Methods, devices and medium for communication

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods, devices and computer readable storage medium for communication. In a method, the first network device receives, from a second network device, a request for discovery of one or more third network devices to serve a terminal device, wherein a request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device. The first network device further sends, to the second network device, a response for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices, based on mapping of the at least one of the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier to the one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices.

Description

METHODS, DEVICES AND MEDIUM FOR COMMUNICATIONFIELDS

[0001] Various embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field oftelecommunication and in particular, to methods, devices and computer readable storage mediumfor communication.BACKGROUND

[0002] This section introduces aspects that may facilitate a better understanding of thedisclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.

[0003] The Ambient IoT (AIoT) device ecosystem is a new concept that has been introducedin 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) from Rel-19. It is an ecosystem with devices havinga different set of capabilities. In order to provide service to the AIoT devices, a peer NetworkFunction (NF) may need to discover NF(s) that may serve the specific device(s), which may beimplemented during a service discovery procedure.SUMMARY

[0004] This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form thatare further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0005] The AIoT device ecosystem is a new concept that’s been introduced in 3rd generationpartnership project (3GPP) 3GPP from Rel-19. In order to provide service to the AIoT devices, apeer NF may need to discover NF(s) that may serve the specific device(s), which may beimplemented during a service discovery procedure. Traditional service discovery procedure iscomplicated and lack flexibility.

[0006] To overcome or mitigate at least one of the above-mentioned problems or otherproblems or provide a useful solution, embodiments of the present disclosure propose methods,devices and storage medium for improving the service discovery procedure.

[0007] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method at a first networkdevice. In the method, the first network device receives, from a second network device, a requestfor discovery of one or more third network devices to serve a terminal device, wherein the requestfor the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device. The first network device further sends, to the second network device, a response for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third networkdevices, based on mapping of the at least one of the service identifier, the manufacturer identifieror the electronic product code identifier to the one or more identifiers of the one or more thirdnetwork devices, wherein the one or more third network devices are capable of serving theterminal device based on the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device.

[0008] In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method at a secondnetwork device. In the method, the second network device sends, to a first network device, arequest for discovery of one or more third network devices to serve a terminal device, wherein the request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device. The second network device receives, from the second network device, a response for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices, wherein the one or more third network devices are capable of serving the terminal device based on the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device.

[0009] In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method at a third networkdevice. In the method, the third network device sends, to a first network device, at least one of arouting indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier, wherein the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier is associated with a terminal device to be served by the third network device.

[0010] In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first network device. Thefirst network device comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memorycontaining instructions executable by the processor, whereby the terminal device is operative to perform the method according to the first aspect.

[0011] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second network device.The second network device comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, thememory containing instructions executable by the processor, whereby the terminal device is operative to perform the method according to the second aspect.

[0012] In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a third network device. Thethird network device comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memorycontaining instructions executable by the processor, whereby the terminal device is operative to perform the method according to the third aspect.

[0013] In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readablestorage medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, which, when executed by atleast one processor of a device, cause the device to perform the method according to the first orsecond or third aspect.

[0014] With the present disclosure, a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufactureridentifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the AIoT device may be foridentifying a proper NF which may serve the AIoT device. The present disclosure especiallybenefits the scenario where AIoT devices are not controlled or / and configured by the MobileNetwork Operators and thus it would not be possible to control / monitor the sequence of availableSubscription Permanent Identifier (SUPI) directly.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] Through the more detailed description of some embodiments of the present disclosurein the accompanying drawings, the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent, where the same reference generally refers to the same components in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0016] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which embodiments ofthe present disclosure can be implemented.

[0017] FIG. 2A is a signal diagram showing a communication process between a first networkdevice, a second network device and a third network device in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure.

[0018] FIG. 2B is a signal diagram showing a communication process between an NF, an NRFand an AUSF in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0019] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flowchart of an example method at a first network devicein accordance with some embodiments.

[0020] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flowchart of an example method at a second networkdevice in accordance with some embodiments.

[0021] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart of an example method at a third network devicein accordance with some embodiments.

[0022] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a communication device in accordance with someembodiments.

[0023] FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a computer readable storage medium in accordance withsome embodiments.

[0024] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a communication system in accordance withsome embodiments.

[0025] FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a UE in accordance with some embodiments.

[0026] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a network node in accordance with someembodiments.

[0027] FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment in which functionsimplemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully withreference to the accompanying drawings. Other embodiments, however, are contained within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein, the disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.

[0029] Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according to their ordinarymeaning in the relevant technical field, unless a different meaning is clearly given and / or is implied from the context in which it is used. All references to a / an / the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methods disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following or preceding another step and / or where it is implicit that a step must follow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, wherever appropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may apply to any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives,features and advantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from the followingdescription.

[0030] Reference throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar languagedoes not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present disclosure should be or are in any single embodiment of the disclosure. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, orcharacteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the disclosure may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the disclosure may be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the disclosure.

[0031] As used herein, the terms "first", "second" and so forth refer to different elements. Thesingular forms "a" and "an" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The terms "comprises", "comprising", "has", "having", "includes" and / or "including" as used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and / or components and the like, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and / or combinations thereof. The term "based on" is to be read as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" and "an embodiment" are to be read as "at least one embodiment". The term "another embodiment" is to be read as "at least one other embodiment". Other definitions, explicit and implicit, may be included below.

[0032] As used herein, the term “terminal device” refers to a device which is intended foraccessing services via an access network and configured to communicate over the access network. The terminal device may be able to communicate with a network node, such as a base station, or with another terminal device by transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals. For instance, the terminal device may include, but is not limited to: a mobile phone, a smart phone, a sensor device, a meter, a vehicle, a household appliance, a medical appliance, a media player, a camera, or any type of consumer electronic, for instance, but not limited to, a television, radio, lighting arrangement, a tablet computer, a laptop, a personal computer (PC), or an Internet of Thing (IoT)device. The terminal device may also include a portable, pocketstorable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehicle-mounted mobile device, enabled to communicate voice and / or data, via a wireless connection. In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

[0033] As used herein, the term “network device” or “network node” refers to a device in acommunication network via which a terminal device receives services from the network. Theterms “network node”, “network function” may be used interchangeably. A network function canbe implemented either as a network element on a dedicated hardware, as a software instance running on a dedicated hardware, or as a virtualised function instantiated on an appropriateplatform, e.g., on a cloud infrastructure. The network node comprises an access network node viawhich a terminal device accesses an access network. Examples of access network nodes include,but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g.,radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and new NR NodeBs (gNBs)). In thefollowing description, the terms “network device”, “network node”, “base station” and “BS” may be used interchangeably.

[0034] As used herein, the term “communication device” refers to a device capable ofcommunications. Examples of a communication device may comprise a terminal device and a network device.

[0035] The AIoT device ecosystem is a new concept that has been introduced in 3GPP fromRel-19. It is an ecosystem with devices having a different set of capabilities. As per the initial Stage 2 3GPP Technical Report, the solutions of ambient IoT should have the following assumptions which did not exist before: -The AIoT device has higher complexity than a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag that only reflects a preconfigured device ID when exited by RF power, but significantly lower complexity than a 3GPP cellular IoT (CIoT) device. -The AIoT device has a non-volatile storage capability.- The temporary ID generation algorithm should be light weight and only enough to avoidunauthorized AIoT device tracking.

[0036] In some cases, routing indicators (RIDs) are assigned by the home network operatorand they are provisioned in Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM). RIDs along with the home network identifier to route the signaling with SUCI to Authentication Server Function(AUSF) and User Data Management (UDM) instances capable to serve the subscriber.

[0037] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the RID may be a part of SUPIand to be used by the home network in the NF discovery. SUPI is globally unique and each subscriberwithin the 5G System (5GS) shall be allocated with a SUPI and correspondingly provisioned inUDM / UDR. The privacy details are specified in 3GPP TS 33.501, VERSION 18.5.0.

