EP4014532A1

EP4014532A1 - Updating a pci in a du-cu split architecture

Info

Publication number: EP4014532A1
Application number: EP20761650.9A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Angelo Centonza; Ali PARICHEHREHTEROUJENI; Stefan Engström
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2019-08-16
Filing date: 2020-08-14
Publication date: 2022-06-22
Also published as: WO2021034254A1

Abstract

In an example, a method in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU is disclosed. The method comprises sending an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter, and receiving a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

Description

UPDATING A PCI IN A DU-CU SPLIT ARCHITECTURE

TECHNICAL FIELD

Examples of this disclosure relate to updating a parameter of a cell, such as for example a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI) or random access configuration of the cell.

BACKGROUND

Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field, unless a different meaning is clearly given and/or is implied from the context in which it is used. All references to a/an/the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methods disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following or preceding another step and/or where it is implicit that a step must follow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, wherever appropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may apply to any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives, features and advantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from the following description.

5G RAN Architecture

The current 5G radio access network (NG-RAN) architecture is depicted and described in TS 38.401v15.5.0 (e.g. available at http://www.3gpp.Org/ftp//Specs/archive/38_series/38.401/38401-f50.zip) as shown in Figure 1, which shows an example of an overview of a 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) architecture with split RAN node. The Next Generation (NG) architecture can be further described as follows:

• The NG-RAN consists of a set of gNBs connected to the 5GC through the NG interface.

• A gNB can support FDD mode, TDD mode or dual mode operation.

• gNBs can be interconnected through the Xn interface.

• A gNB may consist of a gNB-CU (central unit) and one or more gNB-DUs (distributed units). A gNB-CU and a gNB-

DU is connected via F1 logical interface.

• One gNB-DU is connected to only one gNB-CU. o NOTE: For resiliency/redundancy, a gNB-DU may be connected to multiple gNB-CU by appropriate implementation.

NG, Xn and F1 are logical interfaces. The NG-RAN is layered into a Radio Network Layer (RNL) and a Transport Network Layer (TNL). The NG-RAN architecture, i.e. the NG-RAN logical nodes and interfaces between them, is defined as part of the RNL. For each NG-RAN interface (NG, Xn, F1) the related TNL protocol and the functionality are specified. The TNL provides services for user plane transport, signalling transport. If security protection for control plane and user plane data on TNL of NG-RAN interfaces has to be supported, NDS/IP (3GPP TS 33.401 [x] shall be applied).

A gNB may also be connected to an LTE eNB via the X2 interface. Another architectural option is that where an LTE eNB connected to the Evolved Packet Core network is connected over the X2 interface with a so called en-gNB. The latter is a gNB not connected directly to a CN and connected via X2 to an eNB for the sole purpose of performing dual connectivity.

The architecture in Figure 1 can be expanded by spitting the gNB-CU into two entities. So in the split architecture option, the RAN protocol stack functionality is separated in different parts. The CU-CP (central unit-control plane) is expected to handle the RRC layer, the CU-UP (central unit-user plane) will handle the PDCP layer and the DU will handle the RLC, MAC and PHY layer of the protocol stack. In some further split the DU can be separated units so that one DU handles the PHY parts separately compared to RLC and MAC layers that are handled in another DU.

Figure 2 shows an example of a RAN node split architecture. As shown in Figure 2, different units can handle different protocol stack functionalities, and there will be a need for inter-node communication between the DU, the CU-UP and the CU-CP. This is achieved via F1-C interface related to control plane signaling, via F1-U interface related to user plane signaling for communication between CU and DU and via E1 for communication between CU-UP and CU-CP.

The E1 interface is a logical interface. It supports the exchange of signalling information between the endpoints. From a logical standpoint, the E1 is a point-to-point interface between a gNB-CU-CP and a gNB-CU-UP. The E1 interface enables exchange of UE associated information and non-UE associated information. The E1 interface is a control interface and is not used for user data forwarding.

E-UTRAN Split Architecture

The split RAN architecture described above for the NG RAN is also replicated in E-UTRAN. In E-UTRAN, a similar node structure to the NG RAN can be encountered, namely the E-UTRAN can be split into an eNB-DU and an eNB-CU, where the eNB-DU hosts the RLC/MAC/PFIY protocols and where the gNB-CU hosts the PDCP and RRC protocols. A split eNB connects to other RAN nodes via the X2 interface and with the EPC CN system via the S1 interface. Figure 3 shows an example of a split E-UTRAN architecture defined in 3GPP.

PCI assignment in split RAN architectures

The current 3GPP specifications provide a basic mechanism for physical cell identifier (PCI) assignment and reconfiguration between the gNB-DU and gNB-CU by leveraging standardized signaling over F1 logical interface as shown in Figure 4, which shows an example of signaling between gNB-DU and gNB-CU-CP with possibility of reconfiguring PCI. As is shown in Figure 4, the gNB-DU and its cells can be configured by DU OAM in the F1 pre-operational state. Flence preconfiguration of the PCI may be decided by Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) or by DU itself.

Once the pre-configuration of the cells is done, the gNB-DU may send an F1 SETUP REQUEST message to the gNB-CU including a list of cells that are pre-configured and ready to be activated as part of Served Cell Information information element (IE). As shown in Figure 4, the gNB-CU may ensure the connectivity toward the core network via NG Setup or the gNB Configuration Update procedure towards 5GC. Then, gNB-CU via response message may indicate that gNB-DU need to reconfigure the PCI of some cells upon detection of PCI collision or confusion. gNB-DU detects such request from gNB-CU- CP if a new PCI is configured beside the CGI as part of F1 Setup Response. Below is an excerpt from 38.473 (3GPP TS 38.473, Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NG-RAN; F1 application protocol (F1AP), 3GPP, V15.6.0, 2019-07), which is incorporated herein by reference:

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The gNB-CU may include the Cells to be Activated List IE in the F1 SETUP RESPONSE message. The Cells to be Activated List\E includes a list of cells that the gNB-CU requests the gNB-DU to activate. The gNB-DU shall activate the cells included in the Cells to be Activated List IE and reconfigure the physical cell identity for cells for which the NR PCi IE is included.

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The gNB-DU may initiate the gNB-DU Configuration Update procedure towards the gNB-CU and includes the cell(s) that are In-Service and/or the cell(s) that are Out-Of-Service. The gNB-DU may also indicate cell(s) to be deleted, in which case the gNB-CU removes the corresponding cell(s) information. Then the gNB-CU may send a gNB-DU Configuration update acknowledge message to the gNB-DU and indicate whether PCI of activated cells need to be reconfigured with new PCI. Below is an excerpt from 38.473:

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If Cells to be Activated List item IE is contained in the GNB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE ACKNOWLEDGE message, the gNB-DU shall activate the cell indicated by NR CGI IE and reconfigure the physical cell identity for cells for which the NR PCI IE is included.

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In addition to the above signalling, the gNB-CU may send a GNB-CU-CP CONFIGURATION UPDATE message to the gNB-DU that optionally includes a list of cells to be activated (e.g., in case that these cells were not activated using the F1 SETUP RESPONSE message), as well as the new PCI for the activated cell if required. gNB-DU should apply the changes and reconfigure the cells requested to be reconfigured with new PCI. The following is an excerpt from 38.473:

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If Cells to be Activated List Item IE is contained in the GNB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, the gNB-DU shall activate the cell indicated by NR CGI IE and reconfigure the physical cell identity for which the NR PCI IE is included. The gNB-DU replies with a GNB-CU-CP CONFIGURATION UPDATE ACKNOWLEDGE message that optionally includes a list of cells that failed to be activated. The gNB-CU regards all Active cells as Out-Of-Service until the gNB-DU indicates that they are In-Service.

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To summarize, in DU-CU split architecture it is assumed that the gNB-DU is provisioned with PCIs for each supported cell. For every Served Cell signalled by the gNB-DU at F1 Setup Request or gNB-DU Configuration Update, the gNB-DU includes a PCI that was preconfigured at the gNB-DU. The gNB-CU is able to re-assign a PCI to any given cell of a gNB-DU either at the time of cell activation, or while a cell is already in active state.

As shown above, the change of PCI can be provided from the gNB-CU to the gNB-DU by means of including a new PCI for a specified gNB-DU cell in the F1 Setup Response message, or gNB-CU Configuration Update message or in the gNB-DU configuration Update Acknowledge message.

The criteria according to which the gNB-CU provisions the gNB-DU with a new PCI for a given cell are gNB-CU implementation specific and comprise the detection of issues such as PCI collision or PCI confusion.

PCI collision is defined as the case where one cell has a neighbour cell with the same PCI. This may lead to issues such as dropped connections.

PCI confusion is defined as the case where one cell has two or more neighbour cells, which have the same PCI. This may lead to failed handovers or dropped connections.

