Method, apparatus & computer program

Abstract

There is provided a user equipment comprising: means for receiving, from an edge configuration server, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; means for establishing a connection between the user equipment and a source edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles; means for establishing application context information for the user equipment at the source edge enabler server; means for determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, that application context relocation is required for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; and means for sending, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server.

Description

METHOD, APPARATUS & COMPUTER PROGRAMTECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Various examples of this disclosure relate to a method, apparatus, system and computer program, and - in particular, but not exclusively - to edge data network deployments.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 and 3GPP standards for 5G technology.SUMMARY

[0004] 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. Other features, 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.

[0005] According to a first aspect, there is provided a method for a user equipment, the method comprising receiving, from an edge configuration server, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; establishing a connection between the user equipment and a source edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles; establishing applicationcontext information for the user equipment at the source edge enabler server; determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, that application context relocation is required for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; and sending, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server.

[0006] Determining that the application context transfer is required may be based on the information indicating the availability of the satellite on which the source edge enabler server is onboard and at least one of the user equipment’s location and / or the user equipment’s predicted location .

[0007] The information indicating the availability of the satellite may comprise information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the edge enabler server onboard the satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area, wherein determining that the application context transfer is required may comprise determining that the application context relocation is required based on determining that the at least one of the user equipment’s location and / or the user equipment’s predicted location is outside the indicated geographical area or the indicated topological area of the source edge enabler server.

[0008] According to a second aspect, there is provided a method for an edge configuration server, the method comprising sending, to a user equipment, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; receiving, from the user equipment, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from a source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, a target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application context for the user equipment; and initiating the application context transfer to the target edge enabler server.

[0009] The information indicating the availability of the satellite may comprise information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the associated edge enabler server onboard the satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area, wherein determining the target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application context for the user equipment may be based on the at least one of a time orduration when the associated edge enabler server onboard the satellite is available for the at least one of the indicated geographical area or the indicated topological area.

[0010] The target edge enabler server may be one of: an edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles; or a terrestrial edge enabler server.

[0011] According to a third aspect, there is provided a user equipment comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the user equipment to perform at least any method of the first aspect.

[0012] According to a fourth aspect, there is provided an apparatus for an edge configuration server, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the edge configuration server to perform at least any method of the second aspect.

[0013] According to a fifth aspect, there is provided a user equipment comprising: means for receiving, from an edge configuration server, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; establishing a connection between the user equipment and a source edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles; establishing application context information for the user equipment at the source edge enabler server; determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, that application context relocation is required for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; and sending, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server.

[0014] Determining that the application context transfer is required may be based on the information indicating the availability of the satellite on which the source edge enabler server is onboard and at least one of the user equipment’s location and / or the user equipment’s predicted location .

[0015] The information indicating the availability of the satellite may comprise information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the edge enabler server onboard the satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area, wherein determining that the application context transfer is required may comprisedetermining that the application context relocation is required based on determining that the at least one of the user equipment’s location and / or the user equipment’s predicted location is outside the indicated geographical area or the indicated topological area of the source edge enabler server.

[0016] According to a sixth aspect, there is provided an apparatus for an edge configuration server, the apparatus comprising: means for sending, to a user equipment, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; receiving, from the user equipment, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from a source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, a target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application context for the user equipment; and initiating the application context transfer to the target edge enabler server.

[0017] The information indicating the availability of the satellite may comprise information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the associated edge enabler server onboard the satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area, wherein determining the target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application context for the user equipment may be based on the at least one of a time or duration when the associated edge enabler server onboard the satellite is available for the at least one of the indicated geographical area or the indicated topological area.

[0018] The target edge enabler server may be one of: an edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles; or a terrestrial edge enabler server.

[0019] According to a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a user equipment, cause the user equipment to perform at least any method of the first aspect.

[0020] According to an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least any method of the second aspect.

[0021] According to a ninth aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by a user equipment, cause the user equipment to perform at least any method of the first aspect.

[0022] According to a tenth 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 any method of the second aspect.

[0023] According to an eleventh aspect, there is provided a program (e.g., computer program) comprising instructions, which, when executed by an apparatus cause the apparatus at least to perform any method of the first aspect.

[0024] According to a twelfth aspect, there is provided a program (e.g., computer program) comprising instructions, which, when executed by an apparatus cause the apparatus at least to perform any method of the second aspect.

[0025] In the above and as described herein, 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 (or respective portion(s) thereof) described in this disclosure. Other features, aspects, and elements will become apparent in view of the following.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

[0026] Some examples will now be described, by way of non-limiting and illustrative example only, with reference to the accompanying Figures (FIGs.) in which:

[0027] FIG. 1 shows an example of a communication network to which examples disclosed herein may be applied;

[0028] FIG. 2 shows a representation of a 5thgeneration communication system;

[0029] FIG. 3 shows an example architecture for enabling edge applications;

[0030] FIG. 4 shows an example deployment where the edge data network is deployed on a satellite;

[0031] FIGs. 5 to 11 show methods according to some examples;

[0032] FIG. 12 shows an apparatus according to some examples;

[0033] FIGs. 13 and 14 show methods according to some examples.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] Some examples of this 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).

[0035] As used herein, the term “network device” or “network node” may refer to a node in a communication network via which user equipment 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 (IAB) node, a low power node, a nonterrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite, medium earth orbit (MEO) and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, or an aircraft network device.

[0036] 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 Oil or the DU and the boundary where the responsibility is shifted between the CU and the DU may depend on the applied implementation.

[0037] 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, user equipment (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.

[0038] 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.

[0039] 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 110 configured to provide one or more cells, such as cell 100, and a network node 112 configured to provide 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.

[0040] The network node 110 may be configured to 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 comprisephysical uplink control channel (PLICCH) for transmitting control information and physical uplink shared channel (PLISCH) 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 user equipment.

[0041] There may be a plurality of UEs 120, 122 in the system. Each of the plurality of UEs 120, 122 may be served by the same or by different network nodes 110, 112. A UE may be configured with dual connectivity (DC), wherein the UE, e.g. UE 120, may be connected to multiple network nodes 110, 112. 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.

[0042] 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 refer to such an interface as an X2 interface. An interface between an LTE node and a 5G node, or between two 5G nodes may be referred to an Xn interface. The network nodes 110 and 112 may be further connected via another interface to a core network 116 of the communication network.

[0043] 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.

[0044] FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of a communication system. Referring to FIG. 2, user equipment (UE) 200 that communicates with application servers (not shown) hosting third party application functions (not shown) of a data network 202 via a communication network is shown. The communication network includes a radio access network 206 (e.g., a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN)) and a core network 208 (e.g., a 5G core network (5GC)) that operate based on the 5th generation radio access technology described, for example, in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard for new radio. The core network 208 includes network functions (generally referred to a network function and collective referred to as network functions) may be connected to a management system configured to manage the communication network as described in further detail below.

[0045] Radio access network 206 comprises one or more radio access network (RAN) nodes (otherwise referred to as base stations). A RAN node may be configured to provide one or more cells. A cell may be, for example, a macro cell, a micro cell, femto, or a pico cell. A cell defines a coverage area or a service area of a RAN node. A RAN node may be, for example, implemented as a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a next generation node B (gNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a low power node. RAN nodes may be deployed in non-terrestrial network (NTN) devices, such as satellites (e.g., low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites or geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellites), aircrafts, or drones, where such NTN devices form a non-terrestrial network such as a ground station. RAN nodes may also be deployed on the group in which case the RAN nodes may be referred to as terrestrial network device. A RAN comprising terrestrial network devices is generally referred to as a terrestrial network.

[0046] A RAN node may have a split architecture where functions of the RAN node (e.g., an eNB or a gNB) are split between various entities. A RAN node that has a split architecture may comprise a radio unit (RU) (otherwise referred to as a remoter radio read (RRH), a centralized unit (CU) and one or more distributed units (DUs). A DU may be connected to a RU via a fronthaul. A DU may be connected to a CU via a midhaul or F1 interface. A CU may be connected to a core network (e.g., core network 108) via a backhaul. In a RAN node with a split architecture, operations of the RAN node may be carried out, by the CU, the DU. One CU may control one or more DUs.

[0047] A RU converts radio signals sent to and from an antenna into a digital signal for transmission over packet network, handles the digital front end (DFE) and the lower PHY layer, and includes digital beamforming functionality. A DU is a logical entity (e.g., software) that is hosted and run on a server located near an RU. A CU is a logical entity (e.g., software) that is hosted and run on a server. The CU may be hosted and run on its own server or may be hosted and run on the same server that hosts and runs the DU. located near an RU. The DU includes a subset of the functions of a RAN node (e.g., eNB or gNB) depending on the split of functions and the CU includes the other functions of a RAN node that are not in the subset of functions of the DU. A DU may comprise a subset of the layers of a protocol stack of a RAN node and a CU may comprise the other layers of the protocol stack that are not in the subset of layers in the DU. For example, in some implementations, a DU may include a radio link control (RLC) layer, a medium access control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layer of a protocol stack for a RAN node, whereas a CU may comprise the layers of the protocol stackof a RAN node above the RLC layer, such as a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio resource control (RRC) layer and an internet protocol (IP) layer. The operations of a DU are controlled by a CU.

