CN115314949A - Apparatus and method for supporting unmapped QoS flows - Google Patents

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for supporting unmapped QoS flows. An apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is configured to: detecting an arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), wherein the packet includes a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value, the QFI value not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and in response to the packet arrival, encoding a data notification message for transmission to a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -Control Plane (CP) via interface circuitry to determine a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for the QoS flow carrying the packet. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.

Description

Apparatus and method for supporting unmapped QoS flows

Priority declaration

This application is based on and claims priority from U.S. provisional application serial No. 63/185,128, filed on day 6/5/2021, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for unmapped quality of service (QoS) flows in a next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) that supports Control Plane (CP) -User Plane (UP) separation.

Background

Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early speech systems to today's highly sophisticated integrated communication platforms. Next generation wireless communication systems, fifth generation (5G) or New Radios (NR) will provide information access and data sharing through various terminals and applications anytime and anywhere. NR promises to be a unified network/system, aimed at satisfying distinct and sometimes conflicting performance dimensions and services. This different multi-dimensional requirement is driven by different services and applications. In general, NRs can evolve based on third generation partnership project (3 GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) -advanced and other potential new Radio Access Technologies (RATs), enriching people's lives with better, simple, and seamless wireless connectivity solutions. NR can enable everything over a wireless connection and provide fast, rich content and services.

Disclosure of Invention

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus, comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is configured to: detecting arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), wherein the packet includes a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value that is not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and in response to the packet arrival, encoding a data notification message for transmission to a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -Control Plane (CP) via the interface circuitry to determine a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for a QoS flow carrying the packet.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus, comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is configured to: decoding a data notification message received via the interface circuitry from a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Concentration Unit (CU) -User Plane (UP), wherein the data notification message is To notify an arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), the packet including a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value, the QFI value not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and determining a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for a QoS flow carrying the packet in response to the data notification message.

Drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described by way of example, and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements.

Fig. 1 illustrates a communication system in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a Downlink (DL) data notification procedure in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of an Uplink (UL) data notification procedure in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for unmapped QoS flows in NG-RAN supporting CP-UP separation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for unmapped QoS flows in NG-RAN supporting CP-UP split, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 schematically illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates example components of a device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments.

Fig. 10 illustrates a network according to various embodiments of the 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. However, it will be readily understood by those 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. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternative embodiments may be practiced without the 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 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. The phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiment; however, it may refer 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)".

Fig. 1 illustrates a communication system 100 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The communication system 100 is shown to include a User Equipment (UE) 101. The UE 101 may be a smartphone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellular networks). However, it may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), a tablet, a pager, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a wireless handheld device, or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

In some embodiments, the UE 101 may include an internet of things (IoT) UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. IoT UEs may utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M), machine Type Communication (MTC), enhanced MTC (eMTC), and narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) to exchange data with IoT servers or devices via Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMNs), proximity-based services (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC data exchange may be a machine-initiated data exchange. An IoT network describes the interconnection of IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the internet infrastructure) with short-term connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connectivity of the IoT network.

The UE 101 may be configured to connect with (e.g., communicatively couple with) a Radio Access Network (RAN) 110, which RAN 110 may be, for example, an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), a next generation RAN (NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UE 101 may operate in accordance with a cellular communication protocol, which may be, for example, a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) protocol, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocol, a push-to-talk (PTT) protocol, a cellular PTT (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, or the like.

RAN 110 may include one or more Access Nodes (ANs). These ANs may be referred to as Base Stations (BSs), nodebs, evolved nodebs (enbs), next generation nodebs (gnbs), etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., ground access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As shown in fig. 1, RAN 110 includes AN 111 and AN 112, for example.

UE 101 may be communicatively coupled to RAN 110 by utilizing a connection 103 with AN 111, as shown in fig. 1. The connection 103 may be implemented with one or more beams (not shown). A beam may indicate a spatial domain transmit and/or receive filter or spatial relationship, and thus the terms "beam", "spatial domain transmit and/or receive filter" and "spatial relationship" may be interchangeable herein.

AN 111 and AN 112 may communicate with each other via AN X2 interface 113. AN 111 and AN 112 may be macro-ANs, which may provide greater coverage. Alternatively, they may be femto-cell ANs or pico-cell ANs, which may provide smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than macro-ANs. For example, one or both of AN 111 and AN 112 may be a Low Power (LP) AN. In one embodiment, AN 111 and AN 112 may be the same type of AN. In another embodiment, they are different types of ANs.

The AN 111 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 101. In some embodiments, ANs 111 and 112 may implement various logical functions of RAN 110, including, but not limited to, radio Network Controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In accordance with some embodiments, UE 101 may be configured to communicate with AN 111 or with other UEs over a multicarrier communication channel using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals in accordance with various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and proximity-based services (ProSe) or sidelink) communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, the downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from AN 111 to UE 101, while uplink transmissions may use similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. The time-frequency plane representation method is common practice of OFDM systems, which makes radio resource allocation more intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements. In the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels transmitted using such resource blocks.

The downlink channels may include a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) and a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).

The PDSCH may carry user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 101. The PDCCH may carry information on a transport format and resource allocation aspects related to the PDSCH channel, etc. It may also inform the UE 101 of transport format, resource allocation and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to the uplink shared channel. In general, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 101 within a cell) can be performed at AN 111 based on channel quality information fed back from UEs 101. Downlink resource allocation information for (e.g., allocated to) the UE 101 may be sent on the PDCCH.

The PDCCH may use Control Channel Elements (CCEs) to transmit control information. The PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets before mapping to resource elements, and these quadruplets may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of physical resource elements (referred to as Resource Element Groups (REGs)), each set including four physical resource elements. Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of Downlink Control Information (DCI) and channel conditions. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L =1, 2, 4, or 8)

Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above-described concept. For example, some embodiments may use an Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more Enhanced Control Channel Elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of physical resource elements, referred to as Enhanced Resource Element Groups (EREGs), each set including four physical resource elements. In some cases, an ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

The uplink channels may include a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) and a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). The PUSCH may carry user data and control information to the AN(s), and the PUCCH may carry control information to the AN(s).

