WO2016150494A1 - Methods and apparatus for evaluating communication network resource along a navigational route - Google Patents

Methods and apparatus for evaluating communication network resource along a navigational route Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2016150494A1
WO2016150494A1 PCT/EP2015/056351 EP2015056351W WO2016150494A1 WO 2016150494 A1 WO2016150494 A1 WO 2016150494A1 EP 2015056351 W EP2015056351 W EP 2015056351W WO 2016150494 A1 WO2016150494 A1 WO 2016150494A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
communication network
network resource
route
evaluation request
navigational
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PCT/EP2015/056351
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French (fr)
Inventor
Michael Huber
Diomedes KASTANIS
Johan KÖLHI
Per BORGKLINT
Original Assignee
Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
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Application filed by Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ) filed Critical Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
Priority to PCT/EP2015/056351 priority Critical patent/WO2016150494A1/en
Publication of WO2016150494A1 publication Critical patent/WO2016150494A1/en

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01C—MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY
    • G01C21/00—Navigation; Navigational instruments not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C19/00
    • G01C21/26—Navigation; Navigational instruments not provided for in groups G01C1/00 - G01C19/00 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
    • G01C21/34—Route searching; Route guidance
    • G01C21/3453—Special cost functions, i.e. other than distance or default speed limit of road segments
    • G01C21/3461—Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
    • H04W4/02—Services making use of location information
    • H04W4/024—Guidance services
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
    • H04W4/02—Services making use of location information
    • H04W4/029—Location-based management or tracking services

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to methods for evaluating a navigational route.
  • the present invention also relates to a network element and user device, and to a computer program configured to carry out a method for evaluating a navigational route.
  • GPS Global Positioning System
  • Some navigational systems have the capacity to connect to a communication network, and may take account of current road conditions in calculating a route.
  • a Smart GPS navigation device may connect to a 3GPP network to obtain current traffic conditions on potential routes between an origin and a destination. These conditions may then be taken into account when determining the fastest route between the origin and the destination.
  • a method for evaluating a navigational route comprising receiving an evaluation request from a user device, the evaluation request comprising a navigational route between an origin and a destination and a specification of a communication network resource.
  • the method further comprises processing the evaluation request by determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route, and responding to the evaluation request by sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device.
  • the communication network may for example be a cellular communication network, such as a 3GPP network.
  • the method may be performed by a network element which may for example be located in a core network of a 3GPP cellular communication network.
  • the specification of a communication network resource may identify a communication network resource and may indicate a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource.
  • the quantitative requirement for the resource may be indicated explicitly or may be indicated implicitly, for example via a specification of a network service having pre-defined resource requirements.
  • the functionality to convert an identified service into a quantified resource requirement may thus be located at a user device sending an evaluation request or at the network element at which the method is performed.
  • determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route may comprise determining to what extent the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route.
  • determining to what extent the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route may comprise determining a probability that the quantitative requirement can be satisfied along at least a portion of the route.
  • probability thresholds for positive and negative determinations regarding satisfaction of the quantitative requirement may be defined by an operator, for example a 90% probability may be defined as sufficient for a positive determination.
  • the "at least a portion" of the route may also be defined by the operator, for example the "at least a portion” of the route may comprise 95% of the route, 90% of the route, 85% of the route or some other percentage of the route, for example that portion of the route for which the probability of satisfying the quantitative requirement is over the positive determination threshold.
  • the probability and corresponding percentage of the route may be supplied to the user device.
  • sending an indication of the determined availability may comprise sending a positive indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route, and sending a negative indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource cannot be satisfied along the navigational route.
  • sending an indication of the determined availability may comprise sending an indication of the extent to which the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route.
  • sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device may comprise sending a plurality of indications, each one of the plurality of indications applying to a different section of the navigational route.
  • the sections may be determined according to the satisfaction of requirements, thus a portion of the route for which the requirements are satisfied may comprise a first section and a portion of the route for which the requirements are not satisfied may comprise a second section.
  • the evaluation request may further comprise an identification of a service corresponding to the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource
  • the method may further comprise obtaining a network element requirement for the identified communication network resource, the network element requirement indicating communication network resource required for the network element to support the indicated service.
  • processing the evaluation request may comprise assembling the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource and the network element requirement for the identified communication network resource into a combined communication network resource requirement, and determining to what extent the combined communication network resource requirement can be satisfied along the navigational route. In this manner, server side requirements for the maintenance of a service may also be taken into consideration when evaluating communication network resource availability.
  • the evaluation request may further comprise at least one of an identification of a communication network, an indication of capabilities of the user device, or an indication of communication technologies supported by the user device.
  • the evaluation request may comprise at least two navigation routes between the origin and the destination
  • processing the evaluation request may comprise determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request
  • responding to the evaluation request may comprise sending an indication of the determined availability along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request to the user device.
  • the method may evaluate more than one route option, for example allowing the route option with the best resource availability to be selected by the user.
  • each of the navigational routes may include at least one difference compared with another of the navigational routes.
  • processing the evaluation request may further comprise ranking the navigational routes in the evaluation request according to availability of the specified communication network resource.
  • the method may further comprise maintaining a representation of communication network resource availability, and processing the evaluation request may comprise consulting the maintained representation.
  • the representation may for example be a map or any other representation.
  • maintaining a representation of communication network resource availability may comprise querying a network element for communication network resource availability and receiving a response from the network element.
  • the communication network resource may comprise at least one of radio access network coverage or Internet Protocol bandwidth.
  • the communication network resource may comprise both network coverage and IP bandwidth.
  • the evaluation request may further comprise a specification of distributed processing resources.
  • the distributed processing resources may for example be cloud computing resources.
  • processing the evaluation request may further comprise determining an availability of the specified distributed processing resources along the navigational route, and responding to the evaluation request may further comprise sending an indication of the determined availability of the specified distributed processing resources to the user device.
  • distributed processing resources may include CPU single core performance, multi core performance integer performance, floating point performance, memory, bandwidth, internal network latency and throughput, disc IOPS, throughput, block size and/or synchronous/asynchronous IO.
  • a method performed in a user device, for evaluating a navigational route.
  • the method comprises receiving a route request comprising an origin and a destination, calculating a navigational route between the origin and the destination and specifying a communication network resource for the route request.
  • the method further comprises sending an evaluation request to an evaluation function, the evaluation request comprising the calculated navigational route and the specification of a communication network resource, and receiving a response to the evaluation request, the response comprising an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route.
  • specifying a communication network resource for the route request may comprise identifying a communication network resource and indicating a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource.
  • specifying a communication network resource for the route request may comprise receiving an identification of a service required for the navigational route, and determining communication network resources necessary to support the identified service.
  • receiving an identification of a service required for the navigational route may comprise identifying currently running services on the user device.
  • receiving an identification of a service required for the navigational route may comprise receiving user input identifying a service.
  • the method may further comprise sending the identification of a service to the evaluation function with the evaluation request.
  • calculating a navigational route between the origin and the destination may comprise calculating at least two navigational routes between the origin and the destination, and the evaluation request may comprise all of the calculated navigational routes.
  • the response to the evaluation request may comprise an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request.
  • the method may further comprise selecting a recommended route from among the calculated navigational routes based on at least one of route length, estimated route duration, and/or indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the route.
  • the method may further comprise identifying at least one area of reduced availability of the specified communication network resource along the recommended route, and cooperating with a service application to reduce service requirement of the specified communication network resource when in the identified area.
  • the cooperation may include informing the service application of upcoming reduced availability, allowing the service application to act accordingly. This may include for example increasing buffer size for video streaming in advance of a high congestion area, or switching to voice only on a Video Conference (VC) call when reaching a high congestion area.
  • VC Video Conference
  • the communication network resource may comprise at least one of radio access network coverage or Internet Protocol bandwidth.
  • the evaluation request may further comprise specification of distributed processing resources, which may for example be cloud computing resources.
  • the response to the evaluation request may further comprise an indication of the determined availability of the specified distributed processing resources.
  • a computer program configured, when run on a computer, to carry out a method according to any one of the preceding aspects of the invention.
  • a computer program product comprising computer readable media, the computer readable media having a computer program according to the preceding aspect of the invention stored thereon.
  • a network element configured for evaluating a navigational route
  • the network element comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the network element is operable to carry out a method according to the first aspect of the present invention.
  • a user device configured for evaluating a navigational route
  • the user device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the user device is operable to carry out a method according to the second aspect of the present invention.
  • Figure 1 is a flow chart illustrating process steps in a method for evaluating a navigational route
  • Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating process steps in another example of a method for evaluating a navigational route
  • Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating process steps in another method for evaluating a navigational route
  • Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating process steps in another example of a method for evaluating a navigational route
  • Figure 5 is a map illustrating two route options
  • Figure 6 is a map illustrating a congestion area affecting one of the route options of Figure 5;
  • Figure 7 is a map illustrating evaluation of the route options of Figure 5;
  • Figure 8 is a schematic representation of operation of the methods of Figures 1 to 4;
  • Figure 9 is a block diagram illustrating functional units in a network element;
  • Figure 10 is a block diagram illustrating functional units in a user device
  • Figure 1 1 is a block diagram illustrating functional units in another example of network element
  • Figure 12 is a block diagram illustrating functional units in another example of user device.