[0048] The core network 208 may have a service-based architecture. The network functions of the core network 208 include an access and mobility function (AMF), an authentication server function (AUSF), a network exposure function (NEF), a network repository function (NRF), a network slicing selection function (NSSF), a policy control function (PCF), a session management function (SMF), a user plane function (UPF), a united data repository (UDM), and a network data analytics function (NWDAF). Other network functions of the core network 208, such as a binding support function (BSF), a charging function (CHF), are not shown in FIG. 2 for ease of illustration.

[0049] The AMF handles access, authorization, authentication of user equipment, including the UE 200 and manages the mobility of user equipment 200 as the user equipment 200 moves between different radio access networks, cells, or locations.

[0050] The SMF is responsible for establishing, maintaining, and terminating protocol data unit sessions in the core network 208. The SMF manages user plane resources and interacts with the UPF of the core network 208 to ensure data packets are correctly routed and forwarded.

[0051] The UDM performs authentication procedures, stores and manages user data, including such as subscriber profiles, authentication credentials, and authorization policies, implements security mechanisms to protect user data and resources of the communication network (e.g., the core network 208) from unauthorized access attacks and vulnerabilities, and interacts with other network functions of the core network 208, such as the PCF, to enforce access control policies, Quality of Service (QoS) parameters, and service restrictions based on user profiles and subscription plans. The UDM is also responsible for managing the registration of network functions that serve the user equipment 200.

[0052] The network analytics data function (NWDAF) is configured to collect or retrieve data about one or more NFs of the core network, generate analytics based on the data about the one or more NFs collected or retrieved by the NWDAF, and to provide the analytics that are generated to itself or to other NFs that have requested analytics generated by the NWDAF. The NWDAF may include an Analytics logical function (AnLF) that is configured to generate analytics (e.g., generate statistics and / or generate predictions) based on the data about theone or more NFs collected and / or retrieved by the NWDAF. The NWDAF further includes an analytics service that is exposed by the NWDAF to provide the analytics generated by the AnLF. The NWDAF further includes a Model Training logical function (NWDAF(MTLF)) that is configured to train AI / ML models that can be used by AnLF to generate analytics based on the data about the one or more network functions collected or retrieved from the one or more network functions and / or the OAM entity.

[0053] The functionalities of other network functions of the core network 208 are not described in detail for sake of brevity.

[0054] Some examples of this disclosure relate to edge computing. In comparison to traditional networking, where applications are hosted at a centralized data centre, in edge computing, applications are outside the data centre and closer to the end-user (e.g., the UE), towards the “edge” of the network. Such applications may be referred to as “edge applications”. By moving the applications closer to the edge of the network, and therefore closer to the end-user, the latency can be reduced in comparison to the centralized data centre network model, since data does not need to be routed to and from the data centre.

[0055] FIG. 3 shows an example architecture for enabling edge applications. In the example of FIG. 3, the architecture comprises a UE 300, edge data network (EDN) 302, edge configuration server (ECS) 304, and core network 306 (e.g., 3GPP core network).

[0056] The EDN 302 comprises one or more Edge Application Servers (EASs) 308 that perform server functions to exchange application data traffic with application client(s) 310 at the UE. The EDN 302 also comprises one or more Edge Enabler Servers (EESs) 312, which are responsible for enabling a UE to discover the EAS(s) 308 and provide the UE with configuration information to enable exchange of application data traffic with the EAS.

[0057] The UE 300 comprises the aforementioned application client(s) 310 and an Edge Enabler Client (EEC) 314, which provides support functions, such as EAS discovery, to the UE (or to application client(s) 310 in the UE).

[0058] The Edge Configuration Server (ECS) 304 provides configuration information to the EEC 314 to enable the UE to connect with an EAS 308 (e.g., EDN service area information, URIs of the EES, etc.).

[0059] As is shown in FIG. 3, the core network 306 may communicate with the EDN 302 (e.g., with the EAS(s) 308 and / or EES(s) 312) and / or the ECS 304 to configure the respective entities with the necessary information to enable the edge computing architecture. FIG. 3 also shows various reference points or interfaces (e.g., EDGE-1, EDGE-2, etc.) that may be used for exchanging information between the various entities. Further details of the architecture can be found in 3GPP TS 23.558.

[0060] In some examples, the EDN may be deployed on a satellite (e.g., in a non-terrestrial network, NTN) to enhance the coverage area of the EDN, and allow connectivity for UEs in remote geographic areas.

[0061] FIG. 4 shows an example deployment where the EDN 400 (comprising EAS(s) 402 and EES(s) 404 as described previously) are deployed on a satellite 406. The satellite 406 may comprises a UPF 408, and optionally may comprise an access node (AN) 410 (e.g., a gNB). The UE 412 and ECS 414 are located on the ground (or in the case of the UE, in the air - e.g., in a UAV or plane). The UE 412 may communicate with the ECS 414 either via a terrestrial-based link (EDGE 4 via ground) or via the satellite (EDGE 4 via space). While only one satellite is shown in FIG. 4 for simplicity, it should be understood that multiple satellites may be provided, which may communicate with each other to form a chain of satellites through which data can be routed to and from the UE.

[0062] By deploying the EDN on a satellite, the coverage area of the network may be enhanced (due to the satellite deployment) while reducing the latency compared to data centre based computing (due to the EDN). However, there are challenges in terms of how EAS / EES discovery, service provisioning and service continuity are enabled. For example, a particular satellite may not be accessible to the UE for a certain amount of time due to relative motion of the UE and satellite, meaning that the UE may experience a loss or degradation in service if it connects to the EES on that satellite.

[0063] Examples of this disclosure may address one or more of these issues. Some examples may provide methods for the UE to discover and select an EES based on the UE’s service requirements, and provide enhancements to the EES profile to enable the UE to select an EES more optimally. Some examples may provide enhancements to application context relocation (ACR) procedures to improve the continuity of service of a UE accessing the NTN-based EDN.

[0064] Reference is made to FIG. 5, which shows a method according to some examples. The method shown in FIG. 5 may be performed by a UE, such as UE 412 described previously.

[0065] At 500, the method comprises sending, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a required satellite availability.

[0066] At 502, the method comprises receiving, from the edge configuration server, a response comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard.

[0067] At 504, the method comprises selecting at least one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles based at least on the information indicating the satellite availability associated with the edge enabler server.

[0068] At 506, the method comprises sending, to at least one satellite associated with the selected at least one edge enabler server profile, a request to connect to the at least one satellite.

[0069] Reference is made to FIG. 6, which shows a method according to some examples. The method shown in FIG. 6 may be performed by an ECS, such as ECS 414 described previously.

[0070] At 600, the method comprises receiving, from a user equipment, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a required satellite availability.

[0071] At 602, the method comprises determining, based on the service provisioning request, one or more edge enabler servers.

[0072] At 604, the method comprises sending, to the user equipment, one or more edge enabler server profiles associated with the one or more edge enabler servers, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard.

[0073] Thus, in some examples a UE may send, to an ECS, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a required satellite availability. The information indicating the required satellite availability may indicate a minimum time duration for which the UE requiresthe satellite to be available to the UE. The satellite may be considered to be available to the UE when the UE is capable of establishing a connection to the satellite to exchange data between the UE and one or more servers (e.g., the EAS(s)) deployed on the satellite.

[0074] In some examples, the information indicating the required satellite availability may be based on one or more applications hosted by the UE. For instance, an internet of things (loT) application may require the satellite to be available for a minimum time duration of 1 second, while a video streaming application may require the satellite to be available for a minimum time duration of 2 minutes.

[0075] The service provisioning request may comprise additional information other than the information indicating the required satellite availability. Table 1 below shows an example of different types of information that may be included in the service provisioning request.Table 1 - example information elements comprised in a service provisioning request Information element DescriptionEECID Unique identifier of the EEC.Security credentials Security credentials resulting from a successful authorization for the edge computing service.AC Profile(s) Information about services the EEC wants toconnect to.Application information List of information about services the EEC wants to connect to, including the option to provideapplication group profile information.> AC Profile Application Profile.> Application Group profile Application Group profile associated with the ACProfile.EEC Service Continuity Support Indicates if the EEC supports service continuity ornot. The IE also indicates which ACR scenarios are supported by the EEC.When requesting service provisioning for terrestrialEES (T-EES) discovery, if the EEC requires that T- EES must support "EEC executed ACR via T-EES" scenario, then EEC may include only "EECexecuted ACR via T-EES" in this IEPrediction expiration time The estimated time the UE may reach the Predicted / Expected UE location or EAS servicearea.UE Identifier The identifier of the UE (i.e. , GPSI)Connectivity information List of connectivity information for the UE, e.g.PLMN ID, SSID.UE location The location information of the UEECSP identifiers The list of EEC preferred ECSPs that provide theEES.Tunnel information It includes service provider ID, the endpointaddress (e.g. IP address) of the tunnel serverassociated with application(s).Min availability duration for This is the minimum time duration of the availabilitySatellite access of the Satellite access to the EEC (UE).

