Radio resource management measurement signaling on open radio access network open fronthaul interface

Abstract

A network node in a communications network can be configured to provide a radio unit, RU The network node can obtain (1730) a plurality of measurements, each measurement of the plurality of measurements associated with a symbol of a plurality of symbols. The network 5 node can determine (1740) a value that is an average of a subset of the plurality of measurements. The network node can transmit (1750) a message to a distributed unit, DU. The message can include an indication of the value and an indication of a subset of the plurality of symbols that corresponds to the subset of the plurality of measurements.

Description

RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT MEASUREMENT SIGNALING ON OPEN RADIO ACCESS NETWORK OPEN FRONTHAUL INTERFACETECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure is related to wireless communication systems and more particularly to radio resource management (“RRM”) measurement signaling on open radio access network (“O-RAN”) open fronthaul interface.BACKGROUND

[0002] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a new radio (“NR”) network (e.g., a 5th Generation (“5G”) network) including a 5G core (“5GC”) network 130, network nodes 120a-b (e.g., 5G base station (“gNB”)), multiple communication devices 110 (also referred to as user equipment (“UE”)).

[0003] Massive multiple-input-multiple-output (“MIMO”) techniques have been first adopted to practice in long term evolution (“LTE”). In 5G, it becomes a key technology component, which can be deployed in a much larger scale than in LTE. It features a large number of antennas used on the base-station side, where the number of antennas is typically much larger than the number of user-layers, for example, 64 antennas serving 8 or 16 userlayers in frequency range 1 (“FR1”), which includes sub-6 GHz frequency bands, and 256 / 512 antennas serving 2 or 4 layers in frequency range 2 (“FR2”), which includes frequency bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz.

[0004] A user layer can be used herein to refer to an independent downlink or uplink data stream intended for one user. One user or UE may have one or multiple user layers. A user layer can also be referred to as a layer in the 3rdgeneration partnership project (“3GPP”) terminology. Massive MIMO can also be referred to as massive beamforming, which is able to form narrow beams focusing on different directions to counteract against the increased path loss at higher frequency bands. It also benefits multi-user MIMO which allows for transmissions from / to multiple users simultaneously over separate spatial channels resolved by the massive MIMO technologies, while keeping high capacity for each user. Therefore, it can significantly increase the spectrum efficiency and cell capacity.

[0005] At the base-station side, the interface between the distributed unit (“DU”) and the radio unit (RU) is the fronthaul interface, as shown in FIG. 2. The great benefits of massive MIMO at the air-interface also introduce new challenges at the base-station side. The legacy common public radio interface (“CPRI”)-type fronthaul transports time-domain in-phase and quadrature (“IQ”) samples per antenna branch. As the number of antennas scales up in massive MIMO systems, the required fronthaul capacity also increases proportionally, whichsignificantly drives up the fronthaul costs. To address this challenge, the fronthaul interface evolves from CPRI to enhance CPRI (“eCPRI”), a packet-based fronthaul interface. In eCPRI, other functional split options between a distributed unit (“DU”) and a radio unit (“RU”) are supported, referred to as different lower-layer split (“LLS”) options. In the eCPRI standard specification, the terms eCPRI Radio Equipment Control (“eREC”) and (eCPRI Radio Equipment (“eRE”) are used instead of DU and RU. The basic idea is to move the frequencydomain beamforming function from DU to RU so that frequency samples or data of user-layers are transported over the fronthaul interface. Note that the frequency -domain beamforming is sometimes also referred to as precoding in the downlink (“DL”) direction and equalizing or preequalizing in uplink (“UL”) direction. By doing this, the required fronthaul capacity and thereby the fronthaul costs are significantly reduced, as the number of user layers is typically much fewer than the number of antennas in massive MIMO. In open radio access network (“O- RAN”), DU is referred to as O-DU while RU is referred to as O-RU.SUMMARY

[0006] Various embodiments herein are associated with a revised measurement report from the O-RU. In some embodiments, the symbolMask in the report (e.g., MEAS IPN ALLOC or MEAS_IPN_UNALLOC) shows over which symbols the measurement has been averaged, or for which individual symbol the measurement was performed. In some examples, multiple reports are sent when values for multiple symbols or averages from multiple symbol groups has been requested.

[0007] Various embodiments herein are associated with a measurement request command from the O-DU. In some embodiments, the symbol mask (symbolMask) is used to indicate over which symbols the measurement is requested to be averaged (e.g., measurement command in ST 11). In some examples, multiple commands are sent when values for multiple symbols or averages from multiple symbol groups are requested.

[0008] According to some embodiments, a method of operating a network node in a communications network is provided. The network node is configured to provide a radio unit, RU. The method includes obtaining a plurality of measurements, each measurement of the plurality of measurements associated with a symbol of a plurality of symbols. The method further includes determining a value that is an average of a subset of the plurality of measurements. The method further includes transmitting a message to a distributed unit, DU, the message including: an indication of the value; and an indication of a subset of the plurality of symbols that corresponds to the subset of the plurality of measurements.

[0009] According to other embodiments, a method of operating a first network node in a communications network is provided. The network node is configured to provide a distributed unit, DU. The method includes transmitting a request for measurement data to a radio unit, RU. The method further includes, responsive to transmitting the request for measurement data, receiving a message from the RU. The message includes an indication of a value that is an average of a subset of a plurality of measurements and an indication of a subset of the plurality of symbols that correspond to the subset of the plurality of measurements.

[0010] According to other embodiments, a network entity (e.g., a O-RAN distributed unit (“O-DU”), an O-RAN radio unit (“O-RU”), a DU, a RU, or a RAN node), a computer program, computer program product, or non-transitory computer readable medium is provided to perform one of the above methods.

[0011] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantages. In some embodiments, no extra flag (ipnPerSym) is needed in Section Type 11 (“ST 11”) to control averaging or per-symbol measurement. In additional or alternative embodiments, the symbolMask in the measurement report can be used to identify which symbols that were averaged (in case of averaging), or to which individual symbol the report applies. If both the ST 11 command and the report are implemented according to this proposal, the ST 10 reports for MEAS IPN UN ALLOC can just copy the symbolMask from the corresponding ST 11 command. In some examples, identifying the symbols that were averaged using a symbol mask can be beneficial if multiple measurements are requested for different subsets of symbols. In additional or alternative examples, if a RU cannot fulfill a measurement exactly as requested (e.g., due to limitation on a maximum number of symbols it can process), it can indicate in the symbol mask, which symbols were actually measured and averaged.

[0012] In additional or alternative embodiments, a report can include multiple measurements of IpN for allocated PRBs, but fewer than the number of DMRS groups or the number of DMRS symbols. It can be only reported on a subset of DMRS groups or DMRS symbols, while in the existing approach IpN measurements for allocated PRB are reported on all DMRS groups or DMRS symbols, e.g., in the per-symbol mode. For example, for DMRS configuration with 3 DMRS groups, it may be sufficient to report on 2 DMRS groups, e.g., the first one and the third one. Further, the invention also allows to report multiple IPN measurements, each of which is average over multiple DMRS groups.

