Carrier configuration and monitoring of communication devices in a shared communication environment - Patents.com

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for carrier configuration and monitoring of communication devices in a shared communication environment. In some implementations, carrier configuration may be performed in a radio access network-enabled radio unit (RU), and one or more distributed units (DUs) may be associated with different carriers and / or different network operators. Additionally, monitoring of each such DU and / or its management connections may be performed, such that the remote radio units can be configured to determine individual carrier status in the presence of a particular failure of the DU.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] In some implementations, the subject matter relates to telecommunications systems, and in particular to carrier configuration and monitoring of communication devices, such as distributed units, in a shared communication environment in which one or more distributed units can be communicatively connected to one or more remote radio units. [Background technology]

[0002] In today's world, cellular networks provide on-demand communication capabilities to individuals and businesses. Typically, cellular networks are wireless networks that may be distributed over a terrestrial area called a cell. Each such cell is served by at least one fixed location transceiver called a cell site or base station. Each cell may use a different set of frequencies than its neighboring cells to avoid interference and provide improved service within each cell. When cells are combined together, they provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area, thereby allowing a large number of mobile phones and / or other wireless devices or portable transceivers to communicate with each other and with fixed transceivers and phones anywhere in the network. Such communication is performed through the base stations and is accomplished even when the mobile transceiver is moving through two or more cells during transmission. Major wireless communication providers have deployed such cell sites worldwide, which allow communicating mobile phones and mobile computing devices to connect to the public switched telephone network and the public Internet.

[0003] A mobile phone is a cellular telephone that can receive and / or originate telephone and / or data communications through a cell site or transmission tower by using radio waves to transfer signals to and from the mobile phone. Given the large number of mobile phone users, current mobile phone networks offer limited shared resources. In that regard, cell sites and handsets may change frequencies and use low-power transmitters to enable simultaneous use of the network by many callers with less interference. The coverage by a cell site may depend on a particular geographic location and / or the number of users that can potentially use the network. For example, in a city, a cell site may have a range of up to about 1 / 2 mile, while in a suburban area, the range may be as much as 5 miles, and in some areas, a user may receive signals from a cell site 25 miles away.

[0004] The following are some examples of digital cellular technologies used by communication providers: Global System for Mobile Communications ("GSM"), General Packet Radio Service ("GPRS"), cdmaOne, CDMA2000, Evolution Data Optimized ("EV-DO"), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution ("EDGE"), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System ("UMTS"), Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications ("DECT"), Digital AMPS ("IS-136 / TDMA"), and Integrated Digital Enhanced Network ("iDEN"). Long Term Evolution, or 4G LTE, developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project ("3GPP®") standards organization, is a high-speed data wireless communications standard for mobile phones and data terminals. 5G standards are currently being developed and deployed. 3GPP cellular technologies such as LTE and 5G NR are evolutions of earlier generations of 3GPP technologies such as GSM / EDGE and UMTS / HSPA digital cellular technologies, allowing for increased capacity and speeds through the use of different air interfaces along with improvements to the core network.

[0005] A cellular network may be divided into a radio access network and a core network. The radio access network (RAN) may include network functions capable of handling radio layer communication processing. The core network may include network functions capable of handling higher layer communication, e.g., internet protocol (IP), transport layer, and application layer. In some cases, the RAN function may be divided into a baseband unit function and a radio unit function, e.g., a radio unit connected to a baseband unit via a fronthaul network may be responsible for lower layer processing of the radio physical layer, and the baseband unit may be responsible for higher layer radio protocols, e.g., MAC, RLC, etc.

[0006] To ensure uninterrupted communications in a wireless communication system, it may be necessary to properly configure the various devices and / or monitor the various devices' communication sessions for failures. However, currently implemented protocols are unable to provide effective management of the configuration of such devices (including any shared device configurations) and to monitor and respond to communication session failures. Summary of the Invention [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] In some implementations, the subject matter relates to a computer-implemented method that may include grouping a plurality of first communication devices into a plurality of groups and associating each group of the plurality of groups with a second communication device of a wireless communication system, configuring the second communication device to communicate with one or more of the groups of first communication devices, and transmitting one or more communications in the wireless communication system using the configured second communication device.

[0008] In some implementations, the protection can include one or more of the following optional features: In some implementations, each first communication device of the plurality of first communication devices can be a distributed unit. Additionally, the second communication device can be a wireless unit.

[0009] In some implementations, one or more of the first communication devices of the plurality of first communication devices may be host first communication devices, and another one or more of the first communication devices of the plurality of first communication devices may be shared resource operator first communication devices. Furthermore, each host first communication device of the one or more first communication devices may be grouped into one or more host groups of the plurality of groups, and each shared resource operator first communication device of the other one or more first communication devices may be grouped into one or more shared resource operator groups of the plurality of groups. Furthermore, the method may also include detecting a failure of the host first communication device, and the method may also include terminating communication with the failed host first communication device, where the communication may be associated with a default carrier controlled by the failed host first communication device. Furthermore, configuring the second communication device may include reconfiguring to communicate with another one or more groups of first communication devices based on the detection of the failure of the host first communication device. Additionally, the reconfiguring may be performed using a service management orchestration function of the wireless communication system, the reconfiguring may be performed on a management plane, and / or the method may also include sending a call home command to one or more other groups of first communication devices and receiving one or more carrier configurations from one or more other groups of first communication devices in response to the call home command, the one or more carrier configurations being configured by the one or more other groups of first communication devices. Additionally, the one or more carrier configurations may include at least one of one or more transmit array carrier configurations and one or more receive array carrier configurations, and / or transmitting the one or more communication information in the wireless communication system may include transmitting the one or more communication information using the one or more carrier configurations.

[0010] In some implementations, at least one of the grouping, configuring, and transmitting may be performed by at least one base station of a wireless communication system. Further, the base station may include at least one of a base station, an eNodeB base station, a gNodeB base station, a radio base station, and any combination thereof. Further, the base station may be a base station operating in at least one of a long term evolution communication system, a new radio communication system, a wireless communication system, and any combination thereof.

[0011] Also described are non-transitory computer program products (i.e., physically embodied computer program products) that store instructions that, when executed by one or more data processors of one or more computing systems, cause at least one data processor to perform the operations described herein. Similarly, described are computer systems that may include one or more data processors and a memory coupled to the one or more data processors. The memory may store, either temporarily or permanently, instructions that cause at least one processor to perform one or more of the operations described herein. Furthermore, the methods may be performed by one or more data processors within a single computing system or distributed across two or more computing systems. Such computing systems may be connected and may exchange data and / or commands or other instructions, etc., via one or more connections, including, but not limited to, connections over a network (e.g., the Internet, a wireless wide area network, a local area network, a wide area network, a wired network, etc.), such as via a direct connection between one or more of the computing systems.