[0076] In the example information elements (lEs) comprised in a service provisioning request shown in table 1 , only one of AC profile(s) or application information may be provided. It should be further understood that not all of the lEs shown in table 1 may be provided in each service provisioning request. In other words, a service provisioning request may comprise any individual IE or combination of lEs shown in table 1 (subject to the condition(s) noted herein).

[0077] After receiving the service provisioning request from the UE, the ECS determines one or more EESs, and then sends one or more EES profiles associated with the determined one or more EESs to the UE.

[0078] In some examples, the ECS may determine location information associated with the UE. The location information may be any suitable information indicating a location of the UE, such as but not limited to: global positioning system (GPS) co-ordinates, tracking area (TA), service area (SA), etc. In some examples, the location information of the UE may comprise information indicating a current location of the UE, and / or information indicating a predicted movement / location of the UE. For instance, the UE may be onboard an aircraft, and the location information associated with the UE may comprise information indicating a flight path that the aircraft on which the UE is onboard is expected to take.

[0079] The ECS may determine location information associated with at least one satellite on which one or more candidate EESs are onboard. The ECS may determine the location information associated with the at least one satellite based on at least one of:(a) satellite assistance information indicating the satellite that the EES is onboard and optionally information suitable for calculating the satellite’s position and / or movement (e.g., statistic satellite ephemeris information, such as signal quality metrics and orbital elements);(b) dynamic service area indication indicating whether the service area is dynamic or not. For instance, in the case of the EES being onboard a MEO or LEO satellite, the service area may be dynamic, and in the case of the EES being onboard a GEO satellite, the service area may not be dynamic;(c) information indicating at least one topological service area (e.g., an area defined in terms of a terrestrial network topology, such as tracking areas, service areas etc.) associated with the one or more candidate EESs;(d) information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the one or more satellites are available for the at least one topological service area associated with the one or more candidate EESs;(e) information indicating at least one geographical service area associated with the one or more candidate EESs;(f) information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the one or more satellites are available for the at least one geographical service area associated with the one or more candidate EESs.

[0080] The ECS may then determine, based on the location information associated with the UE and the location information associated with the at least one satellite, satellite availability information for the UE’s location. The ECS may determine, fora candidate EES, how long the candidate EES is expected to be available to the UE. For instance, the ECS may determine, based on a location and / or predicted movement of the UE (e.g., where the UE is expected to move to, e.g., based on flight path information if the UE is a UAV or onboard a plane, or based on other UE information such as velocity at which the UE is moving, etc.), how long the satellite will be available for the UE.

[0081] The ECS may then select one or more EES profiles from among the one or more candidate EESs based on the satellite availability information for the UE’s location and the information indicating the required satellite availability. That is to say, the ECS may select one or more EES profiles corresponding to EES(s) that are expected to be capable of meeting the UE’s required satellite availability.

[0082] For instance, referring to the previous example of video streaming data, the UE may require a satellite to be available for a minimum duration of 2 minutes, and indicate such to the ECS. The ECS may determine, based on the UE’s location and predicted movement, that a first EES onboard satellite #1 and a second EES onboard satellite #2 are expected to be available to the UE for the required minimum duration of 2 minutes, but a third EES onboard satellite #3 is not expected to be available for the required minimum duration (e.g., because of the relative motion of the UE and satellite #3), and so the ECS selects the first and second EES and sends the EES profiles associated with the first and second EES to the UE.

[0083] Each EES profile may comprise information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated EES is onboard. In some examples, the information indicating the availability of the satellite may comprise information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the EES onboard the satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area. For instance, the EES profile may comprise information indicating that the EES is available for a duration of 5 minutes for a first geographical area and a duration of 3 minutes for a second geographical area.

[0084] The EES profile may comprise additional information other than the information indicating the availability of the satellite on which the associated EES is onboard. Table 2 below shows an example of different types of IE(s) that may be included in the EES profile. It should be understood that not all of the lEs shown in table 2 may be provided in each EES profile. In other words, an EES profile may comprise any individual IE or combination of lEs shown in table 2 (subject to the condition(s) noted herein).Table 2 - example information elements comprised in an EES profileInformation element DescriptionEESID The identifier of the EESEES Endpoint Endpoint information (e.g. URI, FQDN, IP address) used to communicate with the EES. This information is provided to the EEC to connect to the EES.EDN information EDN information where the EES resides.> DNN Data network name to identify the EDN.> DNAI(s) DNAI(s) associated with the EDN.EASIDs List of EASIDs registered or expected to be registered with the EES.>Allowed MNO Information of the allowed operator as described in EAS profile clause information 8.2.4, Only subscribers from these operators can consume the EES services.List of EAS bundle List of EAS bundles per EASID to which the EAS belongs and related information bundling requirements.> Bundle ID A bundle ID as described in clause 7.2.10.(NOTE 2)> List of EASIDs List of EASIDs associated with the EAS bundle.(NOTE 2)> Bundle type Type of the EAS bundle as described in clause 7.2.10> EAS bundle Requirements associated with the EAS bundle as described in requirements clause 8.2.10.Instantiate EAS The EAS instantiation status per EASID (e.g. instantiated, instantiable information but not be instantiated yet).> Instantiation criteria The criteria upon which EAS can be instantiated (e.g. based on(NOTE 1) specific date and time).EEC registration Indicates whether the EEC is required to register on the EES to use configuration edge services or not.ECSP ID The identifier of the ECSP that provides the EES.EES Topological The EES serves UEs that are connected to the Core Network from Service Area one of the cells included in this service area. EECs in UEs that are located outside this area shall not be served. See possible formats in Table 8.2.7-1.TSA Time & duration The time & duration when the EES onboard the satellite is available for the indicated EES Topological Service AreaEES Geographical The area being served by the EES in Geographical values (asService Area specified in clause 7.3.3.3)GSA Time & duration The time & duration when the EES onboard the satellite is available for the indicated EES Geographical Service AreaList of EES DNAI(s) DNAI(s) associated with the EES. This IE is used as Potential Locations of Applications in clause 5.6.7 of 3GPP TS 23.501 [2],It is a subset of the DNAI(s) associated with the EDN, where the EES resides.EES Service continuity Indicates if the EES supports service continuity or not. This IEsupport indicates which ACR scenarios are supported by the EES, alsoindicates the EES ability (e.g. EAS bundle information) of handling bundled EAS ACR.Satellite assistant Assistant information indicating the EES is on-board, and could beinformation used to calculate the satellite's position and movement. It could be thestatistic satellite ephemeris information (e.g., signal quality metrics and orbital elements)Dynamic service area Indicates if the service area is dynamic or not. The service area is indication dynamic in case of EES on board a MEO or LEO satellite and not dynamic in case of a GEO satellite.Trajectory ID (NOTE X) For mobile EES, indicates the trajectory of the EES on board MEOand LEO satellites.

[0085] Referring to the example lEs comprised in the EES profile shown in table 2, in some examples the “instantiation criteria” IE may only be present when the value of "Instantiable EAS information" IE is "instantiable but not be instantiated yet". At least one of “Bundle ID” or “List of EASIDs” lEs may be present if the “List of EAS bundle information” IE is provided. The assignment of the “trajectory ID” for the EES may be performed by the operator and / or the satellite service provider. The trajectory and position of the satellite can be calculated, for example, based on instantaneous / osculating ephemeris versus using TLE-based mean orbital ephemeris.

[0086] The UE, based on receiving the one or more EES profiles from the ECS, may then select at least one of the one or more EES profiles based at least on the information indicating the satellite availability associated with the EES. The selection by the UE may be based on the UE’s location and / or predicted location. For instance, if the EES profiles indicate that a first EES is available for geographic area #1 for 2 minutes and a second EES is available for geographic area #1 for 5 minutes and the UE is predicted to remain in geographic area #1 for 4 minutes, then the UE may select the second EES.

[0087] The UE may then send a request to at least one satellite associated with the selected at least one EES profile, a request to connect to the satellite. For instance, the UE may send a message to the access node deployed on the satellite to request a connection be established between the UE and the EES onboard the satellite. The UE may then perform EAS discovery with the EES to select and connect to an EAS onboard the satellite, for example as described in 3GPP TS 23.558.

[0088] Reference is made to FIG. 7, which shows a method according to some examples. The method of FIG. 7 may be performed by a UE on which an EEC is implemented, such as UE 412 described previously.

[0089] At 700, the method comprises determining that the UE can access at least one satellite of a non-terrestrial network. The UE may determine that the UE can access the at least one satellite based on information broadcast by the network, for example in system information block (SIB) messages. For instance, the UE may scan radio channels in frequency bandsaccording to the UE’s capability to find a suitable cell provided by a satellite (i.e. a cell of the NTN, which may be referred to as an NTN cell). The UE may search only for the strongest NTN cell on each frequency (except in the case of shared spectrum channel access, where the UE may also search for the next strongest NTN cell(s)). Once a suitable NTN cell is found, the NTN cell may be selected.

