Media over quic

Abstract

There is provided a method for use by a network entity, the method comprising: receiving provisioning information for delivering data, the provisioning information comprising information associated with at least one Media over QUIC (MOQ) session for delivering the data using MOQ protocol and information assigning a role of the network entity as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; and based on the provisioning information, establishing at least one MOQ session with at least one further network entity and performing one or more of sending or receiving the data based on the MOQ protocol.

Description

MEDIA OVER QUICTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Various examples of this disclosure relate to a method, apparatus, system and computer program and in particular but not exclusively to Media over QUIC (MOQ).BACKGROUND

[0002] A communication network can be seen as a facility that enables communications between two or more communication devices or provides communication devices access to a data network. A mobile or wireless communication network is one example of a communication network. A communication device may be provided with a service by an application server.

[0003] Such communication networks operate in accordance with standards, such as those provided by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) or ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). Examples of standards provided by 3GPP are the so-called 3GPP standards for cellular technology generations, such as 3GPP standards for 4G technology, 5G technology, and 6G technology.

[0004] Current 3GPP standards define different delivery architectures for media, including 5G Media Streaming (5GMS) and Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based architectures. More recently, Media over QUIC (MOQ) has been developed for media delivery. QUIC is an end-to-end encrypted transport layer protocol that supports multiple streams that are reliable and provide in-order delivery to a receiver. QUIC has several advantages over its predecessor, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), including faster connection setup, better loss handling and support for unreliable delivery of delay-sensitive and loss-tolerant traffic. While MOQ has been adopted for certain uses, MOQ has yet to be adopted into standardized delivery architectures for 5G and beyond. There remains scope for further developments in this field.SUMMARY

[0005] Some examples of this disclosure will be described with respect to certain aspects. These aspects are not intended to indicate key or essential features of the various examples of this disclosure, nor are they intended to be used to limit the scope of thereof. Otherfeatures, aspects, and elements will be apparent to a person skilled in the art in view of this disclosure. For example, it should be appreciated that further aspects may be provided by the combination of any two or more of the various aspects described below.

[0006] According to an aspect there is provided a method for use by a network entity, the method comprising: receiving provisioning information for delivering data, the provisioning information comprising information associated with at least one Media over QIIIC (MOQ) session for delivering the data using MOQ protocol and information assigning a role of the network entity as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; and based on the provisioning information, establishing at least one MOQ session with at least one further network entity and performing one or more of sending or receiving the data based on the MOQ protocol.

[0007] The method may comprise: sending, to the at least one further network entity, information indicating one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0008] Each track may comprise one or more groups, each group comprising one or more objects.

[0009] The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may comprise a track name and / or track namespace of each track comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0010] The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may be based on the provisioning information.

[0011] The provisioning information may comprise information indicating at least one of: a content transfer mode of a receiver of the provisioning information as publish-and-subscribe for ingest and egest data; a content transfer mode of the receiver of the provisioning information as publish for ingest data and subscribe for egest data; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a relay for the MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a publisher for the MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a subscriber for the MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a client on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QIIIC; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a server on the transport layerwhere the transport protocol is QIIIC; a data caching directive for the receiver of the provisioning information to follow; a cache lifetime indicating a lifetime for storing the data associated with the one or more tracks in a cache by the one or more relays; and whether inband session signalling can be used to configure an associated configuration parameter.

[0012] The network entity may be a publisher for the at least one MOQ session, and wherein the at least one further network entity may be acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session.

[0013] The provisioning information may comprise information indicating that the application server is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0014] The method may comprise: receiving, from the at least one further network entity, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks; and based on the received one or more subscription requests, sending, to the at least one further network entity, data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0015] The one or more subscription requests may comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

[0016] The network entity may be configured as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one further network may be acting as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0017] The provisioning information may comprise information indicating that the network entity is a relay for the at least one MOQ session.

[0018] The method may comprise: sending, to the at least one further network entity, one or more subscription requests for data associated with the one or more tracks; and based on the one or more subscription requests, receiving, from the at least one further network entity, data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0019] The method may comprise: receiving, from at least one of additional network entity acting as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session, one or more further subscription requests for the data associated with the one or more tracks, wherein the one or more subscription requests are based on the one or more further subscription requests.

[0020] The one or more subscription requests and / or the one or more further subscription requests may comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

[0021] The method may comprise: receiving, from the at least one further network entity, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session; and sending, to the at least one additional network entity, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0022] The method may comprise: receiving, from the at least one additional network entity, one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session, wherein sending, to the at least one additional network entity, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session is based on the received one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0023] The provisioning information may be received from an application server, and the method may further comprise: based on receiving the provisioning information, sending, to the application function, a message indicating that the network entity supports MOQ.

[0024] According to an aspect, there is provided method for use in a user equipment, the method comprising: receiving service access information from a network entity associated with at least one MOQ session for delivering data, the service access information comprising information indicating a protocol for the at least one MOQ session as MOQ protocol and information indicating one or more network entities acting as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher of the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; and based on the service information, establishing at least one MOQ session with at least one of the one or more network entities for one or more of sending or receiving, based on MOQ protocol, the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0025] The method may comprise: receiving, from the network entity, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0026] The information indicating the one or more tracks may be comprised in the at least one MOQ session is comprised in the service access information.

[0027] Each track may comprise one or more groups, each group comprising one or more objects.

[0028] The information indicating the one or more network entities acting as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session may comprise, for each of the one or more network entities, information identifying a respective network entity and information indicating whether the respective network entity is a relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0029] The service access information may comprise configuration information for the at least one MOQ session.

[0030] The configuration information may comprise at least one of: one or more encoding parameters associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more streaming formats associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more MOQ parameters of the at least one MOQ session.

[0031] Establishing the at least one MOQ session may be based on the configuration information.

[0032] The user equipment may be a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session.

[0033] The service access information may comprise information indicating that the user equipment is a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session.

[0034] The method may comprise: sending, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more subscription requests for receiving the data associated with the one or more tracks; and receiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more response messages comprising the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0035] The one or more subscription requests may comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

[0036] The method may comprise: determining configuration information based on the provisioning information wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of: one or more encoding parameters associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more streaming formats associated with the at least one MOQ session; or one or more MOQ parameters of the at least one MOQ session.

[0037] The method may comprise: receiving, from at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0038] The one or more subscription requests may be based on the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0039] The method may comprise: sending, to the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session, wherein receiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may be based on the sentone or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0040] The user equipment may be a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0041] The service access information may comprise information indicating that the user equipment is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0042] The method may comprise: obtaining, from an application running on the user equipment, the data associated with the one or more tracks; and sending, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0043] The method may comprise: receiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks, wherein sending the data associated with the one or more tracks is based on the received one or more subscription requests.

[0044] According to an aspect, there is provided a method performed by an application provider, the method comprising: sending, to an application function, a provisioning configuration associated with delivery of data using MOQ in at least one MOQ session, the provisioning configuration indicating a role of one or more network entities in the at least one MOQ session, the MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with data for delivery; receiving, from the application function, information indicating the one or more network entities that have been assigned as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with data for delivery; determining, based on the received information, configuration information for the at least one MOQ session; and sending, to the one or more network entities, the configuration information.

[0045] The configuration information may comprise at least one of: one or more encoding parameters associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more streaming formats associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more MOQ parameters of the at least one MOQ session.

[0046] The application provider may be a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0047] The method may comprise: sending, to the one or more network entities and / or a user equipment, information indicating one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0048] Each track may comprise one or more groups, each group comprising one or more objects.

[0049] The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may comprise a track name and / or track namespace of each track comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0050] The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may be based on the information indicating the role of the one or more network entities as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0051] The information indicating the role of the one or more network entities as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session may comprise information indicating at least one of: a content transfer mode of a receiver of the provisioning information as publish-and-subscribe for ingest and egest data; a content transfer mode of the receiver of the provisioning information as publish for ingest data and subscribe for egest data; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a relay for the at least one MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a client on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QUIC; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a server on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QUIC; a data caching directive for the receiver of the provisioning information to follow; a cache lifetime indicating a lifetime for storing the data associated with the one or more tracks in a cache by the one or more relays; and whether inband session signalling can be used to configure an associated configuration parameter.

[0052] The one or more network entities may be acting as one or more relays for the at least one MOQ session.

[0053] The method may comprise: receiving, from the one or more network entities, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks; and based on the received one or more subscription requests, sending, to one or more network entities, data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0054] The one or more subscription requests may comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

[0055] According to an aspect, there is provided a method performed by an application function, the method comprising: receiving, from an application provider, a provisioning configuration associated with delivery of data using MOQ in at least one MOQ session, the provisioning configuration indicating a role of one or more network entities in the at least one MOQ session; sending, to the one or more network entities, provisioning informationfor delivering data, the provisioning information comprising information associated with the at least one MOQ session for delivering the data using MOQ protocol and information assigning a role of the network entity as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; and sending, to the application provider, information indicating the one or more network entities that have been assigned as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0056] According to an aspect, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform the method of any of the preceding aspect.

[0057] According to an aspect there is provided an apparatus for a network entity, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving provisioning information for delivering data, the provisioning information comprising information associated with at least one Media over QUIC (MOQ) session for delivering the data using MOQ protocol and information assigning a role of the network entity as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; and means for, based on the provisioning information, establishing at least one MOQ session with at least one further network entity and performing one or more of sending or receiving the data based on the MOQ protocol.

