Patent Application
20250220406
The non-limiting and exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the technical field of communications, and specifically to methods and apparatuses for relay node discovery.
This section introduces aspects that may facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
In communication networks for example LTE (Long Term Evolution) and NR (new radio) as defined by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), there may be various relay scenarios such as UE (user equipment) to network (NW) relay multi path UE to network relay, etc. In these relay scenarios, it may need to discover a relay UE.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
In 3GPP Release 18, a new work item will be started to specify solutions that are needed to enhance NR Sidelink (SL) Relay for the vehicle-to-everything (V2X), public safety and commercial use cases. Specifically, support of multi-path with UE to NW relay, where a remote UE is connected to network via a direct path and at least one indirect path, has a potential to improve the reliability/robustness as well as throughput. Only intra-gNB (next generation Node B) scenario will be considered in 3GPP Release 18.
Obviously, to implement such feature, the direct Uu path cannot be too bad, otherwise there is little or no benefit to make use of the direct Uu path. In 3GPP Release 17, UE to NW relay is primarily used for coverage extension, e.g., triggering discovery transmission/reception when remote UE has bad Uu quality or out of coverage. In this case it makes no sense to use the direct Uu path, i.e., the current discovery mechanism framework cannot be applied for the case when the remote UE has already had a cellular connection and wants to establish a further sidelink relay link in order to have more data capacity and/or reliability.
Besides, multipath operation is not needed if the remote UE does not have traffic requiring high reliability and/or throughput. With the current discovery triggering mechanism, discovery message may be transmitted/received and the relay path may be set up even the remote UE does not have traffic requiring high reliability and/or throughput, which just leads to increased signaling overhead with no clear benefit.
Therefore, it is necessary to study the above issues and develop a corresponding solution. To overcome or mitigate at least one of above mentioned problems or other problems, the embodiments of the present disclosure propose an improved solution for relay node discovery.
In a first aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a first UE. The method may comprise transmitting a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise first information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. The method may further comprise, when a candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, receiving a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message from the candidate relay UE.
In an embodiment, the first information may comprise at least one of a specific destination layer 2 identifier (ID), a specific sidelink (SL) logical channel (LCH) ID, or an indicator.
In an embodiment, the method may further comprise receiving a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from a candidate relay UE. The multi path
UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise second information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In an embodiment, the second information may comprise at least one of a specific destination layer 2 ID, a specific SL LCH ID, or an indicator.
In an embodiment, the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise at least one of a first kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for data duplication, a second kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for data split, or a third kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for both data duplication and data split.
In an embodiment, a discovery configuration specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication is configured by a network node, preconfigured in a UE or hard-coded in a specification.
In an embodiment, the discovery configuration configured by the network node overrides the discovery configuration preconfigured in the UE or hard-coded in the specification.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is triggered by at least one triggering criterion.
In an embodiment, the at least one triggering criterion may comprise at least one of signal quality threshold, required quality of service (QoS), actual QoS, an amount of data, or an instruction of a network node.
In an embodiment, different signal quality thresholds are configured or preconfigured for triggering transmission and/or reception of single path UE-to-network relay discovery message and transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, different signal quality thresholds are configured or preconfigured for triggering transmission and/or reception of different kinds of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, if a signal quality between the first UE and a network node is between a second lower threshold and a second upper threshold specific for transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message, the transmission or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message of the first UE is triggered.
In an embodiment, the second upper threshold may be configured higher than an upper threshold of a signal quality between the first UE and a network node specific for transmission and/or reception of single path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message for data duplication or both data duplication and data split is triggered if a service or QoS flow or bearer or LCH requires a packet loss or error rate smaller than a threshold or an actual packet loss or error rate of the service or QoS flow or bearer or LCH is higher than a required packet loss or error rate.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message for data split or both data duplication and data split is triggered if a service or QoS flow or bearer or LCH requires a throughput or data rate higher than a threshold or an actual throughput or data rate of the service or QoS flow or bearer or LCH is lower than the required throughput or data rate.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message for data split or both data duplication and data split is triggered if an amount of data to be transmitted and/or received is above a threshold.
In an embodiment, the transmission or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is triggered when the first UE is in radio resource control (RRC) CONNECTED state or when the first UE is in RRC IDLE or INACTIVE state.
In an embodiment, the method may further comprise transmitting to a network device at least one of information indicating that the first UE wants to perform the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, information of a relay UE that the first UE has selected for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, or a sidelink signal quality measurement result of at least one candidate relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In an embodiment, the method may further comprise receiving configuration information for multi-path communication with a new path via a selected relay UE from the network node. The method may further comprise establishing multi-path communication with the new path via the selected relay UE based on the configuration information.
In an embodiment, a signaling between a network device and a UE may comprise is at least one of a common RRC signaling, a dedicated RRC signaling, a paging message, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a layer 1 signaling.
In an embodiment, the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise a communication via a direct path and at least one relay path between the first UE and a network node.
In a second aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a candidate relay UE. The method may comprise receiving a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from a first UE. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise first information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. The method may further comprise, when the candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, transmitting a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message to the first UE.
In an embodiment, the first information may comprise at least one of a specific destination layer 2 identifier (ID), a specific sidelink (SL) logical channel (LCH) ID, or an indicator.
In an embodiment, the method may further comprise transmitting a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise second information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In an embodiment, the second information may comprise at least one of a specific destination layer 2 ID, a specific SL LCH ID, or an indicator.
In an embodiment, the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise at least one of a first kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for data duplication, a second kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for data split, or a third kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for both data duplication and data split.
In an embodiment, a discovery configuration specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication is configured by a network node, preconfigured in a UE or hard-coded in a specification.
In an embodiment, the discovery configuration configured by the network node overrides the discovery configuration preconfigured in the UE or hard-coded in the specification.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is triggered by at least one triggering criterion.
In an embodiment, the at least one triggering criterion may comprise at least one of signal quality threshold, or an instruction of a network node.
In an embodiment, different signal quality thresholds are configured or preconfigured for triggering transmission and/or reception of single path UE-to-network relay discovery message and transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, different signal quality thresholds are configured or preconfigured for triggering transmission and/or reception of different kinds of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, if a signal quality between a candidate relay UE and a network node is between a first lower threshold and a first upper threshold specific for transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message, the transmission or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery announcement or message of the candidate relay UE is triggered.
In an embodiment, if a signal quality between a candidate relay UE and the first UE is above a configured or preconfigured threshold, the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message received from the first UE is replied by the candidate relay UE.
In an embodiment, the first lower threshold and the first upper threshold are configured higher than a lower threshold and an upper threshold of a signal quality between a candidate relay UE and a network node specific for transmission and/or reception of single path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, the configured or preconfigured threshold is different than a threshold of a signal quality between a candidate relay UE and the first UE used for triggering relay UE reselection.
In an embodiment, the transmission or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is triggered when the candidate relay UE is in radio resource control (RRC) CONNECTED state or when the candidate relay UE is in RRC IDLE or INACTIVE state.
In an embodiment, a signaling between a network device and a UE may comprise is at least one of a common RRC signaling, a dedicated RRC signaling, a paging message, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a layer 1 signaling.
In an embodiment, the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise a communication via a direct path and at least one relay path between the first UE and a network node.
In a third aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network device. The method may comprise receiving from a first UE at least one of information indicating that the first UE wants to perform a multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, information of a relay UE that the first UE has selected for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, or a sidelink signal quality measurement result of at least one candidate relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. The method may further comprise determining whether the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication should be configured for the first UE based on the at least one information. The method may further comprise, when the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication should be configured for the first UE, transmitting configuration information for multi-path communication with a new path via a selected relay UE to the first UE.
In an embodiment, the method may further comprise transmitting an instruction to the first UE and/or a candidate relay UE. The instruction indicates the first UE to transmit and/or receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message when a triggering criterion is met. The instruction indicates the candidate relay UE to transmit and/or receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message when a triggering criterion is met.
In an embodiment, a signaling between a network device and a UE may comprise is at least one of a common RRC signaling, a dedicated RRC signaling, a paging message, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a layer 1 signaling.
In an embodiment, the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise a communication via a direct path between the first UE and the network node and at least one relay path between the first UE and the network node.
In a fourth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a first user equipment (UE). The first UE may comprise a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. Said memory contains instructions executable by said processor. Said first UE is operative to transmit a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise first information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. Said first UE is further operative to, when a candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message from the candidate relay UE.
