Importance identification indication capability

Abstract

Systems and methods for indication of PSI level identification capability for traffic flows are provided. A wireless device can transmit, to a network node, assistance information including an indication that the wireless device is capable of determining a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) Set Importance (PSI) level for at least one traffic flow. The wireless device can receive a PDU Set and determining its PSI level in accordance with its associated PSI indicator.

Description

IMPORTANCE IDENTIFICATION INDICATION CAPABTI TTYCROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 624622 filed on January 24, 2024, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communications and wireless communication networks.INTRODUCTION

[0003] Standardization bodies such as Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) are studying potential solutions for efficient operation of wireless communication in new radio (NR) networks. The next generation mobile wireless communication system NR will support a diverse set of use cases and a diverse set of deployment scenarios. The later includes deployment at both low frequencies (e.g. 100s of MHz), similar to LTE today, and very high frequencies (e.g. mm waves in the tens of GHz).

[0004] 5G is the fifth generation of mobile communications, addressing a wide range of use cases from Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) to Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) to Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC). 5G includes the New Radio (NR) access stratum interface and the 5G Core Network (5GC). The NR physical and higher layers are reusing parts of the LTE specification, and to that add needed components when motivated by new use cases.

[0005] Low-latency high-rate applications such as extended Reality (XR) and cloud gaming are important in the 5G era. XR may refer to all real-and-virtual combined environments and human-machine interactions generated by computer technology and wearables. It is an umbrella term for different types of realities including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and the areas interpolated among them. The levels of virtuality range from partially sensory inputs to fully immersive VR.

[0006] 5G / NR is designed to support applications demanding high rate and low latency in line with the requirements posed by the support of XR and cloud gaming applications in NR networks.3 GPP Release 17 contains a study item on XR Evaluations for NR. The main objectives are to identify the traffic model for each application of interest, the evaluation methodology and the key performance indicators of interest for relevant deployment scenarios, and to carry out performance evaluations accordingly in order to investigate possible standardization enhancements.

[0007] Low-latency high-rate XR applications

[0008] The low-latency applications like XR and cloud gaming require “bounded latency”, not necessarily ultra-low latency. The end-to-end latency budget may be in the range of 20-80 ms which needs to be distributed over several components including application processing latency, transport latency, radio link latency, etc. For these applications, short transmission time intervals (TTIs) or mini-slots targeting ultra-low latency may not be effective.

[0009] Figure 1 illustrates an example of frame latency measured over radio access network (RAN), excluding application and core network latencies. It can be noted that frame latency spikes exist in RAN. The latency spike(s) occur due to instantaneous shortage of radio resources or inefficient radio resource allocation in response to varying frame size. The sources of the latency spikes can include queuing delay, time-varying radio environments, time-varying frame sizes, among others. Tools that can help to remove latency spikes may be beneficial to enable better 5G support for this type of traffic

[0010] In addition to bounded latency requirements, the applications like XR and cloud gaming also require high-rate transmission. This can be seen from the large frame sizes originated from this type of traffic. The typical frame sizes may range from tens of kilobytes to hundreds of kilobytes. The frame arrival rates may be 60 or 120 frames per second (fps). As a concrete example, a frame size of 100 kilobytes and a frame arrival rate of 120 fps can lead to a rate requirement of 95.8 Mbps.

[0011] A large video frame is usually fragmented into smaller IP packets and transmitted as several Transport Blocks (TBs) over several TTIs in RAN. Figure 2 illustrates an example of the cumulative distribution functions of the number of transport blocks required to deliver a video frame with size ranging from 20 KB to 300 KB. For example, Figure 2 shows that for delivering the frames with a size of 200 KB each, the median number of needed TBs is 5.

[0012] The characteristics of XR traffic arrival are quite distinct from typical web-browsing and VoIP traffic as shown in Figure 3. It is expected that the arrival time is quasi-periodic and largely predictable as VoIP. However, its data size is order of magnitude larger than VoIP, asdiscussed above. In addition, similar to web-browsing, the data size is different at every application PDU arrival instance due to the dynamic nature of the contents and human motion.

[0013] As discussed above, many XR applications can generate traffic periodically with a variable size. When an application packet enters the internet, the initial packet may be transmitted into a single PDU in the network or may be segmented into several PDUs. One application packet could, for instance, correspond to one or several IP packets.