[0058] The apparatus may comprise: means for sending, to the at least one further network entity, information indicating one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0059] Each track may comprise one or more groups, each group comprising one or more objects.

[0060] The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may comprise a track name and / or track namespace of each track comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0061] The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may be based on the provisioning information.

[0062] The provisioning information may comprise information indicating at least one of: a content transfer mode of a receiver of the provisioning information as publish-and-subscribe for ingest and egest data; a content transfer mode of the receiver of the provisioning information as publish for ingest data and subscribe for egest data; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a relay for the MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a publisher for the MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a subscriber for the MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a client on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QUIC; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a server on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QUIC; a data caching directive for the receiver of the provisioning information to follow; a cache lifetime indicating a lifetime for storing the data associated with the one or more tracks in a cache by the one or more relays; and whether inband session signalling can be used to configure an associated configuration parameter.

[0063] The network entity may be a publisher for the at least one MOQ session, and wherein the at least one further network entity may be acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session.

[0064] The provisioning information may comprise information indicating that the application server is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0065]

[0066] The method may comprise: receiving, from the at least one further network entity, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks; and based on the received one or more subscription requests, sending, to the at least one further network entity, data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0067] The one or more subscription requests may comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

[0068] The network entity may be configured as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one further network may be acting as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0069] The provisioning information may comprise information indicating that the network entity is a relay for the at least one MOQ session.

[0070] The apparatus may comprise: means for sending, to the at least one further network entity, one or more subscription requests for data associated with the one or more tracks; and means for, based on the one or more subscription requests, receiving, from the at least one further network entity, data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0071] The apparatus may comprise: means for receiving, from at least one of additional network entity acting as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session, one or more further subscription requests for the data associated with the one or more tracks, wherein the one or more subscription requests are based on the one or more further subscription requests.

[0072] The one or more subscription requests and / or the one or more further subscription requests may comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

[0073] The apparatus may comprise: means for receiving, from the at least one further network entity, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session; and means for sending, to the at least one additional network entity, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0074] The apparatus may comprise: means for receiving, from the at least one additional network entity, one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session, wherein sending, to the at least one additional network entity, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session is based on the received one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0075] The provisioning information may be received from an application server, and the apparatus may comprise: means for based on receiving the provisioning information, sending, to the application function, a message indicating that the network entity supports MOQ.

[0076] According to an aspect, there is provided a user equipment comprising: means for receiving service access information from a network entity associated with at least one MOQ session for delivering data, the service access information comprising information indicating a protocol for the at least one MOQ session as MOQ protocol and information indicating one or more network entities acting as at least one of relay, subscriber, orpublisher of the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; and means for, based on the service information, establishing at least one MOQ session with at least one of the one or more network entities for one or more of sending or receiving, based on MOQ protocol, the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0077] The user equipment may comprise: means for receiving, from the network entity, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0078] The information indicating the one or more tracks may be comprised in the at least one MOQ session is comprised in the service access information.

[0079] Each track may comprise one or more groups, each group comprising one or more objects.

[0080] The information indicating the one or more network entities acting as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session may comprise, for each of the one or more network entities, information identifying a respective network entity and information indicating whether the respective network entity is a relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0081] The service access information may comprise configuration information for the at least one MOQ session.

[0082] The service access information comprises information associated with configuration information for the at least one MOQ session; wherein the method may further comprise: determining the configuration information.

[0083] The configuration information may comprise at least one of: one or more encoding parameters associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more streaming formats associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more MOQ parameters of the at least one MOQ session.

[0084] Establishing the at least one MOQ session may be based on the configuration information.

[0085] The user equipment may be a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session.

[0086] The service access information may comprise information indicating that the user equipment is a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session.

[0087] The user equipment may comprise: means for sending, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more subscription requests for receiving the data associated with the one or more tracks; and means for receiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more response messages comprising the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0088] The one or more subscription requests may comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

[0089] The user equipment may comprise: means for receiving, from at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0090] The one or more subscription requests may be based on the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0091] The user equipment may comprise: means for sending, to the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session, wherein receiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may be based on the sent one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0092] The user equipment may be a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0093] The service access information may comprise information indicating that the user equipment is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0094] The user equipment may comprise: means for obtaining, from an application running on the user equipment, the data associated with the one or more tracks; and means for sending, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0095] The user equipment may comprise: means for receiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks, wherein sending the data associated with the one or more tracks is based on the received one or more subscription requests.

[0096] According to an aspect, there is provided an apparatus for an application provider, the apparatus comprising: means for sending, to an application function, a provisioning configuration associated with delivery of data using MOQ in at least one MOQ session, the provisioning configuration indicating a role of one or more network entities in the at least one MOQ session, the MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with data for delivery; means for receiving, from the application function, information indicating the one or more network entities that have been assigned as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with data for delivery; means for determining, based on the received information, configuration information for the at least one MOQ session; and means for sending, to the one or more network entities, the configuration information.

[0097] The configuration information may comprise at least one of: one or more encoding parameters associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more streaming formats associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more MOQ parameters of the at least one MOQ session.

[0098] The application provider may be a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0099] The apparatus may comprise: means for sending, to the one or more network entities and / or a user equipment, information indicating one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0100] Each track may comprise one or more groups, each group comprising one or more objects.

[0101] The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may comprise a track name and / or track namespace of each track comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0102] The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may be based on the information indicating the role of the one or more network entities as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0103] The information indicating the role of the one or more network entities as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session may comprise information indicating at least one of: a content transfer mode of a receiver of the provisioning information as publish-and-subscribe for ingest and egest data; a content transfer mode of the receiver of the provisioning information as publish for ingest data and subscribe for egest data; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a relay for the at least one MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a client on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QUIC; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a server on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QUIC; a data caching directive for the receiver of the provisioning information to follow; a cache lifetime indicating a lifetime for storing the data associated with the one or more tracks in a cache by the one or more relays; and whether inband session signalling can be used to configure an associated configuration parameter.

[0104] The one or more network entities may be acting as one or more relays for the at least one MOQ session.

[0105] The apparatus may comprise: means for receiving, from the one or more network entities, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks; and means for, based on the received one or more subscription requests, sending, to one or more network entities, data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0106] The one or more subscription requests may comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

[0107] According to an aspect, there is provided an apparatus for an application function, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving, from an application provider, a provisioning configuration associated with delivery of data using MOQ in at least one MOQ session, the provisioning configuration indicating a role of one or more network entities in the at least one MOQ session; means for sending, to the one or more network entities, provisioning information for delivering data, the provisioning information comprising information associated with the at least one MOQ session for delivering the data using MOQ protocol and information assigning a role of the network entity as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; and means for sending, to the application provider, information indicating the one or more network entities that have been assigned as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0108] According to an aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the method according to any of the preceding aspects.

[0109] According to an aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least the method according to any of the preceding aspects.

[0110] In the above, many different aspects have been described. As previously noted, it should be appreciated that further aspects may be provided by the combination of any two or more of the aspects described above. Other features, aspects, and elements will become apparent in view of the following.DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

[0111] Some examples will now be described, by way of non-limiting and illustrative example only, with reference to the accompanying Figures (FIGs.) in which:

[0112] FIG. 1 shows an example of a communication network to which examples disclosed herein may be applied;

[0113] FIG. 2 shows a representation of a 5thgeneration communication system;

[0114] FIG. 3 shows a method according to some examples;

[0115] FIG. 4 shows a method according to some examples;

[0116] FIG. 5 shows an example mapping of 5GMS entities to MOQ roles for the downlink direction;

[0117] FIG. 6 shows an example mapping of 5GMS entities to MOQ roles for the uplink direction;

[0118] FIGs. 7 to 11 show signalling procedures according to some examples;

[0119] FIG. 12 shows a method according to some examples;

[0120] FIG. 13 shows a method according to some examples; and

[0121] FIG. 14 shows an apparatus according to some examples.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0122] Some examples of the present disclosure may be implemented in a communication network, such as any of the following radio access technologies (RATs): World-wide Interoperability for Micro-wave Access (WiMAX), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM, 2G), GSM EDGE radio access Network (GERAN), General Packet Radio Service (GRPS), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS, 3G) based on basic wideband-code division multiple access (W-CDMA), high-speed packet access (HSPA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, and enhanced LTE (eLTE), 5G (also called NR), or any future RAT such as 6G. Moreover, communication within the communication network may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM), and / or Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM).

[0123] As used herein, the term “network device” or “network node” may refer to a node in a communication network via which a UE (UE) may access the network and / or which is capable of controlling radio communication and managing radio resources within a cell. The network node or network device may be referred to as a base station (BS), an access point (AP) or an access node. The network device may be, depending on the applied technology, for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio head (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (I AB) node, a low power node, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, or an aircraft network device.

[0124] Moreover, in connection of split radio access network (RAN), the network device may refer to a centralised unit (CU) of a base station and / or a distributed unit (DU) of a base station. An interface between CU and DU may be referred to as an F1 interface in NR. In the split RAN architecture, node operations may be carried out, at least partly, in the central / centralized unit, CU, (e.g. server, host or node) operationally coupled to the DU, (e.g. a radio head / node). One CU may control one or more DUs, acting at least as transmit / receive (Tx / Rx) nodes. In some examples, the DUs may comprise e.g. a radio link control (RLC), medium access control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layer, whereas the CU may comprise the layers above RLC layer, such as a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio resource control (RRC) and an internet protocol (IP) layers. Other functional splits are possible too. In practice, any processing task may be performed in either the CU or the DU and the boundary where the responsibility is shifted between the CU and the DU may depend on the applied implementation.

