CN113676931A

CN113676931A - AF entity in TSN and network-side TSN converter

Info

Publication number: CN113676931A
Application number: CN202110520769.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 托马斯·卢森基兴; 亚历山大·萨松·斯托亚诺夫斯基
Original assignee: Intel Corp
Current assignee: Intel Corp
Priority date: 2020-05-14
Filing date: 2021-05-13
Publication date: 2021-11-19

Abstract

The application relates to an Application Function (AF) entity in a Time Sensitive Network (TSN) and a network side TSN converter (NW-TT). The AF entity includes a processor circuit configured to: sending a management bridge command message to the NW-TT via the network interface, the management bridge command message for initiating a bridge management process at the NW-TT; and receiving a management bridge complete message from the NW-TT, the management bridge complete message for providing result information of the bridge management procedure at the NW-TT.

Description

AF entity in TSN and network-side TSN converter

Priority requirement

This application is based on and claims priority from U.S. patent application No.63/024,948, filed 5/14/2020, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly, to an Application Function (AF) entity and a network-side TSN converter (NW-TT) in a time-sensitive network (TSN).

Background

The 3GPP Rel-16 standard relates to enhancements to 5G system protocols and interfaces to support Time Sensitive Communications (TSC). Network physical control applications in the vertical fields of future factories (intelligent manufacturing), power distribution, central power generation, and rail transit require support from the TSC.

To support TSC, the 5G system is fused with a Time Sensitive Network (TSN) as a TSN bridge. This "logical" TSN bridge includes TSN converter functionality for interoperation between the TSN and 5G systems in the user plane and the control plane. The TSN converter functions include a device-side TSN converter (DS-TT) and a network-side TSN converter (NW-TT). 5G system specific procedures and wireless communication links etc. in the 5G core network and the 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) remain hidden from the TSN system.

Drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements.

Fig. 1 illustrates a timing diagram of a bridge management process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 shows a flow chart of a method performed by the AF entity in the bridge management process shown in fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a flow diagram of a method performed by the NW-TT in the bridge management process shown in fig. 1.

Fig. 4 illustrates a timing diagram of another bridge management process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 shows a flow chart of a method performed by the AF entity in the bridge management procedure shown in fig. 4.

Fig. 6 shows a flow diagram of a method performed by the NW-TT in the bridge management procedure shown in fig. 4.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a network according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a wireless network according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram of components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of the disclosure to others skilled in the art. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that many alternative embodiments may be practiced using portions of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials, and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that alternative embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.

Further, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the illustrative embodiments; however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.

The phrases "in an embodiment," "in one embodiment," and "in some embodiments" are used repeatedly herein. Such phrases are not generally referring to the same embodiment; however, they may also relate to the same embodiment. The terms "comprising," "having," and "including" are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. The phrases "A or B" and "A/B" mean "(A), (B), or (A and B)".

Currently, the 3GPP Rel-16 standard does not support management of bridge management information parameters at the NW-TT. The present disclosure adds bridge management procedures, messages, and information elements for enabling the AF entity in the TSN to manage bridge management information parameters at the NW-TT. For simplicity, the AF entity in the TSN will be referred to as TSN AF below.

For new procedures, messages, and information elements that support management of bridge management information parameters at the NW-TT, one or more of the following aspects may be considered:

1) the setting and reading of the bridge management information parameters are supported.

2) Subscription/notification of changes to specific bridge management information parameters is supported.

3) There is a need for a scalable, reliable, and resource efficient design.

Fig. 1 illustrates a timing diagram of a bridge management process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1, the bridge management process includes:

s102, the TSN AF sends a management bridge command message to the NW-TT, and the management bridge command message is used for initiating a bridge management process at the NW-TT;

s104, the NW-TT sends a management bridge completion message to the TSN AF, and the management bridge completion message is used for providing result information of the bridge management process at the NW-TT.

Specifically, the bridge management process shown in fig. 1 is a TSN AF-initiated bridge management process, and the purpose of the TSN AF-initiated bridge management process is to enable the TSN AF to:

a) acquiring a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT;

b) obtaining current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT;

c) setting values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT;

d) subscribing to notifications provided by the NW-TT that a change in the value of certain bridge management parameters at the NW-TT occurs; or

e) Unsubscribe from notifications regarding one or more bridge management parameters provided by the NW-TT.

In some embodiments, the manage bridge command message may contain a bridge management list information element, and the bridge management list information element may be used to transfer information from the TSN AF to the NW-TT regarding a list of bridge management operations of the NW-TT to be performed at the NW-TT.

To initiate the bridge management procedure initiated by the TSN AF, the TSN AF should:

a) encoding information regarding a list of bridge management parameter values to read, bridge management parameter values to set, bridge management parameter changes to subscribe or unsubscribe, and whether the TSN AF requests a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT in a bridge management list information element and including the bridge management list information element in a management bridge command message;

b) sending a management bridge command message to the NW-TT via a Policy Control Function (PCF) entity and a Session Management Function (SMF) entity; and

c) a timer T35xxy is started.

Fig. 2 shows a flow chart of a method performed by the TSN AF in the bridge management process shown in fig. 1. As shown in fig. 2, in the bridge management process shown in fig. 1, the method 200 performed by the TSN AF includes:

s202, sending a management bridge command message to the NW-TT, wherein the management bridge command message is used for initiating a bridge management process at the NW-TT; and

s204, receiving a management bridge completion message from the NW-TT, wherein the management bridge completion message is used for providing result information of the bridge management process at the NW-TT.

Fig. 3 shows a flow diagram of a method performed by the NW-TT in the bridge management process shown in fig. 1. As shown in fig. 3, in the bridge management process shown in fig. 1, the NW-TT performs a method 300 comprising:

s302, receiving a management bridge command message from the TSN AF, wherein the management bridge command message is used for initiating a bridge management process at the NW-TT;

s304, executing the bridge management process; and

s306, sending a management bridge completion message to the TSN AF, wherein the management bridge completion message is used for providing result information of the bridge management process at the NW-TT.