  • aspects of the present invention provide methods and apparatus enabling a navigational route to be evaluated according to the availability of communication network resources along the route. This may enable a user to determine the availability of a particular service supported by a communication network along a selected route, or to select a route to ensure availability of a certain service.
  • service applications may modify behaviour to account for increased or reduced communication resource availability during a route.
  • Figure 1 illustrates process steps in a method 100, performed by an evaluation function, for evaluating a navigational route.
  • the evaluation function may be hosted in a network element which may be located in the core network of a communication network, for example a 3GPP cellular communication network.
  • the method comprises receiving an evaluation request from a user device in step 120, the evaluation request comprising a navigational route between an origin and a destination and a specification of a communication network resource.
  • the network resource may for example be network coverage or IP bandwidth, or may be some combination of resources.
  • the evaluation function processes the evaluation request at step 140 by determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route.
  • the evaluation function responds to the evaluation request at step 160 by sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device.
  • the user device may for example be a GPS navigation device located in a vehicle.
  • the user device may be a Smartphone or tablet computer.
  • the user associated with the device may be a commercial user, for example a subscriber to the communication network, or may be a technician contributing to the management of the network.
  • the specification of resources may be relatively specific, for example corresponding to maintaining a given service or services during the route, and the indication of availability may be a simple Yes or No, stating whether or not enough resource is available to maintain the service along the entire route.
  • additional detail may be included, for example indicating variation of resource availability along the route.
  • the resource specification may include all possible resources, and the indication of availability may include a detailed map of coverage, IP bandwidth, available Quality of Service and other resources.
  • Figure 2 illustrates another example of a method 200 performed by an evaluation function for evaluating a navigational route.
  • Figure 2 illustrates one example of how the steps of the method 100 of Figure 1 may be realised and supplemented to provide the above discussed and additional functionality.
  • the evaluation function maintains a representation of communication network resource availability. This representation may then be queried each time a new evaluation request is received. By maintaining a local representation of resource availability, the evaluation function may avoid having to query the relevant network nodes each time a new evaluation request is received. Maintaining a representation of communication network resource availability may comprise periodically querying individual network elements in step 212 and receiving responses in step 214.
  • the evaluation function may for example maintain a geographic representation of a coverage area and query appropriate core and other network elements to establish network coverage, IP bandwidth availability, Quality of Service, number of User Equipment devices (UEs) connected, current traffic throughput etc in each cell within the coverage area.
  • UEs User Equipment devices
  • the evaluation function may also query a Wi-Fi access controller and Cloud Resource Manager to maintain for example Wi-Fi bandwidth availability and cloud processing resource availability for the coverage area.
  • the representation of availability may be maintained as a map, database or in any other manner that is convenient for storage and querying.
  • the evaluation function receives an evaluation request at step 222 from a user device. As discussed above, this may be a Smartphone or tablet, an in-vehicle navigation device or any other user device having the appropriate functionality to contact the evaluation function and submit an evaluation request.
  • the evaluation request may be assembled and submitted from within an application running on the user device, as discussed in further detail below.
  • the evaluation request comprises at least two navigational routes, an identification of a network resource, a quantitative requirement for the network resource, an identification of a required service the resources are intended to support, and a specification of a distributed processing resource such as one or more cloud computing resources.
  • the evaluation request may also include at least one of an identification of a communication network, an indication of capabilities of the user device, or an indication of communication technologies supported by the user device.
  • the evaluation request may indicate that the user device supports Wi-Fi and subscribes to a particular PLMN.
  • the evaluation function which may maintain availability of resources corresponding to a range of networks and communication technologies, may limit its evaluation to the network and technologies to which the user device subscribes or which are supported by the user device.
  • the evaluation function obtains a server side resource requirement for supporting of the indicated service. It may be the case that a particular service, desired by the user for the duration of their journey, has communication network resource requirements not only for the user device but also for the application server providing the service. Thus the overall network resource requirements for supporting the service include user device resource requirements and server side resource requirements. These server side resource requirements are obtained by the evaluation function in step 242. In step 244, the obtained server side resource requirements and the indicated user device resource requirements are assembled, to form a combined communication network resource requirement for the evaluation request.
  • the evaluation request may include only an indication of service, the service having pre-defined resource requirements for both a user device accessing the service and for a server providing the service.
  • the evaluation function may translate the service identification into an identification of the resource requirements for both user device and server to which the service corresponds. Having assembled the combined communication network resource requirement in step 244, the evaluation function then determines to what extent the combined communication network resource requirement can be satisfied along the navigational routes in step 246. This may be achieved by consulting the maintained representation of network resource availability in step 248, and calculating a probability of being able to satisfy the combined requirement along the routes in step 250.
  • Determining availability of resources may take a range of different forms, according to the request of the user device, the nature of a user or user subscription and other variables.
  • the evaluation function may define one or more thresholds of probability corresponding to a likelihood of being able to satisfy the requirement.
  • a single threshold may be defined.
  • a 95% probability of being able to satisfy the requirement may be defined as corresponding to a positive response, and the determination by the evaluation function may return a Yes response if there is a 95% or higher probability of being able to satisfy the resource requirement along the entirety of a route.
  • a series of thresholds may be defined corresponding to a very high likelihood of being able to satisfy the requirement, a moderate likelihood and a low likelihood.
  • an actual percentage likelihood may be calculated and returned, as opposed to a simple positive or negative response.
  • the route under consideration may be divided into one or more sections according to the availability of resources.
  • a first section may be defined where there is a very high probability of being able to satisfy the resource requirement
  • a second section may be defined where there is a much lower probability of being able to satisfy the resource requirement.
  • This situation may be imagined for example in a case in which a navigational route which is otherwise substantially suburban passes through a large city. Increased congestion of network resources may be evident in the city, leading to a division of the route into the suburban section, for which satisfaction of the resource requirement is highly likely, and the urban section of the route, for which satisfaction of the resource requirement is less likely.
  • the evaluation function determines availability of the specified distributed processing resources along the navigational routes in step 252. This may result in similar calculations of probability to those discussed above for the communication network resources.
  • the evaluation function ranks the navigational routes included in the evaluation request according to the availability of the specified communication network resources and the distributed processing resources. Various algorithms may be used to compare the determined availability across the evaluated routes and to rank the routes according to overall availability.
  • the evaluation function sends an indication of the determined availability of communication network resources and distributed processing resources to the user device. As discussed above, this may include a positive or negative indication for each route or an extent to which resource requirements are likely to be satisfied for each route, as indicated at 264.
  • the indication may additionally include a plurality of indications for individual sections of each route as indicated at 266.
  • the indication may also include the ranking calculated at step 254.
  • the returned indication may thus simple provide a positive or negative tag for each route included in the evaluation request.
  • the positive and negatively tagged routes may also be ranked, allowing a user to select the highest ranked positively tagged route, or highest ranked negatively tagged route, if none of the routes are positively tagged. In some examples, this may enable a user to select the most favourable route without providing to the user potentially commercially sensitive information concerning precise resource availability.
  • more nuanced indications providing information for individual route sections and possibly precise resource availability along entire routes may be provided. This may be particularly advantageous for example for network technicians looking to evaluate resource availability for the purposes of network performance management and planning.
  • the indication returned to the user device may allow a user to make an informed choice of route according to the communication service requirements, as discussed in further detail below.
  • the user device may make automated route selection, for example in the case of a self driving car that requires certain cloud computing resources to be able to function. Actions at the user device are discussed in further detail below with reference to Figures 3 and 4.
  • Figure 3 illustrates process steps in a method 300 performed in a user device for evaluating a navigational route.
  • the user device may be a Smartphone or tablet computer, or may be a navigational device which may be built into, located in, associated with or intended for use in a vehicle.
  • the method may be performed by a software module or an application running on the user device.
  • the user device receives a route request comprising an origin and a destination.
  • the user device may automatically determine the origin of the route as the current location of the user device.
  • the user device then calculates a navigational route between the origin and the destination in step 320.
  • step 330 the user device specifies a communication network resource for the route request and in step 350, the user device sends an evaluation request to an evaluation function, the evaluation request comprising the calculated navigational route and the specification of a communication network resource.
  • the evaluation function may be hosted in a network element such as that discussed above, and may perform either or both of the methods 100, 200 as described above.
  • step 360 the user device receives a response to the evaluation request, the response comprising an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route.
  • Figure 4 illustrates another example of a method 400 performed by a user device for evaluating a navigational route.
  • Figure 4 illustrates one example of how the steps of the method 300 of Figure 3 may be further realised and supplemented to provide the above discussed and additional functionality.
  • the user device receives a route request comprising an origin and a destination.
  • the origin may be assumed to be the current location of the device, and the destination may be entered by a user.
  • the user device calculates at least two navigational routes between the origin and the destination. This process may be conducted according to known processes for navigation, as employed in navigation devices and navigation applications.