[0013] In additional or alternative embodiments, flexible requesting and reporting of averaging over multiple different groups of symbols for same PRB is enabled.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate certain non-limiting embodiments of inventive concepts. In the drawings:

[0015] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a 5thgeneration (“5G”) network;

[0016] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a fronthaul interface between a radio unit (“RU”) and a distributed unit (“DU”);

[0017] FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a weight based dynamic beamforming (“WDBF”) implementation;

[0018] FIG. 4 is a signal flow diagram illustrating an example of an UL control-plane (“C- plane”) and user-plane (“U-plane”);

[0019] FIGS. 5-6 are block diagrams illustrating examples of subvariants of demodulation reference signal beamforming with equalization (“DMRS-BF-EQ”) implementations;

[0020] FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a DMRS-BF-NEQ implementation;

[0021] FIG. 8 is a table illustrating an example of a Section Type 11 (“ST 11”) message associated with a request for radio resource management (“RRM”) measurement;

[0022] FIG. 9 is a table illustrating an example of a measurement command of interference plus noise (“IpN”) for unallocated physical resource blocks (“PRBs”);

[0023] FIG. 10 is a table illustrating an example of a Section Type 10 (“ST 10”) message associated with RRM measurement reports frame format;

[0024] FIG. 11 is a table illustrating an example of an IpN for allocated PRBs measurement report;

[0025] FIG. 12 is a table illustrating an example of an IpN for unallocated PRBs measurement report;

[0026] FIG. 13 is a table illustrating an example of a revised measurement command of IpN for unallocated PRBs in accordance with some embodiments;

[0027] FIG. 14 is a table illustrating an example of a revised measurement command of IpN for unallocated PRBs in accordance with some embodiments;

[0028] FIG. 15 is a table illustrating an example of a revised IpN for allocated PRBs measurement report in accordance with some embodiments;

[0029] FIG. 16 is a table illustrating an example of a revised IpN for allocated PRBs measurement report in accordance with some embodiments;

[0030] FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a radio unit, RU, in accordance with some embodiments;

[0031] FIG. 18 is a flow chart illustrating an example of operations performed by a distributed unit, DU, in accordance with some embodiments;

[0032] FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;

[0033] FIG. 20 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0034] FIG. 21 is a block diagram of a network node in accordance with some embodiments;

[0035] FIG. 22 is a block diagram of a host computer communicating with a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

[0036] FIG. 23 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments; and

[0037] FIG. 24 is a block diagram of a host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0038] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art, in which examples of embodiments of inventive concepts are shown. Inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of present inventive concepts to those skilled in the art. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present / used in another embodiment.

[0039] Herein the term user layer can refer to an independent downlink (“DL”) or uplink (“UL”) data stream intended for one user. One user or communication devices (also referred to herein as a user equipment (“UE”)) may have one or multiple user layers. Massive MIMO can also be referred to as massive beamforming, which is able to form narrow beams focusing on different directions to counteract against the increased path loss at higher frequency bands. It also benefits multi-user MIMO which allows for transmissions from / to multiple users simultaneously over separate spatial channels resolved by the massive MIMO technologies,while keeping high capacity for each user. Therefore, it can significantly increase the spectrum efficiency and cell capacity.

[0040] At the base-station side, the interface between the baseband unit (“BBU”) and the radio unit (“RU”) is the fronthaul interface, whereas the interface between the BBU and the core network (“CN”) is the backhaul interface. The great benefits of massive MIMO at the airinterface also introduce new challenges at the base-station side. The legacy common public radio interface (“CPRI”)-type fronthaul transports time-domain quadrature (“IQ”) samples per antenna branch. As the number of antennas scales up in massive MIMO systems, the required fronthaul capacity also increases proportionally, which significantly drives up the fronthaul costs. To address this challenge, the fronthaul interface evolves from CPRI to enhanced CPRI (“eCPRI”), a packet-based fronthaul interface. In eCPRI, other functional split options between a BBU and a RU are supported, referred to as different lower-layer split (“LLS”) options. The basic idea is to move the frequency -domain beamforming function from BBU to RU so that frequency samples or data of user-layers are transported over the fronthaul interface. Note that the frequency-domain beamforming is sometimes also referred to as precoding in the DL direction and equalizing or pre-equalizing in UL direction. By doing this, the required fronthaul capacity and thereby the fronthaul costs can be significantly reduced, as the number of user layers is typically much fewer than the number of antennas in massive MIMO.

[0041] This is true for the massive MIMO case, but it is not only the beamforming that is moved. First, eCPRI allowed moving OFDM FFT / IFFT to the RU, removing the overhead of the cyclic prefix and of the oversampling of time-domain signals. This gives benefits also for classic Macro radios. Then, beamforming is moved to the RU for massive MIMO radios, which gives a significant reduction in fronthaul bitrate by sending spatial streams or layers over the interface instead of one stream per antenna.

[0042] The term radio unit (“RU”) can be used herein to refer to a network node (or a portion of a network node) that performs radio functions including a portion of physical layer (“PHY”) functions according to an LLS option. The RU can perform conversions between radio frequency (“RF”) signals and baseband signals. On the network side a RU can transmit and receive the frequency-domain IQ data (modulated user data) or unmodulated user data to and from BBU through a fronthaul interface (e.g. eCPRI). The RU can also transmit and receive the RF signals to and from UEs through its antennas.

[0043] The term baseband unit (“BBU”) can be used herein to refer to a network entity (e.g., a network node or a portion of a network node) that performs baseband processing. The BBU can communicatively couple to the CN via a backhaul interface or to a central unit (“CU”) via an Fl interface.

[0044] In an open radio access network (“O-RAN”) the BBU and RU can be referred to as O-DU and O-RU, respectively. In D-MIMO terminology, the RU can also be referred to as an access point (“AP”) and the BBU can be referred to as a central processing unit (“CPU”) or edge cloud processor. In some terminologies, the RU can also be referred to as remote radio unit (“RRU”) and the BBU can be referred to as a digital unit or distributed unit (“DU”). In eCPRI terminologies, the BBU and the RU are referred to as an eCPRI radio equipment control (“eREC”) and eCPRI radio equipment (“eRE”) respectively. In another terminology, a BBU and a RU may be referred to as a LLS-CU and a LLS-DU respectively. The BBU and its equivalence can also be softwarized or virtualized as Baseband Processing Function in a Cloud environment. Use of the terms BBU and RU herein are not intended to limit the application of the innovation, which can be used in any suitable wireless field.

[0045] The term desired cell / channel can be used herein to refer to the cell / channel which connects to the UEs of the K user-layers.

[0046] The term user-plane data can be used herein to mean, for example, frequencydomain user-layer data sent over fronthaul.

[0047] The term channel information can be used herein to mean, for example, information about channel properties carried by the channel values. The term channel value / data can also be used here to refer to, for example, one or a set of complex values representing the amplitude and phase of the channel coefficients in frequency domain. The channel values are related to the frequency response of the wireless channel.

[0048] The term beam can be used herein to refer to a directional beam formed by multiplying a signal with different weights, in frequency-domain, at multiple antennas such that the energy of the wanted signal is concentrated to a certain direction and / or the energy of the interreference signal is nulled at a certain direction.

[0049] The term beamforming can be used herein to refer to a technique which multiplies a signal with different weights (in frequency-domain) at multiple antennas, which enables the signal energy to be sent in space with a desired beam pattern by forming a directional beam concentrating on certain direction or forming nulling in certain direction, or a combination of both.

[0050] The term beamforming weight (“BFW”) can be used herein to refer to a set of one or more complex weights, each set is multiplied with a signal of one user-layer at a subcarrier or a group of subcarriers. The weighted signals of different user layers towards the same antenna or transmit beam are combined linearly. As a result, different user-layer signals are beamformed to different directions. The wording beamforming performance when used herein may mean signal quality in DL at the UE side after the beamforming has been performed at the base-station side,measured by, for example, post-processing signal-to-interference-and-noise-power ratio (“SINR”) at a UE, resulted user throughput, bit rate, etc.