In some embodiments, the management bridge complete message may include at least one of a bridge management capability information element, a bridge state information element, and a bridge update result information element, wherein:

the bridge management capability information element is used to inform the TSN AF of the bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT,

the bridge status information element is used to report the current value of one or more bridge management parameters at NW-TT to the TSN AF, and

the bridge update result information element is used to report to the TSN AF the result of setting one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Upon receiving the manage bridge command message, the NW-TT shall, for each operation contained in the bridge management list information element:

a) if the opcode is "get capabilities", then include a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT in a bridge management capabilities information element that manages bridge completion messages;

b) if the opcode is "read parameter", then an attempt is made to read the value of the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, and:

1) if the value of the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully read, including information about the bridge management parameter and its current value in the bridge state information element of the manage bridge complete message; and

2) if the value of the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT was not successfully read, including information regarding the bridge management parameter and associated bridge management service cause value in a bridge status information element of a manage bridge complete message;

c) if the opcode is "set parameter", an attempt is made to set the value of the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT to the value specified in the operation, and:

1) if the value of the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully set, including information about the bridge management parameter and its current value in a bridge update result information element of the manage bridge complete message; and

2) if the value of the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT was not successfully set, including information regarding the bridge management parameter and the associated bridge management service cause value in a bridge update result information element of the manage bridge complete message;

d) if the opcode is "subscribe to notification for parameters" (subscribe for parameter), "storing a request from the TSN AF requesting that the TSN AF be notified of changes in values of bridge management parameters;

e) if the opcode is "unsubscribe for parameter" then delete the request from the TSN AF requesting that the TSN AF be notified of a change in the value of the bridge management parameters (if any); and

f) the management bridge complete message is sent to the TSN AF via the SMF entity and the PCF entity.

In other words, when the bridge management procedure includes an operation of reading the current value of a certain bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully read, information on the bridge management parameter and its current value is contained in the bridge status information element; if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT was not successfully read, information regarding the bridge management parameter and associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge status information element.

Similarly, when the bridge takeover process includes an operation of setting a value of a certain bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully set, information on the bridge management parameter and its current value is contained in the bridge update result information element; if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully set, information about the bridge management parameter and the associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge update result information element.

It should be noted that timer T35xxy starts when the TSN AF sends a management bridge command message and stops when the TSN AF receives a management bridge complete message, and the value of timer T35xxy depends on the network. In the bridge management procedure shown in fig. 1, the TSN AF should resend the management bridge command message when the timer T35xxy expires for the first time, and reset and start the timer T35 xxy. This retransmission is repeated four times, i.e. upon the fifth expiry of timer T35xxy, the TSN AF should abort the bridge management procedure.

In the bridge management process shown in fig. 1, the NW-TT should not diagnose errors and should consider the TSN AF initiated bridge management process to be completed when receiving a transmission failure indication of a management bridge complete message from the lower layer. It should be noted that bridge management procedures taking into account TSN AF initiation that are done due to such an abnormal situation do not result in the NW-TT resuming execution of the operations included in the management bridge command message.

Fig. 4 illustrates a timing diagram of another bridge management process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 4, the bridge management process includes:

s402, the NW-TT sends a bridge management notification message to the TSN-AF, the bridge management notification message being used for notifying the TSN-AF of the change of the value of the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT, wherein the TSN-AF has requested that the TSN-AF be notified of the change of the value of the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT; and

s404, the TSN AF sends a bridge management notification acknowledge message to the NW-TT, the bridge management notification acknowledge message for acknowledging receipt of the bridge management notification message.

In particular, the bridge management process shown in fig. 4 is a NW-TT initiated bridge management process, and the purpose of the NW-TT initiated bridge management process is to inform the TSN AF of changes in the values of one or more bridge management parameters for which the TSN AF has requested via the TSN-AF initiated bridge management process that these bridge management parameters are to be informed of changes.

In some embodiments, the bridge management notification message may contain a bridge status information element, and the bridge status information element may be used to report the current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT to the TSN AF.

To initiate the NW-TT initiated bridge management procedure, the NW-TT should create a bridge management notification message and should:

a) including information regarding bridge management parameters to be reported to the TSN AF and its current values in a bridge state information element of a bridge management notification message;

b) starting a timer T35 zzy; and

c) and sending a bridge management notification message to the TSN AF through the SMF entity and the PCF entity.

Fig. 5 shows a flow chart of a method performed by the TSN AF in the bridge management process shown in fig. 4. As shown in fig. 5, in the bridge management process shown in fig. 4, the method 500 performed by the TSN AF includes:

s502, receiving a bridge management notification message from the NW-TT, the bridge management notification message for notifying the TSN AF of a change in a value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT, wherein the TSN AF has requested that the TSN AF be notified of the change in the value of the one or more bridge management parameters; and

s504, sending a bridge management notification confirmation message to the NW-TT, wherein the bridge management notification confirmation message is used for confirming the receiving of the bridge management notification message.

Fig. 6 shows a flow diagram of a method performed by the NW-TT in the bridge management procedure shown in fig. 4. As shown in fig. 6, in the bridge management process shown in fig. 4, the method 600 performed by the NW-TT includes:

s602, sending a bridge management notification message to the TSN AF, the bridge management notification message for notifying the TSN AF of a change in the value of the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT, wherein the TSN AF has requested that the TSN AF be notified of the change in the value of the one or more bridge management parameters; and

s604, receiving a bridge management notification acknowledge message from the TSN AF, the bridge management notification acknowledge message being used to acknowledge receipt of the bridge management notification message.

Upon receiving the bridge management notification message, the TSN AF should:

a) creating a bridge management notification acknowledgement message; and

b) and sending a bridge management notification confirmation message to the NW-TT through the PCF entity and the SMF entity.

