First node, communications system and methods performed thereby, for handling logistics

Abstract

A method performed by a first node (111). The first node (111) obtains (201), via one or more APIs, information of a position of one or more second nodes (120) of one or more providers. The first node (111) stores (202) the information in a first queue. The first node (111) obtains (203), via one or more second APIs, second information of a position of one or more third nodes (130) of one or more requesters and stores (204) the information in a second queue and then in a spatial database (160). The first node (111) determines (206) a match between the providers and the requesters, using the first queue and the information in the spatial database (160), to minimize a distance to be travelled. The first node (111) then initiates (207) sending an indication to a matched first provider and first requester indicating a result of the determining (206).

Description

[0001] FIRST NODE, COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM AND METHODS PERFORMED THEREBY,

[0002] FOR HANDLING LOGISTICS

[0003] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0004] The present disclosure relates generally to a first node and methods performed thereby for handling logistics. The present disclosure further relates generally to a communications system and methods performed thereby, for handling the logistics. The present disclosure also relates generally to computer programs and computer-readable storage mediums, having stored thereon the computer programs to carry out these methods.

[0005] BACKGROUND

[0006] Computer systems in a communications network or communications system may comprise one or more nodes. A node may comprise a processing circuitry which, together with computer program code may perform different functions and actions, a memory, a receiving port, and a sending port. A node may be, for example, a server. Nodes may perform their functions entirely on the cloud.

[0007] The communications system may cover a geographical area which may be divided into cell areas, each cell area being served by a type of node, a network node in the Radio Access Network (RAN), radio network node or Transmission Point (TP), for example, an access node such as a Base Station (BS), e.g., a Radio Base Station (RBS), which sometimes may be referred to as e.g., gNB, evolved Node B (“eNB”), “eNodeB”, “NodeB”, “B node”, or Base Transceiver Station (BTS), depending on the technology and terminology used. The base stations may be of different classes such as e.g., Wide Area Base Stations, Medium Range Base Stations, Local Area Base Stations, and Home Base Stations, based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. A cell may be understood to be the geographical area where radio coverage may be provided by the base station at a base station site. One base station, situated on the base station site, may serve one or several cells. Further, each base station may support one or several communication technologies. The telecommunications network may also comprise network nodes which may serve receiving nodes, such as user equipments, with serving beams.

[0008] The standardization organization Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is currently in the process of specifying a New Radio Interface called Next Generation Radio or New Radio (NR), as well as a Fifth Generation (5G) Packet Core Network, which may be referred to as 5G Core Network (5GC). The advantages of 5G NR may include higher bandwidth, more resources, low latency and network slicing. 5G may provide services to various applications, such as enhanced Mobile Broad Band (eMBB), Massive Machine-type Communication (mMTC), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), etc.

[0009] 5G may be understood to bring in sizeable flexibility with technological advancements along with innovations of cloud and Artificial Intelligence (Al). This may be understood to bring a whole new set of opportunities in the enterprise segment.

[0010] In recent years, many sellers have been using big electronic commerce (e-commerce) platforms to sell their products. This business model of gathering multiple sellers in a single platform, working as a virtual shopping mall, may be referred to as e- marketplace. The concept of e-marketplace has become more popular as more people have gained access to the internet over the years, and it may be understood to offer the convenience of buying products within few clicks to anyone.

[0011] The e-marketplace demands large logistic network optimization, as it may be understood to need collection of many packages distributed in unpredictable locations and delivery with maximum efficiency. For broader coverage, this demand may then be handled by logistic and courier companies or other traditional postal service providers since they may be understood to have greater reach.

[0012] To have a more effective use of all transport modes, these logistic and courier companies may integrate with other platforms. These platforms may be understood to provide a flexible way to distribute the packages over all available transport vehicles, even from third parties. The integration may be usually performed by using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or Electronic Data Interchanges (EDIs) to share package information.

[0013] Using internet protocols to share information between companies is a trend not only for the logistic industry. There may be other platforms and businesses that may also use this same information exchange approach to improve the services provided. These approaches may be understood to allow interoperability of different platforms by establishing a public interface or common protocol through collaboration, a similar approach taken by provider agnostic approaches, such as Open Radio Access Networks (RAN) in telecommunications. Then companies may be able to offer a greater variety of services or products to their customers.

[0014] A typical logistic operation may be split into three stages: first mile, middle mile and last mile. The first mile phase may be understood to usually include processes that may occur before the packages arrive at a warehouse or local hub. It may be understood to refer to the beginning of the delivery journey, where products may be collected from sellers or producers. Middle mile may be understood to be the link between first and last mile, it may be understood to involve transportation of products from local hubs to regional distribution centers. Last mile may be understood to deal with the remaining process of delivering the packages from warehouse to final customer. In businesses that work with multiple suppliers or sellers as in e-marketplaces, the first mile may be challenging to logistic companies. Since it may be an unpredictable scenario where collection of packages may be understood to be made on-demand, the quantity of packages collected per vehicle may be so low as to be unfeasible for the operation. When the quantity is below the minimum viable, the operation becomes too expensive. In these cases, the usual approach may be to extend the pickup period, but this has a direct impact on delivery time and consequently on the customer experience.

[0015] Some strategies such as contractual agreements for sellers, requiring a minimum quantity of packages periodically, restrict the service provided by logistic companies, and sellers classified as Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) may not be able to fulfil that requirement, affecting the competitiveness and reducing the variety of products that may be offered in a platform. It may impact, for instance, businesses that offer customized products and consumer cyclicals due to the products exclusivity or its extremely non-linear demand.

[0016] Although there are approaches performing information exchange between logistic companies to improve the logistic operation, the focus is on the majority for mid mile and last mile. These approaches share information on transportation modes through APIs or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to maximize the transport capability, but few approaches have been proposed to solve the same problem at first mile. The reason for that is businesses such as marketplaces, manufacturers or sellers may be understood to be geographically scattered and the demand for package collection may be very sporadic. It is hard to predict the optimal periodicity to pick up all packages in a certain area. On the other hand, in the mid and last mile, as the packages arrive at the local hubs or distribution centers, the optimization may be understood to be far easier because, at that moment, they may be understood to be all under logistical company control.

[0017] SUMMARY

[0018] As part of the development of embodiments herein, one or more problems with the existing technology will first be identified and discussed.

[0019] Logistic companies that want to have access to external logistic networks, besides all formalities of a partnership, may need to perform system integration with other logistic companies. Since there is no single standard for logistic data exchange, those companies may have to create new services or new endpoints, e.g., API endpoints, to integrate with other companies. To establish these Business to Business (B2B) communications, traditional companies may usually use EDI and modern companies may use APIs, each one may use different protocols and, for each data exchange method, there are many data formats to be considered, such as XML, Proceda, CSV and others for EDIs, and Json, XML and others for APIs. Additionally, authentication methods have to be considered as well, since there may be also numerous authentication mechanisms that may be implemented.

[0020] Therefore, a custom integration to have access to external logistic network entails dedicated implementation and maintenance efforts, which is inefficient and costly. Even with enough resource to implement and maintain these custom integration, logistic companies do not have control over the communication infrastructure, as communication service providers do, and they may not be able to leverage the full potential of a communication network. Communication service providers may be spending too much resource on applications that do not need much connectivity, for example, providing high throughput connection for courier position notification to customers, which may be understood to not be particularly relevant for the overall logistic process.

[0021] A rising number of sellers and couriers online will bring massive low-latency communication need and its reliability is one of the top priorities. Existing logistic methods however, may lead to high usage of energy resources, long latencies, and high costs.

[0022] Embodiments herein may address the problems of the existing methods just described.

[0023] According to a first aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a computer- implemented method, performed by a first node. The first node operates in a communications system. The first node, via one or more respective first application programming interfaces (APIs) offered on a platform of the first node, first respective information of a respective position of one or more respective second nodes of one or more providers. The first node stores the obtained first respective information in a first queue. The first node also assigns a time to live to the first respective information in the first queue. The obtaining of the first respective information is repeated with updated first respective information of an updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes. The first queue is updated with the updated first respective information. The first node also obtains, via one or more respective second APIs offered on the integrated platform of the first node, second respective information of a respective position of one or more respective third nodes of one or more requesters. The first node stores the obtained second respective information in a second queue. The first node also stores the second respective information stored in the second queue, in a spatial database accessible by the first node. The first node determines a match between a first provider of the one or more providers and a first requester of one or more requesters, using the updated first queue and the second respective information stored in the spatial database, with the proviso the time to live has not expired. The determining is based on querying the spatial database to minimize a distance to be travelled between the respective position of a first respective second node and a first respective third node of, respectively, the matched first provider and the first requester. The first node also initiates sending a respective first indication to the first respective second node of the first provider and the first respective third node of the first requester. The respective first indication indicates a result of the determining.

[0024] According to a second aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a computer-implemented method, performed by a communications system. The communications system comprises the first node, the one or more respective second nodes, the one or more respective third nodes and the spatial database. The communications system obtains, by the first node and via the one or more respective first APIs offered on the platform of the first node, the first respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective second nodes of the one or more providers. The communications system stores, by the first node, the obtained first respective information in the first queue and assigns the time to live to the first respective information in the first queue. The obtaining of the first respective information is repeated with the updated first respective information of the updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes. The first queue is updated with the updated first respective information. The communications system obtains, by the first node and via the one or more respective second APIs offered on the integrated platform of the first node, the second respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective third nodes of the one or more requesters. The communications system stores, by the first node, the obtained second respective information in the second queue. The communications system stores, by the first node, the second respective information stored in the second queue, in the spatial database accessible by the first node. The communications system determines, by the first node, the match between the first provider of the one or more providers and the first requester of the one or more requesters, using the updated first queue and the second respective information stored in the spatial database, with the proviso the time to live has not expired. The determining is based on querying the spatial database to minimize the distance to be travelled between the respective position of the first respective second node and the first respective third node of, respectively, the matched first provider and the first requester. The communications system also initiates, by the first node, sending the respective first indication to the first respective second node of the first provider and the first respective third node of the first requester. The respective first indication indicates the result of the determining.