[0012] Details of one or more variations of the subject matter described herein are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the subject matter described herein will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0013] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate certain aspects of the subject matter disclosed herein and, together with the description, serve to explain some of the principles associated with the disclosed implementations.

[0014] [Figure 1a] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary conventional long term evolution ("LTE") communication system. [Figure 1b] FIG. 1b illustrates further details of the exemplary LTE system shown in FIG. 1a. [Figure 1c] FIG. 1b illustrates further details of the evolved packet core of the exemplary LTE system shown in FIG. 1a. [Figure 1d] FIG. 1B illustrates an exemplary evolved Node B of the exemplary LTE system shown in FIG. 1a. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 shows further details of the evolved Node B shown in FIGS. 1a to 1d. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary virtual radio access network in accordance with some implementations of the subject matter. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary 3GPP split architecture for providing use of higher frequency bands to its users. [Figure 5a] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary 5G wireless communication system. [Figure 5b] A diagram showing an example layer architecture of a split gNB and / or a split ng-eNB (e.g., a next generation eNB that may be connected to 5GC). [Figure 5c] A diagram illustrating an exemplary functional division in the gNB architecture shown in Figures 5a-5b. [Figure 6] 1 illustrates an example system for performing carrier access configuration and monitoring in a wireless communication system in accordance with some implementations of the subject matter. [Figure 7]1 illustrates an exemplary method for performing a carrier access control configuration procedure in accordance with some implementations of the subject matter. [Figure 8] 1 illustrates an exemplary method for performing monitoring for monitoring failures in accordance with some implementations of the subject matter. [Figure 9] 1 illustrates an exemplary system according to some implementations of the subject matter. [Figure 10] 1 illustrates exemplary methods according to some implementations of the subject matter. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0015] The subject matter may provide systems and methods that may be implemented in a wireless communication system, which may include a variety of wireless communication systems, including 5G new radio communication systems, long term evolution communication systems, and the like.

[0016] In some implementations, the subject matter of protection relates to performing carrier configuration in a radio access network-enabled radio unit (RU), where one or more distributed units (DUs) may be associated with different carriers and / or different network operators. Additionally, the subject matter of protection may be configured to perform monitoring of each such DU and / or its management connections, such that the remote radio units can be configured to determine individual carrier status in the presence of a particular failure of a DU.

[0017] The protected object may be configured to group a number of first communication devices (e.g. distributed units) into a number of groups for performing the configuration and / or monitoring processes. Each such group of distributed units may be associated with a second communication device (e.g. remote radio unit). One or more of the distributed units may be communicatively coupled in a wireless communication system, such as a long term evolution communication system, a new radio communication system, and / or any other communication system. A remote radio unit may be configured to communicate with one or more groups of distributed units. One or more of the configured distributed units may be used to transmit one or more communication information in such a wireless communication system.

[0018] In some implementations, one or more distributed units may act as host distributed units and another distributed unit may be a shared resource operator distributed unit. The host distributed units of the one or more distributed units may be grouped into one or more host groups. The shared resource operator distributed units may be grouped into one or more shared resource operator groups.

[0019] In some implementations, the protected subject matter may be further configured to detect a failure of the host distributed unit and, as a result, terminate communication with the failed host distributed unit. The communication may be associated with a predefined carrier controlled by the failed host distributed unit. Additionally, configuring the radio unit may include reconfiguring the radio unit to communicate with another group or groups of distributed units upon detection of the failure of the host distributed unit. The reconfiguration may be performed using a service management orchestration function of the wireless communication system. Alternatively or additionally, the reconfiguration may be performed in a management plane.

[0020] In some implementations, the protected subject matter may be configured to send a call home command to one or more other groups of distributed units and receive one or more carrier settings from the one or more other groups of distributed units in response to the call home command. The carrier settings may be set by the one or more other groups of distributed units. For example, the carrier settings may include at least one of one or more transmit array carrier settings and / or one or more receive array carrier settings. In some implementations, transmitting one or more communication information in a wireless communication system may include one or more transmissions of the one or more communication information using such carrier settings.

[0021] In some implementations, one or more of the above processes may be performed by at least one base station of a wireless communication system. The base station may include at least one of a base station, an eNodeB base station, a gNodeB base station, a radio base station, and any combination thereof. Furthermore, the base station may be a base station operating in at least one of a long term evolution communication system, a new radio communication system, a wireless communication system, and any combination thereof.

[0022] One or more aspects of the subject matter may be incorporated into transmitter and / or receiver components of base stations (e.g., gNodeB, eNodeB, etc.) in such communication systems. The following is a general discussion of Long Term Evolution and 5G New Radio communication systems.

[0023] I. Long Term Evolution Communication System 1a-1c and 2 illustrate an exemplary conventional Long Term Evolution ("LTE") communication system 100 along with its various components. The LTE system, or 4G LTE, as it is commercially known, is governed by a standard for high-speed data wireless communication for mobile telephones and data terminals. The standard is an evolution of GSM / EDGE ("Global System for Mobile Communications" / "Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution") and UMTS / HSPA ("Universal Mobile Telecommunications System" / "High Speed ​​Packet Access") network technologies. The standard was developed by 3GPP ("3rd Generation Partnership Project").

[0024] As shown in FIG. 1a, the system 100 may include an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network ("EUTRAN") 102, an evolved packet core ("EPC") 108, and a packet data network ("PDN") 101, where the EUTRAN 102 and the EPC 108 provide communications between user terminals 104 and the PDN 101. The EUTRAN 102 may include multiple evolved Node Bs ("eNodeB" or "ENODEB" or "enodeb" or "eNB") or base stations 106(a,b,c) (as shown in FIG. 1b) that provide communications capabilities to multiple user terminals 104(a,b,c). The user terminal 104 may be a mobile phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a personal computer, a personal digital assistant ("PDA"), a server, a data terminal, and / or any other type of user terminal, and / or any combination thereof. The user terminal 104 may connect to the EPC 108 and ultimately to the PDN 101 via any eNodeB 106. Typically, the user terminal 104 may connect to the eNodeB 106 that is closest in terms of distance. In the LTE system 100, the EUTRAN 102 and the EPC 108 cooperate to provide connectivity, mobility, and services for the user terminal 104.

[0025] Figure 1b shows further details of the network 100 shown in Figure 1a. As mentioned above, the EUTRAN 102 includes multiple eNodeBs 106, also known as cell sites. The eNodeBs 106 provide radio functionality and perform important control functions including air link resource scheduling or radio resource management, active mode mobility or handover, and admission control for services. The eNodeBs 106 are responsible for selecting which mobility management entity (mobility management entity (MME) as shown in Figure 1c) will serve the user terminal 104, and protocol features such as header compression and encryption. The eNodeBs 106 that make up the EUTRAN 102 cooperate with each other for radio resource management and handover.