It should be noted that the timer T35zzy starts when the NW-TT sends a bridge management notification message and stops when the NW-TT receives a bridge management notification confirmation message, and the value of the timer T35zzy depends on the network. Upon receiving the bridge management notification acknowledge message, the NW-TT should stop the timer T35 zzy. In the bridge management procedure shown in fig. 4, the NW-TT should resend the bridge management notification message when the timer T35zz expires for the first time, and reset and start the timer T35 zz. This retransmission is repeated four times, i.e. the NW-TT should abort the NW-TT initiated bridge management procedure when the timer T35zzy expires for the fifth time.

In the bridge management procedure shown in fig. 4, the NW-TT should not diagnose errors and the NW-TT initiated bridge management procedure should be considered complete when receiving the transmission failure indication of the bridge management notification confirm message from the lower layer.

Some further specific details of the management bridge command message and the management bridge completion message are described below.

Management bridge command messages are sent by the TSN AF to the NW-TT to manage the bridge functions at the NW-TT. Table 1 shows the contents of the management bridge command message.

TABLE 1 management bridge Command message content

IEI	Information element	Type/reference	Presence of	Format	Length of
						Managing bridge command message identities	Bridge management service message types	Force the	V	1
	Bridge management list	Bridge management list	Force the	LV-E	3-

The management bridge completion message is sent by the NW-TT to the TSN AF to complete the bridge management process initiated by the TSN AF. Table 2 shows the contents of the management bridge complete message.

TABLE 2 management bridge complete message content

IEI	Information element	Type/reference	Presence of	Format	Length of
							Managing bridge completion message identities	Bridge management service message types	Force the	V	1
xx	Bridge management capability	Bridge management capability	Optionally	TLV-E	5-
						yy	Bridge state	Bridge state	Optionally	TLV-E	5-
zz	Bridge update results	Bridge update results	Optionally	TLV-E	7-

The bridge management service message type information element is encoded, for example, as shown in table 3.

TABLE 3 bridge management service message types

The purpose of the bridge management list information element is to pass information from the TSN AF to the NW-TT regarding a list of bridge management operations of the NW-TT to be performed at the NW-TT. The bridge management list information element has a minimum length of 4 octets. For example, the bridge management list information element is encoded, for example, as shown in tables 4-9.

TABLE 4 bridge management List information elements

TABLE 5 bridge management List content

TABLE 6 operation with opcode set to "00000001

TABLE 7 operation with opcode set to "00000010", "00000100", or "00000101

TABLE 8 operation with opcode set to "00000011

TABLE 9 bridge management List information elements

The purpose of the bridge management capability information element is to inform the TSN AF of the NW-TT supported bridge management parameters. The minimum length of the bridge management capability information element is 5 octets. The bridge management capability information element is encoded, for example, as shown in tables 10-12.

TABLE 10 bridge management capabilities information element

TABLE 11 bridge management capability content

TABLE 12 bridge manageability information element

The purpose of the bridge status information element is to report the values of one or more bridge management parameters of the NW-TT to the TSN AF. The minimum length of the bridge state information element is 5 octets. The bridge state information elements are encoded, for example, as shown in tables 13-18.

TABLE 13 bridge status information element

TABLE 14 bridge State content

TABLE 15 bridge parameter State

TABLE 16 bridge error content

TABLE 17 bridge parameter errors

TABLE 18 bridge status information element

The purpose of the bridge update result information element is to report to the TSN AF the result of a request from the TSN AF to set one or more bridge management parameters to a particular value. The minimum length of the bridge update result information element is 5 octets. The bridge update result information element is encoded, for example, as shown in tables 19-24.

TABLE 19 bridge update results information element

TABLE 20 bridge update content

TABLE 21 bridge parameter update

TABLE 22 bridge update error content

TABLE 23 bridge parameter errors

TABLE 24 bridge update results information element

The purpose of the DS-TT port neighbor discovery configuration information element of a DS-TT port is to convey the DS-TT port neighbor discovery configuration of the DS-TT port. The DS-TT port neighbor discovery configuration information element of a DS-TT port has a minimum length of 3 octets. The DS-TT port neighbor discovery configuration information elements of the DS-TT port are encoded, for example, as shown in tables 25-27.

TABLE 25 DS-TT Port neighbor discovery configuration information elements of DS-TT ports

TABLE 26 DS-TT Port neighbor discovery configuration of DS-TT Port instances

TABLE 27 DS-TT port neighbor discovery configuration for DS-TT ports

The purpose of the discovered neighbor information element of the DS-TT port is to convey the discovered neighbor information of the DS-TT port. The minimum length of the neighbor discovery information element is 3 octets. The discovered neighbor information elements of the DS-TT ports are encoded, for example, as shown in tables 28-30.

TABLE 28 discovered neighbor information element for DS-TT port

TABLE 29 discovered neighbor information for DS-TT port instances

TABLE 30 discovered neighbor information for DS-TT ports

Fig. 7-8 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that can implement aspects of the disclosed embodiments.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a network 700 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. The network 700 may operate in a manner consistent with the 3GPP technical specifications for Long Term Evolution (LTE) or 5G/New Radio (NR) systems. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited in this respect and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks, such as future 3GPP systems and the like, which benefit from the principles described herein.

Network 700 may include User Equipment (UE)702, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a Radio Access Network (RAN)704 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 702 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet computer, a wearable computer device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, a dashboard, a heads-up display device, an in-vehicle diagnostic device, a dashboard mobile device, a mobile data terminal, an electronic engine management system, an electronic/engine control unit, an electronic/engine control module, an embedded system, a sensor, a microcontroller, a control module, an engine management system, a network device, a machine-type communication device, a machine-to-machine (M2M) or device-to-device (D2D) device, an internet of things device, and so forth.

In some embodiments, network 700 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other through sidelink interfaces. The UE may be an M2M/D2D device that communicates using a physical secondary link channel (e.g., without limitation, a physical secondary link broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical secondary link discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical secondary link shared channel (PSSCH), a physical secondary link control channel (PSCCH), a physical secondary link fundamental channel (PSFCH), etc.).