RAN 110 is shown communicatively coupled to a Core Network (CN) 120 via an S1 interface 114. In some embodiments, the CN 120 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or other type of CN. In one embodiment, the S1 interface 114 is divided into two parts: S1-Mobility Management Entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between ANs 111 and 112 and MME 121; S1-U interface 116, which carries traffic data between ANs 111 and 112 and serving gateway (S-GW) 122.

In one embodiment, CN 120 may include MME 121, S-GW 122, packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (P-GW) 123, and Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 124.MME 121 may be similar in function to the control plane of a conventional serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) support node (SGSN). MME 121 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. HSS 124 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information for supporting network entities in handling communication sessions. The CN 120 may include one or more HSS 124 depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capabilities of the devices, the organization of the network, etc. For example, HSS 124 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, admission, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, and the like.

S-GW 122 may terminate S1 interface 114 towards RAN 110 and route data packets between RAN 110 and CN 120. In addition, S-GW 122 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-AN handovers and may also provide AN anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

The P-GW 123 may terminate the SGi interface towards the PDN. The P-GW 123 may route data packets between the CN 120 and an external network, such AS a network including an Application Server (AS) 130 (alternatively referred to AS an Application Function (AF)), via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 125. In general, the application server 130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with a core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Service (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In one embodiment, P-GW 123 is communicatively coupled to application server 130 via an IP communication interface. The application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., voice over internet protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) of the UE 101 via the CN 120.

P-GW 123 may also be responsible for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 126 is a policy and charging control element of CN 120. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) that is associated with an internet protocol connectivity access network (IP-CAN) session for a UE. In a roaming scenario with local traffic explosion, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of the UE: a home PCRF (H-PCRF) within the HPLMN and a visited PCRF (V-PCRF) in a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). PCRF 126 may be communicatively coupled to application server 130 via P-GW 123. Application server 130 may signal PCRF 126 to indicate the new service flow and select the appropriate quality of service (QoS) and charging parameters. PCRF 126 may provide the rules to a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) using appropriate Traffic Flow Templates (TFTs) and QoS Class Identifiers (QCIs), which starts the QoS and charging specified by application server 130.

The number of devices and/or networks shown in fig. 1 is provided for illustration purposes only. In practice, there may be additional devices and/or networks, fewer devices and/or networks, different devices and/or networks, or devices and/or networks that are configured differently than shown in FIG. 1. Alternatively or additionally, one or more devices of system 100 may perform one or more functions described as being performed by another one or more devices of system 100. Further, although "direct" connections are shown in FIG. 1, these connections should be construed as logical communication paths. And in practice there may be one or more intermediate devices (e.g., routers, gateways, modems, switches, hubs, etc.).

In 5G, user data is carried by "QoS flows" on the NG interface (e.g., between NG-RAN and CN), and these QoS flows are served by Data Radio Bearers (DRBs) on the Uu interface (e.g., between NG-RAN and UE). The QoS flows are mapped onto the DRBs according to the traffic characteristics, and how the mapping is decided by the NG-RAN.

In fact, the NG-RAN may decide not to map the QoS flow immediately during QoS flow setup, but only when the actual packets for the QoS flow arrive at the NG-RAN. Such a decision may, for example, reduce signaling overhead. When the actual packet arrives, the NG-RAN can configure the selected mapping accordingly. Such procedures have been described in annex a.2, a.3 and a.6 of 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.300v16.5.0 (2021-03).

In case the Control Plane (CP) and the User Plane (UP) are separate and interconnected through E1 interface in NG-RAN, the actual packets arrive at the UP entity, called gNB-Centralized Unit (CU) -UP, while the mapping is decided by the CP entity, called gNB-CU-CP. In such cases, there is still a lack of correct support for such unmapped QoS flows.

For DL, whereas the gNB-CU-CP does not decide on the mapping of QoS flows (and thus has not configured mapping to the gNB-CU-UP yet), the gNB-CU-CP should be informed that DL packets for this QoS flow arrive at the gNB-CU-UP, so that the gNB-CU-CP can then decide on the mapping and configure the gNB-CU-UP/UE accordingly. It is necessary to refine such notifications.

For the UL, there is a "UL data notification" procedure in the E1 application protocol (E1 AP), where the gNB-CU-UP can notify UL QoS flow packet arrivals that have not been configured by the gNB-CU-CP. However, currently such procedures are limited to QoS flows that are not configured during DRB "modification". That is, the procedure is not applicable to QoS flows that are not configured at DRB setup.

The present disclosure enables the above-described lack of mapped QoS flows in NG-RAN nodes for CP-UP splitting, and provides several embodiments to address this lack.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a DL data notification procedure in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. This procedure is initiated by the gNB-CU-UP To indicate that the arrival of DL data for the UE is detected or that a DL packet is first received that has a QoS Flow ID (QFI) value contained in the next generation user plane interface (NG-U) header that is not configured by the Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information. The procedure uses UE related signaling.

In some embodiments, the gNB-CU-UP initiates the process by sending a DL DATA NOTIFICATION (DL DATA NOTIFICATION) message to the gNB-CU-CP. In other words, the DL data notification message is sent by the gNB-CU-UP to provide information about DL data detection to the gNB-CU-CP.

In some embodiments, if an IE Paging Priority Indicator (PPI) is included in the DL data notification message, the gNB-CU-CP may use it for Paging policy differentiation.

In some embodiments, if an IE Protocol Data Unit (PDU) Session To Notify List is included in the DL Data notification message, the gNB-CU-CP may map the flow(s) included in the IE PDU Session To Notify List To existing DRBs or establish a new DRB for the flow(s). In one embodiment, the QFI value not configured by the IE QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information is carried by the IE PDU Session To Notify List.

An NG-U tunnel between the NG-RAN node and a User Plane Function (UPF) is established on a per PDU session basis. The gNB-CU-UP can know to which PDU session such DL data belongs. In the DL data notification message, the IE PDU Session To Notify List is used To inform which unknown DL QFI packet is received for which PDU Session gNB-CU-UP.