[0051] The term antenna array can be used herein to refer to a set of multiple antennas which are used collectively to transmit and / or receive signal. In some examples, an antenna array is one antenna panel on which multiple antennas are placed. In additional examples, among these multiple antennas, more than one antennas are connected together and used as one antenna, which is connected to one radio frequency (“RF”) component (e.g., a power amplifier or a low-noise amplifier). These connected antennas can be referred to as a subarray. From a baseband processing perspective, one subarray can act as one antenna. In this example, an antenna array is composed of multiple subarrays, each of which is composed of multiple antennas. In general, the size of a subarray is 1 when each subarray is composed of only one antenna. In some other terminologies, antennas in an antenna array are referred to as antenna elements. In O-RAN terminology, subarray can be referred to as array element and an antenna array can be referred to as an antenna. In O-RAN terminology, each antenna can include multiple array elements.

[0052] The term antenna ports can be used herein to refer to subarrays of an antenna array. When a subarray size is 1, each antenna port can correspond to each antenna. In O-RAN terminology, an antenna port can refer to an array element. In some examples, an antenna port is also referred to as a digital antenna port, where each digital antenna port corresponds to one antenna seen from baseband processing. In downlink, the output signals of beamforming in the frequency domain can be sent to the corresponding antenna ports.

[0053] Various embodiments herein focuses on the uplink (“UL”) direction of the fronthaul interface. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of the UL Weight-based Dynamic Beamforming (“WDBF”) implementation supported by the current O-RAN WG4 specification. By having the beamforming function in the O-RU, the number of streams going through the fronthaul interface becomes smaller than the number of antenna branches. However, the beamforming weights are calculated in the O-DU based on the sounding reference signal (“SRS”) sent back from the O- RU. Since the SRS channel estimates correspond to an earlier channel, the required number of streams is still much larger than the number of layers to avoid performance loss, compared to that using CPRI-based fronthaul. In some examples, CPRI has one stream per antenna so it can be worse than O-RAN WG4 WDBF, which requires a number of spatial streams larger than the number of layers, but can be smaller than the number of antennas. Retrieving more beams than the number of antennas may not be useful since there is no additional information. Accordingly, there is a tradeoff between the number of streams used and the performance.

[0054] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of the control-plane (“C-plane”) and user-plane (“U- plane”) data flow for WDBF. For every slot, the O-DU sends first C-plane messages to convey the scheduling information to the O-RU. The scheduling information includes the resource elements (“REs”) to be scheduled, the beam identifier (“ID”) (referred to herein as beamld) which represents the beamforming weights pre-stored in the O-RU, the beamforming weights (“BFWs”) to be used. The O-RU receives the scheduling information and then processes the scheduled REs according to the scheduling information received, e.g., perform beamforming (i.e., apply the beamforming weights received directly or indicated by the beam ID received) for the scheduled REs. Then the O-RU sends the processed REs (i.e., U-plane data) in U-plane messages to the O-DU.

[0055] There is another type of beamforming procedure defined in the current O-RAN WG4 specification, referred as Channel Information based Beamforming (“CIBF”). In CIBF, instead of transferring BFWs or beamld, the O-DU transfers to the O-RU the scheduled layers and the SRS channel estimates of the scheduled layers in the C-plane messages. The O-RU uses the received information (i.e., the scheduled REs, the scheduled layers and their channel estimates for the scheduled REs) to calculate the BFWs and perform beamforming to the scheduled REs using the calculated BFWs. Then the O-RU sends the processed REs (i.e., U- plane data) in U-plane messages to the O-DU. In the specification, each scheduled layer is conveyed by a field called “ueld” in C-plane message. Although the field name is “ueld”, the ueld represents a layer, not a UE. For a UE with multiple layers scheduled, it needs multiple ueld(s) where each ueld represent one layer of the UE.

[0056] O-RAN WG4 has agreed to improve the current specification by introducing a new beamforming method referred to as demodulation reference signal based beamforming (“DMRS-BF”) to achieve the best performance using the minimum fronthaul bit rate, i.e. reducing the number of streams to the number of layers. There are two implementation variants of DMRS-BF solutions that are being standardized in O-RAN WG4. The first variant is referred to as DMRS based beamforming with equalization (“DMRS-BF-EQ”), where equalization is performed in O-RU. The second variant is referred to as DMRS based beamforming without equalization (“DMRS-BF-NEQ”), where equalization is not performed in O-RU.

[0057] In wireless communication, an equalizer performs an equalization operation on the input signal, which reverses the distortion caused by the end-to-end channel including the transmitter chain, the over-the-air channel (including the wanted channel and the interference channel), and the receiver chain. After the equalization, the equalized symbols can be demodulated by a demodulator. When the input signal is from multiple transmitters whichsend different data, the equalizer may also mitigate the interferences between them. Equalizers can be linear or non-linear. Examples of linear equalizers are zeroforcing equalizer, MMSE equalizer etc. Examples of non-linear equalizers are decision-feedback equalizer (“DFE”), successive interference cancellation (“SIC”) receiver etc.

[0058] The DMRS-BF-EQ variant has two implementation sub-variants. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of one of the sub-variants, in which the O-DU does not perform an additional equalization. In addition to the equalized data symbols, the O-RU sends the signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) measurement from the O-RU to the O-DU which are used by the O-DU to demodulate the equalized symbols. The SINR measurement represents the measured / estimated SINR values, e.g., per physical resource block (PRB) or finer frequency resolution per layer, which is used by the demodulator for demodulation of the symbols of each RE per layer, e.g., the demodulation algorithm based on LLR (log likelihood ratio). The equalized data symbols are often referred to as soft values in demodulation terminology.

[0059] FIG. 6 shows the second implementation sub-variant, in which the O-DU performs an additional equalization. This sub-variant is intended to support advanced receiver algorithms (e.g. SIC receiver, IRC-CoMP receiver) which need channel estimates in the O- DU. In this subvariant, the O-RU sends both equalized data symbols and equalized DMRS symbols which are equalized in the same way as the equalized data symbols. The O-DU will use the received equalized DMRS to estimate the effective channel including air interface channel and the O-RU processing (e.g. equalization done by the O-RU). Then, the effective channel estimates are used to further process the data symbols.

[0060] As shown in FIGS. 5-6, for both subvariants of DMRS-BF-EQ, O-RU will send RRM (Radio Resource Management) measurements which are calculated or measured before beamforming and equalization. These measurements can’t be calculated in the O-DU. That’s why these measurements are calculated by the O-RU and sent to the O-DU. Some examples of the RRM measurements are listed below.

[0061] Timing advance error (“TAE”): this is used for UE Timing Advance (TA). This measurement is one TAE value per UE.

[0062] Received signal power of UE: this is used for UE closed loop power control. This measurement is one value per UE layer.

[0063] Frequency offset of UE: O-RU reports the frequency offset measured. This measurement is one value per UE.

[0064] Interference plus noise (“IPN”) power measurement: O-RU calculates the power of received interference and noise per PRB. This is useful for the scheduler in the O-DU to optimize scheduling decisions. There are two kinds of IPN measurements, i.e., IPN for theallocated PRBs and the non-allocated PRBs, respectively. The allocated PRBs are the PRBs scheduled for UE traffic, while the non-allocated PRBs are the PRBs having not UE traffic scheduled. This measurement can be one value per PRB or one value per PRB per symbol.

[0065] In addition to the list above, other possible RRM measurements (such as delay spread, doppler shift, AoA (angle of arrival)) are also beneficial to support. These measurements are usually performed and reported in every slot. In some configurations, some measurements may be requested on demand by the O-DU.