In a fifth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a candidate relay UE. The candidate relay UE may comprise a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. Said memory contains instructions executable by said processor. Said candidate relay UE is operative to receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from a first UE. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise first information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. Said candidate relay UE is further operative to, when the candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, transmit a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message to the first UE.
In a sixth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a network device. The network device may comprise a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. Said memory contains instructions executable by said processor. Said network device is operative to receive from a first UE at least one of information indicating that the first UE wants to perform a multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, information of a relay UE that the first UE has selected for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, or a sidelink signal quality measurement result of at least one candidate relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. Said network device is further operative to determine whether the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication should be configured for the first UE based on the at least one information. Said network device is further operative to, when the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication should be configured for the first UE, transmit configuration information for multi-path communication with a new path via a selected relay UE to the first UE.
In a seventh aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a first UE. The first UE may comprise a first transmitting module configured to transmit a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise first information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. The first UE may further comprise a first receiving module configured to, when a candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message from the candidate relay UE.
In an embodiment, the first UE may further comprise a second receiving module configured to receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from a candidate relay UE. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise second information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In an embodiment, the first UE may further comprise a second transmitting module configured to transmit to a network device at least one of information indicating that the first UE wants to perform the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, information of a relay UE that the first UE has selected for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, or a sidelink signal quality measurement result of at least one candidate relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In an embodiment, the first UE may further comprise a third receiving module configured to receive configuration information for multi-path communication with a new path via a selected relay UE from the network node.
In an embodiment, the first UE may further comprise an establishing module configured to establish multi-path communication with the new path via the selected relay UE based on the configuration information.
In an eighth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a candidate relay UE. The candidate relay UE may comprise a receiving module configured to receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from a first UE. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise first information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. The candidate relay UE may comprise a first transmitting module configured to, when the candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, transmit a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message to the first UE.
In an embodiment, the candidate relay UE may further comprise a second transmitting module configured to transmit a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise second information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In a ninth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a network device. The network device may comprise a receiving module configured to receive from a first UE at least one of information indicating that the first UE wants to perform a multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, information of a relay UE that the first UE has selected for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, or a sidelink signal quality measurement result of at least one candidate relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. The network device may further comprise a determining module configured to determine whether the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication should be configured for the first UE based on the at least one information. The network device may further comprise a first transmitting module configured to, when the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication should be configured for the first UE, transmit configuration information for multi-path communication with a new path via a selected relay UE to the first UE.
In an embodiment, the network device may further comprise a second transmitting module configured to transmit an instruction to the first UE and/or a candidate relay UE. The instruction indicates the first UE to transmit and/or receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message when a triggering criterion is met. The instruction indicates the candidate relay UE to transmit and/or receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message when a triggering criterion is met.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method according to any one of the first, second and third aspects.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method according to any one of the first, second and third aspects.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a communication system including a host computer. The host computer includes processing circuitry configured to provide user data and a communication interface configured to forward the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a terminal device. The cellular network includes the network device above mentioned, and/or the terminal device (such as the first UE and the candidate relay UE above mentioned).
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the system further includes the terminal device. The terminal device is configured to communicate with the network device.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the terminal device includes processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a communication system including a host computer and a network device. The host computer includes a communication interface configured to receive user data originating from a transmission from a terminal device. The transmission is from the terminal device to the network device. The network device is above mentioned, and/or the terminal device is above mentioned first UE and candidate relay UE.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application. The terminal device is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data to be received by the host computer.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method implemented in a communication system which may include a host computer, a network device and a terminal device. The method may comprise providing user data at the host computer. Optionally, the method may comprise, at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the terminal device via a cellular network comprising the network device which may perform any step of the method according to the third aspect of the present disclosure.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a communication system including a host computer. The host computer may comprise processing circuitry configured to provide user data, and a communication interface configured to forward the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a terminal device. The cellular network may comprise a network device having a radio interface and processing circuitry. The network device's processing circuitry may be configured to perform any step of the method according to the third aspect of the present disclosure.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method implemented in a communication system which may include a host computer, a network device and a terminal device. The method may comprise providing user data at the host computer. Optionally, the method may comprise, at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the terminal device via a cellular network comprising the network device. The terminal device may perform any step of the method according to the first and second aspects of the present disclosure.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a communication system including a host computer. The host computer may comprise processing circuitry configured to provide user data, and a communication interface configured to forward user data to a cellular network for transmission to a terminal device. The terminal device may comprise a radio interface and processing circuitry. The terminal device's processing circuitry may be configured to perform any step of the method according to the first and second aspects of the present disclosure.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method implemented in a communication system which may include a host computer, a network device and a terminal device. The method may comprise, at the host computer, receiving user data transmitted to the network device from the terminal device which may perform any step of the method according to the first and second aspects of the present disclosure.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a communication system including a host computer. The host computer may comprise a communication interface configured to receive user data originating from a transmission from a terminal device to a network device. The terminal device may comprise a radio interface and processing circuitry. The terminal device's processing circuitry may be configured to perform any step of the method according to the first and second aspects of the present disclosure.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method implemented in a communication system which may include a host computer, a network device and a terminal device. The method may comprise, at the host computer, receiving, from the network device, user data originating from a transmission which the network device has received from the terminal device. The network device may perform any step of the method according to the third aspect of the present disclosure.
In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a communication system which may include a host computer. The host computer may comprise a communication interface configured to receive user data originating from a transmission from a terminal device to a network device. The network device may comprise a radio interface and processing circuitry. The network device's processing circuitry may be configured to perform any step of the method according to the third aspect of the present disclosure.
Embodiments herein may provide many advantages, of which a non-exhaustive list of examples follows. In some embodiments herein, the discovery message for multi-path UE to NW relaying can be triggered only when the multi-path UE to NW relaying is feasible and needed. This ensures the benefit of applying multi-path UE to NW relaying and avoids unnecessary signaling (i.e., the signaling overhead and UE power consumption are reduced). The embodiments herein are not limited to the features and advantages mentioned above. A person skilled in the art will recognize additional features and advantages upon reading the following detailed description.
The above and other aspects, features, and benefits of various embodiments of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent, by way of example, from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals or letters are used to designate like or equivalent elements. The drawings are illustrated for facilitating better understanding of the embodiments of the disclosure and not necessarily drawn to scale, in which:
The embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that these embodiments are discussed only for the purpose of enabling those skilled persons in the art to better understand and thus implement the present disclosure, rather than suggesting any limitations on the scope of the present disclosure. Reference throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present disclosure should be or are in any single embodiment of the disclosure. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the disclosure may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the disclosure may be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the disclosure.
As used herein, the term “network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards such as new radio (NR), long term evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), high-speed packet access (HSPA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Address (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) and other wireless networks. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), etc. UTRA includes WCDMA and other variants of CDMA. A TDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, Ad-hoc network, wireless sensor network, etc. In the following description, the terms “network” and “system” can be used interchangeably. Furthermore, the communications between two devices in the network may be performed according to any suitable communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the communication protocols as defined by a standard organization such as 3GPP. For example, the communication protocols may comprise the first generation (1G), 2G, 3G, 4G, 4.5G, 5G communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future.
The term “network device” or “network node” refers to any suitable network function (NF) which can be implemented in a network element (physical or virtual) of a communication network. For example, the network function can be implemented either as a network element on a dedicated hardware, as a software instance running on a dedicated hardware, or as a virtualized function instantiated on an appropriate platform, e.g. on a cloud infrastructure. For example, the 5G system (5GS) may comprise a plurality of NFs such as AMF (access and mobility management function), SMF (Session Management Function), AUSF (Authentication Service Function), UDM (Unified Data Management), PCF (Policy Control Function), AF (Application Function), NEF (Network Exposure Function), UPF (User plane Function) and NRF (Network Repository Function), RAN (radio access network), SCP (service communication proxy), NWDAF (network data analytics function), NSSF (Network Slice Selection Function), NSSAAF (Network Slice-Specific Authentication and Authorization Function), etc. For example, the 4G system (such as LTE) may include MME (Mobile Management Entity), HSS (home subscriber server), Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), PGW control plane (PGW-C), Serving gateway (SGW), SGW control plane (SGW-C), E-UTRAN Node B (eNB), etc. In other embodiments, the network function may comprise different types of NFs for example depending on a specific network.