  • the user device receives an identification of a service required for the navigational route. This may comprise identifying one or more currently running services on the device, in step 434, or receiving user input identifying a service in step 436.
  • a user device may assume that all services running on the device are required to continue running for the duration of the journey to the destination in the absence of an overriding instruction from a user.
  • a user may alternatively, or in addition, manually input an identification of a service that the user wishes to be available during the journey to the destination. The user may for example indicate that they wish to participate in a video conference, or online gaming.
  • the user device determines communication network resources required to support the identified service at step 438. These resources may include network connectivity, IP bandwidth, Quality of Service (QoS) or other resources. The user device then identifies the determined communication resources and indicates a quantitative requirement for the determined resources in step 440. The user device then determines, at step 442, distributed processing resources required for the navigational routes. These may be distributed processing resources required to support the identified service or may be distributed processing resources required to support one or more functions in the vehicle travelling the route. For example in a self driving car, the distributed processing resources may include those resources used to support the car navigational and safety systems processing.
  • distributed processing resources may include those resources used to support the car navigational and safety systems processing.
  • the user device sends an evaluation request to an evaluation function, which may be hosted on a network element as described above.
  • the evaluation request includes the calculated navigational routes, the identification and quantitative requirement for network resources, the identification of service and a specification of the determined distributed processing resources.
  • the user device receives a response to the evaluation request.
  • the response may take a range of different forms providing more or less information concerning the availability of the required resources over all or part of the calculated navigational routes.
  • the response may also rank the routes according to resource availability.
  • the user device selects a recommended route from the calculated routes.
  • This selection may be based upon navigational factors such as route length and time to destination, and on communication and computing factors such as the ability to support the identified service or services during the route.
  • a selected recommended route has one or more sections during which the required resources are likely to be unavailable or are less likely to be available, for example if the route passes through a particularly congested cell of the communication network.
  • the user device identifies any such areas of reduced availability on the recommended route, and in step 474, the user device cooperates with a service application or applications to reduce the service requirement for the relevant resources when in the identified area. Examples of such cooperation may include informing an application shortly before entering an area of congestion or otherwise reduced resource availability. The application may then take appropriate action to reduce resource requirements.
  • a streaming application may for example increase the size of its buffer when approaching an area of congestion. In this manner, playback of media may continue uninterrupted while traversing the congested area on the basis of the larger amount of media which was pre-buffered.
  • a VC application may switch to voice only before entering an area of congestion, ensuring that contact may be maintained.
  • the method may further comprise calculating new routes between the origin and the destination and submitting the new routes to the evaluation function as a new evaluation request.
  • the network resources of the above methods may be network coverage and/or bandwidth and may also include Quality of Service or other resources.
  • the distributed processing resources of the above methods may be cloud computing resources and may include a range of different resources, examples of which are discussed below.
  • CPU Single Core Performance Measurement of the performance of a single core of a Virtual Machine (VM). This may provide an indication of the consistency of performance across VMs.
  • VM Virtual Machine
  • CPU Multi Core Performance Measurement of the performance of all of the cores available on a VM. Through testing the multi-core performance of different VM sizes, results may provide an indication of vertical scalability as machines are sized up.
  • CPU Integer Performance Integer performance may be determined through a combination of CPU tests that make strong use of integer instructions. Higher integer scores are a good indication of overall performance.
  • CPU Floating Point Performance Floating point performance may be determined through a combination of CPU tests that make strong use of floating point instructions. Floating point instructions may be especially important with high-performance computing applications.
  • Memory and Bandwidth Using a combination of memory-related tasks, this category of testing may measure sustained memory bandwidth.
  • Tests may examine latency between VMs within the same data center. Lower latency is an important consideration for cluster/multi-node environments and ensures that data can be transmitted in a reasonable amount of time.
  • TCP Internal Network Throughput
  • UDP Internal Network Throughput
  • Disk IOPS Disk IOPS examine the amount of sequential reads, sequential writes, random reads, and random writes, that can be performed per second. Higher IOPS means higher disk speeds, which affect the overall performance of applications that cannot entirely reside in memory.
  • Disk throughput is another consideration for disk performance, as the amount of data that can travel through a pipe at any given time can be another bottleneck in disk performance.
  • Block size is a parameter consideration for a disk; by tuning the block size, the resulting IOPS numbers may apply more accurately to certain application use cases.
  • Disk Sync/Async 10 Synchronous and Asynchronous 10 refer to two different read/write processes.
  • Asynchronous 10-based applications can start new 10 requests before previous 10 requests are returned, while synchronous 10 applications must wait for the previous 10 request to return.
  • Figures 5 and 6 illustrate an example application of the above methods. Referring to Figure 5, an example user wishes to travel by car from "Start" A to "Destination" B. The user wishes to use video conferencing in the car throughout the journey from A to B. The user enters the location of the Start A and Destination B into his device (Smartphone, tablet, GPS etc) and indicates that he requires the use of video conferencing during the journey. The user device calculates two alternative routes between A and B, route 1 to the West and route 2 to the East. The user device then sends the routes, the requirement for VC and the resources needed to support VC to an evaluation function in the form of an evaluation request.
  • the user receives a reply from the evaluation function indicating that the communication network at intermediate point X on route 2 is highly congested, as illustrated to Figure 6.
  • the congested network at point X will be unable to support video conferencing.
  • the network may not be failing at point X, but is sufficiently congested to be unable to support a reliable VC connection to the passing user.
  • the user device selects route 1 to the West as a recommended route, this route being able to fulfill the user's requirement for VC during the route.
  • the example application of the methods of the present invention is illustrated from the point of view of the evaluation function, hosted at a network element, in Figure 7.
  • the evaluation function 20 has access to geographical mapping information with radio cell planning/coverage, as well as access to current cell load and data traffic load by interfacing with an SGSN (for mobility cell information) and a GGSN (for data connectivity load).
  • the evaluation function 20 keeps an updated map of current network load in order to keep SGSN/GGSN queries down to a minimum.
  • the evaluation function 20 receives the evaluation request from the user device, indicating the two routes between A and B and the resource requirement to support VC.
  • the evaluation function responds with an indication that may range from a simple positive or negative answer for each route to a complete indication of available resources.
  • sensitive commercial information concerning the performance of the communication network may be disclosed or retained by the evaluation function Cloud computing resources specified in the evaluation request are handled in a similar manner.
  • the evaluation function 20 interacts with a Cloud Resource Manager to determine the extent to which the requirement for distributed processing resources can be satisfied along the two routes, for example by consolidated cloud computing centers.
  • the cloud resources manager will also assist with the migration of computing services along the route, for example involving edge computing nodes located at the edge of a communication network.
  • the evaluation function may obtain and maintain resource availability information for a variety of communication networks including 3G, LTE, Wi-Fi etc., as well as cloud computing resources. As noted above, the evaluation function may maintain a map indicating the location and status of radio basestations 80 and cloud computing centers.
  • the evaluation request received from the user device may specify which networks the user device can communicate with, including for example Wi-Fi capabilities. The evaluation function can thus narrow its evaluation to only the relevant networks and resources.
  • Figure 8 illustrates communication and information flow between the user device 10, the evaluation function 20, hosted in a network element, and various network nodes according to the above examples, the network nodes include an SGSN and GGSN 30 for 3G networks, a PDN-GW and SGW 40 for LTE networks, a Wi-Fi Access Controller 50 for Wi-Fi networks and a Cloud Resource Manager 70 for Cloud computing.
  • the user device 10 receives a route request together with service requirement and calculates possible routes to satisfy the route request. These possible routes are assembled with resource requirements to satisfy the service requirement into an evaluation request which is transmitted to the evaluation function 20.
  • the evaluation function combines geographical information 70 with resource availability information provided by the network nodes 30, 40, 50, 60 to provide an indication for each route as to whether or not, or to what extent, the resource requirements can be met.
  • the indication may contain additional information including more specific measurements of resource availability, extent of resource availability etc.
  • the evaluation function maintains detailed information about where all access points are located for an operator, as well as Wi-Fi coverage for the access points.
  • a user connects to the network and wants to go through a city that is well covered with Wi-Fi, but has uneven network loads corresponding to different levels of crowding in different parts of the city.
  • the user enters a destination for his route on the other side of the city and indicates that he requires high quality streaming of music during the journey.
  • the user's device calculates the possible routes to the desired destination and sends these routes, together with the required resources to support high quality music streaming, to the evaluation function.
  • These resource requirements include limitations on acceptable latency, jitter and bandwidth.
  • the evaluation function assesses Wi-Fi availability on the various routes and indicates which routes offer the best possibility of undisturbed high quality music streaming, positively ranking routes that navigate around the areas of the city having the most crowded Wi-Fi networks.
  • the user device may select a recommended route on the basis of the indication, and the user may confirm this selection, knowing that the desired media streaming will be available throughout the route.
  • the methods of the present invention may be conducted in a network element and/or a user device.
  • the methods may be conducted on receipt of suitable computer readable instructions, which may be embodied within a computer program running on the network element or user device.