[0066] FIG. 7 shows the implementation of DMRS-BF-NEQ. In this case, the O-RU only performs beamforming without doing equalization. The O-RU sends both beamformed data symbols and beamformed DMRS symbols which are beamformed in the same way as the beamformed data symbols. The O-DU will use the received beamformed DMRS to estimate the effective channel including air interface channel and the O-RU processing (e.g., beamforming done by the O-RU). Then, the effective channel estimates are used to perform the equalization, the DMRS-BF-NEQ O-RU may perform some measurements, e.g., frequency offset, Rx signal power, TAE, Doppler shift, etc. But it may use these measurements by itself, not reporting them to the O-DU. It may also support measuring and reporting some measurements, e.g., IPN.

[0067] Various embodiments discussed herein apply to the O-RAN Open Fronthaul Interface, described in the O-RAN Working Group 4 (“WG4”) Control, User, and Synchronization (“CUS”) plane specification. There is also a corresponding specification for the Management plane (“M-Plane”). In WG4, a work item for uplink performance improvement is ongoing with the aim for WG4 to standardize Demodulation Reference Signal based beamforming (“DMRS-BF”) for uplink where the O-RAN Radio Unit (“O-RU”) performs channel estimation based on DMRS signals, and calculates and applies beamforming weights with equalization (“DMRS-BF -EQ”) or without equalization (“DMRS-BF-NEQ”) included. Change Requests are currently being written and reviewed, to include the desired functionality, targeting version 15 of the CUS-plane and M-plane specifications.

[0068] DMRS-BF can support both single-user MIMO (“SU-MIMO”) and multi-user MIMO (“MU-MIMO”).

[0069] An O-RU supporting DMRS-BF-EQ must support reporting of certain RRM measurements to the O-RAN Distributed Unit (“O-DU”) since some measurements are impossible for the O-DU to perform on the equalized uplink data received from the O-RU. Some RRM measurements may also be desired and / or necessary for DMRS-BF-NEQ.

[0070] RRM measurements are proposed to be reported in a new Section Type 10 in a coming version 15 of the WG4 CUS-plane specification. Examples of RRM measurement typesinclude, but are not limited to the following (enumeration of measurement types in parentheses after the name):• MEAS UE TAE(l) o Timing Advance Error, reported e.g., per User Equipment (“UE”)• MEAS_UE_LAYER_P0WER(2) o UE layer power, reported per UE layer• MEAS_UE_FREQ_OFFSET(3) o Frequency Offset, reported e.g., per UE (or per UE layer)• MEAS_IPN_ALL0C(4) o Interference plus noise (“IpN”) for allocated resource blocks (“PRBs”), reported per PRB and per slot or per individual DMRS symbols• MEAS_IPN_UNALL0C(5) o IpN for unallocated PRBs, reported per PRB and per slot or individual symbols• MEAS_DMRS_SNR(6) o DMRS SNR per antenna, reported per layer and per antenna (array element)

[0071] All of the above measurements, except IpN for unallocated PRBs, are measured on DMRS signals, and thus can require the information of the DMRS configuration used. For DMRS-BF, the DMRS configuration will be provided by with anew Section Extension, SE 24 (proposed to be sent together with Section Type 5), which is used by the O-RU to perform DMRS based beamforming and to calculate the RRM measurements.

[0072] Measurement of IpN for unallocated PRBs is proposed to be triggered by the new Section Type 11 (ST 11) and a command with measTypeld (also sometimes referred to as measCfgTypeld) = 5 (MEAS IPN UNALLOC). PRB range for the measurement is described in the ST 11 header using similar parameters as in already existing C-Plane Section Types for sending scheduling information from O-DU to the O-RU. The measurement command is appended to the ST 11 Section and each measurement command contains a flag ‘mf , which if true indicates that there is an additional command following the current one, and if false indicates the current command is the last one. The command contains a symbol mask (symbolMask) field to indicate which OFDM symbols to measure on and a 1 -bit flag, ipnPerSym, to indicate if the measurement shall be an average over the indicated symbols (ipnPerSym = 0), or if separate values for each OFDM symbol are desired (ipnPerSym = 1).

[0073] FIG. 8 is a table illustrating an example of a Section Type 11 (“ST 11”) message associated with a request for radio resource management (“RRM”) measurement.

[0074] FIG. 9 is a table illustrating an example of a measurement command of interference plus noise (“IpN”) for unallocated physical resource blocks (“PRBs”).

[0075] Measurement of IpN for allocated PRBs is requested implicitly (after enabling via M-plane) when the 0-DU sends Section Type 5 in combination with a new proposed Section Extension, SE 24 for DMRS configuration, to the O-RU. In that case, the symbol mask can be implicit (according to DMRS symbols), or explicit. Currently, it has been proposed to include a flag like ipnPerSym in SE 24, controlling whether to report a single average value per PRB, or multiple values. There have also been discussions regarding any benefits of including an explicit DMRS mask, but the O-RU can determine such mask from the DMRS configuration.

[0076] For DMRS configurations where there are groups of adjacent DMRS symbols separated by data symbols, it may be sufficient to report an average per group of such DMRS symbols. The advantage is that C-Plane bitrate from the O-RU decreases somewhat. The decision to report per DMRS symbol or per DMRS symbol group could be configurable via M- Plane, or a decision for one or the other might be made when finalizing the normative text.

[0077] Reporting is currently proposed to be done via ST 10 with dedicated measurement reports for MEAS_IPN_ALLOC (value = 4), and MEAS IPN UN ALLOC (value = 5) although the same report could have been used. The current assumption is that a report based on an average over multiple symbols (triggered with ipnPerSym = 0 in ST 11 command or in SE 24) is indicated with an all-zero symbolMask, while the number of ones in a non-zero symbolMask indicates the number of measurement values in the symbol dimension. For MEAS_IPN_UNALLOC, the ones in the mask represent the symbols where measurements were taken. For MEAS_IPN_UNALLOC, the mask will show the symbols where measurements were taken if ipnPerSym = 1 and reporting is per DMRS symbol. If instead reporting is per DMRS symbol group, the mask will indicate the first symbol in each group.

[0078] FIG. 10 is a table illustrating an example of a Section Type 10 (“ST 10”) message associated with RRM measurement reports frame format.

[0079] FIG. 11 is a table illustrating an example of an IpN for allocated PRBs measurement report.

[0080] FIG. 12 is a table illustrating an example of an IpN for unallocated PRBs measurement report.

[0081] The reporting of measurements spanning OFDM symbol dimension (currently applicable for IpN) may not be flexible. In some examples, when averaging over all DMRS or ST 11 command indicated symbols is used (ipnPerSym = 0), the symbolMask in the report is all-zero and cannot be used to distinguish different averages for same PRB range. This can be a disadvantage e.g., if IpN for allocated PRBs is measured as an average value per DMRS group and it is desired to measure IpN for unallocated PRBs in the same way, i.e., multiple different averages for same PRB range.

[0082] In additional or alternative examples, if SE 24 is later extended with e.g., another flag to (in addition to the proposed ipnPerSym) select between per DMRS symbol and per DMRS symbol group measurement of IpN, the ST 10 IpN report format cannot distinguish between the two modes.

[0083] Various embodiments herein describe revising the ST 11 command forMEAS IPN UNALLOC. In some embodiments, the ipnPerSym flag in the ST 11 command is no longer needed and can be removed. Instead, averaging is always implied over the symbols in the symbolMask and one instance of the measurement command is invoked per group of symbols to average.