[0038] The SUPI could be of International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) as defined in TS23.003, VERSION 18.5.0 or a network specific identifier containing the Network AccessIdentifier (NAI) [refer to RFC IETF 7542 for details] based user identification.

[0039] The cases where NAI based user identification is used, NAI for SUPI has the formusername@realm as specified in clause 2.2 of IETF RFC 7542. The RFC 7542 quotes the devices handling NAIs must support a NAI length of at least 72 octets and devices should support a NAI length of 253 octets.

[0040] SUPI may be modified to support devices for vertical use cases like factory setting:assuming a vertical use case scenario where there is a requirement of supporting a limited butlarge number of devices, a modified SUPI / SUCI with an NAI format could be used. The"username" field in the NAI could be a combination of hexadecimal digits (including hexadecimal encoding of the EPC ID) in a 5G compatible manner. And the realm part should contain the home network domain of the operator managing the devices.

[0041] As an example for the ambient IoT devices, the Mobile Network Code (MNC) could beof a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and AIoT-NID should be encoded as hexadecimal digitsand the combination of AIoT-NID should include EPC ID (up to approximate 62 octets maximum)and rest 10 octets could be used for other purposes inside the NAI format.

[0042] In a home network domain for AIoT devices, assuming the Network Slice Instance (NSI)to be aiot-nid@example.com, and home network public key identifier 27, RID=678, the NAIshould be constructed as: "type<SUPI type>.rid<routing indicatior>.userid<AIoT-NID>@example.com” (for a null scheme).

[0043] There may be two aspects on NF Repository Function (NRF) Application ProgramInterface (API): manufacturer identifier (this is etched on the device itself)- for emergencypurpose i.e., if the device gets stolen; and application identifier (in the SUPI there could be an optional field that includes the application identifier).

[0044] The second part is in the SUPI, there could be an optional RID field and continue theRID field to find the serving node in the same / visited PLMN / Stand-alone Non-Public Networks (SNPNs).

[0045] It is noted that roaming case will be applicable if the MNO ID is included in the deviceID.

[0046] This service operation discovers the set of NF instances (and their associated NFservice instances), represented by their NF profile, that are currently registered in NRF and satisfya number of input query parameters. Before a service consumer invokes this service operation, itshall consider if it is possible to reuse the results from a previous searching (service discovery).

[0047] In operation, the NF service consumer sends a GET request to the NRF in the servingPLMN (i.e., the same PLMN where the NF service consumer is located). The service discovery in a different PLMN is done by querying the "nf-instances" resource in the NRF of the homePLMN. For that, the NF service consumer sends a GET request to the NRF in the Serving PLMN)and this request shall include the identity of the PLMN of the home NRF in a query parameter ofthe URI.

[0048] If the NRF in serving PLMN knows that Open Authorization 2.0 (Oauth2)-basedauthorization is required for accessing the NF discovery service of the NRF in home PLMN, e.g. by learning this during an earlier Bootstrapping procedure or local configuration, and if the request received at the NRF in serving PLMN does not include an access token, the NRF inserving PLMN may reject the request with a 401 Unauthorized as specified in clause 6.7.3 of3GPP TS 29.500, VERSION 18.5.0. The following steps are executed as per 3GPP TS 29.510,VERSION 18.6.0.

[0049] The NF Service Consumer shall send an HTTP GET request to the resource URI "nf-instances" collection resource. The input filter criteria for the discovery request shall be includedin query parameters. A Service Centrality Point (SCP) may request to discover the completeprofile of NF instances (including, e.g. the authorization attributes) matching the query parameters. Upon receiving such a request, the NRF shall verify that the requesting entity is authorized to discover the complete profile of NF instances, based on local policies or the receipt of an access token granting such permission. If the requesting entity is not authorized to do so,the NRF shall reject the request or handle it as a service discovery request without access to thecomplete profile.

[0050] When certain query parameters in the discovery request are not supported by the NRF,the NRF shall ignore the unsupported query parameters and continue processing the request with the rest of the query parameters.

[0051] In a case of success, "200 OK" shall be returned. The response body shall contain avalidity period, during which the search result can be cached by the NF Service consumer, and anarray of NF Profile objects, and / or a map of NFInstanceInfo objects of NF instances (if the NFservice consumer indicated support of the Enh-NF-Discovery feature in the request) that satisfythe search filter criteria (e.g., all NF Instances offering a certain NF Service name in REGISTERED status, or empty array in case search filter criteria do not match a NF Instance in REGISTERED status). In the latter case, the response may include the noProfileMatchInfo attribute to provide the specific reason for not finding any NF instance that can match the search filter criteria.

[0052] In a case of failure,- if the NF service consumer is not allowed to discover the NF services for the requested NFtype provided in the query parameters, the NRF shall return "403 Forbidden" response;- if the discovery request fails at the NRF due to errors in the input data in the URI queryparameters, the NRF shall return "400 Bad Request" status code with the ProblemDetails IE providing details of the error;- if the discovery request fails at the NRF due to NRF internal errors, the NRF shall return"500 Internal Server Error" status code with the ProblemDetails IE providing details of the error.

[0053] In the case of redirection, the NRF shall return 3xx status code, which shall contain aLocation header with an URI pointing to the endpoint of another NRF service instance.

[0054] The NF Profile objects returned in a successful result shall contain generic data of eachNF Instance, applicable to any NF type, and it may also contain NF-specific data, for those NF Instances belonging to a specific type (e.g., the attribute "udrInfo" is typically present in the NF Profile when the type of the NF Instance takes the value "UDR"). In addition, the attribute "customInfo", may be present in the NF Profile for those NF Instances with custom NF types.

[0055] As most NF service consumers in serving PLMN do not need the entire data in the NFprofile of the NF producer, the NRF in the home PLMN, based on operator policies, may simplify the NF discovery response by not including the entire data which is not directly relevant to theNF discovery request (e.g. returning a subset of supiRanges, or not including taiList,) but canonly use the Routing Indicator (RID) as an useful parameter to determine the serving PLMN in the discovery request.

[0056] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provide a solutionfor a service discovery procedure. In the solution. the first network device receives, from a secondnetwork device, a request for discovery of one or more third network devices to serve a terminal device, wherein a request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with theterminal device. The first network device further sends, to the second network device, a responsefor the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices, based on mapping of the at least one of the service identifier,the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier to the one or more identifiersof the one or more third network devices wherein the one or more third network devices arecapable of serving the terminal device based on the at least one of the routing indicator, the serviceidentifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device.

[0057] In this way, a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or anelectronic product code identifier associated with the AIoT device may be for identifying a properNF which may serve the AIoT device. The present disclosure especially benefits the scenariowhere AIoT devices are not controlled or / and configured by the Mobile Network Operators andthus it would not be possible to control / monitor the sequence of available Subscription PermanentIdentifier (SUPI) directly.

[0058] Principles and implementations of the present disclosure will be described in detailbelow with reference to the figures.

[0059] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment 100 in which embodimentsof the present disclosure can be implemented.

[0060] As shown in FIG. 1, the communication environment 100 includes a terminal device150 (e.g., A-IoT device or tag), the terminal device 150 may communicate with a network node160 (e.g., a base station or gNB) via an intermediate device 140. The intermediate device 140may be implemented by a terminal device such as a UE or a RAN node.

[0061] The communication environment 100 further includes core network devices includinga first network device 110, a second network device 120 and a third network device 130. The corenetwork devices may perform a management function for the communications or services of theterminal device 150.

[0062] As one example, the third network device(s) 130 may be configured to operate as anetwork function which may be capable of serving the terminal device 150. Further, the firstnetwork device 110 may be configured to operate as a network repository function, the second network device 120 may be configured to operate as a network function consumer.