SUMMARY

One aspect of the present disclosure provides a method in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU. The method comprises sending an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter, and receiving a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU. The method comprises receiving an instruction to update the parameter, performing the update of the parameter, and sending a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides apparatus in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU. The apparatus comprises a processor and a memory. The memory contains instructions executable by the processor such that the apparatus is operable to send an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter, and receive a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed. Another aspect of the present disclosure provides apparatus for updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU. The apparatus comprises a processor and a memory. The memory contains instructions executable by the processor such that the apparatus is operable to receive an instruction to update the parameter, perform the update of the parameter, and send a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides apparatus in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU. The apparatus is configured to send an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter, and receive a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides apparatus for updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU. The apparatus is configured to receive an instruction to update the parameter, perform the update of the parameter, and send a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of examples of the present disclosure, and to show more clearly how the examples may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example only, to the following drawings in which:

Figure 1 shows an example of an overview of a 5G RAN architecture with split RAN node;

Figure 2 shows an example of a RAN node split architecture;

Figure 3 shows an example of a split E-UTRAN architecture defined in 3GPP;

Figure 4 shows an example of signaling between gNB-DU and gNB-CU-CP;

Figure 5 is a flow chart of an example of a method in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU;

Figure 6 is a flow chart of an example of a method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU;

Figure 7 shows an example of communications between a gNB-CU-CP and gNB-DU in a method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU;

Figure 8 shows an example of a wireless network in accordance with some embodiments;

Figure 9 shows an example of a User Equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

Figure 10 shows an example of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments;

Figure 11 shows an example of a telecommunication network connected via an intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with some embodiments; Figure 12 shows an example of a host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments;

Figure 13 shows examples of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

Figure 14 shows examples of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

Figure 15 shows examples of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

Figure 16 shows examples of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

Figure 17 shows an example of virtualization apparatus in accordance with some embodiments; and

Figure 18 shows another example of virtualization apparatus in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following sets forth specific details, such as particular embodiments or examples for purposes of explanation and not limitation. It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that other examples may be employed apart from these specific details. In some instances, detailed descriptions of well-known methods, nodes, interfaces, circuits, and devices are omitted so as not obscure the description with unnecessary detail. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the functions described may be implemented in one or more nodes using hardware circuitry (e.g., analog and/or discrete logic gates interconnected to perform a specialized function, ASICs, PLAs, etc.) and/or using software programs and data in conjunction with one or more digital microprocessors or general purpose computers. Nodes that communicate using the air interface also have suitable radio communications circuitry. Moreover, where appropriate the technology can additionally be considered to be embodied entirely within any form of computer-readable memory, such as solid-state memory, magnetic disk, or optical disk containing an appropriate set of computer instructions that would cause a processor to carry out the techniques described herein.

Hardware implementation may include or encompass, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, a reduced instruction set processor, hardware (e.g., digital or analogue) circuitry including but not limited to application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC) and/or field programmable gate array(s) (FPGA(s)), and (where appropriate) state machines capable of performing such functions.

There currently exist certain challenge(s). For example, in the current 3GPP solution, the gNB-CU may signal to the gNB-DU a change of PCI for a given cell when the cell is active and in service. In this case it may not be possible for the gNB-DU to change the PCI of the cell without disrupting served UE traffic. Namely, a change of PCI might cause UEs to disconnect and reconnect again to their serving cell, resulting in performance degradation. In turn, if the gNB-DU took the liberty of not applying the PCI change upon reception of the new PCI from the gNB- CU, there would be a de-synchronization between gNB-DU and gNB-CU with respect to the PCI used by gNB-DU cells. For example, if gNB-CU commands a change of PCI for Cell X, but gNB-DU does not apply the change immediately, then gNB- CU may believe that the change was applied and it might (for example) select the wrong handover target for a UE that reports the new PCI assigned by the gNB-CU to the gNB-DU.

The problem in some examples is therefore how to avoid changes of cell parameters configuration impacting the quality of service of served users.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. For example, the problems described above could be addressed for example by letting a distributed unit such as for example a gNB-DU apply changes to cell parameters when the traffic conditions are most favourable, e.g. when traffic load is low, and to allow the gNB-DU to confirm to the gNB-CU when the change took place. The latter allows the information between the PCI used per cell by the gNB-DU and the same information at the gNB-CU to be always in sync.

In any embodiment disclosed herein, where appropriate, a specific distributed unit, e.g. eNB-DU or gNB-DU, may be generalized to any base station distributed unit. Similarly, where appropriate, a specific central unit, e.g. eNB-CU, eNB- CU-CP, gNB-CU or gNB-CU-CP, may be generalized to any base station central unit. Furthermore, in any embodiment herein where change, reconfiguration, reselection or reassignment etc. of a physical cell identifier (PCI) is performed, this may instead be generalized to any parameter associated with a cell.

In some embodiments, the gNB-CU-CP may detect the need for a change in PCI for a cell served by one of its connected gNB-DUs.

The gNB-CU-CP may signal to the gNB-DU an indication that the PCI of a specific cell needs to be changed.

The gNB-CU-CP may signal also the new PCI to be assigned to the specific cell. As an alternative the request may include a set of possible PCIs so select from. As another alternative, selection of the new PCI may be solely performed by the gNB-DU.

However, the gNB-CU-CP should not assume that the PCI of the specific cell was updated as soon as the procedure for sending to the gNB-DU the new PCI (or for flagging the need for a PCI change) is completed. Instead, the gNB- CU-CP should assume that the PCI of the specific cell has not been changed until the gNB-DU notifies the gNB- CU-CP of such change.

After receiving the new PCI for the specific cell, the gNB-DU waits for the most effective time when a change of PCI can be applied to the cell. This may depend from factors such as the number of UEs connected to the cell, or the types of services served by the cell. When the gNB-DU considers that there is an optimal time to perform the PCI change, it will assign a new PCI to the cell and it will start transmitting this PCI over the air for the specific cell.

The gNB-DU, after changing the PCI of the specific cell, signals the gNB-CU-CP with an indication that the PCI of the cell was updated. If the new PCI was provided by the gNB-CU-CP, the gNB-DU may only signal an indication that the PCI was changed successfully. If the new PCI was selected by the gNB-DU, the signaling may include the new PCI selected or allocated by the gNB-DU. After reception of the confirmation from the gNB-DU, the gNB-CU-CP can update the cell information stored for each connected gNB-DU with the new assigned PCI for the specific cell.

The gNB-CU-CP may signal neighbour RAN nodes with an indication that a change of PCI has occurred for the specific cell, so that neighbour RAN nodes can update their neighbour cell information and correctly perform mobility towards the cell with the new PCI.

The gNB-CU-CP and gNB-DU may also signal the updated PCI configuration to the OAM system.

In yet another embodiment, the request for change of PCI may be received in the gNB-CU-CP from another network node, e.g. another gNB-CU-CP, another gNB-DU, an eNB, a radio network controller (RNC), a base station controller (BSC), another control node or from the OAM system. The request can be received over an Xn, X2, NG, S1, F1 or other interface. The request may include a suggested new PCI or a set of possible PCIs to select from. After receiving the request the method proceeds as in the first embodiment when the change is initiated by the gNB-CU-CP.

In yet another embodiment, the request for change of PCI is received in the gNB-DU from another network node, e.g another gNB-CU-CP, another gNB-DU, an eNB, an RNC, a BSC, another control node or from the OAM system. The request can be received over an F1 or other interface.

After receiving the request, the method may proceed as in other embodiments when the request for change has been received in the gNB-DU.

There are, proposed herein, various embodiments which address one or more of the issues disclosed herein.

In one example, a method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU is provided. The method comprises sending an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter, and receiving a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

In another example, a method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, is provided. The method comprises sending an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter, and determining that the update of the parameter has been performed if a notification that the update of the parameter has not been performed is not received from the DU in a predetermined time period.

In a further example, a method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, is provided. The method comprises receiving an instruction to update the parameter, performing the update of the parameter, and sending a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed.

In an additional example, a method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, is provided. The method comprises receiving a request to update the parameter, and sending a notification that the update of the parameter has not been performed if the update of the parameter is not performed within a predetermined time period.

Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). For example, using methods proposed herein, a distributed unit e.g. gNB-DU may perform reconfiguration of new assigned PCI in a favorable time with minimum impairment on the quality of experience of the camped/connected UEs. Hence methods may provide a full- awareness of the cell configuration (e.g., assigned PCI) of the cells belonging to the DUs controlled by a given central unit e.g. gNB-CU, improving the interoperating between gNB-DUs and gNB-CU-CP over F1 interface.

Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Other embodiments, however, are contained within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein, the disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.

Figure 5 is a flow chart of an example of a method 500 in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU. The method 500 comprises, in step 502, sending an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter. The method 500 also comprises, in step 504, receiving a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

In some examples, the method 500 comprises updating information stored for the cell based on the updated parameter after receiving the notification. Additionally or alternatively, method 500 comprises receiving an acknowledgement from the DU after sending the instruction to the DU.

In some examples, method 500 comprises sending an acknowledgement to the DU after receiving the notification. Additionally or alternatively, method 500 comprises sending an updated parameter to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter to the updated parameter. The method 500 may then comprise sending the updated parameter to the DU in the instruction.

The method 500 in some examples may comprise sending a plurality of parameters to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter to one of the plurality of parameters. For example, the method 500 may comprise sending the plurality of parameters to the DU in the instruction.

In some examples, method 500 comprises sending an indication to a core network that the parameter has been updated after receiving the notification. In some examples, the indication to the core network identifies the updated parameter.

The method 500 may in some examples comprise sending an indication to one or more neighbour network nodes that the parameter has been updated after receiving the notification. For example, the indication to the one or more neighbour network nodes may identify the updated parameter. Additionally or alternatively, the one or more neighbour network nodes may comprise one or more neighbour base stations, base station distributed units, DUs, base station central units, CUs, eNB- CUs, eNB-CU-CPs, eNB-DUs, gNB-CUs, gNB-CU-CPs and/or gNB-DUs.