[0084] In some examples, two commands could be sent in a ST 11 message. A first measurement command can include a request to average over, for example, the first 7 symbols in a slot with 14 symbols (set symbolMask = 00 0000 0111 1111b where the least significant bit corresponds to symbol zero). A second measurement command can include a request to average over, for example, the last 7 symbols in a slot with 14 symbols (set symbolMask = 11 1111 1000 0000b). These two commands can result in two (averaged) IpN values per slot.

[0085] In additional or alternative examples, where it is desired to request individual measurement on the first and last symbol, the ST 11 message can include: 1) A first measurement command 1 requesting measurement on first symbol in slot (set symbolMask = 00 0000 0000 0001b); and a second measurement command requesting measurement on last symbol in slot (set symbolMask = 10 0000 0000 0000b).

[0086] In additional or alternative embodiments, the ST 10 reports for MEAS_IPN_UNALLOC and MEAS_IPN_ALLOC are modified. In some examples, the allzero symbolMask is no longer used. Instead, one measurement report instance is sent per averaging group and the symbolMask in each report indicates which symbols that have been averaged.

[0087] For the MEAS_IPN_UNALLOC example above, there can be two measurement reports in the same ST 10 message. A first measurement report can include an average over the first 7 symbols indicated by symbolMask = 00 0000 0111 1111b, then followed by IpN power list according to number of PRBs indicated in ST 10. A second measurement report can include an average over the last 7 symbols indicated by symbolMask = 11 1111 1000 0000b, then followed by IpN power list according to number of PRBs indicated in ST 10.

[0088] An example of MEAS IPN ALLOC reports when DMRS symbol positions are {2, 3, 9, 10} (the first symbol position is 0 and the last is 13) is described below.• Report triggered by SE 24 ipnPerSym = 0:o Measurement report 1 : symbolMask = 00 0110 0000 1100b with one IpN power value per PRB• Report triggered by SE 24 ipnPerSym = 1 and per DMRS symbol reporting: o Measurement report 1 : symbolMask = 00 0000 0000 0100b with one IpN power value per PRB o Measurement report 2: symbolMask = 00 0000 0000 1000b with one IpN power value per PRB o Measurement report 3: symbolMask = 00 0010 0000 0000b with one IpN power value per PRB o Measurement report 4: symbolMask = 00 0100 0000 0000b with one IpN power value per PRB• Report triggered by SE 24 ipnPerSym = 1 and per DMRS symbol group reporting: o Measurement report 1 : symbolMask = 00 0000 0000 1100b with one IpN power value per PRB o Measurement report 2: symbolMask = 00 0110 0000 0000b with one IpN power value per PRB

[0089] In additional or alternative embodiments, consecutive l's could mean a group of symbols to average (in a measurement command) or that has been averaged (in a measurement report) where different groups are separated by at least one 0 value. For the example report with per-DMRS-symbol group reporting of symbols {2,3} and {9,10}, there would then be a single measurement report with symbolMask = 00 0110 0000 1100b. For each PRB, two values would be reported, one average over symbols {2,3} and one average over symbols {9,10}. The difference compared with the CR v03 is that the CR only has a 1' for the first symbol in each averaging group.Like the method in the CR, this alternative method only works if groups of symbols to average are adjacent. Further if there are multiple groups, separate measurement commands and reports (e.g., if symbols 0,1 is one group and symbols 2,3 is another group) may be used. These embodiments can allow the specifying of multiple averaging groups in one command as long as the groups are not adjacent.

[0090] In additional or alternative embodiments, additional information can be conveyed to select between the procedure above where bits in the symbolMask indicate for which symbols measurements were averaged, and a procedure where bits in the symbolMask indicate for which symbols the measurements are sent without averaging (like when ipnPerSym = 0). This can be of interest for MEAS_IPN_UNALLOC if separate measurement of IpN is desired for many symbols and could then reduce reporting overhead to some extent. The additional informationhere could be e.g., an M-Plane configuration, a flag in C-Plane indicating which mode is used, or that different measTypelds are defined for the two cases, e.g.,MEAS IPN UN ALLOC AVG and MEAS IPN UNALLOC NO AVG.

[0091] Embodiments associated with a revised measurement command are described below.

[0092] The current ST 11 measurement command for IpN for unallocated PRBs according to the draft CR v03 is illustrated in FIG. 9 (only the command part, not the whole ST 11). A flag (ipnPerSym), can be used to control whether the measurements on the symbols indicated by a ‘1’ in the symbolMask should be averaged (ipnPerSym = 0), or reported individually (ipnPerSym). Flexibility is limited.

[0093] In some embodiments, in a revised measurement command (ST 11), one measurement command is included for every averaging group. In additional or alternative embodiments, there is no ipnPerSym flag, as illustrated in FIG. 13. Instead, averaging is requested for all symbols indicated with ‘ 1’ in the symbolMask. Multiple commands can be attached, e.g., to the same ST 11 Section to reduce overhead, if it is desired to report IpN separately for different symbols or averages for different groups of symbols.

[0094] FIG. 14 illustrates an example of the proposed procedure where it is desired to measure IpN for unallocated PRBs as an average for symbols {2, 3}, a second average for symbols {9, 10} and a third average over all symbols. Note that bit 0 in symbolMask corresponds to symbol 0 in a slot.

[0095] Embodiments associated with a revised measurement report are described below. In some embodiments, in a revised report format, each measurement report of IpN will only contain one value per PRB. If the symbolMask has a single ‘ 1 ’ value, it means that the IpN was measured on this symbol. If the symbolMask has multiple ‘1’ values, it means that the IpN was averaged (linear power average) over these symbols.

[0096] A current report format for IpN for allocated PRBs according to the draft CR is illustrated in FIG. 11 (only the measurement report part, not the whole ST 10). The report for IpN for unallocated PRBs have the same structure, the only difference is the measTypeld, which is then 5 instead of 4.

[0097] In additional or alternative embodiments, an example of the revised report format for IpN for allocated PRBs is illustrated in FIG. 15. If separate IpN values are desired for multiple symbols in same PRB range, multiple such reports can be sent, e.g., within same ST 10 section to reduce overhead. The overhead is slightly larger than for the currently proposed report format, but flexibility is significantly improved. If it is desired to reduce the overhead further for reports with individual per-symbol measurements, the alternative solution mentioned earlier could be used (switching to an alternative method for such reports, e.g., via C-Plane information).

[0098] FIG. 16 illustrates an example where we have DMRS in symbols {2, 3, 9, 10} and have requested a first average for symbols {2, 3}, and a second average for symbols {9, 10} (different background color is used to visually distinguish the two reports). In this case, both reports constitute an average over two symbols each, but this is just an example and the proposed method is not limited in such way.

[0099] Various embodiments herein target O-RAN WG4 Open Fronthaul, CUS-plane and M-plane specifications. These embodiments can be intended to be used for RRM measurement reporting in conjunction with DMRS-based beamforming. However, IpN for unallocated PRBs could also be useful for non-beamforming O-RUs and for O-RUs using other beamforming methods.

[0100] Operations of the network node 2100 (implemented using the structure of FIG. 21) will now be discussed with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. 17-18 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in memory 2104 of FIG. 21, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by respective network node processing circuitry 2102, network node 2100 performs respective operations of the flow charts.

[0101] FIG. 17 illustrates an example of operations performed by a network node in a communications, the network node being configured to provide a RU. In some embodiments, the communications network includes an open radio access network, O-RAN, that uses demodulation reference signal based beamforming, DMRS-BF and the RU includes an O-RAN RU, O-RU.

[0102] At block 1710, processing circuitry 2102 receives, via communication interface 2106, an indication from a DU of whether to report an average of a set of measurements or each measurement of a set of measurements.

