Sixth Generation (6G) System Architecture and Functions

Abstract

Various embodiments herein provide techniques related to sixth generation (6G) system architectures and capabilities. For example, embodiments may relate to one or more of: design principles and system architectures; orchestrating front-end services; dynamic device-network computing scaling; RDMA over radio; cloud workload offload to the network; computing embedded air interfaces; service chain aware transport; and / or enabling AI capabilities. Other embodiments may be described and / or claimed.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] [CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 220,791, filed July 12, 2021.

[0002] Various embodiments may relate generally to the field of wireless communications. For example, some embodiments may relate to sixth generation (6G) system architectures and functionality. [Background technology]

[0003] Various embodiments may relate generally to the field of wireless communications. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0004] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like components, and in which: FIG. [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary high-level diagram of a system architecture according to various embodiments.

[0005] [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 illustrates an example scheme for accessing computing resources / services hosted in a data center.

[0006] [Diagram 3] FIG. 1 illustrates an example scheme for accessing computing resources / services hosted at a cloud center and a cloud edge.

[0007] [Figure 4]FIG. 1 illustrates an example front-end service in a network for computing resource / service discovery and association across cloud centers, cloud edges, and network edges, according to various embodiments.

[0008] [Diagram 5] FIG. 1 illustrates an example procedure for providing front-end services in a network, according to various embodiments.

[0009] [Figure 6] FIG. 1 illustrates an example “Computing as a Service” approach for device-network (NW) computing scaling, according to various embodiments.

[0010] [Figure 7] FIG. 1 illustrates an example “computing as resource” approach for device-NW computing scaling according to various embodiments.

[0011] [Figure 8] FIG. 1 illustrates an example procedure associated with a “Compute as a Service” approach for user equipment (UE)-NW computing scaling, according to various embodiments.

[0012] [Figure 9] FIG. 1 illustrates an example procedure associated with a “Compute as Resource” approach for UE-NW computing scaling, according to various embodiments.

[0013] [Figure 10] FIG. 1 illustrates an example remote direct memory access (RDMA) over Radio scenario, according to various embodiments.

[0014] [Figure 11]FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative example RDMA over Radio scenario according to various embodiments.

[0015] [Figure 12A] 11 illustrates an example User Plane (UP) and Control Plane (CP) protocol stack for the example RDMA over Radio scenario of FIG. 10, according to various embodiments. [Figure 12B] 11 illustrates an example User Plane (UP) and Control Plane (CP) protocol stack for the example RDMA over Radio scenario of FIG. 10, according to various embodiments.

[0016] [Figure 13A] 12 illustrates an example UP and CP protocol stack for the example RDMA over Radio scenario of FIG. 11, according to various embodiments. [Figure 13B] 12 illustrates an example UP and CP protocol stack for the example RDMA over Radio scenario of FIG. 11, according to various embodiments.

[0017] [Figure 14] FIG. 1 illustrates an example procedure for cloud workload offloading and data pre-processing.

[0018] [Figure 15] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a service chain aware transport according to various embodiments.

[0019] [Figure 16] FIG. 1 illustrates an example procedure for enabling artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) assisted radio access network (RAN) operation, according to various embodiments.

[0020] [Figure 17] FIG. 1 illustrates an example procedure for distributed machine learning between a UE and a network, according to various embodiments.

[0021] [Figure 18] FIG. 1 illustrates an example technique, according to various embodiments herein.

[0022] [Figure 19] FIG. 1 illustrates an alternative example technique, according to various embodiments herein.

[0023] [Figure 20] FIG. 1 illustrates an alternative example technique, according to various embodiments herein.

[0024] [Figure 21] FIG. 1 illustrates an alternative example technique, according to various embodiments herein.

[0025] [Figure 22] FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a wireless network, according to various embodiments.

[0026] [Diagram 23] FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of components of a wireless network, according to various embodiments.

[0027] [Figure 24] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0028] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth, such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of the various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For purposes of this document, the phrases "A or B" and "A / B" mean (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0029] With evolving trends for data, applications, computing and communications, it may be desirable to address one or more of the following questions: How to further reduce latency How to distribute and chain up data processing pipelines across devices, networks and clouds How to enable data sharing across security domains How to enable distributed computing on a large scale How to dynamically scale out computing for a user equipment (UE) How to leverage artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) for networks and air interfaces · How to cost-effectively address diverse vertical requirements. To address those gaps, network systems such as sixth generation (6G) systems may provide or involve one or more of the following: · An order of magnitude improvement to air interface and network performance. Example performance metrics may include or relate to: peak data rate, area throughput, latency, jitter, energy consumption, etc. Communications for computing, e.g., by enabling distributed computing and intelligence on a massive scale and / or enabling dynamic device-network / cloud computing scaling out Computing for communications, e.g., by using AI / ML for network air interfaces and / or wired communications Cloud-native networks, such as those that include or use disaggregated and configurable network functions and services or that provide native support for computing and data services. Sustainability and resilience. For example, 6G systems may include features to reduce energy consumption and / or achieve carbon neutrality. Security, Privacy and Data Integrity Various embodiments herein describe system architectures and key functions for achieving 6G design goals. Specifically, various embodiments provide 6G system architectures and service functions. In some embodiments, the system architecture includes one or more of a computational service plane function, a communication service plane function, a data service plane function, and a service orchestration and chaining function. The service functions may include one or more of: orchestration front-end services, dynamic device-network computing scaling, RDMA over radio, cloud workload offload, computing embedded air interface, service chain aware transport, and AI functions. 1. Design Principles and System Architecture One or more of the following principles may be applied in the 6G system design embodiments described herein: ·Introducing three service planes: compute plane, data plane and communication plane to provide computing, data and communication services respectively. ·Introduces three functional planes: Control Plane (CP), User Plane (UP), and Management Plane (MP) to provide control, user, and management functions respectively. Each of the compute plane, data plane, and communication plane may have corresponding control plane functions, user plane functions, and management plane functions. Services provided by the service plane may be achieved via CP functions, UP functions, and MP functions. The CP and UP functions may be operated with a clear functional division, which may allow the CP and UP functions to be scaled independently. · Uses a service-based interface (SBI) to connect CP functions and some UP functions. · Uses dedicated high-speed transport to connect UP functions. Use CP functions to discover / authorize computing resources / services, chain up and configure computing and data service paths and functions, authorize access, etc. · Keeping data in the UP facility and allowing direct data access via configured data access paths, which may reduce or minimize data movement. Use the control plane to deploy / onboard new services, provision for new services, monitor performance, manage system faults, and optimize system performance.

[0030] FIG. 1 illustrates an example high-level view of a system architecture according to various embodiments. In particular, the system architecture illustrated in FIG. 1 provides a high-level representation of design principles. Various functions in the system architecture of FIG. 1 may be as follows: Compute Control Function (Comp CF) and Compute Service Function (Comp SF) are part of the compute plane. Comp CF is a CP function that may provide functions such as exposing compute services to devices and other system functions, compute service request admission control and service establishment, identifying and allocating Comp SFs for computing service requests, controlling and configuring Comp SFs, maintaining compute service context and status, managing security of compute services such as allocating / maintaining / updating / deleting security keys, memory access keys, managing compute sessions, and coordinating communication and compute planes that may be associated with different network slices. Comp SF is a UP function and is a gateway for devices and other system functions to access computing services and resources. Functions of Comp SF may include: parsing compute service requests, directing requests to corresponding computing service endpoints, generating service request responses, generating billing data, reporting compute service status, etc. · Data Control Function (Data CF) and Data Service Function (Data SF) may be considered as part of the data plane. Data CF is a CP function that may provide functions such as: exposing data services to devices and other system functions, data service request admission control and service establishment, identifying and allocating Data SFs for data service requests, controlling and configuring Data SFs, maintaining data service context and status, etc. Data SF is a UP function that may provide functions such as: parsing data service requests, directing requests to corresponding data service endpoints, generating service request responses, generating billing data, reporting data service status, etc. ·Comm Control Function (Comm CF), Communication Service Function (Comm SF), Central Unit Control Plane (CU-CP), Central Unit User Plane (CU-UP) and Distributed Unit (DU) are part of the communication plane. Specifically, CU-CP, CU-UP and DU are part of the Radio Access Network (RAN). The RAN functions provide protocols and services that support computing and data plane services as well as traditional communication plane protocols and services. Comm CF and Comm SF are part of the Core Network (CN) and provide CP and UP functions for data transport in the CN. To support computing and data plane services, service aware transport may be enabled in the Comm CF and Comm SF. A Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF) can discover and chain up services offered by functions in the network. A service pipeline is created by the chaining of services. Workload processing and data movement can then take place within the service pipeline. Further service-specific CP functions can be defined to provide compute plane, data plane or communication plane services. Examples of such CP functions include: network intelligent control function, data ledger control function, etc. The functions depicted in the system architecture may be considered to be logical functions. One or more instances of these functions may be instantiated at deployment time. 2. Service Functions Feature #1: Orchestration front-end services One factor associated with distributing computing from cloud centers to cloud edges and then to network edges is computing resource / service discovery and association. In this scheme, computing resource / service discovery and organization can be managed at the cloud center. Figures 2 and 3 show example schemes for accessing computing resources / services hosted at data centers and computing services / resources hosted at distributed locations, respectively. Specifically, Figure 2 shows an example scheme for accessing computing resources / services hosted at data centers. Figure 3 shows an example scheme for accessing computing resources / services hosted at cloud centers and cloud edges.

[0031] The schemes of Figures 2 and 3 related to distributed computing resource / service access may be considered as an extension of traditional data center service access approaches. A front-end function located in the data center (which receives and parses computing service requests and selects an appropriate back-end to serve the request) may manage access to all computing resources and services, both locally at the cloud center and remotely at the distributed computing locations. The network may generally provide service-agnostic connectivity. The scheme may work when the distributed computing locations are at a small number of regional cloud edge locations. However, with the situation where computing resources are to be further distributed to the network (RAN) edge, e.g., multiple base stations and wireless access points, the central access management scheme may suffer from scalability and performance issues. This issue may become even more complex when computing resources belong to different cloud service providers (CSPs) and communication service providers (CoSPs).

[0032] To address these issues, a network can provide front-end services to enable computing service and resource discovery and association across cloud centers, cloud edges, and network edges, as shown in Figure 4. In particular, Figure 4 illustrates example front-end services in a network for computing resource / service discovery and association across cloud centers, cloud edges, and network edges, according to various embodiments.

[0033] In-network front-end services may be part of the services provided by the SOCF. Figure 5 illustrates one example procedure. In particular, Figure 5 illustrates an example procedure for providing front-end services in a network, according to various embodiments.

[0034] In this procedure, upon receiving a service request, SOCF discovers available services in the network and in the cloud. Computing and data services offered by the network can be discovered from Comp CF and Data CF. Computing and data services offered by the cloud are registered in a cloud service registry function in the network. Once the endpoints for the requested service (either offered by services instantiated in Comp SF and / or Data SF in the network or by services instantiated in the cloud edge / center) are identified, SOCF responds to the service request with information on the service endpoints. In the example in FIG. 5, the service endpoints are in the cloud, and therefore the service transport is established between the device and the cloud through the Comm SF as a gateway.