Table 1 below shows an example structure of the DL data notification message.

TABLE 1 DL data Notification message

The definition of an IE can be found in 3gpp TS 38.463v16.5.0 (2021-04) in conjunction with the description in "IE type and reference". For example, section 9.3.1.1 of 3GPP TS 38.463V16.5.0 (2021-04) defines IE "Message Type"; section 9.3.1.4 of 3GPP TS 38.463V16.5.0 (2021-04) defines the IE "gNB-CU-CP UE E1AP ID"; section 9.3.1.5 of 3GPP TS 38.463V16.5.0 (2021-04) defines the IE "gNB-CU-UP UE E1AP ID"; section 9.3.1.55 of 3GPP TS 38.463v16.5.0 (2021-04) defines the IE "Paging Priority Indicator (PPI)"; the IE "PDU Session ID" is defined in section 9.3.1.21 of 3GPP TS 38.463V16.5.0 (2021-04); and the IE "QoS Flow List" is defined in section 9.3.1.12 of 3gpp TS 38.463v16.5.0 (2021-04). Herein, "M" in the column "present" means "Mandatory (management)", and "O" in the column "present" means "Optional".

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of a UL data notification procedure in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The gNB-CU-UP initiates this procedure by sending a UL data notification message to the gNB-CU-CP. The procedure uses UE related signaling.

In some embodiments, the process is initiated by the gNB-CU-UP To inform the gNB-CU-CP that the first UL packet received at the default DRB with a QFI value contained in the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) header that is not configured by the IE QoS Flows Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information. When a DRB is established in a CU-UP, an IE QoS Flows Information To Be Setup is configured To the gNB-CU-UP for the DRB. In this way, the E1AP UL data notification procedure is enhanced to support QoS flows during DRB setup.

Fig. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 400 for unmapped QoS flows in NG-RAN supporting CP-UP separation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 400 may be performed by the gNB-CU-UP.

In some embodiments, method 400 may include steps 410 and 420.

At 410, arrival of a packet associated with the UE is detected. The packet includes a QFI value that is not configured by the IE QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or the IE Flow Mapping Information.

At 420, in response to the arrival of the packet, a data notification message is encoded for transmission to the gNB-CU-CP to determine a DRB for the QoS flow carrying the packet.

In some embodiments, method 400 may include more or fewer or different steps, as the present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 500 for unmapped QoS flows in NG-RAN supporting CP-UP separation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 500 may be performed by the gNB-CU-CP.

In some embodiments, method 500 may include steps 510 and 520.

At 510, a data notification message received from the gNB-CU-UP is decoded. The data notification message is used to notify the arrival of packets associated with the UE. The packet includes a QFI value that is not configured by the IE QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or the IE Flow Mapping Information.

At 520, a DRB for the QoS flow carrying the packet is determined in response to the data notification message.

In some embodiments, method 500 may include more or fewer or different steps, as the present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

With the technical solution of the present disclosure, some enhancements to the E1AP are proposed for the gNB-CU-UP to inform the gNB-CU-CP of DL packet arrivals for unmapped QoS flows (QoS flows not yet configured to the gNB-CU-UP). Furthermore, the E1AP UL data notification procedure is enhanced to support notification of unknown QoS flows that are not configured during DRB setup.

Fig. 6 schematically illustrates a wireless network 600 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 600 may include a UE 602 in wireless communication with AN 604. The UE 602 and the AN 604 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the co-located components described elsewhere herein.

The UE 602 may be communicatively coupled with AN 604 via a connection 606. Connection 606 is shown as an air interface to enable communicative coupling and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol operating at millimeter wave (mmWave) or sub-6 GHz frequencies, such as the LTE protocol or the 5G NR protocol.

UE 602 may include a host platform 608 coupled with a modem platform 610. Host platform 608 may include application processing circuitry 612, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 614 of modem platform 610. The application processing circuitry 612 may run various applications of source/receiver application data for the UE 602. The application processing circuitry 612 may also implement one or more layer 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.

Protocol processing circuit 614 may implement one or more layers of operations to facilitate the transmission or reception of data over connection 606. Layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuit 614 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

The modem platform 610 may further include digital baseband circuitry 616, the digital baseband circuitry 616 may implement one or more layer operations "below" the layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 614 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, blind control channel signal decoding, and other related functions.

Modem platform 610 may further include transmit circuitry 618, receive circuitry 620, RF circuitry 622, and RF front end (RFFE) circuitry 624, which may include or be connected to one or more antenna panels 626. Briefly, the transmit circuit 618 may include a digital-to-analog converter, a mixer, intermediate Frequency (IF) components, and the like; the receive circuitry 620 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, and the like; RF circuitry 622 may include low noise amplifiers, power tracking components, and the like; the RFFE circuitry 624 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 the components of transmit circuitry 618, receive circuitry 620, RF circuitry 622, RFFE circuitry 624, and antenna panel 626 (collectively, "transmit/receive components") may be specific to the details of a particular implementation, e.g., whether the communication is TDM or FDM, at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, and may be arranged in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuit 614 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 626, RFFE circuitry 624, RF circuitry 622, receive circuitry 620, digital baseband circuitry 616, and protocol processing circuitry 614. In some embodiments, the antenna panel 626 may receive transmissions from AN 604 by receiving beamformed signals received by multiple antennas/antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 626.

UE transmissions may be established via and through protocol processing circuitry 614, digital baseband circuitry 616, transmit circuitry 618, RF circuitry 622, RFFE circuitry 624, and antenna panel 626. In some embodiments, the transmit component of the UE 604 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form the transmit beam transmitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panel 626.