[0125] The term “terminal device” may refer to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example, a terminal device may be referred to as a communication device, UE (UE), a Subscriber Station (SS), or a Mobile Station (MS). The terminal device may include a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and play-back appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, USB dongles, an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like.

[0126] A term “resource”, as used herein, may refer to radio resources in time domain, in frequency domain, in space domain, and / or in code domain. Some examples of resources include e.g. a physical resource block (PRB), a radio frame, a subframe, a time slot, a subband, a frequency region, a sub-carrier, a beam, etc. The term “transmission” and / or “reception” may refer to wirelessly transmitting and / or receiving via a wireless propagation channel on radio resources.

[0127] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a communication network to which examples disclosed herein may be applied. The communication network or a cellular communication network may comprise a network node 90 providing one or more cells, such as cell 100, and a network node 92 providing one or more other cells, such as cell 102. Each cell may be, e.g., a macro cell, a micro cell, femto, or a pico cell, for example. The cell may define a coverage area or a service area of the corresponding access node.

[0128] The network node 90 may provide a user equipment (UE) 120 (one or more UEs) with wireless access to the communication network. The wireless access may comprise downlink (DL) communication from the network node to the UE 120 and uplink (UL) communication from the UE 120 to the network node. Examples of uplink channels comprise physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for transmitting control information and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for transmitting data towards the network. Examples of downlink channels comprise physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for transmitting control information and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for transmitting data towards the UE.

[0129] There may be a plurality of UEs 120, 122 in the system. Each UE may be served by the same or by different network nodes 90, 92. A UE may be configured with dual connectivity (DC), wherein the UE, e.g. UE 120, may be connected to multiple network nodes 90, 92. The UEs 120, 122 may communicate with each other, in case device-to-device (D2D) communication interface is established between them via a so-called sidelink (SL). Such D2D communications may be referred to as machine-to-machine, peer-to-peer (P2P) communications, or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), for example.

[0130] In the case of multiple network nodes in the communication network, the network nodes may be connected to each other via an interface. LTE specifications call such an interface as X2 interface. An interface between an LTE node and a 5G node, or between two 5G nodes may be called Xn interface. The network nodes 90 and 92 may be further connected via another interface to a core network 96 of the communication network.

[0131] In the following various examples are explained with reference to communication devices capable of communication with a communication system. Before explaining in detail the various examples of this disclosure, a 5thgeneration communication system (5GS), an access network and a core network (5GC) thereof, and communication devices are briefly explained with reference to FIG. 2.

[0132] FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of a 5G communication system (5GS). The 5GS may comprise a UE (UE) or Terminal 120,, a 5G core network 202 (which may be an example of core network 96 described previously), and one or more application functions 203. An application function 203 may be deployed in the 5GS as trusted application function or may be deployed or host on one or more application servers of the data network (DN) 204. Such application functions are untrusted application functions. The 5GS connects the UE to a data network, the access network, and the 5GC 202 (e.g., a UPF of the 5GC).

[0133] The 5GC may comprise the following network functions: Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF); Network Exposure Function (NEF) 205; Network Repository Function (NRF); Policy Control Function (PCF); Unified Data Management (UDM) 206; Application Function (AF) 203; Authentication Server Function (AUSF) 207; an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 208; Session Management Function (SMF) 209; and a user plane function (UPF) 210. FIG. 2 also shows the various interfaces (N1, N2 etc.) that may be implemented between the various elements of the system. It should be understood that not all of the above network functions are shown in FIG. 2, and that in some examples the 5GC may comprise additional network functions other than those mentioned above.

[0134] The LTE specifications specify the core network as an evolved packet core (EPC), and the core network may comprise e.g. a mobility management entity (MME) and a gateway node. The MME may handle mobility of terminal devices in a tracking area encompassing a plurality of cells and handle signalling connections between the terminal devices and the core network. The gateway node may handle data routing in the core network and to / from the terminal devices. The 5G specifications specify the core network as a 5G core (5GC). The AMF 208 may handle termination of non-access stratum (NAS) signalling, NAS ciphering & integrity protection, registration management, connection management, mobility management, access authentication and authorization, security context management. The UPF 210 may support packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection and quality of service (QoS) handling, for example.

[0135] Current 3GPP standards define 5GMS and IMS based delivery architectures for delivering media. Aspects of 5GMS are for example defined in 3GPP TS 26.501, 26.510 and 26.512. Aspects of IMS are for example defined in 3GPP TS 23.229 and 26.114.

[0136] As mentioned previously, more recently MOQ has been developed for media delivery. QIIIC is an end-to-end encrypted transport layer protocol that runs on User Datagram Protocol (UDP). MOQ has the potential to harmonize media delivery protocols that currently comprise of primarily an HTTP-based delivery framework for live and on-demand video (e.g., DASH, HLS) and an RTP-based delivery framework for video conferencing and other real-time applications (e.g., WebRTC, MTSI).

[0137] MOQ, or MOQ Transport (MOQT), allows a producer of media to publish data and have it consumed via subscription by a multiplicity of endpoints. As used herein, MOQ and MOQT may be used interchangeably. MOQT supports content distribution networks and is particularly suited to high scale and low latency distribution. MOQT is based on publish and subscribe (PubSub) messaging services.

[0138] MOQT has a hierarchical object model for data, comprising of objects, subgroups, groups and tracks.

[0139] Objects are the basic data element of MOQT. An object is an addressable unit whose payload is a sequence of bytes. All objects belong to a group, indicating ordering and potential dependencies. An object is uniquely identified by its track namespace, track name, group ID, and object ID, and must be an identical sequence of bytes regardless of how or where it is retrieved. An object can become unavailable, but its contents do not change over time.

[0140] Objects are comprised of two parts: metadata and a payload. The metadata is not encrypted and is visible to relays. The payload portion may be encrypted, in which case it is only visible to the Original Publisher and End Subscribers. An application or application function generating the media is solely responsible for the content of the object payload, and also the underlying encoding, compression, any end-to-end encryption, or authentication. A relay will not combine, split, or otherwise modify object payloads.

[0141] A sequence of one or more objects from the same group may be grouped into a subgroup in ascending order by Object ID. Objects in a subgroup have a dependency and priority relationship consistent with sharing a QUIC stream. In some cases, a Group may be most effectively delivered using more than one QUIC stream.

[0142] Every object within a Group may belong to exactly one Subgroup. Objects from two subgroups cannot be sent on the same QUIC stream. Objects from the same Subgroup arenot sent on different QIIIC streams, unless one of the streams was reset prematurely, or upstream conditions have forced objects from a Subgroup to be sent out of Object ID order.

[0143] A group is a temporal sequence of objects and is a sub-unit of a track. Objects within a group do not depend on objects in other groups. A group may behave as a join point for subscriptions - for example, a new subscriber might not want to receive the entire track, and may instead opt to receive only the latest group(s). The publisher then selectively transmits objects based on their group membership.

[0144] A track is a sequence of groups. It is the entity against which a subscriber issues a subscription request. A subscriber can request to receive individual tracks starting at a group boundary, including any new objects pushed by the publisher while the track is active.

[0145] In MOQT, every track has a track name and a track namespace associated with it. A track name identifies an individual track within the namespace. Track namespace may be an ordered N-tuple of bytes where N can be between 1 and 32. The structured nature of Track Namespace allows relays and applications to manipulate prefixes of a namespace. Track name is a sequence of bytes.

[0146] A MOQT scope is a set of servers (as identified by their connection URIs) for which the tuple of Track Name and Track Namespace are guaranteed to be unique and identify a specific track. It is up to the application using MOQT to define how broad or narrow the scope is. An application that deals with connections between devices on a local network may limit the scope to a single connection; by contrast, an application that uses multiple CDNs to serve media mayrequire the scope to include all of those CDNs.

[0147] A MOQT server that is accessible via WebTransport can be identified using an HTTPS URI. A MOQT session can be established by sending an extended CONNECT request to the host and the path indicated by the URI. A MOQT server that is accessible via native QUIC can be identified by a URI with a "moq" scheme. The URI scheme may for example be defined in clause 3.1.2 of Curley, L. et. al., "Media over QUIC Transport", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-moq-transport-07, 21 October 2024.

[0148] MOQT defines various control messages which are exchanged over a single bidirectional stream between a client (the party initiating a MOQT session) and a MOQT server (the party accepting an incoming transport session).

[0149] To establish a MOQ session, the client and server may exchange CLIENT_SETUP messages and SERVER_SETUP messages to enable the client and server to establish a mutually supported version and agree on an initial configuration before any objects are exchanged. The messages may comprise a sequence of key-value pairs called Setup parameters; the semantics and format of which can vary based on whether the client or server is sending.

[0150] Once the MOQ session has been established between the client and server, a subscriber (an endpoint -e.g., the client - that subscribes to and receives tracks) may issue a SUBSCRIBE message to a publisher (an endpoint - e.g., the server - that handles subscriptions by sending requested Objects from the requested track) to request a track. A subscriber may issue a SUBSCRIBE_UPDATE message to a publisher to request a change to a prior subscription.