[0035] Feature #2: Dynamic Device-Network Computing Scaling To scale out device computing, legacy systems may use client-server applications where the workload is pre-split into client-side and server-side applications during the application development phase. The scheme may be application dependent and the workload partition between device and cloud may be fixed. For dynamic workload migration between device and network / cloud, one or more of the following may apply: There may be no prior knowledge of dynamic computing resource availability when the target application is developed. The device runtime / operating system (OS) may not have full visibility into available computing resources · Network / cloud job schedulers may not have full visibility into device computing resources and workloads. To address the first problem, dynamic workload migration may be designed as a platform feature that either provides an application programming interface (API) for applications or is completely transparent to applications. To address the second and third problems, information exchange about computing resources / services between devices and networks may be supported.

[0036] Based on the above considerations, embodiments herein may relate to at least one of the following two approaches designed to achieve dynamic device-network computing scaling.

[0037] In the first approach, computing scaling may be done at the service level (e.g., Compute as a Service). The network computing plane provides computing services to the mobile device. A client computing service function is deployed on the mobile device side to interact with the Comp CF and Comp SF in the network for computing services. The client computing service function runs as part of the OS or as a platform application running on top of the OS.

[0038] In the second approach, computing scaling is performed at the resource level below the OS (e.g., Compute-as-Resource). The air interface is responsible for discovering and scheduling computing resources. A computing resource control and scheduling entity is introduced in the air interface for this purpose. Among the scheduled remote computing units (e.g., AP or XPU in the mobile device and XPU or accelerator in the network), a remote computing resource engine is implemented in each of the computing units for these remote computing resources to exchange computing instructions and messages. Figures 6 and 7 show functional blocks of the "Computing-as-Service" approach and the "Computing-as-Resource" approach. Specifically, Figure 6 shows an example "Computing-as-Service" approach for device-NW computing scaling, according to various embodiments. Figure 7 shows an example "Computing-as-Resource" approach for device-NW computing scaling, according to various embodiments. It should be noted that in some embodiments, both of these approaches may coexist in a system, with each approach being applicable for a different set of scenarios and requirements.

[0039] 8 illustrates example procedures associated with a "Compute as a Service" approach for UE-NW computing scaling, in accordance with various embodiments.

[0040] It can be seen that in the "Compute as Service" approach, the RAN may be responsible for forwarding the UE's computing service requests to the SOCF and establishing appropriate connectivity between the mobile device and the assigned Comp SF (e.g., establishing a dedicated radio bearer between the UE and the RAN and a transport link between the RAN and the Comp SF). Computation service discovery and service endpoint selection may be initiated by the SOCF, e.g., the SOCF searches for a computation service and selects a serving Comp CF, which in turn selects a serving Comp SF. With the established communication link between the selected serving Comp SF and the UE and Comp SF, messages between the client computation service function (CCSF) and the Comp SF can then be transported. The CCSF acts as a UE platform runtime that schedules local and remote service execution. The CCSF interacts with the local OS and the Comp SF to obtain information about computing services and functions in the UE and the network, respectively. During application execution, the application submits a service request to the CCSF. The CCSF may then determine in real time whether the service request can be fulfilled in the UE or needs to be fulfilled in the network. If the service request needs to be fulfilled in the network, the CCSF converts the service request into a remote service request invocation and sends it to the Comp SF for processing.

[0041] 9 illustrates example procedures associated with a "Compute as Resource" approach for UE-NW computing scaling, in accordance with various embodiments.

[0042] In this approach, the UE's computing resource requests are terminated in the RAN, which is responsible for interpreting the computing resource requests, acquiring and allocating computing resources for the UE, and establishing radio bearers for transporting messages between a remote computing resource engine in the UE and a remote computing resource engine in an allocated computing device in the network.

[0043] Feature #3: RDMA over radio One example of UE-NW computing scaling is to enable remote direct memory access (RDMA) between the UE and the NW. RDMA can enable direct data placement in application memory buffers of the remote computing device. It can further enable bypassing the operating system and eliminating the overhead of data copying between kernel space memory buffers and user space memory buffers, the overhead of user / kernel context switches, and the overhead of interrupts. CPU cycles may be freed up to handle other tasks. Therefore, for UE-NW computing scaling, it may be worthwhile to exploit the potential of enabling RDMA over Radio to enable direct memory access between UEs and computing devices in the network.

[0044] Figures 10 and 11 show two scenarios for RDMA over Radio. Specifically, Figure 10 shows an example remote direct memory access (RDMA) over Radio scenario, according to various embodiments. Figure 11 shows an alternative example RDMA over Radio scenario, according to various embodiments.

[0045] In a first scenario (e.g., FIG. 10), an RDMA queue pair (QP) is established between a computing device (e.g., application processor, other processing unit, etc.) in the UE and a network computing device that connects to the RAN unit via Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe). In some embodiments, additional protocols such as Compute Express Link (CXL) may run on top of these connections. The RAN serves as a network I / O device for the computing device in the network. In a second scenario (e.g., FIG. 11), an RDMA queue pair is established between a computing device (e.g., application processor, other processing unit, etc.) in the UE and a network computing device that connects to the RAN unit via Ethernet. The RAN routes the packet to a rNIC that serves as a network I / O device for the computing device. For both scenarios, the computing device distribution can follow a scheme as described in function #2 (e.g., dynamic device-network computing scaling described above).

[0046] To enable RDMA over Radio, it may be desirable to map RDMA protocol fields to radio layer protocol fields. More specifically, one or more of the following may be addressed or involved: 1) QP Establishment. The RDMA Connection Manager (CM) may rely on out-of-band signaling for QP establishment. In the case of RDMA over radio, out-of-band signaling over the radio may be defined to support RDMA QP establishment. 2) Flow Control and Rate Adaptation: Since RDMA is implemented entirely in network interface controllers (NICs) (e.g., wireless modems, RDMA-capable NICs (rNICs)), minimizing memory footprint may be a design consideration. Thus, the radio link layer may closely manage over-the-air transmission data rates to match the RDMA layer processing speed and minimize out-of-order packet delivery. 3) RDMA Message Transportation: RDMA messages include RDMA control messages and data transfer messages. A radio link may define appropriate radio bearers to carry these RDMA messages.

[0047] For the first element, QP establishment, the RDMA CM message for QP establishment can be carried via wireless CP signaling between the UE and the network. The wireless interface module can then map the RDMA CM message to the appropriate control signal transport path toward the computing host device where the RDMA CM is located. For scenario 1 in FIG. 10, the control signal transport portion between the wireless interface module and the computing host device is via PCIe on both the UE side and the network side. For scenario 2 in FIG. 11, the control signal transport portion between the wireless interface module and the computing host device is via PCIe and Ethernet on the network side. Note that the RDMA CM endpoint can be in the host CPU (as shown in these figures) or offloaded to the wireless modem.

[0048] For the second and third elements (e.g., flow control and rate adaptation, and RDMA message transportation), the RDMA message transportation may be over UP radio bearers. The MAC layer may be aware of the logical channels that carry the RDMA message transport and perform flow control and rate adaptation accordingly. The RDMA control protocols that handle traffic monitoring, rate adaptation, congestion control, etc. at the RDMA layer may be extended to achieve end-to-end flow control. This extension may be desirable, for example, when the transport network for RDMA messages has multiple hops, as in the case of scenario 2 in FIG. 11.

[0049] Figures 12A, 12B, 13A, and 13B show the CP and UP protocol stacks for Scenario 1 and Scenario 2, respectively. The main difference between the scenarios in Figures 12A, 12B, 13A, and 13B is that on the network side, the transport path in Scenario 2 has an additional hop of network transport. The interface between the air interface module and the computing host device / RDMA endpoint device may be based on a proprietary implementation in some embodiments.

[0050] Feature #4: Offload cloud workloads to the network In addition to offloading UE computing to network elements, the cloud can also offload computing to one or more network elements (e.g., 5GS or 5GC elements) to meet service requirements. Also, for implementations related to large amounts of data and data privacy considerations, some pre-processing can be done in the network before sending the data to the network. Figure 14 shows an example procedure for cloud application workload offloading and data pre-processing. In the example procedure, a cloud application interacts with a service exposure function (SEF) of the 6G system to inquire about system services and request services. The SEF can act as a bridge between the 6G system and external systems. If the 6G system can provide the requested cloud application workload offloading or data pre-processing service, the requested application service may be registered in a service registry and notified to the SOCF. The corresponding authorization and policy settings may be recorded in the authorization function. The SOCF can then select an appropriate Comp SF / Data SF, deploy the application service instance, and send the updated service chain information to the RAN CP and Comp SF, which then update the RAN UP and Comp SF via the associated routing path according to the updated service chain. Subsequent downlink or uplink traffic associated with the application can then follow the processing pipeline in the updated service chain.

[0051] Feature #5: Computing Embedded Air Interface From the discussion in the previous subsection, it may be noted that one or more of the following features may be enabled in the air interface to support computing / data services and resources: Signaling for computing / data services and resource discovery. Information about computing / data services and resources provided by the 6G system can be incorporated into system information signaling in the air interface. System information can be broadcast to the UE or provided on demand. Signaling for Compute / Data Service Establishment. In the service establishment stage, the UE's service compute / data initial service request may be carried in CP signaling over the air interface. The RAN may receive the CP signaling and route the service request message to the appropriate endpoint. If the service request is for compute / data resources, the message is terminated in the RAN. The RAN will schedule the compute / data resources in response to the request as shown in FIG. 9. If the service request is for a compute / data service, the request message is forwarded to the SOCF for service discovery, orchestration, and chaining. Establishment of radio bearers for transport computation / data message exchange between the UE and the service endpoints. Since the 6G system provides three service planes (e.g., computation plane, data plane, communication plane), the UP data for the three service planes may have different termination points and communication QoS requirements, e.g., the UP data for computation plane services may terminate at the Comp SF, the UP data for data plane services may terminate at the Data SF, and the UP data for communication plane services may terminate at the cloud. In order for the RAN to steer the UP data towards different service endpoints and provide the required radio transmission QoS, appropriate radio bearers need to be established. If UP traffic towards different service endpoints may be multiplexed onto the same radio bearer, a service identifier may be introduced to identify different service UP traffic flows. Compute-aware resource scheduling. In the "compute-as-service" approach for UE-network computing, the RAN holds both radio and computing resources. Thus, radio resource scheduling and computing resource scheduling can leverage each other's information when scheduling radio and computing resources. For example, knowing a computing task is scheduled to complete execution in a time slot, the radio scheduler can pre-schedule radio resources in that time slot for transmission of the execution results. To achieve this feature, explicit or implicit information sharing between the computing resource scheduler and the radio resource scheduler is required. In RDMA over radio, the MAC can be aware of the logical channels that carry RDMA messages, so that it can perform rate adaptation accordingly.

[0052] Feature #6: Service Chain Aware Transport In 5G and previous generations, the mobile network may act as a data pipe and provide transport tunnels (e.g., GTP-U tunnels) for IP and non-IP traffic between mobile devices and application servers in the cloud. This scheme may be sufficient for legacy cloud computing, since computing and user data processing / storage may reside in the cloud (edge ​​cloud or center cloud) beyond the mobile core network (e.g., beyond the UPF in 5G core networks and beyond the P-GW in 4G core networks). In 6G, with computing and data extending further to the network edge, legacy transport approaches may not be flexible enough to support widely distributed computing endpoints. As a result, it may be desirable to implement a transport approach that is aware of the service chain of each packet and can deliver each packet to a computing plane or data plane function in the service chain.