The network device may be an access network device with accessing function in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses to the network and receives services therefrom. The access network device may include a base station (BS), an access point (AP), a multi-cell/multicast coordination entity (MCE), a controller or any other suitable device in a wireless communication network. The BS may be, for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a next generation NodeB (gNodeB or gNB), a remote radio unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth.
Yet further examples of the access network device comprise multi-standard radio (MSR) radio equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, positioning nodes and/or the like. More generally, however, the network node may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a terminal device access to a wireless communication network or to provide some service to a terminal device that has accessed to the wireless communication network.
The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that can access a communication network and receive services therefrom. By way of example and not limitation, the terminal device refers to a mobile terminal, user equipment (UE), or other suitable devices. The UE may be, for example, a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a portable computer, an image capture terminal device such as a digital camera, a gaming terminal device, a music storage and a playback appliance, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a tablet, a wearable device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable computer, a desktop computer, a wearable terminal device, a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mounted equipment (LME), a USB dongle, a smart device, a wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) and the like. In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “terminal”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably. As one example, a terminal device may represent a UE configured for communication in accordance with one or more communication standards promulgated by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), such as 3GPP′ LTE standard or NR standard. As used herein, a “user equipment” or “UE” may not necessarily have a “user” in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device. In some embodiments, a terminal device may be configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a terminal device may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the communication network. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but that may not initially be associated with a specific human user.
As yet another example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, a terminal device may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another terminal device and/or network equipment. The terminal device may in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as a machine-type communication (MTC) device. As one particular example, the terminal device may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) standard. Particular examples of such machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, or home or personal appliances, for example refrigerators, televisions, personal wearables such as watches etc. In other scenarios, a terminal device may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.
References in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.
It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. 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. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed terms.
As used herein, the phrase “at least one of A and B” or “at least one of A or B” should be understood to mean “only A, only B, or both A and B.” The phrase “A and/or B” should be understood to mean “only A, only B, or both A and B”.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “has”, “having”, “includes” and/or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and/or combinations thereof.
It is noted that these terms as used in this document are used only for ease of description and differentiation among nodes, devices or networks etc. With the development of the technology, other terms with the similar/same meanings may also be used.
In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.
3GPP specified the LTE D2D (device-to-device) technology, also known as sidelink (SL) or the PC5 interface, as part of 3GPP Release 12 (Rel-12). The target use cases (UCs) are the Proximity Services (communication and discovery). Support was enhanced during 3GPP Release 12. In 3GPP Release 14, the LTE sidelink was extensively redesigned to support vehicular communications (commonly referred to as V2X or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)). Support was again enhanced during 3GPP Release 15. From the point of view of the lowest radio layers, the LTE SL uses broadcast communication. That is, transmission from a UE targets any receiver that is in range.
ProSe (Proximity Services) was specified in the 3GPP Release 12 and 13 of LTE. Later in 3GPP Release 14 and 15, LTE V2X related enhancements targeting the specific characteristics of vehicular communications were specified. In LTE V2X, only broadcast is supported over sidelink.
In 3GPP Release 16, 3GPP introduced the sidelink for the 5G new radio (NR). The driving UC were vehicular communications with more stringent requirements than those typically served using the LTE SL. To meet these requirements, the NR SL is capable of broadcast, groupcast, and unicast communications. In groupcast communication, the intended receivers of a message are typically a subset of the vehicles near the transmitter, whereas in unicast communication, there is a single intended receiver.
Both the LTE SL and the NR SL can operate with and without network coverage and with varying degrees of interaction between the UEs (user equipment) and the NW (network), including support for standalone, network-less operation.
In 3GPP Release 17, NSPS (National Security and Public Safety) is considered to be an important use case, which can benefit from the already developed NR sidelink features in 3GPP Release 16. Therefore, 3GPP specified enhancements related to NSPS use case taking NR 3GPP Release 16 sidelink as a baseline. Besides, in some scenarios, NSPS services need to operate with partial or w/o NW coverage, such as indoor firefighting, forest firefighting, earthquake rescue, sea rescue, etc. where the infrastructure is (partially) destroyed or not available, therefore, coverage extension is a crucial enabler for NSPS, for both NSPS services communicated between UE and cellular NW and that communicated between UEs over sidelink. In 3GPP Release 17, a SID on NR sidelink relay (RP-193253) was launched which aims to further explore coverage extension for sidelink-based communication, including both UE to NW relay for cellular coverage extension and UE to UE relay for sidelink coverage extension. Now the work has proceeded to normative phase and in the WID only UE to NW relay is considered.
In 3GPP TR 23.752 V17.0.0, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, the layer-2 (L2) based UE-to-Network (U2N) relay is described.
The adaptation rely layer within the UE-to-Network Relay UE can differentiate between signaling radio bearers (SRBs) and data radio bearers (DRBs) for a particular Remote UE. The adaption relay layer is also responsible for mapping PC5 traffic to one or more DRBs of the Uu.
The role of the UE-to-Network Relay UE is to relay the PDUs from the signaling radio bearer without any modifications.
Regarding UE-to-Network relay discovery RAN2 has made the following agreements:
Although the subject matter described herein may be implemented in any appropriate type of system using any suitable components, the embodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a communication system complied with the exemplary system architectures illustrated in
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the UE can establish a signaling connection with the AMF over the reference point N1, as illustrated in
As further illustrated in
Various NFs shown in
The system architecture shows the architecture for a UE used for MTC connecting to the 3GPP network (UTRAN (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network), E-UTRAN (Evolved UTRAN), GERAN (GSM EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) Radio Access Network), etc.) via the Um/Uu/LTE-Uu interfaces. The system architecture also shows the 3GPP network service capability exposure to SCS and AS.
As further illustrated in
Tsms: Reference point used by an entity outside the 3GPP network to communicate with UEs used for MTC via SMS (Short Message Service).
Tsp: Reference point used by a SCS to communicate with the MTC-IWF related control plane signaling.
The end-to-end communications, between the MTC Application in the UE and the MTC Application in the external network, uses services provided by the 3GPP system, and optionally services provided by a Services Capability Server (SCS).
The MTC Application in the external network is typically hosted by an Application Server (AS) and may make use of an SCS for additional value added services. The 3GPP system provides transport, subscriber management and other communication services including various architectural enhancements motivated by, but not restricted to, MTC (e.g. control plane device triggering).
Different models are foreseen for machine type of traffic in what relates to the communication between the AS and the 3GPP system and based on the provider of the SCS. The different architectural models that are supported by the Architectural Reference Model include the Direct Model, Indirect Model and Hybrid Model as described in 3GPP TS 23.682 V17.2.0.
The methods and solution disclosed in the embodiments are described in the context of NR sidelink (SL) communications. However, most of the embodiments are in general applicable to any kind of direct communications between UEs involving device-to-device (D2D) communications such as LTE SL.
Embodiments are described from a TX (transmitting) UE and RX (receiving) UE point of view. Further, it is assumed that a SL UE and its serving network node such as gNB (if the UE is in NW coverage) operates with the same radio access technology (RAT) e.g., NR, LTE, and so on. However, all the embodiments apply without loss of meaning to any combination of RATs between the SL UE and its serving gNB.
The link or radio link over which the signals are transmitted between at least two UEs for D2D operation is called herein as the sidelink (SL). The signals transmitted between the UEs for D2D operation are called herein as SL signals. The term SL may also interchangeably be called as D2D link, V2X link, prose link, peer-to-peer link, PC5 link etc. The SL signals may also interchangeably be called as V2X signals, D2D signals, prose signals, PC5 signals, peer-to-peer signals etc.
The embodiments are applicable to the L2 based UE to NW (U2N) relay. The UE to NW relay UE is denoted as relay UE.
Further, the term “direct path” is used to describe a direct connection between the UE and the network that is operated over the Uu interface. Also, the term “indirect path” is used to describe a connection between the UE and the network via (or with the help of) a middle node that in the present disclosure is called “relay UE”. The UE is also called “remote UE” in these two terms without any loss of meaning.
As used herein, the term “Uu interface” may be referred to as the radio interface between a terminal device and a network device (such as base station, gNB, eNB, etc.). The term “PC5 interface” may be referred to as the radio interface between any two terminal devices.
At block 302, the first UE may transmit a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise first information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
At block 304, when a candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, the first UE may receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message from the candidate relay UE.
The candidate relay UE may determine whether it can act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication in various ways. For example, if the candidate relay UE meets at least one triggering criterion for transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message, it may act as the relay UE. In addition, the candidate relay UE may also consider any other condition, such as remaining capacity of batteries, load information, etc.