[0063] Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implementedaccording to any proper communication protocols and technologies. It is to be understood that thenumbers of devices are illustrated in FIG. 1 only for the purpose of illustration without suggestingany limitations. The communication environment 100 may include any suitable numbers of terminal devices and network devices for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0064] In the following, use cases with ultra-low power devices, zero-energy (based onbackscattering or energy harvesting, or both backscattering and energy harvesting), or IoT devices may be considered and assumed. However, the proposal mechanisms may not be limited to such devices, and can be extended to other service or device classes or categories, e.g., related to Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), massive-MTC, Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), etc.

[0065] In the following, the procedures which the terminal device 150 conducts covering DLreception and UL transmission includes measurements for radio link monitoring and / or mobility purposes, paging monitoring, logging / reporting measurement results, tracking area update,searching for a new Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) or Standalone Non-Public Network(SNPN), random access or other access scheme, camping on a cell, cell change, data transmission and reception etc. In a general view, these procedures will consume power in devices.

[0066] In some embodiments, the term “radio access network node” or “RAN node” may be anetwork node (e.g., the network node 160 or intermediate device 140) or a UE (e.g., theintermediate device 140 or terminal device 150). Examples of network nodes are NodeB, basestation (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB, gNodeB, MeNB, SeNB, location measurement unit (LMU), integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BCS), relay, IAB, repeater, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), Central Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Distributed Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Baseband Unit, Centralized Baseband, C-RAN, access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, transmission reception point (TRP), RRU, RRH, nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), core network node (e.g. MCS, MME, etc.), O&M, OSS, SON, positioning node (e.g. E-SMLC), etc. In particular, in A-IoT scenario the RAN nodes comprise intermediate node / UE (e.g., relay UE, IAB, repeater etc.) and assisting node / UE (e.g., relay UE, IAB, repeater etc.). In particular, in A-IoT scenarios the RAN nodes comprise intermediate node / UE (e.g., relay UE, IAB, repeater etc.) and assisting node / UE (e.g., relay UE, IAB, repeater etc.).

[0067] The term time resource used herein may correspond to any type of physical resource orradio resource expressed in terms of length of time. An example of time resources is a symbol, atime slot, a subframe, a radio frame, a transmit time interval (TTI), an interleaving time, a slot, a sub-slot, a mini-slot, a system frame number (SFN) cycle, a hyper-SFN (H-SFN) cycle etc.

[0068] In this present disclosure, “AIoT UE”, “AIoT device”, “terminal device”, or “UE” maybe used interchangeably.

[0069] It is to be noted that although the issue is originating from a mechanism for AIoTdevices, the proposed solution herein may be applied in general for different types of terminal devices including both low power devices and normal devices.

[0070] Generally speaking, the message exchange between the device and the network mustbe minimized, as available power in an AIoT device is very limited. In view of this, at leastbelow aspects need to be further discussed.

[0071] At the signaling level, it is focused on NRF service discovery for AIoT deviceecosystem. This service is used to find candidate NF pofiles via NRF service discovery. Thereafter, the AIoT devices attached to that NF profile can be served / connected.

[0072] In order to achieve the above, AIoT identifiers are required to be defined. As mentionedbefore, AIoT devices could have limited capabilities and they may not be managed by MNOsdirectly. There are possibilities of dis-continuous allocation of SUPI ranges. So, this solutiondiscussed herein proposes to utilize such as RID to discover and serve proper network functions.

[0073] Currently the RID is applicable for Subscription Concealed Identifier (SUCI). For AIoTcase, there is a need for less complex devices (lesser complexity than CIoT devices). For example, it may not require an explicit registration as well. In that case, the enforcement of SUCI may notbe required. As a result, the RID as a part of the SUCI cannot be used for AIoT. On the otherhand, device ID of AIoT devices also may not be managed by operators themselves. So, the RID and / or other parameters in the device ID can be used to detect the candidate serving NFs.

[0074] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, when the NF attempts to serve thespecific devices, it shall include the associated factors (like service ID, manufacturer ID and soon) mentioned in the present disclosure in the discovery parameter to the NRF. The NRF thenmatches the factors in the query parameter along with registered factors of the NF to find the candidate NFs. Further these NFs can connect to the actual devices to be served.

[0075] According to the current 3GPP TR, the AIoT device should be devised to have limitedcapabilities (lesser that CIoT devices). RFIDs are increasingly in use in modern day technologies. This concept has been inculcated in 3GPP for using them as device tags. This is a novel concept and ways of using it debated currently in architecture groups. The RFID Ultra High Frequency(UHF) devices have a definitive set of memory structure. These device identifiers like electronicproduct code (EPC) ID, Manufacturer ID, Service IDs should be part of the already availabledevice ID. These IDs can either be registered by the serving NF producer in their NF profiles. The 3rd party device manufacturer can have an agreement with the Mobile Network Operator(MNO) to share the details of the manufactured devices amongst the two parties. EPC ID,Manufacturer ID and Service IDs are defined as below.

[0076] EPC ID: EPC memory is one of them that is designed to contain an EPC code. As perthe Globe standard 1 (GS1), the EPC ID identifies the uniquely identifies the devices or products.

[0077] Manufacturer ID: This ID related to the Tag memory of RFID. The tag ID is assignedby the manufacturer of the device or product, and it contains the unique ID number of the tag. This is assigned by manufacturer when the product is produced and it is non-erasable i.e., it could act as a permanent identifier of the device or product.

[0078] Service ID: This identifier is related with the required information for a service thatneeds to be accessed by a certain device in the network. This identifier information could be stored in extended user memory segment of the device. As of today, there is no standard on the number of memory bits that can be written in each Tag. As an example, one of the most popularchips with good user memory is the Monza 4QT, with 512 bits.

[0079] As discussed above, considering that AIoT Devices are a new type of reducedcapabilities devices, during a service discovery, Network Functions (NFs) may serve specificAIoT devices in a network, with specific factors / identifications associated with the devices.

[0080] According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, when the identification (e.g.,SUPI) for AIoT device or group of devices and the formatting of the identification (e.g., SUPI)are managed by the MNO, a routing indicator (RID) may be used for NF discovery in a case thatthe AIoT device IDs does not have a continual allocation.

[0081] According to some other embodiments of the present disclosure, when the identification(e.g. SUPI) for AIoT device or group of devices and the formatting of the identification (e.g.,SUPI) are managed by the service provider / manufacturer (instead of the MNO), it is proposed touse the service / application provider and / or the manufacturer identifier (e.g., a service identifier,a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier) may be used for NF discovery.

[0082] The above factors / identifications (e.g., a routing indicator, a service identifier, amanufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminaldevice) may be registered by the NF, the NF may register these factors / identifications associatedto the AIoT devices that it can serve. When a peer NF seeks to discover the NF that can serve thespecific device(s), it will include the associated factors / identifications in the discovery queryparameter to the NRF. Then, the NRF then may match the factor in the discovery query parameterand the registered factors of the NFs to determine / locate the proper candidate NFs.

[0083] In summary, the use of RID with SUPI (also may be a service identifier, a manufactureridentifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device) helps inidentifying the network to identify and serve the designated subscriber.

[0084] This can be used by the NRF API to search the serving nodes in the same, different orintermediate Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs) using identifiers.

[0085] For a better understanding, reference is now made to FIG. 2A. FIG. 2A is a signaldiagram showing a communication process 200A between a first network device, a secondnetwork device and a third network device in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

[0086] The process 200A may be implemented by the first network device 110, the secondnetwork device 120 and the third network device 130 as shown in FIG. 1.

[0087] In some embodiments, the first network device 110 may be configured to operate as anetwork repository function, the second network device 120 may be configured to operate as a network function consumer, and the third network device(s) 130 may be configured to operate as one or more network functions.

[0088] In operation, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the second network device 120 sends (230-1) arequest for discovery of one or more third network devices 130 to serve a terminal device (150),where the one or more the third network devices 130 are capable of serving the terminal device(150) based on the at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifieror an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device (150). The firstnetwork device 110 receives (230-2) the request for discovery of one or more third networkdevices 130 accordingly.