[0103] At block 1720, processing circuitry 2102 receives, via communication interface 2106, an indication from the DU of a subset of a plurality of symbols. In some examples, a subset includes a complete set (e.g., the subset of the plurality of symbols includes each symbol of the plurality of symbols). In some embodiments, receiving the indication of the subset of the plurality of symbols includes receiving a Section Type 11, STI 1, control plane, C-plane, message. In some examples, the ST11 C-plane message does not include an ipnPerSym flag indicating whether to report a single average value or a plurality of non-av eraged values.

[0104] In additional or alternative embodiments receiving the indication from the DU of the subset of the plurality of symbols includes receiving a symbol mask including a sequence of bits that indicates the subset of the plurality of symbols.

[0105] At block 1730, processing circuitry 2102 obtains a plurality of measurements that are each associated with a symbol of a plurality of symbols. In some embodiments, the plurality ofmeasurements include a measurement of interference plus noise, IpN for allocated physical resource blocks, PRBs. In additional or alternative embodiments, the plurality of measurements include a measurement of IpN for unallocated PRBs.

[0106] At block 1740, processing circuitry 2102 determines a value that is an average of a subset of the plurality of measurements. In some examples a subset includes a complete set (e.g., the subset of the plurality of measurements includes each measurement of the plurality of measurements). In some embodiments, receiving the indication of whether to report the average of the set of measurements corresponding to the set of symbols or to report each measurement of the set of measurements corresponding to the set of symbols includes receiving the indication to report the average of the set of measurements corresponding to the set of symbols. The set of measurements can be subset of the plurality of measurements. Determining the value associated with the average of the subset of the plurality of measurements can include determining the value associated with the average of the subset of the plurality of measurements based on receiving the indication to report the average of the set of measurements corresponding to the set of symbols.

[0107] At block 1750, processing circuitry 2102 transmits, via communication interface 2106, a message including an indication of the value and the subset of the plurality of symbols that corresponds to the subset of the plurality of measurements.

[0108] In some embodiments, the subset of the plurality of measurements is a first subset of the plurality of measurements, the subset of the plurality of symbols is a first subset of the plurality of symbols corresponding to the first subset of the plurality of measurements, and the value is a first value associated with an average of the first subset of the plurality of measurements. Determining the value can include determining a second value associated with an average of a second subset of the plurality of measurements. Transmitting the message can include transmitting an indication of the second value and an indication of a second subset of the plurality of symbols that corresponds to the second subset of the plurality of measurements.

[0109] In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the message includes transmitting a Section Type 10, ST10, control plane, C-plane, message.

[0110] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the symbol mask includes receiving a plurality of symbol masks that each include a different sequence of bits that each indicate a different subset of the plurality of symbols. Determining the value includes determining a plurality of values that are each associated with an average of a unique subset of the plurality of measurements corresponding to one of the different subset of the plurality of symbols. Transmitting the message further includes transmitting an indication of each value of the plurality of values and an indication of each different subset of the plurality of symbols.

[0111] FIG. 18 illustrates an example of operations performed by a network node in a communications network, the network node being configured to perform a DU. In some embodiments, the communications network includes an open radio access network, O-RAN, that uses demodulation reference signal based beamforming, DMRS-BF and the DU includes an O- RAN DU, O-DU.

[0112] At block 1810, processing circuitry 2102 transmits, via communication interface 2106, an indication to a RU of whether to report an average of a set of measurements or each measurement set of a set of measurements. In some embodiments, transmitting the indication of whether to report the average of the set of measurements corresponding to the set of symbols or to report each measurement of the set of measurements corresponding to the set of symbols includes transmitting the indication to report the average of the set of measurements corresponding to the set of symbols. The set of measurements is the subset of the plurality of measurements.

[0113] At block 1820, processing circuitry 2102 transmits, via communication interface 2106, a request for measurement data to the RU. In some embodiments, transmitting the request for the measurement data includes transmitting an indication to the RU of the subset of the plurality of symbols. In some examples, transmitting the indication of the subset of plurality of symbols includes transmitting a Section Type 11, ST11, control plane, C-plane, message. In additional or alternative examples, the STI 1 C-plane message does not include an ipnPerSym flag indicating whether to report a single average value or a plurality of non-averaged values.

[0114] At block 1830, processing circuitry 2102 receives, via communication interface 2106, a message including an indication of an average of a subset of measurements and an indication of a subset of symbols corresponding to the subset of measurements.

[0115] In some embodiments, the plurality of measurements include a measurement of interference plus noise, IpN, for allocated physical resource blocks, PRBs. In additional or alternative embodiments, the plurality of measurements include a measurement of IpN for unallocated PRBs.

[0116] In additional or alternative embodiments, the subset of the plurality of measurements is a first subset of the plurality of measurements. The subset of the plurality of symbols is a first subset of the plurality of symbols corresponding to the first subset of the plurality of measurements. The value is a first value associated with an average of the first subset of the plurality of measurements. Receiving the message further includes receiving: an indication of a second value associated with an average of a second subset of the plurality of measurements; and an indication of a second subset of the plurality of symbols that corresponds to the second subset of the plurality of measurements.

[0117] In additional or alternative embodiments, receiving the message includes receiving a Section Type 11, ST10, control plane, C-plane, message.

[0118] In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the indication to the RU of the subset of the plurality of symbols includes transmitting a symbol mask including a sequence of bits that indicates the subset of the plurality of symbols. In additional or alternative embodiments, transmitting the symbol mask includes transmitting a plurality of symbol masks that each include a different sequence of bits that each indicate a different subset of the plurality of symbols. Receiving the message further includes receiving” an indication of a plurality of values that are each an average of a unique subset of the plurality of measurements corresponding to one of the different subset of the plurality of symbols; and an indication of each different subset of the plurality of symbols.

[0119] Various operations of FIGS. 17-18 may be optional or completed in a different order than illustrated.

[0120] FIG. 19 shows an example of a communication system 1900 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0121] In the example, the communication system 1900 includes a telecommunication network 1902 that includes an access network 1904, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 1906, which includes one or more core network nodes 1908. The access network 1904 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 1910a and 1910b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1910), or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the network nodes 1910 are not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that the network nodes 1910 may include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 1902 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 1902 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 1902, including one or more network nodes 1910 and / or core network nodes 1908.

[0122] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU- CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time RAN control application(e.g., xApp) or a non-real time RAN automation application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). The network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Intents and content-aware notifications described herein may be communicated from a 3GPP network node or an ORAN network node over 3GPP-defined interfaces (e.g., N2, N3) and / or ORAN Alliance-defined interfaces (e.g., Al, 01). Moreover, an ORAN network node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface defined by the 0-RAN Alliance. The network nodes 1910 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting wireless devices 1912a, 1912b, 1912c, and 1912d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1912) to the core network 1906 over one or more wireless connections. The network nodes 1910 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 1912a, 1912b, 1912c, and 1912d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1912) to the core network 1906 over one or more wireless connections.

[0123] 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 1900 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 1900 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0124] The UEs 1912 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 1910 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 1910 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 1912 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 1902 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 1902.

[0125] In the depicted example, the core network 1906 connects the network nodes 1910 to one or more hosts, such as host 1916. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 1906 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 1908) 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 1908. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), 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).

[0126] The host 1916 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 1904 and / or the telecommunication network 1902, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 1916 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.

[0127] As a whole, the communication system 1900 of FIG. 19 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.

[0128] In some examples, the telecommunication network 1902 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 1902 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 1902. For example, the telecommunications network 1902 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.

[0129] In some examples, the UEs 1912 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 1904 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 1904. 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).