In an embodiment, the at least one triggering criterion may comprise at least one of signal quality threshold or an instruction of a network node.
Based on the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message, the first UE may know that the candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. When the first UE receives two or more multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response messages from two or more candidate relay UEs, the first UE may select a candidate relay UE from the two or more candidate relay UEs as a relay UE. Alternatively, the first UE may provide information of the two or more candidate relay UEs to a network node. And then the network node may determine whether the (certain kind of) multi-path communication should be configured for the first UE, and through which relay UE the (certain kind of) multi-path communication should be configured. Then the network node may configure the (certain kind of) multi-path communication with a new path via the selected relay UE for the first UE if it determines to do so.
The first information may be any suitable information such as a bit, an indicator, a flag, a specific identifier, etc.
In an embodiment, the first information may comprise at least one of a specific destination layer 2 identifier (ID), a specific sidelink (SL) logical channel (LCH) ID, or an indicator.
For example, a discovery message (only) for multi-path operation purpose may be identified by a specific destination L2 ID which is included in sidelink control information (SCI) and medium access control (MAC) PDU header, and/or by a specific SL LCH ID which is included in MAC PDU header, and/or an indicator in the discovery message which indicates that (only) multi-path relaying is allowed/expected. It may be further indicated whether the multi-path relaying is used only for a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication such as data duplication or data split or both. Such information may be indicated via sending the discovery message with different destination L2 IDs and/or with different SL LCH IDs, and/or explicitly indicated in the discovery message.
In an embodiment, the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may be a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery solicitation message.
In an embodiment, the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message and the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message may be similar to UE-to-Network Relay Discovery Solicitation message and UE-to-Network Relay Discovery Response message as described in clause 5.3.7.1 of 3GPP TS 23.303 V17.0.0, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The first UE may act as a discoverer UE, i.e., UE-1 in
The candidate relay UE may act as a discoveree UE, i.e., UE-2, UE-3, UE-4 and UE-5 in
At block 312, the first UE may receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from a candidate relay UE. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise second information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
For example, when the candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, it may send the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message and then the first UE may receive the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from the candidate relay UE.
The second information may be any suitable information such as a bit, an indicator, a flag, a specific identifier, etc.
In an embodiment, the second information may comprise at least one of a specific destination layer 2 identifier (ID), a specific sidelink (SL) logical channel (LCH) ID, or an indicator.
For example, a discovery message (only) for multi-path operation purpose may be identified by a specific destination L2 ID which is included in sidelink control information (SCI) and medium access control (MAC) PDU header, and/or by a specific SL LCH ID which is included in MAC PDU header, and/or an indicator in the discovery message which indicates that (only) multi-path relaying is allowed/expected. It may be further indicated whether the multi-path relaying is used only for a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication such as data duplication or data split or both. Such information may be indicated via sending the discovery message with different destination L2 IDs and/or with different SL LCH IDs, and/or explicitly indicated in the discovery message.
Based on the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from the candidate relay UE, the first UE may know that the candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. When the first UE receives two or more multi path UE-to-network relay discovery messages from two or more candidate relay UEs, the first UE may select a candidate relay UE from the two or more candidate relay UEs as a relay UE. Alternatively, the first UE may provide information of the two or more candidate relay UEs to a network node. And then the network node may determine whether the (certain kind of) multi-path communication should be configured for the first UE, and through which relay UE the (certain kind of) multi-path communication should be configured. Then the network node may configure the (certain kind of) multi-path communication with the new path via the selected relay UE for the first UE if it determines to do so.
In an embodiment, the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message sent by the candidate relay UE may be a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery announcement message.
The candidate relay UE may act as an announcing UE, i.e., UE-1 in
The first UE may act as a monitoring UE, i.e., UE-2, UE-3, UE-4 or UE-5 in
The announcing UE-1 may broadcast the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery announcement message at pre-defined discovery intervals and the monitoring UEs that are interested in the message read it and process them.
In an embodiment, the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message sent by the candidate relay UE may be similar to UE-to-Network Relay Discovery Announcement message as described in clause 5.3.7.1 of 3GPP TS 23.303 V17.0.0.
The specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise any suitable kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication for example depending on service requirement and subscription data, etc.
In an embodiment, the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise at least one of a first kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for data duplication, a second kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for data split, or a third kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for both data duplication and data split.
In an embodiment, only UE such as candidate relay UE and/or remote UE that support (and intend to use) the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may transmit/receive the (corresponding kind of) multi path relay discovery message. A certain kind of multi path relay discovery message refers to the discovery message is specific for (the certain kind of) multi-path relay operation, e.g., for discovering relay UEs allowing (the certain kind of) multi path UE to NW relaying.
In an embodiment, a discovery configuration specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication is configured by a network node, preconfigured in a UE or hard-coded in a specification.
In an embodiment, the discovery configuration configured by the network node overrides the discovery configuration preconfigured in the UE or hard-coded in the specification.
For example, the discovery configuration specific for multi-path relay operation may be configured by a network node such as gNB, preconfigured in the UE or hard-coded in the specification. The network node such as gNB may override (pre-)configured or hard-coded discovery configuration.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is triggered by at least one triggering criterion. The at least one triggering criterion may be configured by an operator or application server.
The at least one triggering criterion may comprise any suitable triggering criterion which may be determined for example based on quality of service (QoS) requirement, network situation, network load, cost, quality of experience (QoE), service requirement, subscription data, etc.
In an embodiment, the at least one triggering criterion comprises at least one of signal quality threshold, required quality of service (QoS), actual QoS, an amount of data, or an instruction of a network node.
In an embodiment, different signal quality thresholds are configured or preconfigured for triggering transmission and/or reception of single path UE-to-network relay discovery message and transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, different signal quality thresholds are configured or preconfigured for triggering transmission and/or reception of different kinds of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, if a signal quality between the first UE and a network node is between a second lower threshold and a second upper threshold specific for transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message, the transmission or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message of the first UE is triggered.
In an embodiment, the second upper threshold is configured higher than an upper threshold of a signal quality between the first UE and a network node specific for transmission and/or reception of single path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
For example, different thresholds are (pre) configured for triggering transmission/reception of single path UE-to-network relay discovery message (i.e., UE to NW discovery message introduced in 3GPP Release 17) and that of (different kinds of) multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
Candidate relay UE may transmit/receive multi-path discovery message if its Uu quality is between a lower threshold and an upper threshold specific for multi-path relay operation (i.e., the relay UE should/could (only) be used for multi-path operation while one of the paths is via the relay UE), where the lower threshold (denoted as threshLow_multipathrelay) and the upper threshold (denoted as threshHigh_multipathrelay) are different from the lower threshold (i.e., threshLow_relay) and the upper threshold (i.e., threshHigh_relay) used for triggering single path discovery message transmission/reception at relay UE. Preferably threshLow_multipathrelay and threshHigh_multipathrelay are configured higher than threshLow_relay and threshHigh_relay which means a relay UE is (only) allowed to perform multi-path relaying when its Uu quality is relatively good.
Remote UE transmit/receive multi-path discovery message if its Uu quality is between a lower threshold and an upper threshold specific for multi-path relay operation (i.e., the remote UE should/could (only) perform multi-path operation while one of the paths is via a relay UE), where the upper threshold (denoted threshHigh_multipathremote) are different from the threshold (i.e., threshHigh_remote) used for triggering single path discovery message transmission/reception at remote UE. Preferably threshHigh_multipathremote is configured higher than threshHigh_remote and threshLow_multipathremote is not configured too low which means a remote UE is (only) allowed to perform the multi-path communication while one path is the direct path when its Uu quality is not too low.
Candidate relay UE replies to a multi-path relay discovery message received from a remote UE only if its PC5 channel quality with this remote UE is above a (pre) configured threshold (denoted threshPC5_multipath). Otherwise, the relay does not reply to the discovery message received from the remote UE or replies with a negative response (e.g., the multi-path operation is not allowed for the remote UE). threshPC5_multipath may be (pre) configured differently than the PC5 threshold used for triggering relay UE reselection in 3GPP Release 17.