[0089] Then, the first network device 110 sends (240-1) a response for the discovery to thesecond network device 120 based on mapping of the at least one of the service identifier, themanufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier to the one or more identifiers ofthe one or more third network devices 130. In particular, the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices 130. The second network device120 receives (240-2) the response for the discovery accordingly.

[0090] In some embodiments, the least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, themanufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminaldevice (150) may be included in a device identifier of the terminal device (150).

[0091] In some embodiments, the device identifier of the terminal device (150) may be aSubscription Permanent Identifier (SUPI) or a Generic Public Subscription Identifier (GPSI).

[0092] In some embodiments, the one or more third network devices 130 may belong to agroup of third network devices 130, and the one or more identifiers of the one or more thirdnetwork devices 130 may comprise an identifier of the group of third network devices 130.

[0093] In order to ensure that the first network device 110 may respond the request fordiscovery of one or more third network devices 130 properly, the second network device 120 andthe third network device 130 may provide related information to the first network device 110previously, as discussed below.

[0094] In some embodiments, the second network device 120 may send (220-1) belowinformation to the first network device 110: an indication that mapping of at least one of a serviceidentifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with theterminal device (150) to one or more groups of third network devices 130 is supported by thesecond network device 120. The first network device 110 receives (220-2) the indication fromthe second network device 120 accordingly.

[0095] In some embodiments, one or more identifiers of the one or more groups of thirdnetwork devices 130 may be included in the response for the discovery based on the indication.

[0096] In some embodiments, a third network device 130 (of the one or more third networkdevices 130) may send (210-1) at least one of the following to the first network device 110: arouting indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product codeidentifier. The first network device 110 receives (210-2) at least one of the routing indicator, theservice identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier from thesecond network device 120 accordingly.

[0097] In some embodiments, the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier,the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier may be associated with aterminal device (150) to be served by the third network device 130.

[0098] Some example embodiments will be further discussed with reference to FIG. 2B, whichis a signal diagram showing a communication process 200B between an NF, an NRF and an AUSF in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0099] In the example of FIG. 2B, the NRF is used as an example of the first network device110 in FIG. 1, the NF is used as an example of the second network device 120 in FIG. 1 and the AUSF is used as an example of the third network device in FIG. 1.

[0100] As illustrated in FIG. 2B, at Action 0, the AUSF may send Nnrf_NFManagement_Reg-ister Request to the NRF, and at Action 1, the NRF may send Nnrf_NFManagement_RegisterResponse to the AUSF. At Action 2, the AloT device may register to the NF. Then, at Action 3,the NF sends Nnrf_NFDiscoveryRequest, where the Nnrf_NFDiscoveryRequest may include atleast one of RID, and / or Service / Manufacturer / EPC identifiers. Then, at Action 4, the NRF sendsNnrf_NFDiscovery Response to the NF, where Nnrf_NFDiscoveryResponse includes ServingUDM / AUSF Instance. Further, the Nnrf_NFDiscoveryResponse is generated based on RID,and / or Service / Manufacturer / EPC identifiers. Then, at Action 5, the authorization of the AloTdevice may be implemented.

[0101] In order to better support the above example embodiments, some new features and / orattribute may be introduced. Table 1 shows an example enumeration supportedFeatures attribute,for example, according to the third-generation partnership project (3GPP) clause 5.2.2 of 3GPPTS 29.571, VERSION 18.5.0.Table 1: Features of supportedFeatures attribute used by Nnrf_NFDiscovery serviceFeature umber Feature M / O Description1 Complex- O Support of Complex Query expression (see clause 6.2.3.2.3.1)Query 2Query- O Support of the following query parameters:Params-- limitExt1- max-payload-size- required-features- pdu-session-typesTruncated table for sake of clarity44 RID- O Support the capability of mapping between Routing IndicatorNfGroupI and NF Group ID by the NRF. d- If the consumer of the discovery service has not indicated Mapping support of the "RID-NfGroupId-Mapping" feature, the NRF shall not return in the discovery response NF instances (of UDMs and AUSFs) containing (in "UdmInfo" and "AusfInfo" respectively) an NF Group ID and no Routing Indicators toindicate that the mapping between both will be done by the NRF (see clauses 6.1.6.2.7 and 6.1.6.2.8).45 Query_UE O Support of the following query parameter(s) for PCF:PO- ursp-delivery-eps-support-ind46 DNN-List- O Support of dnnSmfInfoListId within SnssaiSmfInfoItem, andOptimizati dnnUpfInfoListId within SnssaiUpfInfoItem on If the consumer of the discovery service has not indicated support of the DNN-List-Optimization feature, the NRF shall provide the complete list of DNNs in dnnSmfInfoList or the dnnUpfInfoList.47 Shared- O Support of Shared Data IDs in search results.Data If supported, NFProfiles within search results may contain a sharedProfileDataId identifying shared profile data and NFServices may contain a sharedServiceDataId identifying shared service data. If not supported by the consumer, the NRF shall substitute values of the referenced shared data into the NF profile it returns to the consumer. NRFs supporting this feature shall also support the Shared- Data-Retrieval feature of the NFManagement service.xx Service O Support the capability of mapping of service ID orID / Manuf manufacturer ID to NF GroupID via AIoTDeviceID. acturer If the consumer of the discovery service has not indicated ID / EPC support of the "AIoTDeviceID-NfGroupId-Mapping" feature, ID to NF the NRF shall not return in the discovery response NF groupID instances (of UDMs and AUSFs) containing (in "UdmInfo" mappingand "AusfInfo" respectively) an NF Group ID and no RoutingIndicators to indicate that the mapping between both will be done by the NRF (see clauses 6.1.6.2.7 and 6.1.6.2.8)Feature number: The order number of the feature within the supportedFeatures attribute (starting with 1). Feature: A short name that can be used to refer to the bit and to the feature. M / O: Defines if the implementation of the feature is mandatory ("M") or optional ("O"). Description: A clear textual description of the feature. NOTE 1: An NRF that advertises support of a given feature shall support all the query parametersassociated with the feature. An NRF may support none or a subset of the query parameters of features that it does not advertise as supported. NOTE 2: For a release under development, it is recommended to define new features for new queryparameters by grouping them per 3GPP work item. Any definition of new query parameters in a frozen release requires a new feature definition.

[0102] Use of the feature defined in “xx” by NRF: the service operation “NF service discovery”discovers a current set of NF instances and their associated NF service instances which are represented by their NF profile that are currently registered in NRF and satisfy certain input parameters. In this case, when an NF attempts to serve specific AIoT devices, it includes the parameters like manufacturer ID, or service Id or EPC ID in the query parameter along with others to the NF to find the candidate NFs that matches with the same profile. The parameter “AIoTDeviceID-NfGroupId-Mapping” is used to indicate if the NF consumer is in need to find the candidate NRFs in serving PLMN matching the same criteria. The service operation procedureis given in Clause 5.3.2.2.2 of 3GPP TS 29.510, VERSION 18.6.0.

[0103] Method of obtaining manufacturer-id, epc-id and service-id to enable the NRF toperform the discovery will be discussed as blow.

[0104] These IDs can either be registered by the serving NF producer in their NF profiles. Or,NRF can be preconfigured with these information for which serving NF groups support these information / IDs.

[0105] In a hierarchical NRF architecture, the “parent” NRF in the serving PLMN obtains theEPC ID, manufacturing ID and service ID through the GET request (as a part of query parameter) provided by NF service consumer in serving PLMN. The input filter criteria or the discovery request shall be included in the query parameter. When certain query parameters in the discovery request are not supported by the NRF, the NRF shall ignore the unsupported query parameters and continue processing the request with the rest of the query parameters.