[0090] At 702, the method comprises sending, to an ECS, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a minimum time duration for which the UE requires the at least one satellite to be available to the UE. The information indicating the minimum time duration may be as described previously.

[0091] At 704, the method comprises receiving, from the ECS, a response comprising one or more EES profiles, each EES profile comprising information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the EES onboard the at least one satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area. The information indicating at least one of the time or duration when the EES onboard the at least one satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area may be as described previously.

[0092] At 706, the method comprises selecting at least one of the one or more EES profiles based at least on location information associated with the UE and the information indicating the at least one of the time or the duration when the EES onboard the at least one satellite is available for the at least one of the indicated geographical area or the indicated topological area. The location information associated with the UE and the selecting may be as described previously.

[0093] At 708, the method comprises sending, to at least one satellite associated with the selected at least one EES profile, a request to connect to the satellite. The request may be as described previously.

[0094] Reference is made to FIG. 8, which shows a method according to some examples. The method shown in FIG. 8 may be performed by an ECS, such as ECS 414 described previously.

[0095] At 800, the method comprises receiving, from a UE, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a minimum time duration for which the UE requires at leastone satellite of a non-terrestrial network to be available to the UE. The service provisioning request may be as described previously.

[0096] At 802, the method comprises determining, based on the service provisioning request, one or more EESs onboard the at least one satellite. The determining of the one or more EESs may be as described previously.

[0097] At 804, the method comprises sending, to the UE, one or more EES profiles associated with the one or more EESs, each EES profile comprising information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the EES onboard the at least one satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area. The information indicating at least one of the time or duration when the EES onboard the at least one satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area may be as described previously.

[0098] After the UE has connected to the EES onboard a satellite, the UE may establish application context information for the UE at the EAS. The application context information may be understood as being data about the application client (at the UE) that resides in the EAS.

[0099] After the application context has been established, there may be a need to relocate the application context. For example, when the UE moves relative to the satellite, the EAS may need to be changed if the UE moves out of the service area of the satellite, thereby requiring a transfer or relocation of the application context to another EES. The relocation of application context is referred to as application context relocation (ACR). Other triggers for ACR other than the UE movement are possible, such as but not limited to user plane path switching, load balancing, etc.

[0100] By providing an EES profile comprising the information indicating the availability of a satellite on which an associated EES is onboard as described previously, enhancements to existing ACR procedures may be provided to enable the UE to determine that ACR is required.

[0101] Reference is made to FIG. 9, which shows a method according to some examples. The method of FIG. 9 may be performed by a UE on which an EEC is implemented, such as UE 412 described previously.

[0102] At 900, the method comprises receiving, from an ECS, a message comprising one or more EES profiles, each EES profile comprising information indicating an availability of asatellite on which an associated EES is onboard. The EES profiles may be as described previously.

[0103] At 902, the method comprises establishing a connection between the UE and a source EES associated with one of the one or more EES profiles. The connection may be established as described previously.

[0104] At 904, the method comprises establishing application context information for the UE at the source EES. The application context information may be established based on any suitable procedure, for example as described in 3GPP TS 23.558.

[0105] At 906, the method comprises determining, based on the one or more EES profiles, that application context relocation is required for the UE from the source EES to a different EES.

[0106] At 908, the method comprises sending, to the ECS, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the UE from the source EES to a different EES.

[0107] Reference is made to FIG. 10, which shows a method according to some examples. The method shown in FIG. 10 may be performed by an ECS, such as ECS 414 described previously.

[0108] At 1000, the method comprises sending, to a UE, a message comprising one or more EES profiles, each EES profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated EES is onboard. The one or more EES profiles may be as described previously.

[0109] At 1002, the method comprises receiving, from the UE, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the UE from a source EES to a different EES.

[0110] At 1004, the method comprises determining, based on the one or more EES profiles, a target EES to which to transfer the application context for the UE.

[0111] At 1006, the method comprises initiating the application context relocation to the target EES.

[0112] Thus, in some examples the UE may determine that ACR is needed for the UE based on the EES profile(s). The ECS may also determine the target EES based on the EES profile(s).

[0113] For instance, the information indicating the availability of the satellite may comprise information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the EES onboard the satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area, and the UE may determine that the ACR is required based on determining that the at least one of the UE’s location and / or the UE’s predicted location is outside the indicated geographical area or the indicated topological area of the source EES. The ECS may determine the target EES based on the information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the EES onboard the satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area.

[0114] In some examples, the target EES may be associated with one of the one or more EES profiles. The target EES may be comprised in a non-terrestrial network (e.g., deployed on a satellite, as described previously), or may be comprised in a terrestrial network (e.g., deployed at a terrestrially based location, such as an access node). In some examples, the ECS may try to determine a target EES comprised in the NTN. If the ECS determines, based on the one or more EES profiles, that no suitable target EES is available in the NTN, the ECS may then determine a target EES comprised in the terrestrial network.

[0115] Reference is made to FIG. 11, which shows a method according to some examples.

[0116] At 1100, the EEC detects a possible need for ACR. For example, the EEC may determine a trigger condition for causing ACR, such as determining a UE location update (e.g., as a result of a UE mobility event), determining an expected or predicted UE location in the future, or if an end-to-end tunnel is used in the UE for application, the EEC can also detect a tunnel server update. The determination is based on the information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard, as described previously.

[0117] At 1102, the UE (either the AC or the EEC) determines whether or not to perform the ACR. If the EEC has received information of on-going ACR, then a further ACR with the same ACR identity (e.g., identified by ACID, EEC ID (or UE ID), S-EAS endpoint and T-EAS endpoint) may not be initiated again.

[0118] If the determination at 1102 does not trigger a need to change the serving EAS, steps 1104 onwards are skipped. The EEC remains connected to the serving EES(s) and the AC remains connected to its corresponding serving EAS. If the determination at 1104 triggers ACR, then steps 1104 onwards are performed.

[0119] At 1104, the UE (e.g., the EEC) sends, to the ECS, a service provisioning request to request ACR for all active applications that require ACR. The ECS may send, in response, a list of target EESs (T-EESs) that are relevant to the applications that require ACR. The ECS may determine the list of target EESs based on the information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard, as described previously.

[0120] At 1106, the EEC performs EAS discovery for the desired target EASs (T-EASs) by querying the T-EESs (as identified in step 1104). Step 1108 may be skipped if EAS discovery procedure results in only one discovered T-EAS.

[0121] At 1108, the UE (e.g., AC and / or EEC) select the T-EAS to be used for the application traffic.

[0122] At 1110, the EEC initiates ACR by sending, to the S-EES, a message comprising a predicted / expected UE location or Expected AC Geographical Service Area, the message indicating ACR initiation and the corresponding ACR initiation data. If the EEC has not subscribed to receive ACR information notifications for ACR complete events from the S-EES, the EEC may subscribe for the notifications.

[0123] At 1112, if the T-EES is different than the S-EES and the EEC Context at the S-EES is not stale (e.g., less than a threshold amount of time has passed since the EEC context was last established / updated), the S-EES initiates EEC Context Push relocation with the T-EES. Otherwise, if the T-EES is the same as the S-EES, EEC Context Push relocation is skipped.

[0124] At 1114 the AC is triggered by the EEC to start application context transfer from the S-EAS to the T-EAS. There may be different ways of transferring context and they are all outside the scope of this disclosure. After the application context transfer is completed, the AC remains connected to the T-EAS and disconnects from the S-EAS; the EEC is informed of the completion.

[0125] At 1116, the S-EAS sends an ACR status update message to the S-EES to indicate a result of the application context transfer.

[0126] At 1118, the T-EAS sends an ACR status update message to the T-EES indicating a result of the application context transfer. If the result indicates a successful application context transfer and that the EEC Context relocation procedure was attempted but failed, then the T-EES indicates the failure to the T-EAS with the ACR status update response. Note that steps 1116 and 1118 can occur in any order.

[0127] At 1120, if the status in step 1116 indicates a successful application context transfer, the S-EES may send the ACR information notification (ACR complete) message immediately to the EEC to confirm that the ACR has completed. In some cases, (e.g., if the EES monitors the UE mobility), then when S-EES detects the UE has moved to the predicted / expected UE location or Expected AC Geographical Service Area and the status in step 1116 indicates a successful ACT, then the S-EES sends ACR information notification (ACR complete) message to the EEC indicating that UE has moved to the predicted location. If the EEC Context relocation procedure was attempted, then the notification includes EEC context relocation status IE, indicating the result of the EEC context relocation procedure based on the message received at step 1118.

[0128] Thus, examples have been provided whereby a UE can perform EES discovery, selection, and ACR, in the context of a non-terrestrial deployment of an EDN. Some examples provides enhancements to the EES profile to indicate an availability of a satellite on which the EES is deployed, which information can be used by the UE and the ECS to both determine which candidate EESs are suitable for a UE based on the UE’s requirements, and which candidate EES to select for the UE to connect to. In some examples, ACR may be triggered and a target EES selected based on the EES profile, thereby facilitating the T-EES selection process.