For the candidate relay UE and/or the remote UE, the thresholds for triggering transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message may be (pre) configured differently depending on whether the multi-path relaying is used only for data duplication or data split or both. If only thresholds corresponding to data duplication/data split are met, the multi-path relay discovery message should only be sent with the destination L2 ID and/or with SL LCH ID corresponding to data duplication/data split, and/or the discovery message should explicitly indicate that only data duplication/data split is allowed.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message for data duplication or both data duplication and data split is triggered if a service or QoS flow or bearer or LCH requires a packet loss or error rate smaller than a threshold or an actual packet loss or error rate of the service or QoS flow or bearer or LCH is higher than a required packet loss or error rate.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message for data split or both data duplication and data split is triggered if a service or QoS flow or bearer or LCH requires a throughput or data rate higher than a threshold or an actual throughput or data rate of the service or QoS flow or bearer or LCH is lower than the required throughput or data rat.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message for data split or both data duplication and data split is triggered if an amount of data to be transmitted and/or received is above a threshold.
For example, a remote UE may consider QoS requirement and/or traffic situation in triggering transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message.
It triggers transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message only for data duplication or both data duplication and data split if it has service/QoS flow/bearer/LCH with high reliability requirement, e.g., required packet loss/error rate is smaller than a (pre) configured threshold based on calculation/estimation of the corresponding parameters at the UE. Optionally the discovery message is transmitted/received only when also the actually experienced packet loss/error rate is higher than the required packet loss/error rate.
It triggers transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message only for data split or both data duplication and data split if it has service/QoS flow/bearer/LCH with high data rate requirement, e.g., required throughput/data rate is higher than a (pre) configured threshold. Optionally the discovery message is transmitted/received only when also the actually experienced throughput/data rate is lower than the required throughput/data rate.
It triggers transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message (at least for data split) when the amount of data to be transmitted/received is above a (pre) configured threshold.
The triggering criterion described in the above embodiments may be considered jointly or separately, for instance, a candidate relay UE may reply to a multi-path relay discovery message received from a remote UE when both the PC5 channel quality with this remote UE is above threshPC5_multipath and its Uu quality is between threshLow_multipathrelay and threshHigh_multipathrelay, while a remote UE may trigger the transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message when both the link quality criterion described in the second embodiment and the QoS/traffic criterion described in the fourth embodiment are met.
In an embodiment, the transmission or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is triggered when the first UE is in radio resource control (RRC) CONNECTED state or when the first UE is in RRC IDLE or INACTIVE state.
For example, a remote UE may only trigger transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message when it is in RRC CONNECTED, i.e., the additional path can only be established when the remote UE already has (at least) one path established and already connects to the gNB. In another example, the remote UE is allowed to trigger transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message when it is in RRC IDLE/INACTIVE.
At block 322, the first UE may transmit to a network device at least one of: information indicating that the first UE wants to perform the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication; information of a relay UE that the first UE has selected for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication; or a sidelink signal quality measurement result of at least one candidate relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
For example, when the remote UE connected to the network node such as gNB (via e.g., the direct path), the remote UE may inform any one or more of the following information to the network node such as the gNB:
Based on the above information, the network node such as gNB determines whether the (certain kind of) multi-path communication should be configured for the remote UE, and through which relay UE the (certain kind of) multi-path communication should be configured. Then the network node such as gNB configures the (certain kind of) multi-path communication with the new path via the selected relay UE for the remote UE if it determines to do so.
At block 332, the first UE may receive configuration information for multi-path communication with a new path via a selected relay UE from the network node.
At block 334, the first UE may establish multi-path communication with the new path via the selected relay UE based on the configuration information.
For example, the remote UE and/or the relay UE may only transmit/receive (a certain kind of) multi-path relay discovery message when the network node such as gNB instructs it to do so. For instance, a remote UE may inform its network node such as gNB that it wants to perform (a certain kind of) multi-path communication. In case the network node such as gNB determines that (the certain kind of) multi-path communication should/could be performed, the network node such as gNB informs this to the remote UE and the remote UE will trigger transmission/reception of (the certain kind of) multi-path relay discovery message if the triggering criterion as described in the previous embodiments (e.g., the link quality and/or the QoS/traffic based on criterion) are met. In addition, the network node such as gNB may also provide the remote UE with a list of potential candidate relay UEs which the remote UE may include in the discovery message it sends out and/or the remote UE only receives/measures on the discovery message sent from the candidate relay UEs.
The network node such as gNB may inform the relay UEs under its coverage that (a certain kind of) multi-path communication needs to be performed and (the corresponding kind of) multi-path relay discovery message needs to be transmitted/received. The relay UEs under its coverage will then trigger transmission/reception of (the corresponding kind of) multi-path relay discovery message if the triggering criterion as described in the previous embodiments (e.g., the link quality and/or the QoS/traffic based on criterion) are met.
In an embodiment, a signaling between a network device and a UE may comprise at least one of a common RRC signaling, a dedicated RRC signaling, a paging message, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a layer 1 signaling.
For example, the signaling between network node such as gNB and UE for the configurations/informing purpose described in the above embodiments may be sent via one of the following signaling alternatives: common RRC signaling (e.g., system information), dedicated RRC signaling, paging message, MAC CE, layer 1 signaling on physical channels including
PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel), PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel), etc.
In an embodiment, the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise a communication via a direct path and at least one relay path between the first UE and a network node.
At block 402, the candidate relay UE may receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from a first UE. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise first information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication. For example, the first UE may send the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message at block 304 of
In an embodiment, the first information may comprise at least one of a specific destination layer 2 identifier (ID), a specific sidelink (SL) logical channel (LCH) ID, or an indicator.
At block 404, when the candidate relay UE is able to act as a relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, the candidate relay UE may transmit a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery response message to the first UE.
At block 412, the candidate relay UE may transmit a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message may comprise second information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In an embodiment, the second information may comprise at least one of a specific destination layer 2 ID, a specific SL LCH ID, or an indicator.
In an embodiment, the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise at least one of a first kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for data duplication, a second kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for data split, or a third kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication which is used for both data duplication and data split.
In an embodiment, a discovery configuration specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication is configured by a network node, preconfigured in a UE or hard-coded in a specification.
In an embodiment, the discovery configuration configured by the network node overrides the discovery configuration preconfigured in the UE or hard-coded in the specification.
In an embodiment, transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is triggered by at least one triggering criterion.
In an embodiment, the at least one triggering criterion may comprise at least one of signal quality threshold, or an instruction of a network node.
In an embodiment, different signal quality thresholds are configured or preconfigured for triggering transmission and/or reception of single path UE-to-network relay discovery message and transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, different signal quality thresholds are configured or preconfigured for triggering transmission and/or reception of different kinds of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, if a signal quality between a candidate relay UE and a network node is between a first lower threshold and a first upper threshold specific for transmission and/or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message, the transmission or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery announcement or message of the candidate relay UE is triggered.
In an embodiment, if a signal quality between a candidate relay UE and the first UE is above a configured or preconfigured threshold, the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message received from the first UE is replied by the candidate relay UE.
In an embodiment, the first lower threshold and the first upper threshold are configured higher than a lower threshold and an upper threshold of a signal quality between a candidate relay UE and a network node specific for transmission and/or reception of single path UE-to-network relay discovery message.
In an embodiment, the configured or preconfigured threshold is different than a threshold of a signal quality between a candidate relay UE and the first UE used for triggering relay UE reselection.
In an embodiment, the transmission or reception of multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is triggered when the candidate relay UE is in radio resource control (RRC) CONNECTED state or when the candidate relay UE is in RRC IDLE or INACTIVE state.
In an embodiment, a signaling between a network device and a UE may comprise is at least one of a common RRC signaling, a dedicated RRC signaling, a paging message, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a layer 1 signaling.
In an embodiment, the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise a communication via a direct path and at least one relay path between the first UE and a network node.
At block 502, the network device may receive from a first UE at least one of information indicating that the first UE wants to perform a multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication; information of a relay UE that the first UE has selected for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication; or a sidelink signal quality measurement result of at least one candidate relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
For example, the first UE may transmit the at least one information to the network node at block 322 of
At block 504, the network device may determine whether the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication should be configured for the first UE based on the at least one information.
At block 506, when the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication should be configured for the first UE, the network device may transmit configuration information for multi-path communication with a new path via a selected relay UE to the first UE.
At block 602, the network device may transmit an instruction to the first UE and/or a candidate relay UE. The instruction indicates the first UE to transmit and/or receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message when a triggering criterion is met. The instruction indicates the candidate relay UE to transmit and/or receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message when a triggering criterion is met.