[0025] According to a third aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by the first node. The first node is configured to operate in the communications system. The first node is configured to obtain, via the one or more respective first APIs configured to be offered on the platform of the first node, the first respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective second nodes of the one or more providers. The first node is also configured to store the first respective information configured to be obtained in the first queue and assign the time to live to the first respective information in the first queue. The obtaining of the first respective information is configured to be repeated with updated first respective information of the updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes and the first queue is configured to be updated with the updated first respective information. The first node is further configured to obtain, via the one or more respective second APIs configured to be offered on the integrated platform of the first node, the second respective information of the respective position of one or more respective third nodes of the one or more requesters. The first node is further configured to store the second respective information configured to be obtained in the second queue. The first node is further configured to store the second respective information configured to be stored in the second queue, in the spatial database configured to be accessible by the first node. The first node is additionally configured to determine the match between the first provider of the one or more providers and the first requester of one or more requesters, using the updated first queue and the second respective information configured to be stored in the spatial database, with the proviso the time to live has not expired. The determining is configured to be based on querying the spatial database to minimize the distance to be travelled between the respective position of the first respective second node and the first respective third node of, respectively, the first provider and the first requester configured to be matched. The first node is also configured to initiate sending the respective first indication to the first respective second node of the first provider and the first respective third node of the first requester. The respective first indication is configured to indicate the result of the determining.

[0026] According to a fourth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by the communications system. The communications system is configured to comprise the first node, the one or more respective second nodes, the one or more respective third nodes and the spatial database. The communications system is configured to obtain, by the first node and via the one or more respective first APIs configured to be offered on the platform of the first node, the first respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective second nodes of the one or more providers. The communications system is also configured to store, by the first node, the first respective information configured to be obtained in the first queue and assign the time to live to the first respective information in the first queue. The obtaining of the first respective information is configured to be repeated with the updated first respective information of the updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes and the first queue is configured to be updated with the updated first respective information. The communications system is further configured to obtain, by the first node and via the one or more respective second APIs configured to be offered on the integrated platform of the first node, the second respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective third nodes of the one or more requesters. The communications system is further configured to store, by the first node, the second respective information configured to be obtained in the second queue. The communications system is additionally configured to store, by the first node, the second respective information stored in the second queue, in the spatial database accessible by the first node. The communications system is also configured to determine, by the first node, the match between the first provider of the one or more providers and the first requester of the one or more requesters, using the first queue configured to be updated and the second respective information configured to be stored in the spatial database, with the proviso the time to live has not expired. The determining is configured to be based on querying the spatial database to minimize the distance to be travelled between the respective position of the first respective second node and the first respective third node of, respectively, the first provider and the first requester configured to be matched. The communications system is further configured to initiate, by the first node, sending the respective first indication to the first respective second node of the first provider and the first respective third node of the first requester. The respective first indication is configured to indicate the result of the determining

[0027] By determining the match between the first provider and the first requester using the updated information stored in the spatial database, with the proviso the time to live has not expired, and based on querying the spatial database to minimize a distance to be travelled, the first node may be understood to enable interoperability between the one or more respective second nodes of the one or more providers and the one or more respective third nodes of the one or more requesters, which may each use different systems. That is, logistic companies, with embodiments herein, may be able to easily operate with others to improve their services by outsourcing first mile collection. Moreover, the first node may be understood to enable to perform the interoperation and matching with higher efficiency. Since the first node may be understood to be working with a geospatial dataset, the spatial database may have an improved performance, as it may have all the required data structure needed for maximum efficiency to retrieve the data and specific algorithms to check the proximity of the datapoints. Usage of the spatial database, may be understood to be advantageous over usage of, for example, a common relational database, where all proximity calculations may be performed at application level, which may be drastically drop the performance and require more computational resource. Usage of a spatial database, may also be understood to be advantageous over, for example, keeping all data in a filesystem, which may result in even worse performance. Furthermore, with embodiments herein, resources may be optimized as the same transport mode may operate in parallel on delivery and collection to perform tasks travelling the shortest distances. Hence, energy usage and cost may be reduced to provide a larger number of services, and wait time by customers may be shortened. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0028] Examples of embodiments herein are described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, according to the following description.

[0029] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating two non-limiting examples, in panels a) and b), of a communications system, according to embodiments herein.

[0030] Figure 2 is a flowchart depicting a method in a first node, according to embodiments herein.

[0031] Figure 3 is a flowchart depicting a method in a communications system, according to embodiments herein.

[0032] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram depicting aspects of a method performed by the first node, according to embodiments herein.

[0033] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram depicting other aspects of a method performed by the first node, according to embodiments herein.

[0034] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram depicting further aspects of a method performed by the first node, according to embodiments herein.

[0035] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram depicting an example of a communications system, according to embodiments herein.

[0036] Figure 8 is a signalling diagram depicting an example of a method performed by the communications system, according to embodiments herein.

[0037] Figure 9 is a flowchart depicting an example of a method performed by the communications system, according to embodiments herein.

[0038] Figure 10 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a first node, according to embodiments herein.

[0039] Figure 11 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a communications system, according to embodiments herein.

[0040] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments address the challenges identified in the Background and Summary sections with the existing methods and provide solutions to the challenges discussed.

[0042] Embodiments herein may be understood to relate to a method to share a logistic network through a 5G public interface, that is to open logistics over 5G.

[0043] Embodiments herein may comprise sharing logistic information through a public interface, so that companies may leverage data to optimize operations and offer better services. A Communication Service Provider (CSP), or any other neutral intermediary entity, may centralize all positional information of couriers from different logistic operators. Once a package is requested to be delivered at the first mile from a seller, consider, for example, a single vendor from a marketplace, embodiments herein may then check the best courier from multiple logistics operators that best fit for picking up the package. With embodiments herein, a CSP may provide, among other communication services, intermediate service to subscribers with logistic needs.

[0044] In particular, embodiments herein may relate to a system with a spatial database to intermediate logistic operators through public interface.

[0045] Particular embodiments herein may comprise adoption of a 5G network slicing feature to maximize overall system performance.

[0046] Some of the embodiments contemplated will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which examples are shown. In this section, the embodiments herein will be illustrated in more detail by a number of exemplary embodiments. 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. It should be noted that the exemplary embodiments herein are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments.

[0047] Figure 1 depicts two non-limiting examples, in panels “a” and “b”, respectively, of a communications system 100, in which embodiments herein may be implemented. In some example implementations, such as that depicted in the non-limiting example of Figure 1 a), the communications system 100 may be a computer network. In other example implementations, such as that depicted in panel b) of Figure 1, the communications system 100 may be implemented in a telecommunications system, sometimes also referred to as a cellular radio system, cellular network or wireless communications system or wireless communications network. In some examples, the communications system 100 may comprise network nodes which may serve receiving nodes, such as wireless devices, with serving beams.

[0048] In some examples, the communications system 100 may be, for example, a communications network, such as 5G system, or Next Gen network. The communications system 100 may also support other technologies, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), e.g., LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), LTE Half-Duplex Frequency Division Duplex (HD-FDD), LTE operating in an unlicensed band, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) TDD, Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) / Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution (EDGE) Radio Access Network (GERAN) network, Ultra-Mobile Broadband (UMB), EDGE network, a network comprising of any combination of Radio Access Technologies (RATs) such as e.g., Multi-Standard Radio (MSR) base stations, multi-RAT base stations etc., any 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) cellular network, Wireless Local Area Network / s (WLAN) or WiFi network / s, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Internet of Things (loT), Machine Type Communication (MTC), IEEE 802.15.4-based low-power short-range networks such as IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LowPAN), Zigbee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or any cellular network or system.

[0049] The communications system 100 comprises nodes, whereof a first node 111 , one or more respective second nodes 120, also referred to herein as one or more respective second nodes 120, and one or more respective third nodes 130, also referred to herein as one or more respective third nodes 130 are depicted in Figure 1. The one or more respective second nodes 120 comprise at least a first respective second node 121. In some embodiments, the one or more respective second nodes 120 may comprise a second respective second node 122. The one or more respective third nodes 130 comprise at least a first respective third node 131. The communications system 100 may comprise additional nodes. In the non-limiting example of Figure 1 b), and for illustrative purposes only, the one or more respective third nodes 130 comprise a second respective third node 132. Particularly, it may be understood that any of the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the one or more respective third nodes 130 may comprise additional nodes. In the non-limiting examples of Figure 1, each of the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the one or more respective third nodes 130 are depicted as comprising three nodes in panel a) and two nodes in panel b). However, it may be understood that this is for illustrative purposes, and not limiting.

[0050] Any of the first node 111 , the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the one or more respective third nodes 130 may be understood, respectively, as a first computer system, one or more second computer systems and one or more third computer systems.

[0051] Any of the first node 111 and the one or more respective third nodes 130 may be implemented as a standalone server in e.g., a host computer in the cloud 115, as depicted in the non-limiting example of Figure 1a) for the first node 111. In some examples, any of the first node 111 and the one or more respective third nodes 130 may be a distributed node or distributed server, such as a virtual node in the cloud 115, and may perform some of its respective functions locally, e.g., by a client manager, and some of its functions in the cloud 115, by e.g., a server manager. In other examples, any of the first node 111 and the one or more respective third nodes 130 may perform its functions entirely on the cloud 115, or partially, in collaboration or collocated with a radio network node. Yet in other examples, any of the first node 111 and the one or more respective third nodes 130 may also be implemented as processing resources in a server farm.

[0052] In yet other examples, any of the first node 111 , the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the one or more respective third nodes 130 may be comprised in a device, such as any of the one or more devices described below, or on the edge. Any of the first node 111 , the one or more respective nodes 120 and the one or more respective third nodes 130 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider or may be operated by the service provider, or on behalf of the service provider.

[0053] In some embodiments, the first node 111 may be a core network node.

[0054] In some examples, any of the first node 111 , the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the one or more third respective nodes 130 may be device, as depicted in Figure 1 b) for the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the one or more respective third nodes 130. Any device comprised in the communications system 100 may be a wireless communication device such as a 5G UE, or a UE, which may also be known as e.g., mobile terminal, wireless terminal and / or mobile station, as depicted for the one or more second devices 120 in panel b) of Figure 1 , a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), as depicted for the one or more third devices 130 in panel b) of Figure 1, a mobile telephone, cellular telephone, or laptop with wireless capability, just to mention some further examples. Any device comprised in the communications system 100 may be, for example, portable, pocket- storable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or a vehicle-mounted mobile device, enabled to communicate voice and / or data, via the RAN, with another entity, such as a server, a laptop, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or a tablet, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) device, device equipped with a wireless interface, such as a printer or a file storage device, modem, sensor, loT device, or any other radio network unit capable of communicating over a radio link in the communications system 100. Any device comprised in the communications system 100 may be enabled to communicate wirelessly in the communications system 100. The communication may be performed e.g., via a RAN, and possibly the one or more core networks, which may be comprised within the communications system 100.