[0151] The subscriber may be an End Subscriber (a subscriber that initiates a subscription and does not send the data on to other subscribers), or an intermediary or relay between the End Subscriber and the Original Publisher (the initial publisher of a given track). In the case of being a relay, the relay may act as a Subscriber with respect to the Original Publisher (i.e. the relay may subscribe to the Original Publisher) and may act as a Publisher with respect to the End Subscriber (i.e. the relay may publish to the End Subscriber).

[0152] A publisher may send an ANNOUNCE control message to advertise where a receiver of the ANNOUNCE control message can route SUBSCRIBE messages for tracks within the announced Track Namespace. The receiver may verify that the publisher is authorized to publish tracks under this namespace.

[0153] MOQT requires a long-lived and stateful session. However, a service provider needs the ability to shutdown / restart a server without waiting for all sessions to drain naturally, as that can take days for long-form media. MOQT avoids this via the GOA WAY message. The server may send a GOAWAY message, signaling that the client should establish a new session and migrate any active subscriptions. The GOAWAY message may contain a new URI for a new session, otherwise the current URI is reused. The server may terminate the MOQT session with a 'GOAWAY Timeout' message after a sufficient timeout if there are still open subscriptions on a connection.

[0154] The GOA WAY message may not immediately impact subscription state. A subscriber may individually unsubscribe for each existing subscription with the server, while the server may reject new subscription requests while in the draining state. When the server is a relay (i.e. both a publisher and a subscriber), it may send a GOAWAY message prior to any UNSUBSCRIBE messages.

[0155] After the client receives a GOAWAY message, the client may wait until there are no more active subscriptions before closing the session. This may be transparent to an application using MOOT - for example a new session may be established in the background and active subscriptions and announcements migrated accordingly. The client can choose to delay closing the session if it expects more Objects to be delivered. The server may close the session with a 'GOAWAY Timeout' message if the client doesn't close the session quickly enough.

[0156] As mentioned previously, MOQ has yet to be adopted into standardized delivery architectures for 5G and beyond. In particular, the mapping of the roles of different MOQ entities (e.g., MOQ relay, subscriber, publisher) to the entities involved in 5GMS / IMS procedures are not defined. Nor do the existing procedures do not define MOQ as a protocol for egest (transmitting data from an application server, AS, to an application provider, AP) , ingest (transmitting data from an AP to an AS) or real-time delivery; nor do the existing procedures specify how a UE can initiate a media delivery session using MOQ. Examples of the present disclosure address one or more of these issues.

[0157] Reference is made to FIG.3 which shows a method according to some examples. The method described in relation to FIG. 3 may for example be performed by a UE.

[0158] At 300, the method comprises receiving service access information from a network entity associated with at least one MOQ session for delivering data, the service access information comprising information indicating a protocol for the at least one MOQ session as MOQ protocol and information indicating one or more network entities acting as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher of the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data.

[0159] At 302, the method comprises, based on the service information, establishing at least one MOQ session with at least one of the one or more network entities for one or more of sending or receiving, based on MOQ protocol, the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0160] Reference is made to FIG. 4, which shows a method according to some examples. The method described in relation to FIG. 4 may be performed by a network entity. The network entity may be an application server, such as a 5GMS application server, or a UPF.

[0161] At 400, the method comprises receiving provisioning information for delivering data, the provisioning information comprising information associated with at least one Media over QUIC (MOQ) session for delivering the data using MOQ protocol and information assigning a role of the network entity as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data.

[0162] At 402, the method comprises, based on the provisioning information, establishing at least one MOQ session with at least one further network entity and performing one or more of sending or receiving the data based on the MOQ protocol.

[0163] Reference is made to FIG. 12, which shows a method according to some examples. The method described in relation to FIG. 12 may be performed by an application provider, such as a 5GMS AP.

[0164] At 1200, the method comprises sending, to an application function, a provisioning configuration associated with delivery of data using MOQ in at least one MOQ session, the provisioning configuration indicating a role of one or more network entities in the at least one MOQ session, the MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with data for delivery.

[0165] At 1202, the method comprises receiving, from the application function, information indicating the one or more network entities that have been assigned as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with data for delivery.

[0166] At 1204, the method comprises determining, based on the received information, configuration information for the at least one MOQ session.

[0167] At 1206, the method comprises sending, to the one or more network entities, the configuration information.

[0168] Reference is made to FIG. 13, which shows a method according to some examples. The method described in relation to FIG. 15 may be performed by an application function (AF), such as a 5GMS AF.

[0169] At 1300, the method comprises receiving, from an application provider, a provisioning configuration associated with delivery of data using MOQ in at least one MOQ session, the provisioning configuration indicating a role of one or more network entities in the at least one MOQ session.

[0170] At 1302, the method comprises sending, to the one or more network entities, provisioning information for delivering data, the provisioning information comprising information associated with the at least one MOQ session for delivering the data using MOQ protocol and information assigning a role of the network entity as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data.

[0171] At 1304, the method comprises sending, to the application provider, information indicating the one or more network entities that have been assigned as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0172] In some examples, the application provider may send, to the one or more network entities (e.g., AS / LIPF), information indicating one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session. The information indicating the one or more tracks may for example comprise a MOQ catalog. Each track may be indicated by a track name and / or track namespace. The combination of track name and / or track namespace may uniquely identify the track within the at least one MOQ session. The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session comprises a track name and / or track namespace of each track comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0173] As described previously, each track may comprise one or more groups, each group comprising one or more subgroups, each subgroup / group comprising one or more objects.

[0174] In some examples, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may be based on the provisioning information. For example, the network entity may determine the information indicating the one or more tracks based on the provisioning information. In this way, the information indicating the one or more tracksmay be tailored to the provisioned parameters. This may for example help ensure that a required or requested bit rate of the indicated tracks can be met.

[0175] The provisioning information may comprise information indicating at least one of:(a) a content transfer mode for the at least one MOQ session;(b) a transport connection mode for the at least one MOQ session;(c) a role of one or more network entities in the at least one MOQ session; (d) a caching configuration for the one or more network entities in the MOQ session.

[0176] For instance, in some examples the provisioning information may comprise information indicating at least one of:(a) a content transfer mode of a receiver of the provisioning information as publish-and-subscribe for ingest and egest data;(b) a content transfer mode of the receiver of the provisioning information as publish for ingest data and subscribe for egest data;(c) a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a relay for the at least one MOQ session;(d) a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session;(e) a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session;(f) a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a client on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QIIIC;(g) a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a server on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QIIIC;(h) a data caching directive for the receiver of the provisioning information to follow;(i) a cache lifetime indicating a lifetime for storing the data associated with the one or more tracks in a cache by the one or more relays(j) whether inband session signalling can be used to configure an associated configuration parameter.

[0177] In some examples, the information indicating the one or more network entities acting as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session maycomprise, for each of the one or more network entities, information identifying a respective network entity and information indicating whether the respective network entity is a relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session. The information identifying the respective network entity may for example comprise an address or identifier of the network entity. In this way, the recipient of the information (i.e. the application server and the UE) may determine what other network entities are involved in the at least one MOQ session, and what their role is in the at least one MOQ session, as well as the recipient’s role in the at least one MOQ session.

[0178] In some examples, the network entity may act as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session. In such examples, the provisioning information may comprise information indicating that the network entity is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0179] The network entity may determine, based on the provisioning information, configuration information for the at least one MOQ session. The network entity may then establish the at least one MOQ session based on the configuration information. In some examples, the network entity may send the one or more configuration parameters to the UE, for example in a Service Announcement message or as part of Service Access Information.

[0180] The configuration information may comprise at least one of:(a) one or more encoding parameters associated with the at least one MOQ session;(b) one or more streaming formats associated with the at least one MOQ session;(c) one or more MOQ parameters of the at least one MOQ session.

[0181] The configuration information may be used by the entities involved in sending the data (i.e. the entities acting as a publisher or a relay) for preparing the data for delivery using MOQ protocol. The configuration information may also be used to determine the information to include in the MOQ catalog described previously. The configuration information may also be used to set up MOQT using MOQ control signalling (e.g., between application provider and application server, or application provider and UPF).

[0182] In some examples, the network entity may receive, from at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or moresubscription requests for the one or more tracks. The one or more subscription requests may comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks. That is to say, the one or more subscription requests may uniquely identify the one or more tracks that the relay wants to subscribe to. Based on the received one or more subscription requests, the network entity may send, to the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay, the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0183] In some examples, the network entity may be configured as a relay for the at least one MOQ session. In such examples, the provisioning information may comprise information indicating that the network entity is a relay for the at least one MOQ session.

[0184] In some examples, the network entity, acting as a relay, may send, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session, one or more subscription requests for data associated with the one or more tracks. Based on the one or more subscription requests, the network entity may receive, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session, data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0185] In some examples, the network entity may receive, from at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session, one or more further subscription requests for the data associated with the one or more tracks. The one or more subscription requests sent to the network entity / entities acting as publisher may be based on the one or more further subscription requests. The one or more subscription requests and / or the one or more further subscription requests comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

[0186] That is to say, in some examples, when acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the network entity may subscribe to one or more tracks by sending, to a publisher, one or more subscription requests comprising information (e.g., track name and / or track namespace) uniquely identifying the tracks. The network entity may subscribe to the tracks proactively (i.e. without receiving a request causing it to do so), or in response to receiving one or more requests from a network entity acting as a subscriber (e.g., a UE). One the data associated with the one or more tracks has been received by the network entity, the network entity may send the data to the network entity acting as subscriber (e.g., the UE).

[0187] In some examples, the network entity may receive, from at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session. The network entity may then send, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session. The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may be as described previously.