In some embodiments, the UE 702 may also communicate with an Access Point (AP)706 over an over-the-air connection. The AP 706 may manage Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) connections, which may be used to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 704. The connection between the UE 702 and the AP 706 may be in accordance with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 706 may be wireless fidelity (WiFi)

A router. In some embodiments, the UE 702, RAN 704, and AP 706 may utilize cellular Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) aggregation (e.g., LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA)/lightweight ip (lwip)). Cellular WLAN aggregation may involve a UE 702 configured by the RAN 704 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

RAN 704 may include one or more access nodes, e.g., AN Access Network (AN) 708. The AN 708 may terminate the air interface protocols of the UE 702 by providing access stratum protocols including radio resource control protocol (RRC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), Radio Link Control (RLC), Medium Access Control (MAC), and L1 protocols. In this manner, the AN 708 may enable a data/voice connection between the CN 720 and the UE 702. In some embodiments, AN 708 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer (a virtual network may be referred to as a distributed ran (cran) or virtual baseband unit pool, as part of a virtual network, for example). AN 708 may be referred to as a Base Station (BS), next generation base station (gNB), RAN node, evolved node b (enb), next generation enb (ng enb), node b (nodeb), roadside unit (RSU), TRxP, Transmission Reception Point (TRP), and so on. The AN 708 can be a macrocell base station or a low power base station that provides a microcell, picocell, or other similar cell with a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than a macrocell.

In embodiments where the RAN 704 comprises multiple ANs, they may be coupled to each other via AN X2 interface (if the RAN 704 is AN LTE RAN) or AN Xn interface (if the RAN 704 is a 5G RAN). In some embodiments, the X2/Xn interface, which may be separated into a control/user plane interface, may allow the AN to communicate information related to handover, data/context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, and the like.

The AN of RAN 704 may each manage one or more cells, groups of cells, component carriers, etc., to provide UE 702 with AN air interface for network access. The UE 702 may be simultaneously connected with multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 704. For example, the UE 702 and the RAN 704 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 702 to connect with multiple component carriers, each corresponding to a primary cell (Pcell) or a secondary cell (Scell). In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a primary network node providing a Master Cell Group (MCG) and the second AN may be a secondary network node providing a Secondary Cell Group (SCG). The first/second AN may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng eNB, etc.

RAN 704 may provide an air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in unlicensed spectrum, a node may use a License Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (elaa), and/or further enhanced LAA (felaa) mechanism based on the Carrier Aggregation (CA) technique of PCell/Scell. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform a media/carrier sensing operation based on, for example, a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

In a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) scenario, the UE 702 or the AN 708 may be or act as a Road Side Unit (RSU), which may refer to any transport infrastructure entity for V2X communications. The RSU may be implemented in or by AN appropriate AN or stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU"; RSUs implemented in the next generation nodeb (gNB) or implemented by the gNB may be referred to as "gNB-type RSUs" or the like. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located at the curb side that provides connection support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications/software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events (e.g., collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communication services. The components of the RSU may be enclosed in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or backhaul network.

In some embodiments, RAN 704 may be an LTE RAN 710 including an evolved node b (eNB), e.g., eNB 712. The LTE RAN 710 may provide an LTE air interface with the following features: subcarrier spacing (SCS) of 15 kHz; a single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) waveform for Uplink (UL) and a cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) waveform for Downlink (DL); turbo codes for data and TBCC for control, etc. The LTE air interface may rely on channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) for CSI acquisition and beam management; performing Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)/Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) demodulation by relying on a DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and relying on Cell Reference Signals (CRS) for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation, and on channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate on the sub-6 GHz band.

In some embodiments, RAN 704 may be a Next Generation (NG) -RAN 714 having a gNB (e.g., gNB 716) or gn-eNB (e.g., NG-eNB 718). The gNB 716 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 716 may be connected to the 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The NG-eNB 718 may also be connected with the 5G core over the NG interface, but may be connected with the UE over the LTE air interface. The gNB 716 and ng-eNB 718 may be connected to each other through an Xn interface.

In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts, a NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the UPF748 and NG-RAN 714 (e.g., the N3 interface), and a NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the AMF 744 and NG-RAN 714 (e.g., the N2 interface).

The NG-RAN 714 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following features: variable subcarrier spacing (SCS); cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) for Downlink (DL), CP-OFDM for UL, and DFT-s-OFDM; polarity, repetition, simplex, and reed-muller codes for control, and low density parity check codes (LDPC) for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation reference signals (DMRS) similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use Cell Reference Signals (CRS), but may use Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) demodulation reference signals (DMRS) for Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) demodulation; performing phase tracking of the PDSCH using a Phase Tracking Reference Signal (PTRS); and time tracking using the tracking reference signal. The 5G-NR air interface may operate over the FR1 frequency band, which includes a sub-6 GHz frequency band, or the FR2 frequency band, which includes a 24.25GHz to 52.6GHz frequency band. The 5G-NR air interface may include synchronization signals and PBCH blocks (SSBs), which are regions of a downlink resource grid including Primary Synchronization Signals (PSS)/Secondary Synchronization Signals (SSS)/PBCH.

In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may use a bandwidth portion (BWP) for various purposes. For example, BWP may be used for dynamic adaptation of SCS. For example, UE 702 may be configured with multiple BWPs, where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When the BWP change is indicated to the UE 702, the SCS of the transmission also changes. Another use case for BWP is related to power saving. In particular, the UE 702 may be configured with multiple BWPs with different numbers of frequency resources (e.g., Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs)) to support data transmission in different traffic load scenarios. BWPs containing a smaller number of PRBs may be used for data transmission with smaller traffic load while allowing power savings at UE 702 and, in some cases, at gNB 716. BWPs containing a large number of PRBs may be used in scenarios with higher traffic loads.

The RAN 704 is communicatively coupled to a CN 720, which includes network elements, to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g., users of the UEs 702). The components of CN 720 may be implemented in one physical node or in different physical nodes. In some embodiments, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) may be used to virtualize any or all functions provided by the network elements of CN 720 onto physical computing/storage resources in servers, switches, and the like. Logical instances of CN 720 may be referred to as network slices, and logical instances of a portion of CN 720 may be referred to as network subslices.