[0055] In some examples, the communications system 100 may comprise one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, whereof a first radio network node 141 , a second radio network node 142, a third radio network node 143 and a fourth radio network node 144 are depicted in Figure 1b. Any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144 may typically be a base station or Transmission Point (TP), or any other network unit capable to serve a wireless device or a machine type node in the communications system 100. Any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144 may be e.g., a 5G gNB, a 4G eNB, or a radio network node in an alternative 5G radio access technology, e.g., fixed or WiFi. Any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144 may be e.g., a Wide Area Base Station, Medium Range Base Station, Local Area Base Station, and Home Base Station, based on transmission power and thereby also coverage size. Any of the one or more radio network nodes 141 , 142, 143, 144 may be a stationary relay node or a mobile relay node. Any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144 may support one or several communication technologies, and its name may depend on the technology and terminology used. The one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144 may be directly connected to one or more networks and / or one or more core networks.

[0056] The communications system 100 covers a geographical area which may be divided into cell areas, wherein each cell area may be served by a radio network node, although, one radio network node may serve one or several cells, whereof a first cell 151 , a second cell 152, a third cell 153 and a fourth cell 154 are depicted in the non-limiting example of Figure 1b. In the non-limiting example of Figure 1 , the first radio network node 141 serves the first cell 151 , the second radio network node 142 serves the second cell 152, the third radio network node 143 serves the third cell 153 and the fourth radio network node 144 serves the fourth cell 154. Any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144 may be of different classes, such as, e.g., macro eNodeB, home eNodeB or pico base station, based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. In some examples, the radio network node 141 , 142 may serve receiving nodes with serving beams. The radio network node 141 , 142 may be directly connected to one or more core networks.

[0057] Any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144 comprised in the communications system 100 may support one or several communication technologies, and its name may depend on the technology and terminology used.

[0058] It may be understood that the communications system 100 may comprise additional radio network nodes and / or additional devices.

[0059] The communications system 100 further comprises, for example, a spatial database 160. The spatial database 160 may be understood to be a database optimized to query geoposition data. There may be many spatial indexing strategies. For embodiments herein, a two-dimensional space data-structure may be required to store requesters, e.g., sellers and providers, e.g., couriers positions. In general, quadtree-based databases may be used, but, as temporal data may be understood to also matter to expire records, databases that use spatial-temporal data storage formats, such as Helical Hyperspatial Code (HHCode), e.g., as described in US6161105, may have better performance

[0060] The first node 111 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the one or more respective second nodes 120 over a respective first link 171 , e.g., a radio link, or a wired link. The first node 111 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the one or more respective third nodes 130 over a respective second link 172, e.g., a radio link, or a wired link. The first node 111 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the spatial database 160 over a third link 173, e.g., a radio link, or a wired link. The first node 111 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the first radio network node 141 over a fourth link 174, e.g., a radio link or a wired link. The first radio network node 141 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the first respective second node 151 over a fifth link 175, e.g., a radio link, or a wired link. The first node 111 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the second radio network node 142 over a sixth link 176, e.g., a radio link, or a wired link. The second radio network node 142 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the second respective second node 152 over a seventh link 177, e.g., a radio link or a wired link. The first node 111 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the third radio network node 143 over an eighth link 178, e.g., a radio link or a wired link. The third radio network node 143 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the first respective third node 131 over a ninth link 179, e.g., a radio link, or a wired link. The first node 111 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the fourth radio network node 144 over a tenth link 180, e.g., a radio link, or a wired link. The fourth radio network node 144 may be configured to communicate within the communications system 100 with the second respective third node 132 over an eleventh link 181 , e.g., a radio link or a wired link.

[0061] Any of the links described in the previous paragraph may be a direct link or may be comprised of a plurality of individual links, wherein it may go via one or more computer systems or one or more core networks in the communications system 100, which are not depicted in Figure 1 , or it may go via an optional intermediate network. The intermediate network may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; the intermediate network, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, the intermediate network may comprise two or more sub-networks, which is not shown in Figure 1.

[0062] In general, the usage of “first”, “second”, “third”, “fourth”, “fifth”, “sixth”, etc... , herein may be understood to be an arbitrary way to denote different elements or entities, and may be understood to not confer a cumulative or chronological character to the nouns they modify.

[0063] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference 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.

[0064] Embodiments of a computer-implemented method, performed by the first node 111 , will now be described with reference to the flowchart depicted in Figure 2. The method may be understood to be for handling logistics. The first node 111 operates in the communications system 100. Several embodiments are comprised herein. In some embodiments all the actions may be performed. In some embodiments, some actions may be optional. In Figure 2, optional actions are indicated with dashed lines. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description.

[0065] Action 201

[0066] The first node 111 may be understood as an intermediation system between providers, that is, providers of transportation services, e.g., couriers, and requesters, that is, parties requiring transportation services, e.g., sellers of goods. As the intermediation system, the first node 111 may comprise a platform, which may be referred to herein as an integration platform. That is, software where Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) may be implemented to establish communication between platforms of logistic companies, that is, between providers and requesters. Providers and requesters may be understood to each use their respective systems to run their operations. One function of the integration platform of the first node 111 may be understood to be to provide a single portal, wherein the providers and requesters, no matter which systems or protocols they may use in their respective systems, may be able to access and use the services or needs of each other. Any reference herein to the providers may be equally understood to refer to the couriers and viceversa. Similarly, any reference herein to the requesters may be equally understood to refer to the sellers, and viceversa.

[0067] In this Action 201 , the first node 111 obtains, via one or more respective first application programming interfaces (APIs) offered on the platform of the first node 111, first respective information. The first respective information is of a respective position of one or more respective second nodes 120 of one or more providers. The position may be understood to be a geographical position of the one or more respective second nodes 120. The one or more providers may be understood to be, e.g., one or more couriers. The one or more respective second nodes 120 may be, e.g., user equipments of the providers, that is, couriers. The first respective information may be API attributes.

[0068] The one or more respective first application programming interfaces may be understood to concern the interface of the couriers, providing multiple API adapters to comply with REST, Remote Procedure Call (RPC), Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), or any other standard protocol or interface used by the systems of the providers. This interface may be understood to intend to receive positional information form couriers and send pickup requests to them. The first respective information may be obtained, e.g., received via a “Notify current location” message. The first respective information, that is, the payload of the Notify current location message, may comprise: a) a first identifier, e.g., a Courier ID, to identify the courier, b) a second identifier, e.g., Operator ID, to identify the logistic operator that courier may belong to, c) a Timestamp to register time of notification, d) an actual location to inform current geospatial information of the courier, and e) a final location to inform the latest geospatial location of the route of the courier, where the packages may be dropped off. In a particular non-limiting example, the first respective information may comprise the following API attributes: a) operatorld providing the logistic operator identification number, b) courierld providing the courier identification number, c) timestamp identifying when certain events occur, d) actual Location providing the courier actual location, and e) finalLocation providing the courier final location after all pickups / deliveries.

[0069] It may be understood that respective may be understood to mean that each provider may provide its own, that is, respective, first information.

[0070] The obtaining in this Action 201 of the first respective information may be repeated with updated first respective information of an updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes 120. That is, each provider may keep sending its current location to the first node 111 , which may keep track of it.

[0071] Action 202

[0072] As the process of getting the first respective information, that is, the courier positioning may be understood to be data-intensive, the incoming data may be understood to need to be handled asynchronously to avoid system overload when too many requests may arrive at the same time. Therefore, a message queue may be used to temporarily store the incoming information for each endpoint. A message broker considered in embodiments herein may be Apache Kafka due to performance reasons and policy-based message retention capability. For 100-byte records, Kafka may have over 600K records per second throughput, so the platform may be able to handle at least 600K courier positioning information every second.

[0073] In this Action 202, the first node 111 stores the obtained first respective information in a first queue and assigns a time to live (TTL) to the first respective information in the first queue. This may be understood to mean that, for the courier positioning message queue, older records may be dropped after a certain period. A TTL value may be set using the message retention policy of the message broker to ensure that all positioning data may be the most recent ones. The same reasoning may be understood to apply to records of the spatial database 160. The obtaining in Action 201 of the first respective information is repeated with the updated first respective information of the updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the first queue is updated with the updated first respective information.

[0074] Action 203

[0075] Whenever a requester may have a package that may need to be picked-up, the requester may inform the package information to the first node 111.

[0076] In this Action 203, the first node 111 obtains, via one or more respective second APIs offered on the integrated platform of the first node 111, second respective information. The second respective information is of a respective position of one or more respective third nodes 130 of one or more requesters. The one or more requesters may be understood to be parties that may require transportation services. For example, in this Action 203, a seller may request a pickup to the first node 111. The one or more respective third nodes 130 may be, e.g., CPEs of the requesters.

[0077] The second API may be understood to concern the requesters, e.g., sellers, and all kind of communication that may need to occur between the one or more requesters and the first node 111. In this case, there may be only one possible communication architecture, which may be implemented in REST, or any other single interface applicable for the given platform. This may be understood to be, since the one or more requesters may be understood to not use unusual devices such as those the one or more providers may be expected to do, such as e.g., massive loT and ultra-low power devices, or autonomous vehicles. Therefore, a single interface may be considered to be sufficient to suit the demand of the one or more requesters, as they may use cell phones or computers for communication. Accordingly, the one or more respective second APIs may not need to support multiple API adapters, e.g., REST, MQTT, and GraphQL.

[0078] The second respective information may be obtained, e.g., received, in this Action 203 in a “Request pickup” message. The second respective information, that is, the payload of the Request pickup message, may comprise: a) a third identifier, e.g., Seller ID, to identify the seller, b) a fourth identifier, e.g., Operator ID, to identify the logistic operator the seller may work with, c) a Timestamp to register time of request, d) a location of a store to register geospatial information to collect the packages, and e) a tracking key to identify each collected package. In a particular non-limiting example, the second respective information may comprise the following API attributes: a) sellerld providing the seller identification number, b) storeLocation providing the first mile package location, also known as store, and c) trackingKey identifying the package tracking number.

[0079] It may be understood that respective may be understood to mean that each requester may provide its own, that is, respective, second information. Action 204

[0080] In this Action 204, the first node 111 stores the obtained second respective information in a second queue. Again, this may be understood to be due to the fact that the process of getting seller requests and courier positioning may be data-intensive, and the incoming data may need to be handled asynchronously.

[0081] Action 205

[0082] In this Action 205, the first node 111 stores the second respective information stored in a second queue, in the spatial database 160 accessible by the first node 111.

[0083] Storing the first respective information in the spatial database 160 may be demanding as the platform scales up. Therefore, the first node 111 may refrain, in some examples, from storing the first respective information in the spatial database 160. However, in other examples, the first node 111 may also store the first respective information in the spatial database 160, as well as the second respective information.

[0084] Action 206

[0085] In this Action 206, the first node 111 determines a match between a first provider of the one or more providers and a first requester of one or more requesters, using the updated first queue and the second respective information stored in the spatial database 160, with the proviso the time to live has not expired. The determining in this Action 206 is based on querying the spatial database 160 to minimize a distance to be travelled between the respective position of the first respective second node 121 and the first respective third node 131 of, respectively, the matched first provider and the first requester.