[0106] This operation retrieves a list of NF Instances, and their offered services, currentlyregistered in the NRF, satisfying several filter criteria, such as those NF Instances offering a certain service name, or those NF Instances of a given NF type (e.g., AMF).Table 2: URI query parameters supported by the GET method on this resource Name Data P CardinalityDescripti Applicabilit type on y Text omitted for the sake of clarity. routing-string O 0..1 Routing Indicator information that allows toindicator route network signalling with SUCI / SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to an AUSF, AAnF and UDM instance capable to serve the subscriber. May be included if the target NF type is "AUSF", "AANF" or "UDM". Pattern: "^[0-9]{1,4}$" manufacturestring O 0..1 The Manufacturer ID information that allowsr-id to route network signalling with SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to an AUSF, AAnF and UDM instance capable to serve the subscriber. May be included if the target NF type is "AUSF", "AANF" or "UDM". Pattern: "^[0-9]{1,4}$"epc-id string O 0..1 The EPC ID information that allows to routenetwork signalling with SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to an AUSF, AAnF and UDM instance capable to serve the subscriber. May be included if the target NF type is "AUSF", "AANF" or "UDM". Pattern: "^[0-9]{1,4}$"service-id string O 0..1 The Service ID information that allows toroute network signalling with SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to an AUSF, AAnF and UDM instance capable to serve the subscriber. May be included if the target NF type is "AUSF", "AANF" or "UDM". Pattern: "^[0-9]{1,4}$"Table 3 Definition of type UdmInfoAttribute name Data type P Cardinality DescriptiongroupId NfGroupId O 0..1 Identity of the UDM group that is servedby the UDM instance. If not provided, the UDM instance does not pertain to any UDM group. (NOTE 1)supiRanges array(Su- O 1..N List of ranges of SUPIs whose profilepiRange) data is available in the UDM instance (NOTE 1)gpsiRanges array(Identi- O 1..N List of ranges of GPSIs whose profiletyRange) data is available in the UDM instance (NOTE 1) externalGroupIdenti- array(Identi-O 1..N List of ranges of external groups whosefiersRanges tyRange) profile data is available in the UDM in- stance (NOTE 1)routingIndicators array(string) O 1..N List of Routing Indicator informationthat allows to route network signalling with SUCI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) tothe UDM instance. (NOTE 4)If not provided, and "groupId" attribute is absent, the UDM can serve any Rout- ing Indicator. Pattern: '^[0-9]{1,4}$' internalGroupIdenti- array(Inter-O 1..N List of ranges of Internal Group Identifi-fiersRanges nalGroupId- ers whose profile data is available in the Range) UDM instance. If not provided, it does not imply that the UDM supports all internal groups.suciInfos array(SuciInfo) O 1..N List of SuciInfo. A SUCI that matchesthis information can be served by the UDM .(NOTE 2, NOTE 3)A SUCI that matches all attributes of at least one entry in this array shall be con-sidered as a match of this information.epcid array(string) O 1..N List of EPC ID information that allowsto route network signalling with SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to the UDMinstance. (NOTE 5)If not provided, and "groupId" attribute is absent, the UDM can serve any EPC ID for the AIoT devices. Pattern: '^[0-9]{1,4}$'manufaturerid array(string) O 1..N List of Manufacturer ID information thatallows to route network signalling with SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to theUDM instance.(NOTE 5)If not provided, and "groupId" attribute is absent, the UDM can serve any Manu- facturer ID for the AIoT devices. Pattern: '^[0-9]{1,4}$'serviceid array(string) O 1..N List of Service ID information that al-lows to route network signalling with SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to theUDM instance. (NOTE 5)If not provided, and "groupId" attribute is absent, the UDM can serve any Ser- vice ID for the AIoT devices. Pattern: '^[0-9]{1,4}$'NOTE 1: If none of these parameters are provided, the UDM can serve any external group and any SUPIor GPSI managed by the PLMN of the UDM instance. If "supiRanges", "gpsiRanges" and "exter- nalGroupIdentifiersRanges" attributes are absent, and "groupId" is present, the SUPIs / GPSIs / ExternalGroups served by this UDM instance is determined by the NRF (see 3GPP TS 23.501[2], clause 6.2.6.2).NOTE 2: The combination of SUCI informations, e.g. Routing Indicator and Home Network Public KeyId, may be used as criteria for UDM discovery. In this release, the usage of Home Network Pub-lic Key identifier for UDM discovery is limited to the scenario where the UDM NF consumers belong to the same PLMN as UDM.NOTE 3: If the suciInfos attribute is present and contains the routingInds sub-attribute, then the routingIn-dicators attribute shall also be present.NOTE 4: If "routingIndicators" attribute is absent, and "groupId" is present, the set of Routing Indicatorsserved by this UDM instance is determined by the NRF. When "groupId" is present, if the con- sumer of the Nnrf_Discovery service does not support the "RID-NfGroupId-Mapping" feature (see clause 6.2.9), the NRF shall include in the discovery response the list of supported "rout-ingIndicators" served by the UDM Group ID to which this UDM instance belongs, as determined by the NRF (or leave absent the "routingIndicators" attribute to indicate that any Routing Indica- tor is served by this UDM instance).NOTE 5: If "epcid",” serviceid”, “manufacturerid” attributes are absent, and "groupId" is present, the setof AIoT Device Indicators served by this UDM instance is determined by the NRF. When "groupId" is present, if the consumer of the Nnrf_Discovery service does not support the " IoTDeviceID-NfGroupId-Mapping" feature (see clause 6.2.9), the NRF shall include in the dis-covery response the list of supported "routingIndicators" served by the UDM Group ID to which this UDM instance belongs, as determined by the NRF (or leave absent the " IoTDeviceID- NfGroupId-Mapping" attribute to indicate that any Routing Indicator is served by this UDM in- stance).Table 4: Definition of type AusfInfoAttribute name Data type P Cardinality DescriptiongroupId NfGroupId O 0..1 Identity of the AUSF group.If not provided, the AUSF instance does not pertain to any AUSF group. (NOTE 1)supiRanges array(Su- O 1..N List of ranges of SUPIs that can be servedpiRange) by the AUSF instance. (NOTE 1)routingIndicators array(string) O 1..N List of Routing Indicator information thatallows to route network signalling with SUCI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to theAUSF instance. (NOTE 4)If not provided, and "groupId" attribute is absent, the AUSF can serve any Routing Indicator. Pattern: '^[0-9]{1,4}$'suciInfos array(SuciInfo) O 1..N List of SuciInfo. A SUCI that matches thisinformation can be served by the AUSF. (NOTE 2, NOTE 3)A SUCI that matches all attributes of atleast one entry in this array shall be con-sidered as a match of this information.epcid array(string) O 1..N List of EPC ID information that allows toroute network signalling with SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to the UDM in-stance. (NOTE 5)If not provided, and "groupId" attribute is absent, the UDM can serve any EPC ID for the AIoT devices. Pattern: '^[0-9]{1,4}$'manufaturerid array(string) O 1..N List of Manufacturer ID information thatallows to route network signalling with SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to theUDM instance. (NOTE 5)If not provided, and "groupId" attribute is absent, the UDM can serve any Manufac- turer ID for the AIoT devices. Pattern: '^[0-9]{1,4}$'serviceid array(string) O 1..N List of Service ID information that allowsto route network signalling with SUPI (see 3GPP TS 23.003