[0026] Communications between the user terminals 104 and the eNodeB 106 occur over an air interface 122 (also known as an "LTE-Uu" interface). As shown in FIG. 1b, the air interface 122 provides communications between the user terminals 104b and the eNodeB 106a. The air interface 122 uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access ("OFDMA") and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access ("SC-FDMA"), an OFDMA variant, on the downlink and uplink, respectively. OFDMA allows the use of multiple known antenna technologies, such as Multiple Input Multiple Output ("MIMO").

[0027] The air interface 122 uses various protocols, including radio resource control ("RRC") for signaling between the user terminal 104 and the eNodeB 106, and non-access stratum ("NAS") for signaling between the user terminal 104 and the MME (as shown in FIG. 1c). In addition to signaling, user traffic is transferred between the user terminal 104 and the eNodeB 106. Both signaling and traffic in the system 100 are carried by physical layer ("PHY") channels.

[0028] The multiple eNodeBs 106 may be interconnected with each other using X2 interfaces 130(a,b,c). As shown in FIG. 1a, the X2 interface 130a provides an interconnection between the eNodeBs 106a and 106b, the X2 interface 130b provides an interconnection between the eNodeBs 106a and 106c, and the X2 interface 130c provides an interconnection between the eNodeBs 106b and 106c. The X2 interfaces may be established between the two eNodeBs to provide an exchange of signals, which may include information related to loading or interference as well as information related to handover. The eNodeBs 106 communicate with the evolved packet core 108 via the S1 interfaces 124(a,b,c). The S1 interface 124 can be split into two interfaces, one for the control plane (shown in FIG. 1c as control plane interface (S1-MME interface) 128) and the other for the user plane (shown in FIG. 1c as user plane interface (S1-U interface) 125).

[0029] The EPC 108 establishes and enforces quality of service ("Quality of Service") for user services and enables the user terminal 104 to maintain a consistent internet protocol ("IP") address while moving. Note that each node in the network 100 has its own IP address. The EPC 108 is designed to interwork with legacy wireless networks. The EPC 108 is also designed to separate the control plane (i.e., signaling) and the user plane (i.e., traffic) in the core network architecture, which allows more flexibility in implementation and independent scalability of control and user data functions.

[0030] The EPC 108 architecture is dedicated to packet data and is shown in more detail in Figure 1c. The EPC 108 includes a Serving Gateway (S-GW) 110, a PDN Gateway (P-GW) 112, a Mobility Management Entity ("MME") 114, a Home Subscriber Server ("HSS") 116 (a subscriber database for the EPC 108), and a Policy Control and Charging Rules Function ("PCRF") 118. Some of these (such as the S-GW, P-GW, MME, and HSS) are often combined into nodes according to manufacturer implementations.

[0031] The S-GW 110 functions as an IP packet data router and is the bearer path anchor for user terminals in the EPC 108. Thus, when a user terminal moves from one eNodeB 106 to another during mobility operation, the S-GW 110 remains the same and the bearer path towards the EUTRAN 102 is switched to communicate with the new eNodeB 106 serving the user terminal 104. If the user terminal 104 moves to the domain of another S-GW 110, the MME 114 will forward all of the user terminal's bearer path to the new S-GW. The S-GW 110 establishes a bearer path for the user terminal to one or more P-GWs 112. When downstream data is received for an idle user terminal, the S-GW 110 buffers the downstream packets and requests the MME 114 to identify and re-establish the bearer path to and through the EUTRAN 102.

[0032] The P-GW 112 is a gateway between the EPC 108 (and the user terminal 104 and EUTRAN 102) and the PDN 101 (shown in FIG. 1a). The P-GW 112 acts as a router for user traffic and performs functions on behalf of the user terminals. These include IP address allocation for the user terminals, packet filtering of downstream user traffic to ensure that it is placed on the appropriate bearer path, and enforcement of downstream QoS including data rate. Depending on the services the subscriber is using, there may be multiple user data bearer paths between the user terminal 104 and the P-GW 112. A subscriber may use services on PDNs served by different P-GWs, in which case the user terminal has at least one bearer path established to each P-GW 112. During handover of a user terminal from one eNodeB to another, if the S-GW 110 is also changing, the bearer path from the P-GW 112 is switched to the new S-GW.

[0033] The MME 114 manages the user terminals 104 in the EPC 108, including managing subscriber authentication, maintaining context for authenticated user terminals 104, establishing a data bearer path in the network for user traffic, and tracking the location of idle mobiles that have not detached from the network. In the case of an idle user terminal 104 that needs to be reconnected to the access network to receive downstream data, the MME 114 initiates paging to locate the user terminal and re-establishes a bearer path to and through the EUTRAN 102. The MME 114 for a particular user terminal 104 is selected by the eNodeB 106 where the user terminal 104 initiates system access. The MME is typically part of a collection of MMEs in the EPC 108 for load sharing and redundancy purposes. In establishing a user's data bearer path, the MME 114 is responsible for selecting the P-GW 112 and the S-GW 110, which constitute the termination of the data path through the EPC 108.

[0034] The PCRF 118 is responsible for controlling the policy control decision-making, as well as the flow-based charging functionality within the policy control enforcement function ("PCEF") that resides within the P-GW 110. The PCRF 118 provides QoS authorization (QoS class identifier ("QCI") and bit rate), which determines how a certain data flow is treated within the PCEF and ensures that this is in accordance with the user's subscription profile.

[0035] As mentioned above, IP services 119 are provided by PDN 101 (as shown in FIG. 1a).

[0036] 1d shows an example structure of an eNodeB 106. The eNodeB 106 may include at least one remote radio head ("RRH") 132 (typically there may be three RRHs 132) and a baseband unit ("BBU") 134. The RRHs 132 may be connected to an antenna 136. The RRHs 132 and BBU 134 may be connected using an optical interface conforming to the common public radio interface ("CPRI") / enhanced CPRI ("eCPRI") 142 standard specification, either using RRH-specific custom control and user plane framing methods or using O-RAN alliance compliant control and user plane framing methods. The operation of the eNodeB 106 can be characterized using the following standard parameters (and specifications): radio frequency band (Band 4, Band 9, Band 17, etc.), bandwidth (5, 10, 15, 20 MHz), access method (Downlink: OFDMA, Uplink: SC-OFDMA), antenna technology (Single-user and Multi-user MIMO, Uplink: Single-user and Multi-user MIMO), number of sectors (up to 6), maximum transmission speed (Downlink: 150 Mb / s, Uplink: 50 Mb / s), S1 / X2 interface (1000Base-SX, 1000Base-T), and mobile environment (up to 350 km / h). The BBU 134 can be responsible for digital baseband signal processing, S1 line termination, X2 line termination, call processing, and supervisory control processing. IP packets received from the EPC 108 (not shown in FIG. 1d) can be modulated into digital baseband signals and transmitted to the RRH 132. Conversely, digital baseband signals received from the RRH 132 may be demodulated into IP packets for transmission to the EPC 108.