  • Figures 9 and 10 illustrate first examples of a network element and user device which may execute the methods of the present invention, for example on receipt of suitable instructions from a computer program.
  • each of the network element 500 and user device 600 comprises a processor 502, 602 and a memory 504, 604.
  • the memory 504 604 contains instructions executable by the processor 502, 602 such that the network element 500 is operative to conduct the methods 100, 200 of Figures 1 and 2 and the user device 600 is operative to conduct the methods 300, 400 of Figures 3 and 4.
  • Figure 1 1 illustrates functional units in another embodiment of network element 700 which may execute the methods 100, 200 of the present invention, for example according to computer readable instructions received from a computer program. It will be understood that the units illustrated in Figure 1 1 are functional units, and may be realised in any appropriate combination of hardware and/or software.
  • the network element 700 comprises a communication unit 710 and a processing unit 720.
  • the communication unit 710 is configured to receive an evaluation request from a user device, the evaluation request comprising a navigational route between an origin and a destination and a specification of a communication network resource.
  • the processing unit 720 is configured to process the evaluation request by determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route.
  • the communication unit 710 is further configured to respond to the evaluation request by sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device.
  • the specification of a communication network resource may identify a communication network resource and indicate a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource.
  • the processing unit 720 may be configured to determine to what extent the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route.
  • the processing unit 720 may further be configured to determine a probability that the quantitative requirement can be satisfied along at least a portion of the route.
  • the communication unit 710 may be configured to send a positive indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route and a negative indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource cannot be satisfied along the navigational route.
  • the communication unit 710 may be configured to send an indication of the extent to which the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route.
  • the communication unit 710 may be further configured to send a plurality of indications, each one of the plurality of indications applying to a different section of the navigational route.
  • the evaluation request may further comprise an identification of a service corresponding to the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource
  • the processing unit 720 may be configured to obtain a network element requirement for the identified communication network resource, the network element requirement indicating communication network resource required for the network element to support the indicated service.
  • the processing element 720 may be further configured to assemble the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource and the network element requirement for the identified communication network resource into a combined communication network resource requirement, and to determine to what extent the combined communication network resource requirement can be satisfied along the navigational route.
  • the evaluation request may comprise at least two navigation routes between the origin and the destination and the processing unit 720 may be configured to determine an availability of the specified communication network resource along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request.
  • the communication unit 710 may be configured to send an indication of the determined availability along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request to the user device.
  • the processing unit 720 may be further configured to rank the navigational routes in the evaluation request according to availability of the specified communication network resource.
  • the network element may further comprise a resource unit 730 configured to maintain a representation of communication network resource availability, and the processing unit 720 may be configured to consult the representation maintained by the resource unit 730.
  • the resource unit 730 may be configured to query a network element for communication network resource availability and receiving a response from the network element.
  • the evaluation request may further comprise a specification of distributed processing resources
  • the processing unit 720 may be further configured to determine an availability of the specified distributed processing resources along the navigational route.
  • the communication unit 710 may be configured to send an indication of the determined availability of the specified distributed processing resources to the user device.
  • Figure 12 illustrates functional units in another embodiment of user device 800 which may execute the methods 300, 400 of the present invention, for example according to computer readable instructions received from a computer program. It will be understood that the units illustrated in Figure 12 are functional units, and may be realised in any appropriate combination of hardware and/or software.
  • the user device 800 comprises a route unit 810 configured to receiving a route request comprising an origin and a destination, a navigation unit 820 configured to calculate a navigational route between the origin and the destination, and a processing unit 830 configured to specify a communication network resource for the route request.
  • the user device 800 further comprises a communication unit 840 configured to send an evaluation request to an evaluation function, the evaluation request comprising the calculated navigational route and the specification of a communication network resource.
  • the communication unit 840 is also configured to receive a response to the evaluation request, the response comprising an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route.
  • the processing unit may be configured to identify a communication network resource and indicate a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource, the processing unit 830 may be further configured to receive an identification of a service required for the navigational route and to determine communication network resources necessary to support the identified service.
  • the processing unit 830 may be configured to receive an identification of a service required for the navigational route comprises identifying currently running services on the user device.
  • the input unit 810 may be configured to receive user input identifying a service.
  • the communication unit 840 may be configured to send the identification of a service to the evaluation function with the evaluation request.
  • the navigation unit 820 may be configured to calculate at least two navigational routes between the origin and the destination, and the processing unit 830 may be configured to select a recommended route from among the calculated navigational routes based on at least one of route length, estimated route duration and/or indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the route.
  • the processing unit 830 may be further configured to identify at least one area of reduced availability of the specified communication network resource along the recommended route, and to cooperate with a service application to reduce service requirement of the specified communication network resource when in the identified area.
  • the processing unit 830 may be configured to specify distributed processing resources for the route request.
  • aspects of the present invention thus provide methods and apparatus for evaluating a navigational route according to availability of communication network resources.
  • the methods may be used by commercial customers as well as network technicians, to evaluate routes and determine service availability along navigated routes.
  • a resource specification for evaluation may include all possible resources, and an indication of availability may include a detailed map of coverage, IP bandwidth etc.
  • a specification of resources may be much more specific, corresponding to maintaining a given service during the route, and an indication of availability may be a simple Yes or No, stating whether or not sufficient resource is available to maintain the service along the entire route.
  • multiple route options may be evaluated, enabling a user to select a route along which sufficient resources are available to support desired services.
  • the methods of the present invention may be implemented in hardware, or as software modules running on one or more processors. The methods may also be carried out according to the instructions of a computer program, and the present invention also provides a computer readable medium having stored thereon a program for carrying out any of the methods described herein.
  • a computer program embodying the invention may be stored on a computer-readable medium, or it could, for example, be in the form of a signal such as a downloadable data signal provided from an Internet website, or it could be in any other form.

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Abstract

A method (100) for evaluating a navigational route is disclosed. The method comprises receiving an evaluation request from a user device, the evaluation request comprising a navigational route between an origin and a destination and a specification of a communication network resource (120), processing the evaluation request by determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route (140),and responding to the evaluation request by sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device (160). Also disclosed is a method performed by a user device for evaluating a navigational route. The method (300) comprises receiving a route request comprising an origin and a destination (310), calculating a navigational route between the origin and the destination (320), and specifying a communication network resource for the route request (330). The method also comprises sending an evaluation request to an evaluation function, the evaluation request comprising the calculated navigational route and the specification of a communication network resource (350), and receiving a response to the evaluation request, the response comprising an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route (360). Also disclosed are a user device (600, 800), network element (500, 700), computer program and computer readable media for carrying out methods for evaluating a navigational route.

Description

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR EVALUATING COMMUNICATION NETWORK RESOURCE ALONG A NAVIGATIONAL ROUTE
Technical Field The present invention relates to methods for evaluating a navigational route. The present invention also relates to a network element and user device, and to a computer program configured to carry out a method for evaluating a navigational route.
Background
Navigation applications using the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network exist in almost all Smartphones and in a majority of vehicles. Such applications allow a user to enter an origin and a destination, and the application then calculates a navigational route between the origin and the destination, taking account of user preferences such as avoidance of certain classes of road or travelling via desired way points. Some navigational systems have the capacity to connect to a communication network, and may take account of current road conditions in calculating a route. For example, a Smart GPS navigation device may connect to a 3GPP network to obtain current traffic conditions on potential routes between an origin and a destination. These conditions may then be taken into account when determining the fastest route between the origin and the destination. In addition, periodic checks on traffic conditions may be made while travelling the route, allowing modifications to the route to be proposed in the event of changing traffic conditions. In recent years, the availability of Mobile Broadband access has increased dramatically, and this is set to continue in the future. More and more users are thus accessing communication network services while travelling. Such services may include making and receiving voice and video calls, internet browsing, live media streaming, online gaming etc. In addition, vehicles are becoming ever more "connected" with fully connected cars and self-driving cars in development. Availability of mobile internet access and cloud computing services will thus be increasingly important for future journey navigation, both to support automated driving and navigation, and to enable advanced in-vehicle communication and entertainment, including for example in-car video conferencing, live media streaming and in-car online gaming. Summary
It is an aim of the present invention to provide methods, apparatus and computer readable media which at least partially address one or more of the challenges discussed above.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for evaluating a navigational route, the method comprising receiving an evaluation request from a user device, the evaluation request comprising a navigational route between an origin and a destination and a specification of a communication network resource. The method further comprises processing the evaluation request by determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route, and responding to the evaluation request by sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device.
The communication network may for example be a cellular communication network, such as a 3GPP network. The method may be performed by a network element which may for example be located in a core network of a 3GPP cellular communication network.
According to examples of the invention, the specification of a communication network resource may identify a communication network resource and may indicate a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource. In some examples, the quantitative requirement for the resource may be indicated explicitly or may be indicated implicitly, for example via a specification of a network service having pre-defined resource requirements. The functionality to convert an identified service into a quantified resource requirement may thus be located at a user device sending an evaluation request or at the network element at which the method is performed. According to examples of the invention, determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route may comprise determining to what extent the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route. According to examples of the invention, determining to what extent the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route may comprise determining a probability that the quantitative requirement can be satisfied along at least a portion of the route.