[0129] In some examples, there is provided a user equipment comprising: means for sending, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a required satellite availability; means for receiving, from the edge configuration server, a response comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; means for selecting at least one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles based at least on the information indicating the satellite availability associated with the edge enabler server; and means for sending, to at least one satellite associated with the selected at least one edge enabler server profile, a request to connect to the at least one satellite.

[0130] In some examples, there is provided an apparatus for an edge configuration server, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving, from a user equipment, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a required satellite availability; means for determining, based on the service provisioning request, one or more edge enabler servers; and means for sending, to the user equipment, one or more edge enabler server profiles associated with the one or more edge enabler servers, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard.

[0131] In some examples, there is provided a user equipment comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the user equipment to at least: send, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a required satellite availability; receive, from the edge configuration server, a response comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; select at least one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles based at least on the information indicating the satellite availability associated with the edge enabler server; and send, to at least one satellite associated with the selected at least one edge enabler server profile, a request to connect to the at least one satellite.

[0132] In some examples, there is provided an apparatus for an edge configuration server, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the edge configuration server to at least: receive, from a user equipment, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a required satellite availability; determine, based on the service provisioning request, one or more edge enabler servers; and send, to the user equipment, one or more edge enabler server profiles associated with the one or more edge enabler servers, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard.

[0133] In some examples, there is provided a user equipment comprising: means for determining that the user equipment can access at least one satellite of a non-terrestrial network; means for sending, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a minimum time duration for which the user equipment requires the at least one satellite to be available to the user equipment; means for receiving,from the edge configuration server, a response comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the edge enabler server onboard the at least one satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area; means for selecting at least one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles based at least on location information associated with the user equipment and the information indicating the at least one of the time or the duration when the edge enabler server onboard the at least one satellite is available for the at least one of the indicated geographical area or the indicated topological area; and means for sending, to at least one satellite associated with the selected at least one edge enabler server profile, a request to connect to the satellite.

[0134] In some examples, there is provided an apparatus for an edge configuration server, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving, from a user equipment, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a minimum time duration for which the user equipment requires at least one satellite of a non-terrestrial network to be available to the user equipment; means for determining, based on the service provisioning request, one or more edge enabler servers onboard the at least one satellite; and means for sending, to the user equipment, one or more edge enabler server profiles associated with the one or more edge enabler servers, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the edge enabler server onboard the at least one satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area.

[0135] In some examples, there is provided a user equipment comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the user equipment to at least: determine that the user equipment can access at least one satellite of a non-terrestrial network; send, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a minimum time duration for which the user equipment requires the at least one satellite to be available to the user equipment; receive, from the edge configuration server, a response comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the edge enabler server onboard the at least one satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area; select at least one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles based at least on location information associated with the user equipment and the information indicating the at least one of the time or the duration when the edge enabler server onboard the at least one satellite is available for the at least one of the indicated geographical area or the indicatedtopological area; and send, to at least one satellite associated with the selected at least one edge enabler server profile, a request to connect to the satellite.

[0136] In some examples, there is provided an apparatus for an edge configuration server, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the edge configuration server to at least: receive, from a user equipment, a service provisioning request comprising information indicating a minimum time duration for which the user equipment requires at least one satellite of a non-terrestrial network to be available to the user equipment; determine, based on the service provisioning request, one or more edge enabler servers onboard the at least one satellite; and send, to the user equipment, one or more edge enabler server profiles associated with the one or more edge enabler servers, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the edge enabler server onboard the at least one satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area.

[0137] In some examples, there is provided a user equipment comprising: means for receiving, from an edge configuration server, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; means for establishing a connection between the user equipment and a source edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles; means for establishing application context information for the user equipment at the source edge enabler server; means for determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, that application context relocation is required for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; and means for sending, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server.

[0138] In some examples, there is provided an apparatus for an edge configuration server, the apparatus comprising: means for sending, to a user equipment, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; means for receiving, from the user equipment, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from a source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; means for determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, a target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application contextfor the user equipment; and means for initiating the application context transfer to the target edge enabler server.

[0139] In some examples, there is provided a user equipment comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the user equipment to at least: receive, from an edge configuration server, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; establish a connection between the user equipment and a source edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles; establish application context information for the user equipment at the source edge enabler server; determine, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, that application context relocation is required for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; and send, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server.

[0140] In some examples, there is provided an apparatus for an edge configuration server, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the edge configuration server to at least: send, to a user equipment, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard; receive, from the user equipment, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from a source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; determine, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, a target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application context for the user equipment; and initiate the application context transfer to the target edge enabler server.

[0141] In some examples, a change request to 3GPP TS 23.558, V19.4.0 is provided as follows (with changes to 3GPP TS 23.558, V10.4.0 indicated in bold, underlined font).

[0142] / / START OF CHANGE REQUEST / /

[0143] Reason for change: In TR 23.700-01, it is concluded to progress solutions (AE#1, AE#2) related to service continuity for satellite access.

[0144] Summary of change: The following solution based on AE#1 and AE#2 is proposed: (a) EES profile is updated to include the information about the time and duration for each of the supported Topological / Geographical area, when it will be available.(b) This availability information is provided to the VAL UE, which aids in service provisioning of the EES (onboard the Satellite) and also in deciding the Application Context Relocation (ACR) between EASs (onboarded on different Satellites).(c) During service provisioning the EEC (UE) provides a min. availability duration for satellite access to enable the ECS to determine suitable EES(s).(d) The decision to perform ACR can be EES triggered or EEC triggered based on the availability information.

[0145] Consequences if not approved: This feature will not be supported.

[0146] 8.2.6 EES Profile

[0147] The EES profile includes information about the EES and the services it provides.

[0148] NOTE: Information elements in the EES Profile are provided by the ECSP.Table 8.2.6-1: EES ProfileInformation element Status DescriptionEESID M The identifier of the EESEES Endpoint M Endpoint information (e.g. URI, FQDN, IP address) used to communicate with the EES. This information is provided to the EEC to connect to the EES.EDN information O EDN information where the EES resides.> DNN M Data network name to identify the EDN.> DNAI(s) O DNAI(s) associated with the EDN.EASIDs M List of EASIDs registered or expected to be registered with the EES. >Allowed MNO O Information of the allowed operator as described in EAS profile clause information 8.2.4, Only subscribers from these operators can consume the EES services.List of EAS bundle O List of EAS bundles per EASID to which the EAS belongs and related information bundling requirements.> Bundle ID O A bundle ID as described in clause 7.2.10.(NOTE 2)> List of EASIDs O List of EASIDs associated with the EAS bundle.(NOTE 2)> Bundle type M Type of the EAS bundle as described in clause 7.2.10> EAS bundle O Requirements associated with the EAS bundle as described in requirements clause 8.2.10.Instantiate EAS O The EAS instantiation status per EASID (e.g. instantiated, instantiable information but not be instantiated yet).> Instantiation criteria O The criteria upon which EAS can be instantiated (e.g. based on (NOTE 1) specific date and time).EEC registration M Indicates whether the EEC is required to register on the EES to useconfiguration edge services or not.ECSP ID O The identifier of the ECSP that provides the EES.EES Topological O The EES serves UEs that are connected to the Core Network from Service Area one of the cells included in this service area. EECs in UEs that are located outside this area shall not be served. See possible formats in Table 8.2.7-1.TSA Time & duration O The time & duration when the EES onboard the satellite is available for the indicated EES Topoloqical Service AreaEES Geographical o The area being served by the EES in Geographical values (as Service Area specified in clause 7.3.3.3)GSA Time & duration o The time & duration when the EES onboard the satellite is available for the indicated EES Geoqraphical Service AreaList of EES DNAI(s) o DNAI(s) associated with the EES. This IE is used as Potential Locations of Applications in clause 5.6.7 of 3GPP TS 23.501 [2], It is a subset of the DNAI(s) associated with the EDN, where the EES resides.EES Service continuity o Indicates if the EES supports service continuity or not. This IE support indicates which ACR scenarios are supported by the EES, also indicates the EES ability (e.g. EAS bundle information) of handling bundled EAS ACR.Satellite assistant o Assistant information indicating the EES is on-board, and could be information used to calculate the satellite's position and movement. It could be the statistic satellite ephemeris information (e.g., signal quality metrics and orbital elements)Dynamic service area o Indicates if the service area is dynamic or not. The service area is indication dynamic in case of EES on board a MEO or LEO satellite and not dynamic in case of a GEO satellite.Trajectory ID (NOTE X) o For mobile EES, indicates the trajectory of the EES on board MEO and LEO satellites.NOTE 1: "Instantiation criteria" IE shall be present only when the value of "Instantiable EAS information" IE is "instantiable but not be instantiated yet".NOTE 2: At least one of the lEs shall be present if EAS bundle information is provided.NOTE X: The assignment of the trajectory ID for the EES can be done by the operator and / or the satellite service provider. The trajectory and position of the satellite can be calculated for example basedon instantaneous / osculating ephemeris versus using TLE-based mean orbital ephemeris.