[0188] The network entity may send the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session to the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a subscriber proactively, or based on receiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session, one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

[0189] In some examples, having received the provisioning information from an application function, the network entity may send a message to the application function to indicate whether or not the application server supports MOQ. For example, the network entity may send, to the application function, a message indicating that the application server supports MOQ.

[0190] In some examples, the UE may receive, from the network entity, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session. For example, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session may be comprised in the service access information. The UE may receive the service access information from the network entity. The service access information may comprise configuration information for the at least one MOQ session, such as described previously. The UE may establish the at least one MOQ session based on the configuration information.

[0191] The information indicating the one or more network entities acting as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session may be as described previously.

[0192] In some examples, the UE may be a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session. In such examples, the service access information may comprise information indicating that the UE is a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session.

[0193] In some examples the UE may send, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more subscription requests for receiving the data associated with the one or more tracks. The one or more subscription requests may be as described previously. The UE may receive, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more response messages comprising the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0194] As described previously, the UE may receive, from at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session. The one or more subscription requests may be based on the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session. As described previously, in some examples the UE may request the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session. For instance, the UE may send, to the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session, and receive the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session based on the sent one or more requests.

[0195] In some examples, the UE may be a publisher for the at least one MOQ session -for instance when the UE has uplink data to be sent towards the network. In such examples the service access information may comprise information indicating that the UE is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

[0196] The UE may obtain, from an application running on the UE, the data associated with the one or more tracks. The UE may then send, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0197] In some examples, the UE may receive, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks. The UE may send the data associated with the one or more tracks based on the received one or more subscription requests. That is to say, thenetwork entity / entities acting as a relay may subscribe to the UE for the one or more tracks, and the UE may send the data based on the subscription(s).

[0198] Reference is made to FIG. 5, which illustrates an example mapping of 5GMS entities to the various MOQ roles (publisher, relay, subscriber) for the downlink direction.

[0199] In the downlink direction, the application server (e.g., a 5GMS AS) may be the original publisher, or may be a relay. If the application server is a relay, the application server may receive data for the MOQ session from another application server (e.g., the application server at the application provider). The other application server may for example be another 5GMS AS, or may be a different application server. The UPF may act as a relay. The UE (e.g., the media client at the UE, such as the 5GMS media client) may act as a subscriber. The UE may act as the end subscriber, or may act as a relay for a tethered device.

[0200] Reference is made to FIG. 6, which illustrates an example mapping of 5GMS entities to the various MOQ roles (publisher, relay, subscriber) for the uplink direction.

[0201] In the uplink direction, the UE (e.g., the media client at the UE, such as the 5GMS media client) may act as a publisher. The UE may be the original publisher, or may act as a relay for a tethered device. The UPF may act as a relay. The application server (e.g. the 5GMS AS) may be an end subscriber or a relay. The application server may be located in an external data network or a trusted data network. If the application server is a relay, the application server may pass data to another application server (e.g., the application server at the application provider).

[0202] In the uplink or downlink direction, the entities involved may receive the provisioning information indicating their role in the MOQ session as described previously.

[0203] In some examples, MOQ may be added to a list of supported content protocols retrievable by an application provider to determine which content ingest or egest protocols are supported by an application server instance (e.g., as defined in 3GPP TS 26.510), for example as per the table below:

[0204] In the above table, URN having “pub” or “sub” only may indicate that the application server may act as publisher (for egest) or subscriber (for ingest) of content. URNs having “pubsub” may indicate that the application server may act as publisher and subscriber. The URNs with “wt” or “https” indicate that webtransport may be used. Other combinations of these URNs are possible, for example “pubsub-wt” may indicate both “pubsub” and “wt” are possible.

[0205] As mentioned previously, the provisioning information may comprise information indicating one or more configuration parameters for data egest and ingest in the MOQ session. The one or more configuration parameters for data egest and ingest may comprise one or more of the following:

[0206] In some examples, the relay (e.g., AS or UPF) may be configured directly using control messages. The M3 / M1 configuration domain may be adapted to specify if particular configurations can be performed via the control messages in MOQ protocol. For example, the control messages may comprise one or more of the following parameters:

[0207] In some examples, protocol-control may be a value that can be given to a provisioning configuration parameter to indicate inband session signalling can be used to configure the parameter. For example, a parameter “cache” can have the values TRUE for when caching is allowed, FALSE for when caching is not allowed, and PROTOCOL for when caching can be configured based using inband signalling, e.g., on a MOQ transport connection between 5GMS AS and 5GMS AP.

[0208] Reference is made to FIG. 7, which shows a signalling procedure according to some examples. The procedure shown in FIG. 7 is for a specific implementation of a downlink signalling procedure where the application server is a 5GMS AS, and where the application server acts as a relay.

[0209] Steps 700-704 correspond to steps 1-4 as described in 3GPP TS 26.501, and are not described in full detail herein for brevity. Briefly, at 700, the 5GMS Application Provider (5GMS AP) discovers the address (URL) of the 5GMS AF (Mid) for Session Provisioning. At 702, the 5GMS AP (i.e. , 5GMS AP in FIG. 7) creates a Provisioning Session, providing its 5GMS AP identifier as input. 5GMS AP queries the capabilities and authorized features. At 704, the 5GMS AP specifies one or more 5GMS features in the Provisioning Session. Aset of authorized features is activated, and one or more External service identifiers are supplied by the 5GMS AP to support the later retrieval of Service Access Information from the 5GMSd AF by the Media Session Handler.

[0210] At 706 the 5GMS AF interacts with the 5GMS AS at reference point M3d to allocate resources and to configure the ingest format by means of the provisioning information as described previously. The 5GMS AS may respond with the M2d content ingest address if the 5GMS AS supports MOQ protocol. If the 5GMS AS does not support MOQ protocol, the 5GMS AS may indicate as such in response to receiving the provisioning information, and the 5GMS AF may terminate the procedure with the 5GMS AS (the 5GMS AF may find another 5GMS AS and perform the same procedure with that 5GMS AS).

[0211] At 708, the 5GMS AF compiles the provisioning information and sends the provisioning information to the 5GMS AP. The 5GMS AF may also send address information of the 5GMS AS that has been configured as a relay as part of the provisioning information sent to the 5GMS AP.

[0212] At 710, based on the provisioning information, the 5GMS AP establishes an MOQ session with the 5GMS AS for delivering data based on MOQ protocol. As part of establishing the MOQ session, the 5GMS AP may determine, based on the provisioning information, one or more configuration parameters for the MOQ session, as described previously. The 5GMS AP may send, to the 5GMS AS, a control message (e.g., an ANNOUNCE control message) indicating one or more tracks (which may be identified by one or more track namespaces) comprised in the MOQ session and / or at least one of the configuration parameters. Optionally, the 5GMS AS may acknowledge the receipt of the control message indicating the one or more tracks.

[0213] At 712, the 5GMS AP egests data to the 5GMS AS, as described previously. While not explicitly shown in FIG. 7 and subsequent Figures, it should be understood that the 5GMS AP, when acting as a publisher (as per the example of FIG. 7), the 5GMS AP may comprise one or more publishers. Data egest by the 5GMS AP may thus be performed by the one or more publishers comprised at the 5GMS AP. Data reception at the UE may take place at substantially the same time, or may take place later when the UE subscribes to a track. Data egest to the 5GMS AS may be performed by the 5GMS AP sending one or more publish messages comprising the data to the 5GMS AS.

[0214] At 714, the 5GMS AP may send, to the UE, a service announcement. The service announcement may comprise information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the MOQ session, as described previously. The information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the MOQ session may for example be comprised in a MOQ catalogue. The service announcement may also comprise service access information. The service access information may comprise information indicating a protocol for the MOQ session as MOQ protocol and information indicating one or more network entities acting as one of relay, subscriber or publisher of the MOQ session - for example the service access information may indicate that the 5GMS AS is acting as a relay. The information indicating the one or more tracks and the service access information may be sent to the UE in a service announcement message.

[0215] At 716, a 5GMS application that communicates via MOQ protocol is initialized at the UE. At 718, the 5GMS application may discover MOQ enabled relays, which includes the 5GMS AS. Alternatively, the application may already be aware of the MOQ enabled relay(s), for example based on the service access information.

[0216] At 720, the 5GMS application establishes a MOQ session with the 5GMS AS. The MOQ session may be established based on the service access information received from the 5GMS AS at 714.

[0217] At 722, the 5GMS application sends one or more subscription request to the 5GMS AS. The subscription request may comprise information indicating one or more tracks that the UE wants to subscribe to. The information indicating one or more tracks may comprise a track name and / or track namespace of the one or more tracks.

[0218] At 724, based on the received one or subscription requests, if the 5GMS AS has already ingested the data at 712, the 5GMS AS may simply send the data to the UE.

[0219] However, if the data ingest by the 5GMS AS has not already taken place, at 726 the 5GMS AS may send, to the 5GMS AP, one or more further subscription requests. The one or more further subscription requests may comprise the information indicating one or more tracks, and based on the one or more further subscription requests, the 5GMS AP at 728 may egest the requested data to the 5GMS AS. For example, the 5GMS AP may send, to the 5GMS AS, one or more publish messages comprising the data associated with the one or more tracks. At 730, the 5GMS AS may then send the data associated with the one ormore tracks to the UE. The data may be sent to the UE by sending one or more publish messages comprising the data.

