Network Slice Session Admission for QoS Continuity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing 4G/5G systems lack efficient mechanisms for network slicing and session management, particularly in managing multiple network slices and ensuring seamless connectivity and QoS across diverse access networks.
Innovation Solution
Implement enhanced session management and network slicing features in 5G systems, including unified policy frameworks, network function virtualization, and service-based interactions, to support multiple network slices and diverse access types, with mechanisms for QoS enforcement and traffic steering.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If 4G/5G systems implement network slicing and multiple access types, then service diversity and adaptability are improved, but system complexity and management difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network into multiple independent network slices, each capable of supporting different service types (e.g., enhanced mobile broadband, ultra-reliable low-latency communication, massive machine type communication). This segmentation allows diverse services to run in isolated virtual networks, improving adaptability while maintaining manageable complexity through modular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a universal session management framework that handles multiple access types (5G New Radio, 4G LTE, non-3GPP accesses) and multiple network slices through a single unified mechanism. The session management function can simultaneously manage PDU sessions across different access networks and slice instances, reducing overall system complexity despite supporting diverse services.
2Reliability
If unified session management is implemented across multiple access networks, then service continuity is improved, but management overhead and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a unified session management function as an intermediary between the access networks and the core network services. This intermediary maintains session context information and coordinates session establishment, modification, and release across multiple access networks (5G NR, 4G LTE, non-3GPP), ensuring service continuity during handovers while centralizing management to reduce overall processing overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The session management function performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing session contexts and maintaining state information before actual handovers or access switches occur. This allows for faster session transitions and reduces management overhead during critical service continuity events, as the groundwork is already prepared in advance.
3Adaptability or versatility
If network function virtualization is deployed, then resource flexibility and scalability are improved, but deployment complexity and security requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent virtualizes network functions into separate, independently deployable instances (e.g., session management functions, user plane functions, control plane functions) that can be deployed across different physical or virtual infrastructure. This segmentation provides resource flexibility and scalability, as each virtualized function can be scaled, updated, or relocated independently, while the modular nature actually reduces deployment complexity compared to monolithic architectures.
Data Source
AI summary
An access and mobility management function receives, from a wireless device, a message requesting establishment of a session for a slice. The access and mobility management function determines that a maximum number of sessions for the slice is reached. The access and mobility management function sends, to the wireless device, based on the determining that the maximum number of sessions for the slice is reached, a message rejecting the establishment of the session for the slice.