[0053] Figure 15 shows an example of service chain aware transport. In this example, user data transported between the UE and the cloud undergoes several intermediate processing stages (e.g., data compression / quantization / filtering, model training as part of federated learning, etc.) hosted by compute plane and data plane service functions in the network. The service chain may be configured by the SOCF following similar procedures as described in functions #1, #2, and #4 above. To achieve service chain aware transport, one or more of the following two schemes may be considered: Scheme 1: Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) type scheme. In this scheme, each data flow may be identified by a flow ID (or label). The SOCF may chain up a transportation path and the computation and data services along the path. The Comm SF, Comp SF and Data SF in the transportation and service path are configured with their respective Comm CF, Comp CF and Data CF accordingly. For each data flow, each Comm SF in the transportation path forwards the packets of the data flow to its configured Comp CF, Data CF or Comm SF according to the service chain. Scheme 2: Segment routing based scheme. In this scheme, each packet may carry a set of labels that identify a service chain for the packet. The labels may be generated based on the service chain configuration (as configured by the SOCF) and inserted into each packet at the ingress point of the service segment. In the case where the mobile network transport is a single service segment, the ingress point is the RAN UP function interfacing with the cloud and the Comm SF. In the case where multiple service segments are defined in the mobile network transport, the ingress points may be the communication plane UP functions at the two ends of the service segment. To generate their service labels, the service segment ingress points may receive the service chain configuration from the SOCF and generate labels for the packet accordingly. Upon receiving a packet, the Comm SF may read the first label of the packet, (optionally) remove this first label from the packet, and forward the packet to the corresponding Comm SF or Data SF or Comm SF as identified by the service label.

[0054] As noted, scheme 1 may be related to the concept of MPLS. It may provide only per-flow based service aware transport. When there is a reconfiguration to a service chain, all communication plane UP functions (e.g., RAN UP function and Comm SF) along the transport path may need to be reconfigured. Scheme 2 may be related to the concept of segment routing. It may provide per-packet based service aware transport as well as per-flow based service aware transport. When there is a service chain reconfiguration, only the service segment ingress points need to be updated.

[0055] Note that the service chain aware transport may co-exist with traditional GTP-u tunneling based transport. The RAN UP function and the Comm SF at the two ends of the mobile network transport may be configured to select between the service chain aware transport path and the GTP-u tunnel path and steer the incoming traffic to the selected path.

[0056] Feature #7: Enabling AI capabilities Building on the control and data plane capabilities of 6G systems, two types of AI / ML-related services could be enabled: AI / ML for Communications. This service may provide AI / ML services to communications plane functions. Examples include AI / ML assisted network operations and automation, AI assisted air interface. Communications for AI / ML. This service may use communication plane capabilities to help address AI / ML computing and data related problems, e.g., distributing AI learning / inference workloads between UEs and the network, enabling privacy-preserving in-network data pre-processing, etc.

[0057] Since AI / ML workloads are fundamentally types of compute and data workloads, these two types of AI / ML services can be achieved using the compute plane and data plane features described in the previous sections. Figure 16 shows an example procedure for AI / ML-assisted RAN operation. In this example, the RAN initiates a network intelligence service request to a network intelligence function. The service request can include information about the type of intelligence service (e.g., cell coverage optimization, frequency resource distribution optimization, etc.). Upon receiving the service request, the network intelligence function can generate a service representation including the required training / inference algorithms, required compute resources, required data sets and pre-processing, required training / inference accuracy and response time, etc. The network intelligence function can send the service representation to the SOCF, which can then discover the appropriate compute and data plane services and resources to meet the requirements as defined in the service representation and generate the processing chains. Once informed about the compute / data service chains, the network intelligence function can directly interact with the assigned Comp SF and Data SF for configuration and updates. Service chain information may be provided to the RAN, which will send data directly to the Data SF in the service chain for training and inference. Training and inference results may be stored in memory locations allocated by the Data SF. Network intelligence functions are notified when training and inference results are available and can pull the results as needed.

[0058] It should be noted that the example procedure may be applied to a scenario in which the network intelligence service for the RAN is non-persistent, e.g., the RAN requires the intelligence service for a short period of time. If the network intelligence service is persistent and long-lasting, the handling of the computing and data resources for the network intelligence service will be done by the management plane.

[0059] FIG. 17 shows an example procedure for distributed machine learning between a UE and a network. The example procedure essentially follows the same procedure as the "Compute as a Service" UE-NW computing scaling approach in function #2. In this example, the machine learning workload is distributed between the UE and the network. The network provides a learning service to offload the UE's machine learning workload.

[0060] Example Techniques FIG. 18 illustrates an example technique according to various embodiments herein. Specifically, the technique of FIG. 18 may be a technique to be performed by an electronic device for implementing a logical entity of a core network (CN) of a cellular network. The logical entity may be configured to identify, at 1805, a service request associated with a service of the cellular network to be provided to a service subscriber of the cellular network from a base station of the cellular network; identify, at 1810, an indication of the service in a cloud service registry function of the network; identify, at 1815, a service endpoint associated with the service based on the indication of the service; and provide, at 1820, an indication of the service endpoint to the base station.

[0061] 19 illustrates an alternative example technique according to various embodiments herein. The technique of FIG. 19 may be a technique to be performed by a base station of a cellular network. The base station may be configured to identify, at 1905, a request for one or more network-based computational resources from a user equipment (UE) of a 6G cellular network; identify, at 1910, the one or more network-based computational resources based on the request; and provide, at 1915, an indication of the one or more network-based computational resources to the UE.

[0062] 20 illustrates an alternative example technique according to various embodiments herein. The technique of FIG. 20 may be a technique to be performed by a user equipment (UE) of a cellular network. The UE may be configured to establish a remote direct memory access (RDMA) connection with a base station of the cellular network at 2005 and to transmit one or more RDMA messages to the base station at 2010.

[0063] 21 illustrates an alternative example technique according to various embodiments herein, which may relate to a technique to be performed by an electronic device intended to implement a user plane (UP) network function. The UP network function may be configured to identify, at 2105, a flow identity or packet label of the UP packet; and process, at 2110, the UP packet based on the flow identity or packet label.

[0064] System and Implementation 22-24 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of the disclosed embodiments.

[0065] 22 illustrates a network 2200 according to various embodiments. The network 2200 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP® technical specifications for LTE or 5G / NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect, and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP® systems.

[0066] The network 2200 may include a UE 2202, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with the RAN 2204 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 2202 may be communicatively coupled to the RAN 2204 by a Uu interface. The UE 2202 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computing device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument cluster, a head-up display device, an in-vehicle diagnostic device, a dash-top mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic / engine control unit, an electronic / engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a network-connected appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an IoT device, and the like.

[0067] In some embodiments, the network 2200 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels, such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

[0068] In some embodiments, the UE 2202 may further communicate with the AP 2206 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 2206 may manage the WLAN connection, which may function to offload some / all network traffic from the RAN 2204. The connection between the UE 2202 and the AP 2206 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where the AP 2206 may be a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) router. In some embodiments, the UE 2202, RAN 2204, and AP 2206 may utilize cellular WLAN aggregation (e.g., LWA / LWIP). Cellular WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 2202 being configured by the RAN 2204 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0069] The RAN 2204 may include one or more access nodes, e.g., the AN 2208. The AN 2208 may terminate air interface protocols for the UE 2202 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and L1 protocols. In this manner, the AN 2208 may enable data / voice connectivity between the CN 2220 and the UE 2202. In some embodiments, the AN 2208 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as, for example, a CRAN or a virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 2208 may be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 2208 may be a macrocell base station or a low-power base station providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell having a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to a macrocell.

[0070] In embodiments in which the RAN 2204 includes multiple ANs, they may be coupled to each other via an X2 interface (if the RAN 2204 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 2204 is a 5G RAN). The X2 / Xn interface, which in some embodiments may be separated into a control / user plane interface, may enable the ANs to communicate information related to handover, data / context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

[0071] Each of the ANs of the RAN 2204 may manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc., to provide the UE 2202 with an air interface for network access. The UE 2202 may be simultaneously connected to multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 2204. For example, the UE 2202 and the RAN 2204 may use carrier aggregation to enable the UE 2202 to connect to multiple component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or an Scell. In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a master node providing an MCG, and the second AN may be a secondary node providing an SCG. The first / second ANs may be any combination of eNBs, gNBs, ng-eNBs, etc.

[0072] The RAN 2204 may provide an air interface over a licensed or unlicensed spectrum. To operate in an unlicensed spectrum, a node may use LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms based on CA techniques using PCell / Scell. Before accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform a medium / carrier sensing operation, for example, based on a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

[0073] In a V2X scenario, the UE 2202 or AN 2208 may be or function as an RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU"; an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU"; a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU"; and so forth. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled to radio frequency circuits located at the roadside that provide connectivity support to passing vehicular UEs. The RSU may include internal data storage circuits that store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications / software that detect and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communication required for high speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular / WLAN communication services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a traffic signal controller or a network interface controller that provides a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a backhaul network.

[0074] In some embodiments, the RAN 2204 may be an LTE RAN 2210 having an eNB, e.g., eNB 2212. The LTE RAN 2210 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: 15 kHz SCS; CP-OFDM waveform for DL ​​and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control, etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH / PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation / detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate in sub-6 GHz bands.

[0075] In some embodiments, the RAN 2204 may be an NG-RAN 2214 having a gNB, e.g., gNB 2216, or an ng-eNB, e.g., ng-eNB 2218. The gNB 2216 may connect to a 5G-capable UE using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 2216 may connect to a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 2218 may connect to a 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect to a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 2216 and the ng-eNB 2218 may connect to each other through an Xn interface.

[0076] In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts: an NG User Plane (NG-U) interface (e.g., an N3 interface), which carries traffic data between the NG-RAN 2214 nodes and the UPF 2248, and an NG Control Plane (NG-C) interface (e.g., an N2 interface), which is a signaling interface between the NG-RAN 2214 nodes and the AMF 2244.

[0077] The NG-RAN 2214 may provide the 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS, similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use CRS and may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for PDSCH phase tracking; and tracking reference signals for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operate on the FR1 band, which includes sub-6 GHz bands, or on the FR2 band, which includes bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include SSB, which is an area of ​​the downlink resource grid that includes PSS / SSS / PBCH.

[0078] In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWPs may be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 2202 may be configured with multiple BWPs, where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 2202, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWPs is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs may be configured for the UE 2202 with different amounts of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic load scenarios. A BWP that includes a smaller number of PRBs may be used for data transmission with a small traffic load, while enabling power saving at the UE 2202 and in some cases at the gNB 2216. A BWP that includes a larger number of PRBs may be used for scenarios with a higher traffic load. The RAN 2204 is communicatively coupled to the CN 2220, which includes network elements that provide various functions to support data and telecommunication services to customers / subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 2202). The components of the CN 2220 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 2220 onto physical computational / storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 2220 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 2220 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

[0079] In some embodiments, the CN 2220 may be an LTE CN 2222, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 2222 may include an MME 2224, an SGW 2226, an SGSN 2228, an HSS 2230, a PGW 2232, and a PCRF 2234 coupled together via interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of the LTE CN 2222 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0080] The MME 2224 may implement mobility management functions that track the current location of the UE 2202 and facilitate paging, bearer activation / deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

[0081] The SGW 2226 may terminate the S1 interface towards the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 2222. The SGW 2226 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other roles may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0082] The SGSN 2228 may track the location of the UE 2202 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 2228 may perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by the MME 2224; MME selection for handover, etc. An S3 reference point between the MME 2224 and the SGSN 2228 may enable exchange of user and bearer information for mobility between 3GPP access networks in idle / active state.