In some embodiments, CN 720 may be LTE CN 722, which may also be referred to as EPC. LTE CN 722 may include Mobility Management Entity (MME)724, Serving Gateway (SGW)726, serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) support node (SGSN)728, Home Subscriber Server (HSS)730, Proxy Gateway (PGW)732, and policy control and charging rules function (PCRF)734, which are coupled to each other by an interface (or "reference point") as shown. The functions of the elements of LTE CN 722 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The MME 724 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 702 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, and so forth.

The SGW 726 may terminate the S1 interface towards the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 722. SGW 726 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, billing, and some policy enforcement.

SGSN 728 may track the location of UE 702 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, SGSN 728 may perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection specified by MME 724; MME selection for handover, etc. The S3 reference point between MME 724 and SGSN 728 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active state.

HSS 730 may include a database for network users that includes subscription-related information that supports network entities handling communication sessions. HSS 730 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependency, etc. The S6a reference point between HSS 730 and MME 724 may enable the transmission of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to LTE CN 720.

PGW 732 may terminate the SGi interface towards a Data Network (DN)736 that may include an application/content server 738. The PGW 732 may route data packets between the LTE CN 722 and the data network 736. The PGW 732 may be coupled with the SGW 726 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. PGW 732 may also include nodes (e.g., PCEFs) for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 732 and the data network 736 may be, for example, an operator external public, private PDN, or an operator internal packet data network for providing IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) services. The PGW 732 may be coupled with the PCRF 734 via a Gx reference point.

PCRF 734 is the policy and charging control element of LTE CN 722. The PCRF 734 may be communicatively coupled to the application/content server 738 to determine appropriate quality of service (QoS) and charging parameters for the service flow. The PCRF 732 may provide the relevant rules to the PCEF (via the Gx reference point) with the appropriate Traffic Flow Template (TFT) and QoS Class Identifier (QCI).

In some embodiments, CN 720 may be a 5G core network (5GC) 740. The 5GC 740 may include an authentication server function (AUSF)742, an access and mobility management function (AMF)744, a Session Management Function (SMF)746, a User Plane Function (UPF)748, a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF)750, a network open function (NEF)752, an NF storage function (NRF)754, a Policy Control Function (PCF)756, a Unified Data Management (UDM)758, and an Application Function (AF)760, which are coupled to each other by interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The functions of the elements of the 5GC 740 may be briefly described as follows.

The AUSF 742 may store data for authentication of the UE 702 and handle authentication related functions. The AUSF 742 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 742 may exhibit a Nausf service based interface in addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 740 through reference points as shown.

The AMF 744 may allow other functions of the 5GC 740 to communicate with the UE 702 and the RAN 704 and subscribe to notifications about mobility events of the UE 702. The AMF 744 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., registering the UE 702), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF related events, and access authentication and authorization. AMF 744 may provide for the transmission of Session Management (SM) messages between UE 702 and SMF 746, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 744 may also provide for the transmission of SMS messages between the UE 702 and the SMSF. The AMF 744 may interact with the AUSF 742 and the UE 702 to perform various security anchoring and context management functions. Further, AMF 744 may be a termination point for the RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between RAN 704 and AMF 744; the AMF 744 may act as a termination point for NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF 744 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 702 over the N3 IWF interface.

SMF 746 may be responsible for SM (e.g., tunnel management between UPF748 and AN 708, session establishment); UE IP address assignment and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of the UP function; configuring flow control at UPF748 to route the flow to the appropriate destination; termination of the interface to the policy control function; controlling a portion of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interface to the LI system); terminate the SM portion of the NAS message; a downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM message (sent to AN 708 over N2 through AMF 744); and determining an SSC pattern for the session. SM may refer to management of PDU sessions, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connection service that provides or enables exchange of PDUs between the UE 702 and the data network 736.

The UPF748 may serve as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point to interconnect with the data network 736, and a branch point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF748 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform the user plane part of policy rules, lawful intercepted packets (IP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet tagging in uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF748 may include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to a data network.

NSSF 750 may select a set of network slice instances that serve UE 702. NSSF 750 may also determine allowed Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) and mapping to a single NSSAI (S-NSSAI) of the subscription, if desired. NSSF 750 may also determine a set of AMFs to use for serving UE 702, or determine a list of candidate AMFs, based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying NRF 754. Selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 702 may be triggered by AMF 744 (with which UE 702 registers by interacting with NSSF 750), which may result in a change in AMF. NSSF 750 may interact with AMF 744 via the N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in the visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Further, NSSF 750 may expose an interface based on the NSSF service.

NEF 752 may securely disclose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functionality for third parties, internal exposure/re-exposure, AF (e.g., AF 760), edge computing or fog computing systems, and the like. In these embodiments, NEF 752 may authenticate, authorize, or limit AF. NEF 752 may also convert information exchanged with AF 760 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 752 may convert between an AF service identifier and internal 5GC information. NEF 752 may also receive information from other NFs based on their public capabilities. This information may be stored as structured data at NEF 752 or at data store NF using a standardized interface. NEF 752 may then re-expose the stored information to other NFs and AFs, or for other purposes such as analysis. In addition, NEF 752 may expose an interface based on the Nnef service.

NRF 754 may support a service discovery function, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 754 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instance," and the like may refer to creating an instance, "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Further, NRF 754 may expose an interface based on the Nnrf service.

PCF 756 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to perform them and may also support a unified policy framework to manage network behavior. The PCF 756 may also implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of the UDM 758. In addition to communicating with functions through reference points as shown, PCF 756 also presents an interface based on Npcf services.

The UDM 758 may process subscription-related information to support network entities handling communication sessions and may store subscription data for the UE 702. For example, subscription data may be communicated via the N8 reference point between the UDM 758 and the AMF 744. The UDM 758 may include two parts: application front end and User Data Record (UDR). The UDR may store policy data and subscription data for the UDM 758 and PCF 756, and/or structured data and application data for exposure (including PFD for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 702) for the NEF 752. UDR 221 may expose a Nudr service-based interface to allow UDM 758, PCF 756, and NEF 752 to access specific sets of stored data, as well as read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE (UDM front end) that is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, and the like. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. The UDM 758 may also expose a numm service based interface in addition to communicating with other NFs through reference points as shown.