[0014] IP packets will arrive to the PDCP layer (e.g. PDCP SDUs) and the PDCP layer will create PDCP PDUs and will deliver then to lower layers. When an IP packet arrives to PDCP, the PDCP layer starts a PDCP discard timer. When this timer expires, the PDCP discards the PDCP SDU as well as the corresponding PDCP Data PDU. If the PDCP PDU was delivered to lower layers, PDCP indicates the discard to lower layers. Lower layers (e.g. RLC) will discard the PDCP PDUs (RLC SDUs) if these RLC SDU or any segment of the RLC SDU has not yet been transmitted to lower layers.

[0015] As discussed above, an application PDU (e.g. a video frame) is divided into multiple IP packets. All these IP packets which belong to one video frame can be defined as PDU Set.SUMMARY

[0016] It is an object of the present disclosure to obviate or mitigate at least one disadvantage of the prior art.

[0017] There are provided systems and methods for indication of PSI level identification capability for traffic flows.

[0018] In a first aspect there is provided a method performed by a wireless device. The wireless device can comprise a radio interface and processing circuitry and be configured to transmit assistance information including an indication that the wireless device is capable of determining a PSI level for at least one traffic flow. The wireless device receives a PDU Set and an associated PSI indicator; and determines the PSI level for the received PDU Set in accordance with the PSI indicator.

[0019] In some embodiments, the assistance information can be a UEAssistancelnformation message. In some embodiments, the assistance information can further include an indication that the wireless device is able to identify PDU Set related information.

[0020] In some embodiments, the wireless device receives at least one of a configuration message and a capability request message. The assistance information can be transmitted in response to the at least one configuration message and capability request message.

[0021] In some embodiments, the indication that the wireless device is capable of determining the PSI level is a multibit field indicating a plurality of identifiable PSI levels.

[0022] In some embodiments, the assistance information further includes a flow index identifier.

[0023] In some embodiments, the wireless device can discard the received PDU set in accordance with the determined PSI level.

[0024] In another aspect there is provided a method performed by a network node. The network node can comprise a radio interface and processing circuitry and be configured to receive, from a wireless device, assistance information including an indication that the wireless device is capable of determining a PSI level for at least one traffic flow.

[0025] In some embodiments, the assistance information can be a UEAssistancelnformation message. In some embodiments, the assistance information can further include an indication that the wireless device is able to identify PDU Set related information.

[0026] In some embodiments, the network node transmits, to the wireless device, at least one of a configuration message and a capability request message.

[0027] In some embodiments, the indication that the wireless device is capable of determining the PSI level is a multibit field indicating a plurality of identifiable PSI levels.

[0028] In some embodiments, the assistance information can further include a flow index identifier.

[0029] In some embodiments, the network node can select a configuration of at least one PSI- related feature in accordance with the received assistance information.

[0030] The various aspects and embodiments described herein can be combined alternatively, optionally and / or in addition to one another.

[0031] Other aspects and features of the present disclosure will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying figures.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0032] Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:

[0033] Figure 1 illustrates an example of frame latency;

[0034] Figure 2 illustrates an example of transport blocks required to deliver a video frame;

[0035] Figure 3 illustrates an example of XR traffic characteristics;

[0036] Figure 4 is an example communication system;

[0037] Figure 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method performed by a wireless device;

[0038] Figure 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method performed by a network node;

[0039] Figure 7 is a block diagram of an example wireless device;

[0040] Figure 8 is a block diagram of an example network node;

[0041] Figure 9 is a block diagram of an example host; and

[0042] Figure 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example virtualization environment.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] The embodiments set forth below represent information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the description and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the description.

[0044] In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits, structures, and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the understanding of the description. Those of ordinary skill in the art, with the included description, will be able to implement appropriate functionality without undue experimentation.

[0045] References in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled inthe art to implement such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0046] Figure 4 illustrates an example of a communication system 100 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0047] In the example, the communication system 100 includes a telecommunication network 102 that includes an access network 104, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 106, which includes one or more core network nodes 108. The access network 104 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 110A and HOB (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 110), or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point. The network nodes 110 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 112A, 112B, 112C, and 112D (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 112) to the core network 106 over one or more wireless connections.

[0048] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 100 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 100 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0049] The UEs 112 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 110 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 110 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 112 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 102 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 102.