[0037] The RRH 132 can transmit and receive wireless signals using an antenna 136. The RRH 132 can convert digital baseband signals from the BBU 134 (using a converter (“CONV”) 140) to radio frequency (“RF”) signals and power amplify them (using an amplifier (“AMP”) 138) for transmission to the user terminal 104 (not shown in FIG. 1d). Conversely, RF signals received from the user terminal 104 are amplified (using AMP 138) and converted (using CONV 140) to digital baseband signals for transmission to the BBU 134.

[0038] 2 illustrates additional details of an exemplary eNodeB 106. The eNodeB 106 includes multiple layers: LTE Layer 1 202, LTE Layer 2 204, and LTE Layer 3 206. LTE Layer 1 includes the physical layer ("PHY"). LTE Layer 2 includes medium access control ("MAC"), radio link control ("RLC"), and packet data convergence protocol ("PDCP"). LTE Layer 3 includes various functions and protocols, including radio resource control ("RRC"), dynamic resource allocation, eNodeB measurement configuration and provisioning, radio admission control, connection mobility control, and radio resource management ("RRM"). The RLC protocol is an automatic repeat request ("ARQ") fragmentation protocol used over the cellular air interface. The RRC protocol handles the LTE Layer 3 control plane signaling between the user terminal and the EUTRAN. RRC includes functions for connection establishment and release, broadcast of system information, radio bearer establishment / reconfiguration and release, RRC connection mobility procedures, paging notification and release, and outer loop power control. PDCP performs IP header compression and decompression, forwarding of user data, and maintaining sequence numbers of radio bearers. The BBU 134 shown in FIG. 1d may include LTE layers L1-L3.

[0039] One of the main functions of the eNodeB 106 is radio resource management, including scheduling of both uplink and downlink air interface resources for the user terminal 104, control of bearer resources, and admission control. As an agent for the EPC 108, the eNodeB 106 is responsible for forwarding paging messages used to locate the mobile when it is idle. The eNodeB 106 also communicates common control channel information over the air, header compression, encryption and decryption of over-the-air user data, and establishes handover reporting and trigger criteria. As mentioned above, the eNodeB 106 can cooperate with other eNodeBs 106 over the X2 interface for handover and interference management purposes. The eNodeB 106 communicates with the MME of the EPC over the S1-MME interface and with the S-GW using the S1-U interface. Additionally, the eNodeB 106 exchanges user data with the S-GW over the S1-U interface. The eNodeBs 106 and the EPC 108 have a many-to-many relationship to support load sharing and redundancy between MMEs and S-GWs. The eNodeB 106 selects an MME from a group of MMEs so that the load can be shared by multiple MMEs to avoid congestion.

[0040] II.5G NR wireless communication network In some implementations, the subject matter relates to 5G new radio ("NR") communication systems. 5G NR is the next telecommunications standard beyond the 4G / IMT-Advanced standard. 5G networks offer higher capacity than current 4G, allowing a larger number of mobile broadband users per unit area, and allowing consumption of more and / or unlimited amounts of data in gigabytes per month and per user. This may allow users to stream high definition media for hours per day using their mobile devices, even when Wi-Fi networks do not allow them to do so. 5G networks have improved support for device-to-device communication, lower cost, lower latency than 4G equipment, and lower battery consumption, etc. Such networks have data rates of tens of megabits per second for many users, data rates of 100 Mb / s for metropolitan areas, 1 Gb / s simultaneously to users in a limited area (e.g., an office floor), many simultaneous connections for wireless sensor networks, increased spectral efficiency, improved coverage, increased signaling efficiency, 1-10 ms latency, and reduced latency compared to existing systems.

[0041] 3 illustrates an example virtual radio access network 300. The network 300 can provide communication between various components including a base station (e.g., eNodeB, gNodeB) 301, a radio device 307, an aggregation unit 302, a digital unit 304, and a radio unit 306. The components in the system 300 can be communicatively coupled to a core using a backhaul link 305. The aggregation unit ("CU") 302 can be communicatively coupled to a distributed unit ("DU") 304 using a midhaul connection 308. The radio frequency ("RU") component 306 can be communicatively coupled to the DU 304 using a fronthaul connection 310.

[0042] In some implementations, the CU 302 can provide intelligent communication capabilities to one or more DU units 308. The units 302, 304 can include one or more base stations, macro base stations, micro base stations, remote radio heads, etc., and / or any combination thereof.

[0043] In a lower layer split architecture environment, the CPRI bandwidth requirement for NR may be several hundred Gb / s. CPRI compression may be implemented in the DU and RU (as shown in FIG. 3). In 5G communication systems, compressed CPRI over Ethernet frames is referred to as eCPRI and is the recommended fronthaul network. This architecture may enable standardization of fronthaul / midhaul, which may include upper layer splitting (e.g., option 2 or option 3-1 (upper / lower RLC split architecture)) and fronthaul using L1 split architecture (option 7).

[0044] In some implementations, the lower layer split architecture (e.g., option 7) may include receiver in uplink and joint processing across multiple transmission points (TPs) for both DL / UL and transport bandwidth and latency requirements to facilitate deployment. Additionally, the protected lower layer split architecture may include splitting between cell-level processing and user-level processing, which may include cell-level processing at the remote unit ("RU") and user-level processing at the DU. Additionally, using the protected lower layer split architecture, frequency domain samples may be transported over the Ethernet fronthaul and the frequency domain samples may be compressed for reduced fronthaul bandwidth.

[0045] 4 illustrates an example communication system 400 that may implement 5G technology and provide its users with use of higher frequency bands (e.g., greater than 10 GHz). System 400 may include a macro cell 402 and small cells 404 and 406.

[0046] The mobile device 408 may be configured to communicate with one or more of the small cells 404, 406. The system 400 may enable splitting of the control plane (C-plane) and user plane (U-plane) between the macro cell 402 and the small cells 404, 406, with the C-plane and U-plane utilizing different frequency bands. Specifically, the small cells 402, 404 may be configured to utilize higher frequency bands when communicating with the mobile device 408. The macro cell 402 may utilize existing cellular bands for C-plane communications. The mobile device 408 may be communicatively coupled via a U-plane 412, where the small cells (e.g., the small cell 406) may provide higher data rates and more flexible / cost / energy-efficient operation. The macro cell 402 may maintain good connectivity and mobility via the C-plane 410. Additionally, in some cases, LTE and NR may be transmitted on the same frequency.