[0086] In other words, in this Action 206, the first provider may be identified as the best provider based on the updated positions sent by different providers from multiple logistics operators to the first node 111. The first node 111 may then choose the first provider because it may be the nearest pickup point.

[0087] The matching process may require a threshold that may be defined at a service level agreement between the first node 111 and the logistic company. The threshold may be a given radius, e.g., a 1 Km radius. Once the second respective information, that is, a seller request, may arrive, the first node 111 may try to find the nearest provider based on that threshold.

[0088] The determining of the match between the first provider and the first requester may be performed by an algorithm implemented by the spatial database 160, such as, for example, a quadtree search algorithm. Based on a quadtree data structure, the quadtree search algorithm may divide a given area into 4 regions of a cartesian plane, then recursively divide each region in the same way, building quadtree nodes, until a given limit that may be quadtree leaves. The search may then be optimized to look up the region a certain point may belong to. Another example may be Overlap. In the spatial database 160, different geometries may be used to represent the stored data, a pair of coordinates may be stored as a point. It may be possible to perform a query to find out if a point is within an area or if it may be close to another point, such as a store / factory / etc.

[0089] By in this Action 206 determining the match between the first provider and the first requester using the updated information stored in the spatial database 160, with the proviso the time to live may not have expired, and based on querying the spatial database 160 to minimize the distance to be travelled, the first node 111 may be understood to enable interoperability between the one or more respective second nodes 120 of the one or more providers and the one or more respective third nodes 130 of the one or more requesters, which may each use different systems. That is, logistic companies, with embodiments herein, may be able to easily operate with others to improve their services by outsourcing first mile collection. Moreover, the first node 111 may be understood to enable to perform the interoperation and matching with higher efficiency. Since the first node 111 may be understood to be working with a geospatial dataset, the spatial database 160 may have better performance as it may have all the required data structure needed for maximum efficiency to retrieve the data and specific algorithms to check the proximity of the datapoints. Usage of a spatial database 160, may be understood to be advantageous over usage of, for example, a common relational database, where all proximity calculations may be performed at application level, which may be drastically drop the performance and require more computational resource. Usage of a spatial database 160, may be understood to be advantageous over keeping, for example, all data in a filesystem, which may result in even worse performance.

[0090] Action 207

[0091] Once a provider and a requester may be matched, both ends may be notified by a webhook of the platform. A webhook may be understood as a notification, in this case informing the match. A webhook may be e.g., a user-defined HTTP callback. In case a first API adapter does not use underlying HTTP, e.g., MQTT, webhook may be any notification informing the match. A webhook may be understood to allow real-time and event-driven communication between two APIs. The package information may be pushed to the provider and the provider information may be pushed to the requester.

[0092] In this Action 207, the first node 111 initiates sending a respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 of the first provider and the first respective third node 131 of the first requester: The respective first indication indicates a result of the determining in Action 206. Initiating may be understood as starting, or triggering itself or enabling or facilitating that another node, may, in this case, perform the sending. In some examples, the sending may be performed via the first link 171, or via the fourth link 174 and the fifth link 175.

[0093] Action 208

[0094] In some embodiments, the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 may request that the first provider pick-up a delivery from the first requester. For example, in this Action 208, the first node 111 may ask for a package pick up.

[0095] The request acceptance decision may be up to the provider, so if the provider may be interested in the pickup, the provider may accept the offer; or, if not interested, decline it. The request may be analyzed by the provider, which may accept or decline the offering.

[0096] In some of such embodiments, in this Action 208, the first node 111 may receive, via the platform, a respective second indication from the first respective second node 121 , the respective second indication indicating whether or not the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery.

[0097] If accepted, the first provider may send in the respective second indication an acknowledgement to the first node 111 informing the acceptance.

[0098] Action 209

[0099] In some embodiments, the respective second indication may indicate that the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery. According to embodiments herein, if a courier is found and the request is accepted, the requester may be notified.

[0100] In this Action 209, the first node 111 may send, via the platform, a respective third indication to the first respective third node 131. The respective third indication may indicate the pick-up. That is, in this Action 209, the first respective third node 131 may be notified about the package pick up and may then be responsible to inform the dispatch to the responsible party, e.g., its own responsible party. The later may then collect all packages related to the first requester at once.

[0101] The respective third indication may be sent in this Action 209 in a “Notify seller” message. The respective third indication, that is, the payload of the Notify seller message, may comprise: a) the third identifier, e.g., Seller ID, to identify the seller, b) the fourth identifier, e.g., Operator ID, to identify the logistic operator the seller may work with, c) first identifier, e.g., a Courier ID, to identify the courier, d) the tracking key to identify each collected package, and e) the final location to inform the latest geospatial location of the route of the courier, where the packages may be dropped off Action 210

[0102] In some embodiments, the respective second indication may indicate that the first provider declines to pick-up the delivery.

[0103] In some of such embodiments, in this Action 210, the first node 111 may send, via the platform, a respective fourth indication to the second respective second node 122 of a second provider determined to have a second shortest distance to be travelled between the respective position of the second respective second node 122 and the first respective third node 131. The fourth indication may request that the second provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester.

[0104] The first node 111 may benefit from 5G Network Slicing by splitting the messages passed to or from it into two different slices. The use of 5G Network Slices may be done in order to distribute the most or least demanding tasks, in terms of network use, between different slices. This may take new 5G capabilities into account while addressing a long-term logistics challenge.

[0105] In some embodiments, the obtaining in Action 201 of the first respective information, the storing in Action 202 in the first queue, the obtaining in Action 203 of the second respective information, the storing in Action 204 in the second queue, the storing in Action 205 of the second respective information in the spatial database 160, the repeating of the obtaining in Action 201 of the first respective information and the updating of the first respective information may be performed via a first slice of the communications system 100, and indications may be sent or received to or from the first respective second node 121 and the first respective third node 131 via a second slice.

[0106] A slice may be understood as a network architecture that may allow multiple logical networks to be created and run from an underlying common physical network. The slice may be a standardized Slice / Service Type given by eMBB, LIRLLC, Mobile Internet of Things (MIoT), Vehicle-to-everything (V2X), High performance Machine Type Communication (HMTC) or High-level Data Link Control (HDLLC), in accordance with 3GPP. As a non-limiting example, this may be in accordance with 3GPP TS 23.501 , v. 18.5.0.

[0107] In some embodiments, the first slice may be configured to provide massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) services and the second slice may be configured to provide URLLC. mMTC services may be understood to be suitable for when a large amount of devices sporadically send a small amount of data.

[0108] URLLC may be understood to be suitable for applications that may require more reliability in a real-time communication. A slice configured to provide mMTC may be understood to a Network Slice in accordance with 3GPP TS 23.501 , v. 18.5.0, or any non-standardized Network Slice that may comprise a Network Slice definition in the technical specification and may be suitable for the handling of massive loT.

[0109] A slice configured to provide LIRLLC may be understood to a Network Slice in accordance with 3GPP TS 23.501 , v. 18.5.0, or any non-standardized Network Slice that may comprise a Network Slice definition in the technical specification and may be suitable for the handling of ultra-reliable low latency communications.

[0110] Embodiments of a computer-implemented method, performed by the communications system 100, will now be described with reference to the flowchart depicted in Figure 3. The method may be understood to be for handling logistics. The communications system 100 comprises the first node 111 , the one or more respective second nodes 120, the one or more respective third nodes 130 and the spatial database 160.

[0111] The method may comprise the actions described below. In some embodiments all the actions may be performed. In some embodiments some of the actions may be performed. In Figure 3, optional actions are indicated with a dashed box. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. Components from one example or embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another example or embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other examples or embodiments.

[0112] The detailed description of some of the following corresponds to the same references provided above, in relation to the actions described for the first node 111 and will thus not be repeated here to simplify the description. For example, in a particular non-limiting example, the first respective information may comprise the following API attributes: a) operatorld, b) courierld, c) timestamp, d) actual Location, and e) finalLocation.

[0113] Action 301

[0114] In in this Action 301 , the communications system 100 obtains, by the first node 111 and via the one or more respective first APIs offered on the platform of the first node 111 , the first respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective second nodes 120 of the one or more providers.

[0115] Action 302

[0116] In this Action 302, the communications system 100 stores, by the first node 111, the obtained first respective information in the first queue and assigns the time to live to the first respective information in the first queue. The obtaining in Action 301 of the first respective information is repeated with the updated first respective information of the updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the first queue is updated with the updated first respective information.

[0117] Action 303

[0118] In this Action 303, the communications system 100 obtains, by the first node 111 and via the one or more respective second APIs offered on the integrated platform of the first node 111 , the second respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective third nodes 130 of the one or more requesters.

[0119] Action 304

[0120] In this Action 304, the communications system 100 stores, by the first node 111 , the obtained second respective information in the second queue.

[0121] Action 305

[0122] In this Action 305, the communications system 100 stores, by the first node 111 , the second respective information stored in the second queue, in the spatial database 160 accessible by the first node 111.

[0123] Action 306

[0124] In this Action 305, the communications system 100 determines, by the first node 111, the match between the first provider of the one or more providers and the first requester of the one or more requesters, using the updated first queue and the second respective information stored in the spatial database 160, with the proviso the time to live has not expired. The determining in this Action 306 is based on querying the spatial database 160 to minimize the distance to be travelled between the respective position of the first respective second node 121 and the first respective third node 131 of, respectively, the matched first provider and the first requester.

[0125] Action 307

[0126] In this Action 307, the communications system 100 initiates, by the first node 111, sending the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 of the first provider and the first respective third node 131 of the first requester. The respective first indication indicates the result of the determining in Action 306.

[0127] In some embodiments wherein the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 may request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester, the communications system 100, may perform the next three Actions 308, 309 and 310.

[0128] Action 308

[0129] In in this Action 308, the communications system 100, may receive, by the first respective second node 121 , the respective first indication from the first node 111.

[0130] Action 309

[0131] In this Action 309, the communications system 100, may send, by the first respective second node 121, the respective second indication to the first node 111 responsive to the received respective first indication. The respective second indication may indicate whether or not the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery.

[0132] Action 310

[0133] In this Action 310, the communications system 100 may receive, by the first node 111 and via the platform, the respective second indication from the first respective second node 121.

[0134] In some embodiments wherein the respective second indication may indicate that the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery, the communications system 100, may perform the next two Actions 311 and 312.

[0135] Action 311

[0136] In this Action 311 , the communications system 100 may send, by the first node 111 and via the platform, the respective third indication to the first respective third node 131. The respective third indication may indicate the pick-up.