[0220] Reference is made to FIG. 8, which shows a signalling procedure according to some examples. The procedure shown in FIG. 8 is for a specific implementation of a downlink signalling procedure where the UPF acts as a relay, and the application server is a 5GMS AS which acts as a publisher.

[0221] Steps 800-804 correspond to steps 1-4 as described in 3GPP TS 26.501, and are not described in full detail herein for brevity. Briefly, at 800, the 5GMS AP discovers the address (URL) of the 5GMS AF (Mid) for Session Provisioning. At 802, the 5GMS AP creates a Provisioning Session, providing its 5GMS AP identifier as input. 5GMS AP queries the capabilities and authorized features. At 804, the 5GMS AP specifies one or more 5GMS features in the Provisioning Session. A set of authorized features is activated, and one or more External service identifiers are supplied by the 5GMS AP to support the later retrieval of Service Access Information from the 5GMSd AF by the Media Session Handler.

[0222] At 806 the 5GMS AF interacts with the 5GMS AS at reference point M3d to allocate resources and to configure the 5GMS AS as a publisher by means of the provisioning information as described previously. If the 5GMS AS does not support MOQ protocol, the 5GMS AS may indicate as such in response to receiving the provisioning information, and the 5GMS AF may terminate the procedure with the 5GMS AS (the 5GMS AF may find another 5GMS AS and perform the same procedure with that 5GMS AS).

[0223] At 808, the 5GMS AF interacts with the UPF to allocate resources and to configure the 5GMS AS as a relay by means of the provisioning information as described previously. If the UPF does not support MOQ protocol, the UPF may indicate as such in response to receiving the provisioning information, and the 5GMS AF may terminate the procedure with the UPF (the 5GMS AF may find another UPF and perform the same procedure with that UPF).

[0224] At 810, the 5GMS AF sends, to the 5GMS AS, information associated with the provisioning information sent to the UPF and / or 5GMS AS. The information associated with the provisioning information may for example comprise address information of the UPF that has been configured as a relay.

[0225] At 812, based on the information received at 810, the 5GMS AS establishes an MOQ session with the UPF delivering data based on MOQ protocol. In some examples, the 5GMS AP may determine, based on the information associated with the provisioning information, one or more configuration parameters for the MOQ session, as described previously. The 5GMS AP may send, to the 5GMS AS, a control message (e.g., an ANNOUNCE control message) indicating one or more tracks (which may be identified by one or more track namespaces) comprised in the MOQ session and / or at least one of the configuration parameters.

[0226] At 814, the 5GMS AP may send, to the UE, a service announcement message as described previously.

[0227] At 816, a 5GMS application that communicates via MOQ protocol is initialized at the UE. At 818, the 5GMS application may discover MOQ enabled relays, which includes the UPF. Alternatively, the 5GMS application may already be aware of the MOQ enabled relay(s).

[0228] At 820, the 5GMS application establishes a MOQ session with the UPF.

[0229] At 822, the 5GMS application sends one or more subscription request to the UPF. The subscription request may comprise information indicating one or more tracks that the UE wants to subscribe to. The information indicating one or more tracks may comprise a track name and / or track namespace of the one or more tracks.

[0230] At 824, based on the received one or subscription requests, the UPF sends, to the 5GMS AS, one or more further subscription requests. The one or more further subscription requests may comprise the information indicating one or more tracks.

[0231] At 826, based on the one or more further subscription requests, the UPF may ingest the data. For example, the 5GMS AS may send, to the UPF, one or more publish messages comprising the data associated with the one or more tracks.

[0232] At 828, the UPF sends the data associated with the one or more tracks to the 5GMS application. The data may be sent by sending one or more publish messages comprising the data.

[0233] Reference is made to FIG. 9, which shows a signalling procedure according to some examples. The procedure shown in FIG. 9 is for a specific implementation of a downlinksignalling procedure where the 5GMS AS acts as a relay, and the 5GMS AP acts as a publisher. The 5GMS Application, Media Player and Media Session Handler may all be located at the UE, as indicated by the dashed box in FIG. 9.

[0234] The procedure shown in FIG. 9 also assumes that the 5GMS AP has provisioned the Media Streaming System for MOQ based delivery as described above and has setup data ingest. It should be noted that the data ingest may be performed using a non-MOQT protocol, in which case, the 5GMSd Application provider may provision one or more 5GMS instances (e.g., the 5GMS AS) for content preparation in addition to acting as MoQ Publisher / Relay. It is also assumed that the 5GMS Application has received the service announcement message from the 5GMS AP as described previously.

[0235] At 900, the 5GMS Application triggers the Service Announcement and Service and Content Discovery procedure. The Service and Content Discovery procedure may involve the 5GMS Application and an external AS, such as the 5MGS AP. For example, the 5GMS Application at the UE may send a request to the 5GMS AP, and the 5GMS AP may respond to the request by sending the Service Announcement.

[0236] The Service Announcement may include the Service Access Information (e.g. the configuration parameters, such as parameters for Media Session Handling and for Media Streaming access) or a reference to the service access information. The service access information may comprise information (such as one or more URIs - e.g. web URLs - or 3GPP service UR) which enables the 5GMS Application to either discover and connect to the 5GMS AF or 5GMS AS.

[0237] The Service announcement may also contain or point to the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the MOQ session (e.g., a MOQ Catalog). The information indicating the one or more tracks may be as defined in a Common Catalog Format for MOQ, and may indicate possible media entry points.

[0238] At 902, the 5GMS Application selects one or more tracks associated with a media content item (e.g. a video stream or an audio stream). The selection may be based on the Service Announcement received at 900.

[0239] At 904, the 5GMS Application triggers the UE to start media playback, for example by sending a Media Player Entry to the Media Session Handler.

[0240] At 906, when the 5GMS Application has received only a reference to the Service Access Information at 900, the Media Session Handler may interact with the 5GMS AF to acquire the whole Service Access Information. The Service Access Information may comprise address information of one or more instances of 5GMS AS which may be MOOT publishers or relays.

[0241] At 908, the Media Player may be invoked to start media access and playback. For example, the 5GMS Application may send a message to the Media Player to start media access and playback. Step 908 may occur in parallel with step 906.

[0242] At 910, the Media Player establishes the MOOT session with the 5GMS AS based on the Service Access Information.

[0243] At 912, the Media Player sends, to the 5GMS AS, a request for information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the MOQ session and / or or one or more track URLs of the track(s) associated with the selected media content item, which may for example be comprised in the MOQ catalogue described previously. At 914, based on the request at 912, the Media Player receives the requested information and / or one or more track URLs from the 5GMS AS. Steps 912 and 914 may not be performed when the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the MOQ session and / or or one or more track URLs of the track(s) associated with the selected media content item are available to the UE, for example by being received at step 900.

[0244] At 916, the Media Player processes the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the MOQ session to determine one or more parameters for the MOQ session. The Media Player may determine, for example, the number of needed MOQT streams for acquiring the data associated with the selected track(s). The Media Player may also determine information to initialize a digital rights management (DRM) client, when DRM is used.

[0245] At 918, the Media Player sends, to the Media Session Handler, a notification about the one or more tracks comprised in the MOQ session or selected MOQ stream URLs.

[0246] Optionally, at 920, the Media Player may acquire the necessary DRM information from the 5GMS AP, for example a DRM License.

[0247] At 922, based on the notification received at 918, the Media Player configures the media playback pipeline.

[0248] At 924, the Media Player establishes a QIIIC connection with the 5GMS AS if the one or more tracks comprised in the MOQ session or selected MOQ stream URLs are received out of band, or if the track URLs point to a different 5GMS AS instance (e.g.to a different MOQ Relay).

[0249] At 926, the Media Player sends, to the Media Session Handler, a notification indicating that the Media Player is ready to commence playback and optionally provides one or more parameters for the MOQ session determined at 916.

[0250] At 928, the Media Player sends one or more subscriptions to the 5GMS AS to subscribe to the chosen tracks.

[0251] At 930, the Media Player receives one or more messages (e.g. one or more publish messages) from the 5GMS AS. The one or more messages comprise data associated with the selected track(s). This continues till the subscription(s) expire.

[0252] At 932, the Media Player and 5GMSd AS may exchange one or more MOQT control messages, for example as described previously.

[0253] As described above, in some examples, the AP and 5GMS application may provide the Media player with the appropriate MOQ relay address in service access information, either during service announcement or service access information acquisition. The service access information may further comprise a priority ordered list of relays. The Media player may select the MOQ relay based on the priority ordered list, for example by selecting the highest priority MOQ relay first, and if the highest priority MOQ relay is unavailable, the Meda player may select the next highest priority MOQ relay, and so on.

[0254] Alternatively, in some examples the AP and 5GMS application may perform relay management transparently to the media player, for example by DNS resolution based redirection.

[0255] If a relay (e.g., 5GMS AS / UPF) needs to send a GOA WAY message to a subscriber, the relay may send, to the subscriber, an URI of an alternative relay, which may for example be specified during provisioning by the AP and / or by the AF during orchestration. If no alternative URI is sent by a Relay in a GOA WAY message, the Media Player may useURI(s) of alternative relay(s) received in the service access information to establish a new MOQ session with the alternative relay(s).

[0256] Reference is made to FIG. 10, which shows a signalling procedure according to some examples. The procedure shown in FIG. 10 is for a specific implementation of an uplink signalling procedure where the 5GMS AS acts as a relay, and the 5GMS AP acts as a subscriber.