[0047] FIG. 5a illustrates an exemplary 5G wireless communication system 500 according to some implementations of the subject matter. The system 500 may be configured to have a lower layer split architecture according to option 7-2. The system 500 may include a core network 502 (e.g., 5G Core) and one or more gNodeBs (or gNBs), where the gNBs may have an aggregation unit gNB-CU. The gNB-CU may be logically split into a control plane portion gNB-CU-CP 504 and one or more user plane portions gNB-CU-UP 506. The control plane portion 504 and the user plane portion 506 may be configured to be communicatively coupled using an E1 communication interface 514 (as defined in the 3GPP standard). The control plane portion 504 may be configured to be responsible for executing the RRC and PDCP protocols of the wireless stack.

[0048] The control plane portion 504 and the user plane portion 506 of the aggregation unit of the gNB may be configured to be communicatively coupled to one or more distributed units (DUs) 508, 510 according to an upper layer split architecture. The distributed units 508, 510 may be configured to execute the upper portions of the RLC, MAC and PHY layer protocols of the radio stack. The control plane portion 504 may be configured to be communicatively coupled to the distributed units 508, 510 using an F1-C communication interface 516, and the user plane portion 506 may be configured to be communicatively coupled to the distributed units 508, 510 using an F1-U communication interface 518. The distributed units 508, 510 may be coupled to one or more remote radio units (RUs) 512 via a fronthaul network 520 (which may include one or more switches, links, etc.), which communicate with one or more user terminals (not shown in FIG. 5a). The remote radio unit 512 may be configured to execute lower portions of the PHY layer protocol and provide antenna capabilities to the remote unit for communication with user terminals (similar to the discussion above in connection with Figures 1a-2).

[0049] Figure 5b illustrates an example layer architecture 530 for a split gNB. The architecture 530 can be implemented in the communication system 500 illustrated in Figure 5a, which can be configured as a virtualized disaggregated radio access network (RAN) architecture, whereby layers L1, L2, L3 and radio processing can be virtualized and disaggregated in aggregated, distributed, and radio units. As illustrated in Figure 5b, the gNB-DU 508 can be communicatively coupled to a gNB-CU-CP control plane portion 504 (also illustrated in Figure 5a) and a gNB-CU-UP user plane portion 506. Each of the components 504, 506, 508 can be configured to include one or more layers.

[0050] The gNB-DU 508 may include RLC, MAC, and PHY layers, as well as various communication sublayers. These may include an F1 application protocol (F1-AP) sublayer, a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTPU) sublayer, a stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) sublayer, a user datagram protocol (UDP) sublayer, and an Internet Protocol (IP) sublayer. As mentioned above, the distribution unit 508 may be communicatively coupled to a control plane portion 504 of the aggregation unit, which may also include the F1-AP, SCTP, and IP sublayers, as well as radio resource control, and PDCP control (PDCP-C) sublayers. Additionally, the distribution unit 508 may also be communicatively coupled to a user plane portion 506 of the aggregation unit of the gNB. The user plane portion 506 may include service data adaptation protocol (SDAP), PDCP user (PDCP-U), GTPU, UDP, and IP sublayers.

[0051] FIG. 5c illustrates an example functional division in the gNB architecture illustrated in FIG. 5a-5b. As illustrated in FIG. 5c, the gNB-DU 508 may be communicatively coupled to the gNB-CU-CP 504 and the GNB-CU-UP 506 using an F1-C communication interface. The gNB-CU-CP 504 and the GNB-CU-UP 506 may be communicatively coupled using an E1 communication interface. An upper portion of the PHY layer (or layer 1) may be performed by the gNB-DU 508, and a lower portion of the PHY layer may be performed by the RU (not shown in FIG. 5c). As illustrated in FIG. 5c, the RRC and PDCP-C portions may be performed by the control plane portion 504, and the SDAP and PDCP-U portions may be performed by the user plane portion 506.

[0052] Some of the functions of the PHY layer in a 5G communication network may include error detection on transport channels and indication to higher layers, FEC encoding / decoding of transport channels, hybrid ARQ soft combining, rate matching of coded transport channels to physical channels, mapping of coded transport channels to physical channels, power weighting of physical channels, modulation and demodulation of physical channels, frequency and time synchronization, radio characteristic measurements and indication to higher layers, MIMO antenna processing, digital and analog beamforming, RF processing, and other functions.

[0053] The MAC sublayer of Layer 2 may perform beam management, random access procedures, mapping between logical channels and transport channels, concatenation of multiple MAC service data units (SDUs) belonging to one logical channel into transport blocks (TBs), multiplexing / demultiplexing of SDUs belonging to logical channels to / from TBs delivered to the physical layer on transport channels, scheduling information reporting, error correction by HARQ, priority handling between logical channels for one UE, priority handling between UEs by dynamic scheduling, transport format selection, and other functions. The functions of the RLC sublayer may include forwarding of upper layer packet data units (PDUs), error correction by ARQ, reordering of data PDUs, duplication and protocol error detection, re-establishment, etc. The PDCP sublayer may be responsible for forwarding of user data, various functions during re-establishment procedures, retransmission of SDUs, discarding SDUs in the uplink, forwarding of control plane data, etc.

[0054] The RRC sublayer of Layer 3 may perform broadcasting of system information to the NAS and AS, establishment, maintenance, and release of RRC connections, security, establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of point-to-point radio bearers, mobility functions, reporting, and other functions.

[0055] III. Carrier configuration and distributed unit monitoring In some implementations, the subject matter of protection relates to performing carrier configuration in a radio access network-enabled radio unit (RU), where one or more distributed units (DUs) may be associated with different carriers and / or different network operators, and the subject matter of protection may be configured to perform monitoring of each such DU and / or its management connections, such that the remote radio units may be configured to determine individual carrier status in the presence of a particular failure of a DU.

[0056] Existing wireless communication systems (such systems and, in particular, their management plane components) do not allow a carrier associated with a radio unit to be independently configured and / or occupied by more than one distributed unit. Furthermore, such systems do not support determining one or more carrier radio frequency (RF) conditions based on supervisory monitoring of each radio unit individually. In particular, existing systems configure the carrier at a remote unit that is remote from one distributed unit and then determine one or more carrier RF conditions based on supervisory monitoring of a remote unit controller session that directly controls the remote units (as opposed to performing such monitoring on a per-carrier basis).

[0057] Furthermore, existing wireless communication systems do not support sharing of a radio unit by multiple distributed units, where each distributed unit may be associated with and / or belong to a different public land mobile network (PLMN) operator, whereas sharing of a radio unit across different PLMN operators may be required for radio access network (RAN) sharing, spectrum sharing and / or network slicing processes.