In some examples, probability thresholds for positive and negative determinations regarding satisfaction of the quantitative requirement may be defined by an operator, for example a 90% probability may be defined as sufficient for a positive determination. In further examples, the "at least a portion" of the route may also be defined by the operator, for example the "at least a portion" of the route may comprise 95% of the route, 90% of the route, 85% of the route or some other percentage of the route, for example that portion of the route for which the probability of satisfying the quantitative requirement is over the positive determination threshold. In further examples, the probability and corresponding percentage of the route may be supplied to the user device. According to examples of the invention, sending an indication of the determined availability may comprise sending a positive indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route, and sending a negative indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource cannot be satisfied along the navigational route.
According to examples of the invention, sending an indication of the determined availability may comprise sending an indication of the extent to which the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route.
According to examples of the invention, sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device may comprise sending a plurality of indications, each one of the plurality of indications applying to a different section of the navigational route.
In some examples, the sections may be determined according to the satisfaction of requirements, thus a portion of the route for which the requirements are satisfied may comprise a first section and a portion of the route for which the requirements are not satisfied may comprise a second section. According to examples of the invention, the evaluation request may further comprise an identification of a service corresponding to the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource, and the method may further comprise obtaining a network element requirement for the identified communication network resource, the network element requirement indicating communication network resource required for the network element to support the indicated service. According to such examples, processing the evaluation request may comprise assembling the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource and the network element requirement for the identified communication network resource into a combined communication network resource requirement, and determining to what extent the combined communication network resource requirement can be satisfied along the navigational route. In this manner, server side requirements for the maintenance of a service may also be taken into consideration when evaluating communication network resource availability.
According to examples of the invention, the evaluation request may further comprise at least one of an identification of a communication network, an indication of capabilities of the user device, or an indication of communication technologies supported by the user device.
According to examples of the invention, the evaluation request may comprise at least two navigation routes between the origin and the destination, processing the evaluation request may comprise determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request, and responding to the evaluation request may comprise sending an indication of the determined availability along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request to the user device.
In this manner, the method may evaluate more than one route option, for example allowing the route option with the best resource availability to be selected by the user. In examples of the invention, each of the navigational routes may include at least one difference compared with another of the navigational routes.
According to examples of the invention, processing the evaluation request may further comprise ranking the navigational routes in the evaluation request according to availability of the specified communication network resource. According to examples of the invention, the method may further comprise maintaining a representation of communication network resource availability, and processing the evaluation request may comprise consulting the maintained representation. The representation may for example be a map or any other representation.
According to examples of the invention, maintaining a representation of communication network resource availability may comprise querying a network element for communication network resource availability and receiving a response from the network element.
According to examples of the invention, the communication network resource may comprise at least one of radio access network coverage or Internet Protocol bandwidth. In some examples of the invention, the communication network resource may comprise both network coverage and IP bandwidth.
According to examples of the invention, the evaluation request may further comprise a specification of distributed processing resources. The distributed processing resources may for example be cloud computing resources.
According to examples of the invention, processing the evaluation request may further comprise determining an availability of the specified distributed processing resources along the navigational route, and responding to the evaluation request may further comprise sending an indication of the determined availability of the specified distributed processing resources to the user device. Examples of distributed processing resources may include CPU single core performance, multi core performance integer performance, floating point performance, memory, bandwidth, internal network latency and throughput, disc IOPS, throughput, block size and/or synchronous/asynchronous IO.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method, performed in a user device, for evaluating a navigational route. The method comprises receiving a route request comprising an origin and a destination, calculating a navigational route between the origin and the destination and specifying a communication network resource for the route request. The method further comprises sending an evaluation request to an evaluation function, the evaluation request comprising the calculated navigational route and the specification of a communication network resource, and receiving a response to the evaluation request, the response comprising an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route.
According to examples of the invention, specifying a communication network resource for the route request may comprise identifying a communication network resource and indicating a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource.
According to examples of the invention, specifying a communication network resource for the route request may comprise receiving an identification of a service required for the navigational route, and determining communication network resources necessary to support the identified service.
According to examples of the invention, receiving an identification of a service required for the navigational route may comprise identifying currently running services on the user device. According to examples of the invention, receiving an identification of a service required for the navigational route may comprise receiving user input identifying a service.
According to examples of the invention, the method may further comprise sending the identification of a service to the evaluation function with the evaluation request.
According to examples of the invention, calculating a navigational route between the origin and the destination may comprise calculating at least two navigational routes between the origin and the destination, and the evaluation request may comprise all of the calculated navigational routes. According to such examples, the response to the evaluation request may comprise an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request.
According to examples of the invention, the method may further comprise selecting a recommended route from among the calculated navigational routes based on at least one of route length, estimated route duration, and/or indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the route.
According to examples of the invention, the method may further comprise identifying at least one area of reduced availability of the specified communication network resource along the recommended route, and cooperating with a service application to reduce service requirement of the specified communication network resource when in the identified area. In some examples, the cooperation may include informing the service application of upcoming reduced availability, allowing the service application to act accordingly. This may include for example increasing buffer size for video streaming in advance of a high congestion area, or switching to voice only on a Video Conference (VC) call when reaching a high congestion area.
According to examples of the invention, the communication network resource may comprise at least one of radio access network coverage or Internet Protocol bandwidth.
According to examples of the invention, the evaluation request may further comprise specification of distributed processing resources, which may for example be cloud computing resources.
According to examples of the invention, the response to the evaluation request may further comprise an indication of the determined availability of the specified distributed processing resources. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program configured, when run on a computer, to carry out a method according to any one of the preceding aspects of the invention.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program product comprising computer readable media, the computer readable media having a computer program according to the preceding aspect of the invention stored thereon.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network element configured for evaluating a navigational route, the network element comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the network element is operable to carry out a method according to the first aspect of the present invention.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user device configured for evaluating a navigational route, the user device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the user device is operable to carry out a method according to the second aspect of the present invention. Brief description of the drawings
For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show more clearly how it may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the following drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a flow chart illustrating process steps in a method for evaluating a navigational route;
Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating process steps in another example of a method for evaluating a navigational route;
Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating process steps in another method for evaluating a navigational route; Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating process steps in another example of a method for evaluating a navigational route;
Figure 5 is a map illustrating two route options; Figure 6 is a map illustrating a congestion area affecting one of the route options of Figure 5;
Figure 7 is a map illustrating evaluation of the route options of Figure 5; Figure 8 is a schematic representation of operation of the methods of Figures 1 to 4; Figure 9 is a block diagram illustrating functional units in a network element;
Figure 10 is a block diagram illustrating functional units in a user device; Figure 1 1 is a block diagram illustrating functional units in another example of network element; and
Figure 12 is a block diagram illustrating functional units in another example of user device.
Detailed Description
Aspects of the present invention provide methods and apparatus enabling a navigational route to be evaluated according to the availability of communication network resources along the route. This may enable a user to determine the availability of a particular service supported by a communication network along a selected route, or to select a route to ensure availability of a certain service. In further examples, service applications may modify behaviour to account for increased or reduced communication resource availability during a route.
Figure 1 illustrates process steps in a method 100, performed by an evaluation function, for evaluating a navigational route. The evaluation function may be hosted in a network element which may be located in the core network of a communication network, for example a 3GPP cellular communication network. The method comprises receiving an evaluation request from a user device in step 120, the evaluation request comprising a navigational route between an origin and a destination and a specification of a communication network resource. The network resource may for example be network coverage or IP bandwidth, or may be some combination of resources. On receipt of the evaluation request, the evaluation function processes the evaluation request at step 140 by determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route. Finally, the evaluation function responds to the evaluation request at step 160 by sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device. The user device may for example be a GPS navigation device located in a vehicle. In other examples, the user device may be a Smartphone or tablet computer. The user associated with the device may be a commercial user, for example a subscriber to the communication network, or may be a technician contributing to the management of the network. For commercial users, the specification of resources may be relatively specific, for example corresponding to maintaining a given service or services during the route, and the indication of availability may be a simple Yes or No, stating whether or not enough resource is available to maintain the service along the entire route. In some examples, additional detail may be included, for example indicating variation of resource availability along the route. For network technicians, who may for example be looking to evaluate network coverage and performance along major transport arteries, the resource specification may include all possible resources, and the indication of availability may include a detailed map of coverage, IP bandwidth, available Quality of Service and other resources.
Figure 2 illustrates another example of a method 200 performed by an evaluation function for evaluating a navigational route. Figure 2 illustrates one example of how the steps of the method 100 of Figure 1 may be realised and supplemented to provide the above discussed and additional functionality.