[0083] The HSS 2230 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information, to support handling of communication sessions by network entities. The HSS 2230 may provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, name / address resolution, location dependency, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 2230 and the MME 2224 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data to authenticate / authorize user access to the LTE CN 2220.

[0084] The PGW 2232 may terminate an SGi interface towards a data network (DN) 2236, which may include an application / content server 2238. The PGW 2232 may route data packets between the LTE CN 2222 and the data network 2236. The PGW 2232 may be coupled to the SGW 2226 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 2232 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (e.g., PCEF). In addition, the SGi reference point between the PGW 2232 and the data network 2236 may be a public, private PDN, or intra-operator packet data network external to the operator, for example, for provisioning of IMS services. The PGW 2232 may be coupled to the PCRF 2234 via a Gx reference point. The PCRF 2234 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 2222. The PCRF 2234 may be communicatively coupled to an app / content server 2238 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for the service flow. The PCRF 2232 may provision the associated rules to the PCEF (via the Gx reference point) with the appropriate TFT and QCI.

[0085] In some embodiments, the CN 2220 may be a 5GC 2240. The 5GC 2240 may include an AUSF 2242, an AMF 2244, an SMF 2246, a UPF 2248, an NSSF 2250, an NEF 2252, an NRF 2254, a PCF 2256, an UDM 2258, and an AF 2260 coupled together via interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functionality of the elements of the 5GC 2240 may be briefly introduced as follows: The AUSF 2242 may store data and handle authentication related functions for authentication of the UE 2202. The AUSF 2242 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 2240 via reference points as shown, the AUSF 2242 may expose a Nausf service-based interface.

[0086] The AMF 2244 may enable other functions of the 5GC 2240 to communicate with the UE 2202 and the RAN 2204 and to subscribe to notifications regarding mobility events for the UE 2202. The AMF 2244 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., registering the UE 2202), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 2244 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 2202 and the SMF 2246 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 2244 may also provide transport for SMS messages between the UE 2202 and the SMSF. The AMF 2244 may interact with the AUSF 2242 and the UE 2202 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, the AMF2 244 may be a termination point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be the N2 reference point between the RAN2 204 and the AMF2 244; the AMF2 244 is a termination point of the NAS (N1) signaling and may perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF2 244 may support NAS signaling with the UE2202 via the N3 IWF interface.

[0087] The SMF2246 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, tunnel management between the UPF2248 and the AN2208); UE IP address distribution and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of the UP function; configuring traffic steering in the UPF2248 to route traffic to the appropriate destination; termination of the interface towards the policy control function; controlling policy enforcement, charging, and part of the QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interface to the LI system); termination of the SM part of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information to be sent to the AN2208 via the AMF2244 over N2; and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE2202 and the data network2236.

[0088] The UPF 2248 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point for interconnect to the data network 2236, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 2248 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane portion of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic validation (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), perform transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering, and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 2248 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to the data network.

[0089] The NSSF 2250 may select a set of network slice instances to serve the UE 2202. The NSSF 2250 may determine the allowed NSSAI and, if necessary, the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAI. The NSSF 2250 may also determine the AMF set, or a list of candidate AMFs, to be used to serve the UE 2202 based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 2254. The selection of the set of network slice instances for the UE 2202 may be triggered by the AMF 2244, with which the UE 2202 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 2250, which may result in a change of AMF. The NSSF 2250 may interact with the AMF 2244 via the N22 reference point; it may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via the N31 reference point (not shown). In addition, the NSSF 2250 may present an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0090] The NEF 2252 may securely expose services and functions provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal publication / re-publication, AFs (e.g., AF 2260), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such an embodiment, the NEF 2252 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AF. The NEF 2252 may translate information exchanged with the AF 2260 and with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 2252 may translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF 2252 may receive information from other NFs based on the published capabilities of the other NFs. This information may be stored in the NEF 2252 as structured data or in a data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be re-published by the NEF 2252 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. In addition, the NEF 2252 may expose an Nnef service-based interface. NRF2254 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF2254 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, terms such as "instantiate", "instance", and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object that may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. In addition, NRF2254 may present an Nnrf service-based interface. PCF2256 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them and may support a unified policy framework to manage network behavior. PCF2256 may implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDRs of UDM2258. In addition to communicating with functions via reference points as shown, PCF2256 presents an Npcf service-based interface.The UDM 2258 may handle subscription related information to support handling of communication sessions by network entities and may store subscription data of the UE 2202. For example, the subscription data may be communicated via the N8 reference point between the UDM 2258 and the AMF 2244. The UDM 2258 may include two parts: an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 2258 and the PCF 2256, and / or structured data for publishing and application data for the NEF 2252 (including PFD for application discovery, application request information for multiple UEs 2202). A Nudr service-based interface may be exposed by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 2258, the PCF 2256, and the NEF 2252 to access a particular set of stored data, as well as read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe for notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is responsible for credential handling, location management, subscription management, etc. Several different front-ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential handling, user identity handling, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs via reference points as shown, the UDM2258 may present a Nudm service-based interface. The AF2260 may provide application influence over traffic routing, provide access to the NEF, and interact with a policy framework for policy control.

[0091] In some embodiments, the 5GC 2240 may enable edge computing by selecting operator / third-party services to be geographically close to the point where the UE 2202 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge computing implementation, the 5GC 2240 may select a UPF 2248 close to the UE 2202 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 2248 to the data network 2236 via the N6 interface. This may be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 2260. In this way, the AF 2260 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator deployment, if the AF 2260 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may allow the AF 2260 to directly interact with associated NFs. In addition, the AF 2260 may exhibit a Naf service-based interface. Data network 2236 may represent, for example, various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers, including application / content server 2238 .

[0092] FIG. 23 illustrates a schematic of a wireless network 2300, according to various embodiments. The wireless network 2300 may include a UE 2302 in wireless communication with an AN 2304. The UE 2302 and the AN 2304 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with similarly named components described elsewhere herein. The UE 2302 may be communicatively coupled to the AN 2304 via a connection 2306. The connection 2306 is illustrated as an air interface for enabling the communicative coupling and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating in mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies. The UE 2302 may include a host platform 2308 coupled to a modem platform 2310. The host platform 2308 may include an application processing circuit 2312 that may be coupled to a protocol processing circuit 2314 of the modem platform 2310. The application processing circuit 2312 may execute various applications for the UE 2302 to source / sink application data. The application processing circuit 2312 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit / receive application data to / from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and Internet (e.g., IP) operations. The protocol processing circuit 2314 may implement one or more of the layer operations to facilitate transmitting or receiving data over the connection 2306. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuit 2314 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations. The modem platform 2310 may further include a digital baseband circuit 2316 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “lower” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuit 2314 in the network protocol stack.These operations may include PHY operations including, for example, one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling / descrambling, encoding / decoding, layer mapping / demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol / bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding / decoding (which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding), reference signal generation / detection, preamble sequence generation and / or decoding, synchronization sequence generation / detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions. The modem platform 2310 may further include transmit circuitry 2318, receive circuitry 2320, RF circuitry 2322, and an RF front end (RFFE) 2324, which may include or be connected to one or more antenna panels 2326. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 2318 may include digital-to-analog converters, mixers, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 2320 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 2322 may include low noise amplifiers, power amplifiers, power tracking components, etc.; the RFFE 2324 may include filters (e.g., surface / bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), etc. The selection and configuration of the transmit circuitry 2318, receive circuitry 2320, RF circuitry 2322, RFFE 2324, and antenna panel 2326 components (collectively "transmit / receive components") may be specific to the details of a particular implementation, such as, for example, whether the communication is TDM or FDM at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit / receive components may be configured in multiple parallel transmit / receive chains, may be located on the same or different chips / modules, etc. In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuit 2314 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit / receive components.UE reception may be established by and through the antenna panel 2326, the RFFE 2324, the RF circuitry 2322, the receive circuitry 2320, the digital baseband circuitry 2316, and the protocol processing circuitry 2314. In some embodiments, the antenna panel 2326 may receive transmissions from the AN 2304 by receive beamforming signals that are received by multiple antennas / antenna elements of one or more of the antenna panels 2326.

[0093] UE transmission may be established by and through the protocol processing circuitry 2314, the digital baseband circuitry 2316, the transmit circuitry 2318, the RF circuitry 2322, the RFFE 2324, and the antenna panel 2326. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 2304 may apply spatial filters to data to be transmitted to form transmit beams emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panel 2326. Similar to the UE 2302, the AN 2304 may include a host platform 2328 coupled to a modem platform 2330. The host platform 2328 may include an application processing circuitry 2332 coupled to the protocol processing circuitry 2334 of the modem platform 2330. The modem platform may further include a digital baseband circuitry 2336, a transmit circuitry 2338, a receive circuitry 2340, an RF circuitry 2342, an RFFE circuitry 2344, and an antenna panel 2346. The components of the AN 2304 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with similarly named components of the UE 2302. In addition to performing data transmission / reception as described above, the components of the AN 2308 may perform various logical functions including RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling. FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. In particular, FIG. 24 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 2400 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 2410, one or more memory / storage devices 2420, and one or more communication resources 2430, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 2440 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments in which node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 2402 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 2400.

[0094] Processors 2410 may include, for example, processor 2412 and processor 2414. Processor 2410 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0095] The memory / storage devices 2420 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage devices 2420 may include any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory, such as, but not limited to, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0096] Communications resources 2430 may include interconnect or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices for communicating with one or more peripheral devices 2404 or one or more databases 2406 or other network elements over network 2408. For example, communications resources 2430 may include a wired communications component (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), a cellular communications component, an NFC component, a Bluetooth (or Bluetooth Low Energy) component, a Wi-Fi component, and other communications components.

[0097] The instructions 2450 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least one of the processors 2410 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 2450 may reside completely or partially within at least one of the processors 2410 (e.g., in a cache memory of the processor), the memory / storage devices 2420, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 2450 may be transferred to the hardware resources 2400 from any combination of the peripheral devices 2404 or the databases 2406. Thus, the memory of the processors 2410, the memory / storage devices 2420, the peripheral devices 2404, and the databases 2406 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0098] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components described in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods as described in the Examples section below. For example, baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, a base station, a network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate according to one or more of the examples described in the Examples section below. example

[0099] Example 1 may include a communication system (6G system) having one or more of the following characteristics: ·Introducing three service planes: compute plane, data plane and communication plane to provide computing, data and communication services respectively. ·Introduces three functional planes: Control Plane (CP), User Plane (UP), and Management Plane (MP) to provide control, user, and management functions respectively. Each of the computation plane, data plane and communication plane has a corresponding control plane function, user plane function and management plane function. The services provided by the service plane are achieved via the CP function, UP function and MP function. Separating the CP and UP functions with a clear functional split, which allows the CP and UP functions to be scaled independently. · Uses a service-based interface (SBI) to connect CP functions and some UP functions. · Uses dedicated high-speed transport to connect UP functions. Use CP functions to discover / authorize computing resources / services, chain up and configure computing and data service paths and functions, authorize access, etc. · Retain data in the UP facility and enable direct data access via configured data access paths, minimizing data movement. Use the control plane to deploy / onboard new services, provision for new services, monitor performance, manage system faults, and optimize system performance.