[0137] Action 312

[0138] In this Action 312, the communications system 100, may receive, by the first respective third node 131, the respective third indication.

[0139] Action 313

[0140] In some embodiments, the respective second indication may indicate that the first provider declines to pick-up the delivery. In some of such embodiments, in this Action 313, the communications system 100, may send, by the first node 111 and via the platform, the respective fourth indication to the second respective second node 122 of the second provider determined to have the second shortest distance to be travelled between the respective position of the second respective second node 122 and the first respective third node 131. The fourth indication may request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester.

[0141] In some embodiments, the obtaining in Action 301 of the first respective information, the storing in Action 302 in the first queue, the obtaining in Action 303 of the second respective information, the storing in Action 304 in the second queue, the storing in Action 305 of the second respective information in the spatial database 160, the repeating of the obtaining in Action 301 of the first respective information and the updating of the first respective information may be performed via the first slice of the communications system 100, and indications may be sent or received to or from the first respective second node 121 and the first respective third node 131 via the second slice.

[0142] In some embodiments, the first slice may be configured to provide mMTC services and the second slice may be configured to provide LIRLLC.

[0143] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram depicting a non-limiting example of a method according to embodiments herein. In Figure 4, A, B and C are respective second nodes 120 of different logistic operators, particularly, A is the first respective second node 121, B is the second respective second node 122 and C is a third respective second node 123. The respective second nodes 120 are, in this example, devices in local hubs that belong to different logistic companies. The dashed circles represent the respective operation areas of each of A, B and C. E is the first respective third node 131 belonging to an enterprise seller or manufacturer, which, according to Action 203 and Action 303, requests a package delivery to its logistic partner A. The first node 111 may notify A, according to Action 207 and Action 307. The distance may not be operationally viable for A, so, by sharing the logistic data to D, that is, the first node 111 of an intermediary company, the package collection may be outsourced to either B or C.

[0144] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram depicting a typical logistic process pipeline. A typical logistic operation in e-commerce may work with scheduled periods based on each manufacturer or seller, which may be referred to herein as requester, size or demand. The reason may be understood to be to reduce transportation costs by avoiding partially loaded vehicles during the collection phase. This may lead to competition problems for smaller businesses and enterprises focused on consumer cyclical or circular economy, since the demand may be understood to be smaller and they may have longer waiting periods at the first mile, which may directly affect their customer experience. Embodiments herein may be understood to focus on an approach to the unpredictability of collection points at the first mile, where the packages may be still spread in several locations, out of the control of the logistic companies. Embodiments herein may be understood to be based on transport mode capability sharing at distinct stages of a delivery service.

[0145] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram depicting an illustrative example of route sharing between two logistic operators, L1 and L2, according to embodiments herein. L1 may be an operator of the first respective second node 121 of the first provider, and L2 may be an operator of the first respective third node 131 of the first requester. Routing strategies adopted by logistic companies may be usually based on typical Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs), where, for a set of locations to be visited, a set of optimal routes may be generated to each available vehicle, in the non-limiting example depicted in Figure 6: Route 1, Route 2, Route 3 and Route 4. The routes may be separated into regions. They may all start from and return to the distribution center (DC) of the company. Assuming that logistic companies may implement their own version of well-known Vehicle Routing Problem with Pickup and Delivery (VRPPD) algorithms, given two logistic operators L1 at last mile delivery stage and L2 at first mile collection stage, through a CSP intermediation, L1 may pick up L2 packages and gather them at a local hub for L2. This way, L2 may just send a vehicle to collect all packages in a single place. CSP intermediation by the first node 111 may be required since the original delivery route may be kept unchanged and, as the couriers go through each location to deliver the packages, their current location may be considered to offer the pickup request. All information may be aligned between the first node 111 and the logistic platforms in that particular operation.

[0146] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram depicting an non-limiting example of an architecture of the communications system 100. The first node 111 may be a CSP that be designed with following components and architecture. A first component may be the integration platform 701. As explained earlier, this may be understood to be software where APIs 702, 703 may be implemented to establish communication between platforms of logistic companies. Two APIs may be defined according to embodiments herein to connect sellers, and couriers to the CSP The one or more respective first application programming interfaces 702 may be used to exchange communication with the one or more respective second nodes 120 of the one or more providers, and the one or more respective second application programming interfaces 703 may be used to exchange communication with the one or more respective third nodes 130 of the one or more requesters. A second component may be understood to be spatial database 160. As mentioned earlier, this may be understood to be a database optimized to query geoposition data. As the process of getting seller requests and courier positioning may be understood to be data-intensive, the incoming data may need to be handled asynchronously. Therefore, a message queue 704, 705 may be placed to temporarily store the incoming information for each endpoint. The information from the one or more respective second nodes 120 of the one or more providers may be stored in the first queue 704 with a TTL and information from the one or more respective third nodes 130 of the one or more requesters may be stored in the second queue 705. As mentioned earlier, the message broker considered in embodiments herein may be Apache Kafka due to performance reasons and policy-based message retention capability. Once a courier and a seller may be matched, that is, the first provider of the one or more providers and the first requester of one or more requesters, both ends may be notified by the webhook 706 of the platform via, respectively, the first respective second node 121 of the first provider and the first respective third node 131 of the first requester. The package information may be pushed to the courier and the courier information may be pushed to the seller. The information may be used as long as the TTL is over 0. The platform 701 may also comprise a cache 707.

[0147] Figure 8 is a sequence diagram depicting an non-limiting example of a usual integration between operators L1 and L2 by using embodiments herein. L2 is represented as L2 Seller and L2 Courier, separating both units from the same logistic operator for explanation purposes. L2 Seller is the L2 part responsible for dealing with everything not directly related to package deliveries and pickups, that may be understood to be the responsibilities of L2 Courier. The same goes for L1 but only L1 Courier is represented for simplicity. The first node 111 is a CSP. In the non-limiting example depicted in Figure 7, L1 Courier, via its first respective second node 121, keeps sending its current location to the first node 111 in accordance with Action 201 and Action 301 , keeping track of it, in accordance with Action 202 and Action 302. When L2 Seller, in agreement with Action 203 and Action 303, requests a pickup to the first node 111 , the best courier may be identified according to Action 206 and Action 306, based on the updated positions sent by different Couriers from multiple logistics operators to the first node 111. The first node 111 may then, according to Action 206 and Action 306, choose L1 Courier as the first provider, because it may be determined to be the nearest pickup point and may ask for a package pick up, in accordance with Action 207, Action 307 and Action 308. The request is analyzed by the courier, which may accept or decline the offering. If accepted, L1 Courier may send, in accordance with Action 208, Action 309 and Action 310 an acknowledgement to the first node 111, informing the acceptance. The first respective third node 131 of L2 Seller, that is, the first requester, may be notified about the package pick up, in accordance with Action 209, Action 311 and Action 312 and may be responsible to inform the dispatch to the L2 Courier. The later may then collect all L2 related packages at once in the final location of the L1 Courier. As mentioned earlier, and as depicted in Figure 8, the first node 111 may benefit from 5G Network Slicing by splitting the messages passed to or from it into two different slices: mMTC and LIRLLC, as shown in Figure 8. Each transaction from this diagram may use the required attributes necessary for the API Adapters and the Seller API as described earlier.

[0148] Figure 9 is a flowchart depicting an non-limiting example of a courier and seller matching procedure according to embodiments herein, by using an algorithm to check the proximity. As shown earlier in Figure 7, sellers and couriers may communicate to the first node 111 though different endpoints, which may be understood to mean that two process flows may be running at the same time. As illustrated in Figure 9, each of the one or more respective second nodes 120 of the one or more providers may send its own information to the first node 111 according to Action 301 and the process may end with persistence of that information according to Action 302. On the other hand, each of the one or more respective third nodes 130 of the one or more requesters may inform the package information according to Action 303, and a query may be performed on the database 160, matching the seller and courier spatial data, according to Action 306. If a courier is found according to Action 306, and the request is accepted according to Action 310, the seller may be notified according to Action 311.

[0149] Certain embodiments herein may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). Embodiments herein may be understood to enable interoperability. That is, logistic companies, with embodiments herein, may be able to easily operate with others to improve their services by outsourcing first mile collection. Embodiments herein may be understood to further enable efficiency. That is, with embodiments herein, resources may be optimized as the same transport mode may operate in parallel on delivery and collection.

[0150] Embodiments herein may have a variety of use cases, a few non-limiting examples of which are provided next.

[0151] Small and Medium Businesses I Enterprises

[0152] Small and Medium Businesses I Enterprises may be understood to have to adapt to unprecedented challenges in their supply chain to meet the current customer expectations. Expectations on delivery time and costs for customers may be understood to be difficult to adapt and manage, especially for small and medium businesses. All of this becomes even more complicated with the fact that businesses may be understood to need to cut costs, while needing to increase the range of services they offer to be competitive. One example may be a small company that may sell t-shirts with customized prints, having a demand for sending small packages, but not necessarily all on the same day, and there may be a significant difference in demand for packages from one day to the next, and on seasonal occasions such as Mother's Day, Christmas, etc. Consumer cyclicals

[0153] Consumer cyclicals may be understood to refer to small quantity of products that may be consumed in certain periods of time. Bulk shipping may be understood to have lower costs, which may be why logistics service providers may prefer to wait for vehicles to be fully loaded before delivering the goods to distribution centers, thereby avoiding sending small quantities at short intervals. This may be understood to have the side effect of sellers opting out of time constraints to reduce their costs, so that carriers may have a larger time window for pickup, what may affect the end customers who may have to wait a long time in the last mile to receive small quantities goods, mainly products for specific use, which may not be distributed on a large scale at all times. One example may be a medium-sized company that may make car maintenance and may need a specific small item, from a not so popular model and manufacturer, which, having a tight budget to be competitive, cannot have a high shipping cost. The supplier company may then choose, due to the low shipping cost, opting out of time constraints for the logistics service provider to pick up the product, which may make the product take a long time to be delivery, as it is small and the route of the vehicle to pick up may not be completely full, taking days to collect the product from the supplier.

[0154] Circular economy

[0155] Regardless of the size of the business, the efficiency of returns may be understood to be one of the key aspects that the customer may consider to continue purchasing from a seller. Inconveniences or problems may be factors that may prevent customers from purchasing again and telling others about the unpleasant experience. For small businesses, it may be a challenge because they may not have centralized return centers and may rely heavily on logistics service providers to coordinate scheduling, tracking and resolution in a simple and convenient way. In addition to the usual returns due to defect or within days, there may be other return situations such as the Circular Economy model. In the Circular Economy, an item may be repaired or changed usability to another function, in a loop between design and recycling. In this design / manufacture / distribution / consumption approach, a product may undergo repair or reuse, and residual waste may be recycled or materials recovered until it may enter the design phase again. The type of items may be made of aluminum, plastic, fabric, etc.