Similar to UE 602, AN 604 may include a host platform 628 coupled to a modem platform 630. The host platform 628 may include an application processing circuit 632 coupled with a protocol processing circuit 634 of the modem platform 630. The modem platform may also include digital baseband circuitry 636, transmit circuitry 638, receive circuitry 640, RF circuitry 642, RFFE circuitry 644, and antenna panel 646. The components of the AN 604 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, the synonymous components of the UE 602. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of AN 608 may perform various logical functions including, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

Fig. 7 illustrates example components of a device 700 according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, device 700 may include application circuitry 702, baseband circuitry 704, radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 706, front End Module (FEM) circuitry 708, one or more antennas 710, and Power Management Circuitry (PMC) 712 coupled together at least as shown. The illustrated components of the apparatus 700 may be included in a UE or AN. In some embodiments, the apparatus 700 may include fewer elements (e.g., the AN may not use the application circuitry 702, but rather include a processor/controller to process IP data received from the EPC). In some embodiments, device 700 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage devices, displays, cameras, sensors, or input/output (I/O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., for a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation, the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device).

The application circuitry 702 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 702 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the device 700. In some embodiments, the processor of the application circuitry 702 may process IP packets received from the EPC.

Baseband circuitry 704 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Baseband circuitry 704 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of RF circuitry 706 and to generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 706. Baseband processing circuitry 704 may interface with application circuitry 702 to generate and process baseband signals and to control operation of RF circuitry 706. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 704 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 704A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 704B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 704C, or other baseband processor(s) 704D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 704 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 704A-D) may handle various radio control functions that support communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 706. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of the baseband processors 704A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 704G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 704E. Radio control functions may include, but are not limited to: signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 704 may include Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 704 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, viterbi (Viterbi), and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples, and other suitable functions may be included in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 704 may include one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 704F. The audio DSP(s) 704F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. In some embodiments, components of the baseband circuitry may be combined as appropriate in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuitry 704 and application circuitry 702 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 704 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 704 may support communication with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN), wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 704 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

The RF circuitry 706 may support communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 706 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 706 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from FEM circuitry 708 and provide baseband signals to baseband circuitry 704. RF circuitry 706 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 704 and provide an RF output signal to FEM circuitry 708 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of RF circuit 706 may include a mixer circuit 706a, an amplifier circuit 706b, and a filter circuit 706c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 706 may include filter circuitry 706c and mixer circuitry 706a. RF circuitry 706 may also include synthesizer circuitry 706d for synthesizing frequencies for use by mixer circuitry 706a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from FEM circuit 708 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuit 706 d. The amplifier circuit 706b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuit 706c may be a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or a Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 704 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path may comprise a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 706a of the transmit signal path may be configured to upconvert an input baseband signal based on a synthesis frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 706d to generate an RF output signal for FEM circuitry 708. The baseband signal may be provided by the baseband circuitry 704 and may be filtered by the filter circuitry 706c.

In some embodiments, mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 706a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 706a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 706a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 706a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, RF circuitry 706 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and baseband circuitry 704 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with RF circuitry 706.

In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuitry may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 706d may be a fractional-N or fractional-N/N +1 type synthesizer, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 706d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 706d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuit 706a of the RF circuit 706 based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 706d may be a fractional-N/N +1 type synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by baseband circuitry 704 or application processor 702 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by the application processor 702.

Synthesizer circuit 706d of RF circuit 706 may include a frequency divider, a Delay Locked Loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual-mode divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide an input signal by N or N +1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, a DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO period into at most Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this manner, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 706d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate a plurality of signals having a plurality of different phases from one another at the carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 706 may include an IQ/polarity converter.

FEM circuitry 708 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to manipulate RF signals received from one or more antennas 710, amplify the received signals, and provide amplified versions of the received signals to RF circuitry 706 for further processing. FEM circuitry 708 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided for transmission by RF circuitry 706 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 710. In various embodiments, amplification through either the transmit signal path or the receive signal path may be done in RF circuitry 706 only, FEM 708 only, or in both RF circuitry 706 and FEM 708.

In some embodiments, FEM circuitry 708 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to RF circuitry 706). The transmit signal path of FEM circuitry 708 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 706) and one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 710).

In some embodiments, PMC 712 may manage power provided to baseband circuitry 704. Specifically, PMC 712 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. PMC 712 may generally be included when device 700 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. PMC 712 may improve power conversion efficiency while providing desired implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

Although figure 7 shows PMC 712 only coupled to baseband circuitry 704. However, in other embodiments, PMC 712 may additionally or alternatively be coupled with and perform similar power management operations on other components, such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 702, RF circuitry 706, or FEM 708.

In some embodiments, PMC 712 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of device 700. For example, if the device 700 is in an RRC _ Connected state where it is still Connected to the RAN node when the device 700 expects to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity it may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the device 700 may be powered down for a brief interval of time, thereby saving power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, device 700 can transition to an RRC _ Idle state in which device 700 is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. are performed. The device 700 enters a very low power state and performs paging, where the device 700 again periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device 700 may not receive data in this state and it may transition back to the RRC Connected state in order to receive data.

The additional power-save mode may allow the device to be unavailable to the network for a period longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device has no access to the network at all and may be completely powered down. Any data transmitted during this period will incur a significant delay and the delay is assumed to be acceptable.

A processor of the application circuitry 702 and a processor of the baseband circuitry 704 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, the processor of the baseband circuitry 704 (alone or in combination) may be configured to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while the processor of the application circuitry 704 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., transmission Communication Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include the RRC layer. As mentioned herein, layer 2 may include a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer. As mentioned herein, layer 1 may comprise the Physical (PHY) layer of the UE/RAN node.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device 800 according to various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 800 (or "system 800") may be implemented as base stations, radio heads, RAN nodes, and so on, such as the RAN nodes 111 and 112 shown and described previously. In other examples, system 800 may be implemented in or by a UE, application server(s) 130, and/or any other elements/devices discussed herein. The system 800 may include one or more of the following: application circuitry 805, baseband circuitry 810, one or more radio front end modules 815, memory 820, power Management Integrated Circuits (PMICs) 825, power tee circuitry 830, network controller 835, network interface connector 840, satellite positioning circuitry 845, and user interface 850. In some embodiments, device 800 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, sensors, or input/output (I/O) interface elements. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., for a cloud RAN (C-RAN) implementation, the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device).