In an embodiment, a signaling between a network device and a UE may comprise is at least one of a common RRC signaling, a dedicated RRC signaling, a paging message, medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a layer 1 signaling.
In an embodiment, the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication may comprise a communication via a direct path and at least one relay path between the first UE and a network node.
According to various embodiments, it introduces multi-path relay discovery message (i.e., discovery message specific for multi-path relaying purpose) which may be identified by a specific destination L2 ID, and/or a specific SL LCH ID, and/or explicit indication in the discovery message.
According to various embodiments, different multi-path relay discovery message may be introduced for different kinds of multi-path operation (i.e., data duplication and/or data split).
According to various embodiments, different thresholds are configured for triggering transmission/reception of single path relay discovery message introduced in 3GPP Release 17 and that of multi path relay discovery message.
According to various embodiments, a remote UE may consider QoS requirement and/or traffic situation in triggering transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message.
According to various embodiments, a remote UE may only trigger transmission/reception of multi-path relay discovery message when it is in RRC CONNECTED.
According to various embodiments, a remote UE may inform its serving gNB that it wants to perform (a certain kind of) multi-path communication together with other related assistance info, based on which the gNB determines whether/how to configure the multi-path communication for the remote UE.
According to various embodiments, a remote UE and/or a relay UE may only transmit/receive (a certain kind of) multi-path relay discovery message when the network node such as gNB instructs it to do so.
Embodiments herein may provide many advantages, of which a non-exhaustive list of examples follows. In some embodiments herein, the discovery message for multi-path UE to NW relaying can be triggered only when the multi-path UE to NW relaying is feasible and needed. This ensures the benefit of applying multi-path UE to NW relaying and avoids unnecessary signaling (i.e., the signaling overhead and UE power consumption are reduced). The embodiments herein are not limited to the features and advantages mentioned above. A person skilled in the art will recognize additional features and advantages upon reading the following detailed description.
The apparatus 700 comprises at least one processor 721, such as a digital processor (DP), and at least one memory (MEM) 722 coupled to the processor 721. The apparatus 700 may further comprise a transmitter TX and receiver RX 723 coupled to the processor 721. The MEM 722 stores a program (PROG) 724. The PROG 724 may include instructions that, when executed on the associated processor 721, enable the apparatus 700 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure. A combination of the at least one processor 721 and the at least one MEM 722 may form processing means 725 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.
Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by computer program executable by one or more of the processor 721, software, firmware, hardware or in a combination thereof.
The MEM 722 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memories and removable memories, as non-limiting examples.
The processor 721 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.
In an embodiment where the apparatus is implemented as or at the first UE, the memory 722 contains instructions executable by the processor 721, whereby the first UE operates according to any of the methods related to the first UE as described above.
In an embodiment where the apparatus is implemented as or at the candidate relay UE, the memory 722 contains instructions executable by the processor 721, whereby the candidate relay UE operates according to any of the methods related to the candidate relay UE as described above.
In an embodiment where the apparatus is implemented as or at the network device, the memory 722 contains instructions executable by the processor 721, whereby the network device operates according to any of the methods related to the network device as described above.
In an embodiment, the first UE 800 may further comprise a second receiving module 803 configured to receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message from a candidate relay UE. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message comprises second information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or a specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In an embodiment, the first UE 800 may further comprise a second transmitting module 804 configured to transmit to a network device at least one of information indicating that the first UE wants to perform the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, information of a relay UE that the first UE has selected for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication, or a sidelink signal quality measurement result of at least one candidate relay UE used for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In an embodiment, the first UE 800 may further comprise a third receiving module 805 configured to receive configuration information for multi-path communication with a new path via a selected relay UE from the network node.
In an embodiment, the first UE 800 may further comprise an establishing module 806 configured to establish multi-path communication with the new path via the selected relay UE based on the configuration information.
In an embodiment, the candidate relay UE 850 may further comprise a second transmitting module 853 configured to transmit a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message. The multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message comprises second information indicating that the multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message is specific for the multi-path UE-to-network relay communication or the specific kind of multi-path UE-to-network relay communication.
In an embodiment, the network device 880 may further comprise a second transmitting module 884 configured to transmit an instruction to the first UE and/or a candidate relay UE. The instruction indicates the first UE to transmit and/or receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message when a triggering criterion is met. The instruction indicates the candidate relay UE to transmit and/or receive a multi path UE-to-network relay discovery message when a triggering criterion is met.
The term unit or module may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices and/or electronic devices and may include, for example, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules, processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices, computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks, procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and so on, as such as those that are described herein.
With function units, the first UE, the candidate relay UE or the network device may not need a fixed processor or memory, any computing resource and storage resource may be arranged from the first UE, the candidate relay UE or the network device in the communication system. The introduction of virtualization technology and network computing technology may improve the usage efficiency of the network resources and the flexibility of the network.
According to an aspect of the disclosure it is provided a computer program product being tangibly stored on a computer readable storage medium and including instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out any of the methods as described above.
According to an aspect of the disclosure it is provided a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out any of the methods as described above.
Further, the exemplary overall commutation system including the terminal device and the network node will be introduced as below.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a communication system including a host computer including: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a communication interface configured to forward the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a terminal device. The cellular network includes a base station such as the network device above mentioned, and/or the terminal device such as the first UE and the candidate relay UE above mentioned.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the system further includes the terminal device. The terminal device is configured to communicate with the base station.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the terminal device includes processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application.
Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a communication system including a host computer including: a communication interface configured to receive user data originating from a transmission from a terminal device; a base station. The transmission is from the terminal device to the base station. The base station is above mentioned network device, and/or the terminal device is above mentioned.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application. The terminal device is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data to be received by the host computer.
Although the subject matter described herein may be implemented in any appropriate type of system using any suitable components, the embodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a wireless network, such as the example wireless network illustrated in
The wireless network may comprise and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio network or other similar type of system. In some embodiments, the wireless network may be configured to operate according to specific standards or other types of predefined rules or procedures. Thus, particular embodiments of the wireless network may implement communication standards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standards; wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 standards; and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave and/or ZigBee standards.
Network 1006 may comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks, IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTNs), packet data networks, optical networks, wide-area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks, wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks to enable communication between devices.
Network node 1060 and WD 1010 comprise various components described in more detail below. These components work together in order to provide network node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providing wireless connections in a wireless network. In different embodiments, the wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices, relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections.
As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a wireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the wireless network to enable and/or provide wireless access to the wireless device and/or to perform other functions (e.g., administration) in the wireless network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)). Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and may then also be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS). Yet further examples of network nodes include multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SON nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs. As another example, a network node may be a virtual network node as described in more detail below. More generally, however, network nodes may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with access to the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless device that has accessed the wireless network.
In
Similarly, network node 1060 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which network node 1060 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeB's. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, network node 1060 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate device readable medium 1080 for the different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the same antenna 1062 may be shared by the RATs). Network node 1060 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1060, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 1060.
Processing circuitry 1070 is configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being provided by a network node. These operations performed by processing circuitry 1070 may include processing information obtained by processing circuitry 1070 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
Processing circuitry 1070 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1060 components, such as device readable medium 1080, network node 1060 functionality. For example, processing circuitry 1070 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium 1080 or in memory within processing circuitry 1070. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussed herein. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1070 may include a system on a chip (SOC).
In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1070 may include one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1072 and baseband processing circuitry 1074. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1072 and baseband processing circuitry 1074 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1072 and baseband processing circuitry 1074 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units
In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB or other such network device may be performed by processing circuitry 1070 executing instructions stored on device readable medium 1080 or memory within processing circuitry 1070. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry 1070 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readable medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device readable storage medium or not, processing circuitry 1070 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry 1070 alone or to other components of network node 1060, but are enjoyed by network node 1060 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.
Device readable medium 1080 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by processing circuitry 1070. Device readable medium 1080 may store any suitable instructions, data or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by processing circuitry 1070 and, utilized by network node 1060. Device readable medium 1080 may be used to store any calculations made by processing circuitry 1070 and/or any data received via interface 1090. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1070 and device readable medium 1080 may be considered to be integrated.