[0156] Reverse logistics

[0157] The process of returning products to the point of sale or manufacturer for recovery, repair, recycling, or disposal may be known as reverse logistics. The objective may be understood to be to manage the flow of products from the final consumer back to the beginning of the supply chain, minimizing impacts on the environment and reuse when possible. Products in this process may be returned for one of the following reasons: a consumer may want to exchange, end of product useful life, defective or damaged product. One example may be reverse logistics of batteries and portable batteries, with reception points spread across a city or country. Delivered by the consumer to commerce, used batteries and portable batteries may be then sent, through a certified carrier, to companies that may recycle and dispose of the material appropriately.

[0158] Figure 10 depicts an example of the arrangement that the first node 111 may comprise to perform the method described in Figure 2 and / or any of Figures 3-9. The first node 111 may be understood to be for handling logistics. The first node 111 is configured to operate in the communications system 100.

[0159] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. The detailed description of some of the following corresponds to the same references provided above, in relation to the actions described for the first node 111 , and will thus not be repeated here. For example, in a particular non-limiting example, the first respective information may be configured to comprise the following API attributes: a) operatorld, b) courierld, c) timestamp, d) actual Location, and e) finalLocation.

[0160] The first node 111 is configured to obtain, via the one or more respective first application programming interfaces configured to be offered on the platform of the first node 111 , the first respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective second nodes 120 of the one or more providers.

[0161] The first node 111 is also configured to store the first respective information configured to be obtained in the first queue and assign the time to live to the first respective information in the first queue. The obtaining of the first respective information is configured to be repeated with updated first respective information of the updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the first queue is configured to be updated with the updated first respective information.

[0162] The first node 111 is further configured to obtain, via the one or more respective second application programming interfaces configured to be offered on the integrated platform of the first node 111 , the second respective information of the respective position of one or more respective third nodes 130 of the one or more requesters.

[0163] The first node 111 is further configured to store the second respective information configured to be obtained in the second queue. The first node 111 is further configured to store the second respective information configured to be stored in the second queue, in the spatial database 160 configured to be accessible by the first node 111.

[0164] The first node 111 is additionally configured to determine the match between the first provider of the one or more providers and the first requester of one or more requesters, using the updated first queue and the second respective information configured to be stored in the spatial database 160, with the proviso the time to live has not expired, the determining is configured to be based on querying the spatial database 160 to minimize the distance to be travelled between the respective position of the first respective second node 121 and the first respective third node 131 of, respectively, the first provider and the first requester configured to be matched.

[0165] The first node 111 is also configured to initiate sending the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 of the first provider and the first respective third node 131 of the first requester. The respective first indication is configured to indicate the result of the determining.

[0166] In some embodiments wherein the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 may be configured to request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester, the first node 111 may be further configured to receive, via the platform, the respective second indication from the first respective second node 121. The respective second indication may be configured to indicate whether or not the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery.

[0167] In some embodiments, the first node 111 may be further configured to, with the proviso the respective second indication may indicate that the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery, send, via the platform, the respective third indication to the first respective third node 131. The respective third indication may be configured to indicate the pick-up.

[0168] In some embodiments, the first node 111 may be further configured to, with the proviso the respective second indication may indicate that the first provider declines to pick-up the delivery, send, via the platform, the respective fourth indication to the second respective second node 122 of the second provider configured to be determined to have the second shortest distance to be travelled between the respective position of the second respective second node 122 and the first respective third node 131. The fourth indication may be configured to request that the second provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester.

[0169] In some embodiments, the obtaining of the first respective information, the storing in the first queue, the obtaining of the second respective information, the storing in the second queue, the storing of the second respective information in the spatial database 160, the repeating of the obtaining of the first respective information and the updating of the first respective information may be configured to be performed via the first slice of the communications system 100, and indications may be configured to be sent or configured to be received to or from the first respective second node 121 and the first respective third node 131 via the second slice.

[0170] In some embodiments, the first slice may be configured to provide mMTC services and the second slice may be configured to provide LIRLLC.

[0171] The embodiments herein in the first node 111 may be implemented through one or more processors, such as a processing circuitry 1001 in the first node 111 depicted in Figure 10, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein. A processor, as used herein, may be understood to be a hardware component. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the first node 111. One such carrier may be in the form of a CD ROM disc. It is however feasible with other data carriers such as a memory stick. The computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the first node 111.

[0172] The first node 111 may further comprise a memory 1002 comprising one or more memory units. The memory 1002 is arranged to be used to store obtained information, store data, configurations, schedulings, and applications etc. to perform the methods herein when being executed in the first node 111.

[0173] In some embodiments, the first node 111 may receive information from, e.g., any of the one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the first respective second node 121 and / or the second respective second node 122, any of the one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the first respective third node 131 and / or the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100, through a receiving port 1003. In some embodiments, the receiving port 1003 may be, for example, connected to one or more antennas in first node 111. Since the receiving port 1003 may be in communication with the processing circuitry 1001, the receiving port 1003 may then send the received information to the processing circuitry 1001. The receiving port 1003 may also be configured to receive other information.

[0174] The processing circuitry 1001 in the first node 111 may be further configured to transmit or send information to e.g., any of the one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the first respective second node 121 and / or the second respective second node 122, any of the one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the first respective third node 131 and / or the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100, through a sending port 1004, which may be in communication with the processing circuitry 1001, and the memory 1002.

[0175] Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the units comprised within the first node 111 described above as being configured to perform different actions, may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuits, and / or one or more processors configured with software and / or firmware, e.g., stored in memory, that, when executed by the one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 1001 , perform as described above. One or more of these processors, as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a System-on-a-Chip (SoC).

[0176] The first node 111 may be configured to perform any of the Actions described in relation to Figure 2 and / or any of Figures 3-9, e.g., by means of the processing circuitry 1001 within the first node 111, configured to perform any of such actions.

[0177] Also, in some embodiments, different units comprised within the first node 111 may be configured to perform the different actions described above, implemented as one or more applications running on one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 1001.

[0178] Thus, the methods according to the embodiments described herein for the first node 111 may be respectively implemented by means of a computer program 1005 product, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 1001, cause the at least one processing circuitry 1001 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first node 111. The computer program 1005 product may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 1006. The computer- readable storage medium 1006, having stored thereon the computer program 1005, may comprise instructions which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 1001, cause the at least one processing circuitry 1001 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first node 111. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium 1006 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CD ROM disc, or a memory stick. In other embodiments, the computer program 1005 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program 1005 just described, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or the computer-readable storage medium 1006, as described above.

[0179] The first node 111 may comprise a communication interface configured to facilitate, or an interface unit to facilitate, communications between the first node 111 and other nodes or devices, e.g., any of the one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the first respective second node 121 and / or the second respective second node 122, any of the one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the first respective third node 131 and / or the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141 , 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100. The interface may, for example, include a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

[0180] In other embodiments, the first node 111 may comprise a radio circuitry 1007, which may comprise e.g., the receiving port 1003 and the sending port 1004.

[0181] The radio circuitry 1007 may be configured to set up and maintain at least a wireless connection with any of the one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the first respective second node 121 and / or the second respective second node 122, any of the one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the first respective third node 131 and / or the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141 , 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100. Circuitry may be understood herein as a hardware component.

[0182] Hence, embodiments herein also relate to the first node 111 operative to operate in the communications system 100. The first node 111 may comprise the processing circuitry 1001 and the memory 1002, said memory 1002 containing instructions executable by said processing circuitry 1001, whereby the first node 111 is further operative to perform the actions described herein in relation to the first node 111 , e.g., in Figure 2 and / or any of Figures 3-9, e.g., with an architecture as depicted with the non-limiting example of Figure 7.

[0183] Figure 11 depicts an example of the arrangement that the communications system 100 may comprise to perform the method described in Figure 3 and / or any of Figures 4-9. The communications system 100 may be understood to be for handling logistics. The communications system 100 is configured to comprise the first node 111, the one or more respective second nodes 120, the one or more respective third nodes 130 and the spatial database 160.

[0184] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. Optional components of the communications system 100 are depicted with dashed lines in Figure 11. The detailed description of some of the following corresponds to the same references provided above, in relation to the actions described for the communications system 100 and will thus not be repeated here. For example, in a particular non-limiting example, the first respective information may be configured to comprise the following API attributes: a) operatorld, b) courierld, c) timestamp, d) actual Location, and e) finalLocation

[0185] The communications system 100 is configured to obtain, by the first node 111 and via the one or more respective first application programming interfaces configured to be offered on the platform of the first node 111, the first respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective second nodes 120 of the one or more providers.

[0186] The communications system 100 is also configured to store, by the first node 111 , the first respective information configured to be obtained in the first queue and assign the time to live to the first respective information in the first queue. The obtaining of the first respective information is configured to be repeated with the updated first respective information of the updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes 120 and the first queue is configured to be updated with the updated first respective information.

[0187] The communications system 100 is further configured to obtain, by the first node 111 and via one or more respective second application programming interfaces configured to be offered on the integrated platform of the first node 111 , the second respective information of the respective position of the one or more respective third nodes 130 of the one or more requesters.

[0188] The communications system 100 is further configured to store, by the first node 111 , the second respective information configured to be obtained in the second queue.

[0189] The communications system 100 is additionally configured to store, by the first node 111 , the second respective information stored in the second queue, in the spatial database 160 accessible by the first node 111.

[0190] The communications system 100 is also configured to determine, by the first node 111, the match between the first provider of the one or more providers and the first requester of the one or more requesters, using the first queue configured to be updated and the second respective information configured to be stored in the spatial database 160, with the proviso the time to live has not expired. The determining is configured to be based on querying the spatial database 160 to minimize the distance to be travelled between the respective position of the first respective second node 121 and the first respective third node 131 of, respectively, the first provider and the first requester configured to be matched.

[0191] The communications system 100 is further configured to initiate, by the first node 111, sending the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 of the first provider and the first respective third node 131 of the first requester. The respective first indication is configured to indicate the result of the determining.

[0192] In some embodiments, the communications system 100 may be further configured with the three following configurations. In some embodiments, the communications system 100 may be further configured to, with the proviso the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 may be configured to request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester, receive, by the first respective second node 121 , the respective first indication from the first node 111.

[0193] In some embodiments, the communications system 100 may be further configured to, with the proviso the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 may be configured to request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester, send, by the first respective second node 121 , the respective second indication to the first node 111 responsive to the respective first indication configured to be received. The respective second indication is configured to indicate whether or not the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery.