Sone examples of the method 500 may include receiving an indication of the updated parameter from the DU. For example, the method 500 may comprise receiving the indication of the updated parameter from the DU in the notification.

The method 500 may in some examples comprise determining a conflict between the parameter of the cell and the parameter of another cell before sending the instruction to the DU. For example, determining the conflict may comprise receiving an indication of the conflict from the DU.

The DU may comprise for example an eNB-DU or gNB-DU. The method is performed in some examples by an eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU or gNB-CU-CP. The method 500 may in some examples comprise, before sending the instruction to the DU, receiving an instruction from a network node to cause the DU to update the parameter. The network node may comprise for example a base station central unit, CU, base station distributed unit, DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-DU, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-DU, radio network controller, base station controller or Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) node. In some examples, the instruction from the network node indicates the updated parameter for the cell or a plurality of parameters for the cell.

The parameter of the cell may comprise for example a physical cell identifier, PCI, or random access configuration of the cell. In some examples, the cell associated with the DU comprises a cell served by the DU.

Figure 6 is a flow chart of an example of a method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU. the method 600 comprises, in step 602, receiving an instruction (e.g. from a base station CU) to update the parameter. The method 600 also comprises, in step 604, performing the update of the parameter and, in step 606, sending a notification (e.g. to the base station CU) that the update of the parameter has been performed.

In some examples, the method 600 comprises performing the update of the parameter at a time based on a status of the cell and/or one or more User Equipments, UEs, connected to the cell. In some examples, the status of the cell and/or the one or more UEs comprises a cell load status and/or a time window associated with random access resources or conditional handover.

In some examples, the method 600 comprises sending an acknowledgement after receiving the instruction. Additionally or alternatively, the method 600 comprises receiving an acknowledgement after sending the notification.

The method 600 may in some examples comprise receiving the instruction from a network node. The network node may comprise for example a base station central unit, CU, base station distributed unit, DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-DU, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-DU, radio network controller, base station controller or Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) node. The network node may comprise for example a CU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU or gNB-CU- CP associated with a node performing the method. The method 600 may in some examples comprise sending the notification to the network node.

The method 600 may comprise for example receiving an updated parameter, and performing the update of the parameter comprises updating the parameter to the updated parameter (e.g. the parameter is updated to an updated value). For example, the method 600 may comprise receiving the updated parameter in the instruction.

In some examples, the method 600 comprises receiving a plurality of parameters, and wherein performing the update of the parameter comprises updating the parameter to one of the plurality of parameters. For example, the method 600 may comprise receiving the plurality of parameters in the instruction.

The method 600 in some examples may comprise sending an indication to a core network that the parameter has been updated after performing the update. For example, the indication to the core network may identify the updated parameter. In some examples, the method 600 may comprise sending an indication to one or more neighbour network nodes that the parameter has been updated after performing the update. For example, the indication to the one or more neighbour network nodes may identify the updated parameter. Additionally or alternatively, for example, the one or more neighbour network nodes may comprise one or more neighbour base stations, base station distributed units, DUs, base station central units, CUs, eNB-CUs, eNB-CU-CPs, eNB-DUs, gNB-CUs, gNB-CU-CPs and/or gNB-DUs.

The method 600 in some examples comprises sending an indication of the updated parameter in the notification.

In some examples, the method 600 comprises, before receiving the instruction, determining a conflict between the parameter of the cell and the parameter of another cell and sending an indication of the conflict to a central unit, CU, associated with the cell.

The method is performed in some examples by a distributed unit, DU, eNB-DU or gNB-DU. The parameter of the cell may comprise for example a physical cell identifier, PCI or random access configuration of the cell. The cell associated with the DU may comprise for example a cell served by the DU.

Methods described herein may apply to all RAN architectures that follow a split similar to that of the NG RAN and the E-UTRAN architecture. Without loss of generality, the description takes as an example the NG-RAN system and describes the methods with respect to a split gNB architecture. However, these methods are also valid for other similar systems such as for example the split eNB node in E-UTRAN.

At least some examples disclosed herein may comprise actions for two RAN entities (e.g., gNB-DU and gNB-CU- CP in DU/CU split architecture in NR terminology) wherein one node performs a first configuration of cell parameters (e.g., Physical Cell ID, PCI). The other node (e.g. gNB-CU-CP) monitors the configurations and performs appropriate actions upon detection of any issue (e.g., PCI confusion or conflict).

In some examples, a three-way split architecture for a RAN is considered, where for example (in the case of NR) the gNB-CU is further split into gNB-CU-CP and gNB-CU-UP. However, a two-way split architecture is also possible, where the gNB-CU remains a single node. Embodiments herein may be applied to both of these as well as other architectures, and what is herein referred to as the gNB-CU-CP would have to be replaced by the gNB-CU (or, as suggested above, a more general distributed unit, CU).

In some examples, upon detection of a PCI conflict/confusion (or any need for assigning a new PCI) by one of the nodes in the split RAN architecture and upon the gNB-CU-CP becoming aware of such event, the following steps may be performed:

• Step 1 : gNB-CU-CP may either select/assign a new PCI for one or a subset of the cells, or signal to the gNB- DU the required actions to be taken for selecting/assigning a new PCI (or simply signal that a new PCI is needed).

• Step 2: gNB-DU may consider some quality of service parameters (cell load and number of camped UEs if available) to find a suitable time for applying reconfiguration changes. • Step 3: gNB-CU-CP may assume the new configuration of the cell is applied (new PCI) only if gNB-DU acknowledges that the reconfiguration of cell (e.g., with new PCI) is done.

The procedure for the steps above is shown in Figure 7, which shows an example of communications between a gNB-CU-CP and gNB-DU in a method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU (in this example, the gNB-DU).

• Alternative Step 3: gNB-CU-CP may assume the new configuration (e.g., new PCI) of the cell is applied after a certain period of time (predetermined time) T, o Time T may be defined as absolute or relative time. o In case the gNB-DU is not able to apply the change after the signaled time T, gNB-DU should notify gNB-CU-CP of the fact that the change could not be applied.

In some examples, upon reception of a signal from gNB-CU-CP, indicating a request to reconfigure cell parameters e.g., assigning a new PCI of one (or a subset) of the cells, the following steps may be performed:

• gNB-DU may decide either to reconfigure the cell (e.g., with a new PCI), or it can postpone the reconfiguration of the new cell to a proper time. Decision on the proper time to apply the new PCI can be taken based on the load status or any other parameter concerning the quality of service requirement of the camped UEs. If gNB- DU postpones the reconfiguration of PCI, it may signal to the gNB-CU-CP that the reconfiguration of the cell with the new PCI is not applied and postponed. o gNB-DU may use a timer T to determine a certain time to apply the new configuration. o The gNB-DU may signal the timer to the gNB-CU-CP. o gNB-DU (in the context of LTE and NR) may use any signaling from DU to CU over F1 interface including but not limited to gNB-DU Configuration Update or gNB-CU-CP Configuration Update Acknowledge.

• If gNB-DU applied the reconfiguration of PCI, it may signal to the gNB-CU-CP the reconfiguration of the cell with the new PCI applied.

In some examples, the gNB-CU-CP may signal to the gNB-DU that a change of PCI for a given cell is needed (as well as the new PCI to assign to the cell in some examples, or list of possible PCIs in some examples), and the gNB-CU-CP may signal a time T (or the time T is a predetermined or default time, which may not need to be signaled) after which the gNB- CU may assume that the change is applied. If the gNB-CU-CP does not receive an explicit acknowledgement from the gNB- DU that the change of PCI has occurred (e.g. via gNB-DU configuration Update signaling over F1), the gNB-CU will assume that the change of PCI has been performed by the gNB-DU. The opposite behavior by the gNB-CU is also possible, namely that if the gNB-CU-CP does not receive an explicit acknowledgement from the gNB-DU about the actuated change of PCI (e.g. via gNB-DU configuration Update signaling over F1), the gNB-CU will assume that the change of PCI has not been performed by the gNB-DU.

In some examples (e.g. of the above methods) the need for a change of PCI in a specific cell may be detected by another network node, e.g. another gNB-CU-CP, another gNB-DU, an eNB, an RNC, a BSC, another control node or an OAM system and signalled to the gNB-CU-CP.

In such scenario the gNB-CU-CP receives an indication from the other network node or OAM system.

As in other examples, the indication may either provide a new PCI for the specific cell or a set of PCIs to choose from for the specific cell or it may let the gNB-CU-CP or gNB-DU select a new PCI.

The embodiment from this point on may be similar to other examples, e.g. where the gNB-CU-CP signals the need for change to the gNB-DU.

In another embodiment (e.g. of the above methods) the need for a change of PCI in a specific cell may be detected by another network node, e.g. another gNB-CU-CP, another gNB-DU, an eNB, an RNC, a BSC, another control node or an OAM system and signalled to the gNB-DU.

In such scenario the gNB-DU receives an indication from the other network node or OAM system, similar to that described above from the gNB-CU-CP, indicating that a change of PCI is needed.

As in other examples, the indication from the OAM may either provide a new PCI for the specific cell or a set of PCIs to select from, or it may let the gNB-DU select a new PCI.

