Communication system, especially 5G system

Abstract

The present invention relates to a communication system (10), in particular a 5G system, comprising an access network (RAN), at least two end nodes (E1, E2), a first communication subscriber (12), a second communication subscriber (14), a user plane function (UPF), and a function (18), in particular a higher-level control function for operating the communication system (10).

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a communication system, particularly a 5G system.

Background Art

[0002] In wireless networks in industrial or automotive environments, reliability, security, and confidentiality of transmission are essential requirements, and environmental changes usually affect transmission characteristics, so it is necessary to dynamically adapt the network to current dominant conditions. For this reason, technologies such as software-defined network (SDN), time-sensitive networking (TSN), and 5G consider mechanisms that can configure the network based on the communication requirements of the application, current transmission characteristics, and available transmission resources.

[0003] For example, in the latest transmission systems such as 5G networks, mobile terminals can not only communicate with each other via a base station, but also establish a direct link between terminals. This function is called NR side link and was introduced in 3GPP Release 16 with particular emphasis on V2X. In Release 17, extensions were made to enable better resource sharing and high data rates. However, such connections are still adjusted by the base station. This is illustrated in FIG. 1 by way of example.

[0004] Mobile terminals ME1 and ME2, hereinafter referred to as communication subscribers, can communicate with each other via base station 1 and user plane function (UPF) 2, and thus exchange data, or can also communicate with each other via a direct connection 3.

[0005] In addition, since the standardization of TSN and 5G is underway, a mechanism that can integrate 5G into a TSN network is required. In 3GPP TS23.700-20, methods such as how various (TSN) endpoints can communicate with each other via such a logical 5G switch are described. FIG. 2 shows a communication system including UPF2 through which ME1 and ME2 can establish a connection. As can be seen from FIG. 2, it is contemplated that the end nodes E1 and E2 are connected to ME1 and ME2. UPF2 is used for these communications. CUC (Central User Configuration) and CNC (Central Network Configuration) are management functions corresponding to TSN standardization.

Summary of the Invention

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] When used in industrial environments or automotive environments where many applications have strict time constraints, various transmission characteristics such as very short latency, very high availability, and efficient utilization of available resources are particularly important.

[0007] According to the present invention, it is proposed to use additional degrees of freedom to continuously adapt wireless transmission, thereby coping with changing transmission characteristics. In particular, by using the direct connection between communication subscribers in parallel with the conventional connection via the base station and UPF, the reliability of wireless transmission can be improved. Furthermore, an optimization function, which is a component of a higher-level network management instance, can determine which of the direct connection between communication subscribers or the connection via the base station and UPF to use in a specific area of the network.

Advantages of the Invention

[0008] The advantages of this method are as follows. - By pre-activating and using redundant connections and communication paths, fail-safety and availability are improved, - By prioritizing considering other communication subscribers, efficiently allocate transmission resources, - By optimizing transmission performance, use transmission resources more efficiently and reduce interference, - By comparing and selecting parallel communication paths, optimize transmission characteristics (such as latency and bandwidth).

[0009] There is proposed a communication system, particularly a 5G system, comprising at least an access network (RAN), at least one first end node E1, a second end node E2, a first communication subscriber and a second communication subscriber, a user plane function (UPF), and a higher-level control function for operating the communication system.

[0010] Advantageously, the communication system has an optimization function for operating the communication system. Thereby, it can advantageously correspond to the current transmission characteristics in the network, and for example, optimize data transmission by selecting an appropriate communication channel.

[0011] Advantageously, the communication system has two end nodes, and the end nodes are connected to the network via corresponding interfaces provided by the communication system. Here, the first end node communicates with the second end node, and advantageously the connection is established via the communication system.

[0012] It is proposed that the connection via the first communication path is established by direct communication between two communication subscribers and / or the connection via the second communication path is established via a base station and the UPF. Thereby, it can advantageously ensure an improvement in fail-safety and availability.