As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include hardware components such as the following configured to provide the described functionality: electronic circuits, logic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memories (shared, dedicated, or group), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field-programmable devices (FPDs) (e.g., field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), complex PLDs (complex PLDs, CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), structured ASICs, or System on Chip (socs)), digital Signal Processors (DSPs), and so forth. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. Furthermore, the term "circuitry" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or circuitry used in an electrical or electronic system) and program code for performing the functions of the program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The terms "application circuitry" and/or "baseband circuitry" may be considered synonymous with "processor circuitry" and may be referred to as "processor circuitry". As used herein, the term "processor circuit" may refer to, be part of, or include circuitry that: the circuit is capable of sequentially and automatically performing a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations; and recording, storing and/or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, physical Central Processing Units (CPUs), single-core processors, dual-core processors, tri-core processors, quad-core processors, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes.

The application circuitry 805 may include one or more Central Processing Unit (CPU) cores and one or more of: a cache memory, a low drop-out (LDO) regulator, an interrupt controller, a Serial Interface such as SPI, I2C, or a general-purpose programmable Serial Interface module, a Real Time Clock (RTC), a timer-counter including interval and watchdog timers, a general-purpose input/output (I/O or IO), a memory card controller such as a Secure Digital (SD)/multimedia card (MMC), a Universal Serial Bus (USB) Interface, a Mobile Industrial Processor Interface (MIPI) Interface, and a Joint Test Access Group (Joint Test Access Group, JTAG) Test Access port. As an example, the application circuit 805 may include one or more Intels

Or

A processor; ultramicron semiconductor (Advanced Micro Devices, AMD)

A processor, an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), or

A processor; and so on. In some embodiments, system 800 may not utilize application circuitry 805, but may include, for example, a dedicated processor/controller to process IP data received from the EPC or 5 GC.

Additionally or alternatively, the application circuitry 805 may include circuitry such as (but not limited to) the following: one or more Field Programmable Devices (FPDs), such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), etc.; programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) such as Complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs, such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoC (PSoC); and so on. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuitry 805 may comprise a logical block or architecture, including other interconnected resources, that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of the application circuit 805 may include a storage unit (e.g., an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a flash memory, a static memory (e.g., static Random Access Memory (SRAM), an antifuse, etc.) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in a lookup table (LUT), and so forth.

Baseband circuitry 810 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Although not shown, baseband circuitry 810 may include one or more digital baseband systems, which may be coupled to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem via an interconnection subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and the mixed signal baseband subsystem via additional interconnect subsystems. Each interconnection subsystem may include a bus system, a point-to-point connection, a Network On Chip (NOC) fabric, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnection technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include digital signal processing circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, voice processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more amplifiers and filters, and/or other similar components. In an aspect of the disclosure, the baseband circuitry 810 may include protocol processing circuitry having one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functionality for digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., radio front end module 815).

The user interface circuitry 850 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system 800 or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable interaction with peripheral components of the system 800. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., a Light Emitting Diode (LED)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, and so forth. The peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, and the like.

The Radio Front End Module (RFEM) 815 may include a millimeter wave RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separate from the millimeter wave RFEM. The RFIC may include a connection to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front-end module 815. The RFEM 815 may include both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave antennas.

Memory circuit 820 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory including Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and/or Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM); and nonvolatile memory (NVM), including high speed electrically erasable memory (often referred to as flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM), and the like, and may include data from one or more of the above-mentioned sources

And

is used for three-dimensional (3D) cross point (XPOINT) memory. Memory circuit 820 may be implemented as one or more of a solder-in package integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

PMIC 825 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or a capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of power down (under voltage) and power surge (over voltage) conditions. Power tee circuit 830 may provide power drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and data connectivity to infrastructure device 800 using a single cable.

The network controller circuit 835 may utilize a standard network interface protocol such as ethernet, GRE tunnel based ethernet, multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) based ethernet, or some other suitable protocol to provide connectivity to the network. Network connectivity may be provided to/from infrastructure device 800 via network interface connector 840 using a physical connection, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as a "copper interconnect"), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuit 835 may include one or more special purpose processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the above-described protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 835 can include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 845 may include circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted by one or more constellations of navigation satellites of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Examples of Navigation Satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the Global Positioning System (GPS) in the united states, the Global Navigation System (GLONASS) in russia, the galileo System in the european union, the beidou Navigation Satellite System in china, the regional Navigation System or GNSS augmentation System (e.g., indian Constellation Navigation with Indian Navigation (ic), the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) in japan, the Satellite-Integrated Doppler orbit imaging and Radio Positioning (dorsi) in france, etc.), and so forth. The positioning circuitry 845 may include various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices, such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and so forth, to facilitate communication over-the-air (OTA) communication) to communicate with components of a positioning network (e.g., navigation satellite constellation nodes).

Nodes or satellites of the navigation satellite constellation(s) ("GNSS nodes") may provide positioning services by continuously transmitting or broadcasting GNSS signals along a line of sight that may be used by a GNSS receiver (e.g., positioning circuitry 845 and/or positioning circuitry implemented by the UE 101 or the like) to determine its GNSS position. The GNSS signals may include a pseudorandom code (e.g., a sequence of ones and zeros) known to the GNSS receiver and a message including a time of transmission (ToT) of the code epoch (e.g., a defined point in the pseudorandom code sequence) and a GNSS node position at ToT. A GNSS receiver may monitor/measure GNSS signals transmitted/broadcast by a plurality of GNSS nodes (e.g., four or more satellites) and solve various equations to determine corresponding GNSS positions (e.g., spatial coordinates). The GNSS receiver also implements a clock that is generally less stable and accurate than the atomic clock of the GNSS node, and the GNSS receiver may use the measured GNSS signals to determine a deviation of the GNSS receiver from real time (e.g., a deviation of the GNSS receiver clock from the GNSS node time). In some embodiments, the Positioning circuitry 845 may include a Micro-Technology for Positioning, navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a master Timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance.

