3. The application entity (330) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The one or more application-related PHY layer operations include one or more of the following: Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) operation; Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) operation; Data encoding or decoding operations; Data modulation or demodulation operations.

4. The application entity (330) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, Also used for: In addition to the one or more communication-related processing operations (305), one or more application-related processing operations are performed on the first application data (306) to generate the first ICC application data (302) and / or one or more application-related processing operations are performed on the second ICC application data (304) to obtain the second application data (307).

5. The application entity (330) according to claim 4, characterized in that, The one or more application-related processing operations include one or more of the following: Video processing operations; Image processing operations; Audio processing operations; Text processing operations; Augmented reality or virtual reality processing operations; Sensor data processing operations; The first sub-function computation operation and / or the second sub-function computation operation of the segmentation learning algorithm; Local model update operations and / or global model update operations of federated learning algorithms.

6. The application entity (330) according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that, The one or more application-related processing operations and the one or more communication-related processing operations (305) are executed together and / or in the same processing stage or step.

7. The application entity (330) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, It is also used to send the first ICC application data (302) to the data plane entity (310) and / or receive the second ICC application data (304) from the data plane entity (310) on multiple resources (601) allocated by the control plane entity (320) of the ICC system, respectively.

8. The application entity (330) according to claim 7, characterized in that, Also used for: Receive a resource quality indicator (RQI) (311) from the control plane entity (320); The RQI (311) indicates the number of resources (601).

9. The application entity (330) according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that, Also used for: Receive channel state information (CSI) from the control plane entity (320); and also for: The first ICC application data (302) is adjusted and sent based on the CSI and the first message (301); and / or The second ICC application data (304) is received and adjusted based on the CSI and the second message (303).

10. A control plane entity (320) for an integrated communication and computation (ICC) system, characterized in that, The control surface entity is used for: Receive channel quality (308a), and / or receive scheduling requests from user equipment running applications (308b); Obtain a resource allocation scheme (RAS) (309) associated with the application, wherein the RAS (309) indicates the amount of resources (601) used for the channel quality (308a); Output a resource quality indicator (RQI) (311), the RQI indicating the amount of resources (601) available for the application to send first ICC application data (302) to the data plane entity (310) of the ICC system and / or receive second ICC application data (304) from the data plane entity (310).

11. The control surface entity (320) according to claim 10, characterized in that, The RAS (309) includes a mapping between multiple resources (601) and multiple channel qualities (308a).

12. The control surface entity (320) according to claim 11, characterized in that, The RQI (311) indicates the amount of resources (601) of the application in each time period.

13. The control surface entity (320) according to any one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that, It is also used to select the amount of resources (601) for the application based on the RAS (309) and the received channel quality (308a).

14. The control surface entity (320) according to claim 13, characterized in that, The resource quantity is further selected for the application based on the number of users and / or the amount of available resources in the network used by the ICC system (601).

15. A data plane entity (310) for an integrated communication and computation (ICC) system, characterized in that, The data plane entity (310) is used for: Receive a first message (301) including first ICC application data (302) from the application entity (330) of the ICC system and / or send a second message (303) including second ICC application data (304) to the application entity (330); At the medium access control (MAC) layer, the first ICC application data (302) is separated from other data (312) added to the first message (301), and / or at the MAC layer, the second ICC application data (304) is combined with other data (312) added to the second message (303); The first ICC application data (302) is sent directly to the physical (PHY) layer resource mapping function (313) and / or the second ICC application data (304) is received directly from the resource mapping function (313); When the other data (312) is sent to the resource mapping function (313) and / or received from the resource mapping function (313), one or more application-independent PHY layer operations (314) are performed on the other data (312).

16. The data plane entity (310) according to claim 15, characterized in that, Sending the first ICC application data (302) and / or receiving the second ICC application data (304) directly does not require any further processing of the first ICC application data (302) and / or the second ICC application data (304).

17. The data plane entity (310) according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that, The first ICC application data (302) and / or the second ICC application data (304) are the payloads of the first message (301) and / or the second message (303), respectively, while the other data (312) are the headers of the first message (301) and / or the second message (303), respectively.

18. The data plane entity (310) according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that, It is also used to perform one or more application-independent MAC layer operations on the other data (312) when sending the other data (312) to the resource mapping function (313) and / or receiving the other data (312) from the resource mapping function (313).

19. A method (1700) for an integrated communication and computation (ICC) system, characterized in that, The method (1700) is performed by the application entity (330) and includes: Send (1701) a first message (301) including first ICC application data (302) to the data plane entity (310) of the ICC system and / or receive a second message (303) including second ICC application data (304) from the data plane entity (310); Perform one or more communication-related processing operations (305) on the first application data (306) to generate the first ICC application data (302) and / or perform one or more communication-related processing operations (305) on the second ICC application data (304) to obtain the second application data (307); The one or more communication-related processing operations (305) include one or more application-related physical (PHY) layer operations.

20. A method (1800) for an integrated communication and computation (ICC) system, characterized in that, The method (1800) is performed by the control surface entity (320) and includes: Receive (1801) channel quality (308a), and / or receive scheduling requests (308b) from user equipment running applications; Obtain (1802) a resource allocation scheme (RAS) (309) associated with the application, wherein the RAS (309) indicates the amount of resources used for the channel quality (308a); Output (1803) a resource quality indicator (RQI) (311), the RQI indicating the amount of resources available for the application to send first ICC application data (302) to the data plane entity (310) of the ICC system and / or receive second ICC application data (304) from the data plane entity (310).

21. A method (1900) for an integrated communication and computation (ICC) system, characterized in that, The method (1900) is performed by the data plane entity (310) and includes: Receive (1901) a first message (301) including first ICC application data (302) from the application entity of the ICC system and / or send a second message (303) including second ICC application data (304) to the application entity; At the medium access control (MAC) layer, the first ICC application data (302) is separated (1902) from other data (312) added to the first message (301), and / or at the MAC layer, the second ICC application data (304) is combined with other data (312) added to the second message (303). The first ICC application data (302) is directly sent (1903) to the physical (PHY) layer resource mapping function (313) and / or the second ICC application data (304) is directly received from the resource mapping function (313); When the other data (312) is sent to the resource mapping function (313) and / or received from the resource mapping function (313), one or more application-independent PHY layer operations (314) are performed on the other data (312) (1904).

22. A computer program comprising instructions, characterized in that, When the program is executed by a computer, the instructions cause the computer to perform the method (1700, 1800, 1900) according to claim 19, 20, or 21.

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