Interface 1090 is used in the wired or wireless communication of signaling and/or data between network node 1060, network 1006, and/or WDs 1010. As illustrated, interface 1090 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 1094 to send and receive data, for example to and from network 1006 over a wired connection. Interface 1090 also includes radio front end circuitry 1092 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, antenna 1062. Radio front end circuitry 1092 comprises filters 1098 and amplifiers 1096. Radio front end circuitry 1092 may be connected to antenna 1062 and processing circuitry 1070. Radio front end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1062 and processing circuitry 1070. Radio front end circuitry 1092 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry 1092 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1098 and/or amplifiers 1096. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna 1062. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 1062 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry 1092. The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry 1070. In other embodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
In certain alternative embodiments, network node 1060 may not include separate radio front end circuitry 1092, instead, processing circuitry 1070 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna 1062 without separate radio front end circuitry 1092. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuitry 1072 may be considered a part of interface 1090. In still other embodiments, interface 1090 may include one or more ports or terminals 1094, radio front end circuitry 1092, and RF transceiver circuitry 1072, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and interface 1090 may communicate with baseband processing circuitry 1074, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).
Antenna 1062 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna 1062 may be coupled to radio front end circuitry 1090 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In some embodiments, antenna 1062 may comprise one or more omni-directional, sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receive radio signals between, for example, 2 GHz and 66 GHz. An omni-directional antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals in any direction, a sector antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals from devices within a particular area, and a panel antenna may be a line of sight antenna used to transmit/receive radio signals in a relatively straight line. In some instances, the use of more than one antenna may be referred to as MIMO. In certain embodiments, antenna 1062 may be separate from network node 1060 and may be connectable to network node 1060 through an interface or port.
Antenna 1062, interface 1090, and/or processing circuitry 1070 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, antenna 1062, interface 1090, and/or processing circuitry 1070 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment.
Power circuitry 1087 may comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry and is configured to supply the components of network node 1060 with power for performing the functionality described herein. Power circuitry 1087 may receive power from power source 1086. Power source 1086 and/or power circuitry 1087 may be configured to provide power to the various components of network node 1060 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). Power source 1086 may either be included in, or external to, power circuitry 1087 and/or network node 1060. For example, network node 1060 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry 1087. As a further example, power source 1086 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry 1087. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail. Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices, may also be used.
Alternative embodiments of network node 1060 may include additional components beyond those shown in
As used herein, wireless device (WD) refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other wireless devices. Unless otherwise noted, the term WD may be used interchangeably herein with user equipment (UE). Communicating wirelessly may involve transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information through air. In some embodiments, a WD may be configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a WD may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the network. Examples of a WD include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone, a voice over IP (VOIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless cameras, a gaming console or device, a music storage device, a playback appliance, a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a tablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mounted equipment (LME), a smart device, a wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, etc. A WD may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and may in this case be referred to as a D2D communication device. As yet another specific example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, a WD may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another WD and/or a network node. The WD may in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the WD may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) standard. Particular examples of such machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, or home or personal appliances (e.g. refrigerators, televisions, etc.) personal wearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers, etc.). In other scenarios, a WD may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation. A WD as described above may represent the endpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wireless terminal. Furthermore, a WD as described above may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal.
As illustrated, wireless device 1010 includes antenna 1011, interface 1014, processing circuitry 1020, device readable medium 1030, user interface equipment 1032, auxiliary equipment 1034, power source 1036 and power circuitry 1037. WD 1010 may include multiple sets of one or more of the illustrated components for different wireless technologies supported by WD 1010, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chips or set of chips as other components within WD 1010.
Antenna 1011 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals, and is connected to interface 1014. In certain alternative embodiments, antenna 1011 may be separate from WD 1010 and be connectable to WD 1010 through an interface or port. Antenna 1011, interface 1014, and/or processing circuitry 1020 may be configured to perform any receiving or transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a WD. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a network node and/or another WD. In some embodiments, radio front end circuitry and/or antenna 1011 may be considered an interface.
As illustrated, interface 1014 comprises radio front end circuitry 1012 and antenna 1011. Radio front end circuitry 1012 comprise one or more filters 1018 and amplifiers 1016. Radio front end circuitry 1014 is connected to antenna 1011 and processing circuitry 1020, and is configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1011 and processing circuitry 1020. Radio front end circuitry 1012 may be coupled to or a part of antenna 1011. In some embodiments, WD 1010 may not include separate radio front end circuitry 1012; rather, processing circuitry 1020 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna 1011. Similarly, in some embodiments, some or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1022 may be considered a part of interface 1014. Radio front end circuitry 1012 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry 1012 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1018 and/or amplifiers 1016. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna 1011. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 1011 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry 1012. The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry 1020. In other embodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
Processing circuitry 1020 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other WD 1010 components, such as device readable medium 1030, WD 1010 functionality. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features or benefits discussed herein. For example, processing circuitry 1020 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium 1030 or in memory within processing circuitry 1020 to provide the functionality disclosed herein.
As illustrated, processing circuitry 1020 includes one or more of RF transceiver circuitry 1022, baseband processing circuitry 1024, and application processing circuitry 1026. In other embodiments, the processing circuitry may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components. In certain embodiments processing circuitry 1020 of WD 1010 may comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry 1022, baseband processing circuitry 1024, and application processing circuitry 1026 may be on separate chips or sets of chips. In alternative embodiments, part or all of baseband processing circuitry 1024 and application processing circuitry 1026 may be combined into one chip or set of chips, and RF transceiver circuitry 1022 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In still alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1022 and baseband processing circuitry 1024 may be on the same chip or set of chips, and application processing circuitry 1026 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In yet other alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1022, baseband processing circuitry 1024, and application processing circuitry 1026 may be combined in the same chip or set of chips. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry 1022 may be a part of interface 1014. RF transceiver circuitry 1022 may condition RF signals for processing circuitry 1020.
In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being performed by a WD may be provided by processing circuitry 1020 executing instructions stored on device readable medium 1030, which in certain embodiments may be a computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry 1020 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device readable storage medium or not, processing circuitry 1020 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry 1020 alone or to other components of WD 1010, but are enjoyed by WD 1010 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.
Processing circuitry 1020 may be configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being performed by a WD. These operations, as performed by processing circuitry 1020, may include processing information obtained by processing circuitry 1020 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored by WD 1010, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
Device readable medium 1030 may be operable to store a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by processing circuitry 1020. Device readable medium 1030 may include computer memory (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read Only Memory (ROM)), mass storage media (e.g., a hard disk), removable storage media (e.g., a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/or computer executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by processing circuitry 1020. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1020 and device readable medium 1030 may be considered to be integrated.
User interface equipment 1032 may provide components that allow for a human user to interact with WD 1010. Such interaction may be of many forms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc. User interface equipment 1032 may be operable to produce output to the user and to allow the user to provide input to WD 1010. The type of interaction may vary depending on the type of user interface equipment 1032 installed in WD 1010. For example, if WD 1010 is a smart phone, the interaction may be via a touch screen; if WD 1010 is a smart meter, the interaction may be through a screen that provides usage (e.g., the number of gallons used) or a speaker that provides an audible alert (e.g., if smoke is detected). User interface equipment 1032 may include input interfaces, devices and circuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. User interface equipment 1032 is configured to allow input of information into WD 1010, and is connected to processing circuitry 1020 to allow processing circuitry 1020 to process the input information. User interface equipment 1032 may include, for example, a microphone, a proximity or other sensor, keys/buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a USB port, or other input circuitry. User interface equipment 1032 is also configured to allow output of information from WD 1010, and to allow processing circuitry 1020 to output information from WD 1010. User interface equipment 1032 may include, for example, a speaker, a display, vibrating circuitry, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other output circuitry. Using one or more input and output interfaces, devices, and circuits, of user interface equipment 1032, WD 1010 may communicate with end users and/or the wireless network, and allow them to benefit from the functionality described herein.
Auxiliary equipment 1034 is operable to provide more specific functionality which may not be generally performed by WDs. This may comprise specialized sensors for doing measurements for various purposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wired communications etc. The inclusion and type of components of auxiliary equipment 1034 may vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.
Power source 1036 may, in some embodiments, be in the form of a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic devices or power cells, may also be used. WD 1010 may further comprise power circuitry 1037 for delivering power from power source 1036 to the various parts of WD 1010 which need power from power source 1036 to carry out any functionality described or indicated herein. Power circuitry 1037 may in certain embodiments comprise power management circuitry. Power circuitry 1037 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power from an external power source; in which case WD 1010 may be connectable to the external power source (such as an electricity outlet) via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Power circuitry 1037 may also in certain embodiments be operable to deliver power from an external power source to power source 1036. This may be, for example, for the charging of power source 1036. Power circuitry 1037 may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from power source 1036 to make the power suitable for the respective components of WD 1010 to which power is supplied.