[0050] In the depicted example, the core network 106 connects the network nodes 110 to one or more hosts, such as host 116. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled tohosts. The core network 106 includes one or more core network nodes (e.g. core network node 108) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 108. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Location Management Function (LMF), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0051] The host 116 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 104 and / or the telecommunication network 102, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 116 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

[0052] As a whole, the communication system 100 of Figure 4 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g. 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

[0053] In some examples, the telecommunication network 102 is a cellular network that implements 3 GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 102 maysupport network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 102. For example, the telecommunications network 102 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive loT services to yet further UEs.

[0054] In some examples, the UEs 112 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 104 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 104. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi -RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0055] In the example, the hub 114 communicates with the access network 104 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g. UE 112C and / or 112D) and network nodes (e.g. network node HOB). In some examples, the hub 114 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 114 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 106 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 114 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 110, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 114. As another example, the hub 114 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 114 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 114 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 114 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 114 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular in if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0056] The hub 114 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node HOB. The hub 114 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 114 and UEs (e.g. UE 112C and / or 112D), and between the hub 114 and the corenetwork 106. In other examples, the hub 114 is connected to the core network 106 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 114 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 104 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 110 while still connected via the hub 114 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 114 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node HOB. In other embodiments, the hub 114 may be a nondedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node HOB, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0057] Note that the description given herein focuses on a 3 GPP cellular communications system and, as such, 3GPP terminology or terminology similar to 3GPP terminology is oftentimes used. However, the concepts disclosed herein are not limited to a 3GPP system.

[0058] Note that, in the description herein, reference may be made to the term “cell”. However, particularly with respect to 5G / NR concepts, beams may be used instead of cells and, as such, it is important to note that the concepts described herein are equally applicable to both cells and beams.

[0059] Returning to the discussion of low-latency applications such as XR, there currently exists certain challenges. XR Application Protocol Data Units (PDUs) (herein, the term Application Data Unit (ADU) will be used interchangeably) may have time constrains. This means that one, or a set, of application PDUs may need to reach the receiver within a certain period of time, i.e., with a limited latency. If the application PDU(s) is / are not received by this time, the application PDU(s) is / are not of any use and can be discarded.

[0060] 3GPP Release 18 agreements on XR features

[0061] SA2 in 3GPP TS 23.700 identified that PDU sets could be assigned with a PDU Set Importance indicator. This parameter can be used to identify the importance of a PDU Set within a QoS flow. RAN may use it for PDU Set level packet discarding in presence of congestion.

[0062] “PDU Set” as defined by 23.700: A PDU Set is composed of one or more PDUs carrying the payload of one unit of information generated at the application level (e.g. a frame or video slice for XRM Services, as used in TR 26.926). In some implementations all PDUs in a PDU Set are needed by the application layer to use the corresponding unit of information. In other implementations, the application layer can still recover parts all or of the information unit, when some PDUs are missing.

[0063] 3GPP has agreed on having a “PDU Set Importance” (PSI) indicator which indicates a certain importance level for the said PDU Set. The importance level of the PDU Sets indicates how useful the PDU Set is for the application, the assumption being that low importance PDU Sets can be down-prioritized, or even discarded, in favour of more reliable delivery of higher importance PDU Sets.

[0064] In Release 18 XR WI new solutions for UL PSI based discarding was introduced. The solution introduced is dependent on the UE performing the identification of the PSI levels of the PDU Sets and determining what is a low or high importance PDU Set, and then applying the behavior / actions configured by the network on each of the PDU Set(s) depending on their identified importance. No information about the PDU Sets is delivered to the network.

[0065] Furthermore, a solution for the UE to indicate if it is able to identify the PDU sets for a certain QoS flow was introduced based on this agreement in RAN2 # 123 -bis (Oct 2023):

[0066] - UE can indicate to the RAN whether a UL QoS flow can be identified with PDU sets, as a UL traffic parameter via UE Assistance Information message.