[0100] The communication system has the following features: · Compute Control Function (Comp CF) and Compute Service Function (Comp SF) are parts of the compute plane. Comp CF is a CP function, providing functions such as exposing compute services to devices and other system functions, compute service request admission control and service establishment, identifying and allocating Comp SFs for computing service requests, controlling and configuring Comp SFs, maintaining compute service context and status, etc. Comp SF is a UP function, a gateway for devices and other system functions to access computing services and resources. Functions of Comp SF include: parsing computing service requests, directing requests to corresponding computing service endpoints, generating service request responses, generating billing data, reporting compute service status, etc. ·Data Control Function (Data CF) and Data Service Function (Data SF) are part of the Data Plane. Data CF is a CP function: it provides functions including exposing data services to devices and other system functions, data service request admission control and service establishment, identifying and allocating Data SFs for data service requests, controlling and configuring Data SFs, maintaining data service context and status, etc. Data SF is a UP function: it provides functions including parsing data service requests, directing requests to corresponding data service endpoints, generating service request responses, generating billing data, reporting data service status, etc. ·Communication Control Function (Comm CF), Communication Service Function (Comm SF), Central Unit Control Plane (CU-CP), Central Unit User Plane (CU-UP) and Distributed Unit (DU) are part of the communication plane. Specifically, CU-CP, CU-UP and DU are part of the Radio Access Network (RAN). The RAN functions provide protocols and services that support computing and data plane services as well as traditional communication plane protocols and services. Comp CF and Comp SF are part of the Core Network (CN) and provide CP and UP functions for data transport in the CN. To support computing and data plane services, service aware transport may be enabled in Comp CF and Comp SF. A Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF) is introduced to discover and chain up services offered by functions in the network. A service pipeline is generated by the chaining of services. Workload processing and data movement can then take place within the service pipeline. Further service-specific CP functions can be defined to provide compute plane, data plane or communication plane services. Examples of such CP functions include: network intelligent control function, data ledger control function, etc. All functions shown in the system architecture are logical functions. Physical instances of these functions can be instantiated at deployment time.

[0101] Example 2 may include one or more elements of a system that provides front-end services to enable computing service and resource discovery and association across cloud centers, cloud edges, and network edges, as shown in FIG. In-network front-end services may be part of the services provided by the SOCF. An example procedure is shown in FIG. 5 and the corresponding description.

[0102] Example 3 may include one or more elements of a system that supports dynamic device-network computing scaling. In some implementations of this example, this may be enabled by one of the approaches shown in Figures 6 and 7. For example, the system of Example 3 may include one or more of the following features: In the first approach, computing scaling is done at the service level (e.g., Compute-as-Service). The network compute plane provides computing services to the mobile device. A client compute service function is deployed on the mobile device side to interact with the Comp CF and Comp SF in the network for computing services. The client compute service function runs as part of the OS or as a platform application running on top of the OS. In the second approach, computing scaling is done at the resource level below the OS (e.g., Compute-as-Resource). The air interface is responsible for discovering and scheduling computing resources. A computing resource control and scheduling entity is introduced in the air interface for this purpose. Among the scheduled remote computing units (e.g., AP or XPU in the mobile device and XPU or accelerator in the network), a remote computing resource engine is implemented in each of the computing units for these remote computing resources to exchange computing instructions and messages. · These two approaches may coexist in a system, with each approach being used for a set of scenarios and / or requirements. Exemplary procedures for these two approaches are shown in Figures 8 and 9 and the procedure descriptions therein.

[0103] The system supports RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) over radio. Two example scenarios for RDMA over radio as shown in Figure 10 and Figure 11. In the first scenario, an RDMA queue pair (QP) is established between a computing device (e.g., application processor, XPU) in the UE and a network computing device that connects to the RAN unit via PCIe (protocols such as CXL can be executed on it). The RAN serves as a network I / O device for the computing device in the network. In the second scenario, an RDMA queue pair is established between a computing device (e.g., application processor, XPU) in the UE and a network computing device that connects to the RAN unit via Ethernet. The RAN routes the packet to a rNIC that serves as a network I / O device for the computing device. · The RDMA CM endpoint can be in the host CPU (as shown in Figures 10 and 11) or offloaded to the wireless modem. RDMA Connection Manager (CM) messages for QP establishment can be carried over over-the-air CP signaling between the UE and the network. The radio interface module can then map the RDMA CM messages to the appropriate control signal transport path towards the computing host device where the RDMA CM is located. · RDMA message transport can be over UP radio bearers. The MAC layer can be aware of the logical channels that carry the RDMA message transport and perform flow control and rate adaptation accordingly. The RDMA control protocols that handle traffic monitoring, rate adaptation, congestion control etc. at the RDMA layer can be extended to achieve end-to-end flow control. · Control plane and user plane protocol stacks as shown in Figures 12A, 12B, 13A and 13B. The system supports cloud workload offload. The example procedure in FIG. 14 and the corresponding description.

[0104] The system supports a computing embedded air interface with the following features: Signaling for computing / data services and resource discovery. Information about computing / data services and resources provided by the 6G system can be incorporated into system information signaling in the air interface. System information can be broadcast to the UE or provided on demand. Signaling for Compute / Data Service Establishment. In the service establishment stage, the UE's service compute / data initial service request is carried in CP signaling over the air interface. The RAN receives the CP signaling and routes the service request message to the appropriate endpoint. If the service request is for compute / data resources, the message is terminated in the RAN. The RAN will schedule the compute / data resources in response to the request as shown in Figure 9. If the service request is for a compute / data service, the request message is forwarded to the SOCF for service discovery, orchestration, and chaining. Establishment of radio bearers for transport computation / data message exchange between the UE and the service endpoints. Since the 6G system provides three service planes (e.g., computation plane, data plane, communication plane), the UP data for the three service planes may have different termination points and communication QoS requirements, e.g., the UP data for computation plane services may terminate at the Comp SF, the UP data for data plane services may terminate at the Data SF, and the UP data for communication plane services may terminate at the cloud. In order for the RAN to steer the UP data towards different service endpoints and provide the required radio transmission QoS, appropriate radio bearers need to be established. If UP traffic towards different service endpoints may be multiplexed onto the same radio bearer, a service identifier may be introduced to identify different service UP traffic flows. Compute-aware resource scheduling. In the "compute-as-service" approach for UE-network computing, the RAN holds both radio and computing resources. Thus, radio resource scheduling and computing resource scheduling can leverage each other's information when scheduling radio and computing resources. For example, knowing a computing task is scheduled to complete execution in a time slot, the radio scheduler can pre-schedule radio resources in that time slot for transmission of the execution results. To achieve this feature, explicit or implicit information sharing between the computing resource scheduler and the radio resource scheduler is required. In RDMA over radio, the MAC can be aware of the logical channels that carry RDMA messages, so that it can perform rate adaptation accordingly.

[0105] The system supports service-chain aware transport based on two schemes: Scheme 1: MPLS type scheme. In this scheme, each data flow is identified by a flow ID (or label). The SOCF chains up the transportation paths and the computation and data services along the paths. The Comm SF, Comp SF and Data SF in the transportation and service paths are configured with their respective Comm CF, Comp CF and Data CF accordingly. For each data flow, each Comm SF in the transportation path forwards the packets of the data flow to its configured Comp CF, Data CF or Comm SF according to the service chain. Scheme 2: Segment Routing based scheme. In this scheme, each packet carries a set of labels that identify the service chain for the packet. The labels are generated based on the service chain configuration (as configured by the SOCF) and inserted into each packet at the ingress point of the service segment. In the case where the mobile network transport is a single service segment, the ingress points are the RAN UP function interfacing with the cloud and the Comm SF. In the case where multiple service segments are defined in the mobile network transport, the ingress points are the communication plane UP functions at the two ends of the service segment. To generate their service labels, the service segment ingress points receive the service chain configuration from the SOCF and generate labels for the packets accordingly. Upon receiving a packet, the Comm SF reads the first label of the packet, removes this first label from the packet and forwards the packet to the corresponding Comm SF or Data SF or Comm SF as identified by the service label. Figure 15 shows an example of service chain aware transport. The system supports AI functions. AI / ML for communications: This is about providing AI / ML services to communications plane functions. Examples include AI / ML-assisted network operations and automation, AI-assisted air interface. Communications for AI / ML. This is the use of communication plane capabilities to help address AI / ML computing and data related problems, e.g., distributing AI learning / inference workloads between UEs and the network, enabling privacy-preserving in-network data pre-processing, etc. FIG. 16 and corresponding description show an example procedure for AI / ML-assisted RAN operation. FIG. 17 and corresponding description show an example procedure for distributed machine learning between a UE and a network.

[0106] Example 4 includes: an electronic device comprising: one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, are to implement a logical entity of a Core Network (CN) of a cellular network, the logical entity being for: identifying, from a base station of the cellular network, a service request associated with a service of the cellular network to be provided to a service subscriber of the cellular network; identifying an indication of the service in a cloud service registry function of the network; identifying a service endpoint associated with the service based on the indication of the service; and providing an indication of the service endpoint to the base station. Example 5 includes the electronic device of Example 4 and / or any other example herein, where the service subscriber is a user equipment (UE) or an application provider. Example 6 includes the electronic device of any one of Examples 4-5 and / or any other example herein, wherein the logical entity is a Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF). Example 7 includes the electronic device of any one of Examples 4-6 and / or any other example herein, wherein the logical entity is further for identifying an indication of the service from a compute plane control function (CF) or a data plane CF. Example 8 includes the electronic device of Example 7 and / or any other example herein, wherein the logical entity is for: identifying the indication of the service in the cloud service registry function if the service is provided by a cloud-based entity communicatively coupled to the network; and identifying the indication of the service from the compute plane CF or the data plane CF if the service is provided by an entity of the network. Example 9 includes the electronic device of example 8 and / or any other example herein, wherein the entity of the network is a compute plane service function (SF) or a data plane SF of the network. Example 10 includes the electronic device of any one of Examples 4-9 and / or any other example herein, wherein the logical entity is further for establishing service transport between the service endpoints through a communications plane service function (SF). Example 11 includes the electronic device of any one of Examples 4-10 and / or any other example herein, wherein the base station is a base station of a sixth generation (6G) network. Example 12 includes a base station of a cellular network, the base station comprising: one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, upon execution of instructions by the one or more processors, cause the base station to: identify a request for one or more network-based computational resources from a user equipment (UE) of the 6G cellular network; identify one or more network-based computational resources based on the request; and provide an indication of the one or more network-based computational resources to the UE. Example 13 includes the base station of Example 12 and / or any other example herein, wherein the instructions further cause the base station to: send a request for computing resources to a Service Organization and Chaining Function (SOCF) of the 6G network based on the request from the UE; and identify from the SOCF the indication of the one or more network-based computational resources. Example 14 includes the base station of Example 13 and / or any other example herein, wherein the one or more network-based computing resources are associated with a compute plane control function (CF) or a compute plane service function (SF). Example 15 includes the base station of Example 14 and / or any other example herein, wherein the instructions further cause the base station to facilitate service session establishment with the computation plane CF associated with use of the one or more network-based computational resources. Example 16 includes the base station of any one of Examples 12-15 and / or any other example herein, wherein the base station is for allocating the one or more network-based computational resources for use by the UE based on the request for one or more network-based computational resources. Example 17 includes the base station of Example 16 and / or any other example herein, wherein the one or more network-based computing resources are identified by the base station prior to receipt of the request for the one or more network-based computing resources. Example 18 includes the base station of any one of Examples 12-17 and / or any other example herein, wherein the cellular network is a sixth generation (6G) cellular network. Example 19 includes a user equipment (UE) of a cellular network, the UE comprising: one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions that, upon execution of instructions by the one or more processors, cause the UE to: establish a remote direct memory access (RDMA) connection with a base station of the cellular network; and transmit one or more RDMA messages to the base station. Example 20 includes the UE of Example 19 and / or any other example herein, wherein the RDMA message is for prompting direct data placement in an application memory buffer of a device communicatively coupled to the base station. Example 21 includes the UE of Example 20 and / or any other example herein, wherein the device is communicatively coupled to the base station by a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) connection or an Ethernet connection. Example 22 includes the UE of any one of Examples 19-21 and / or any other example herein, wherein the RDMA connection involves RDMA queue pair (QP) establishment between the UE and the base station. Example 23 includes the UE of any one of Examples 19-22 and / or any other example herein, wherein transmitting the one or more RDMA messages includes mapping one or more RDMA protocol fields to radio layer protocol fields of an air interface connection between the UE and the base station. Example 24 includes the UE of any one of Examples 19-22 and / or any other example herein, wherein the cellular network is a sixth generation (6G) cellular network. Example 25 includes an electronic device comprising: one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, upon execution of the one or more processors, cause a user plane (UP) network function to: identify a flow identity or packet label of a UP packet; and process the UP packet based on the flow identity or packet label. Example 26 includes the electronic device of example 25 and / or any other example herein, where processing the UP packet includes forwarding the UP packet based on the flow identity or packet label. Example 27 includes any one of Examples 25-26 and / or any other example electronic device herein, wherein the packet label includes an indication of how the UP packet is to be processed. Example 28 includes the electronic device of any one of Examples 25-27 and / or any other example herein, wherein the UP network function is a base station UP function or a core network UP function. Example 29 includes the electronic device of any one of Examples 25-28 and / or any other example herein, wherein the UP network function is pre-configured with information related to processing the UP packet based on the flow identity or packet label of the UP packet. Example 30 includes the electronic device of Example 29 and / or any other example herein, wherein the information related to processing the UP packet includes information related to inserting or removing a packet label in the UP packet. Example Z01 may include an apparatus having means for performing one or more elements of the method described in or related to any one of Examples 1 to 30, or any other method or process described herein.