In
In
In the depicted embodiment, input/output interface 1105 may be configured to provide a communication interface to an input device, output device, or input and output device. UE 1100 may be configured to use an output device via input/output interface 1105. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a USB port may be used to provide input to and output from UE 1100. The output device may be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. UE 1100 may be configured to use an input device via input/output interface 1105 to allow a user to capture information into UE 1100. The input device may include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, another like sensor, or any combination thereof. For example, the input device may be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digital camera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.
In
RAM 1117 may be configured to interface via bus 1102 to processing circuitry 1101 to provide storage or caching of data or computer instructions during the execution of software programs such as the operating system, application programs, and device drivers. ROM 1119 may be configured to provide computer instructions or data to processing circuitry 1101. For example, ROM 1119 may be configured to store invariant low-level system code or data for basic system functions such as basic input and output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokes from a keyboard that are stored in a non-volatile memory. Storage medium 1121 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, or flash drives. In one example, storage medium 1121 may be configured to include operating system 1123, application program 1125 such as a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application, and data file 1127. Storage medium 1121 may store, for use by UE 1100, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.
Storage medium 1121 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), floppy disk drive, flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity (SIM/RUIM) module, other memory, or any combination thereof. Storage medium 1121 may allow UE 1100 to access computer-executable instructions, application programs or the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied in storage medium 1121, which may comprise a device readable medium.
In
In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions of communication subsystem 1131 may include data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. For example, communication subsystem 1131 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPS communication. Network 1143b may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like network or any combination thereof. For example, network 1143b may be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and/or a near-field network. Power source 1113 may be configured to provide alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) power to components of UE 1100.
The features, benefits and/or functions described herein may be implemented in one of the components of UE 1100 or partitioned across multiple components of UE 1100. Further, the features, benefits, and/or functions described herein may be implemented in any combination of hardware, software or firmware. In one example, communication subsystem 1131 may be configured to include any of the components described herein. Further, processing circuitry 1101 may be configured to communicate with any of such components over bus 1102. In another example, any of such components may be represented by program instructions stored in memory that when executed by processing circuitry 1101 perform the corresponding functions described herein. In another example, the functionality of any of such components may be partitioned between processing circuitry 1101 and communication subsystem 1131. In another example, the non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and the computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.
In some embodiments, some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines implemented in one or more virtual environments 1200 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes 1230. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node may be entirely virtualized.
The functions may be implemented by one or more applications 1220 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) operative to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. Applications 1220 are run in virtualization environment 1200 which provides hardware 1230 comprising processing circuitry 1260 and memory 1290-1. Memory 1290-1 contains instructions 1295 executable by processing circuitry 1260 whereby application 1220 is operative to provide one or more of the features, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.
Virtualization environment 1200, comprises general-purpose or special-purpose network hardware devices 1230 comprising a set of one or more processors or processing circuitry 1260, which may be commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application Specific
Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitry including digital or analog hardware components or special purpose processors. Each hardware device may comprise memory 1290-1 which may be non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions 1295 or software executed by processing circuitry 1260. Each hardware device may comprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs) 1270, also known as network interface cards, which include physical network interface 1280. Each hardware device may also include non-transitory, persistent, machine-readable storage media 1290-2 having stored therein software 1295 and/or instructions executable by processing circuitry 1260. Software 1295 may include any type of software including software for instantiating one or more virtualization layers 1250 (also referred to as hypervisors), software to execute virtual machines 1240 as well as software allowing it to execute functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.
Virtual machines 1240, comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1250 or hypervisor. Different embodiments of the instance of virtual appliance 1220 may be implemented on one or more of virtual machines 1240, and the implementations may be made in different ways.
During operation, processing circuitry 1260 executes software 1295 to instantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer 1250, which may sometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM). Virtualization layer 1250 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to virtual machine 1240.
As shown in
Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.
In the context of NFV, virtual machine 1240 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of virtual machines 1240, and that part of hardware 1230 that executes that virtual machine, be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine and/or hardware shared by that virtual machine with others of the virtual machines 1240, forms a separate virtual network elements (VNE).
Still in the context of NFV, Virtual Network Function (VNF) is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more virtual machines 1240 on top of hardware networking infrastructure 1230 and corresponds to application 1220 in
In some embodiments, one or more radio units 12200 that each include one or more transmitters 12220 and one or more receivers 12210 may be coupled to one or more antennas 12225. Radio units 12200 may communicate directly with hardware nodes 1230 via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station.
In some embodiments, some signaling can be effected with the use of control system 12230 which may alternatively be used for communication between the hardware nodes 1230 and radio units 12200.
With reference to
Telecommunication network 1310 is itself connected to host computer 1330, which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of a standalone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server or as processing resources in a server farm. Host computer 1330 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. Connections 1321 and 1322 between telecommunication network 1310 and host computer 1330 may extend directly from core network 1314 to host computer 1330 or may go via an optional intermediate network 1320. Intermediate network 1320 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; intermediate network 1320, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, intermediate network 1320 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).
The communication system of
Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE, base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to
Communication system 1400 further includes base station 1420 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware 1425 enabling it to communicate with host computer 1410 and with UE 1430. Hardware 1425 may include communication interface 1426 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of communication system 1400, as well as radio interface 1427 for setting up and maintaining at least wireless connection 1470 with UE 1430 located in a coverage area (not shown in
Communication system 1400 further includes UE 1430 already referred to. Its hardware 1435 may include radio interface 1437 configured to set up and maintain wireless connection 1470 with a base station serving a coverage area in which UE 1430 is currently located. Hardware 1435 of UE 1430 further includes processing circuitry 1438, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. UE 1430 may further comprise software 1431, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1430 and executable by processing circuitry 1438. Software 1431 includes client application 1432. Client application 1432 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 1430, with the support of host computer 1410. In host computer 1410, an executing host application 1412 may communicate with the executing client application 1432 via OTT connection 1450 terminating at UE 1430 and host computer 1410. In providing the service to the user, client application 1432 may receive request data from host application 1412 and provide user data in response to the request data. OTT connection 1450 may transfer both the request data and the user data. Client application 1432 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.
It is noted that host computer 1410, base station 1420 and UE 1430 illustrated in
In
Wireless connection 1470 between UE 1430 and base station 1420 is in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to UE 1430 using OTT connection 1450, in which wireless connection 1470 forms the last segment. More precisely, in some embodiments herein, the discovery message for multi-path UE to NW relaying can be triggered only when the multi-path UE to NW relaying is feasible and needed. This ensures the benefit of applying multi-path UE to NW relaying and avoids unnecessary signaling (i.e., the signaling overhead and UE power consumption are reduced).
A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring OTT connection 1450 between host computer 1410 and UE 1430, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring OTT connection 1450 may be implemented in software 1411 and hardware 1415 of host computer 1410 or in software 1431 and hardware 1435 of UE 1430, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which OTT connection 1450 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software 1411, 1431 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of OTT connection 1450 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect base station 1420, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to base station 1420. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating host computer 1410's measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may be implemented in that software 1411 and 1431 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using OTT connection 1450 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.
In addition, the present disclosure may also provide a carrier containing the computer program as mentioned above, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium can be, for example, an optical compact disk or an electronic memory device like a RAM (random access memory), a ROM (read only memory), Flash memory, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, DVD, Blue-ray disc and the like.
The techniques described herein may be implemented by various means so that an apparatus implementing one or more functions of a corresponding apparatus described with an embodiment comprises not only prior art means, but also means for implementing the one or more functions of the corresponding apparatus described with the embodiment and it may comprise separate means for each separate function, or means that may be configured to perform two or more functions. For example, these techniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more apparatuses), firmware (one or more apparatuses), software (one or more modules), or combinations thereof. For a firmware or software, implementation may be made through modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein.
Exemplary embodiments herein have been described above with reference to block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods and apparatuses. It will be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively, can be implemented by various means including computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.
Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the subject matter described herein, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.
While this specification contains many specific implementation details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any implementation or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments of particular implementations. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.
It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as the technology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in various ways. The above described embodiments are given for describing rather than limiting the disclosure, and it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as those skilled in the art readily understand. Such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims. The protection scope of the disclosure is defined by the accompanying claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2022/083124 | Mar 2022 | WO | international |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2023/080718 | 3/10/2023 | WO |