Referring to Figure 2, in a first step 210, the evaluation function maintains a representation of communication network resource availability. This representation may then be queried each time a new evaluation request is received. By maintaining a local representation of resource availability, the evaluation function may avoid having to query the relevant network nodes each time a new evaluation request is received. Maintaining a representation of communication network resource availability may comprise periodically querying individual network elements in step 212 and receiving responses in step 214. The evaluation function may for example maintain a geographic representation of a coverage area and query appropriate core and other network elements to establish network coverage, IP bandwidth availability, Quality of Service, number of User Equipment devices (UEs) connected, current traffic throughput etc in each cell within the coverage area. The evaluation function may also query a Wi-Fi access controller and Cloud Resource Manager to maintain for example Wi-Fi bandwidth availability and cloud processing resource availability for the coverage area. The representation of availability may be maintained as a map, database or in any other manner that is convenient for storage and querying. The evaluation function receives an evaluation request at step 222 from a user device. As discussed above, this may be a Smartphone or tablet, an in-vehicle navigation device or any other user device having the appropriate functionality to contact the evaluation function and submit an evaluation request. The evaluation request may be assembled and submitted from within an application running on the user device, as discussed in further detail below. In the illustrated example, the evaluation request comprises at least two navigational routes, an identification of a network resource, a quantitative requirement for the network resource, an identification of a required service the resources are intended to support, and a specification of a distributed processing resource such as one or more cloud computing resources. The evaluation request may also include at least one of an identification of a communication network, an indication of capabilities of the user device, or an indication of communication technologies supported by the user device. For example, the evaluation request may indicate that the user device supports Wi-Fi and subscribes to a particular PLMN. In this manner, the evaluation function, which may maintain availability of resources corresponding to a range of networks and communication technologies, may limit its evaluation to the network and technologies to which the user device subscribes or which are supported by the user device. In step 242, the evaluation function obtains a server side resource requirement for supporting of the indicated service. It may be the case that a particular service, desired by the user for the duration of their journey, has communication network resource requirements not only for the user device but also for the application server providing the service. Thus the overall network resource requirements for supporting the service include user device resource requirements and server side resource requirements. These server side resource requirements are obtained by the evaluation function in step 242. In step 244, the obtained server side resource requirements and the indicated user device resource requirements are assembled, to form a combined communication network resource requirement for the evaluation request.
In some examples, the evaluation request may include only an indication of service, the service having pre-defined resource requirements for both a user device accessing the service and for a server providing the service. In such examples, the evaluation function may translate the service identification into an identification of the resource requirements for both user device and server to which the service corresponds. Having assembled the combined communication network resource requirement in step 244, the evaluation function then determines to what extent the combined communication network resource requirement can be satisfied along the navigational routes in step 246. This may be achieved by consulting the maintained representation of network resource availability in step 248, and calculating a probability of being able to satisfy the combined requirement along the routes in step 250.
Determining availability of resources may take a range of different forms, according to the request of the user device, the nature of a user or user subscription and other variables. For example, the evaluation function may define one or more thresholds of probability corresponding to a likelihood of being able to satisfy the requirement. In one example, a single threshold may be defined. Thus for example a 95% probability of being able to satisfy the requirement may be defined as corresponding to a positive response, and the determination by the evaluation function may return a Yes response if there is a 95% or higher probability of being able to satisfy the resource requirement along the entirety of a route. In further examples, a series of thresholds may be defined corresponding to a very high likelihood of being able to satisfy the requirement, a moderate likelihood and a low likelihood. In other examples, an actual percentage likelihood may be calculated and returned, as opposed to a simple positive or negative response.
In still further examples, the route under consideration may be divided into one or more sections according to the availability of resources. Thus a first section may be defined where there is a very high probability of being able to satisfy the resource requirement, and a second section may be defined where there is a much lower probability of being able to satisfy the resource requirement. This situation may be imagined for example in a case in which a navigational route which is otherwise substantially suburban passes through a large city. Increased congestion of network resources may be evident in the city, leading to a division of the route into the suburban section, for which satisfaction of the resource requirement is highly likely, and the urban section of the route, for which satisfaction of the resource requirement is less likely.
Having determined to what extent the combined communication resource requirement can be satisfied along the navigational routes in step 246, the evaluation function then determines availability of the specified distributed processing resources along the navigational routes in step 252. This may result in similar calculations of probability to those discussed above for the communication network resources.
In step 254, the evaluation function ranks the navigational routes included in the evaluation request according to the availability of the specified communication network resources and the distributed processing resources. Various algorithms may be used to compare the determined availability across the evaluated routes and to rank the routes according to overall availability. Finally, in step 262, the evaluation function sends an indication of the determined availability of communication network resources and distributed processing resources to the user device. As discussed above, this may include a positive or negative indication for each route or an extent to which resource requirements are likely to be satisfied for each route, as indicated at 264. The indication may additionally include a plurality of indications for individual sections of each route as indicated at 266. The indication may also include the ranking calculated at step 254.
In its most basic form, the returned indication may thus simple provide a positive or negative tag for each route included in the evaluation request. The positive and negatively tagged routes may also be ranked, allowing a user to select the highest ranked positively tagged route, or highest ranked negatively tagged route, if none of the routes are positively tagged. In some examples, this may enable a user to select the most favourable route without providing to the user potentially commercially sensitive information concerning precise resource availability. In further examples more nuanced indications providing information for individual route sections and possibly precise resource availability along entire routes may be provided. This may be particularly advantageous for example for network technicians looking to evaluate resource availability for the purposes of network performance management and planning.
The indication returned to the user device may allow a user to make an informed choice of route according to the communication service requirements, as discussed in further detail below. In some examples, the user device may make automated route selection, for example in the case of a self driving car that requires certain cloud computing resources to be able to function. Actions at the user device are discussed in further detail below with reference to Figures 3 and 4.
Figure 3 illustrates process steps in a method 300 performed in a user device for evaluating a navigational route. The user device may be a Smartphone or tablet computer, or may be a navigational device which may be built into, located in, associated with or intended for use in a vehicle. The method may be performed by a software module or an application running on the user device. In a first step 310, the user device receives a route request comprising an origin and a destination. The user device may automatically determine the origin of the route as the current location of the user device. The user device then calculates a navigational route between the origin and the destination in step 320. In step 330, the user device specifies a communication network resource for the route request and in step 350, the user device sends an evaluation request to an evaluation function, the evaluation request comprising the calculated navigational route and the specification of a communication network resource. The evaluation function may be hosted in a network element such as that discussed above, and may perform either or both of the methods 100, 200 as described above. Finally, in step 360, the user device receives a response to the evaluation request, the response comprising an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route.
Figure 4 illustrates another example of a method 400 performed by a user device for evaluating a navigational route. Figure 4 illustrates one example of how the steps of the method 300 of Figure 3 may be further realised and supplemented to provide the above discussed and additional functionality.
Referring to Figure 4, in a first step 410, the user device receives a route request comprising an origin and a destination. As discussed above, the origin may be assumed to be the current location of the device, and the destination may be entered by a user. In step 422, the user device calculates at least two navigational routes between the origin and the destination. This process may be conducted according to known processes for navigation, as employed in navigation devices and navigation applications. In step 432, the user device receives an identification of a service required for the navigational route. This may comprise identifying one or more currently running services on the device, in step 434, or receiving user input identifying a service in step 436. Thus a user device may assume that all services running on the device are required to continue running for the duration of the journey to the destination in the absence of an overriding instruction from a user. A user may alternatively, or in addition, manually input an identification of a service that the user wishes to be available during the journey to the destination. The user may for example indicate that they wish to participate in a video conference, or online gaming.
On receipt of the service indication, the user device determines communication network resources required to support the identified service at step 438. These resources may include network connectivity, IP bandwidth, Quality of Service (QoS) or other resources. The user device then identifies the determined communication resources and indicates a quantitative requirement for the determined resources in step 440. The user device then determines, at step 442, distributed processing resources required for the navigational routes. These may be distributed processing resources required to support the identified service or may be distributed processing resources required to support one or more functions in the vehicle travelling the route. For example in a self driving car, the distributed processing resources may include those resources used to support the car navigational and safety systems processing.
In step 452, the user device sends an evaluation request to an evaluation function, which may be hosted on a network element as described above. The evaluation request includes the calculated navigational routes, the identification and quantitative requirement for network resources, the identification of service and a specification of the determined distributed processing resources. In step 462, the user device receives a response to the evaluation request. As discussed above with reference to method 200, the response may take a range of different forms providing more or less information concerning the availability of the required resources over all or part of the calculated navigational routes. The response may also rank the routes according to resource availability. In step 470, the user device selects a recommended route from the calculated routes. This selection may be based upon navigational factors such as route length and time to destination, and on communication and computing factors such as the ability to support the identified service or services during the route. In may be possible that a selected recommended route has one or more sections during which the required resources are likely to be unavailable or are less likely to be available, for example if the route passes through a particularly congested cell of the communication network. In step 472, the user device identifies any such areas of reduced availability on the recommended route, and in step 474, the user device cooperates with a service application or applications to reduce the service requirement for the relevant resources when in the identified area. Examples of such cooperation may include informing an application shortly before entering an area of congestion or otherwise reduced resource availability. The application may then take appropriate action to reduce resource requirements. A streaming application may for example increase the size of its buffer when approaching an area of congestion. In this manner, playback of media may continue uninterrupted while traversing the congested area on the basis of the larger amount of media which was pre-buffered. A VC application may switch to voice only before entering an area of congestion, ensuring that contact may be maintained.