[0067] This indication can be included in the UAI message. An exert of the UEAssistancelnformation message from 3GPP TS 38.331 is as follows:UL-Traf ficlnfo-r!8 : := SEQUENCE (SIZE ( 1. .maxNrofPDU-Sessions-r!7 ) ) OF PDU- SessionUL-Traf ficlnfo-r!8PDU-SessionUL-Traf ficlnfo-r!8 : := SEQUENCE { pdu-SessionID-r!8 PDU-SessionlD, qos-FlowUL-Traf fidnfoList-rl8 SEQUENCE (SIZE ( 1. .maxNrofQFIs ) ) OFQOS-FlowUL-Traf f iclnf o-r!8}QOS-FlowUL-Traf ficlnfo-r!8 : := SEQUENCE { qfi-r!8 INTEGER ( 0. . maxQFI ) , j it ter Range- r 18 SEQUENCE { lowerBound-rl8 JitterBound-rl8 , upperBound-rl8 JitterBound-rl8} OPTIONAL, burstArrivalTime-rl8 CHOICE { referenceTime ReferenceTime-rl6, referenceSFN-AndSlot Ref erenceSFN-AndSlot-r!8} OPTIONAL traf f icPeriodicity-rl8 INTEGER (1..640000) OPTIONAL, pduSetIdentification-rl8 BOOLEAN OPTIONAL,}ReferenceSFN-AndSlot-rl8 : := SEQUENCE { referenceSFN-rl8 INTEGER (0..1023) , referenceSlot-r!8 INTEGER (0..639)}JitterBound- rl 8 : : = ENUMERATED { ms O , ms 0dot5 , ms l , ms ldot5 , ms2 , ms2dot5 , ms 3 , ms 3dot5 , ms 4 , ms 4dot5 , ms 5 , ms 5dot5 , ms 6 , ms 6dot5 , ms 7 , beyondMs 7 }— TAG-UEASSI STANCEINFORMATION-STOP— ASN1STOP

[0068] The example UEAssistancelnformation message above includes the parameter “pduSetldentification” indicating whether the UE is able to identify PDU Set related information for the QoS flow. If set to true, then the UE is able to identify PDU set related information. Otherwise, the UE is not able to identify PDU set related information.

[0069] However, according to the agreement this indication only indicates the ability of the UE to identify PDU Sets. No further details on the PSI identification are indicated, as this can vary between QoS flows where PDU Sets are identifiable.

[0070] PSI may be used by the network and the UE to drop packets under certain circumstances or situations. However, the capability for the UE to do the determination of the PSI levels of PDU Sets may vary between application services and traffic flows, e.g. varying based on available information provided by the application or the application assigning PSI levels at all. Similarly, as with the PDU Set identification, the network does not know if a UE is able to identify the PDU Sets of a certain traffic flow unless the UE indicates this. Currently a network can only guess if a UE is able to perform the PSI identification of a certain traffic flow based on the UE capability.

[0071] Some embodiments disclosed herein include the addition of capability indication of PSI level identification from the UE to the network. Accordingly, some embodiments provide the network with information of the UEs ability to do PSI level identification of certain traffic flows which can be used by the network when selecting configuration of PSI based features.

[0072] PSI identification ability can be sorted into two possibilities, either reporting the ability of identification of PSI levels or the identification of high and low importance PDU Sets. The identification and categorization of high and low importance PDU Sets can be dependent on the PSI levels, but UE may not always be able to do the categorization despite being able to identify PSI levels. In some implementations the high and low importance PDU Sets may be identifiable despite the UE not being able to identify the PSI levels.

[0073] Reports and triggers

[0074] The indication can be configured to be transmitted through different reports and with different triggering mechanisms. In one option, the network can explicitly request the PSI identification / level indication or it can also configure the triggering condition to report them.

[0075] In one embodiment, the QOS-FlowUL-TrafficInfo-rl8 IE within the UAI can be updated with a new IE indicating that PDU Set Importance can be identified in the associated QoS flow and PDU Session.

[0076] In another embodiment, the network can configure the information to be sent after or as a part of the RRC setup complete message. In another way, a network requests the PSI identification capability report and a UE will trigger to report it before a PSI capability report timer, which can also be configured by a network, is expired. This will ensure that a network can ensure to avoid too late reporting of UE capability related to PSI information.

[0077] Formats of indication

[0078] In one embodiment, the IE can consist of a single bit which is indicating whether PSI levels can be identified on the QoS flow.

[0079] In another example, the IE can be a single bit indicating whether high and low importance PDU Sets can be identified on the QoS flow, or it could, alternatively, apply to all QoS flows for the service.

[0080] In yet another example, the IE can be a single bit which combined indicates both that PSI levels can be identified, and the support of two levels (e.g. high / low importance PDU Sets).