The GNSS receiver may measure the time of arrival (ToA) of GNSS signals from multiple GNSS nodes according to its own clock. The GNSS receiver may determine a time of flight (ToF) value for each received GNSS signal based on the ToA and the ToT, and may then determine a three-dimensional (3D) position and clock bias based on the ToF. The 3D location may then be converted to latitude, longitude, and altitude. The positioning circuitry 845 may provide data to the application circuitry 805, which may include one or more of location data or time data. The application circuit 805 may use the time data to operate synchronously with other radio base stations (e.g., of the RAN nodes 111, 112, etc.).

The components shown in fig. 8 may communicate with each other using interface circuitry. As used herein, the term "interface circuit" may refer to, be part of, or include a circuit that supports the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuit" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an input/output (I/O) interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, and so forth. Any suitable bus technology may be used in various implementations, which may include any number of technologies, including Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), PCI express, or any number of other technologies. The bus may be a dedicated bus, such as used in SoC-based systems. Other bus systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, SPI interface, point-to-point interface, and power bus, among others.

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 diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 900, which include one or more processors (or processor cores) 910, one or more memory/storage devices 920, and one or more communication resources 930, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 940. Hardware resources 900 may be part of a UE, AN, or LMF. For embodiments utilizing node virtualization (e.g., 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 (e.g., 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 Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, processor 912 and processor 914.

Memory/storage 920 may include a main memory, a disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage 920 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-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 storage, and the like.

The communication resources 930 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 904 or one or more databases 906 via the network 908. For example, the communication resources 930 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, bluetooth components (e.g., bluetooth low energy), wi-Fi 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 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., within a processor's cache memory), 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 processor 910, memory/storage 920, peripherals 904, and memory of database 906 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

Fig. 10 shows a diagram of a network 1000 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Network 1000 may operate in a manner consistent with the 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example 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, that benefit from the principles described herein.

Network 1000 may include a UE 1002, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with RAN 1004 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 1002 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a tablet, a wearable computer device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment device, an in-vehicle entertainment device, an instrument cluster, 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 networked appliance, a machine-type communication device, an M2M or D2D device, an internet of things device, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, the network 1000 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other through edge link interfaces. The UE may be an M2M/D2D device that communicates using a physical side link channel (e.g., without limitation, a physical side link broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical side link discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical side link shared channel (PSSCH), a physical side link control channel (PSCCH), a physical side link basic channel (PSFCH), etc.).

In some embodiments, the UE 1002 may also communicate with the AP 1006 over an over-the-air connection. The AP 1006 may manage WLAN connections that may be used to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 1004. The connection between the UE 1002 and the AP 1006 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where the AP 1006 may be wireless fidelity (WiFi)

A router. In some embodiments, the UE 1002, RAN 1004, and AP 1006 may utilize cellular WLAN aggregation (e.g., LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA)/lightweight IP (LWIP)). Cellular WLAN aggregation may involve a UE 1002 configured by a RAN 1004 utilizing both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

RAN 1004 may include one or more access nodes, e.g., AN 1008. The AN 1008 may terminate the air interface protocols of the UE 1002 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), radio Link Control (RLC), medium Access Control (MAC), and L1 protocols. In this manner, AN 1008 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 1020 and UE 1002. In some embodiments, AN 1008 may be implemented in a separate device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer, as part of a virtual network, for example, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 1008 may be referred to as a Base Station (BS), a gNB, a RAN node, AN evolved node B (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a node B (NodeB), a roadside unit (RSU), a TRxP, a TRP, and so on. The AN 1008 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station that provides a microcell, picocell, or other similar cell having a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than the macrocell.

In embodiments where the RAN 1004 includes multiple ANs, they may be coupled to each other over AN X2 interface (in the case where the RAN 1004 is AN LTE RAN) or AN Xn interface (in the case where the RAN 1004 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interface, which in some embodiments may be separated into a control plane interface/user plane interface, may allow the AN to communicate information related to handover, data/context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

The ANs of RAN 1004 may each manage one or more cells, groups of cells, component carriers, etc., to provide UE 1002 with AN air interface for network access. The UE 1002 may be simultaneously connected with multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 1004. For example, UE 1002 and RAN 1004 may use carrier aggregation to allow UE 1002 to connect with multiple component carriers, each corresponding to a primary cell (Pcell) or a secondary cell (Scell). In a dual connectivity scenario, a first AN may be a master node providing a Master Cell Group (MCG) and a second AN may be a secondary node providing a Secondary Cell Group (SCG). The first/second AN can be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.

RAN 1004 may provide an air interface over licensed or unlicensed spectrum. To operate in unlicensed spectrum, a node may use a Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), and/or further enhanced LAA (feLAA) mechanism based on Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology with 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 1002 or AN 1008 may be or act as a Road Side Unit (RSU), which may refer to any transport infrastructure entity for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by AN appropriate AN or a 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"; an RSU implemented in or by a next generation NodeB (gNB) may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU"; and so on. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located at the curb side that provides connectivity 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, the RAN 1004 may be an LTE RAN 1010 including an evolved node B (eNB), e.g., eNB 1012. The LTE RAN 1010 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS at 15 kHz; a CP-OFDM waveform for DL and an SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control, etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; relying on a PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and relying on CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate over the sub-6 GHz band.

In some embodiments, RAN 1004 may be a Next Generation (NG) -RAN1014 with a gNB (e.g., gNB 1016) or a gn-eNB (e.g., NG-eNB 1018). The gNB 1016 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 1016 may be connected to the 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The Ng-eNB 1018 may also connect with the 5G core over the Ng interface, but may connect with the UE over the LTE air interface. The gNB 1016 and ng-eNB 1018 may be connected to each other over an Xn interface.

In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between nodes of the NG-RAN1014 and the UPF1048, and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface (e.g., N2 interface) between the NG-RAN1014 and nodes of the access and mobility management function (AMF) 1044.

The NG-RAN1014 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM for UL, and DFT-s-OFDM; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller (Reed-Muller) codes for control, and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; performing phase tracking of the PDSCH using the PTRS; and time tracking using the tracking reference signal. The 5G-NR air interface may operate over the FR1 frequency band, which includes the sub-6 GHz band, or the FR2 frequency band, which includes the 24.25GHz to 52.6GHz band. The 5G-NR air interface may include SSBs, which are regions of a downlink resource grid including PSS/SSS/PBCH.