In some examples of the method 400, in the event that none of the evaluated routes between the origin and the destination have favourable indications regarding resource availability, the method may further comprise calculating new routes between the origin and the destination and submitting the new routes to the evaluation function as a new evaluation request.
As discussed above, the network resources of the above methods may be network coverage and/or bandwidth and may also include Quality of Service or other resources. The distributed processing resources of the above methods may be cloud computing resources and may include a range of different resources, examples of which are discussed below. CPU Single Core Performance: Measurement of the performance of a single core of a Virtual Machine (VM). This may provide an indication of the consistency of performance across VMs.
CPU Multi Core Performance: Measurement of the performance of all of the cores available on a VM. Through testing the multi-core performance of different VM sizes, results may provide an indication of vertical scalability as machines are sized up.
CPU Integer Performance: Integer performance may be determined through a combination of CPU tests that make strong use of integer instructions. Higher integer scores are a good indication of overall performance. CPU Floating Point Performance: Floating point performance may be determined through a combination of CPU tests that make strong use of floating point instructions. Floating point instructions may be especially important with high-performance computing applications.
Memory and Bandwidth: Using a combination of memory-related tasks, this category of testing may measure sustained memory bandwidth.
Internal Network Latency (ICMP, TCP, UDP): Tests may examine latency between VMs within the same data center. Lower latency is an important consideration for cluster/multi-node environments and ensures that data can be transmitted in a reasonable amount of time.
Internal Network Throughput (TCP, UDP): Tests may examine the throughput between VMs within the same data center. Higher throughput is necessary for cluster/multi- node environments and is important for high-performance cluster environments to ensure that large amounts of data can be trafficked through the network.
Disk IOPS: Disk IOPS examine the amount of sequential reads, sequential writes, random reads, and random writes, that can be performed per second. Higher IOPS means higher disk speeds, which affect the overall performance of applications that cannot entirely reside in memory.
Disk Throughput: Disk throughput is another consideration for disk performance, as the amount of data that can travel through a pipe at any given time can be another bottleneck in disk performance.
Disk Block Size: Block size is a parameter consideration for a disk; by tuning the block size, the resulting IOPS numbers may apply more accurately to certain application use cases.
Disk Sync/Async 10: Synchronous and Asynchronous 10 refer to two different read/write processes. Asynchronous 10-based applications can start new 10 requests before previous 10 requests are returned, while synchronous 10 applications must wait for the previous 10 request to return. Figures 5 and 6 illustrate an example application of the above methods. Referring to Figure 5, an example user wishes to travel by car from "Start" A to "Destination" B. The user wishes to use video conferencing in the car throughout the journey from A to B. The user enters the location of the Start A and Destination B into his device (Smartphone, tablet, GPS etc) and indicates that he requires the use of video conferencing during the journey. The user device calculates two alternative routes between A and B, route 1 to the West and route 2 to the East. The user device then sends the routes, the requirement for VC and the resources needed to support VC to an evaluation function in the form of an evaluation request.
The user receives a reply from the evaluation function indicating that the communication network at intermediate point X on route 2 is highly congested, as illustrated to Figure 6. The congested network at point X will be unable to support video conferencing. The network may not be failing at point X, but is sufficiently congested to be unable to support a reliable VC connection to the passing user. On receipt of this information, the user device selects route 1 to the West as a recommended route, this route being able to fulfill the user's requirement for VC during the route. The example application of the methods of the present invention is illustrated from the point of view of the evaluation function, hosted at a network element, in Figure 7. The evaluation function 20 has access to geographical mapping information with radio cell planning/coverage, as well as access to current cell load and data traffic load by interfacing with an SGSN (for mobility cell information) and a GGSN (for data connectivity load). The evaluation function 20 keeps an updated map of current network load in order to keep SGSN/GGSN queries down to a minimum.
The evaluation function 20 receives the evaluation request from the user device, indicating the two routes between A and B and the resource requirement to support VC. The evaluation function responds with an indication that may range from a simple positive or negative answer for each route to a complete indication of available resources. Depending upon the nature of the user, sensitive commercial information concerning the performance of the communication network may be disclosed or retained by the evaluation function Cloud computing resources specified in the evaluation request are handled in a similar manner. The evaluation function 20 interacts with a Cloud Resource Manager to determine the extent to which the requirement for distributed processing resources can be satisfied along the two routes, for example by consolidated cloud computing centers. The cloud resources manager will also assist with the migration of computing services along the route, for example involving edge computing nodes located at the edge of a communication network.
The evaluation function may obtain and maintain resource availability information for a variety of communication networks including 3G, LTE, Wi-Fi etc., as well as cloud computing resources. As noted above, the evaluation function may maintain a map indicating the location and status of radio basestations 80 and cloud computing centers. The evaluation request received from the user device may specify which networks the user device can communicate with, including for example Wi-Fi capabilities. The evaluation function can thus narrow its evaluation to only the relevant networks and resources.
Figure 8 illustrates communication and information flow between the user device 10, the evaluation function 20, hosted in a network element, and various network nodes according to the above examples, the network nodes include an SGSN and GGSN 30 for 3G networks, a PDN-GW and SGW 40 for LTE networks, a Wi-Fi Access Controller 50 for Wi-Fi networks and a Cloud Resource Manager 70 for Cloud computing. The user device 10 receives a route request together with service requirement and calculates possible routes to satisfy the route request. These possible routes are assembled with resource requirements to satisfy the service requirement into an evaluation request which is transmitted to the evaluation function 20. The evaluation function combines geographical information 70 with resource availability information provided by the network nodes 30, 40, 50, 60 to provide an indication for each route as to whether or not, or to what extent, the resource requirements can be met. The indication may contain additional information including more specific measurements of resource availability, extent of resource availability etc.
A further example of the above discussed methods is discussed below using the example of Wi-Fi connectivity. According to the example, the evaluation function maintains detailed information about where all access points are located for an operator, as well as Wi-Fi coverage for the access points. A user connects to the network and wants to go through a city that is well covered with Wi-Fi, but has uneven network loads corresponding to different levels of crowding in different parts of the city. The user enters a destination for his route on the other side of the city and indicates that he requires high quality streaming of music during the journey. The user's device calculates the possible routes to the desired destination and sends these routes, together with the required resources to support high quality music streaming, to the evaluation function. These resource requirements include limitations on acceptable latency, jitter and bandwidth. The evaluation function assesses Wi-Fi availability on the various routes and indicates which routes offer the best possibility of undisturbed high quality music streaming, positively ranking routes that navigate around the areas of the city having the most crowded Wi-Fi networks. The user device may select a recommended route on the basis of the indication, and the user may confirm this selection, knowing that the desired media streaming will be available throughout the route.
The methods of the present invention may be conducted in a network element and/or a user device. The methods may be conducted on receipt of suitable computer readable instructions, which may be embodied within a computer program running on the network element or user device. Figures 9 and 10 illustrate first examples of a network element and user device which may execute the methods of the present invention, for example on receipt of suitable instructions from a computer program. Referring to Figures 9 and 10, each of the network element 500 and user device 600 comprises a processor 502, 602 and a memory 504, 604. The memory 504 604 contains instructions executable by the processor 502, 602 such that the network element 500 is operative to conduct the methods 100, 200 of Figures 1 and 2 and the user device 600 is operative to conduct the methods 300, 400 of Figures 3 and 4.
Figure 1 1 illustrates functional units in another embodiment of network element 700 which may execute the methods 100, 200 of the present invention, for example according to computer readable instructions received from a computer program. It will be understood that the units illustrated in Figure 1 1 are functional units, and may be realised in any appropriate combination of hardware and/or software. Referring to Figure 1 1 , the network element 700 comprises a communication unit 710 and a processing unit 720. The communication unit 710 is configured to receive an evaluation request from a user device, the evaluation request comprising a navigational route between an origin and a destination and a specification of a communication network resource. The processing unit 720 is configured to process the evaluation request by determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route. The communication unit 710 is further configured to respond to the evaluation request by sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device.
As noted above, the specification of a communication network resource may identify a communication network resource and indicate a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource. The processing unit 720 may be configured to determine to what extent the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route. The processing unit 720 may further be configured to determine a probability that the quantitative requirement can be satisfied along at least a portion of the route. The communication unit 710 may be configured to send a positive indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route and a negative indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource cannot be satisfied along the navigational route.
The communication unit 710 may be configured to send an indication of the extent to which the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route. The communication unit 710 may be further configured to send a plurality of indications, each one of the plurality of indications applying to a different section of the navigational route.
As noted above, the evaluation request may further comprise an identification of a service corresponding to the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource, and the processing unit 720 may be configured to obtain a network element requirement for the identified communication network resource, the network element requirement indicating communication network resource required for the network element to support the indicated service. The processing element 720 may be further configured to assemble the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource and the network element requirement for the identified communication network resource into a combined communication network resource requirement, and to determine to what extent the combined communication network resource requirement can be satisfied along the navigational route.