[0013] When the optimal configurations of communication path 1 and communication path 2 are calculated by the optimization function, an improvement in fail-safety and availability is ensured. The input variables on which the optimization to be performed is based are - Requirements for communication connections between end nodes, and - The limitations or requirements of the set system configuration, and - The distribution and / or location of communication subscribers, and - The availability of communication resources, and - The transmission characteristics along different communication paths, and - The transmission statistics of individual connections, and is proposed to include at least one of the parameters of.

[0014] Advantageously, when it is detected that the transmission via communication path 1 is successful, before the second data packet is transmitted via communication path 2, the second data packet is discarded. Thereby, it is advantageously guaranteed that the available communication resources are efficiently allocated and used.

[0015] The optimization function compares the transmission characteristics of communication path 1 and communication path 2. Based on the current transmission characteristics of the two communication paths, transmission characteristics such as latency, reliability, and data rate can be advantageously optimized by selective transmission via one or two communication paths.

[0016] In a further embodiment, the communication system has a controller, and the controller has a monitoring function for collecting information provided by the communication system. Advantageously, the controller has a requirements database, and the requirements are stored in the requirements database.

[0017] For example, in a 3GPP 5G system, the controller is part of the 5G system and obtains requirements via available interfaces such as the Application Function (AF). In a further embodiment, the controller may be external to the 5G system. The transmission characteristics of the relevant communication paths are provided to the controller, for example, by the Network Exposure Function (NEF). The results of the optimization need to be transferred to the 5G system, for example, via the AF.

[0018] The monitoring function and the requirements database provide input variables in at least one form of information to the optimization logic. Advantageously, the optimization logic calculates the best possible combination of communication via a first communication path by direct communication between two communication subscribers or communication via a second communication path via a base station and a UPF.

[0019] Furthermore, a method for monitoring a communication system, comprising at least - a step of monitoring the communication system by a controller, the controller continuously collecting information about the communication system and information about possible changes, such as changes in transmission characteristics; - a step of the controller checking requirements and limitations in the communication system and possible changes to the requirements and limitations; - a step of calculating an appropriate solution by the optimization logic when a relevant change or adaptation is made, the optimization function transferring the result to the communication system if the current configuration needs to be adapted, (if no adaptation is required, the monitoring of the communication system continues without further measures); - a step of adapting the communication system according to the result of the previous step; is proposed.

[0020] For further advantages, reference is made to the description of the figures.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0021]

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Embodiments for Carrying Out the Invention

[0022] The same reference numerals are used for identical components in different embodiments. FIG. 3 schematically shows a communication system 10. The communication system 10 is configured as a wireless network, particularly a 5G system.

[0023] Exemplarily, the communication system 10 includes a Radio Access Network (RAN), two end nodes E1, E2, a first communication subscriber 12, a second communication subscriber 14, a User Plane Function (UPF), and a function 18 for operating the communication system 10, particularly a higher-level control function.

[0024] The control function 18 is the totality of functions for controlling or regulating data transmission. For example, the control function regulates data transmission with respect to data rate and latency requirements. Further, the communication system 10 includes an optimization function 20 for operating the communication system 10. The optimization function 20 may be a component of a further management and control instance. The optimization function complements the existing functions of the control function.

[0025] The communication system 10 may have characteristics as a logical Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) switch. In this case, the end nodes E1, E2 are connected to the network via corresponding interfaces provided by the communication system.

[0026] This has the advantages that - end-to-end latency is more predictable, - latency variations are more restricted, - packet loss is less, - availability is higher, among others.

[0027] In the case of industrial use, the communication subscribers and end nodes may be, for example, components of mobile devices, mobile control units, or operation panels, or may correspond to infrastructure components. However, the communication subscribers and end nodes may be integrated into different physical components.

[0028] According to the present invention, a first end node E1 communicates with a second end node E2. Here, the connection is established via a communication system 10. Here, specific characteristics such as, for example, a low packet loss rate, high bandwidth, or latency are required for the connection.