AF 760 can provide application impact on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

In some embodiments, 5GC 740 may enable edge computing by selecting an operator/third party service that is geographically close to the point at which UE 702 connects to the network. This may reduce delay and load on the network. To provide an edge computing implementation, 5GC 740 may select a UPF748 close to UE 702 and perform traffic steering from UPF748 to data network 736 over an N6 interface. This may be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by AF 760. In this way, the AF 760 can influence UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, the network operator may allow AF 760 to interact directly with the relevant NFs when AF 760 is considered a trusted entity. Additionally, the AF 760 may expose a Naf service based interface.

The data network 736 may represent various network operator services, internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers, including, for example, an application/content server 738.

Fig. 8 schematically illustrates a wireless network 800 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 800 may include a UE 802 in wireless communication with AN 804. The UE 802 and the AN 804 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components described elsewhere herein.

The UE 802 may be communicatively coupled with AN 804 via a connection 806. Connection 806 is shown as an air interface to enable communication coupling and may be consistent with cellular communication protocols operating at millimeter-wave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, such as the LTE protocol or the 5G NR protocol.

UE 802 may include a host platform 808 coupled with a modem platform 810. Host platform 808 may include application processing circuitry 812, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 814 of modem platform 810. The application processing circuitry 812 may run various applications of source/receiver application data for the UE 802. The application processing circuitry 812 may also implement one or more layers of operations to send/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and internet (e.g., IP) operations.

The protocol processing circuitry 814 may implement one or more layers of operations to facilitate the transmission or reception of data over the connection 806. Layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuit 814 may include, for example, Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), RRC, and non-access stratum (NAS) operations.

The modem platform 810 may further include digital baseband circuitry 816, the digital baseband circuitry 816 may implement one or more layer operations that are "below" layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 814 in the network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, wherein these functions may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

Modem platform 810 may further include transmit circuitry 818, receive circuitry 820, RF circuitry 822, and RF front end (RFFE) circuitry 824, which may include or be connected to one or more antenna panels 826. Briefly, the transmit circuit 818 may include digital-to-analog converters, mixers, Intermediate Frequency (IF) components, and the like; the receive circuitry 820 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, etc.; RF circuitry 822 may include low noise amplifiers, power tracking components, and the like; RFFE circuitry 824 may include filters (e.g., surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beam forming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), and so forth. The selection and arrangement of components of transmit circuitry 818, receive circuitry 820, RF circuitry 822, RFFE circuitry 824, and antenna panel 826 (collectively, "transmit/receive components") may be specific to details of a particular implementation, e.g., whether the communication is Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) or Frequency Division Multiplexed (FDM), at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in a plurality of parallel transmit/receive chains, and may be arranged in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 814 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functionality for the transmit/receive components.

UE reception may be established by and via antenna panel 826, RFFE circuitry 824, RF circuitry 822, receive circuitry 820, digital baseband circuitry 816, and protocol processing circuitry 814. In some embodiments, antenna panel 826 may receive transmissions from AN 804 by receiving beamformed signals received by multiple antennas/antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 826.

UE transmissions may be established via and through protocol processing circuitry 814, digital baseband circuitry 816, transmit circuitry 818, RF circuitry 822, RFFE circuitry 824, and antenna panel 826. In some embodiments, a transmit component of UE 802 may apply spatial filtering to data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam transmitted by an antenna element of antenna panel 826.

Similar to UE 802, AN 804 may include a host platform 828 coupled with a modem platform 830. Host platform 828 may include application processing circuitry 832 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 834 of modem platform 830. The modem platform may also include digital baseband circuitry 836, transmit circuitry 838, receive circuitry 840, RF circuitry 842, RFFE circuitry 844, and antenna panel 846. The components of the AN 804 can be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, the synonymous components of the UE 802. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of AN 804 can perform various logical functions including, for example, Radio Network Controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. In particular, fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of hardware resources 900, hardware resources 900 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 910, one or more memory/storage devices 920, and one or more communication resources 930, where each of these processors, memory/storage devices, and communication resources may be communicatively coupled via a bus 940 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments utilizing node virtualization (e.g., Network Function Virtualization (NFV)), hypervisor 902 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/subslices to utilize hardware resources 900.

Processor 910 may include, for example, processor 912 and processor 914. Processor 910 may be, for example, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

Memory/storage 920 may include a main memory, a disk storage device, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage 920 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory, such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid-state memory, and the like.

The communication resources 930 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 904 or one or more databases 906 or other network elements via the network 908. For example, communication resources 930 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, Near Field Communication (NFC) components, a network interface component, and/or a network interface component,

(or

Low energy) assembly,

Components, and other communication components.

The instructions 950 may include software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors 910 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 950 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processor 910 (e.g., in a cache of the processor), the memory/storage 920, or any suitable combination thereof. Further, any portion of instructions 950 may be communicated to hardware resource 900 from any combination of peripherals 904 or database 906. Thus, the memory of the processor 910, the memory/storage 920, the peripherals 904, and the database 906 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

The following paragraphs describe examples of various embodiments.

Example 1 includes an Application Function (AF) entity in a Time Sensitive Network (TSN), comprising a processor circuit configured to: sending a management bridge command message to a network-side TSN converter (NW-TT) via a network interface, the management bridge command message for initiating a bridge management process at the NW-TT; and receiving a management bridge complete message from the NW-TT, the management bridge complete message for providing result information of a bridge management procedure at the NW-TT.

Example 2 includes the AF entity of example 1, wherein the bridge management procedure includes an operation to obtain a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT.

Example 3 includes the AF entity of example 1, wherein the bridge management procedure includes an operation to read current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 4 includes the AF entity of example 1, wherein the bridge management procedure includes an operation to set values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 5 includes the AF entity of example 1, wherein the bridge management procedure includes an operation to store a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 6 includes the AF entity of example 1, wherein the bridge management procedure includes an operation to delete a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 7 includes the AF entity of example 1, wherein the manage bridge command message contains a bridge management list information element for conveying, from the AF entity to the NW-TT, information regarding a list of bridge management operations of the NW-TT to be performed at the NW-TT.