[0081] In another embodiment, the IE can be a multibit field indicating all different options whether the UE is able to either identify PSI levels and / or identify high and low importance PDU Set.

[0082] In yet another example, the new IE can be a multibit field indicating the identifiable PDU Set importance levels, e.g. the IE can signal that PSI level 0 and PSI level 4 can be identified. The multibit field can in this example indicate a list of the identifiable PSI levels.

[0083] In addition to the IE referred to above, the UE may be able to report this information for QoS flow ID (e.g. QFI) or for a certain flow index (being a flow index an ID that uniquely identifies the flow e.g. video, audio, haptics, tactile, etc. for the said service). Multiple options are then possible. One bit can be used to indicate the support of PSI identification, and additional bits used to indicate the index for which PSI identification is possible, and / or additional bits to indicate the levels which are possible to identify.

[0084] Additionally, the capability information may also include meta information related to each level, e.g. the expected ratio of high and low PSI level across the observed PDU Set data. For example, the meta information could indicate that PSI level X and Y are observed, and that PSI level X and Y constitute 30% and 70% of the observed data respectively.

[0085] Figure 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method which can be performed by wireless device, such as UE 112 as described herein. The method can include:

[0086] Step 120: Optionally, the wireless device can receive configuration information from the network. The configuration information can include configuring the wireless device to transmit capability reporting according to one or more trigger condition(s).

[0087] Step 122: Optionally, the wireless device can receive a request for capability reporting. The request can be received from a network node such as a gNB. The capability reporting request can be associated with the wireless device’s ability to identify PSI information and / or levels.

[0088] Step 124: The wireless device transmits assistance information including an indication of PSI level identification capability. The capability information can be associated with a certain traffic flow (e.g. PDU session(s), PDU set(s), QoS flow). The assistance information can be transmitted in a UEAssistancelnformation message to a gNB or another network node. The PSI level indication can indicate one or more of: a UE’ s capability of identifying PSI level(s) associated with a QoS flow, and / or a UE’s capability of identifying / categorizing the importance associated with PDU Set(s).

[0089] In some embodiments, the PSI level indication can be a single bit field indicating whether PSI level(s) and / or importance of PDU Set(s) can be identified in one or more QoS flow.

[0090] In some embodiments, the PSI level indication can be a multi-bit field indicating whether PSI level(s) and / or importance of PDU Set(s) can be identified in one or more QoS flow.

[0091] In some embodiments, the assistance information can include further statistical information (e.g. PDU Set Sequence Number, PDU Set Size, PDU sequence number within the PDU Set, importance indication, latency parameter(s), etc.) as described herein.

[0092] Step 126: The wireless device determines a PSI level and / or importance associated with a received traffic flow (e.g. data, a PDU set, a QoS flow).

[0093] It will be appreciated that one or more of the above steps can be performed simultaneously and / or in a different order. Also, steps illustrated in dashed lines are optional and can be omitted in some embodiments.

[0094] Figure 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method which can be performed by a network node such as a gNB 110 as described herein. The method can include:

[0095] Step 130: Optionally, the network node can transmit configuration information to one or more wireless devices. The configuration information can include configuring a wireless device to transmit capability reporting according to one or more trigger condition(s).

[0096] Step 132: Optionally, the network node can transmit a request for capability reporting to a wireless device. The capability reporting request can be associated with the wireless device’s ability to identify PSI information and / or levels.

[0097] Step 134: The network node receives assistance information including an indication of PSI level(s) identification capability. The capability information can be associated with a certain traffic flow (e.g. PDU session(s), PDU set(s)). The assistance information can be received in a UEAssistancelnformation message transmitted by a wireless device. The PSI level indication can indicate one or more of: a UE’s capability of identifying PSI level(s) associated with a QoS flow, and / or a UE’s capability of identifying / categorizing the importance associated with PDU Set(s).

[0098] Step 136: Optionally, the network node can select a configuration of PSI-related feature(s) in accordance with the received assistance information, including but not limited to the PSI level capability indication. The network node can configure certain QoS flow handling parameters based on the capability indicated by the wireless device.

[0099] It will be appreciated that one or more of the above steps can be performed simultaneously and / or in a different order. Also, steps illustrated in dashed lines are optional and can be omitted in some embodiments.

[0100] Some embodiments described herein include:

[0101] Al. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: transmitting assistance information including a PDU Set Identification (PSI) level indication, wherein the PSI level indication indicates at least one of: a capability of identifying PSI level(s) associated with a traffic flow, and / or a capability of identifying an importance associated with PDU Set(s).