[0029] According to the present invention, it is contemplated that a connection via a first communication path (communication path 1) is established by direct communication between two communication subscribers 12, 14, and a connection via a second communication path (communication path 2) is established via a UPF. In this case, there may be fluctuations in the transmission characteristics. It can be assumed that the communication system 10 detects the minimum required transmission characteristics.

[0030] When 5G is integrated into a TSN system, the management functions CUC, CNC provide the minimum required transmission characteristics. For example, the 5G system obtains information via a TSN application function (TSN AF) or network exposure function (NEF) defined by 3GPP. Alternatively, it is also conceivable that the requirements of the end nodes are manually set by the system administrator.

[0031] Based on the available context information and requirements, an optimization function calculates the optimal configuration of communication path 1 and communication path 2. The input variables on which the optimization to be performed is based are known or measured. These are - Requirements for communication connections between end nodes, - Limitations or requirements of the manually set system configuration, - Distribution and / or location of communication subscribers, - Availability of communication resources, - Transmission characteristics along different communication paths, - Transmission statistics of individual connections, are conceivable, but the listed ones do not have to be complete.

[0032] The purpose of optimization is, - To improve fail-safety and availability through redundancy, - To efficiently allocate transmission resources by jointly considering and prioritizing communication subscribers, - To more efficiently use transmission resources by optimizing transmission performance, - To optimize transmission characteristics such as latency and bandwidth through parallel communication paths, are conceivable, but the listed ones do not have to be complete.

[0033] For example, efficient allocation and use of available communication resources is one of the goals. Here, it is necessary to distinguish between two use cases. a) For direct communication between two communication subscribers 12, 14, the same resource pool is used in the case of a direct connection similar to communication path 1 as well as in the case of a connection via a UPF similar to communication path 2. The allocation of the transmission capacity from the common resource pool of communication paths 1, 2 is planned and adjusted by the optimization function 20. If the optimization logic is inside the 3GPP system and can access the RAN, it can directly plan and appropriately allocate the resources of the radio cell. If the optimization logic is outside the 3GPP system, a corresponding interface is required to influence the RAN during resource planning. For example, a communication service can be reserved via a corresponding communication path with dedicated requirements. If the service cannot be realized according to the requirements, the 3GPP system provides an alarm notification via the NEF, followed by the optimization logic being able to perform communication path adaptation or selection. The advantage of direct communication between two communication subscribers 12, 14 is that the transmission distance is short. This can suppress the transmission performance and thus the risk of failure / interference.

[0034] b) A dedicated resource pool is used for direct communication between two communication subscribers 12, 14. The connection between communication subscribers in a narrow space is characterized by mutual interference. Depending on the position and distribution of the communication subscribers, it may be beneficial to use communication path 2 instead of communication path 1. This method conforms to the 5G standard where dedicated channels such as the Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSC) and Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCC) are available. This invention differs from the standard in that there is optimization logic that affects the selection of the communication path to be used.

[0035] Another objective is to perform highly reliable transmission (e.g., by utilizing redundancy) while saving transmission resources. However, since the communication system is designed to continuously have redundancy, resource consumption may be disadvantageous. The simplest case of redundant design is when data packets are doubly transmitted via both communication paths 1 and 2. This corresponds to the Packet Duplication (PD) method defined in conjunction with Dual Connectivity (DC) for Release 16 of Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) applications. Here, simultaneous transmission via two 5G NR connections is utilized to improve reliability. This invention intends to extend this method to NR+D2D connections.

[0036] According to the present invention, various methods can be applied to reduce resource consumption. For example, data packets transmitted via the first communication path (communication path 1) usually have a shorter latency than data packets transmitted via the second communication path (communication path 2). When it is detected that the transmission via communication path 1 has been successful, the second redundant packet can be discarded before the second redundant data packet is transmitted from the UPF to the receiver via communication path 2. Thereby, the saved transmission resources can be utilized for other subscribers in the network.