Example 8 includes the AF entity of example 1, wherein the management bridge complete message contains at least one of a bridge management capability information element, a bridge state information element, and a bridge update result information element, and wherein: the bridge management capability information element is for notifying the AF entity of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT, the bridge status information element is for reporting to the AF entity the current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT, and the bridge update result information element is for reporting to the AF entity the result of setting the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 9 includes the AF entity of example 8, wherein, when the bridge management procedure includes an operation to read a current value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully read, information about the bridge management parameter and its current value is included in the bridge status information element, and if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully read, information about the bridge management parameter and an associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge status information element.

Example 10 includes the AF entity of example 8, wherein, when the bridge management procedure includes an operation of setting a value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully set, information on the bridge management parameter and its current value is included in the bridge update result information element, and if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully set, information on the bridge management parameter and an associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge update result information element.

Example 11 includes a network-side time-sensitive network (TSN) converter (NW-TT) comprising a processor circuit configured to: receiving a management bridge command message from an Application Function (AF) entity in the TSN, the management bridge command message for initiating a bridge management procedure at the NW-TT; executing the bridge management process; and sending a management bridge complete message to the AF entity via a network interface, the management bridge complete message for providing result information of a bridge management process at the NW-TT.

Example 12 includes the NW-TT of example 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to obtain a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT.

Example 13 includes the NW-TT of example 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to read current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 14 includes the NW-TT of example 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to set values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 15 includes the NW-TT of example 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to store a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 16 includes the NW-TT of example 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to delete a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 17 includes the NW-TT of example 11, wherein the manage bridge command message contains a bridge management list information element to convey, from the AF entity to the NW-TT, information regarding a list of bridge management operations of the NW-TT to be performed at the NW-TT.

Example 18 includes the NW-TT of example 11, wherein the managing bridge complete message contains at least one of a bridge management capability information element, a bridge status information element, and a bridge update result information element, and wherein: the bridge management capability information element is for notifying the AF entity of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT, the bridge status information element is for reporting to the AF entity the current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT, and the bridge update result information element is for reporting to the AF entity the result of setting the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 19 includes the NW-TT of example 18, wherein, when the bridge management procedure includes an operation to read a current value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, information about the bridge management parameter and its current value is included in the bridge status information element if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully read, and information about the bridge management parameter and an associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge status information element if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully read.

Example 20 includes the NW-TT of example 18, wherein, when the bridge management procedure includes an operation of setting a value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully set, information on the bridge management parameter and its current value is included in the bridge update result information element, and if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully set, information on the bridge management parameter and an associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge update result information element.

Example 21 includes a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: sending, via a network interface, a management bridge command message to a network side Time Sensitive Network (TSN) translator (NW-TT), the management bridge command message for initiating a bridge management process at the NW-TT; and receiving a management bridge complete message from the NW-TT, the management bridge complete message for providing result information of a bridge management procedure at the NW-TT.

Example 22 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 21, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to retrieve a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT.

Example 23 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 21, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to read current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 24 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 21, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to set values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 25 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 21, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to store a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 26 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 21, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to delete a request from the AF entity to solicit the AF entity to notify of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 27 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 21, wherein the manage bridge command message contains a bridge management list information element to convey, from the AF entity to the NW-TT, information regarding a list of bridge management operations of the NW-TT to be performed at the NW-TT.

Example 28 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 21, wherein the manage bridge complete message contains at least one of a bridge management capability information element, a bridge state information element, and a bridge update result information element, and wherein: the bridge management capability information element is for notifying the AF entity of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT, the bridge status information element is for reporting to the AF entity the current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT, and the bridge update result information element is for reporting to the AF entity the result of setting the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 29 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 28, wherein, when the bridge management procedure includes an operation to read a current value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully read, information about the bridge management parameter and its current value is included in the bridge status information element, and if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully read, information about the bridge management parameter and an associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge status information element.

Example 30 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 28, wherein, when the bridge management procedure includes an operation of setting a value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully set, information on the bridge management parameter and its current value is contained in the bridge update result information element, and if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully set, information on the bridge management parameter and an associated bridge management service cause value is contained in the bridge update result information element.

Example 31 includes a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receiving a management bridge command message from an Application Function (AF) entity in a Time Sensitive Network (TSN), the management bridge command message for initiating a bridge management process at a network-side TSN converter (NW-TT); performing a bridge management procedure at the NW-TT; and sending a management bridge complete message to the AF entity via a network interface, the management bridge complete message for providing result information of a bridge management process at the NW-TT.

Example 32 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 31, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to retrieve a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT.

Example 33 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 31, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to read current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 34 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 31, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to set values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 35 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 31, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to store a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 36 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 31, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to delete a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 37 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 31, wherein the manage bridge command message contains a bridge management list information element to convey, from the AF entity to the NW-TT, information regarding a list of bridge management operations of the NW-TT to be performed at the NW-TT.

Example 38 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 31, wherein the manage bridge complete message contains at least one of a bridge management capability information element, a bridge state information element, and a bridge update result information element, and wherein: the bridge management capability information element is for notifying the AF entity of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT, the bridge status information element is for reporting to the AF entity the current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT, and the bridge update result information element is for reporting to the AF entity the result of setting the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 39 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 38, wherein, when the bridge management procedure includes an operation to read a current value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully read, information about the bridge management parameter and its current value is included in the bridge status information element, and if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully read, information about the bridge management parameter and an associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge status information element.

Example 40 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 38, wherein, when the bridge management procedure includes an operation to set a value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT, if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully set, information about the bridge management parameter and its current value is included in the bridge update result information element, and if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully set, information about the bridge management parameter and an associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge update result information element.