[0058] Conventional radio units are provided with carrier configuration via a network configuration (NETCONF) management protocol from a radio unit controller (which can be, for example, a distributed unit and / or a service management and orchestration (SMO) function). Typically, the entity that generates the carrier configuration in the radio unit is a distributed unit acting as a NETCONF client. Additionally, existing radio units use a watchdog timer to monitor NETCONF connectivity to NETCONF clients (e.g., one or more distributed units, SMOs, etc.). In this event, the watchdog timer fails and the radio unit performs one of the following processing scenarios: In the first scenario, even after entering the monitoring failure handling mode, there is still at least one active NETCONF session between the radio unit and a NETCONF client that has subscribed to receive monitoring notifications. The radio unit also remains operational and performs one or more periodic call home procedures to a known radio unit controller. In another scenario, after entering the supervisory failure process, the wireless unit ceases all radio transmissions and performs an autonomous reset since there are no ongoing NETCONF sessions between the wireless unit and any NETCONF clients that have subscribed to receive supervisory notifications. In either scenario, when one supervisory timer (first scenario) or all supervisory timers (second scenario) fail, existing communication systems do not provide a structure or operational framework for what processes a distributed unit must next perform for the continued operation of such a system.

[0059] In some implementations, to overcome the above challenges, the protected subject matter may perform one or more configuration methods for configuring one or more radio units to communicate with one or more distributed units, where some carriers may be associated with one distributed unit while other carriers may be associated with another distributed unit. Additionally, the protected subject matter may be configured to perform enhanced access control at the radio units such that a distributed unit may perform configuration and control of only the carriers with which it is associated. Additionally, the radio units may be configured to perform one or more procedures to ensure continuity of communications when a watchdog timer associated with one of the distributed units fails.

[0060] 6 illustrates an exemplary system 600 for performing carrier access configuration and monitoring in a wireless communication system according to some implementations of the subject matter. The system 600 may be a radio access network operating in a wireless communication environment (e.g., 4G, LTE, 5G, etc.). The system 600 may include one or more distributed units (DU1, DU2, ... DUn) 602(a, b, ... n), a service management orchestration (SMO) component 604, and a radio unit (RU) 606.

[0061] The DU 602 may be communicatively coupled to the SMO component 604 and the RU 606. The SMO component 604 may be communicatively coupled to the DU 602 and the RU 606. Two or more DUs 602 may also be communicatively coupled to each other, and one of the DUs 602 (e.g., DU 602a) may implement and / or function as a host distributed unit and / or a primary distributed unit, while one or more other DUs 602 (e.g., DUs 602b,...602n) may implement and / or function as a tenant distributed unit and / or a secondary distributed unit and / or a shared resource operator distributed unit. For the purpose of carrier access control configuration in the RU 606 (e.g., which carriers in the RU 606 are managed by which NETCONF clients (i.e., DUs 602), in some example implementations, one or more DUs 602 may be grouped into one or more groups (e.g., host DUs, tenant DUs, user-specific DUs, etc.). After the distributed units are grouped, a carrier access control configuration procedure may be performed.

[0062] Fig. 7 illustrates an example method 700 for performing a carrier access control configuration procedure according to some implementations of the subject matter. The process 700 may be performed using the system 600 illustrated in Fig. 6. In particular, the process 700 may be performed by the RU 606, the SMO component 604, the host DU 602a, and two tenant DUs 602b and 602c.

[0063] At 702, a physical network function (PNF) procedure may be performed by the RU 606 and the SMO component 604. In particular, the SMO component 604 may perform configuration of the RU 606 with access management (e.g., using ietf-netconf-acm.yang) capabilities, which results in a configuration mapping. One or more NETCONF access control model (NACM) containers may be used to generate the configuration mapping. The NACM containers may be used for configuration between the host DU 602a and the tenant DUs 602b, 602c, etc.

[0064] One or more NACM containers may include an indication of one or more rule lists for configuration of the host DU 602a. The rule list may specify that the DU 602a is the host DU. Additionally, the rules may specify (at 704) write access paths to one or more data nodes (e.g., specified using an Xpath data model) that can point to one or more transmit array carriers (e.g., tx array carriers) and / or receive array carriers (e.g., rx array carriers) of carriers controlled by the host DU 602a.

[0065] Similarly, for configuration of each tenant DU 602b, 602c, etc., one or more NACM containers may include an indication of one or more rule lists that may specify that a particular DU 602b, 602c, etc. is a tenant DU (e.g., each tenant DU may be associated with a particular container and its own set of rules). Similarly, the rules may specify (at 704) write access paths to one or more data nodes (e.g., specified using an Xpath data model) that may point to one or more transmit array carriers (e.g., tx array carriers) and / or receive array carriers (e.g., rx array carriers) of carriers controlled by the respective tenant DU 602b, 602c, etc.

[0066] The SMO component 704 may also send a “NETCONF edit-config client info” message to configure the RU 606 with the configured client (e.g., DU 602) information, which may include various details such as the management plane Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and / or fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) of each of the DUs 602 to which the RU 606 needs to connect.

[0067] After the RU 606 receives this information, it may send a NETCONF CALLHOME message to each of the DUs 602a, 602b, and 602c (and / or any other DUs 602 that may have been configured). In response, each DU 602(a,b,c) may set its respective transmit and receive array carriers and send a carrier setting message to the RU 606.

[0068] Once the carrier configuration by each of the DUs 602 is performed at the RU 606, a NETCONF connectivity monitoring procedure by each of the DUs 602 can be enabled. Figure 8 illustrates an example method 800 for performing monitoring for monitoring failures according to some implementations of the subject matter. The process 800 may be performed by the system 600 illustrated in Figure 6 and may be performed after the configuration procedure illustrated in Figure 7 and described above.

[0069] To enable a monitoring procedure, each DU 602 may subscribe to monitoring notifications, at 802. After subscribing to monitoring notifications, at 804, the RU 606 may activate and / or operate one or more timers (e.g., notification timers, monitoring timers, etc.) for each DU 602.

[0070] A timer may be used to support bidirectional supervision of NETCONF connectivity. The notification timer may use a value that may correspond to a supervision notification period (e.g., a default period of 60 seconds). To use the notification timer, the RU 606 may send one or more supervision notifications to a given NETCONF client (e.g., DU 602) that has subscribed to receive such notifications. The RU 606 may send such supervision notifications when the notification period has elapsed. Receiving the supervision notifications may allow a controller (e.g., processor) component of the RU 606 to determine that the NETCONF connectivity to the RU 606 is functional.

[0071] The watchdog timer may use a value that may correspond to the sum of a watchdog notification period (e.g., a default period of 60 seconds) plus a guard timer expiration period (e.g., a default period of 10 seconds). In this case, the RU 606 may identify one or more watchdog malfunctions when the summation period expires. To avoid the watchdog timer expiring, a NETCONF client (e.g., DU 602) that has subscribed to receive watchdog notifications may repeatedly reset the watchdog timer. Such a watchdog timer reset may be viewed by the RU 606 as an affirmation that the RU 606's NETCONF connectivity to its controller component is considered to be functional.

[0072] In some implementations, the protection may be configured to extend the monitoring failure and termination processes, for example, when the RU 606 does not support sharing of the RU 606 by multiple DUs 602 and / or when a failure occurs in a NETCONF session for a group of NETCONF clients (e.g., DUs 602) other than the host DU 602a and / or any tenant DUs 602b, 602c.