The embodiment from this point on may be similar to other examples, e.g. when the gNB-DU has received the request to change PCI.

In some examples (e.g. of the above methods), the need to reconfigure the cell configuration at gNB-DU may be generalized to any parameter including those in the system information (e.g., SIB in the context of LTE and NR). For example, the gNB-DU may be required to apply changes to other cell parameters such as the random access configuration. Random Access Resources may need to remain unchanged for a certain time window due to, e.g. the fact they are reserved for conditional handover purposes. Hence, changing random access resources (e.g., rootSequence Index) may not be feasible immediately after receiving a change request at the gNB-DU, e.g. form gNB-CU-CP. Therefore, gNB-DU may postpone the reconfiguration of new RACH resources, or of any other cell parameters it is signaled to change, to the time that all RACH resources are released. For delaying the reconfiguring of cell parameters such as RACH resource configuration, gNB-DU may decide to delay and signal the gNB-CU when reconfiguration is applied.

Herein, the terms base station central unit, CU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU and gNB-CU-CP are used interchangeably. Similarly, the terms base station distributed unit, DU, eNB-DU and gNB-DU are used interchangeably.

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 Figure 8. For simplicity, the wireless network of Figure 8 only depicts network QQ106, network nodes QQ160 and QQ160b, and WDs QQ110, QQ110b, and QQ110c. In practice, a wireless network may further include any additional elements suitable to support communication between wireless devices or between a wireless device and another communication device, such as a landline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or end device. Of the illustrated components, network node QQ160 and wireless device (WD) QQ110 are depicted with additional detail. The wireless network may provide communication and other types of services to one or more wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices’ access to and/or use of the services provided by, or via, the wireless network.

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 QQ106 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 QQ160 and WD QQ110 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 Figure 8, network node QQ160 includes processing circuitry QQ170, device readable medium QQ180, interface QQ190, auxiliary equipment QQ184, power source QQ186, power circuitry QQ187, and antenna QQ162. Although network node QQ160 illustrated in the example wireless network of Figure 8 may represent a device that includes the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise network nodes with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that a network node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Moreover, while the components of network node QQ160 are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, a network node may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g., device readable medium QQ180 may comprise multiple separate hard drives as well as multiple RAM modules).

Similarly, network node QQ160 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 QQ160 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 NodeBs. 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 QQ160 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate device readable medium QQ180 for the different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the same antenna QQ162 may be shared by the RATs). Network node QQ160 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node QQ160, 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 QQ160.

Processing circuitry QQ170 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 QQ170 may include processing information obtained by processing circuitry QQ170 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 QQ170 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 QQ160 components, such as device readable medium QQ180, network node QQ160 functionality. For example, processing circuitry QQ170 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium QQ180 or in memory within processing circuitry QQ170. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussed herein. In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ170 may include a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ170 may include one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174 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 QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174 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 QQ170 executing instructions stored on device readable medium QQ180 or memory within processing circuitry QQ170. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry QQ170 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 QQ170 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry QQ170 alone or to other components of network node QQ160, but are enjoyed by network node QQ160 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.

Device readable medium QQ180 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 GO170. Device readable medium GO180 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 QQ170 and, utilized by network node QQ160. Device readable medium QQ180 may be used to store any calculations made by processing circuitry QQ170 and/or any data received via interface QQ190. In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ170 and device readable medium QQ180 may be considered to be integrated.

Interface QQ190 is used in the wired or wireless communication of signalling and/or data between network node QQ160, network QQ106, and/or WDs QQ110. As illustrated, interface QQ190 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) QQ194 to send and receive data, for example to and from network QQ106 over a wired connection. Interface QQ190 also includes radio front end circuitry QQ192 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, antenna QQ162. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 comprises filters QQ198 and amplifiers QQ196. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may be connected to antenna QQ162 and processing circuitry QQ170. Radio front end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna QQ162 and processing circuitry QQ170. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters QQ198 and/or amplifiers QQ196. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna QQ162. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna QQ162 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry QQ192. The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry QQ170. In other embodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.

In certain alternative embodiments, network node QQ160 may not include separate radio front end circuitry QQ192, instead, processing circuitry QQ170 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna QQ162 without separate radio front end circuitry QQ192. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuitry QQ172 may be considered a part of interface QQ190. In still other embodiments, interface QQ190 may include one or more ports or terminals QQ194, radio front end circuitry QQ192, and RF transceiver circuitry QQ172, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and interface QQ190 may communicate with baseband processing circuitry QQ174, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

Antenna QQ162 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna QQ162 may be coupled to radio front end circuitry QQ190 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In some embodiments, antenna QQ162 may comprise one or more omni-directional, sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receive radio signals between, for example, 2 GFIz and 66 GFIz. 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 QQ162 may be separate from network node QQ160 and may be connectable to network node QQ160 through an interface or port.

Antenna QQ162, interface QQ190, and/or processing circuitry QQ170 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 QQ162, interface QQ190, and/or processing circuitry QQ170 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 QQ187 may comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry and is configured to supply the components of network node QQ160 with power for performing the functionality described herein. Power circuitry QQ187 may receive power from power source QQ186. Power source QQ186 and/or power circuitry QQ187 may be configured to provide power to the various components of network node QQ160 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). Power source QQ186 may either be included in, or external to, power circuitry QQ187 and/or network node QQ160. For example, network node QQ160 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 QQ187. As a further example, power source QQ186 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry QQ187. 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 QQ160 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 8 that may be responsible for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, network node QQ160 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into network node QQ160 and to allow output of information from network node QQ160. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for network node QQ160.

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 (loT) 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-loT) 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 QQ110 includes antenna QQ111, interface QQ114, processing circuitry QQ120, device readable medium QQ130, user interface equipment QQ132, auxiliary equipment QQ134, power source QQ136 and power circuitry QQ137. WD QQ110 may include multiple sets of one or more of the illustrated components for different wireless technologies supported by WD QQ110, 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 QQ110.

Antenna QQ111 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals, and is connected to interface QQ114. In certain alternative embodiments, antenna QQ111 may be separate from WD QQ110 and be connectable to WD QQ110 through an interface or port. Antenna QQ111, interface QQ114, and/or processing circuitry QQ120 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 QQ111 may be considered an interface.

As illustrated, interface QQ114 comprises radio front end circuitry QQ112 and antenna QQ111. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 comprise one or more filters QQ118 and amplifiers QQ116. Radio front end circuitry QQ114 is connected to antenna QQ111 and processing circuitry QQ120, and is configured to condition signals communicated between antenna QQ111 and processing circuitry QQ120. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may be coupled to or a part of antenna QQ111. In some embodiments, WD QQ110 may not include separate radio front end circuitry QQ112; rather, processing circuitry QQ120 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna QQ111. Similarly, in some embodiments, some or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may be considered a part of interface QQ114. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters QQ118 and/or amplifiers QQ116. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna QQ111. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna QQ111 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry QQ112. The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry QQ120. In other embodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.

Processing circuitry QQ120 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 QQ110 components, such as device readable medium QQ130, WD QQ110 functionality. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features or benefits discussed herein. For example, processing circuitry QQ120 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium QQ130 or in memory within processing circuitry QQ120 to provide the functionality disclosed herein.

As illustrated, processing circuitry QQ120 includes one or more of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, and application processing circuitry QQ126. In other embodiments, the processing circuitry may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components. In certain embodiments processing circuitry QQ120 of WD QQ110 may comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be on separate chips or sets of chips. In alternative embodiments, part or all of baseband processing circuitry QQ124 and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be combined into one chip or set of chips, and RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In still alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 and baseband processing circuitry QQ124 may be on the same chip or set of chips, and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In yet other alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be combined in the same chip or set of chips. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may be a part of interface QQ114. RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may condition RF signals for processing circuitry QQ120.

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being performed by a WD may be provided by processing circuitry QQ120 executing instructions stored on device readable medium QQ130, 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 QQ120 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 QQ120 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry QQ120 alone or to other components of WD QQ110, but are enjoyed by WD QQ110 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.

Processing circuitry QQ120 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 QQ120, may include processing information obtained by processing circuitry QQ120 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored by WD QQ110, 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 QQ130 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 QQ120. Device readable medium QQ130 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 QQ120. In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ120 and device readable medium QQ130 may be considered to be integrated.

User interface equipment QQ132 may provide components that allow for a human user to interact with WD QQ110. Such interaction may be of many forms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc. User interface equipment QQ132 may be operable to produce output to the user and to allow the user to provide input to WD QQ110. The type of interaction may vary depending on the type of user interface equipment QQ132 installed in WD QQ110. For example, if WD QQ110 is a smart phone, the interaction may be via a touch screen; if WD QQ110 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 QQ132 may include input interfaces, devices and circuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. User interface equipment QQ 132 is configured to allow input of information into WD QQ110, and is connected to processing circuitry QQ120 to allow processing circuitry QQ120 to process the input information. User interface equipment QQ132 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 QQ132 is also configured to allow output of information from WD QQ110, and to allow processing circuitry QQ120 to output information from WD QQ110. User interface equipment QQ132 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 QQ132, WD QQ110 may communicate with end users and/or the wireless network, and allow them to benefit from the functionality described herein.

Auxiliary equipment QQ134 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 QQ134 may vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.