[0130] In the example, the hub 1914 communicates with the access network 1904 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 1912c and / or 1912d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 1910b). In some examples, the hub 1914 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 1914 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 1906 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 1914 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 1910, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 1914. As another example, the hub 1914 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 1914 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 1914 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 1914 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 1914 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.

[0131] The hub 1914 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 1910b. The hub 1914 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 1914 and UEs (e.g., UE 1912c and / or 1912d), and between thehub 1914 and the core network 1906. In other examples, the hub 1914 is connected to the core network 1906 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 1914 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 1904 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 1910 while still connected via the hub 1914 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 1914 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 1910b. In other embodiments, the hub 1914 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 1910b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0132] FIG. 20 shows a UE 2000 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.

[0133] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-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 human user 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).

[0134] The UE 2000 includes processing circuitry 2002 that is operatively coupled via a bus 2004 to an input / output interface 2006, a power source 2008, a memory 2010, a communication interface 2012, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs mayutilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIG. 20. 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.

[0135] The processing circuitry 2002 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 2010. The processing circuitry 2002 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 2002 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0136] In the example, the input / output interface 2006 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 2000. 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 device may 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.

[0137] In some embodiments, the power source 2008 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 2008 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 2008 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 2000 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 2008. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to thepower from the power source 2008 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 2000 to which power is supplied.

[0138] The memory 2010 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 readonly memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 2010 includes one or more application programs 2014, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 2016. The memory 2010 may store, for use by the UE 2000, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0139] The memory 2010 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 2010 may allow the UE 2000 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, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 2010, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0140] The processing circuitry 2002 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 2012. The communication interface 2012 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 2022. The communication interface 2012 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 2018 and / or a receiver 2020 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 2018 and receiver 2020 may becoupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 2022) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0141] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 2012 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 / intemet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0142] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 2012, 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).

[0143] 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.

[0144] 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 surveillancesystem, 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 item-tracking 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 2000 shown in FIG. 20.

[0145] 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 3GPP 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.

[0146] 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 speed information (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.

[0147] FIG. 21 shows a network node 2100 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), NRNodeBs (gNBs)), O-RAN nodes, or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., intelligent controller, O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0148] 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, ormacro 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).

[0149] 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).

[0150] The network node 2100 includes a processing circuitry 2102, a memory 2104, a communication interface 2106, and a power source 2108. The network node 2100 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., aNodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 2100 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 2100 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 2104 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 2110 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 2100 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 2100, 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 2100.

[0151] The processing circuitry 2102 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 logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 2100 components, such as the memory 2104, to provide network node 2100 functionality.

[0152] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 2102 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 2102 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 2112 and baseband processing circuitry 2114. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 2112 and the baseband processing circuitry 2114 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 2112 and baseband processing circuitry 2114 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0153] The memory 2104 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 or non-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 2102. The memory 2104 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 2102 and utilized by the network node 2100. The memory 2104 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 2102 and / or any data received via the communication interface 2106. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 2102 and memory 2104 is integrated.

[0154] The communication interface 2106 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 2106 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 2116 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 2106 also includes radio front-end circuitry 2118 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 2110. Radio front-end circuitry 2118 comprises filters 2120 and amplifiers 2122. The radio front-end circuitry 2118 may be connected to an antenna 2110 and processing circuitry 2102. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 2110 and processing circuitry 2102. The radio front-end circuitry 2118 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 2118 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 2120 and / or amplifiers 2122. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 2110.Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 2110 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 2118. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 2102. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0155] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 2100 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 2118, instead, the processing circuitry 2102 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 2110. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 2112 is part of the communication interface 2106. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 2106 includes one or more ports or terminals 2116, the radio front-end circuitry 2118, and the RF transceiver circuitry 2112, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 2106 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 2114, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0156] The antenna 2110 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 2110 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 2118 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 2110 is separate from the network node 2100 and connectable to the network node 2100 through an interface or port.

[0157] The antenna 2110, communication interface 2106, and / or the processing circuitry 2102 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 2110, the communication interface 2106, and / or the processing circuitry 2102 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.

[0158] The power source 2108 provides power to the various components of network node 2100 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 2108 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 2100 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 2100 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 2108. As a further example, the power source 2108 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which isconnected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0159] Embodiments of the network node 2100 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 21 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 2100 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 2100 and to allow output of information from the network node 2100. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 2100.

[0160] FIG. 22 is a block diagram of a host 2200, which may be an embodiment of the host 1916 of FIG. 19, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, the host 2200 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 2200 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

[0161] The host 2200 includes processing circuitry 2202 that is operatively coupled via a bus 2204 to an input / output interface 2206, a network interface 2208, a power source 2210, and a memory 2212. 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 FIGS. 20 and 21, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 2200.

[0162] The memory 2212 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 2214 and data 2216, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 2200 or data generated by the host 2200 for a UE. Embodiments of the host 2200 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 2214 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 2214 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 2200 may select and / or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 2214 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.

[0163] FIG. 23 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 2300 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 2300 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. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 2300 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface.

[0164] Applications 2302 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0165] Hardware 2304 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 2306 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 2308a and 2308b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 2308), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 2306 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 2308.

[0166] The VMs 2308 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 2306. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 2302 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 2308, 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 maybe 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.

[0167] In the context of NFV, a VM 2308 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 2308, and that part of hardware 2304 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 2308 on top of the hardware 2304 and corresponds to the application 2302.

[0168] Hardware 2304 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 2304 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 2304 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 2310, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 2302. In some embodiments, hardware 2304 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 2312 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0169] FIG. 24 shows a communication diagram of a host 2402 communicating via a network node 2404 with a UE 2406 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments. Example implementations, in accordance with various embodiments, of the UE (such as a UE 1912a of FIG. 19 and / or UE 2000 of FIG. 20), network node (such as network node 1910a of FIG. 19 and / or network node 2100 of FIG. 21), and host (such as host 1916 of FIG. 19 and / or host 2200 of FIG. 22) discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to FIG. 24.

[0170] Like host 2200, embodiments of host 2402 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory. The host 2402 also includes software, which is stored in or accessible by the host 2402 and executable by the processing circuitry. The software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE 2406 connecting via an over-the-top (OTT) connection 2450extending between the UE 2406 and host 2402. In providing the service to the remote user, a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 2450.

[0171] The network node 2404 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host 2402 and UE 2406. The connection 2460 may be direct or pass through a core network (like core network 1906 of FIG. 19) and / or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks. For example, an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.

[0172] The UE 2406 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by UE 2406 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry. The software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 2406 with the support of the host 2402. In the host 2402, an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection 2450 terminating at the UE 2406 and host 2402. In providing the service to the user, the UE's client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 2450 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The UE's client application may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides to the host application through the OTT connection 2450.

[0173] The OTT connection 2450 may extend via a connection 2460 between the host 2402 and the network node 2404 and via a wireless connection 2470 between the network node 2404 and the UE 2406 to provide the connection between the host 2402 and the UE 2406. The connection 2460 and wireless connection 2470, over which the OTT connection 2450 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host 2402 and the UE 2406 via the network node 2404, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.

[0174] As an example of transmitting data via the OTT connection 2450, in step 2408, the host 2402 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application. In some embodiments, the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE 2406. In other embodiments, the user data is associated with a UE 2406 that shares data with the host 2402 without explicit human interaction. In step 2410, the host 2402 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE 2406. The host 2402 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE 2406. The request may be caused by human interaction with the UE 2406 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE 2406. The transmission may pass via the network node 2404, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. Accordingly, in step 2412, the network node 2404 transmits to the UE 2406 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host2402 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 2414, the UE 2406 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE 2406 associated with the host application executed by the host 2402.