[0073] When a monitoring failure is detected by the RU 606 at 806, the RU 606 may immediately disable the operation of one or more of the above timers at 808 for the corresponding NETCONF session. The RU 606 may then assume that the NETCONF session associated with the failed monitoring is no longer valid. At 810, the RU 606 may terminate the invalid NETCONF session by closing one or more secure shell protocol (SSH) and / or transport layer security (TLS) connections underlying the session. The RU 606 may also initiate execution of a call-home procedure towards the NETCONF client (e.g., DU 602) using a re-call-home-no-ssh-timer to repeat the call-home attempt. The call-home procedure may be repeated by the RU 606 until either a new NETCONF session is established with the original NETCONF client (e.g., DU 602) and / or the original NETCONF client (e.g., DU 602) no longer corresponds to a controller known to the RU 606. This may be done when re-running dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) configuration if the identity of the controller of the RU 606 corresponding to the NETCONF client (e.g., DU 602) is no longer signaled by the DHCP server and / or if the NETCONF client (e.g., DU 602) was previously configured using a configured-client-info container and this configuration has been deleted.

[0074] Furthermore, after entering the monitoring failure procedure, there may still be at least one ongoing and / or active NETCONF session between the RU 606 and a NETCONF client (e.g., DU 602) (which may have subscribed to receive monitoring notifications). In this case, the RU 606 may remain operational and may perform periodic call-home to its known controllers. Alternatively or additionally, after entering the monitoring failure procedure, there may not be an ongoing NETCONF session between the RU 606 and any NETCONF client (e.g., DU 602) (which may have subscribed to receive monitoring notifications). In this case, the RU 606 may cease all radio transmissions and perform an autonomous reset.

[0075] In some implementations, if the RU 606 supports sharing of the RU 606 by multiple DUs 602 and the faulty NETCONF session is associated with the host DU 602a and / or tenant DUs 602b, 602c, etc., after entering the monitoring fault processing, at 812, the RU 606 may stop radio transmission of one or more transmit array carriers and / or receive array carriers (e.g., tx array carrier, rx array carrier) that can be controlled by the faulty DU 602 (e.g., host DU 602a, tenant DU 602b, 602c).

[0076] Thereafter, at 814, the RU 606 may notify the SMO component 604 of the faulty NETCONF session. For example, the notification may be sent using an alarm, which may include one or more identifiers (e.g., fault-id) of the fault, and / or any other trigger, alert, etc.

[0077] At 816, the SMO component 604 may re-provision the RU 606 with the information of the DU 602 included in the configured client (e.g., DU 602) information. After the RU 606 receives the reconfigured configured client information, at 818, the RU 606 may perform a NETCONF call home procedure by sending a NETCONF call home message to the DU 602. At 820, the DU 602 may then reconfigure the transmit array carriers and / or receive array carriers (e.g., tx array carriers and rx array carriers) that can be controlled by the DU 602 using the information in the received message. At 822, the RU 606 may then start RF transmission of the carriers.

[0078] In some implementations, the subject matter may be configured to be embodied in a system 900, as shown in FIG. 9. The system 900 may include one or more of a processor 910, a memory 920, a storage device 930, and an input / output device 940. Each of the components 910, 920, 930, and 940 may be interconnected using a system bus 950. The processor 910 may be configured to process instructions for execution within the system 600. In some implementations, the processor 910 may be a single-threaded processor. In other implementations, the processor 910 may be a multi-threaded processor. The processor 910 may be further configured to process instructions stored in the memory 920 and / or the storage device 930, including receiving and sending information via the input / output device 940. The memory 920 may store information within the system 900. In some implementations, the memory 920 may be a computer-readable medium. In other implementations, the memory 920 may be a volatile memory unit. In still other implementations, the memory 920 may be a non-volatile memory unit. The storage device 930 may be capable of providing mass storage to the system 900. In some implementations, the storage device 930 may be a computer-readable medium. In other implementations, the storage device 930 may be a floppy disk device, a hard disk device, an optical disk device, a tape device, a non-volatile solid-state memory, or any other type of storage device. The input / output device 940 may be configured to provide input / output operations to the system 900. In some implementations, the input / output device 940 may include a keyboard and / or a pointing device. In other implementations, the input / output device 940 may include a display device for displaying a graphical user interface.

[0079] 10 illustrates an exemplary method 1000 for configuring and / or monitoring one or more communication devices (e.g., radio units, distributed units) of a wireless communication system in accordance with some implementations of the subject matter. Method 1000 may be performed using one or more components of the systems illustrated in FIGS. 6-7 that perform one or more functions illustrated in FIG. 8.

[0080] At 1002, a plurality of first communication devices (e.g., DU 602 shown in FIG. 6) may be grouped into a plurality of groups (e.g., host DU 602a, tenant DU 602b...602n, etc.). Each group of the plurality of groups may be associated with a second communication device (e.g., RU 606 shown in FIG. 6) of the wireless communication system. At 1004, a second communication device (e.g., RU 606) may be configured (as described above with respect to FIG. 7) to communicate with one or more groups of the first communication devices (e.g., host DU 602a, tenant DU 602b...602n, etc.). At 1006, one or more communication information may be transmitted in the wireless communication system using the configured second communication device.

[0081] In some implementations, the protected subject matter may include one or more of the following selectable features: Each first communication device of the plurality of first communication devices may be a distributed unit. The second communication device may be a wireless unit.

[0082] In some implementations, one or more of the first communication devices of the plurality of first communication devices may include a first communication device that is a host, and another one or more of the first communication devices of the plurality of first communication devices are first communication devices of a shared resource operator. Each first communication device that is a host of the one or more first communication devices may be grouped into one or more host groups of the plurality of groups. Each first communication device of the shared resource operator of the another one or more first communication devices may be grouped into one or more shared resource operator groups of the plurality of groups.

[0083] In some implementations, the method 1000 may further include detecting a failure of the host first communication device and terminating communication with the failed host first communication device, where the communication may be associated with a default carrier controlled by the failed host first communication device. In some implementations, configuring the second communication device may include reconfiguring to communicate with another group or groups of first communication devices based on the detection of the failure of the host first communication device. The reconfiguring may be performed using a service management orchestration function of the wireless communication system. Additionally, the reconfiguring may be performed in a management plane.

[0084] In some implementations, the method 1000 may also include transmitting a call home command to one or more other groups of first communication devices and receiving one or more carrier configurations from the one or more other groups of first communication devices in response to the call home command. The carrier configuration may be configured by the one or more other groups of first communication devices. The one or more carrier configurations may include at least one of one or more transmit array carrier configurations and one or more receive array carrier configurations. Transmitting the one or more communication information in the wireless communication system may include transmitting the one or more communication information using the one or more carrier configurations.