Power source QQ136 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 QQ110 may further comprise power circuitry QQ137 for delivering power from power source QQ136 to the various parts of WD QQ110 which need power from power source QQ136 to carry out any functionality described or indicated herein. Power circuitry QQ137 may in certain embodiments comprise power management circuitry. Power circuitry QQ137 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power from an external power source; in which case WD QQ110 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 QQ137 may also in certain embodiments be operable to deliver power from an external power source to power source QQ136. This may be, for example, for the charging of power source QQ136. Power circuitry QQ137 may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from power source QQ136 to make the power suitable for the respective components of WD QQ110 to which power is supplied.

Figure 9 illustrates one embodiment of a UE (or terminal device) in accordance with various aspects described herein. 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. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter). UE QQ200 may be any UE identified by the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a NB-loT UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE. UE QQ200, as illustrated in Figure 9, is one example of a WD configured for communication in accordance with one or more communication standards promulgated by the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as 3GPP’s GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or 5G standards. As mentioned previously, the term WD and UE may be used interchangeable. Accordingly, although Figure 9 is a UE, the components discussed herein are equally applicable to a WD, and vice-versa.

In Figure 9, UE QQ200 includes processing circuitry QQ201 that is operatively coupled to input/output interface QQ205, radio frequency (RF) interface QQ209, network connection interface QQ211, memory QQ215 including random access memory (RAM) QQ217, read-only memory (ROM) QQ219, and storage medium QQ221 or the like, communication subsystem QQ231 , power source QQ233, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof. Storage medium QQ221 includes operating system QQ223, application program QQ225, and data QQ227. In other embodiments, storage medium QQ221 may include other similar types of information. Certain UEs may utilize all of the components shown in Figure 9, or only a subset of the components. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

In Figure 9, processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to process computer instructions and data. Processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute machine instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory, such as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored program, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry QQ201 may include two central processing units (CPUs). Data may be information in a form suitable for use by a computer.

In the depicted embodiment, input/output interface QQ205 may be configured to provide a communication interface to an input device, output device, or input and output device. UE QQ200 may be configured to use an output device via input/output interface QQ205. 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 QQ200. 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 QQ200 may be configured to use an input device via input/output interface QQ205 to allow a user to capture information into UE QQ200. 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 Figure 9, RF interface QQ209 may be configured to provide a communication interface to RF components such as a transmitter, a receiver, and an antenna. Network connection interface QQ211 may be configured to provide a communication interface to network QQ243a. Network QQ243a 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 QQ243a may comprise a Wi-Fi network. Network connection interface QQ211 may be configured to include a receiver and a transmitter interface used to communicate with one or more other devices over a communication network according to one or more communication protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, SONET, ATM, or the like. Network connection interface QQ211 may implement receiver and transmitter functionality appropriate to the communication network links (e.g., optical, electrical, and the like). The transmitter and receiver functions may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately. RAM QQ217 may be configured to interface via bus QQ202 to processing circuitry QQ201 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 QQ219 may be configured to provide computer instructions or data to processing circuitry QQ201. For example, ROM QQ219 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 nonvolatile memory. Storage medium QQ221 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmable readonly 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 QQ221 may be configured to include operating system QQ223, application program QQ225 such as a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application, and datafile QQ227. Storage medium QQ221 may store, for use by UE QQ200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

Storage medium QQ221 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 QQ221 may allow UE QQ200 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 QQ221, which may comprise a device readable medium.

In Figure 9, processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to communicate with network QQ243b using communication subsystem QQ231. Network QQ243a and network QQ243b may be the same network or networks or different network or networks. Communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with network QQ243b. For example, communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication such as another WD, UE, or base station of a radio access network (RAN) according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 802.11, CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, or the like. Each transceiver may include transmitter QQ233 and/or receiver QQ235 to implement transmitter or receiver functionality, respectively, appropriate to the RAN links (e.g., frequency allocations and the like). Further, transmitter QQ233 and receiver QQ235 of each transceiver may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.

In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions of communication subsystem QQ231 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 QQ231 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPS communication. Network QQ243b 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 QQ243b may be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and/or a near-field network. Power source QQ213 may be configured to provide alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) power to components of UE QQ200.

The features, benefits and/or functions described herein may be implemented in one of the components of UE QQ200 or partitioned across multiple components of UE QQ200. 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 QQ231 may be configured to include any of the components described herein. Further, processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to communicate with any of such components over bus QQ202. In another example, any of such components may be represented by program instructions stored in memory that when executed by processing circuitry QQ201 perform the corresponding functions described herein. In another example, the functionality of any of such components may be partitioned between processing circuitry QQ201 and communication subsystem QQ231. 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.

Figure 10 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment QQ300 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to a node (e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) or to a device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device or any other type of communication device) or components thereof and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or more applications, components, functions, virtual machines or containers executing on one or more physical processing nodes in one or more networks).

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 QQ300 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes QQ330. 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 QQ320 (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 QQ320 are run in virtualization environment QQ300 which provides hardware QQ330 comprising processing circuitry QQ360 and memory QQ390. Memory QQ390 contains instructions QQ395 executable by processing circuitry QQ360 whereby application QQ320 is operative to provide one or more of the features, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.

Virtualization environment QQ300, comprises general-purpose or special-purpose network hardware devices QQ330 comprising a set of one or more processors or processing circuitry QQ360, 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 QQ390-1 which may be non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions QQ395 or software executed by processing circuitry QQ360. Each hardware device may comprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs) QQ370, also known as network interface cards, which include physical network interface QQ380. Each hardware device may also include non-transitory, persistent, machine-readable storage media QQ390-2 having stored therein software QQ395 and/or instructions executable by processing circuitry QQ360. Software QQ395 may include any type of software including software for instantiating one or more virtualization layers QQ350 (also referred to as hypervisors), software to execute virtual machines QQ340 as well as software allowing it to execute functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.

Virtual machines QQ340, comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer QQ350 or hypervisor. Different embodiments of the instance of virtual appliance QQ320 may be implemented on one or more of virtual machines QQ340, and the implementations may be made in different ways.

During operation, processing circuitry QQ360 executes software QQ395 to instantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer QQ350, which may sometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM). Virtualization layer QQ350 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to virtual machine QQ340.

As shown in Figure 10, hardware QQ330 may be a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware QQ330 may comprise antenna QQ3225 and may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware QQ330 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or customer premise equipment (CPE)) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration (MANO) QQ3100, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications QQ320.

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 QQ340 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 QQ340, and that part of hardware QQ330 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 QQ340, 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 QQ340 on top of hardware networking infrastructure QQ330 and corresponds to application QQ320 in Figure 10.

In some embodiments, one or more radio units QQ3200 that each include one or more transmitters QQ3220 and one or more receivers QQ3210 may be coupled to one or more antennas QQ3225. Radio units QQ3200 may communicate directly with hardware nodes QQ330 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 signalling can be effected with the use of control system QQ3230 which may alternatively be used for communication between the hardware nodes QQ330 and radio units QQ3200. With reference to FIGURE 11, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication system includes telecommunication network QQ410, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises access network QQ411, such as a radio access network, and core network QQ414. Access network QQ411 comprises a plurality of base stations QQ412a, QQ412b, QQ412c, such as NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defining a corresponding coverage area QQ413a, QQ413b, QQ413c. Each base station QQ412a, QQ412b, QQ412c is connectable to core network QQ414 over a wired or wireless connection QQ415. A first UE QQ491 located in coverage area QQ413c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station QQ412c. A second UE QQ492 in coverage area QQ413a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station QQ412a. While a plurality of UEs QQ491, QQ492 are illustrated in this example, the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where a sole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to the corresponding base station QQ412.

Telecommunication network QQ410 is itself connected to host computer QQ430, 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 QQ430 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 QQ421 and QQ422 between telecommunication network QQ410 and host computer QQ430 may extend directly from core network QQ414 to host computer QQ430 or may go via an optional intermediate network QQ420. Intermediate network QQ420 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; intermediate network QQ420, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, intermediate network QQ420 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).

The communication system of Figure 11 as a whole enables connectivity between the connected UEs QQ491, QQ492 and host computer QQ430. The connectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection QQ450. Host computer QQ430 and the connected UEs QQ491, QQ492 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via OTT connection QQ450, using access network QQ411, core network QQ414, any intermediate network QQ420 and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. OTT connection QQ450 may be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which OTT connection QQ450 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example, base station QQ412 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink communication with data originating from host computer QQ430 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE QQ491. Similarly, base station QQ412 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE QQ491 towards the host computer QQ430.

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 Figure 12. In communication system QQ500, host computer QQ510 comprises hardware QQ515 including communication interface QQ516 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of communication system QQ500. Host computer QQ510 further comprises processing circuitry QQ518, which may have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, processing circuitry QQ518 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. Host computer QQ510 further comprises software QQ511, which is stored in or accessible by host computer QQ510 and executable by processing circuitry QQ518. Software QQ511 includes host application QQ512. Host application QQ512 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as UE QQ530 connecting via OTT connection QQ550 terminating at UE QQ530 and host computer QQ510. In providing the service to the remote user, host application QQ512 may provide user data which is transmitted using OTT connection QQ550.