In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may use BWP for various purposes. For example, BWP may be used for dynamic adaptation of SCS. For example, the UE 1002 may be configured with multiple BWPs, with each BWP configuration having a different SCS. When the BWP change is indicated to the UE 1002, the SCS of the transmission also changes. Another use case for BWP is related to power saving. In particular, the UE 1002 may be configured with multiple BWPs with different numbers of frequency resources (e.g., 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 the UE 1002 and, in some cases, at the gNB 1016. BWPs containing a large number of PRBs may be used in scenarios with higher traffic loads.

The RAN 1004 is communicatively coupled to a CN 1020, which includes network elements, to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g., users of the UE 1002). The components of CN 1020 may be implemented in one physical node or in different physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all functions provided by the network elements of CN 1020 onto physical computing/storage resources in servers, switches, and the like. A logical instance of CN 1020 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of CN 1020 may be referred to as a network subslice.

In some embodiments, CN 1020 may be LTE CN 1022, which may also be referred to as Evolved Packet Core (EPC). LTE CN 1022 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 1024, a Serving Gateway (SGW) 1026, a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 1028, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 1030, a Proxy Gateway (PGW) 1032, and a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) 1034, which are coupled to each other by an interface (or "reference point") as shown. The functions of the elements of LTE CN 1022 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The MME 1024 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 1002 to facilitate patrol, bearer activation/deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

The SGW 1026 may terminate the S1 interface towards the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 1022. SGW 1026 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.

The SGSN 1028 can track the location of the UE 1002 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 1028 may perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection designated by MME 1024; MME selection for handover, etc. An S3 reference point between the MME 1024 and SGSN 1028 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active state.

The HSS 1030 may include a database for network users that includes subscription-related information that supports network entities handling communication sessions. The HSS 1030 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, admission, naming/addressing resolution, location dependency, etc. The S6a reference point between the HSS 1030 and the MME 1024 may enable transmission of subscription and authentication data to authenticate/grant user access to the LTE CN 1020.

PGW 1032 may terminate the SGi interface towards a Data Network (DN) 1036 that may include an application/content server 1038. PGW 1032 may route data packets between LTE CN 1022 and data network 1036. PGW 1032 may be coupled with SGW 1026 via an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. PGW 1032 may also include a node (e.g., PCEF) for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Additionally, the SGi reference point between PGW 1032 and data network 1036 may be, for example, an operator external public, private PDN, or operator internal packet data network for providing IMS services. PGW 1032 may be coupled with PCRF 1034 via a Gx reference point.

The PCRF 1034 is a policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 1022. The PCRF 1034 can be communicatively coupled to the application/content server 1038 to determine the appropriate QoS and charging parameters for the service flow. The PCRF 1032 can provide the associated rules to the PCEF (via the Gx reference point) with the appropriate TFT and QCI.

In some embodiments, CN 1020 may be a 5G core network (5 GC) 1040. The 5GC 1040 may include an authentication server function (AUSF) 1042, an access and mobility management function (AMF) 1044, a Session Management Function (SMF) 1046, a User Plane Function (UPF) 1048, a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) 1050, a network open function (NEF) 1052, an NF storage function (NRF) 1054, a Policy Control Function (PCF) 1056, a Unified Data Management (UDM) 1058, and an Application Function (AF) 1060, which are coupled to each other by interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. The function of the elements of the 5GC 1040 can be briefly described as follows.

The AUSF 1042 may store data for authentication of the UE 1002 and process authentication related functions. AUSF 1042 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 1042 may exhibit a Nausf service based interface in addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 1040 through reference points as shown.

The AMF 1044 may allow other functionality of the 5GC 1040 to communicate with the UE 1002 and the RAN 1004 and subscribe to notifications regarding mobility events for the UE 1002. The AMF 1044 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., registering the UE 1002), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF related events, and access authentication and permissions. AMF 1044 may provide for the transmission of Session Management (SM) messages between UE 1002 and SMF 1046 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 1044 may also provide for the transmission of SMS messages between the UE 1002 and the SMSF. The AMF 1044 may interact with the AUSF 1042 and the UE 1002 to perform various security anchoring and context management functions. Further, AMF 1044 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between RAN 1004 and AMF 1044; the AMF 1044 may act as a termination point for NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF 1044 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 1002 over the N3 IWF interface.

The SMF 1046 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, tunnel management between UPF1048 and AN 1008); UE IP address assignment and management (including optional permissions); selection and control of the UP function; configuring flow control at UPF1048 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 1008 on N2 through AMF 1044); and determining an SSC pattern for the session. SM may refer to the management of PDU sessions, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 1002 and the data network 1036.

The UPF1048 may serve as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with the data network 1036, and a branch point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF1048 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform the user plane part of policy rules, lawful intercepted packets (UP 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 marking in uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF1048 may include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to the data network.

The NSSF 1050 may select a set of network slice instances that serve the UE 1002. The NSSF 1050 may also determine allowed Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) and mapping to a single NSSAI (S-NSSAI) for subscription, if needed. The NSSF 1050 may also determine the set of AMFs to be used to serve the UE 1002, or determine a list of candidate AMFs, based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 1054. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 1002 may be triggered by the AMF 1044 (with which the UE 1002 registers by interacting with the NSSF 1050), which may result in a change in the AMF. NSSF 1050 may interact with AMF 1044 via N22 reference points; and may communicate with another NSSF in the visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). In addition, NSSF 1050 may expose an interface based on NSSF services.

NEF 1052 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal disclosure/re-disclosure, AF (e.g., AF 1060), edge computing or fog computing systems, and the like. In these embodiments, the NEF 1052 may authenticate, license, or throttle AFs. NEF 1052 can also translate information exchanged with AF1060 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 1052 may translate between the AF service identifier and the internal 5GC information. NEF 1052 may also receive information from other NFs based on their public capabilities. This information may be stored as structured data at the NEF 1052 or at the data storage NF using a standardized interface. The NEF 1052 may then re-disclose the stored information to other NFs and AFs, or for other purposes such as analysis. Additionally, NEF 1052 may expose an interface based on the Nnef service.