[0107] Example Z02 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, cause an electronic device to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30, or any other method or process described herein.

[0108] Example Z03 may include an apparatus having logic, modules, or circuitry that performs one or more elements of the method described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30, or any other method or process described herein.

[0109] Example Z04 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30, or a portion or part thereof.

[0110] Example Z05 may include an apparatus having: one or more processors; and one or more computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or a portion thereof, as described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30.

[0111] Example Z06 may include a signal as described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30, or a portion or part thereof.

[0112] Example Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30, or a portion or part thereof, or as otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0113] Example Z08 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30, or a portion or part thereof, or as otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0114] Example Z09 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30, or a portion or part thereof, or as otherwise described in this disclosure.

[0115] Example Z10 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, the execution of which by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform a method, technique, or process, or a portion thereof, as described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30.

[0116] Example Z11 may include a computer program including instructions, where execution of the program by a processing element causes the processing element to perform a method, technique, or process, or a portion thereof, as described in or related to any one of Examples 1-30.

[0117] Example Z12 may include signals in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0118] Example Z13 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as illustrated and described herein.

[0119] Example Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0120] Example Z15 may include a device providing wireless communications as shown and described herein.

[0121] Any of the above described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples) unless expressly stated otherwise. The above description of one or more implementations has been provided for illustration and description, and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[0122] Abbreviation Unless used differently herein, the terms, definitions and abbreviations may be consistent with those defined in 3GPP® TR21.905 v16.0.0(2019-06). For purposes of this document, the following abbreviations may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein: 3GPP(R): 3rd Generation Partnership Project 4G: Fourth Generation 5G: Fifth Generation 5GC: 5G Core Network AC: Application Client ACR: Application Context Relocation ACK: Acknowledgement ACID: Application Client Identification AF: Application Features AM: Acknowledge Mode AMBR: Aggregate Maximum Bitrate AMF: Access and Mobility Management Function AN: Access Network ANR: Automatic Neighbor Relations AOA: Angle of arrival AP: Application protocol, antenna port, access point API: Application Programming Interface APN: Access Point Name ARP: Allocation and retention priority ARQ: Automatic Repeat Request AS: Access Layer ASP: Application Service Provider ASN.1: Abstract Syntax Notation One AUSF: Authentication server function AWGN: Additive White Gaussian Noise BAP: Backhaul Adaptation Protocol BCH: Broadcast Channel BER: Bit Error Ratio BFD: Beam Fault Detection BLER: Block Error Rate BPSK: Binary Phase Shift Keying BRAS: Broadband Remote Access Server BSS: Business Support System BS: Base station BSR: Buffer Status Report BW: Bandwidth BWP: Bandwidth part C-RNTI: Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity CA: Carrier Aggregation, Certification Authority CAPEX: Capital expenditure CBRA: Contention-Based Random Access CC: Component Carrier, Country Code, Cryptographic Checksum CCA: Clear Channel Assessment CCE: Control Channel Element CCCH: Common Control Channel CE: Coverage Extension CDM: Content Delivery Network CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access CDR: Billing Data Request CDR: Charging Data Response CFRA: Contention-Free Random Access CG: Cell Group CGF: Charging Gateway Function CHF:Charging function CI: Cell Identity CID: Cell ID (e.g., positioning method) CIM: Common Information Model CIR: Carrier-to-Interference Ratio CK: Encryption Key CM: Connection Management, Conditional Obligations CMAS: Commercial Mobile Alarm Service CMD: Command CMS: Cloud Management System CO: Conditional Optional CoMP: Coordinated Multipoint CORESET: Control resource set COTS: Commercial Off-The-Shelf CP: Control Plane, Cyclic Prefix, Connection Point CPD: Connection Point Descriptor CPE: Customer Premises Equipment CPICH: Common Pilot Channel CQI: Channel Quality Indicator CPU: CSI processing unit, central processing unit C / R: Command / Response field bit CRAN: Cloud Radio Access Network, Cloud RAN CRB: Common Resource Block CRC: Cyclic Redundancy Check CRI: Channel State Information Resource Indicator, CSI-RS Resource Indicator C-RNTI: Cell RNTI CS: Circuit Switched CSCF: Call Session Control Function CSAR: Cloud Services Archive CSI: Channel State Information CSI-IM:CSI interference measurement CSI-RS:CSI reference signal CSI-RSRP: CSI reference signal received power CSI-RSRQ: CSI reference signal reception quality CSI-SINR: CSI signal-to-noise and interference ratio CSMA: Carrier Sense Multiple Access CSMA / CA: CSMA with collision avoidance CSS: Common search space, cell-specific search space CTF: Charge trigger function CTS: Permit to send CW: Codeword CWS: Contention Window Size D2D: Device to Device DC: Dual connectivity, direct current DCI: Downlink control information DF: Expanded Flavor DL: Downlink DMTF: Distributed Management Task Force DPDK: Data Plane Development Kit DM-RS, DMRS: Demodulation Reference Signal DN: Data Network DNN: Data Network Name DNAI: Data Network Access Identifier DRB: Data Radio Bearer DRS: Discovery Reference Signal DRX: Intermittent reception DSL: Domain Specific Language, Digital Subscriber Line DSLAM: DSL Access Multiplexer DwPTS: Downlink pilot time slot E-LAN: Ethernet (registered trademark) local area network E2E: End-to-end EAS: Edge Application Server ECCA: Enhanced Clear Channel Assessment, Enhanced CCA ECCE: Extended Control Channel Element, Extended CCE ED: Energy detection EDGE: Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution EAS: Edge Application Server EASID: Edge Application Server Identification ECS: Edge Configuration Server ECSP: Edge Computing Service Provider EDN: Edge Data Network EEC: Edge Enabler Client EECID: Edge Enabler Client Identification EES: Edge Enabler Server EESID: Edge Enabler Server Identification EHE: Edge Host Environment EGMF: Public Governance Management Facility EGPRS: Enhanced GPRS EIR: Equipment Identity Register eLAA: Extended Authorization Assisted Access, extended LAA EM: Element Manager eMBB: Enhanced Mobile Broadband EMS: Element Management System eNB: Evolution NodeB, E-ULTRAN NodeB EN-DC: E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity EPC: Evolved Packet Core EPDCCH: Enhanced PDCCH, Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel EPRE: Energy per resource element EPS: Evolution Packet System EREG: Extended REG, Extended Resource Element Group ETSI: European Telecommunications Standards Institute ETWS: Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System eUICC: Embedded UICC, Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card E-UTRA: Advanced UTRA E-UTRAN: Evolved UTRAN EV2X: Enhanced V2X F1AP: F1 Application Protocol F1-C: F1 control plane interface F1-U: F1 user plane interface FACCH: Fast Associated Control Channel FACCH / F: Fast Associated Control Channel / Full Rate FACCH / H: Fast Associated Control Channel / Half Rate FACH: Forward Access Channel FAUSCH: High Speed ​​Uplink Signaling Channel FB: Function block FBI: Feedback Information FCC: Federal Communications Commission FCCH: Frequency Correction Channel FDD: Frequency Division Duplex FDM: Frequency Division Multiplex FDMA: Frequency Division Multiple Access FE: Front end FEC: Forward Error Correction FFS:For further research FFT: Fast Fourier Transform feLAA: Further Extended Authorization Assisted Access, Further Extended LAA FN: Frame number FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Array FR: Frequency range FQDN: Fully Qualified Domain Name G-RNTI: GERAN Radio Network Transient Identity GERAN: GSM Edge RAN, GSM Edge Radio Access Network GGSN: Gateway GPRS Support Node GLONASS: Global Navigation System gNB: Next generation NodeB gNB-CU: gNB centralized unit, next-generation NodeB centralized unit gNB-DU: gNB distributed unit, next generation NodeB distributed unit GNSS: Global Positioning System GPRS General Packet Radio Service GPSI: General Public Subscriber Identifier GSM (registered trademark): Global System for Mobile Communications, Groupe Special Mobile GTP: GPRS Tunneling Protocol GTP-U: GPRS Tunneling Protocol for the User Plane GTS: Go-to-sleep signal (related to WUS) GUMMEI: Globally Unique MME Identifier GUTI: Globally Unique Temporary UE Identity HARQ: Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request HANDO: Handover HFN: Hyperframe Number HHO: Hard Handover HLR: Home Location Register HN: Home Network HO: Handover HPLMN: Home Public Land Mobile Network HSDPA: High Speed ​​Downlink Packet Access HSN: Hopping sequence number HSPA: High Speed ​​Packet Access HSS: Home Subscriber Server HSUPA: High Speed ​​Uplink Packet Access HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol HTTPS: HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (https is http / 1.1 over SSL, i.e. port 443) I-Block: Information Block ICCID: Integrated Circuit Card Identification IAB: Integrated Access and Backhaul ICIC: Inter-cell interference coordination ID: Identity, Identifier IDFT: Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform IE: Information Element IBE: In-band emission IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEI: Information Element Identifier IEIDL: Information element identifier data length IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force IF: Infrastructure IIOT: Industrial Internet of Things IM: Interference Measurement, Intermodulation, IP Multimedia IMC: IMS Credentials IMEI: International Mobile Equipment Identity IMGI: International Mobile Group Identity IMPI: IP Multimedia Private Identity IMPU: IP Multimedia Public Identity IMS: IP Multimedia Subsystem IMSI: International Mobile Subscriber Identity IoT: Internet of Things IP: Internet Protocol Ipsec: IP Security, Internet Protocol Security IP-CAN: IP Connectivity Access Network IP-M: IP multicast IPv4: Internet Protocol version 4 IPv6: Internet Protocol version 6 IR: Infrared IS: Synchronous IRP: Integration Reference Point ISDN (registered trademark): Integrated Services Digital Network ISIM: IM Service Identity Module ISO: International Organization for Standardization ISP: Internet Service Provider IWF: Interworking Function I-WLAN: Interworking WLAN Constraint length of superimposed code, USIM: individual key kB: kilobyte (1000 bytes) kbps: kilobits per second Kc: encryption key Ki: Individual subscriber authentication key KPI: Key Performance Indicator KQI: Key Quality Indicator KSI: Key Set Identifier ksps: kilosymbols per second KVM: Kernel Virtual Machine L1: Layer 1 (physical layer) L1-RSRP: Layer 1 reference signal received power L2: Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) L3: Layer 3 (network layer) LAA: Authorization Assisted Access LAN: Local Area Network LADN: Local Area Data Network LBT: Listen Before Talk LCM: Lifecycle Management LCR: Low Chip Rate LCS: Location Services LCID: Logical Channel ID LI: Layer Indicator LLC: Logical Link Control, Low Layer Compatibility LMF: Location Management Function LOS: Line of sight LPLMN: Local PLMN LPP: LTE Positioning Protocol LSB: least significant bit LTE: Long Term Evolution LWA: LTE-WLAN aggregation LWIP: LTE / WLAN radio level integration with IPsec tunnels LTE: Long Term Evolution M2M: Machine to Machine MAC: Medium Access Control (in the context of protocol layering) MAC: Message Authentication Code (security / encryption context) MAC-A: MAC for authentication and key agreement (TSG T WG3 context) MAC-I: MAC for data integrity of signalling messages (TSG T WG3 context) MANO: Management and organization MBMS: Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service MBSFN: Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Single Frequency Network MCC: Mobile Country Code MCG: Master Cell Group MCOT: Maximum Channel Occupancy Time MCS: Modulation and Coding Scheme MDAF: Managed Data Analysis Facility MDAS: Managed Data Analysis Services MDT: Minimizing Drive Testing ME: Mobile device MeNB: Master eNB MER: Message Error Ratio MGL: Measurement gap length MGRP: Measurement gap repetition period MIB: Master Information Block, Management Information Base MIMO: Multiple Input Multiple Output MLC: Mobile Location Center MM: Mobility Management MME: Mobility Management Entity MN: Master node MNO: Mobile Network Operator MO: Measurement object, mobile originated MPBCH: MTC Physical Broadcast Channel MPDCCH: MTC physical downlink control channel MPDSCH: MTC physical downlink shared channel MPRACH: MTC Physical Random Access Channel MPUSCH: MTC physical uplink shared channel MPLS: Multiprotocol Label Switching MS: Mobile station MSB: Most significant bit MSC: Mobile Switching Center MSI: Minimum System Information, MCH Scheduling Information MSID: Mobile Station Identifier MSIN: Mobile Station Identification Number MSISDN: Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number MT: Mobile Terminated, Mobile Termination MTC: Machine Type Communication mMTC: Massive MTC, Massive Machine Type Communication MU-MIMO: Multi-User MIMO MWUS: MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS NACK: Negative Acknowledgement NAI: Network Access Identifier NAS: Non-Access Stratum, Non-Access Stratum layer NCT: Network Connectivity Topology NC-JT: Non-coherent joint transmission NEC: Network function release NE-DC: NR-E-UTRA dual connectivity NEF: Network Publishing Function NF: Network function NFP: Network Forwarding Path NFPD: Network Forwarding Path Descriptor NFV: Network Functions Virtualization NFVI: NFV Infrastructure NFVO: NFV Orchestrator NG: Next Gen NGEN-DC: NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity NM: Network Manager NMS: Network Management System N-PoP: Network Point of Presence NMIB, N-MIB: Narrowband MIB NPBCH: Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel NPDCCH: Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel NPDSCH: Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel NPRACH: Narrowband Physical Random Access Channel NPUSCH: Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel NPSS: Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal NSSS: Narrowband Secondary Synchronization Signal NR: New Radio, Near-Field Relations NRF:NF Repository Function NRS: Narrowband Reference Signal NS: Network Services NSA: Non-standalone operation mode NSD: Network Service Descriptor NSR: Network Service Record NSSAI: Network Slice Selection Assistance Information S-NNSAI Single NSSAI NSSF: Network Slice Selection Function NW: Network NWUS: Narrowband wake-up signal, narrowband WUS NZP: Non-zero power O&M: Operation and Maintenance ODU2: Optical Channel Data Unit Type 2 OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing OFDMA: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access OOB: Out of Band OOS: Out of sync OPEX: Operating cost OSI:Other Systems Information OSS: Operational Support System OTA: Over the Air PAPR: Peak to Average Power Ratio PAR: Peak to Average Ratio PBCH: Physical Broadcast Channel PC: Power control, personal computer PCC: Primary Component Carrier, Primary CC P-CSCF: Proxy CSCF PCell: Primary cell PCI: Physical Cell ID, Physical Cell Identity PCEF: Policy and Charging Enforcement Function PCF: Policy Control Function PCRF: Policy Control and Charging Rules Function PDCP: Packet Data Convergence Protocol, Packet Data Convergence Protocol Layer PDCCH: Physical Downlink Control Channel PDCP: Packet Data Convergence Protocol PDN: Packet Data Network, Public Data Network PDSCH: Physical Downlink Shared Channel PDU: Protocol Data Unit PEI: Permanent Equipment Identifier PFD: Packet Flow Description P-GW: PDN Gateway PHICH: Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel PHY: Physical layer PLMN: Public Land Mobile Network PIN: Personal Identification Number PM: Performance measurement PMI: Precoding Matrix Indicator PNF: Physical Network Function PNFD: Physical Network Function Descriptor PNFR: Physical Network Function Record POC: PTT over Cellular PP, PTP: Point-to-Point PPP: Point-to-Point Protocol PRACH:Physical RACH PRB: Physical Resource Block PRG: Physical resource block group ProSe: Proximity Services, Proximity-Based Services PRS: Positioning Reference Signal PRR: Packet Receive Radio PS: Packet service PSBCH: Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel PSDCH: Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel PSCCH: Physical Sidelink Control Channel PSSCH: Physical Sidelink Shared Channel PSCell: Primary SCell PSS: Primary Synchronization Signal PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network PT-RS: Phase tracking reference signal PTT: Push to talk PUCCH: Physical uplink control channel PUSCH: Physical uplink shared channel QAM: Quadrature Amplitude Modulation QCI: QoS Class of Identifier QCL: Quasi-collocation QFI: QoS flow ID, QoS flow identifier QoS: Quality of Service QPSK: Quadrature (four-phase) phase shift keying QZSS: Quasi-Zenith Satellite System RA-RNTI: Random Access RNTI RAB: Radio Access Bearer, Random Access Burst RACH: Random Access Channel RADIUS: Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service RAN: Radio Access Network RAND: Random number (used for authentication) RAR: Random Access Response RAT: Radio Access Technology RAU: Routing Area Update RB: Resource block, radio bearer RBG: Resource Block Group REG: Resource Element Group Rel: Release REQ:Request RF: Radio Frequency RI: Rank Indicator RIV: Resource Indicator Value RL: Radio Link RLC: Radio Link Control, Radio Link Control Layer RLC AM: RLC acknowledged mode RLC UM: RLC unacknowledged mode RLF: Radio Link Failure RLM: Radio Link Monitoring RLM-RS: Reference signal for RLM RM: Registration Management RMC: Reference Measurement Channel RMSI Remaining MSI, Minimum Remaining System Information RN: Relay node RNC: Radio Network Controller RNL: Radio Network Layer RNTI: Radio Network Temporary Identifier ROHC: Robust Header Compression RRC: Radio Resource Control, Radio Resource Control Layer RRM: Radio Resource Management RS: Reference signal RSRP: Reference signal received power RSRQ: Reference signal reception quality RSSI: Received Signal Strength Indicator RSU: Roadside Unit RSTD: Reference signal time difference RTP: Real Time Protocol RTS: Request to send RTT: Round Trip Time Rx: Reception, receiving, receiver S1AP: S1 Application Protocol S1-MME: S1 for control plane S1-U: S1 for user plane S-CSCF: Serving CSCF S-GW: Serving Gateway S-RNTI: SRNC Radio Network Transient Identity S-TMSI:SAE Temporary Mobile Station Identifier SA: Standalone operation mode SAE: System Architecture Evolution SAP: Service Access Point SAPD: Service Access Point Descriptor SAPI: Service Access Point Identifier SCC: Secondary Component Carrier, Secondary CC SCell: Secondary cell SCEF: Service Function Exposure Function SC-FDMA: Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access SCG: Secondary Cell Group SCM: Security Context Management SCS: Subcarrier spacing SCTP: Stream Control Transmission Protocol SDAP: Service Data Adaptation Protocol, Service Data Adaptation Protocol Layer SDL: Auxiliary Downlink SDNF: Structured Data Storage Network Functions SDP: Session Description Protocol SDSF: Structured Data Storage Facility SDT: Small data transmission SDU: Service Data Unit SEAF: Security Anchor Function SeNB: Secondary eNB SEPP: Security Edge Protection Proxy SFI: Slot Format Indication SFTD: Space-Frequency Time Diversity, SFN and Frame Timing Difference SFN: System Frame Number SgNB: Secondary gNB SGSN: Serving GPRS Support Node S-GW: Serving Gateway SI: System Information SI-RNTI: System Information RNTI SIB: System Information Block SIM: Subscriber Identity Module SIP: Session Initiation Protocol SiP: System in Package SL: Side link SLA: Service Level Agreement SM: Session Management SMF: Session Management Facility SMS: Short Message Service SMSF: SMS function SMTC: SSB-based measurement timing configuration SN: Secondary node, sequence number SoC: System on Chip SON: Self-organizing network SpCell: Special cell SP-CSI-RNTI: Semi-persistent CSI RNTI SPS: Semi-persistent scheduling SQN: Sequence number SR: Scheduling Request SRB: Signalling Radio Bearer SRS: Sounding Reference Signal SS: Synchronization signal SSB: Synchronization signal block SSID: Service Set Identifier SS / PBCH Block SSBRI SS / PBCH block resource indicator, synchronization signal block resource indicator SSC: Session and Service Continuity SS-RSRP: Synchronization signal-based reference signal received power SS-RSRQ: Synchronization signal-based reference signal reception quality SS-SINR: Synchronization signal-based signal-to-noise-and-interference ratio SSS: Secondary Synchronization Signal SSSG: Search Space Set Group SSSIF: Search Space Set Indicator SST: Slice / Service Type SU-MIMO: Single User MIMO SUL: Auxiliary Uplink TA: Timing advance, tracking area TAC: Tracking Area Code TAG: Timing Advance Group TAI: Tracking Area Identity TAU: Tracking Area Update TB: Transport block TBS: Transport Block Size TBD: undefined TCI:Transmission Configuration Indicator TCP: Transmission communication protocol TDD: Time division duplex TDM: Time division multiplexing TDMA: Time Division Multiple Access TE: Terminal equipment TEID: Tunnel Endpoint Identifier TFT: Traffic Flow Template TMSI: Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity TNL: Transport Network Layer TPC: Transmit Power Control TPMI: Transmit Precoding Matrix Indicator TR: Technical report TRP, TRxP: Transmit Receiving Point TRS: Tracking Reference Signal TRx: Transmitter / Receiver TS: Technical specifications, technical standards TTI: Transmission Time Interval Tx: Transmission, Transmitting, Transmitter U-RNTI: UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identity UART: Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter UCI: Uplink Control Information UE: User Equipment UDM: Unified Data Management UDP: User Datagram Protocol UDSF: Unstructured Data Storage Network Functions UICC: Universal Integrated Circuit Card UL: Uplink UM: Unauthorized Mode UML: Unified Modeling Language UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System UP: User plane UPF: User Plane Function URI: Uniform Resource Identifier URL: Uniform Resource Locator URLLC: Ultra-reliable and low latency USB: Universal Serial Bus USIM: Universal Subscriber Identity Module USS:UE specific search space UTRA: UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access UTRAN: Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network UwPTS: Uplink pilot time slot V2I: Vehicle to Infrastructure V2P: Pedestrian-to-Vehicle V2V: Vehicle-to-vehicle distance V2X: Vehicle to Everything VIM: Virtualization Infrastructure Manager VL: Virtual Link VLAN: Virtual LAN, Virtual Local Area Network VM: Virtual machine VNF: Virtualized Network Functions VNFFG: VNF forwarding graph VNFFGD: VNF forwarding graph descriptor VNFM: VNF Manager VoIP: Voice over IP, Voice over Internet Protocol VPLMN: Visited Public Land Mobile Network VPN: Virtual Private Network VRB: Virtual Resource Block WiMAX(R): Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network WMAN: Wireless Metropolitan Area Network WPAN: Wireless Personal Area Network X2-C: X2-Control Plane X2-U: X2-User Plane XML: Extensible Markup Language XRES: Expected User Response XOR: Exclusive OR ZC:Zadoff-Chu ZP: Zero Power term For purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