Communication system QQ500 further includes base station QQ520 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware QQ525 enabling it to communicate with host computer QQ510 and with UE QQ530. Hardware QQ525 may include communication interface QQ526 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of communication system QQ500, as well as radio interface QQ527 for setting up and maintaining at least wireless connection QQ570 with UE QQ530 located in a coverage area (not shown in Figure 12) served by base station QQ520. Communication interface QQ526 may be configured to facilitate connection GO560 to host computer QQ510. Connection qq560 may be direct or it may pass through a core network (not shown in Figure 12) of the telecommunication system and/or through one or more intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In the embodiment shown, hardware QQ525 of base station QQ520 further includes processing circuitry QQ528, 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. Base station QQ520 further has software QQ521 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.

Communication system QQ500 further includes UE QQ530 already referred to. Its hardware QQ535 may include radio interface QQ537 configured to set up and maintain wireless connection QQ570 with a base station serving a coverage area in which UE QQ530 is currently located. Hardware QQ535 of UE QQ530 further includes processing circuitry QQ538, 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 QQ530 further comprises software QQ531 , which is stored in or accessible by UE QQ530 and executable by processing circuitry QQ538. Software QQ531 includes client application QQ532. Client application QQ532 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE QQ530, with the support of host computer QQ510. In host computer QQ510, an executing host application QQ512 may communicate with the executing client application QQ532 via OTT connection QQ550 terminating at UE QQ530 and host computer QQ510. In providing the service to the user, client application QQ532 may receive request data from host application QQ512 and provide user data in response to the request data. OTT connection QQ550 may transfer both the request data and the user data. Client application QQ532 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.

It is noted that host computer QQ510, base station QQ520 and UE QQ530 illustrated in Figure 12 may be similar or identical to host computer QQ430, one of base stations QQ412a, QQ412b, QQ412c and one of UEs QQ491, QQ492 of Figure 11, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings of these entities may be as shown in Figure 12 and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of Figure 11.

In Figure 12, OTT connection QQ550 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between host computer QQ510 and UE QQ530 via base station QQ520, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices. Network infrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured to hide from UE QQ530 or from the service provider operating host computer QQ510, or both. While OTT connection QQ550 is active, the network infrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamically changes the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing consideration or reconfiguration of the network). Wireless connection QQ570 between UE QQ530 and base station QQ520 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 QQ530 using OTT connection QQ550, in which wireless connection QQ570 forms the last segment.

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 QQ550 between host computer QQ510 and UE QQ530, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring OTT connection QQ550 may be implemented in software QQ511 and hardware QQ515 of host computer QQ510 or in software QQ531 and hardware QQ535 of UE QQ530, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which OTT connection QQ550 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 QQ511 , QQ531 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of OTT connection QQ550 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect base station QQ520, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to base station QQ520. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating host computer QQ510’s measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may be implemented in that software QQ511 and QQ531 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using OTT connection QQ550 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.

Figure 13 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 11 and 12. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 13 will be included in this section. In step QQ610, the host computer provides user data. In substep QQ611 (which may be optional) of step QQ610, the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step QQ620, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. In step QQ630 (which may be optional), the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried in the transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step QQ640 (which may also be optional), the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.

Figure 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 11 and 12. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 14 will be included in this section. In step QQ710 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional substep (not shown) the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step QQ720, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. The transmission may pass via the base station, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step QQ730 (which may be optional), the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission. Figure 15 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 11 and 12. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 15 will be included in this section. In step QQ810 (which may be optional), the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in step QQ820, the UE provides user data. In substep QQ821 (which may be optional) of step QQ820, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In substep QQ811 (which may be optional) of step QQ810, the UE executes a client application which provides the user data in reaction to the received input data provided by the host computer. In providing the user data, the executed client application may further consider user input received from the user. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE initiates, in substep QQ830 (which may be optional), transmission of the user data to the host computer. In step QQ840 of the method, the host computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.

Figure 16 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 11 and 12. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 16 will be included in this section. In step QQ910 (which may be optional), in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. In step QQ920 (which may be optional), the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step QQ930 (which may be optional), the host computer receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

Figure 17 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus WWOO in a wireless network (for example, the wireless network shown in Figure 8). The apparatus may be implemented in a wireless device or network node (e.g., wireless device QQ110 or network node QQ160 shown in Figure 8). Apparatus WWOO is operable to carry out the example method described with reference to Figure 500 and possibly any other processes or methods disclosed herein. It is also to be understood that the method of Figure 500 is not necessarily carried out solely by apparatus WWOO. At least some operations of the method can be performed by one or more other entities. Apparatus may be for example apparatus in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU.

Virtual Apparatus WWOO may comprise processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs), special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one or more of the techniques described herein, in several embodiments. In some implementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause Sending Unit WW02, Receiving Unit WW04, and any other suitable units of apparatus WWOO to perform corresponding functions according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated in Figure 17, apparatus WWOO includes Sending Unit WW02 configured to send an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter, and Receiving Unit WW04 configured to receive a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

Figure 18 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus WW10 in a wireless network (for example, the wireless network shown in Figure 8). The apparatus may be implemented in a wireless device or network node (e.g., wireless device QQ110 or network node QQ160 shown in Figure 8). Apparatus WW10 is operable to carry out the example method described with reference to Figure 600 and possibly any other processes or methods disclosed herein. It is also to be understood that the method of Figure 600 is not necessarily carried out solely by apparatus WW10. At least some operations of the method can be performed by one or more other entities.

Virtual Apparatus WW10 may comprise processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs), special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one or more of the techniques described herein, in several embodiments. In some implementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause Receiving Unit WW12, Performing Unit WW14, Sending Unit WW16 and any other suitable units of apparatus WW10 to perform corresponding functions according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

As illustrated in Figure 18, apparatus WW10 includes Receiving Unit WW12 configured to receive an instruction to update the parameter, Performing Unit WW14 configured to perform the update of the parameter, and Sending Unit WW16 configured to send a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed.

The term unit 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.

The following enumerated embodiments are included in the present disclosure.

Group B Embodiments

1. A method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the method comprising: sending an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter; and receiving a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

2. The method of embodiment 1 , comprising updating information stored for the cell based on the updated parameter after receiving the notification. 3. The method of embodiment 1 or 2, comprising receiving an acknowledgement from the DU after sending the instruction to the DU.

4. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 3, comprising sending an acknowledgement to the DU after receiving the notification.

5. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 4, comprising sending an updated parameter to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter to the updated parameter.

6. The method of embodiment 5, comprising sending the updated parameter to the DU in the instruction.

7. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 4, comprising sending a plurality of parameters to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter to one of the plurality of parameters.

8. The method of embodiment 7, comprising sending the plurality of parameters to the DU in the instruction.

9. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 8, comprising sending an indication to a core network that the parameter has been updated after receiving the notification.

10. The method of embodiment 9, wherein the indication to the core network identifies the updated parameter.

11. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 10, comprising sending an indication to one or more neighbour network nodes that the parameter has been updated after receiving the notification.

12. The method of embodiment 11, wherein the indication to the one or more neighbour network nodes identifies the updated parameter.

13. The method of embodiment 11 or 12, wherein the one or more neighbour network nodes comprise one or more neighbour base stations, base station distributed units, DUs, base station central units, CUs, eNB-CUs, eNB-CU- CPs, eNB-DUs, gNB-CUs, gNB-CU-CPs and/or gNB-DUs.

14. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 13, comprising receiving an indication of the updated parameter from the DU.

15. The method of embodiment 14, comprising receiving the indication of the updated parameter from the DU in the notification. 16. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 15, comprising determining a conflict between the parameter of the cell and the parameter of another cell before sending the instruction to the DU.

17. The method of embodiment 16, wherein determining the conflict comprises receiving an indication of the conflict from the DU.

18. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 17, wherein the DU comprises an eNB-DU orgNB-DU.

19. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 18, wherein the method is performed by an eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, gNB- CU or gNB-CU-CP.

20. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 19, comprising, before sending the instruction to the DU, receiving an instruction from a network node to cause the DU to update the parameter.

21. The method of embodiment 20, wherein the network node comprises a base station central unit, CU, base station distributed unit, DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-DU, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-DU, radio network controller, base station controller or Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) node.

22. The method of embodiment 20 or 21 , wherein the instruction from the network node indicates the updated parameter for the cell or a plurality of parameters for the cell.

23. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 22, wherein the parameter of the cell comprises a physical dell identifier, PCI or random access configuration of the cell.

24. The method of any of embodiments 1 to 23, wherein the cell associated with the DU comprises a cell served by the DU.

25. A method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the method comprising: sending an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter; and determining that the update of the parameter has been performed if a notification that the update of the parameter has not been performed is not received from the DU in a predetermined time period.

26. The method of embodiment 25, comprising determining that the update of the parameter has not been performed if a notification that the update of the parameter has not been performed is received from the DU in the predetermined time period.

27. The method of embodiment 25 or 26, comprising updating information stored for the cell based on the updated parameter after determining that the update of the parameter has been performed.

28. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 27, comprising receiving an acknowledgement from the DU after sending the instruction to the DU.

29. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 28, comprising sending an updated parameter to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter to the updated parameter.

30. The method of embodiment 29, comprising sending the updated parameter to the DU in the instruction.

31. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 30, comprising sending a plurality of parameters to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter to one of the plurality of parameters.

32. The method of embodiment 31 , comprising sending the plurality of parameters to the DU in the instruction.

33. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 32, comprising sending an indication to a core network that the parameter has been updated after receiving the notification.