[0149] 8.3.3.2.2 Request-response model

[0150] FIG. 13 (which corresponds to Figure 8.3.3.2.2-1 of 3GPP TS 23.558, V19.4.0) illustrates service provisioning procedure based on request / response model.

[0151] Pre-conditions:(a) The EEC has been pre-configured or has discovered the address (e.g. URI) of the ECS;(b) The EEC has been authorized to communicate with the ECS;(c) The UE Identifier is either preconfigured or resulted from a successful authorization; and(d) The ECS is configured with ECSP's policy for service provisioning.

[0152] NOTE 1: Details of ECSP's policy are out of scope.

[0153] Referring to FIG. 13: Service provisioning - Request / Response

[0154] 1. The EEC sends a service provisioning request to the ECS. The service provisioning request includes the security credentials of the EEC received during EEC authorization procedure and may include the UE identifier such as GPSI, connectivity information, UE location, EEC service continuity support and AC profile(s) information. EEC may provide its desired ECSP identifier(s) in the service provisioning request based on EEC preference. If an e2e tunnel is used in the UE for applications (e.g. user configured tunnel service), and if the tunnel service provider and the ECSP are from the same organization and only if user grants the permission, then the EEC provides the tunnel information for the associated applications in the request to the ECS. The request also includes min availability duration for Satellite access.

[0155] NOTE 2: The e2e tunnel case is limited to case where the tunnel service is deployed in home domain in the present release.

[0156] 2. Upon receiving the request, the ECS performs an authorization check to verify whether the EEC has authorization to perform the operation. The ECS may utilize the capabilities (e.g. UE location) of the 3GPP core network as specified in clause 8.10.2. If the UE serving PLMN identifier is not provided by the EEC in the connectivity information of the service provisioning request, the ECS may invoke the NEF monitoring event API as described in 3GPP TS 23.502

[0043] and 3GPP TS 23.682

[0017] to obtain the UE roaming status and serving PLMN identifier. If the UE is roaming, the ECS may use the serving PLMN identifier to determine the roaming partner ECS (i.e. V-ECS) information to be provided to the EEC in the service provisioning response. If the Prediction expiration time is provided then the ECS may determine whether to identify EES with the instantiable but not instantiated EAS based on the Prediction expiration time and predicted EAS deployment time information obtained from ADAES as specified in clause 8.11 of TS 23.436

[0028] or from local configured maximum EAS deployment time. If AC profile(s) are provided by the EEC, and the Application group profile is not provided, the ECS identifies the EES(s) based on the provided AC profile(s) and the UE location.

[0157] When Application group profile is provided in the request, which applies to the common EAS case:

[0158] if the ECS-ER is not available, then the ECS identifies EES(s) based on the information contained in the request (e.g.AC profile, Application group profile, UE location), specifically, the ECS identify the EES(s) based on the EASID and expected group geographical servicearea in the application group profile and the EAS ID supported by the EES and EES(s) service area in EES profile(s);

[0159] if the ECS-ER is available, and(a) EES information is not available corresponding to the Application Group ID, then the ECS identifies EES(s) and stores the identified EES(s)'s information and related Application group ID into the ECS-ER; specifically, the ECS identify the EES(s) based on the EASID and expected group geographical service area in the application group profile and the EAS ID supported by the EES and EES(s) service area in EES profile(s); or(b) EES information is available corresponding to the Application Group ID,

[0160] then the ECS retrieves the EES (s) information corresponding to the Application Group ID from the ECS-ER.

[0161] NOTE 3: It is up to the ASP or the EES to determine validity of the application group.

[0162] The ECS may take Group Geographical Service Area information and KPI requirements of the AC to determine the EES(s) corresponding to the Application group ID.

[0163] When neither Application group profile nor AC profiles(s) are provided, then:(a) if available, the ECS identifies the EES(s) based on the UE-specific service information at the ECS and the UE location;(b) ECS identifies the EES(s) by applying the ECSP policy (e.g. based only on the UE location);

[0164] Furthermore, the ECS may identify the EES based on the EEC service continuity support information and EES service continuity support information.

[0165] The ECS may take the EAS(s) load information corresponding to the EASIDs registered with EES in the EDN(s) to determine the EES(s) corresponding to the provided AC profile(s).

[0166] Editor' Note: The system impact of using EAS load info registered in ECS is FFS.

[0167] NOTE 4: Details of the UE-specific service information and how it is available at the ECS is out of scope.

[0168] NOTE 5: Both steps are evaluated prior to sending a response.

[0169] If desired ECSP identifier(s) is provided by the EEC, the ECS identifies the EES(s) to be sent in step 3 based on registered ECSP identifier in EES profile and the desired ECSP identifier(s).

[0170] NOTE 6: For EEC desired ECSP identifier usage, it is assumed that the ECSP providing the EES and PLMN operator are the same organization and an ECSP providing the EES (desired by the EEC) registers its EES in ECS provided by another ECSP based on service agreement to provide services to EEC.

[0171] The ECS also determines other information that needs to be provisioned, e.g. identification of the EDN, EDN service area, EES endpoints.

[0172] For the roaming and federation case, if ECS does not identify any suitable EES(s) based on EDN configuration available at the ECS and UE's location, the ECS determines a partner ECS that may satisfy the requirements. Based on ECSP policy, the ECS may use preconfigured or CAM configured information about the partner ECSs or ECS discovery via ECS-ER as specified in clause 8.17.2.3 or both.

[0173] If required by the ECSP policies, the ECS may use service provisioning information retrieval procedure as specified in clause 8.17.2.4 to obtain service provisioning information from the partner ECS.

[0174] NOTE 7: ECSP policies can restrict sharing partner ECSP's information with the EEC.

[0175] When the bundle EAS information is provided, which applies to the bundle EAS case then;(a) If bundle EAS information includes EAS bundle identifier, the ECS identifies all the EES(s) providing the same EAS bundle identifier.(b) If bundle EAS information includes a list of EASIDs, the ECS identifies the one or more EES which support all of the EASs within the same EDN based on the EDN information obtained in the EES profile.

[0176] If both Application group profile and bundle EAS information are provided in the request, then ECS considers them as common EAS bundle information and identifies all the EES(s) by utilizing the both Application group profile and bundle EAS information.

[0177] If the tunnel information is received, the ECS additionally takes the tunnel information into consideration in identifying EES(s). If no tunnel information is received, the ECS additionally takes the N6 tunnel (e.g. L2TP) information from 3GPP core network (via NEF user plane path management service as described in 3GPP TS 23.501 [2], clause 5.6.7) into consideration in identifying EES(s). For instance, the IPaddress(es) of identified EES(s) needs to be topologically close to the IP address of the tunnel server for optimal N6 route.

[0178] When Satellite access is utilized, the ECS determines the EES (onboard a which can serve the EEC at the UE location. ECS utilizes the Satellite assistantinformation ic service area indication, EESService Area & TSA Time & Duration EESService Area & GSA Time and Durationto com the location andof the Satellite at that location. The com location of the Satellite is comwith the UE location and theof the Satellite is comwith the Min.duration for the Satellite accessthe EEC to determine the list of EESs which can serve the EEC

[0179] 3. If the processing of the request was successful, the ECS responds to the EEC's request with a service provisioning response. If the ECS has identified the relevant EES(s) information, the service provisioning response includes a list of EDN configuration information, e.g. identification of the EDN, EDN service area, and the required information (e.g. URI, IP address) for establishing a connection to the EES.

[0180] The ECS may provide associated EES(s) information (one or more EES information) in the service provisioning response along with the bundle EAS information.

[0181] If the alternative ECS(s) has been identified in step 2, the ECS sends a successful response including the Redirect information element containing the list of ECS(s) configuration information indicating that alternative ECS(s) is available for service provisioning request. The response may include information such as DNN and S-NSSAI for roaming UEs to establish a PDU session with the ECS as specified in 3GPP TS 23.548

[0020] ,

[0182] If the ECS is not provisioned with any EDN configuration information or is unable to determine either the EES information or the partner ECS information using the inputs inservice provisioning request, UE-specific service information at the ECS or the ECSP's policy, the ECS shall reject the service provisioning request and respond with an appropriate failure cause.

[0183] If the service provisioning response contains a list of ECS configuration information, the EEC may initiate service provisioning procedure with one or more ECS(s) provided in the response. If the UE is roaming to a V-PLMN and the ECS configuration information includes V-PLMN ID in the list of Supported PLMN I D(s), the EEC may establish a connection with the V-ECS based on parameters such as UE serving PLMN ID and supported PLMN ID(s) of the V-ECS received in the response message as specified in 3GPP TS 23.548

[0020] , The connection with the V-ECS can be a HR-SBO PDU session or an LBO PDU session based on the information received from the ECS.

[0184] If the EDN configuration information includes an LADN DNN as an identifier for the EDN, the EEC considers the LADN as the EDN. Therefore, the service area of EDN is the LADN Service Area which can be discovered using the UE Registration Procedure.