[0012] ) to the UDM in-stance. (NOTE 5)If not provided, and "groupId" attribute is absent, the UDM can serve any Service ID for the AIoT devices. Pattern: '^[0-9]{1,4}$'NOTE 1: If none of these parameters are provided, the AUSF can serve any SUPI managed by the PLMNof the AUSF instance. If "supiRanges" attribute is absent, and "groupId" is present, the SUPIs served by this AUSF instance is determined by the NRF (see 3GPP TS 23.501 [2], clause6.2.6.2).NOTE 2: The combination of SUCI informations, e.g. Routing Indicator and Home Network Public KeyId, can be used as criteria for AUSF discovery. In this release, the usage of Home Network Pub-lic Key identifier for AUSF discovery is limited to the scenario where the AUSF NF consumers belong to the same PLMN as AUSF.NOTE 3: If the suciInfos attribute is present and contains the routingInds sub-attribute, then the routingIn-dicators attribute shall also be present.NOTE 4: If "routingIndicators" attribute is absent, and "groupId" is present, the set of Routing Indicatorsserved by this AUSF instance is determined by the NRF. When "groupId" is present, if the con- sumer of the Nnrf_Discovery service does not support the "RID-NfGroupId-Mapping" feature (see clause 6.2.9), the NRF shall include in the discovery response the list of supported "rout-ingIndicators" served by the AUSF Group ID to which this AUSF instance belongs, as deter- mined by the NRF (or leave absent the "routingIndicators" attribute to indicate that any Routing Indicator is served by this AUSF instance).NOTE 5: If "epcid",” serviceid”, “manufacturerid” attributes are absent, and "groupId" is present, the setof AIoT Device Indicators served by this UDM instance is determined by the NRF. When "groupId" is present, if the consumer of the Nnrf_Discovery service does not support the " IoTDeviceID-NfGroupId-Mapping" feature (see clause 6.2.9), the NRF shall include in the dis-covery response the list of supported "routingIndicators" served by the UDM Group ID to which this UDM instance belongs, as determined by the NRF (or leave absent the " IoTDeviceID- NfGroupId-Mapping" attribute to indicate that any Routing Indicator is served by this UDM in- stance).

[0107] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flowchart of an example method 300 at a first networkdevice in accordance with some embodiments. The method 300 may be implemented by the first network device as shown in FIG. 1. For the purpose of discussion, the method 300 will bedescribed from the perspective of the first network device 110 with reference to FIG. 1.

[0108] As shown in FIG. 3, at block 310, the first network device receives, from a secondnetwork device, a request for discovery of one or more third network devices to serve a terminal device, wherein the request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device.

[0109] At block 320, the first network device sends, to the second network device, a responsefor the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices, based on mapping of the at least one of the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier to the one or more identifiersof the one or more third network devices, wherein the one or more third network devices arecapable of serving the terminal device based on the at least one of the routing indicator, the serviceidentifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device.

[0110] In an example, the least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, themanufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device may be included in a device identifier of the terminal device.

[0111] In an example, the device identifier of the terminal device may be a SubscriptionPermanent Identifier, SUPI, or a Generic Public Subscription Identifier, GPSI.

[0112] In an example, the one or more third network devices belong to a group of third networkdevices, the one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices comprise an identifier of the group of third network devices.

[0113] In an example, the first network device may receive, from the second network device,an indication that mapping of at least one of a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device to one or more groups of third network devices may be supported by the second network device. one or more identifiers of the one or more groups of third network devices may be included in the response for the discovery based on the indication.

[0114] In an example, the first network device may receive, from a third network device of theone or more third network devices, at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier. the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier may be associated with a terminal device to be served by the third network device.

[0115] In an example, the first network device may be configured to operate as a networkrepository function, the second network device may be configured to operate as a network function consumer, the one or more third network devices may be configured to operate as one ormore network functions.

[0116] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flowchart of an example method 400 at a second networkdevice in accordance with some embodiments. The method 400 may be implemented by thesecond network device 120 as shown in FIG. 1. For the purpose of discussion, the method 400will be described from the perspective of the second network device 120 with reference to FIG.1.

[0117] As shown in FIG. 4, at block 410, the second network device sends, to a first networkdevice, a request for discovery of one or more third network devices to serve a terminal device,wherein the request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device.

[0118] At block 420, the second network device receives, from the second network device, aresponse for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices, wherein the one or more third network devices arecapable of serving the terminal device based on the at least one of the routing indicator, the serviceidentifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device.

[0119] In an example, the least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, themanufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device may be included in a device identifier of the terminal device.

[0120] In an example, the device identifier of the terminal device may be a SubscriptionPermanent Identifier, SUPI, or a Generic Public Subscription Identifier, GPSI.

[0121] In an example, the one or more third network devices may belong to a group of thirdnetwork devices, the one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices comprise an identifier of the group of third network devices.

[0122] In an example, the second network device may send, to the first network device, anindication that mapping of at least one of a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device to one or more groups of third network devices may be supported by the second network device. one or more identifiers of the one or more groups of third network devices may be included in the response for the discovery based on the indication.

[0123] In an example, the first network device may be configured to operate as a networkrepository function, the second network device may be configured to operate as a network function consumer, the third network device may be configured to operate as a network function.

[0124] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart of an example method 500 at a third networkdevice in accordance with some embodiments. The method 500 may be implemented by the thirdnetwork device 130 as shown in FIG. 1. For the purpose of discussion, the method 500 will bedescribed from the perspective of the third network device 130 with reference to FIG. 1.

[0125] As shown in FIG. 5, at block 510, the third network device sends, to a first networkdevice, at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or anelectronic product code identifier, , wherein the at least one of the routing indicator, the serviceidentifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier is associated with a terminal device to be served by the third network device.

[0126] In an example, the first network device may be configured to operate as a networkrepository function, the third network device may be configured to operate as a network function.

[0127] All operations and features related to the first network device 110, the second networkdevice 120 and the third network device 130 as described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5are likewise applicable to the methods 300 and 400 and have similar effects.

[0128] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a communication device in accordance with someembodiments.

[0129] As shown in FIG. 6, the communication device 600 may comprise a processor 605 anda memory 610. The memory 610 may contain instructions 615 executable by the processor 605,whereby the communication device 600 may be operative to implement actions or operationsaccording to any of the above-mentioned embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

[0130] In some embodiments, the communication device 600 may operate as a first networkdevice. In these embodiments, the communication device 600 may be operative to: receive, froma second network device, a request for discovery of one or more third network devices to serve a terminal device, wherein the request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device; send, to the second network device, a response for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices, based on mapping of the at least one of the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier to the one or more identifiers of the one or morethird network devices, wherein the one or more third network devices are capable of serving theterminal device based on the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device.

[0131] In some embodiments, the communication device 600 may operate as a second networkdevice. In these embodiments, the communication device 600 may be operative to: send, to a firstnetwork device, a request for discovery of one or more third network devices to serve a terminal device, wherein the request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a serviceidentifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier associated with theterminal device; receive, from the second network device, a response for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third networkdevices, wherein the one or more third network devices are capable of serving the terminal devicebased on the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device.

[0132] In some embodiments, the communication device 600 may operate as a third networkdevice. In these embodiments, the communication device 600 may be operative to: send, to a firstnetwork device, at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier, wherein the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier is associated with a terminal device to be served by the third network device.

[0133] The processor 605 may be any kind of processing component, such as one or moremicroprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs), special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The memory 610 may be any kind of storage component, such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc.

[0134] FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a computer readable storage medium in accordance withsome embodiments.

[0135] As shown in FIG. 7, the computer readable storage medium 700 comprising instructions615 which when executed by a processor of a device, cause the device to perform any above-mentioned embodiments described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

[0136] The computer readable storage medium 700 may be configured to include memory suchas RAM, ROM, programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, or flash drives.

[0137] In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing the method 300, 400 or 500may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 300,r 400 or 500.The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

[0138] FIG. 8 shows an example of a communication system 800 in accordance with someembodiments.

[0139] In the example, the communication system 800 includes a telecommunication network802 that includes an access network 804, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 806, which includes one or more core network nodes 808. The access network 804 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 810a and 810b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 810), or any other similar 3rdGenerationPartnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node is 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 network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 802 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 802 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 802, including one or more network nodes 810 and / or core network nodes 808.