[0194] In some embodiments, the communications system 100 may be further configured to, with the proviso the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 may be configured to request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester, receive, by the first node 111 and via the platform, the respective second indication from the first respective second node 121.

[0195] In some embodiments, the communications system 100 may be further configured with the two following configurations.

[0196] In some embodiments, the communications system 100 may be further configured to, with the proviso the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 may be configured to request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester, send, by the first node 111 and via the platform, the respective third indication to the first respective third node 131. The respective third indication may be configured to indicate the pick-up.

[0197] In some embodiments, the communications system 100 may be further configured to, with the proviso the respective first indication to the first respective second node 121 may be configured to request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester, receive, by the first respective third node 131 , the respective third indication.

[0198] In some embodiments, the communications system 100 may be further configured to, with the proviso the respective second indication may indicate that the first provider declines to pick-up the delivery, send, by the first node 111 and via the platform, the respective fourth indication to the second respective second node 122 of the second provider configured to be determined to have the second shortest distance to be travelled between the respective position of the second respective second node 122 and the first respective third node 131. The fourth indication may be configured to request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester. In some embodiments, the obtaining of the first respective information, the storing in the first queue, the obtaining of the second respective information, the storing in the second queue, the storing of the second respective information in the spatial database 160, the repeating of the obtaining of the first respective information and the updating of the first respective information may be configured to be performed via the first slice of the communications system 100, and indications may be configured to be sent or received to or from the first respective second node 121 and the first respective third node 131 via the second slice.

[0199] In some embodiments, the first slice may be configured to provide mMTC services and the second slice may be configured to provide LIRLLC.

[0200] Each of the components of the first node 111 has already been described in relation to, and as depicted in, Figure 10, and will therefore not be repeated.

[0201] The embodiments herein in the first respective second node 121 may be implemented through one or more processors, such as a processing circuitry 1101 in the first respective second node 121 depicted in Figure 11 , together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein. A processor, as used herein, may be understood to be a hardware component. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the first respective second node 121. One such carrier may be in the form of a CD ROM disc. It is however feasible with other data carriers such as a memory stick. The computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the first respective second node 121.

[0202] The first respective second node 121 may further comprise a memory 1102 comprising one or more memory units. The memory 1102 is arranged to be used to store obtained information, store data, configurations, schedulings, and applications etc. to perform the methods herein when being executed in the first respective second node 121.

[0203] In some embodiments, the first respective second node 121 may receive information from, e.g., the first node 111, any of the other one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the second respective second node 122, any of the one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the first respective third node 131 and / or the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100, through a receiving port 1103. In some embodiments, the receiving port 1103 may be, for example, connected to one or more antennas in first respective second node 121. In other embodiments, the first respective second node 121 may receive information from another structure in the communications system 100 through the receiving port 1103. Since the receiving port 1103 may be in communication with the processing circuitry 1101 , the receiving port 1103 may then send the received information to the processing circuitry 1101. The receiving port 1103 may also be configured to receive other information.

[0204] The processing circuitry 1101 in the first respective second node 121 may be further configured to transmit or send information to e.g., the first node 111, any of the other one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the second respective second node 122, any of the one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the first respective third node 131 and / or the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100, through a sending port 1104, which may be in communication with the processing circuitry 1101, and the memory 1102.

[0205] Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the units comprised within the first respective second node 121 described above as being configured to perform different actions, may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuits, and / or one or more processors configured with software and / or firmware, e.g., stored in memory, that, when executed by the one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 1101 , perform as described above. One or more of these processors, as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a System-on-a-Chip (SoC).

[0206] The first respective second node 121 may be configured to perform any of the Actions described in relation to Figure 3 and / or any of Figures 4-9, e.g., by means of the processing circuitry 1101 within the first respective second node 121 , configured to perform any of such actions.

[0207] Also, in some embodiments, different units comprised within the first respective second node 121 may be configured to perform the different actions described above, implemented as one or more applications running on one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 1101.

[0208] Thus, the methods according to the embodiments described herein for the first respective second node 121 may be respectively implemented by means of a computer program 1105 product, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 1101 , cause the at least one processing circuitry 1101 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first respective second node 121. The computer program 1105 product may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 1106. The computer-readable storage medium 1106, having stored thereon the computer program 1105, may comprise instructions which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 1101 , cause the at least one processing circuitry 1101 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first respective second node 121. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium 1106 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CD ROM disc, or a memory stick. In other embodiments, the computer program 1105 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program 1105 just described, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or the computer-readable storage medium 1106, as described above.

[0209] The first respective second node 121 may comprise a communication interface configured to facilitate, or an interface unit to facilitate, communications between the first respective second node 121 and other nodes or devices, e.g., the first node 111, any of the other one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the second respective second node 122, any of the one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the first respective third node 131 and / or the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141 , 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100. The interface may, for example, include a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

[0210] In other embodiments, the first respective second node 121 may comprise a radio circuitry 1107, which may comprise e.g., the receiving port 1103 and the sending port 1104.

[0211] The radio circuitry 1107 may be configured to set up and maintain at least a wireless connection with the first node 111, any of the other one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the second respective second node 122, any of the one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the first respective third node 131 and / or the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100. Circuitry may be understood herein as a hardware component.

[0212] Hence, embodiments herein also relate to the first respective second node 121 operative to operate in the communications system 100. The first respective second node 121 may comprise the processing circuitry 1101 and the memory 1102, said memory 1102 containing instructions executable by said processing circuitry 1101, whereby the first respective second node 121 is further operative to perform the actions described herein in relation to the first respective second node 121 , e.g., in Figure 3 and / or any of Figures 4-9.

[0213] The embodiments herein in the first respective third node 131 may be implemented through one or more processors, such as a processing circuitry 1108 in the first respective third node 131 depicted in Figure 11 , together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein. A processor, as used herein, may be understood to be a hardware component. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the first respective third node 131. One such carrier may be in the form of a CD ROM disc. It is however feasible with other data carriers such as a memory stick. The computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the first respective third node 131.

[0214] The first respective third node 131 may further comprise a memory 1109 comprising one or more memory units. The memory 1109 is arranged to be used to store obtained information, store data, configurations, schedulings, and applications etc. to perform the methods herein when being executed in the first respective third node 131.

[0215] In some embodiments, the first respective third node 131 may receive information from, e.g., the first node 111, any of the one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the first respective second node 121 and / or the second respective second node 122, any of the other one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100, through a receiving port 1110. In some embodiments, the receiving port 1110 may be, for example, connected to one or more antennas in first respective third node 131. In other embodiments, the first respective third node 131 may receive information from another structure in the communications system 100 through the receiving port 1110. Since the receiving port 1110 may be in communication with the processing circuitry 1108, the receiving port 1110 may then send the received information to the processing circuitry 1108. The receiving port 1110 may also be configured to receive other information.

[0216] The processing circuitry 1108 in the first respective third node 131 may be further configured to transmit or send information to e.g., the first node 111, any of the one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the first respective second node 121 and / or the second respective second node 122, any of the other one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100, through a sending port 1111 , which may be in communication with the processing circuitry 1108, and the memory 1109.

[0217] Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the units comprised within the first respective third node 131 described above as being configured to perform different actions, may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuits, and / or one or more processors configured with software and / or firmware, e.g., stored in memory, that, when executed by the one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 1108, perform as described above. One or more of these processors, as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a System-on-a-Chip (SoC).

[0218] The first respective third node 131 may be configured to perform any of the Actions described in relation to Figure 3 and / or any of Figures 4-9, e.g., by means of the processing circuitry 1108 within the first respective third node 131, configured to perform any of such actions.

[0219] Also, in some embodiments, different units comprised within the first respective third node 131 may be configured to perform the different actions described above, implemented as one or more applications running on one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 1108.

[0220] Thus, the methods according to the embodiments described herein for the first respective third node 131 may be respectively implemented by means of a computer program 1112 product, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 1108, cause the at least one processing circuitry 1108 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first respective third node 131. The computer program 1112 product may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 1113. The computer-readable storage medium 1113, having stored thereon the computer program 1112, may comprise instructions which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 1108, cause the at least one processing circuitry 1108 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first respective third node 131. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium 1113 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CD ROM disc, or a memory stick. In other embodiments, the computer program 1112 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program 1112 just described, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or the computer-readable storage medium 1113, as described above.

[0221] The first respective third node 131 may comprise a communication interface configured to facilitate, or an interface unit to facilitate, communications between the first respective third node 131 and other nodes or devices, e.g., the first node 111, any of the one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the first respective second node 121 and / or the second respective second node 122, any of the other one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, the spatial database 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100. The interface may, for example, include a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

[0222] In other embodiments, the first respective third node 131 may comprise a radio circuitry 1114, which may comprise e.g., the receiving port 1110 and the sending port 1111. The radio circuitry 1114 may be configured to set up and maintain at least a wireless connection with the first node 111, any of the one or more respective second nodes 120, such as the first respective second node 121 and / or the second respective second node 122, any of the other one or more respective third nodes 130, such as the second respective third node 132, any of the one or more radio network nodes 141, 142, 143, 144, the spatial database

[0223] 160, and / or another structure in the communications system 100. Circuitry may be understood herein as a hardware component.

[0224] Hence, embodiments herein also relate to the first respective third node 131 operative to operate in the communications system 100. The first respective third node 131 may comprise the processing circuitry 1108 and the memory 1109, said memory 1109 containing instructions executable by said processing circuitry 1108, whereby the first respective third node 131 is further operative to perform the actions described herein in relation to the first respective third node 131, e.g., in Figure 3 and / or any of Figures 4-9.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A computer-implemented method, performed by a first node (111), the first node (111) operating in a communications system (100), the method comprising:- obtaining (201), via one or more respective first application programming interfaces offered on a platform of the first node (111), first respective information of a respective position of one or more respective second nodes (120) of one or more providers,- storing (202) the obtained first respective information in a first queue and assigning a time to live to the first respective information in the first queue, wherein the obtaining (201) of the first respective information is repeated with updated first respective information of an updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes (120) and the first queue is updated with the updated first respective information,- obtaining (203), via one or more respective second application programming interfaces offered on the integrated platform of the first node (111), second respective information of a respective position of one or more respective third nodes (130) of one or more requesters,- storing (204) the obtained second respective information in a second queue,- storing (205) the second respective information stored in the second queue, in a spatial database (160) accessible by the first node (111),- determining (206) a match between a first provider of the one or more providers and a first requester of one or more requesters, using the updated first queue and the second respective information stored in the spatial database (160), with the proviso the time to live has not expired, the determining (206) being based on querying the spatial database (160) to minimize a distance to be travelled between the respective position of a first respective second node (121) and a first respective third node (131) of, respectively, the matched first provider and the first requester, and- initiating (207) sending a respective first indication to the first respective second node (121) of the first provider and the first respective third node (131) of the first requester, the respective first indication indicating a result of the determining (206).