[0102] A2. The method of Al, wherein the assistance information is aUEAssistancelnformation message.

[0103] A3. The method of Al, further comprising, receiving at least one of a configuration message and / or a capability request message.

[0104] A4. The method of A3, wherein the assistance information is transmitted in response to the configuration message and / or the capability request message.

[0105] A5. The method of Al, further comprising, identifying at least one of a PSI level and / or importance associated with a received traffic flow.

[0106] A6. A wireless device comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to perform the method of any one of embodiments A1-A5.

[0107] Bl. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: receiving assistance information including a PDU Set Identification (PSI) level indication, wherein the PSI level indication indicates at least one of: a capability of identifying PSI level(s) associated with a traffic flow, and / or a capability of identifying an importance associated with PDU Set(s).

[0108] B2. The method of Bl, wherein the assistance information is aUEAssistancelnformation message.

[0109] B3. The method of Bl, further comprising, transmitting at least one of a configuration message and / or a capability request message.

[0110] B4. The method of Bl, further comprising, selecting a configuration of at least one PSI- related feature in accordance with the received assistance information.[oni] B5. A network node comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to perform the method of any one of embodiments B1-B4.

[0112] Figure 7 shows a UE 200, which may be an embodiment of the UE 112 of Figure 4 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0113] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehi cl e-to- vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to- everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a humanuser who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0114] The UE 200 includes processing circuitry 202 that is operatively coupled via a bus 204 to an input / output interface 206, a power source 208, a memory 210, a communication interface 212, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in Figure 9. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0115] The processing circuitry 202 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 210. The processing circuitry 202 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field- programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general -purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 202 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0116] In the example, the input / output interface 206 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 200. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output devicemay use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0117] In some embodiments, the power source 208 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 208 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 208 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 200 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 208. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 208 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 200 to which power is supplied.

[0118] The memory 210 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 210 includes one or more application programs 214, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 216. The memory 210 may store, for use by the UE 200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0119] The memory 210 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 210 may allow the UE 200 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, suchas one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 210, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0120] The processing circuitry 202 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 212. The communication interface 212 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 222. The communication interface 212 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 218 and / or a receiver 220 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 218 and receiver 220 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 222) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0121] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 212 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0122] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 212, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0123] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0124] A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or itemtracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 200 shown in Figure 7.

[0125] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3 GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0126] In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speedinformation (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0127] Figure 8 shows a network node 300, which may be an embodiment of the access node 110 or the core network node 108 of Figure 4, in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)).

[0128] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

[0129] Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0130] The network node 300 includes a processing circuitry 302, a memory 304, a communication interface 306, and a power source 308. The network node 300 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, ora BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 300 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 300 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 304 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 310 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 300 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 300, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 300.

[0131] The processing circuitry 302 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 300 components, such as the memory 304, to provide network node 300 functionality.

[0132] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 302 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 302 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 312 and baseband processing circuitry 314. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 312 and the baseband processing circuitry 314 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 312 and baseband processing circuitry 314 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0133] The memory 304 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile ornon-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 302. The memory 304 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 302 and utilized by the network node 300. The memory 304 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 302 and / or any data received via the communication interface 306. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 302 and memory 304 is integrated.

[0134] The communication interface 306 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 306 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 316 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 306 also includes radio front-end circuitry 318 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 310. Radio front-end circuitry 318 comprises filters 320 and amplifiers 322. The radio front-end circuitry 318 may be connected to an antenna 310 and processing circuitry 302. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 310 and processing circuitry 302. The radio front-end circuitry 318 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 318 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 320 and / or amplifiers 322. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 310. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 310 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 318. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 302. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0135] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 300 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 318, instead, the processing circuitry 302 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 310. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 312 is part of the communication interface 306. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 306 includes one or more ports or terminals 316, the radio front-end circuitry 318, and the RF transceiver circuitry 312, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and thecommunication interface 306 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 314, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0136] The antenna 310 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 310 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 318 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 310 is separate from the network node 300 and connectable to the network node 300 through an interface or port.

[0137] The antenna 310, communication interface 306, and / or the processing circuitry 302 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 310, the communication interface 306, and / or the processing circuitry 302 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.