34. The method of embodiment 33, wherein the indication to the core network identifies the updated parameter.

35. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 34, comprising sending an indication to one or more neighbour network nodes that the parameter has been updated after receiving the notification.

36. The method of embodiment 35, wherein the indication to the one or more neighbour network nodes identifies the updated parameter.

37. The method of embodiment 35 or 36, wherein the one or more neighbour network nodes comprise one or more neighbour base stations, base station distributed units, DUs, base station central units, CUs, eNB-CUs, eNB-CU- CPs, eNB-DUs, gNB-CUs, gNB-CU-CPs and/or gNB-DUs.

38. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 37, comprising receiving an indication of the updated parameter from the DU. 39. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 38, comprising determining a conflict between the parameter of the cell and the parameter of another cell before sending the instruction to the DU.

40. The method of embodiment 39, wherein determining the conflict comprises receiving an indication of the conflict from the DU.

41. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 40, wherein the DU comprises an eNB-DU or gNB-DU.

42. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 41, wherein the method is performed by an eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, gNB- CU or gNB-CU-CP.

43. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 42, comprising, before sending the instruction to the DU, receiving an instruction from a network node to cause the DU to update the parameter.

44. The method of embodiment 42, wherein the network node comprises a base station central unit, CU, base station distributed unit, DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-DU, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-DU, radio network controller, base station controller or Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) node.

45. The method of embodiment 43 or 44, wherein the instruction from the network node indicates the updated parameter for the cell or a plurality of parameters for the cell.

46. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 45, wherein the parameter of the cell comprises a physical dell identifier, PCI or random access configuration of the cell.

47. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 46, wherein the cell associated with the DU comprises a cell served by the DU.

48. The method of any of embodiments 25 to 47, comprising sending an indication of the predetermined time period to the DU.

49. The method of embodiment 48, comprising sending an indication of the predetermined time period to the DU in the instruction.

50. A method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the method comprising: receiving an instruction to update the parameter; performing the update of the parameter; and sending a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed.

51. The method of embodiment 50, comprising performing the update of the parameter at a time based on a status of the cell and/or one or more User Equipments, UEs, connected to the cell.

52. The method of embodiment 51 , wherein the status of the cell and/or the one or more UEs comprises a cell load status and/or a time window associated with random access resources or conditional handover.

53. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 52, comprising sending an acknowledgement after receiving the instruction.

54. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 53, comprising receiving an acknowledgement after sending the notification.

55. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 54, comprising receiving the instruction from a network node.

56. The method of embodiment 55, wherein the network node comprises a base station central unit, CU, base station distributed unit, DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-DU, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-DU, radio network controller, base station controller or Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) node.

57. The method of embodiment 55, wherein the network node comprises a CU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU or gNB-CU-CP associated with a node performing the method.

58. The method of any of embodiments 55 to 57, comprising sending the notification to the network node.

59. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 58, comprising receiving an updated parameter, and performing the update of the parameter comprises updating the parameter to the updated parameter.

60. The method of embodiment 59, comprising receiving the updated parameter in the instruction.

61. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 58, comprising receiving a plurality of parameters, and wherein performing the update of the parameter comprises updating the parameter to one of the plurality of parameters.

62. The method of embodiment 61, comprising receiving the plurality of parameters in the instruction. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 62, comprising sending an indication to a core network that the parameter has been updated after performing the update. The method of embodiment 63, wherein the indication to the core network identifies the updated parameter. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 64, comprising sending an indication to one or more neighbour network nodes that the parameter has been updated after performing the update. The method of embodiment 65, wherein the indication to the one or more neighbour network nodes identifies the updated parameter. The method of embodiment 65 or 66, wherein the one or more neighbour network nodes comprise one or more neighbour base stations, base station distributed units, DUs, base station central units, CUs, eNB-CUs, eNB-CU- CPs, eNB-DUs, gNB-CUs, gNB-CU-CPs and/or gNB-DUs. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 67, comprising sending an indication of the updated parameter in the notification. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 68, comprising, before receiving the instruction, determining a conflict between the parameter of the cell and the parameter of another cell and sending an indication of the conflict to a central unit, CU, associated with the cell. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 69, wherein the method is performed by a distributed unit, DU, eNB-DU or gNB-DU. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 70, wherein the parameter of the cell comprises a physical dell identifier, PCI or random access configuration of the cell. The method of any of embodiments 50 to 71 , wherein the cell associated with the DU comprises a cell served by the DU. A method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the method comprising: receiving a request to update the parameter; and sending a notification that the update of the parameter has not been performed if the update of the parameter is not performed within a predetermined time period. 74. The method of embodiment 73, comprising performing the update of the parameter within the predetermined time period and at a time based on a status of the cell and/or one or more User Equipments, UEs, connected to the cell.

75. The method of embodiment 74, wherein the status of the cell and/or the one or more UEs comprises a cell load status and/or a time window associated with random access resources or conditional handover.

76. The method of embodiment 74 or 75, comprising receiving an updated parameter, and performing the update of the parameter comprises updating the parameter to the updated parameter.

77. The method of embodiment 76, comprising receiving the updated parameter in the instruction.

78. The method of embodiment 74 or 75, comprising receiving a plurality of parameters, and wherein performing the update of the parameter comprises updating the parameter to one of the plurality of parameters.

79. The method of embodiment 78, comprising receiving the plurality of parameters in the instruction.

80. The method of any of embodiments 74 to 79, comprising sending an indication to a core network that the parameter has been updated after performing the update.

81. The method of embodiment 80, wherein the indication to the core network identifies the updated parameter.

82. The method of any of embodiments 74 to 81 , comprising sending an indication to one or more neighbour network nodes that the parameter has been updated after performing the update.

83. The method of embodiment 82, wherein the indication to the one or more neighbour network nodes identifies the updated parameter.

84. The method of embodiment 82 or 83, wherein the one or more neighbour network nodes comprise one or more neighbour base stations, base station distributed units, DUs, base station central units, CUs, eNB-CUs, eNB-CU- CPs, eNB-DUs, gNB-CUs, gNB-CU-CPs and/or gNB-DUs.

85. The method of any of embodiments 73 to 84, comprising sending an indication of the updated parameter in the notification.

86. The method of any of embodiments 73 to 85, comprising refraining from sending the notification that the update of the parameter has not been performed if the update of the parameter is performed within the predetermined time period.

87. The method of any of embodiments 73 to 86, comprising sending a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed if the update of the parameter is performed within a predetermined time period.

88. The method of any of embodiments 73 to 87, comprising sending an acknowledgement after receiving the instruction.

89. The method of any of embodiments 73 to 88, comprising receiving the instruction from a network node.

90. The method of embodiment 89, wherein the network node comprises a base station central unit, CU, base station distributed unit, DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-DU, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-DU, radio network controller, base station controller or Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) node.

91. The method of embodiment 90, wherein the network node comprises a CU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU or gNB-CU-CP associated with a node performing the method.

92. The method of any of embodiments 73 to 91 , comprising, before receiving the instruction, determining a conflict between the parameter of the cell and the parameter of another cell and sending an indication of the conflict to a central unit, CU, associated with the cell.

93. The method of any of embodiments 73 to 92, wherein the method is performed by a distributed unit, DU, eNB-DU or gNB-DU.

94. The method of any of embodiments 73 to 93, wherein the parameter of the cell comprises a physical dell identifier, PCI or random access configuration of the cell.

95. The method of any of embodiments 73 to 94, wherein the cell associated with the DU comprises a cell served by the DU.

96. The method of any of the previous embodiments, further comprising: providing user data; and forwarding the user data to a host computer via the transmission to the base station. Group C Embodiments

97. A base station for updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the base station comprising:

- processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments;

- power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the base station.

98. A communication system including a host computer comprising:

- 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 user equipment (UE),

- wherein the cellular network comprises a base station having a radio interface and processing circuitry, the base station’s processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments.

99. The communication system of the previous embodiment further including the base station.

100. The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, further including the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the base station.

101. The communication system of the previous 3 embodiments, wherein:

- the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and

- the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application.

102. A method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

- at the host computer, providing user data; and

- at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the base station, wherein the base station performs any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments. 103. The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising, at the base station, transmitting the user data.

104. The method of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the user data is provided at the host computer by executing a host application, the method further comprising, at the UE, executing a client application associated with the host application.

105. A user equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a base station, the UE comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to performs the of the previous 3 embodiments.

106. A communication system including a host computer comprising a communication interface configured to receive user data originating from a transmission from a user equipment (UE) to a base station, wherein the base station comprises a radio interface and processing circuitry, the base station’s processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments.

107. The communication system of the previous embodiment further including the base station.

108. The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, further including the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the base station.

109. The communication system of the previous 3 embodiments, wherein:

- the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application;

- the UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data to be received by the host computer.

Abbreviations

At least some of the following abbreviations may be used in this disclosure. If there is an inconsistency between abbreviations, preference should be given to how it is used above. If listed multiple times below, the first listing should be preferred over any subsequent listing(s).