As noted above, the evaluation request may comprise at least two navigation routes between the origin and the destination and the processing unit 720 may be configured to determine an availability of the specified communication network resource along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request. The communication unit 710 may be configured to send an indication of the determined availability along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request to the user device.
The processing unit 720 may be further configured to rank the navigational routes in the evaluation request according to availability of the specified communication network resource. The network element may further comprise a resource unit 730 configured to maintain a representation of communication network resource availability, and the processing unit 720 may be configured to consult the representation maintained by the resource unit 730. The resource unit 730 may be configured to query a network element for communication network resource availability and receiving a response from the network element.
As noted above, the evaluation request may further comprise a specification of distributed processing resources, and the processing unit 720 may be further configured to determine an availability of the specified distributed processing resources along the navigational route. The communication unit 710 may be configured to send an indication of the determined availability of the specified distributed processing resources to the user device.
Figure 12 illustrates functional units in another embodiment of user device 800 which may execute the methods 300, 400 of the present invention, for example according to computer readable instructions received from a computer program. It will be understood that the units illustrated in Figure 12 are functional units, and may be realised in any appropriate combination of hardware and/or software. Referring to Figure 12, the user device 800 comprises a route unit 810 configured to receiving a route request comprising an origin and a destination, a navigation unit 820 configured to calculate a navigational route between the origin and the destination, and a processing unit 830 configured to specify a communication network resource for the route request. The user device 800 further comprises a communication unit 840 configured to send an evaluation request to an evaluation function, the evaluation request comprising the calculated navigational route and the specification of a communication network resource. The communication unit 840 is also configured to receive a response to the evaluation request, the response comprising an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route.
The processing unit may be configured to identify a communication network resource and indicate a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource, the processing unit 830 may be further configured to receive an identification of a service required for the navigational route and to determine communication network resources necessary to support the identified service. The processing unit 830 may be configured to receive an identification of a service required for the navigational route comprises identifying currently running services on the user device. The input unit 810 may be configured to receive user input identifying a service. The communication unit 840 may be configured to send the identification of a service to the evaluation function with the evaluation request.
The navigation unit 820 may be configured to calculate at least two navigational routes between the origin and the destination, and the processing unit 830 may be configured to select a recommended route from among the calculated navigational routes based on at least one of route length, estimated route duration and/or indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the route. The processing unit 830 may be further configured to identify at least one area of reduced availability of the specified communication network resource along the recommended route, and to cooperate with a service application to reduce service requirement of the specified communication network resource when in the identified area. The processing unit 830 may be configured to specify distributed processing resources for the route request.
Aspects of the present invention thus provide methods and apparatus for evaluating a navigational route according to availability of communication network resources. The methods may be used by commercial customers as well as network technicians, to evaluate routes and determine service availability along navigated routes. For network technicians looking to evaluate coverage, a resource specification for evaluation may include all possible resources, and an indication of availability may include a detailed map of coverage, IP bandwidth etc. For commercial users, a specification of resources may be much more specific, corresponding to maintaining a given service during the route, and an indication of availability may be a simple Yes or No, stating whether or not sufficient resource is available to maintain the service along the entire route. In some examples multiple route options may be evaluated, enabling a user to select a route along which sufficient resources are available to support desired services.
The methods of the present invention may be implemented in hardware, or as software modules running on one or more processors. The methods may also be carried out according to the instructions of a computer program, and the present invention also provides a computer readable medium having stored thereon a program for carrying out any of the methods described herein. A computer program embodying the invention may be stored on a computer-readable medium, or it could, for example, be in the form of a signal such as a downloadable data signal provided from an Internet website, or it could be in any other form.
It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. The word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those listed in a claim, "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality, and a single processor or other unit may fulfil the functions of several units recited in the claims. Any reference signs in the claims shall not be construed so as to limit their scope.

Claims

1 . A method for evaluating a navigational route, the method comprising:
receiving an evaluation request from a user device, the evaluation request comprising a navigational route between an origin and a destination and a specification of a communication network resource;
processing the evaluation request by determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route; and
responding to the evaluation request by sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the specification of a communication network resource identifies a communication network resource and indicates a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource.
3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route comprises determining to what extent the quantitative requirement for the identified
communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route.
4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein determining to what extent the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route comprises determining a probability that the quantitative requirement can be satisfied along at least a portion of the route.
5. A method as claimed in claim 3 or 4, wherein sending an indication of the determined availability comprises sending a positive indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route and a negative indication if the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource cannot be satisfied along the navigational route.
6. A method as claimed in any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein sending an indication of the determined availability comprises sending an indication of the extent to which the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource can be satisfied along the navigational route.
7. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein sending an indication of the determined availability to the user device comprises sending a plurality of indications, each one of the plurality of indications applying to a different section of the navigational route.
8. A method as claimed in any one of the claims 2 to 7, wherein the evaluation request further comprises an identification of a service corresponding to the
quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource, the method further comprising:
obtaining a network element requirement for the identified communication network resource, the network element requirement indicating communication network resource required for the network element to support the indicated service;
wherein processing the evaluation request comprises assembling the quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource and the network element requirement for the identified communication network resource into a combined communication network resource requirement, and determining to what extent the combined communication network resource requirement can be satisfied along the navigational route.
9. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the evaluation request further comprises at least one of an identification of a communication network, an indication of capabilities of the user device, or an indication of communication technologies supported by the user device.
10. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the evaluation request comprises at least two navigation routes between the origin and the destination; wherein
processing the evaluation request comprises determining an availability of the specified communication network resource along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request; and wherein
responding to the evaluation request comprises sending an indication of the determined availability along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request to the user device.
1 1 . A method as claimed in claim 10, wherein processing the evaluation request further comprises ranking the navigational routes in the evaluation request according to availability of the specified communication network resource.
12. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising maintaining a representation of communication network resource availability; wherein processing the evaluation request comprises consulting the maintained representation.
13. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein maintaining a representation of communication network resource availability comprises querying a network element for communication network resource availability and receiving a response from the network element.
14. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the
communication network resource comprises at least one of radio access network coverage or Internet Protocol bandwidth.
15. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the evaluation request further comprises a specification of distributed processing resources.
16. A method as claimed in claim 15, wherein processing the evaluation request further comprises determining an availability of the specified distributed processing resources along the navigational route; and
responding to the evaluation request further comprises sending an indication of the determined availability of the specified distributed processing resources to the user device.
17. A method, in a user device, for evaluating a navigational route, the method comprising:
receiving a route request comprising an origin and a destination;
calculating a navigational route between the origin and the destination;
specifying a communication network resource for the route request;
sending an evaluation request to an evaluation function, the evaluation request comprising the calculated navigational route and the specification of a communication network resource; and receiving a response to the evaluation request, the response comprising an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the navigational route.
18. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein specifying a communication network resource for the route request comprises identifying a communication network resource and indicating a quantitative requirement for the identified communication network resource.
19. A method as claimed in claim 17 or 18, wherein specifying a communication network resource for the route request comprises:
receiving an identification of a service required for the navigational route; and determining communication network resources necessary to support the identified service.
20. A method as claimed in claim 19, wherein receiving an identification of a service required for the navigational route comprises identifying currently running services on the user device.
21 . A method as claimed in claim 19 or 20, wherein receiving an identification of a service required for the navigational route comprises receiving user input identifying a service.
22. A method as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 21 , further comprising sending the identification of a service to the evaluation function with the evaluation request.
23. A method as claimed in any one of claims 17 to 22, wherein calculating a navigational route between the origin and the destination comprises calculating at least two navigational routes between the origin and the destination; wherein the evaluation request comprises all of the calculated navigational routes; and wherein the response to the evaluation request comprises an indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along each of the navigational routes in the evaluation request.
24. A method as claimed in claim 23, further comprising selecting a recommended route from among the calculated navigational routes based on at least one of: route length;
estimated route duration;
indication of availability of the specified communication network resource along the route.
25. A method as claimed in claim 24, further comprising:
identifying at least one area of reduced availability of the specified
communication network resource along the recommended route; and
cooperating with a service application to reduce service requirement of the specified communication network resource when in the identified area.
26. A method as claimed in any one of claims 17 to 25, wherein the communication network resource comprises at least one of radio access network coverage or Internet Protocol bandwidth.
27. A method as claimed in any one of claims 17 to 26, wherein the evaluation request further comprises a specification of distributed processing resources.
28. A method as claimed in claim 27, wherein the response to the evaluation request further comprises an indication of the determined availability of the specified distributed processing resources.
29. A computer program product configured, when run on a computer, to carry out a method according to any one of the preceding claims.
30. A network element configured for evaluating a navigational route, the network element comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the network element is operable to carry out a method according to any one of claims 1 to 16.
31 . A user device configured for evaluating a navigational route, the user device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor such that the user device is operable to carry out a method according to any one of claims 17 to 28.
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