[0185] The EEC may cache the service provisioning information (e.g. EES endpoint) for subsequent use and avoid the need to repeat step 1. If the Lifetime IE is included in the Service provisioning response, then the EEC may cache and reuse the Service provisioning information only for the duration specified by the Lifetime IE, without the need to repeat step 1.

[0186] If the ECS provided information regarding the service continuity support of individual EESs, the EEC may take this information into account when selecting an EES for EEC registration, EAS discovery orT-EAS discovery, respectively.

[0187] If for multiple EES(s), the instantiable EAS information IE for an EAS is not available or the instantiable EAS information IE is set to instantiated or instantiable, the EEC can select one or more such EES to perform EAS discovery. For EAS discovery to mitigate the waste of EDN resources EEC considers the instantiable EAS information and the associated instantiation criteria, the EEC selects one EES, if the EAS instantiation status corresponding to the EASID requested by AC / EEC is instantiable but not yet instantiated (i.e. no instantiated EAS).

[0188] When Satellite access is utilized, the EEC (UE) receives the EES profile(s) with the Time & Duration information of the Satellite availability from ECS. The EEC (UE) selects a EES or list of EES(s) amongst the list of EESs provided by ECS. The EECperforms selection considering its current location and / or the path it may traverse and also the min, availability duration for Satellite access.

[0189] NOTE 8: If the service provisioning request fails, the EEC can resend the service provisioning request again, taking into account the received failure cause.

[0190] NOTE 9: For example, using a particular DNAI to reach the data network containing the EES might be necessary to meet AC service KPIs.

[0191] NOTE 10: If the EAS instantiation fails based on the selected EES, the EEC may retry the EAS discovery request to another EES (e.g. selecting another one EES based on the instantiable EAS information).

[0192] 8.3.3.3.2 Service provisioning request

[0193] Table 8.3.3.3.2-1 describes the information elements for service provisioning request from the EEC to the ECS.Table 8.3.3.3.2-1: Service provisioning requestInformation element Status DescriptionEECID M Unique identifier of the EEC.Security credentials M Security credentials resulting from a successful authorization for the edge computing service.AC Profile(s) (NOTE) O Information about services the EEC wants to connect to, as described in Table 8.2.2-1.Application information (NOTE) O List of information about services the EEC wants to connect to, including the option to provide application group profile information.> AC Profile M Application Profile as described in Table 8.2.2-1. > Application Group profile O Application Group profile associated with the AC Profile, as defined in Table 8.2.11-1.EEC Service Continuity Support O Indicates if the EEC supports service continuity or not. The IE also indicates which ACR scenarios are supported by the EEC.When requesting service provisioning forT-EES discovery, if the EEC requires that T-EES must support "EEC executed ACR via T-EES" scenario, then EEC includes only "EEC executed ACR via T- EES" in this IEPrediction expiration time O The estimated time the UE may reach the Predicted / Expected UE location or EAS service area.UE Identifier O The identifier of the UE (i.e. , GPSI)Connectivity information O List of connectivity information for the UE, e.g.PLMN ID, SSID.UE location O The location information of the UE. The UE location is described in clause 7.3.2.ECSP identifiers O The list of EEC preferred ECSPs that provide the EES.Tunnel information O It includes service provider ID, the endpoint address (e.g. IP address) of the tunnel serverassociated with application(s).Min availability duration for O This is the minimum time duration of the Satellite access availability of the Satellite access to the EEC(UEkNOTE: Only one of AC Profile(s) or Application information shall be provided.

[0194] 8.8.2.2 Initiation by EEC using regular EAS Discovery

[0195] In this scenario, ACR is a result of the UE moving to, or the UE expecting to move to, a new location which is outside the service area of the serving EAS. The EEC is triggered as a result of the UE's movement as described in 8.8.1.1 A or by an AC as described in clause 8.14.2.4.

[0196] This scenario is based on Service Provisioning (as specified in clause 8.3) and EAS Discovery (as specified in clause 8.5) procedures to discover the T-EES and EAS that shall serve the AC as a result of the UE's new location, and that shall receive the Application Context from the serving EAS.

[0197] This scenario relies on the EDGE-5 interface between the EEC and AC.

[0198] Pre-conditions:(a) The AC in the UE already has a connection to a corresponding S-EAS;(b) The preconditions listed in clause 8.3.3.2.2 with regards to the EEC are fulfilled;and(c) The EEC is triggered when it obtains the UE's new location or is triggered by another entity such as an ECS notification or AC trigger.

[0199] NOTE 1: This scenario is applicable only for an Edge-aware AC and EAS.

[0200] Referring to FIG. 14:

[0201] Phase I: ACR Detection

[0202] 1. The EEC detects the UE location update as a result of a UE mobility event and is provided with the UE's new location as described in clause 8.8.1.1. The EEC can also detect an expected or predicted UE location in the future as described in clause 8.8.1.1. If a e2e tunnel is used in the UE for application, the EEC can also detect the tunnel server update as described in clause 8.8.1.1 A. The EEC can detect the EES availability change due to EES availability information.

[0203] NOTE 2: If the EEC is triggered by an external entity such as by a notification from the ECS, a list of new EESs (to be used as T-EESs) is provided by that notification and step 3 below is skipped.

[0204] Phase II: ACR Decision

[0205] 2. Either the AC or the EEC makes the decision to perform the ACR. If the EEC has received information of on-going ACR, then it should not initiate an ACR with the same ACR identity uniquely identified by ACID, EEC ID (or UE ID), S-EAS endpoint and T-EAS endpoint again per clause 8.8.3.5.3.

[0206] NOTE 3: Which applications require ACR can be decided based on the application profile, e.g. requirement of service continuity of the application.

[0207] If the change in UE's location does not trigger a need to change the serving EAS, steps 3 onwards are skipped. The EEC remains connected to the serving EES(s) and the AC remains connected to its corresponding serving EAS.

[0208] Phase III: ACR Execution

[0209] 3. The EEC performs Service Provisioning (as specified in clause 8.3) for all active applications that require ACR. Service Provisioning procedure results in a list of T-EESs that are relevant to the supplied applications and the new location of the UE and / or new tunnel server used by the UE. When in step 1 the ACR for service continuity planning is triggered, then the Connectivity information and UE Location in the Service Provisioning procedure (as specified in clause 8.3) contains the expected Connectivity information and expected UE Location.

[0210] If Service Provisioning results in no T-EES, and if ACR to CAS is supported, then the procedure for ACR with CAS applies as specified in clause 8.8.2A.2.

[0211] When Satellite access is used, the EEC performs service provisioning by including the min, availability duration for satellite access as specified in clause 8.3.3.2.2.

[0212] 4. The EEC performs EAS discovery (as specified in clause 8.5) for the desired T-EASs by querying the T-EESs that were established in step 3 (or provided in the notificationfrom the ECS - if it was the trigger). If EEC registration configuration for the EESs established in step 2 indicates that EEC registration is required, the EEC performs EEC registration with the EESs (as specified in clause 8.4.2.2.2) before sending the EAS discovery request. Step 5 is skipped if EAS discovery procedure results in only one discovered T-EAS.

[0213] When in step 1 the ACR for service continuity planning is triggered, and the "General context holding time duration" is included in the replied EAS discovery response, the EEC can make ACR request before it reaches respective T-EAS service area within the time period indicated by the IE.

[0214] 5. The AC and EEC select the T-EAS to be used for the application traffic.

[0215] NOTE 4: Several EEC registrations with different EESs may result from T-EAS discovery process during a single ACR operation.

[0216] 6. The EEC performs ACR launching procedure (as described in clause 8.8.3.4) to the S-EES with predicted / expected UE location or Expected AC Geographical Service Area, the ACR action indicating ACR initiation and the corresponding ACR initiation data (without the need to notify the EAS). When the S-EES receives the predicted / expected UE location or Expected AC Geographical Service Area from the EEC, then the S-EES will determine to monitor the UE mobility. The S-EES may apply the AF traffic influence with the N6 routing information of the T-EAS in the 3GPP Core Network (if applicable), as described in clause 8.8.3.4. If the EEC has not subscribed to receive ACR information notifications for ACR complete events from the S-EES, the EEC subscribes for the notifications as described in clause 8.8.3.5.2.

[0217] NOTE 5: It is expected that the AC will inform EAS about UE location monitoring is not needed.

[0218] 7. If the T-EES is different than the S-EES and the EEC Context at the S-EES is not stale, the S-EES initiates EEC Context Push relocation with the T-EES as described in clause 8.9.2.3. Otherwise, if the T-EES is the same as the S-EES, EEC Context Push relocation is skipped.

[0219] 8. The AC is triggered by the EEC to start ACT. The AC decides to initiate the transfer of application context from the S-EAS to the T-EAS. There may be different ways of transferring context and they are all outside the scope of this specification.

[0220] When in step 1 the ACR for service continuity planning has been triggered, the AC connects to the T-EAS when the UE moves to the predicted location. Otherwise, the rest of this step is skipped.