[0257] At 1000, the 5GMS AP discovers the endpoint address and authenticates itself with the 5GMS AF.

[0258] At 1002, the 5GMS AP creates a new Content Publishing Configuration through the 5GMS AF. The Content Publishing Configuration comprises one or more configuration parameters, for example as described previously. The one or more configuration parameters may specify path, protocol, entry point, the egest push / pull mode, and possibly one or more content preparation templates.

[0259] At 1004, the 5GMS AF configures the related 5GMS AS(s) with provisioning information for a particular Content Publishing Configuration via reference point M3u as described previously.

[0260] At 1006, upon successful provisioning the 5GMS AS, the 5GMS AF sends, to the 5GMS AP, a Content Publishing Configuration identifier, and address information of the 5GMS AS from which to obtain data as well as information indicating the protocol for egest as being MOQ.

[0261] At 1008, the 5GMS AP sends, to the 5GMS Application at the UE, a Service Announcement. The service announcement may comprise information indicating an uplink entry point. Alternatively, at 1110, the 5GMS UE, acting as MOQ Client, may acquire the uplink entry point as part of Service Access Information, which may be as described previously.

[0262] At 1012, the 5GMS Application requests the Client (e.g., UE) to start the uplink streaming. Based on the request, at 1114 the client starts sending data to the 5GMS AS (as a MOQ relay).

[0263] At 1016, data egest is performed by the 5GMS AS to the 5GMS AP using MOQ for content delivery. The 5GMS AS may perform one or more processing steps on the dataprior to making the egest data ready. The one or more processing steps may include any necessary protocol level preparation, and may be based on the provisioning information received from the 5GMS AF previously.

[0264] In some examples, MOQ can be used as transport protocol between 5GMS Application and 5GMS AS when 5GMS Client (e.g., UE) is capable to act as a MOQ Publisher. In this case, 5GMS AS may not be used just as a MOQ relay to egest data towards the 5GMS AP, but also to ingest data from 5GMS Application, and optionally process the data.

[0265] Reference is made to FIG. 11, which shows a signalling procedure according to some examples. The procedure shown in FIG. 11 is for a specific implementation of an uplink signalling procedure where the 5GMS Application at the UE acts as a publisher and the 5GMS AS acts as a relay.

[0266] Steps 1100-1112 correspond to steps 1000-1012 as described previously.

[0267] At 1114, the 5GMS AS starts to ingest data from the 5GMS Application via the 5GMS Client (e.g. UE). The 5GMS Application can provide the data to the 5GMS client, which acts as a MOQ Publisher. The 5GMS Client as a MOQ Publisher, may send a request to 5GMS to request establishment of a MOQ session between the client and AS, for example as described previously. If 5GMS AS accepts the request, the 5GMS AS may receive data from the Client, or pull data from the Client, as a MOQ Subscriber. For example, the Client may send one or more publish messages comprising the data to the 5GMS AS, which may be proactively pushed to the 5GMS AS, or may be in response to receiving one or more subscription requests for the data from the 5GMS AS.

[0268] At 1116, the 5GMS AS may process the data received from the 5GMS Application, for example to perform content preparation as a MOQ Relay including necessary protocol level preparation. The processing may be based on the provisioning information described previously.

[0269] At 1118, the 5GMS AS publishes the data to the 5GMS AP using MOQT. For example, the 5GMS AS may send one or more publish messages comprising the data to the 5GMS AP.

[0270] Note that the procedures shown in FIGs. 9 to 11 may be applied / used / performed in a 5G or beyond system. That is the 5GMS AS shown in FIGs. 9 to 11 may refer to an ASor an entity performing at least part of functionalities of the 5GMS AS, the 5GMS AF shown in FIGs. 9 to 11 may refer to an AF or an entity performing at least part of functionalities of the 5GMS AF, and so on.

[0271] The examples described above provide mechanisms where one or more network entities, such as a UE, UPF, 5GMS AS, and 5GMS AP, are configured to send and receive data via MOQ in a MOQ session. Each network entity may be assigned with a role (publisher, relay, subscriber) for the MOQ session, and perform various functions associated with the assigned role. Data transmission via the MOQ session may be in the uplink and / or downlink direction, and may be performed based on publish and / or subscribe messages.

[0272] While examples have been described above in relation to network entities in a 5G network (e.g., a 5GMS AS, 5GMS AP, 5GMS Application, etc.), it should be understood that the methods described herein may be performed by another network entity or entities, for example an entity or entities in a 6G or future network configured to perform the described methods.

[0273] While reference may be made to “an”, “one”, or “some” example(s) throughout the present disclosure, this does not necessarily mean that each reference is made to the same example(s), or that a particular feature only applies to a single example. Single features of different examples may also be combined to provide other examples. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection of an example, it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to apply such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other examples whether or not explicitly described. It shall be understood that although the terms “first,” “second” and the like may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another.

[0274] It is understood that references in the above to various network functions (e.g., to an AMF, an SMF, etc.) may be implemented by apparatus that perform at least some of the functionality associated with those network functions. Further, an apparatus configured to implement a network function may further be configured to implement a virtual network function instance of that network function.

[0275] It should be understood that the apparatuses may comprise or be coupled to other units or modules etc., such as radio parts or radio heads, used in or for transmission and / or reception. Although the apparatuses have been described as one entity, different modules and memory may be implemented in one or more physical or logical entities.

[0276] It is noted that whilst some examples have been described in relation to 5G networks, similar examples can be applied in relation to other networks and communication systems. Therefore, although certain examples were described above by way of example with reference to certain example architectures for wireless networks, technologies and standards, further examples may be applied to any other suitable forms of communication systems than those illustrated and described herein.

[0277] It is also noted herein that there are several variations and modifications which may be made to the various examples described herein without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0278] As used herein, the phrases “at least one of A or B”, “at least one of A and B”, and “A and / or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase “A, B, and / or C” means (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B, and C). .

[0279] As used herein, the term “or” refers to a non-exclusive “or” unless otherwise indicated (e.g., use of “or else” or “or in the alternative”).

[0280] As used herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not indicate that the step is performed immediately after “A” occurs and one or more intervening steps may be included. Analogously, performing a step or functionality “based on A” does not indicate that the step or functionality is performed solely based on “A” as one or more additional conditions may be included.

[0281] FIG. 14 shows, by way of example, a block diagram of an apparatus 10. The apparatus 10 comprises, for example, at least one processor 12 and at least one memory 14 storing instructions 15 that, when executed by the at least one processor, may cause the apparatus 10 at least to perform the method or methods as disclosed herein. In an example, the at least one memory and the instructions (e.g. a computer program code,software), are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus 10 to perform the method or methods as disclosed herein.

[0282] A processor 12 may comprise circuitry, or be constituted as circuitry or circuitries, the circuitry or circuitries being configured to perform phases of methods in accordance with examples described herein. As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit implementations, such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuitry, and (b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as, as applicable: (i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) with software / firmware and (ii) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a UE, to perform various functions) and (c) hardware circuit(s) and or processor(s), such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation. This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this disclosure, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this disclosure, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0283] The memory 14 may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology. The memory may comprise a database for storing data. The memory 14 may be at least in part external to apparatus 10 but accessible to apparatus 10.

[0284] The instructions 15 may be comprised in a computer readable medium or a non-transitory computer readable medium. A term non-transitory, as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e. tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g. random access memory, RAM, vs. read only memory, ROM).

[0285] For example, the apparatus 10 may be a terminal device, such as the UE described previously. As another example, the apparatus may be comprised in such a terminal device, e.g. as a chipset configured to control the terminal device. The apparatus 10 may be caused or configured to perform at least the method of any one or more of the examples described.

[0286] As another example, the apparatus 10 may be an apparatus for providing a network entity, such as the network entities described previously. In another example, the apparatus may be comprised in a network node, e.g. as a chipset configured to control the network node. The apparatus 10 may be caused or configured to perform at least the method of any one or more of the examples described.

[0287] The apparatus may comprise one or more entities of any of protocol layers, such as a MAC entity, an RRC entity, an RLC entity, a PDCP entity or a PHY entity. In some examples, the entity may be configured to perform at least the method of any one or more of the examples described.

[0288] The apparatus 10 may comprise a radio interface 16. The radio interface 16 may provide the apparatus 10 with communication capabilities. The radio interface 16 may comprise a receiver configured to receive information in accordance with at least one cellular or non-cellular standard. The radio interface 16 may comprise a transmitter configured to transmit information in accordance with at least one cellular or non-cellular standard. The receiver may comprise more than one receiver. The transmitter may comprise more than one transmitter. The radio interface 16 may comprise a transceiver configured to receive and transmit information in accordance with at least one cellular or non-cellular standard. The transceiver may comprise more than one transceiver.

[0289] The apparatus 10 may comprise a user interface 18 comprising, for example, at least one of a keypad, a microphone, a touch display, a display, a speaker, etc. The user interface 18 may be used to control the apparatus by the user. The user interface 18 may be external to the apparatus 10. For example, the apparatus 10 may be connected to another device, such as a computer, either via wireless or wired connection, and the apparatus 10 is controlled by the user via the computer.