[0037] Here, the success of data transmission - Transmit data packets from the first communication subscriber 12 to the second communication subscriber 14 via communication path 1, - Simultaneously transmit data packets from the first communication subscriber 12 to the second communication subscriber 14 via communication path 2, - If the reception of the data packet is successful, the second communication subscriber 14 transmits information to the RAN or UPF, - Based on the information received by the RAN or UPF from the communication subscriber 14, prevent the RAN or UPF from forwarding the second redundant data packet to the communication subscriber 14, which is detected by.

[0038] The information of the second communication subscriber 14 transmitted to the RAN and / or UPF before the transfer of the second data packet is - The data transmission via communication path 1 and the transmission of information from the communication subscriber 14 to the RAN / UPF are shorter overall than the data transmission from the communication subscriber 12 to the RAN / UPF, - The data transmission via communication path 1 and, in the reverse direction of communication path 1, and further the transmission of information from the communication subscriber 12 to the RAN / UPF are shorter overall than the data transmission from the communication subscriber 12 to the RAN / UPF, which can be received by.

[0039] As another option, there is a method of adding redundancy only to data packets important to the application. If the optimization function 20 can use at least one transmission statistic of at least one connection as an input variable, the redundancy can be determined by evaluating the statistic. If a particular connection is prone to packet loss, redundant transmission can be prepared in advance via communication path 1 and communication path 2. That is, the simultaneous use of communication path 1 and communication path 2 can be designed, or the communication path can be dynamically switched according to the current transmission characteristics. Also, dynamic redundancy that starts or stops redundant transmission via two communication paths can be applied according to the current state of the application. The requirements regarding redundancy can be set in, for example, a requirements database.

[0040] To optimize transmission characteristics such as latency, reliability, and data rate, the optimization function 20 compares the transmission characteristics of communication path 1 and communication path 2. When the quality of the mobile radio channel changes, one of the communication paths may not be able to meet the application requirements such as latency, reliability, and data rate for the communication system. In such a case, it is possible to switch to the other communication path. For example, since the quality of the radio channel of communication path 1 is poor, it cannot meet the requirements of latency, reliability, and / or data rate. In this case, it can be switched to communication path 2.

[0041] Also, in order to meet different latency requirements of applications, it is also conceivable to switch communication paths. For example, when an application permits only approximately one retransmission within the delay budget, a high priority is given to communication path 1 when a packet loss occurs, and retransmission can be performed. Since communication path 1 has significantly less latency than communication path 2, the probability of successful packet transmission within the delay budget can be increased.

[0042] It is conceivable that switching of communication paths or addition of communication paths is performed according to the transmission quality. When the transmission quality of a communication path falls below a non-critical threshold, an additional communication path is added or an alternative communication path is selected.

[0043] FIG. 4 schematically shows an extension of the communication system. The system includes a communication system 10 and at least one controller 30. The controller 30 can be realized as a component of the 5G management system or as a separate component.

[0044] The controller 30 has a monitoring function 32. The monitoring function 32 collects the information provided by the communication system 10. Furthermore, data from the peripheral sensor system 34 is also collected. This data includes information regarding the current state and predicted state of the communication system 10, as well as system-related statistical information. The controller 30 further has a requirement database 36. The set requirements are stored in the requirement database 36.

[0045] The monitoring function 32 and the requirement database 36 provide input variables to the optimization function 20 in at least one information format. Based on this, the optimization function 20 calculates the best possible combination of communication via the first communication path (communication path 1) by direct communication between the two communication subscribers 12, 14, or communication via the second communication path (communication path 2) via the base station and the UPF.

[0046] The optimization can be supported by an algorithm based on Kl. The result of the optimization function 20 is transferred to the communication system 10 that manages the transmission resources. Figure 5 shows at least - a step of monitoring the communication system 10 by the controller 30, in which the controller 30 continuously collects information regarding the communication system 10 and possible changes (step 100), - a step of the controller 30 verifying the requirements and limitations in the communication system 10, as well as possible changes to the requirements and limitations (step 110), - a step of calculating an appropriate solution by the optimization logic when a relevant change or adaptation is made (120), (if the current configuration needs to be adapted, the function transfers the result to the communication system 10, and if no adaptation is required, the monitoring of the communication system continues without further measures), - a step of adapting the communication system according to the result of the previous step (130), and schematically shows a method including these steps.