[0221] After the ACT is completed, the AC remains connected to the T-EAS and disconnects from the S-EAS; the EEC is informed of the completion.

[0222] NOTE 6: Whether and how the AC initiates the ACT is out of scope of the present document.

[0223] When in step 1 the ACR has been triggered for service continuity planning, if the UE does not move to the expected / predicted location the EEC does not connect to T-EES, the AC does not connect to the T-EAS.

[0224] NOTE 7: The S-EAS or T-EAS can further decide to terminate the ACR, and the T-EAS can discard the application context based on information received from EEL and / or other methods (e.g. monitoring the location of the UE). It is up to the implementation of the S-EAS and T-EAS whether and how to make such a decision.

[0225] NOTE 8: It is out of scope of this specification how the AC informs the S-EAS and T-EAS that ACT was part of service continuity planning. When in step 1 the ACR for service continuity planning is triggered, the S-EAS and the T-EAS can wait for the UE to move to the predicted location before they perform the Post ACR Clean up steps 9 and 10 if it is the EAS monitoring whether the UE moves to the predicted / expected location. When the S-EAS and the T-EAS do not wait for the UE (e.g., if the UE does not move to the predicted location), the S-EAS and the T-EAS can perform the Post ACR Clean up with failure messages.

[0226] NOTE 9: If the S-EAS and T-EAS are main EASs forming proxy bundle, other EASs of the bundle may transfer the application contexts in this step. How to execute ACT is out of scope of this document.

[0227] Phase IV: Post-ACR Clean up

[0228] 9. The S-EAS sends the ACR status update message to the S-EES as specified in clause 8.8.3.8.

[0229] 10. The T-EAS sends the ACR status update message to the T-EES as specified in clause 8.8.3.8. If the status indicates a successful ACT, and that the EEC Context relocation procedure was attempted but failed, then the T-EES indicates the failure to the T-EAS with the ACR status update response.

[0230] NOTE 10: If the EDGE-3 subscription initialization result indicates failure, then the EAS can perform the required EDGE-3 subscriptions at the T-EES.

[0231] NOTE 11 : Steps 9 and 10 can occur in any order.

[0232] 11. If the status in step 9 indicates a successful ACT, for non-planning case the S-EES sends the ACR information notification (ACR complete) message immediately to the EEC to confirm that the ACR has completed as specified in clause 8.8.3.5.3. For the service continuity planning case, if it is EES monitors the UE mobility, then only when S-EES detects the UE has moved to the predicted / expected UE location or Expected AC Geographical Service Area and the status in step 9 indicates a successful ACT, then the S-EES sends ACR information notification (ACR complete) message to the EEC indicating that UE has moved to the predicted location when the ACR type is service continuity planning. If the EEC Context relocation procedure was attempted, then the notification includes EEC context relocation status IE, indicating the result of the EEC context relocation procedure. If the EEC context relocation status indicates that the EEC context relocation was not successful, then the EEC may perform the required EDGE-1 operations such as create subscriptions at the T-EES.

[0233] / / END OF CHANGE REQUEST / /

[0234] While reference may be made to “an”, “one”, or “some” example(s) throughout this 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.

[0235] 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.

[0236] 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. The apparatus may be a virtual machine provided by the infrastructure (e.g. a hypervisor, processors, and / or memories) of a cloud computing system. The apparatus may be part of a distributed computing system having a plurality of computing devices (e.g. servers) in communication with each other over a data network. Any portion of or all operations of network function may be performed by the same apparatus or different apparatuses, such one or more computing devices of the distributed computing system.

[0237] 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.

[0238] It is noted that whilst some examples have been described in relation to 5G and 6G networks, similar examples can be applied in relation to other networks and communication systems. Therefore, although certain examples were described above, by way of non-limiting and illustrative 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.

[0239] 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.

[0240] 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 this 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).

[0241] 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”).

[0242] 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 interveningsteps 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.

[0243] FIG. 12 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 (or respective portion(s) thereof) as disclosed herein. In some examples, the at least one memory and the instructions (e.g. program code, software), are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus 10 to perform the method or methods (or respective portion(s) thereof) as disclosed herein. In some examples, the instructions are of an entity (e.g., a first entity, such as a UE, a second entity, such as a server, or a third entity, such as a network function) described herein.

[0244] 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.

[0245] As used herein, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in analog, digital and / or quantum circuitry), and (b) combinations of hardware circuit(s) and software, such as (as applicable): (i) a combination of analog, digital and / or quantum hardware circuit(s) with software / firmware and (ii) any or all portions of hardware processor(s) (including digital and / or quantum processor(s)) with software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile device, user equipment, computing device, or server, to perform various functions) and (c) any or all portions of hardware circuit(s), such as a microprocessor(s), processor(s) and / or quantum processor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0246] 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.

[0247] 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.

[0248] 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).

[0249] For example, the apparatus 10 may be implemented as 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 (or portion(s) thereof) described herein.

[0250] As another example, the apparatus 10 may be implemented as a network node, e.g. the network node described previously. In another example, the apparatus may be comprised in such 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 (or portion(s) thereof) described herein.

[0251] 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 and / or any one or more of the examples described.

[0252] 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.

[0253] The apparatus 10 may comprise an interface (e.g., a user interface) 18 comprising, for example, at least one of a keypad, a microphone, a touch display, a display, a speaker, etc. The interface 18 may be used to control the apparatus (e.g., by the user). The interface 18 may be external to the apparatus 10. For example, the apparatus 10 may be connected to another device, such as a computer, eithervia wireless or wired connection, and the apparatus 10 is controlled via the computer (e.g., by a user).

[0254] 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.

[0255] The scope of protection sought for various examples of this 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 this disclosure.

[0256] Even though various examples have been described above with reference to the drawings, it is clear that these examples are not restricted thereto - but can be modified in many different ways. Therefore, all words and expressions should be interpreted broadly and they are intended to illustrate, not to restrict, these examples. As technology advances, it will become apparent to a person skilled in the art as to how certain examples can be further implemented and / or modified in various ways. Further, it is clear to a person skilled in the art that the examples (or respective portion(s) thereof) described herein may, but are not required to, be combined in various ways with any other examples (or respective portion(s) thereof) described herein.

Claims

46CLAIMS1. A user equipment comprising:means for receiving, from an edge configuration server, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard;means for establishing a connection between the user equipment and a source edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles;means for establishing application context information for the user equipment at the source edge enabler server;means for determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, that application context relocation is required for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; andmeans for sending, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server.

2. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein determining that the application context transfer is required is based on the information indicating the availability of the satellite on which the source edge enabler server is onboard and at least one of the user equipment’s location and / or the user equipment’s predicted location.

3. The user equipment of claim 2, wherein the information indicating the availability of the satellite comprises information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the edge enabler server onboard the satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area,wherein determining that the application context transfer is required comprise determining that the application context relocation is required based on determining that the at least one of the user equipment’s location and / or the user equipment’s predicted location is outside the indicated geographical area or the indicated topological area of the source edge enabler server.

4. An apparatus for an edge configuration server, comprising:means for sending, to a user equipment, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard;47means for receiving, from the user equipment, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from a source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server;means for determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, a target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application context for the user equipment; and means for initiating the application context transfer to the target edge enabler server.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the information indicating the availability of the satellite comprises information indicating at least one of a time or duration when the associated edge enabler server onboard the satellite is available for at least one of an indicated geographical area or an indicated topological area,wherein determining the target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application context for the user equipment is based on the at least one of a time or duration when the associated edge enabler server onboard the satellite is available for the at least one of the indicated geographical area or the indicated topological area.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 or 5, wherein the target edge enabler server is one of: an edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles; ora terrestrial edge enabler server.

7. A user equipment comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the user equipment to at least:receive, from an edge configuration server, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard;establish a connection between the user equipment and a source edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles;establish application context information for the user equipment at the source edge enabler server;determine, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, that application context relocation is required for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; andsend, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server.

488. An apparatus for an edge configuration server, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the edge configuration server to at least:send, to a user equipment, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard;receive, from the user equipment, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from a source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server;determine, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, a target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application context for the user equipment; and initiate the application context transfer to the target edge enabler server.

9. A method for a user equipment, the method comprising:receiving, from an edge configuration server, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard;establishing a connection between the user equipment and a source edge enabler server associated with one of the one or more edge enabler server profiles;establishing application context information for the user equipment at the source edge enabler server;determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, that application context relocation is required for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server; andsending, to an edge configuration server, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from the source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server.

10. A method for an edge configuration server, the method comprising:sending, to a user equipment, a message comprising one or more edge enabler server profiles, each edge enabler server profile comprising information indicating an availability of a satellite on which an associated edge enabler server is onboard;receiving, from the user equipment, a service provisioning request to request application context transfer for the user equipment from a source edge enabler server to a different edge enabler server;determining, based on the one or more edge enabler server profiles, a target edge enabler server to which to transfer the application context for the user equipment; and initiating the application context transfer to the target edge enabler server.

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