[0085] In some implementations, at least one of the grouping, configuring, and transmitting may be performed by at least one base station of a wireless communication system. The base station may include at least one of a base station, an eNodeB base station, a gNodeB base station, a radio base station, and any combination thereof. The base station may be a base station operating in at least one of a long term evolution communication system, a new radio communication system, a wireless communication system, and any combination thereof.

[0086] The systems and methods disclosed herein can be implemented in a variety of forms, including, for example, a data processor such as a computer, including a database, digital electronic circuitry, firmware, software, or combinations thereof. Moreover, the above features and other aspects and principles of the implementations of the present disclosure can be implemented in a variety of environments. Such environments and associated applications may be specially constructed to perform the various processes and operations according to the disclosed implementations, or they may include general-purpose computers or computing platforms selectively activated or reconfigured by code to provide the required functionality. The processes disclosed herein are not inherently related to any particular computer, network, architecture, environment, or other apparatus, but may be implemented by any suitable combination of hardware, software, and / or firmware. For example, various general-purpose machines may be used with programs written in accordance with the teachings of the disclosed implementations, or it may be more convenient to construct a specialized apparatus or system to perform the required methods and techniques.

[0087] The systems and methods disclosed herein can be implemented as a computer program product, i.e., a computer program tangibly embodied in an information carrier, e.g., a machine-readable storage device or a propagated signal, for execution by or to control the operation of a data processing apparatus, e.g., a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple computers. The computer program can be written in any type of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and can be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. The computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.

[0088] As used herein, the term "user" may refer to any entity, including a person or a computer.

[0089] Although ordinal numbers such as first, second, etc. may relate to order in some circumstances, as used in this document, ordinal numbers do not necessarily imply order. For example, ordinal numbers may be used simply to distinguish one item from another. For example, distinguishing a first event from a second event need not imply any chronological order or fixed frame of reference (just as a first event in one paragraph of a description may differ from a first event in another paragraph of the description).

[0090] The foregoing description is intended to illustrate, but not to limit, the scope of the invention, which is defined by the appended claims. Other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.

[0091] These computer programs, which may also be referred to as programs, software, software applications, applications, components, or codes, include machine instructions for a programmable processor and may be implemented in a high-level procedural and / or object-oriented programming language and / or in assembly / machine language. As used herein, the term "machine-readable medium" refers to any computer program product, apparatus, and / or device used to provide machine instructions and / or data to a programmable processor, including a machine-readable medium that receives machine instructions as a machine-readable signal, such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, memories, and programmable logic devices (PLDs). The term "machine-readable signal" refers to any signal used to provide machine instructions and / or data to a programmable processor. A machine-readable medium may store such machine instructions non-transitory, such as, for example, a non-transitory solid-state memory or a magnetic hard drive or any equivalent storage medium. A machine-readable medium may alternatively or additionally store such machine instructions temporarily, such as, for example, a processor cache or other random access memory associated with one or more physical processor cores.

[0092] To provide for interaction with a user, the subject matter described herein may be implemented on a computer having a display device, such as, for example, a cathode ray tube (CRT) or liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor, for displaying information to a user, and a keyboard and pointing device, such as, for example, a mouse or trackball, by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other types of devices may also be used to provide interaction with a user. For example, feedback provided to the user may be any form of sensory feedback, such as, for example, visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback, and input from the user may be received in any form, including, but not limited to, acoustic, speech, or tactile input.

[0093] The subject matter described herein may be implemented in a computing system that includes back-end components, such as, for example, one or more data servers, or that includes middleware components, such as, for example, one or more application servers, or that includes front-end components, such as, for example, one or more client computers having a graphical user interface or web browser through which a user can interact with an implementation of the subject matter described herein, or any combination of such back-end, middleware, or front-end components. The components of the system may be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication, such as, for example, a communications network. Examples of communications networks include, but are not limited to, a local area network ("LAN"), a wide area network ("WAN"), and the Internet.

[0094] A computing system may include clients and servers. Clients and servers are generally, but not exclusively, remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network. The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client-server relationship to each other.

[0095] The implementations described in the preceding description do not necessarily represent all implementations consistent with the subject matter described herein. Instead, they are only some examples consistent with aspects related to the subject matter described. Although some variations have been described in detail above, other modifications or additions are possible. In particular, further features and / or variations may be provided in addition to those described herein. For example, the implementations described above may be directed to various combinations and subcombinations of the disclosed features and / or combinations and subcombinations of multiple additional features disclosed above. In addition, the logic flow depicted in the accompanying drawings and / or described herein does not necessarily require the particular order depicted, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. Other implementations may be within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. grouping a plurality of first communication devices into a plurality of groups and associating each group of the plurality of groups with a second communication device of the wireless communication system; configuring the second communication device to communicate with one or more groups of a first communication device; transmitting one or more communication information in the wireless communication system using the configured second communication device; 23. A computer-implemented method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each first communication device of the plurality of first communication devices is a distributed unit.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the second communication device is a wireless unit.

4. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein one or more of the first communication devices of the plurality of first communication devices are first communication devices that are hosts, and another one or more of the first communication devices of the plurality of first communication devices are first communication devices of a shared resource operator.

5. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein each first communication device that is a host of the one or more first communication devices is grouped into one or more host groups of the plurality of groups, and each first communication device that is a shared resource operator of the other one or more first communication devices is grouped into one or more shared resource operator groups of the plurality of groups.

6. Detecting a failure of the first communication device, which is a host; Terminating communication with the faulty host first communication device, the communication being associated with a default carrier controlled by the faulty host first communication device; The method of claim 5 further comprising:

7. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the configuring the second communication device includes reconfiguring the second communication device to communicate with another group of one or more first communication devices based on the detection of the failure of a host first communication device.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the reconfiguring is performed using a service management orchestration function of the wireless communication system.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the reconfiguring is performed in a management plane.

10. sending a call home command to the other one or more groups of first communication devices; receiving one or more carrier settings from the other one or more groups of first communication devices in response to the call home command, the one or more carrier settings being configured by the other one or more groups of first communication devices; The method of claim 7 further comprising:

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more carrier configurations include at least one of one or more transmit array carrier configurations and one or more receive array carrier configurations.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the transmitting the one or more communication information in the wireless communication system comprises transmitting the one or more communication information using the one or more carrier configurations.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the grouping, the configuring, and the transmitting is performed by at least one base station of a wireless communication system.

14. 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the base station comprises at least one of a base station, an eNodeB base station, a gNodeB base station, a radio base station, and any combination thereof.

15. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the base station is a base station operating in at least one of a Long Term Evolution communication system, a New Radio communication system, a wireless communication system, and any combination thereof.

16. At least one processor; at least one non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the operations of any one of claims 1 to 15; An apparatus comprising:

17. At least one non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the operations of any one of claims 1 to 15.

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