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the respective first indication to the first respective second node (121) requests that the first provider pick-up a delivery from the first requester, and wherein the method further comprises:- receiving (208), via the platform, a respective second indication from the first respective second node (121), the respective second indication indicating whether or not the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the respective second indication indicates that the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery, and wherein the method further comprises:- sending (209), via the platform, a respective third indication to the first respective third node (131), the respective third indication indicating the pick-up.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the respective second indication indicates that the first provider declines to pick-up the delivery, and wherein the method further comprises:- sending (210), via the platform, a respective fourth indication to a second respective second node (122) of a second provider determined to have a second shortest distance to be travelled between the respective position of the second respective second node (122) and the first respective third node (131), the fourth indication requesting that the second provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the obtaining (201) of the first respective information, the storing (202) in the first queue, the obtaining (203) of the second respective information, the storing (204) in the second queue, the storing (205) of the second respective information in the spatial database (160), the repeating of the obtaining (201) of the first respective information and the updating of the first respective information is performed via a first slice of the communications system (100), and wherein indications are sent or received to or from the first respective second node (121) and the first respective third node (131) via a second slice.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the first slice is configured to provide massive Machine Type Communication services and the second slice is configured to provide Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication.

7. A computer-implemented method, performed by a communications system (100), the communications system (100) comprising a first node (111), one or more respectivesecond nodes (120), one or more respective third nodes (130) and a spatial database (160), the method comprising:- obtaining (301), by the first node (111) and via one or more respective first application programming interfaces offered on a platform of the first node (111), first respective information of a respective position of the one or more respective second nodes (120) of one or more providers,- storing (302), by the first node (111), the obtained first respective information in a first queue and assigning a time to live to the first respective information in the first queue, wherein the obtaining (301) of the first respective information is repeated with updated first respective information of an updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes (120) and the first queue is updated with the updated first respective information,- obtaining (303), by the first node (111) and via one or more respective second application programming interfaces offered on the integrated platform of the first node (111), second respective information of a respective position of the one or more respective third nodes (130) of one or more requesters,- storing (304), by the first node (111), the obtained second respective information in a second queue,- storing (305), by the first node (111), the second respective information stored in the second queue, in a spatial database (160) accessible by the first node (111),- determining (306), by the first node (111), a match between a first provider of the one or more providers and a first requester of one or more requesters, using the updated first queue and the second respective information stored in the spatial database (160), with the proviso the time to live has not expired, the determining (306) being based on querying the spatial database (160) to minimize a distance to be travelled between the respective position of a first respective second node (121) and a first respective third node (131) of, respectively, the matched first provider and the first requester, and- initiating (307), by the first node (111), sending a respective first indication to the first respective second node (121) of the first provider and the first respective third node (131) of the first requester, the respective first indication indicating a result of the determining (306).

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the respective first indication to the first respective second node (121) requests that the first provider pick-up a delivery from the first requester, and wherein the method further comprises:- receiving (308), by the first respective second node (121), the respective first indication from the first node (111),- sending (309), by the first respective second node (121), a respective second indication to the first node (111) responsive to the received respective first indication, the respective second indication indicating whether or not the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery, and- receiving (310), by the first node (111) and via the platform, the respective second indication from the first respective second node (121).

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the respective second indication indicates that the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery, and wherein the method further comprises:- sending (311), by the first node (111) and via the platform, a respective third indication to the first respective third node (131), the respective third indication indicating the pick-up, and- receiving (312), by the first respective third node (131), the respective third indication.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the respective second indication indicates that the first provider declines to pick-up the delivery, and wherein the method further comprises:- sending (313), by the first node (111) and via the platform, a respective fourth indication to a second respective second node (122) of a second provider determined to have a second shortest distance to be travelled between the respective position of the second respective second node (122) and the first respective third node (131), the fourth indication requesting that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester.

11. The method according to any of claims 7-10, wherein the obtaining (301) of the first respective information, the storing (302) in the first queue, the obtaining (303) of the second respective information, the storing (304) in the second queue, the storing (305) of the second respective information in the spatial database (160), the repeating of the obtaining (301) of the first respective information and the updating of the first respective information is performed via a first slice of the communications system (100), and wherein indications are sent or received to or from the first respective second node (121) and the first respective third node (131) via a second slice.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the first slice is configured to provide massive Machine Type Communication services and the second slice is configured to provide Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication.

13. A first node (111) configured to operate in a communications system (100), the first node (111) being further configured to:- obtain, via one or more respective first application programming interfaces configured to be offered on a platform of the first node (111), first respective information of a respective position of one or more respective second nodes (120) of one or more providers,- store the first respective information configured to be obtained in a first queue and assign a time to live to the first respective information in the first queue, wherein the obtaining of the first respective information is configured to be repeated with updated first respective information of an updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes (120) and the first queue is configured to be updated with the updated first respective information,- obtain, via one or more respective second application programming interfaces configured to be offered on the integrated platform of the first node (111), second respective information of a respective position of one or more respective third nodes (130) of one or more requesters,- store the second respective information configured to be obtained in a second queue,- store the second respective information configured to be stored in the second queue, in a spatial database (160) configured to be accessible by the first node (111),- determine a match between a first provider of the one or more providers and a first requester of one or more requesters, using the updated first queue and the second respective information configured to be stored in the spatial database (160), with the proviso the time to live has not expired, the determining being configured to be based on querying the spatial database (160) to minimize a distance to be travelled between the respective position of a first respective second node (121) and a first respective third node (131) of, respectively, the first provider and the first requester configured to be matched, and- initiate (207) sending a respective first indication to the first respective second node (121) of the first provider and the first respective third node (131) of the firstrequester, the respective first indication being configured to indicate a result of the determining.

14. The first node (111) according to claim 13, wherein the respective first indication to the first respective second node (121) is configured to request that the first provider pick-up a delivery from the first requester, and wherein the first node (111) is further configured to:- receive, via the platform, a respective second indication from the first respective second node (121), the respective second indication being configured to indicate whether or not the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery.

15. The first node (111) according to claim 14, wherein the first node (111) is further configured to, with the proviso the respective second indication indicates that the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery:- send, via the platform, a respective third indication to the first respective third node (131), the respective third indication being configured to indicate the pick-up.

16. The first node (111) according to claim 14, wherein the first node (111) is further configured to, with the proviso the respective second indication indicates that the first provider declines to pick-up the delivery:- send, via the platform, a respective fourth indication to a second respective second node (122) of a second provider configured to be determined to have a second shortest distance to be travelled between the respective position of the second respective second node (122) and the first respective third node (131), the fourth indication being configured to request that the second provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester.

17. The first node (111) according to any of claims 13-16, wherein the obtaining of the first respective information, the storing in the first queue, the obtaining of the second respective information, the storing in the second queue, the storing of the second respective information in the spatial database (160), the repeating of the obtaining of the first respective information and the updating of the first respective information is configured to be performed via a first slice of the communications system (100), and wherein indications are configured to be sent or configured to be received to or from the first respective second node (121) and the first respective third node (131) via a second slice.

18. The first node (111) according to claim 17, wherein the first slice is configured to provide massive Machine Type Communication services and the second slice is configured to provide Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication.

19. A communications system (100) configured to comprise a first node (111), one or more respective second nodes (120), one or more respective third nodes (130) and a spatial database (160), the communications system (100) being further configured to:- obtain, by the first node (111) and via one or more respective first application programming interfaces configured to be offered on a platform of the first node (111), first respective information of a respective position of the one or more respective second nodes (120) of one or more providers,- store, by the first node (111), the first respective information configured to be obtained in a first queue and assign a time to live to the first respective information in the first queue, wherein the obtaining of the first respective information is configured to be repeated with updated first respective information of an updated respective position of the one or more respective second nodes (120) and the first queue is configured to be updated with the updated first respective information,- obtain, by the first node (111) and via one or more respective second application programming interfaces configured to be offered on the integrated platform of the first node (111), second respective information of a respective position of the one or more respective third nodes (130) of one or more requesters,- store, by the first node (111), the second respective information configured to be obtained in a second queue,- store, by the first node (111), the second respective information stored in the second queue, in a spatial database (160) accessible by the first node (111),- determine, by the first node (111), a match between a first provider of the one or more providers and a first requester of one or more requesters, using the first queue configured to be updated and the second respective information configured to be stored in the spatial database (160), with the proviso the time to live has not expired, the determining being configured to be based on querying the spatial database (160) to minimize a distance to be travelled between the respective position of a first respective second node (121) and a first respective third node (131) of, respectively, the first provider and the first requester configured to be matched, and- initiate, by the first node (111), sending a respective first indication to the first respective second node (121) of the first provider and the first respective thirdnode (131) of the first requester, the respective first indication being configured to indicate a result of the determining.

20. The communications system (100) according to claim 19, wherein the communications system (100) is further configured to, with the proviso the respective first indication to the first respective second node (121) is configured to request that the first provider pick-up a delivery from the first requester:- receive, by the first respective second node (121), the respective first indication from the first node (111),- send, by the first respective second node (121), a respective second indication to the first node (111) responsive to the respective first indication configured to be received, the respective second indication being configured to indicate whether or not the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery, and- receive, by the first node (111) and via the platform, the respective second indication from the first respective second node (121).

21. The communications system (100) according to claim 20, wherein the communications system (100) is further configured to, with the proviso the respective second indication is configured to indicate that the first provider accepts to pick-up the delivery:- send, by the first node (111) and via the platform, a respective third indication to the first respective third node (131), the respective third indication being configured to indicate the pick-up, and- receive, by the first respective third node (131), the respective third indication.

22. The communications system (100) according to claim 20, wherein the communications system (100) is further configured to, with the proviso the respective second indication indicates that the first provider declines to pick-up the delivery:- send, by the first node (111) and via the platform, a respective fourth indication to a second respective second node (122) of a second provider configured to be determined to have a second shortest distance to be travelled between the respective position of the second respective second node (122) and the first respective third node (131), the fourth indication being configured to request that the first provider pick-up the delivery from the first requester.

23. The communications system (100) according to any of claims 19-22, wherein the obtaining of the first respective information, the storing in the first queue, the obtainingof the second respective information, the storing in the second queue, the storing of the second respective information in the spatial database (160), the repeating of the obtaining of the first respective information and the updating of the first respective information is configured to be performed via a first slice of the communications system (100), and wherein indications are configured to be sent or received to or from the first respective second node (121) and the first respective third node (131) via a second slice.

24. The communications system (100) according to claim 23, wherein the first slice is configured to provide massive Machine Type Communication services and the second slice is configured to provide Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication.

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