[0290] In some examples, at least some of the processes described herein may be carried out by an apparatus comprising means for carrying out at least some of the described processes. Means for performing method steps as disclosed herein may include software and / or hardware components of the apparatus 10. For example, the at least one processor 12, the memory 14, and the computer program code form means for carrying out the method or methods as disclosed herein, and any of the examples. As used herein the term “means” is to be construed in singular form, i.e. referring to a single element, or in plural form, i.e.referring to a combination of single elements. Therefore, terminology “means for [performing A, B, C]”, is to be interpreted to cover an apparatus in which there is only one means for performing A, B and C, or where there are separate means for performing A, B and C, or partially or fully overlapping means for performing A, B, C. Further, terminology “means for performing A, means for performing B, means for performing C” is to be interpreted to cover an apparatus in which there is only one means for performing A, B and C, or where there are separate means for performing A, B and C, or partially or fully overlapping means for performing A, B, C.The scope of protection sought for various examples of the disclosure is set out by the independent claims. The examples and features thereof, if any, described in this disclosure that do not fall under the scope of the independent claims are to be interpreted as examples useful for understanding various examples of the disclosure.

[0291] Even though examples of the invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is clear that the examples are not restricted thereto but can be modified in several ways within the scope of the appended claims. Therefore, all words and expressions should be interpreted broadly and they are intended to illustrate, not to restrict, the examples. It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as technology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in various ways. Further, it is clear to a person skilled in the art that the described examples may, but are not required to, be combined with other examples in various ways.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method for use by a network entity, the method comprising:receiving provisioning information for delivering data, the provisioning information comprising information associated with at least one Media over QIIIC (MOQ) session for delivering the data using MOQ protocol and information assigning a role of the network entity as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; andbased on the provisioning information, establishing at least one MOQ session with at least one further network entity and performing one or more of sending or receiving the data based on the MOQ protocol.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:sending, to the at least one further network entity, information indicating one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each track comprises one or more groups, each group comprising one or more objects.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session comprises a track name and / or track namespace of each track comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

5. The method of any of claims 2 to 4, wherein the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session is based on the provisioning information.

6. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the provisioning information comprises information indicating at least one of:a content transfer mode of a receiver of the provisioning information as publish-and-subscribe for ingest and egest data;a content transfer mode of the receiver of the provisioning information as publish for ingest data and subscribe for egest data;a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a relay for the MOQ session; a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a publisher for the MOQ session;a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a subscriber for the MOQ session;a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a client on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QIIIC;a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a server on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QIIIC;a data caching directive for the receiver of the provisioning information to follow; a cache lifetime indicating a lifetime for storing the data associated with the one or more tracks in a cache by the one or more relays; andwhether inband session signalling can be used to configure an associated configuration parameter.

7. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the network entity is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session, and wherein the at least one further network entity is acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the provisioning information comprises information indicating that the application server is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, further comprising:receiving, from the at least one further network entity, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks; andbased on the received one or more subscription requests, sending, to the at least one further network entity, data associated with the one or more tracks.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more subscription requests comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

11. The method of any of claims 8 to 10, further comprising:determining configuration information based on the provisioning information wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of:one or more encoding parameters associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more streaming formats associated with the at least one MOQ session; or one or more MOQ parameters of the at least one MOQ session.

12. The method of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the network entity is configured as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one further network is acting as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the provisioning information comprises information indicating that the network entity is a relay for the at least one MOQ session.

14. The method of claim 12 or 13, further comprising:sending, to the at least one further network entity, one or more subscription requests for data associated with the one or more tracks; andbased on the one or more subscription requests, receiving, from the at least one further network entity, data associated with the one or more tracks.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:receiving, from at least one of additional network entity acting as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session, one or more further subscription requests for the data associated with the one or more tracks,wherein the one or more subscription requests are based on the one or more further subscription requests.

16. The method of claim 14 or 15, wherein the one or more subscription requests and / or the one or more further subscription requests comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

17. The method of any of claims 12 to 16, further comprising:receiving, from the at least one further network entity, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session; andsending, to the at least one additional network entity, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:receiving, from the at least one additional network entity, one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session,wherein sending, to the at least one additional network entity, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session is based onthe received one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

19. The method of any of claims 12 to 18, wherein the provisioning information is received from an application server, the method further comprising:based on receiving the provisioning information, sending, to the application function, a message indicating that the network entity supports MOQ.

20. A method for use in a user equipment, the method comprising:receiving service access information from a network entity associated with at least one MOQ session for delivering data, the service access information comprising information indicating a protocol for the at least one MOQ session as MOQ protocol and information indicating one or more network entities acting as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher of the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; andbased on the service information, establishing at least one MOQ session with at least one of the one or more network entities for one or more of sending or receiving, based on MOQ protocol, the data associated with the one or more tracks.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:receiving, from the network entity, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session is comprised in the service access information.

23. The method of any of claims 20 to 22, wherein each track comprises one or more groups, each group comprising one or more objects.

24. The method of any of claims 20 to 23, wherein the information indicating the one or more network entities acting as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session comprises, for each of the one or more network entities, information identifying a respective network entity and information indicating whether the respective network entity is a relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

25. The method of any of claims 20 to 24, wherein the service access information comprises configuration information for the at least one MOQ session.

26. The method of any of claims 20 to 24, wherein the service access information comprises information associated with configuration information for the at least one MOQ session; wherein the method further comprises:determining the configuration information.

27. The method of claim 25 or 26, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of:one or more encoding parameters associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more streaming formats associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more MOQ parameters of the at least one MOQ session.

28. The method of any of claims 25 to 27, wherein establishing the at least one MOQ session is based on the configuration information.

29. The method of any of claims 20 to 28, wherein the user equipment is a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the service access information comprises information indicating that the user equipment is a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session.

31. The method of claim 29 or 30, further comprising:sending, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more subscription requests for receiving the data associated with the one or more tracks; andreceiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more response messages comprising the data associated with the one or more tracks.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the one or more subscription requests comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

33. The method of any of claims 29 to 32, further comprising:receiving, from at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

34. The method of claim 33 when dependent on claim 31 or 32, wherein the one or more subscription requests are based on the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

35. The method of claim 33 or 34, further comprising:sending, to the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session,wherein receiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session is based on the sent one or more requests for the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

36. The method of any of claims 20 to 28, wherein the user equipment is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the service access information comprises information indicating that the user equipment is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

38. The method of any of claims 36 or 37, further comprising:obtaining, from an application running on the user equipment, the data associated with the one or more tracks; andsending, to at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, the data associated with the one or more tracks.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising:receiving, from the at least one of the one or more network entities acting as a relay for the at least one MOQ session, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks,wherein sending the data associated with the one or more tracks is based on the received one or more subscription requests.

40. A method performed by an application provider, the method comprising:sending, to an application function, a provisioning configuration associated with delivery of data using MOQ in at least one MOQ session, the provisioning configuration indicating a role of one or more network entities in the at least one MOQ session, the MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with data for delivery;receiving, from the application function, information indicating the one or more network entities that have been assigned as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with data for delivery;determining, based on the received information, configuration information for the at least one MOQ session; andsending, to the one or more network entities, the configuration information.

41. The method of 40, wherein the configuration information comprises at least one of:one or more encoding parameters associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more streaming formats associated with the at least one MOQ session; one or more MOQ parameters of the at least one MOQ session.

42. The method of claim 40 or 41 , wherein the application provider is a publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

43. The method of any of claims 40 to 42, further comprising:sending, to the one or more network entities and / or a user equipment, information indicating one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein each track comprises one or more groups, each group comprising one or more objects.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session comprises a track name and / or track namespace of each track comprised in the at least one MOQ session.

46. The method of any of claims 43 to 45, wherein the information indicating the one or more tracks comprised in the at least one MOQ session is based on the information indicating the role of the one or more network entities as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

47. The method of any of claims 40 to 46, wherein the information indicating the role of the one or more network entities as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session comprises information indicating at least one of:a content transfer mode of a receiver of the provisioning information as publish-and-subscribe for ingest and egest data;a content transfer mode of the receiver of the provisioning information as publish for ingest data and subscribe for egest data;a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a relay for the at least one MOQ session;a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a publisher for the at least one MOQ session;a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a subscriber for the at least one MOQ session;a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a client on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QIIIC;a role of the receiver of the provisioning information as a server on the transport layer where the transport protocol is QIIIC;a data caching directive for the receiver of the provisioning information to follow; a cache lifetime indicating a lifetime for storing the data associated with the one or more tracks in a cache by the one or more relays; andwhether inband session signalling can be used to configure an associated configuration parameter.

48. The method of any of claims 40 to 47, wherein one or more network entities are acting as one or more relays for the at least one MOQ session.

49. The method of any of claims 40 to 48, further comprising:receiving, from the one or more network entities, one or more subscription requests for the one or more tracks; andbased on the received one or more subscription requests, sending, to one or more network entities, data associated with the one or more tracks.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the one or more subscription requests comprise a track name and / or a track namespace associated with each of the one or more tracks.

51. A method performed by an application function, the method comprising:receiving, from an application provider, a provisioning configuration associated with delivery of data using MOQ in at least one MOQ session, the provisioning configuration indicating a role of one or more network entities in the at least one MOQ session;sending, to the one or more network entities, provisioning information for delivering data, the provisioning information comprising information associated with the at least one MOQ session for delivering the data using MOQ protocol and information assigning a role of the network entity as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session, the at least one MOQ session comprising one or more tracks associated with the data; andsending, to the application provider, information indicating the one or more network entities that have been assigned as at least one of relay, subscriber, or publisher for the at least one MOQ session.

52. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method of any preceding claim.

53. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 51.

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