[0138] The power source 308 provides power to the various components of network node 300 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 308 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 300 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 300 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 308. As a further example, the power source 308 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0139] Embodiments of the network node 300 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 8 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 300 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 300 and to allow output ofinformation from the network node 300. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 300.

[0140] Figure 9 is a block diagram of a host 400, which may be an embodiment of the host 116 of Figure 4, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, the host 400 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and / or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm. The host 400 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

[0141] The host 400 includes processing circuitry 402 that is operatively coupled via a bus 404 to an input / output interface 406, a network interface 408, a power source 410, and a memory 412. Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as Figures 7 and 8, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 400.

[0142] The memory 412 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 414 and data 416, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 400 or data generated by the host 400 for a UE. Embodiments of the host 400 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 414 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems). The host application programs 414 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host 400 may select and / or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 414 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.

[0143] Figure 10 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 500 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context,virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 500 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized.

[0144] Applications 502 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment 500 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0145] Hardware 504 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 506 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 508a and 508b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 508), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 506 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 508.

[0146] The VMs 508 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 506. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 502 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 508, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high-volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

[0147] In the context of NFV, a VM 508 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 508, and that part of hardware 504 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 508 on top of the hardware 504 and corresponds to the application 502.

[0148] Hardware 504 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 504 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 504 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 510, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 502. In some embodiments, hardware 504 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 512 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0149] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitionedbetween separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0150] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

[0151] The above-described embodiments are intended to be examples only. Alterations, modifications and variations may be effected to the particular embodiments by those of skill in the art without departing from the scope of the description.ABBREVIATIONSAt least some of the following abbreviations may be used in this disclosure. If there is an inconsistency between abbreviations, preference should be given to how it is used above. If listed multiple times below, the first listing should be preferred over any subsequent listing(s).Ix RTT CDMA2000 lx Radio Transmission Technology3 GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project 5G 5th Generation 6G 6thGeneration ABS Almost Blank SubframeARQ Automatic Repeat Request AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise BCCH Broadcast Control Channel BCH Broadcast Channel CA Carrier Aggregation CC Carrier ComponentCCCH SDU Common Control Channel SDU CDMA Code Division Multiplexing Access CGI Cell Global IdentifierCIR Channel Impulse Response CP Cyclic Prefix CPICH Common Pilot Channel CPICH Ec / No CPICH Received energy per chip divided by the power density in the bandCQI Channel Quality information C-RNTI Cell RNTI CSI Channel State Information DCCH Dedicated Control Channel DL Downlink DM Demodulation DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal DRX Discontinuous Reception DTX Discontinuous Transmission DTCH Dedicated Traffic Channel DUT Device Under Test E-CID Enhanced Cell-ID (positioning method) eMBMS evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast ServicesE-SMLC Evolved- Serving Mobile Location Centre ECGI Evolved CGI eNB E-UTRAN NodeB ePDCCH Enhanced Physical Downlink Control ChannelE-SMLC Evolved Serving Mobile Location CenterE-UTRA Evolved UTRAE-UTRAN Evolved UTRANFDD Frequency Division Duplex FFS For Further Study gNB Base station in NR GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request HO Handover HSPA High Speed Packet Access HRPD High Rate Packet Data LOS Line of Sight LPP LTE Positioning Protocol LTE Long-Term Evolution MAC Medium Access Control MAC Message Authentication Code MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network MBSFN ABS MBSFN Almost Blank Subframe MDT Minimization of Drive Tests MIB Master Information Block MME Mobility Management Entity MSC Mobile Switching Center NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel NR New Radio OCNG OFDMA Channel Noise Generator OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access OSS Operations Support System OTDOA Observed Time Difference of Arrival O&M Operation and Maintenance PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel P-CCPCH Primary Common Control Physical Channel PCell Primary Cell PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol PDP Profile Delay Profile PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel PGW Packet Gateway PHICH Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel PLMN Public Land Mobile Network PMI Precoder Matrix Indicator PRACH Physical Random Access Channel PRS Positioning Reference Signal PSS Primary Synchronization Signal PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel RACH Random Access Channel QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation RAN Radio Access NetworkRAT Radio Access Technology RLC Radio Link Control RLM Radio Link Management RNC Radio Network Controller RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier RRC Radio Resource Control RRM Radio Resource Management RS Reference Signal RSCP Received Signal Code Power RSRP Reference Symbol Received Power OR Reference Signal Received PowerRSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality OR Reference Symbol Received QualityRS SI Received Signal Strength Indicator RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference SCH Synchronization Channel SCell Secondary Cell SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol SDU Service Data Unit SFN System Frame Number SGW Serving Gateway SI System Information SIB System Information Block SNR Signal to Noise Ratio SON Self Optimized Network ss Synchronization Signal sss Secondary Synchronization Signal TDD Time Division Duplex TDOA Time Difference of Arrival TOA Time of Arrival TSS Tertiary Synchronization Signal TTI Transmission Time Interval UE User Equipment UL Uplink USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module UTDOA Uplink Time Difference of Arrival WCDMA Wide CDMA WLAN Wide Local Area Network