[0140] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an opendistributed 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 control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control 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 A1, F1, W1, E1, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access node may be a logical nodein a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualizationenvironment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized.For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platformorchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface definedby the O-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies. The network nodes 810 facilitate direct orindirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 812a, 812b, 812c, and 812d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 812) to the core network 806 over one or more wireless connections.

[0141] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmittingand / 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 800 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 800 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radionetwork, and / or other similar type of system.

[0142] The UEs 812 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, includingwireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 810 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 810 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 812 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 802 toenable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform otherfunctions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 802.

[0143] In the depicted example, the core network 806 connects the network nodes 810 to oneor more host computing systems, such as host 816. 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 806 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 808) 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 808. 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).

[0144] The host 816 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than anoperator or provider of the access network 804 and / or the telecommunication network 802. The host 816 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.

[0145] As a whole, the communication system 800 of FIG. 8 enables connectivity between theUEs, 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 areanetwork (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.

[0146] In some examples, the telecommunication network 802 is a cellular network thatimplements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 802 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 802. For example, the telecommunications network 802 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs,while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or MassiveMachine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive IoT services to yet further UEs.

[0147] In some examples, the UEs 812 are configured to transmit and / or receive informationwithout direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 804 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 804. Additionally, a UE may beconfigured for operating in single- or multi-RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE mayoperate 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 RadioAccess Network) New Radio – Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0148] In the example, the hub 814 communicates with the access network 804 to facilitateindirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 812c and / or 812d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 810b). In some examples, the hub 814 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 814 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 806 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 814 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 810, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 814. As another example, the hub 814 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 814 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR device, display, loudspeaker, or other media delivery device, the hub 814 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 814 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 814 acts as a proxy server or orchestratorfor the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy IoT devices.

[0149] The hub 814 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the networknode 810b. The hub 814 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedulebetween the hub 814 and UEs (e.g., UE 812c and / or 812d), and between the hub 814 and the corenetwork 806. In other examples, the hub 814 is connected to the core network 806 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 814 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 804 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 810 while still connected via the hub 814 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub814 may be a dedicated hub – that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communicationsto / from the UEs from / to the network node 810b. In other embodiments, the hub 814 may be anon-dedicated hub – that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communicationsbetween the UEs and network node 810b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0150] FIG. 9 shows a UE 900 in accordance with some embodiments. The UE 900 presentsadditional details of some embodiments of the UE 812 of FIG. 8. As used herein, a UE refers toa 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 / playback device, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), an Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle, 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.

[0151] A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example byimplementing 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, anend user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0152] The UE 900 includes processing circuitry 902 that is operatively coupled via a bus 904to an input / output interface 906, a power source 908, a memory 910, a communication interface 912, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or asubset of the components shown in FIG. 9. The level of integration between the components mayvary 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.

[0153] The processing circuitry 902 is configured to process instructions and data and may beconfigured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 910. The processing circuitry 902 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 902 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0154] In the example, the input / output interface 906 may be configured to provide an interfaceor 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 900. 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.

[0155] In some embodiments, the power source 908 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 908 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 908 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 900 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical powercable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 908. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from thepower source 908 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 900 towhich power is supplied.

[0156] The memory 910 may be or be configured to include memory such as random accessmemory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 910 includes one or more application programs 914, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 916. The memory 910 may store, for use by the UE 900, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0157] The memory 910 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, suchas 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 910 may allow the UE 900 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 articleof manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 910, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0158] The processing circuitry 902 may be configured to communicate with an accessnetwork or other network using the communication interface 912. The communication interface 912 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 922. The communication interface 912 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remotetransceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a networknode in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 918 and / or a receiver 920 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 918 and receiver 920 may be coupled to one or moreantennas (e.g., antenna 922) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0159] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communicationinterface 912 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short- range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0160] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by itssensors, through its communication interface 912, 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).

[0161] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to acommunication 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.

[0162] A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (IoT) device, may be a device for usein 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 IoT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, asmart watch, a fitness tracker, a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, awater sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, anindustrial 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 IoT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the IoT device in additionto other components as described in relation to the UE 900 shown in FIG. 9.

[0163] As yet another specific example, in an IoT scenario, a UE may represent a machine orother device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of suchmonitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this casebe 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.

[0164] 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.

[0165] FIG. 10 shows a network node 1000 in accordance with some embodiments. As usedherein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)), O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0166] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or,stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base stationsuch as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node) and / or remoteradio 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).

[0167] Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5Gaccess 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).

[0168] The network node 1000 includes a processing circuitry 1002, a memory 1004, acommunication interface 1006, and a power source 1008. The network node 1000 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB 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 1000 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 1000 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1004 for different RATs) and somecomponents may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1010 may be shared by different RATs). Thenetwork node 1000 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1000, 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 1000.

[0169] The processing circuitry 1002 may comprise a combination of one or more of amicroprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1000 components, such as the memory 1004, to provide network node 1000 functionality.

[0170] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1002 includes a system on a chip (SOC).In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1002 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1012 and baseband processing circuitry 1014. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1012 and the baseband processing circuitry 1014 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 1012 and baseband processing circuitry 1014 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0171] The memory 1004 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 1002. The memory 1004 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 1002 and utilized by the network node 1000. The memory 1004 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1002 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1006. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1002 and memory 1004 is integrated.

[0172] The communication interface 1006 is used in wired or wireless communication ofsignaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1006 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1016 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1006 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1018 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1010. Radio front-end circuitry 1018 comprises filters 1020 and amplifiers 1022. The radio front-end circuitry 1018 may be connected to an antenna 1010 and processing circuitry 1002. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1010 and processing circuitry 1002. The radio front-end circuitry 1018 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 1018 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1020 and / or amplifiers 1022. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1010. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1010 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1018. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1002. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0173] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1000 does not include separateradio front-end circuitry 1018, instead, the processing circuitry 1002 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1010. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1012 is part of the communication interface 1006. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1006 includes one or more ports or terminals 1016, the radio front-end circuitry 1018, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1012, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1006 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1014, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0174] The antenna 1010 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured tosend and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1010 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1018 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1010 is separate from the network node 1000 and connectable to the network node 1000 through an interface or port.

[0175] The antenna 1010, communication interface 1006, and / or the processing circuitry 1002may 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 1010, the communication interface 1006, and / or the processing circuitry 1002 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.

[0176] The power source 1008 provides power to the various components of network node1000 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level neededfor each respective component). The power source 1008 may further comprise, or be coupled to,power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1000 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1000 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 1008. As a further example, the power source 1008 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0177] Embodiments of the network node 1000 may include additional components beyondthose shown in FIG. 10 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality,including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to supportthe subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1000 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1000 and to allow output of information from the network node 1000. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1000. In some embodiments providing a core network node, such as core network node 108 of FIG. 8, somecomponents, such as the radio front-end circuitry 1018 and the RF transceiver circuitry 1012 maybe omitted.

[0178] FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1100 in whichfunctions 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 1100 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 1100 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. Virtualization may facilitate distributed implementations of a network node, UE, core network node, or host.

[0179] Applications 1102 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtualappliances, 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.

[0180] Hardware 1104 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / orinstructions 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 1106 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1108a and 1108b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1108), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1106 may present a virtual operating platform that appears likenetworking hardware to the VMs 1108.

[0181] The VMs 1108 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking orinterface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1106.Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1102 may be implemented on one ormore of VMs 1108, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

[0182] In the context of NFV, a VM 1108 may be a software implementation of a physicalmachine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1108, and that part of hardware 1104 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 1108 on top of the hardware 1104 and corresponds to the application 1102.

[0183] Hardware 1104 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic orspecific components. Hardware 1104 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1104 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 1110, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1102. In some embodiments, hardware 1104 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 1112 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0184] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes) mayinclude 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 otherinformation, 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.