[0123] As used herein, the term "circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes hardware components such as electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or groups) and / or memories (shared, dedicated, or groups), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), complex PLDs (CPLDs), high capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or programmable SoCs), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., configured to provide a described functionality. In some embodiments, a circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term "circuitry" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or combinations of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) and program code used to perform the functions of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

[0124] As used herein, the term "processor circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes a circuitry capable of continuously and automatically performing a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and / or transferring digital data. The processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores that execute instructions, and one or more memory structures that store program and data information. The term "processor circuitry" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, physical central processing units (CPUs), single-core processors, dual-core processors, triple-core processors, quad-core processors, and / or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and / or functional processes. The processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, and the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and / or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms "application circuitry" and / or "baseband circuitry" may be considered synonymous with and may be referred to as "processor circuitry." As used herein, the term "interface circuitry" refers to, is a part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuitry" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an I / O interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, and the like.

[0125] As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" refers to a device having wireless communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communication network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous with and may be referred to as client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Additionally, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless / wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

[0126] As used herein, the term "network element" refers to physical or virtualized equipment and / or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communications network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and / or may be referred to as a networked computer, networked hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, etc.

[0127] As used herein, the term "computer system" refers to any type of interconnected electronic device, computing device, or components thereof. In addition, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled to each other. Furthermore, the terms "computer system" and / or "system" may refer to multiple computing devices and / or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled to each other and configured to share computing and / or networking resources.

[0128] As used herein, the terms "appliance," "computer appliance," and the like refer to a computing device or system having program code (e.g., software or firmware) specifically designed to provide particular computing resources. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computing appliance or is otherwise dedicated to providing particular computing resources.

[0129] As used herein, the term "resource" refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component in a computing environment, and / or a physical or virtual component in a particular device, such as a computing device, a mechanical device, memory space, processor / CPU time, processor / CPU usage, processor and accelerator load, hardware time or usage, power, input / output operations, ports or network sockets, channel / link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and application, workload units, etc. A "hardware resource" may refer to a computation, storage, and / or network resource provided by a physical hardware element. A "virtualization resource" may refer to a computation, storage, and / or network resource provided by a virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term "network resource" or "communication resource" may refer to a resource that is accessible by a computing device / system via a communication network. The term "system resource" may refer to any type of shared entity for providing services and may include computing and / or network resources. A system resource may be viewed as a set of coherent functions, network data objects, or services that reside on a single host or on multiple hosts and are accessible through a clearly identifiable server.

[0130] As used herein, the term "channel" refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, used to communicate data or data streams. The term "channel" may be synonymous with and / or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and / or any other similar terminology indicating a path or medium over which data is communicated. Additionally, as used herein, the term "link" refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

[0131] As used herein, terms such as "instantiate" and "instantiation" refer to the creation of an instance. An "instance" may also refer to a concrete occurrence of an object that may arise during the execution of program code, for example.

[0132] The terms "coupled" and "communicatively coupled", along with their derivatives, are used herein. The term "coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other, may mean that two or more elements are in indirect contact with each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and / or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term "directly coupled" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with each other. The term "communicatively coupled" may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with each other by communication, including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, etc.

[0133] The term "information element" refers to a structural element that contains one or more fields. The term "field" refers to an information element that contains content or an individual piece of content of a data element.

[0134] The term "SMTC" refers to the SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

[0135] The term "SSB" refers to SS / PBCH block.

[0136] The term "primary cell" refers to an MCG cell operating on a primary frequency on which a UE either performs an initial connection establishment procedure or initiates a connection re-establishment procedure.

[0137] The term "primary SCG cell" refers to an SCG cell to which the UE performs random access when performing a Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation.

[0138] The term "secondary cell" refers to a cell that provides additional radio resources over a special cell for UEs configured with CA.

[0139] The term "secondary cell group" refers to a serving cell that includes a PSCell and a subset of zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with a DC.

[0140] The term "serving cell" refers to a primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED that is not configured with CA / DC, and there is only one serving cell, including the primary cell.

[0141] The term "serving cell" or "serving cells" refers to a set of cells including special cells and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA.

[0142] The term "special cell" refers to a PCell of an MCG or a PSCell of an SCG in case of DC operation; otherwise, the term "special cell" refers to a Pcell. [Other possible items] [Item 1] one or more processors; and One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions, which, when executed, implement a Core Network (CN) logical entity of a cellular network. wherein the logical entity comprises: identifying, from a base station of the cellular network, a service request associated with a service of the cellular network to be provided to a service subscriber of the cellular network; Identifying an indication of the service in a cloud service registry function of the network; Identifying a service endpoint associated with the service based on the indication of the service; and providing the base station with an indication of the service endpoint; 1. An electronic device. [Item 2] 2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the service subscriber is a user equipment (UE) or an application provider. [Item 3] 2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the logical entity is a Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF). [Item 4] 2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the logical entity is further for identifying an indication of the service from a compute plane control function (CF) or a data plane CF. [Item 5] The logical entities are: identifying the indication of the service in the cloud service registry function if the service is provided by a cloud-based entity communicatively coupled to the network; and identifying the indication of the service from the compute plane CF or the data plane CF if the service is provided by an entity of the network; 5. The electronic device according to item 4, [Item 6] 6. The electronic device according to item 5, wherein the entity of the network is a computation plane service function (SF) or a data plane SF of the network. [Item 7] The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the logical entity is further for establishing a service transport between the service endpoints through a communication plane service function (SF). [Item 8] 7. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the base station is a base station of a sixth generation (6G) network. [Item 9] A base station of a cellular network, the base station comprising: one or more processors; and Upon execution of instructions by the one or more processors, the base station: Identifying a request for one or more network-based computational resources from a user equipment (UE) of the 6G cellular network; identifying one or more network-based computing resources based on the request; and providing, to the UE, an indication of the one or more network-based computing resources. one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising the instructions to cause A base station comprising: [Item 10] The instructions to the base station: sending a request for computing resources to a Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF) of the 6G network based on the request from the UE; and identifying the indication of the one or more network-based computing resources from the SOCF; 10. The base station according to item 9, further comprising: [Item 11] Item 11. The base station according to item 10, wherein the one or more network-based computational resources are associated with a computation plane control function (CF) or a computation plane service function (SF). [Item 12] 12. The base station of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the base station to facilitate service session establishment using the computation plane CF associated with use of the one or more network-based computational resources. [Item 13] 13. The base station of any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein the base station is for allocating the one or more network-based computational resources for use by the UE based on the request for one or more network-based computational resources. [Item 14] Item 14. The base station of item 13, wherein the one or more network-based computing resources are identified by the base station prior to receipt of the request for the one or more network-based computing resources. [Item 15] A user equipment (UE) of a cellular network, the UE comprising: one or more processors; and Upon execution of instructions by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the UE to: establishing a remote direct memory access (RDMA) connection with a base station of the cellular network; and Transmitting one or more RDMA messages to the base station. one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising the instructions to cause A UE equipped with the above. [Item 16] 16. The base station of claim 15, wherein the RDMA message is for prompting direct data placement in an application memory buffer of a device communicatively coupled to the base station. [Item 17] Item 17. The base station of item 16, wherein the device is communicatively coupled to the base station by a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) connection or an Ethernet connection. [Item 18] 18. The base station according to any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein the RDMA connection involves RDMA queue pair (QP) establishment between the UE and the base station. [Item 19] The base station according to any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein the transmitting of the one or more RDMA messages includes mapping one or more RDMA protocol fields to radio layer protocol fields of an air interface connection between the UE and the base station. [Item 20] one or more processors; and Upon execution of the instructions by the one or more processors, a user plane (UP) network function: Identifying the flow identity or packet label of a UP packet; and Processing the UP packets based on the flow identity or packet label. one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising the instructions to cause An electronic device comprising: [Item 21] 21. The electronic device of claim 20, wherein processing the UP packet includes forwarding the UP packet based on the flow identity or packet label. [Item 22] 21. The electronic device of claim 20, wherein the packet label includes an indication of how the UP packet is to be processed. [Item 23] 24. The electronic device according to any one of claims 20 to 23, wherein the UP network function is a base station UP function or a core network UP function. [Item 24] 24. The electronic device of any one of claims 20 to 23, wherein the UP network function is preconfigured with information related to processing the UP packet based on the flow identity or the packet label of the UP packet. [Item 25] 25. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein the information related to processing the UP packet includes information related to inserting or removing a packet label in the UP packet.

Claims

1. one or more processors; and One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions, which, when executed, implement a Core Network (CN) logical entity of a cellular network. wherein the logical entity comprises: identifying, from a base station of the cellular network, a service request associated with a service of the cellular network to be provided to a service subscriber of the cellular network; Identifying an indication of said service from a compute plane Control Function (CF) or a data plane CF; Identifying a service endpoint associated with the service based on the indication of the service; and providing the base station with an indication of the service endpoint; 1. An electronic device.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the service subscriber is a user equipment (UE) or an application provider.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the logical entity is a Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF).

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the logical entity is further for identifying an indication of the service in a cloud service registry function of the cellular network.

5. The logical entities are: Identifying the indication of the service in the cloud service registry function if the service is provided by a cloud-based entity communicatively coupled to the cellular network; and identifying the indication of the service from the computation plane CF or the data plane CF if the service is provided by an entity of the cellular network; The electronic device according to claim 4 .

6. The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein the entity of the cellular network is a computation plane Service Function (SF) or a data plane SF of the cellular network.

7. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the logical entity is further for establishing a service transport between the service endpoints through a communication plane Service Function (SF).

8. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the base station is a base station of a sixth generation (6G) network.

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