Example 41 includes an Application Function (AF) entity in a Time Sensitive Network (TSN), comprising a processor circuit configured to: receiving a bridge management notification message from a network-side TSN converter, the bridge management notification message for notifying an AF entity of a change in a value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT; and transmitting a bridge management notification acknowledgement message to the NW-TT via a network interface, the bridge management notification acknowledgement message for acknowledging receipt of the bridge management notification message.

Example 42 includes the AF entity of example 41, wherein the bridge management notification message contains a bridge status information element to report current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT to the AF entity.

Example 43 includes the AF entity of example 41, wherein the AF entity has requested to be notified of a change in the value of the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 44 includes a network-side time-sensitive network (TSN) converter (NW-TT) comprising a processor circuit configured to: sending, via a network interface, a bridge management notification message to an Application Function (AF) entity in a TSN, the bridge management notification message to notify the AF entity of a change in a value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT; and receiving a bridge management notification acknowledgement message from the AF entity, the bridge management notification acknowledgement message for acknowledging receipt of the bridge management notification message.

Example 45 includes the NW-TT of example 44, wherein the bridge management notification message contains a bridge status information element to report current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT to the AF entity.

Example 46 includes the NW-TT of example 44, wherein the AF entity has requested to be notified of a change in the value of the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 47 includes a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receiving a bridge management notification message from a network-side time-sensitive network (TSN) converter, the bridge management notification message to notify an Application Function (AF) entity in the TSN of a change in a value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT; and transmitting a bridge management notification acknowledgement message to the NW-TT via a network interface, the bridge management notification acknowledgement message for acknowledging receipt of the bridge management notification message.

Example 48 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 47, wherein the bridge management notification message contains a bridge status information element to report current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT to the AF entity.

Example 49 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 47, wherein the AF entity has requested to be notified of a change in the value of the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Example 50 includes a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: sending, via a network interface, a bridge management notification message to an Application Function (AF) entity in a Time Sensitive Network (TSN), the bridge management notification message for notifying the AF entity of a change in a value of one or more bridge management parameters at a network-side TSN converter (NW-TT); and receiving a bridge management notification acknowledgement message from the AF entity, the bridge management notification acknowledgement message for acknowledging receipt of the bridge management notification message.

Example 51 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 50, wherein the bridge management notification message contains a bridge status information element to report current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT to the AF entity.

Example 52 includes the computer-readable storage medium of example 50, wherein the AF entity has requested to be notified of a change in the value of the one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

Although certain embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description, a wide variety of alternate and/or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be substituted for the embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present invention. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments discussed herein. Therefore, it is manifestly intended that the embodiments described herein be limited only by the claims and the equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. An Application Function (AF) entity in a Time Sensitive Network (TSN), comprising a processor circuit configured to:

sending a management bridge command message to a network-side TSN converter (NW-TT) via a network interface, the management bridge command message for initiating a bridge management process at the NW-TT;

receiving a management bridge complete message from the NW-TT, the management bridge complete message to provide result information of a bridge management procedure at the NW-TT.

2. The AF entity of claim 1, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation of obtaining a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT.

3. The AF entity of claim 1, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to read current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

4. The AF entity of claim 1, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to set values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

5. The AF entity of claim 1, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation of storing a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

6. The AF entity of claim 1, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to delete a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

7. The AF entity of claim 1, wherein the management bridge command message contains a bridge management list information element for conveying from the AF entity to the NW-TT information about a list of bridge management operations of the NW-TT to be performed at the NW-TT.

8. The AF entity of claim 1, wherein the management bridge complete message contains at least one of a bridge management capability information element, a bridge state information element, and a bridge update result information element, and wherein:

the bridge management capability information element is used to inform the AF entity of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT,

the bridge status information element is for reporting current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT to the AF entity, and

the bridge update result information element is used to report to the AF entity the result of setting one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

9. The AF entity of claim 8, wherein when the bridge management procedure includes an operation to read current values of bridge management parameters at the NW-TT,

if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully read, information about the bridge management parameter and its current value is contained in the bridge status information element,

if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT was not successfully read, information regarding the bridge management parameter and associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge status information element.

10. The AF entity of claim 8, wherein when the bridge management procedure includes an operation to set a value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT,

if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is successfully set, information about the bridge management parameter and its current value is contained in the bridge update result information element, and

if the bridge management parameter at the NW-TT is not successfully set, information about the bridge management parameter and associated bridge management service cause value is included in the bridge update result information element.

11. A network-side time-sensitive network (TSN) converter (NW-TT), comprising a processor circuit configured to:

receiving a management bridge command message from an Application Function (AF) entity in the TSN, the management bridge command message for initiating a bridge management procedure at the NW-TT;

executing the bridge management process; and

sending a management bridge complete message to the AF entity via a network interface, the management bridge complete message for providing result information of a bridge management process at the NW-TT.

12. The NW-TT of claim 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to obtain a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT.

13. The NW-TT of claim 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to read current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

14. The NW-TT of claim 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to set values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

15. The NW-TT of claim 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation of storing a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

16. The NW-TT of claim 11, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation of deleting a request from the AF entity requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

17. The NW-TT of claim 11, wherein the manage bridge command message contains a bridge management list information element for conveying from the AF entity to the NW-TT information about a list of bridge management operations of the NW-TT to be performed at the NW-TT.

18. The NW-TT of claim 11, wherein the manage bridge complete message contains at least one of a bridge management capability information element, a bridge status information element, and a bridge update result information element, and wherein:

19. The NW-TT of claim 18, wherein when the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to read a current value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT,

20. The NW-TT of claim 18, wherein when the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to set a value of a bridge management parameter at the NW-TT,

21. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

sending, via a network interface, a management bridge command message to a network side Time Sensitive Network (TSN) translator (NW-TT), the management bridge command message for initiating a bridge management process at the NW-TT; and

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to retrieve a list of bridge management parameters supported at the NW-TT.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to read current values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation to set values of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the bridge management procedure comprises an operation of storing a request from an Application Function (AF) entity in a TSN requesting that the AF entity be notified of a change in the value of one or more bridge management parameters at the NW-TT.