1x RTT CDMA2000 1x Radio Transmission Technology

3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

5G 5th Generation ABS Almost Blank Subframe

ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

BCCH Broadcast Control Channel

BCH Broadcast Channel

CA Carrier Aggregation

CC Carrier Component

CCCH SDU Common Control Channel SDU

CDMA Code Division Multiplexing Access

CGI Cell Global Identifier

CIR Channel Impulse Response

CP Cyclic Prefix

CPICH Common Pilot Channel

CPICH Ec/No CPICH Received energy per chip divided by the power density in the band

CQI Channel Quality information

C-RNTI Cell RNTI

CSI Channel State Information

DCCH Dedicated Control Channel

DL Downlink

DM Demodulation

DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal

DRX Discontinuous Reception

DTX Discontinuous Transmission

DTCH Dedicated Traffic Channel

DUT Device Under Test

E-CID Enhanced Cell-ID (positioning method)

E-SMLC Evolved-Serving Mobile Location Centre

ECGI Evolved CGI eNB E-UTRAN NodeB ePDCCH enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel E-SMLC evolved Serving Mobile Location Center

E-UTRA Evolved UTRA

E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN

FDD Frequency Division Duplex

FFS For Further Study

GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network gNB Base station in NR GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System

GSM Global System for Mobile communication

HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

HO Handover

HSPA High Speed Packet Access

HRPD High Rate Packet Data

LOS Line of Sight

LPP LTE Positioning Protocol

LTE Long-Term Evolution

MAC Medium Access Control

MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services

MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network

MBSFN ABS MBSFN Almost Blank Subframe

MDT Minimization of Drive Tests

MIB Master Information Block

MME Mobility Management Entity

MSC Mobile Switching Center

NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel

NR New Radio

OCNG OFDMA Channel Noise Generator

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access

OSS Operations Support System

OTDOA Observed Time Difference of Arrival

O&M Operation and Maintenance

PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

P-CCPCH Primary Common Control Physical Channel

PCell Primary Cell

PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel

PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

PDP Profile Delay Profile

PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

PGW Packet Gateway

PHICH Physical Hybrid-ARO Indicator Channel

PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

PMI Precoder Matrix Indicator

PRACH Physical Random Access Channel PRS Positioning Reference Signal

PSS Primary Synchronization Signal

PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

RACH Random Access Channel

QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

RAN Radio Access Network

RAT Radio Access Technology

RLM Radio Link Management

RNC Radio Network Controller

RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier

RRC Radio Resource Control

RRM Radio Resource Management

RS Reference Signal

RSCP Received Signal Code Power

RSRP Reference Symbol Received Power OR

Reference Signal Received Power

RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality OR

Reference Symbol Received Quality

RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator

RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference

SCH Synchronization Channel

SCell Secondary Cell

SDU Service Data Unit

SFN System Frame Number

SGW Serving Gateway

SI System Information

SIB System Information Block

SNR Signal to Noise Ratio

SON Self Optimized Network

SS Synchronization Signal

SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal

TDD Time Division Duplex

TDOA Time Difference of Arrival

TOA Time of Arrival

TSS Tertiary Synchronization Signal

TTI Transmission Time Interval

UE User Equipment UL Uplink

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module UTDOA Uplink Time Difference of Arrival UTRA Universal Terrestrial Radio Access UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network WCDMA Wide CDMA WLAN Wide Local Area Network

Claims

1. A method in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the method comprising: sending an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter; and receiving a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising updating information stored for the cell based on the updated parameter after receiving the notification.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, comprising receiving an acknowledgement from the DU after sending the instruction to the DU.

4. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, comprising sending an acknowledgement to the DU after receiving the notification.

5. The method of any of claims 1 to 4, comprising sending an updated parameter to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter to the updated parameter.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising sending the updated parameter to the DU in the instruction.

7. The method of any of claims 1 to 4, comprising sending a plurality of parameters to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter to one of the plurality of parameters.

8 The method of claim 7, comprising sending the plurality of parameters to the DU in the instruction.

9. The method of any of claims 1 to 8, comprising sending an indication to a core network that the parameter has been updated after receiving the notification.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the indication to the core network identifies the updated parameter.

11. The method of any of claims 1 to 10, comprising sending an indication to one or more neighbour network nodes that the parameter has been updated after receiving the notification.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the indication to the one or more neighbour network nodes identifies the updated parameter.

13. The method of claim 11 or 12, wherein the one or more neighbour network nodes comprise one or more neighbour base stations, base station distributed units, DUs, base station central units, CUs, eNB-CUs, eNB-CU-CPs, eNB-DUs, gNB- CUs, gNB-CU-CPs and/or gNB-DUs.

14. The method of any of claims 1 to 13, comprising receiving an indication of the updated parameter from the DU.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising receiving the indication of the updated parameter from the DU in the notification.

16. The method of any of claims 1 to 15, comprising determining a conflict between the parameter of the cell and the parameter of another cell before sending the instruction to the DU.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the conflict comprises receiving an indication of the conflict from the DU.

18. The method of any of claims 1 to 17, wherein the DU comprises an eNB-DU or gNB-DU.

19. The method of any of claims 1 to 18, wherein the method is performed by an eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU or gNB- CU-CP.

20. The method of any of claims 1 to 19, comprising, before sending the instruction to the DU, receiving an instruction from a network node to cause the DU to update the parameter.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the network node comprises a base station central unit, CU, base station distributed unit, DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-DU, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-DU, radio network controller, base station controller or Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) node.

22. The method of claim 20 or 21 , wherein the instruction from the network node indicates the updated parameter for the cell or a plurality of parameters for the cell.

23. The method of any of claims 1 to 22, wherein the parameter of the cell comprises a physical cell identifier, PCI, or random access configuration of the cell.

24. The method of any of claims 1 to 23, wherein the cell associated with the DU comprises a cell served by the DU.

25. A method of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the method comprising: receiving an instruction to update the parameter; performing the update of the parameter; and sending a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed.

26. The method of claim 25, comprising performing the update of the parameter at a time based on a status of the cell and/or one or more User Equipments, UEs, connected to the cell.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the status of the cell and/or the one or more UEs comprises a cell load status and/or a time window associated with random access resources or conditional handover.

28. The method of any of claims 25 to 27, comprising sending an acknowledgement after receiving the instruction.

29. The method of any of claims 25 to 28, comprising receiving an acknowledgement after sending the notification.

30. The method of any of claims 25 to 29, comprising receiving the instruction from a network node.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the network node comprises a base station central unit, CU, base station distributed unit, DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-DU, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-DU, radio network controller, base station controller or Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) node.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the network node comprises a CU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU or gNB-CU-CP associated with a node performing the method.

33. The method of any of claims 30 to 32, comprising sending the notification to the network node.

34. The method of any of claims 25 to 33, comprising receiving an updated parameter, and performing the update of the parameter comprises updating the parameter to the updated parameter.

35. The method of claim 34, comprising receiving the updated parameter in the instruction.

36. The method of any of claims 25 to 33, comprising receiving a plurality of parameters, and wherein performing the update of the parameter comprises updating the parameter to one of the plurality of parameters.

37. The method of claim 36, comprising receiving the plurality of parameters in the instruction.

38. The method of any of claims 25 to 37, comprising sending an indication to a core network that the parameter has been updated after performing the update.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the indication to the core network identifies the updated parameter.

40. The method of any of claims 25 to 39, comprising sending an indication to one or more neighbour network nodes that the parameter has been updated after performing the update.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the indication to the one or more neighbour network nodes identifies the updated parameter.

42. The method of claim 40 or 41, wherein the one or more neighbour network nodes comprise one or more neighbour base stations, base station distributed units, DUs, base station central units, CUs, eNB-CUs, eNB-CU-CPs, eNB-DUs, gNB- CUs, gNB-CU-CPs and/or gNB-DUs.

43. The method of any of claims 25 to 42, comprising sending an indication of the updated parameter in the notification.

44. The method of any of claims 25 to 43, comprising, before receiving the instruction, determining a conflict between the parameter of the cell and the parameter of another cell and sending an indication of the conflict to a central unit, CU, associated with the cell.

45. The method of any of claims 25 to 44, wherein the method is performed by a distributed unit, DU, eNB-DU or gNB- DU.

46. The method of any of claims 25 to 35, wherein the parameter of the cell comprises a physical cell identifier, PCI or random access configuration of the cell.

47. The method of any of claims 25 to 46, wherein the cell associated with the DU comprises a cell served by the DU.

48. The method of any of the previous claims, further comprising: providing user data; and forwarding the user data to a host computer via the transmission to the base station.

49. A computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out a method according to any of claims 1 to 48.

50. A carrier containing a computer program according to claim 49, wherein the carrier comprises one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal or computer readable storage medium.

51. A computer program product comprising non transitory computer readable media having stored thereon a computer program according to claim 49.

52. Apparatus in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the apparatus is operable to: send an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter; and receive a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

53. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the memory contains instructions executable by the processor such that the apparatus is operable to perform the method of any of claims 2 to 24.

54. Apparatus for updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the apparatus is operable to: receive an instruction to update the parameter; perform the update of the parameter; and send a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed.

55. The apparatus of claim 54, wherein the memory contains instructions executable by the processor such that the apparatus is operable to perform the method of any of claims 26 to 48.

56. Apparatus in a base station central unit, CU, of updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the apparatus configured to: send an instruction to the DU to cause the DU to update the parameter; and receive a notification from the DU that the update of the parameter has been performed.

57. Apparatus for updating a parameter of a cell associated with a base station distributed unit, DU, the apparatus configured to: receive an instruction to update the parameter; perform the update of the parameter; and send a notification that the update of the parameter has been performed.