Claims

1. A communication system (10), particularly a 5G system, comprising an access network (RAN), at least two end nodes (E1, E2), a first communication subscriber (12), a second communication subscriber (14), a user plane function (UPF), and a function (18), particularly a higher-level control function for operating the communication system (10).

2. The communication system (10) according to claim 1, wherein the communication system (10) includes an optimization function (20) for operating the communication system (10).

3. The communication system (10) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first end node E1 communicates with the second end node E2, and a connection is established via the communication system (10).

4. The communication system (10) according to claim 3, wherein a connection via a first communication path (communication path 1) is established by direct communication between the two communication subscribers (12, 14).

5. The communication system (10) according to claim 3, wherein a connection via a second communication path (communication path 2) is established via the UPF.

6. The communication system (10) according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein an optimal configuration of communication path 1 and communication path 2 is calculated by the optimization function and is continuously adapted to the current system state.

7. The input variables on which the optimization to be performed is based are - requirements for communication connections between the end nodes, - limitations or requirements of the set system configuration, - distribution and / or location of the communication subscribers, - availability of communication resources, - transmission characteristics along different communication paths, - transmission statistics of individual connections, and the communication system (10) according to claim 6 includes at least one of the parameters of.

8. When it is detected that the transmission via communication path 1 is successful, the second data packet is discarded before being transferred by the UPF via communication path 2, in the communication system (10) according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. - Transmitting a data packet from the first communication subscriber (12) to the second communication subscriber (14) via communication path 1, - Simultaneously transmitting the data packet from the first communication subscriber (12) to the second communication subscriber (14) via communication path 2, - When the reception of the data packet is successful, the second communication subscriber (14) transmits information to the RAN or the UPF. - Based on the information received by the RAN or the UPF from the communication subscriber 14, the RAN and / or the UPF are prevented from transferring the second redundant data packet to the communication subscriber 14. The communication system (10) according to claim 8, wherein the success of data transmission is detected thereby.

10. The information of the second communication subscriber 14 transmitted to the RAN and / or the UPF before the transfer of the second data packet is - The data is transmitted via communication path 1, and the transmission of the information is from the communication subscriber 14 to the RAN and / or the UPF. - The data is transmitted via communication path 1, and the transmission of the information is in the reverse direction of the communication path 1 and further from the communication subscriber 12 to the RAN and / or the UPF. The communication system (10) according to any one of claims 1 to 9, which can be received thereby.

11. The communication system (10) according to any one of claims 2 to 10, wherein the optimization function (20) compares the transmission characteristics of communication path 1 and communication path 2 in order to optimize transmission characteristics such as latency, reliability, or data rate.

12. A communication system (10) comprising at least one controller 30, the controller (30) having a monitoring function (32) for collecting information provided by the communication system (10).

13. The communication system (10) according to claim 12, wherein the controller (30) has a requirement database (36), and the set requirements are stored in the requirement database (36).

14. The communication system (10) according to claim 12, wherein the monitoring function (32) and the requirement database (36) provide input variables to the optimization function (20) in at least one information format.

15. The optimization logic (38) calculates the best possible combination of communication via the first communication path (communication path 1) by direct communication between the two communication subscribers (12, 14) or communication via the second communication path (communication path 2) via the UPF. The communication system (10) according to claim 12.

16. A monitoring method for a communication system (10), comprising at least - A step of monitoring the communication system 10 by the controller 30, wherein the controller 30 continuously collects information on the communication system 10 and possible changes; - A step of the controller (30) checking requirements and restrictions in the communication system (10), as well as possible changes to the requirements and restrictions; - A step of calculating an appropriate solution by the optimization logic when a related change or adaptation is made; - A step of adapting the communication system (10) according to the result of the previous step; A method comprising the above steps.

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