[0175] In some examples, the UE 2406 executes a client application which provides user data to the host 2402. The user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host 2402. Accordingly, in step 2416, the UE 2406 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application. In providing the user data, the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input / output interface of the UE 2406. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE 2406 initiates, in step 2418, transmission of the user data towards the host 2402 via the network node 2404. In step 2420, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the network node 2404 receives user data from the UE 2406 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host 2402. In step 2422, the host 2402 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE 2406.

[0176] One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 2406 using the OTT connection 2450, in which the wireless connection 2470 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may enable fully flexible requesting and reporting of averaging over multiple different groups of symbols for same PRB.

[0177] In an example scenario, factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host 2402. As another example, the host 2402 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps. As another example, the host 2402 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights). As another example, the host 2402 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE. As another example, the host 2402 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR or AR which it can broadcast, multicast or unicast to UEs. As other examples, the host 2402 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing and / or transmitting data.

[0178] In some examples, a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 2450 between the host 2402 and UE 2406, in response to variations in the measurement results.The measurement procedure and / or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in software and hardware of the host 2402 and / or UE 2406. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection 2450 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 2450 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node 2404. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like, by the host 2402. The measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 2450 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.

[0179] 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 partitioned between 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.

[0180] 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 certainembodiments 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.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a network node in a communications network, the network node configured to provide a radio unit, RU, the method comprising: obtaining (1730) a plurality of measurements, each measurement of the plurality of measurements associated with a symbol of a plurality of symbols; determining (1740) a value that is an average of a subset of the plurality of measurements; and transmitting (1750) a message to a distributed unit, DU, the message including: an indication of the value; and an indication of a subset of the plurality of symbols that corresponds to the subset of the plurality of measurements.

2. The method of Claim 1, wherein the plurality of measurements comprises at least one of: a measurement of interference plus noise, IpN, for allocated physical resource blocks,PRBs; and a measurement of IpN for unallocated PRBs.

3. The method of any of Claims 1-2, wherein the subset of the plurality of measurements is a first subset of the plurality of measurements, wherein the subset of the plurality of symbols is a first subset of the plurality of symbols corresponding to the first subset of the plurality of measurements, wherein the value is a first value associated with an average of the first subset of the plurality of measurements, wherein determining the value comprises determining a second value associated with an average of a second subset of the plurality of measurements, and wherein transmitting the message further comprises transmitting: an indication of the second value; and an indication of a second subset of the plurality of symbols that corresponds to the second subset of the plurality of measurements.

4. The method of any of Claims 1-3, wherein transmitting the message comprises transmitting a Section Type 10, ST10, control plane, C-plane, message.

5. The method of any of Claims 1-4, further comprising: receiving (1720) an indication from the DU of the subset of the plurality of symbols.

6. The method of Claim 5, wherein receiving the indication of the subset of the plurality of symbols comprises receiving a Section Type 11, ST11, control plane, C-plane, message.

7. The method of Claim 6, wherein the STI 1 C-plane message does not include an ipnPerSym flag indicating whether to report a single average value or a plurality of nonaveraged values.

8. The method of any of Claims 4-7, wherein receiving the indication from the DU of the subset of the plurality of symbols comprises receiving a symbol mask including a sequence of bits that indicates the subset of the plurality of symbols.

9. The method of Claim 8, wherein receiving the symbol mask comprises receiving a plurality of symbol masks that each include a different sequence of bits that each indicate a different subset of the plurality of symbols, wherein determining the value comprises determining a plurality of values that are each associated with an average of a unique subset of the plurality of measurements corresponding to one of the different subsets of the plurality of symbols, and wherein transmitting the message further comprises transmitting: an indication of each value of the plurality of values; and an indication of each different subset of the plurality of symbols.

10. The method of any of Claims 1-9, further comprising: receiving (1710) an indication of whether to report an average of a set of measurements corresponding to a set of symbols or to report each measurement of the set of measurements corresponding to the set of symbols.

11. The method of any of Claims 1-10, wherein the communications network comprises an open radio access network, 0-RAN, that uses reference signal-based beamforming, RS-BF, wherein the RU comprises an O-RAN RU, O-RU, and wherein the DU comprises an O-RAN DU, O-DU.

12. A method of operating a first network node in a communications network, the network node configured to provide a distributed unit, DU, the method comprising: transmitting (1820) a request for measurement data to a radio unit, RU; and responsive to transmitting the request for measurement data, receiving (1830) a message from the RU, the message including: an indication of a value that is an average of a subset of a plurality of measurements; and an indication of a subset of the plurality of symbols that correspond to the subset of the plurality of measurements.

13. The method of Claim 12, wherein the plurality of measurements comprises at least one of: a measurement of interference plus noise, IpN, for allocated physical resource blocks,PRBs; and a measurement of IpN for unallocated PRBs.

14. The method of any of Claims 12-13, wherein the subset of the plurality of measurements is a first subset of the plurality of measurements, wherein the subset of the plurality of symbols is a first subset of the plurality of symbols corresponding to the first subset of the plurality of measurements, wherein the value is a first value associated with an average of the first subset of the plurality of measurements, and wherein receiving the message further comprises receiving: an indication of a second value associated with an average of a second subset of the plurality of measurements; and an indication of a second subset of the plurality of symbols that corresponds to the second subset of the plurality of measurements.

15. The method of any of Claims 12-14, wherein receiving the message comprises receiving a Section Type 10, ST10, control plane, C-plane, message.

16. The method of any of Claims 12-15, wherein transmitting the request for the measurement data comprises transmitting an indication to the RU of the subset of the plurality of symbols.

17. The method of Claim 16, wherein transmitting the indication of the subset of plurality of symbols comprises transmitting a Section Type 11, ST11, control plane, C-plane, message.

18. The method of Claim 17, wherein the STI 1 C-plane message does not include an ipnPerSym flag indicating whether to report a single average value or a plurality of nonaveraged values.

19. The method of any of Claims 16-18, wherein transmitting the indication to the RU of the subset of the plurality of symbols comprises transmitting a symbol mask including a sequence of bits that indicates the subset of the plurality of symbols.

20. The method of Claim 19, wherein transmitting the symbol mask comprises transmitting a plurality of symbol masks that each include a different sequence of bits that each indicate a different subset of the plurality of symbols, and wherein receiving the message further comprises receiving: an indication of a plurality of values that are each an average of a unique subset of the plurality of measurements corresponding to one of the different subsets of the plurality of symbols; and an indication of each different subset of the plurality of symbols.

21. The method of any of Claims 12-20, further comprising: transmitting (1810) an indication of whether to report an average of a set of measurements corresponding to a set of symbols or to report each measurement of the set of measurements corresponding to the set of symbols.

22. The method of any of Claims 12-21, wherein the communications network comprises an open radio access network, 0-RAN, that uses reference signal-based beamforming, RS-BF, wherein the RU comprises an 0-RAN RU, O-RU, and wherein the DU comprises an 0-RAN DU, O-DU.

23. A network node (2100) in a communications network, the network node comprising: processing circuitry (2102); and memory (2104) coupled to the processing circuitry and having instructions stored therein that are executable by the processing circuitry to cause the network node to perform operations comprising any of the operations of Claims 1-22.

24. A computer program comprising program code to be executed by processing circuitry(2102) of a network node (2100) in a communications network, whereby execution of the program code causes the first network entity to perform operations comprising any operations of Claims 1-22.

25. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory storage medium (2104) including program code to be executed by processing circuitry (2102) of a network node (2100) in a communications network, whereby execution of the program code causes the network node to perform operations comprising any operations of Claims 1-22.

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