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising: transmitting assistance information including an indication that the wireless device is capable of determining a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) Set Importance (PSI) level for at least one traffic flow; receiving a PDU Set and an associated PSI indicator; and determining the PSI level for the received PDU Set in accordance with the PSI indicator.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the assistance information is a UEAssistancelnformation message.

3. The method of any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the assistance information further includes an indication that the wireless device is able to identify PDU Set related information.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising, receiving at least one of a configuration message and a capability request message.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the assistance information is transmitted in response to the at least one configuration message and capability request message.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the indication that the wireless device is capable of determining the PSI level is a multibit field indicating a plurality of identifiable PSI levels.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the assistance information further includes a flow index identifier.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising, discarding the received PDU set in accordance with the determined PSI level.

9. A wireless device comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to: transmit assistance information including an indication that the wireless device is capable of determining a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) Set Importance (PSI) level for at least one traffic flow; receive a PDU Set and an associated PSI indicator; and determine the PSI level for the received PDU Set in accordance with the PSI indicator.

10. The wireless device of claim 9, wherein the assistance information is a UEAssistancelnformation message.

11. The wireless device of any one of claims 9 to 10, wherein the assistance information further includes an indication that the wireless device is able to identify PDU Set related information.

12. The wireless device of any one of claims 9 to 11, further configured to receive at least one of a configuration message and a capability request message.

13. The wireless device of claim 12, wherein the assistance information is transmitted in response to the at least one configuration message and capability request message.

14. The wireless device of any one of claims 9 to 13, wherein the indication that the wireless device is capable of determining the PSI level is a multibit field indicating a plurality of identifiable PSI levels.

15. The wireless device of any one of claims 9 to 14, wherein the assistance information further includes a flow index identifier.

16. The wireless device of any one of claims 9 to 15, further configured to discard the received PDU set in accordance with the determined PSI level.

17. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: receiving, from a wireless device, assistance information including an indication that the wireless device is capable of determining a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) Set Importance (PSI) level for at least one traffic flow.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the assistance information is a UEAssistancelnformation message.

19. The method of any one of claims 17 to 18, wherein the assistance information further includes an indication that the wireless device is able to identify PDU Set related information.

20. The method of any one of claims 17 to 19, further comprising, transmitting, to the wireless device, at least one of a configuration message and a capability request message.

21. The method of any one of claims 17 to 20, wherein the indication that the wireless device is capable of determining the PSI level is a multibit field indicating a plurality of identifiable PSI levels.

22. The method of any one of claims 17 to 21, wherein the assistance information further includes a flow index identifier.

23. The method of any one of claims 17 to 22, further comprising, selecting a configuration of at least one PSI-related feature in accordance with the received assistance information.

24. A network node comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to: receive, from a wireless device, assistance information including an indication that the wireless device is capable of determining a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) Set Importance (PSI) level for at least one traffic flow.

25. The network node of claim 24, wherein the assistance information is a UEAssistancelnformation message.

26. The network node of any one of claims 24 to 25, wherein the assistance information further includes an indication that the wireless device is able to identify PDU Set related information.

27. The network node of any one of claims 24 to 26, further configured to transmit, to the wireless device, at least one of a configuration message and a capability request message.

28. The network node of any one of claims 24 to 27, wherein the indication that the wireless device is capable of determining the PSI level is a multibit field indicating a plurality of identifiable PSI levels.

29. The network node of any one of claims 24 to 28, wherein the assistance information further includes a flow index identifier.

30. The network node of any one of claims 24 to 29, further configured to select a configuration of at least one PSI-related feature in accordance with the received assistance information.

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