[0185] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may beprovided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

[0186] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may beprovided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

[0187] Hereinafter, the solution will be further described with reference to text of contributionto be submitted to 3GPP TS 29.510 as follows. Reason for change

[0188] 3GPP has initiated a new topic on Ambient IoT and the AIoT identifiers has to bedefined for NRF service Discovery. This draft CR adds new features for the support of discovery services for Ambient IoT devices. Summary of change

[0189] The Ambient IoT devices cannot be found out by the serving NFs. Hence, those devicescannot be served. Consequences if not approved

[0190] If these parameters are not introduced, then the specification will not be streamlinedwith the stage 2 one. In stage 2, Ambient IoT device identifiers are going to be defined. 6.2.9 Features supported by the NFDiscovery service The syntax of the supportedFeatures attribute is defined in clause 5.2.2 of 3GPP TS 29.571, VERSION 18.5.0. The following features are defined for the Nnrf_NFDiscovery service. Table 6.2.9-1: Features of supportedFeatures attribute used by Nnrf_NFDiscovery service (Refer to Table 1 above)6.1.6.2.7 Type: UdmInfoTable 6.1.6.2.7-1: Definition of type UdmInfo (Refer to Table 3 above)6.1.6.2.8 Type: AusfInfoTable 6.1.6.2.8-1: Definition of type AusfInfo (Refer to Table 4 above)6.2.3.2.3 Resource Standard Methods6.2.3.2.3.1 GETThis operation retrieves a list of NF Instances, and their offered services, currently registered in the NRF, satisfying a number of filter criteria, such as those NF Instances offering a certain service name, or those NF Instances of a given NF type (e.g., AMF). Table 6.2.3.2.3.1-1: URI query parameters supported by the GET method on this resource(Refer to Table 2 above)

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method (300) at a first network device (110), comprising:receiving (230-2, 310), from a second network device (120), a request for discovery of oneor more third network devices (130) to serve a terminal device (150), wherein the request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifieror an electronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device (150); andsending (240-1, 320), to the second network device (120), a response for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices (130), based on mapping of the at least one of the service identifier, themanufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier to the one or more identifiers ofthe one or more third network devices (130), wherein the one or more third network devices (130)are capable of serving the terminal device (150) based on the at least one of the routing indicator,the service identifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifierassociated with the terminal device (150).

2. The method (300) of claim 1, wherein the least one of the routing indicator, the serviceidentifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with theterminal device (150) is included in a device identifier of the terminal device (150).

3. The method (300) of claim 2, wherein the device identifier of the terminal device (150)is a Subscription Permanent Identifier, SUPI, or a Generic Public Subscription Identifier, GPSI.

4. The method (300) of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the one or more third network devices(130) belong to a group of third network devices (130), and the one or more identifiers of the oneor more third network devices (130) comprise an identifier of the group of third network devices(130).

15. The method (300) of any of claims 1 to 4, further comprising:receiving (220-2), from the second network device (120), an indication that mapping of atleast one of a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifierassociated with the terminal device (150) to one or more groups of third network devices (130) issupported by the second network device (120), wherein one or more identifiers of the one or more groups of third network devices (130)are included in the response for the discovery based on the indication.

6. The method (300) of any of claims 1 to 5, further comprising:receiving (210-2), from a third network device (130) of the one or more third network devices (130), at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier oran electronic product code identifier,wherein the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, the manufactureridentifier or the electronic product code identifier is associated with a terminal device (150) to beserved by the third network device (130).

7. The method (300) of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the first network device (110) isconfigured to operate as a network repository function, the second network device (120) is configured to operate as a network function consumer, and the one or more third network devices (130) are configured to operate as one or more network functions.

8. A method (400) at a second network device (120), comprising:sending (230-1, 410), to a first network device (110), a request for discovery of one or morethird network devices (130) to serve a terminal device (150), wherein the request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or anelectronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device (150); andreceiving (240-2, 420), from the second network device (120), a response for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more thirdnetwork devices (130), wherein the one or more third network devices (130) are capable of serving2the terminal device (150) based on the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier,the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminaldevice (150).

9. The method (400) of claim 8, wherein the least one of the routing indicator, the serviceidentifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with theterminal device (150) is included in a device identifier of the terminal device (150).

10. The method (400) of claim 9, wherein the device identifier of the terminal device (150)is a Subscription Permanent Identifier, SUPI, or a Generic Public Subscription Identifier, GPSI.

11. The method (400) of any of claims 8 to 10, wherein the one or more third networkdevices (130) belong to a group of third network devices (130), and the one or more identifiersof the one or more third network devices (130) comprise an identifier of the group of third networkdevices (130).

12. The method (400) of any of claims 8 to 11, further comprising:sending (220-1), to the first network device (110), an indication that mapping of at leastone of a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifierassociated with the terminal device (150) to one or more groups of third network devices (130) issupported by the second network device (120), wherein one or more identifiers of the one or more groups of third network devices (130)are included in the response for the discovery based on the indication.

13. The method (400) of any of claims 8 to 12, wherein the first network device (110) isconfigured to operate as a network repository function, the second network device (120) is configured to operate as a network function consumer, and the third network device (130) is configured to operate as a network function.

314. A method (500) at a third network device (130), comprising:sending (210-1, 510), to a first network device (110), at least one of a routing indicator, aservice identifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier,wherein the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, the manufactureridentifier or the electronic product code identifier is associated with a terminal device (150) to beserved by the third network device (130).

15. The method (500) of claim 14, wherein the first network device (110) is configured tooperate as a network repository function, and the third network device (130) is configured to operate as a network function.

16. A first network device (110, 600), comprising:a processor (605); and a memory (610), the memory (610) containing instructions (615) executable by theprocessor (605), whereby the first network device (110) (110,600) is operative to:receive, from a second network device (120), a request for discovery of one or morethird network devices (130) to serve a terminal device (150), wherein the request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or anelectronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device (150); andsend, to the second network device (120), a response for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more third network devices (130), based on mapping of the at least one of the service identifier, the manufactureridentifier or the electronic product code identifier to the one or more identifiers of the one or morethird network devices (60), wherein the one or more third network devices (130) are capable ofserving the terminal device (150) based on the at least one of the routing indicator, the serviceidentifier, the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with theterminal device (150).

17. The first network device (110, 600) of claim 16, wherein the first network device (110,4600) is further operative to implement the method according to any of claims 2 to 7.

18. A second network device (120, 600), comprising:a processor (605); and a memory (610), the memory (610) containing instructions (615) executable by theprocessor (605), whereby the second network device (120,600) is operative to:send, to a first network device (110), a request for discovery of one or more thirdnetwork devices (130) to serve a terminal device (150), wherein the request for the discovery includes at least one of a routing indicator, a service identifier, a manufacturer identifier or anelectronic product code identifier associated with the terminal device (150); andreceive, from the second network device (120, 600), a response for the discovery, wherein the response for the discovery includes one or more identifiers of the one or more thirdnetwork devices (130), wherein the one or more third network devices (60) are capable of servingthe terminal device (150) based on the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier,the manufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier associated with the terminaldevice (150).

19. The second network device (120, 600) of claim 18, wherein the second network device(120, 600) is further operative to implement the method according to any of claims 9 to 6.

20. A third network device (130, 600), comprising:a processor (605); and a memory (610), the memory (610) containing instructions (615) executable by theprocessor (605), whereby the third network device (130, 600) is operative to:send, to a first network device (110), at least one of a routing indicator, a serviceidentifier, a manufacturer identifier or an electronic product code identifier,wherein the at least one of the routing indicator, the service identifier, themanufacturer identifier or the electronic product code identifier is associated with a terminaldevice (150) to be served by the third network device (130, 600).

521. The third network device (130, 600) of claim 20, wherein the third network device (130,600) is further operative to implement the method according to claim 15.

22. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions (615) stored thereon, the instructions (615), which, when executed by at least one processor of a device, causes the deviceto perform the method (300) according to any of claims 1-7, the method (400) according to anyof claims 8-13, the method (500) according claim 14 or 15. 6

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