NRF 1054 may support a service discovery function, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF 1054 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 1054 may expose an interface based on an nrrf service.

PCF 1056 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support a unified policy framework to manage network behavior. PCF 1056 may also implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of UDM 1058. In addition to communicating with functions through reference points as shown, PCF 1056 also exhibits an Npcf service-based interface.

UDM 1058 may process subscription-related information to support network entities handling communication sessions and may store subscription data for UE 1002. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between UDM 1058 and AMF 1044. UDM 1058 may include two parts: front end and UDR are applied. UDRs may store policy data and subscription data for UDMs 1058 and PCFs 1056, and/or structured data and application data for disclosures for NEFs 1052 (including PFD for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 1002). UDR 221 may expose an Nudr service-based interface to allow UDMs 1058, PCFs 1056, and NEFs 1052 to access specific sets of stored data, as well as to 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 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 the subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification processing, access permission, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs through reference points as shown, UDM 1058 may also expose a numm service based interface.

AF1060 can provide application impact on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with a policy framework for policy control.

In some embodiments, the 5GC 1040 may enable edge computation by selecting an operator/third party service that is geographically close to the point at which the UE 1002 attaches to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide an edge calculation implementation, the 5GC 1040 may select a UPF1048 near the UE 1002 and perform traffic steering from the UPF1048 to the data network 1036 over the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by AF 1060. In this way, AF1060 can affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, the network operator may allow AF1060 to interact directly with the relevant NFs when AF1060 is considered a trusted entity. In addition, AF1060 can expose interfaces based on Naf services.

Data network 1036 may represent various network operator services, internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 1038.

The following paragraphs describe examples of various embodiments.

Example 1 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is configured to: detecting arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), wherein the packet includes a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value that is not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and in response to the packet arrival, encoding a data notification message for transmission to a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -Control Plane (CP) via the interface circuitry to determine a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for a QoS flow carrying the packet.

Example 2 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the packet comprises a Downlink (DL) packet.

Example 3 includes the apparatus of examples 1 or 2, wherein the QFI value is included in a next generation user plane interface (NG-U) header of the DL packet.

Example 4 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 3, wherein the data notification message comprises a DL data notification message.

Example 5 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 To 4, wherein the data notification message includes an IE PDU Session To Notify List, the QFI value of the DL packet carried by the IE PDU Session To Notify List, and wherein the processor circuit is further To: causing the DL packet to be transmitted to the UE based on an existing DRB or a new DRB determined by the gNB-CU-CP.

Example 6 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 5, wherein the packet comprises an Uplink (UL) packet.

Example 7 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 6, wherein the QFI value is included in a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) header of the UL packet.

Example 8 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 7, wherein the data notification message comprises an UL data notification message.

Example 9 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 8, wherein the apparatus is adapted for a gNB-CU-User Plane (UP).

Example 10 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 9, wherein the apparatus is adapted for AN Access Node (AN).

Example 11 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is configured to: decoding a data notification message received via the interface circuitry from a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Concentration Unit (CU) -User Plane (UP), wherein the data notification message is To notify an arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), the packet including a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value, the QFI value not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and determining a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for the QoS flow carrying the packet in response to the data notification message.

Example 12 includes the apparatus of example 11, wherein the packet comprises a Downlink (DL) packet.

Example 13 includes the apparatus of examples 11 or 12, wherein the QFI value is included in a next generation user plane interface (NG-U) header of the DL packet.

Example 14 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 11 to 13, wherein the data notification message comprises a DL data notification message.

Example 15 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 11 To 14, wherein the data notification message includes an IE PDU Session To Notify List, the QFI value of the DL packet carried by the IE PDU Session To Notify List, and wherein the processor circuit is further To: mapping the QoS flow to an existing DRB or a new DRB.

Example 16 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 11 to 15, wherein the packet comprises an Uplink (UL) packet.

Example 17 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 11 to 16, wherein the QFI value is included in a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) header of the UL packet.

Example 18 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 11 to 17, wherein the data notification message comprises a UL data notification message including the QFI value of the UL packet, and wherein the processor circuit is further to: mapping the QoS flow to an existing DRB or a new DRB.

Example 19 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 11 to 18, wherein the apparatus is adapted to a gNB-CU-Control Plane (CP).

Example 20 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 11 to 19, wherein the apparatus is adapted to AN Access Node (AN).

Example 21 includes a method comprising: detecting arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), wherein the packet includes a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value that is not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and in response to the packet arrival, encoding a data notification message for transmission to a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -Control Plane (CP) to determine a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for a QoS flow carrying the packet.

Example 22 includes the method of example 21, wherein the packet comprises a Downlink (DL) packet.

Example 23 includes the method of example 21 or 22, wherein the QFI value is included in a next generation user plane interface (NG-U) header of the DL packet.

Example 24 includes the method of any one of examples 21 to 23, wherein the data notification message comprises a DL data notification message.

Example 25 includes the method of any one of examples 21 To 24, wherein the data notification message includes an IE PDU Session To Notify List, the QFI value of the DL packet carried by the IE PDU Session To Notify List, and wherein the method further comprises: causing the DL packet to be transmitted to the UE based on an existing DRB or a new DRB determined by the gNB-CU-CP.

Example 26 includes the method of any one of examples 21 to 25, wherein the packet comprises an Uplink (UL) packet.

Example 27 includes the method of any one of examples 21 to 26, wherein the QFI value is included in a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) header of the UL packet.

Example 28 includes the method of any one of examples 21 to 27, wherein the data notification message comprises an UL data notification message.

Example 29 includes the method of any one of examples 21 to 28, wherein the method is applicable to a gNB-CU-User Plane (UP).

Example 30 includes the method of any one of examples 21 to 29, wherein the method is adapted for AN Access Node (AN).

Example 31 includes a method comprising: decoding a data notification message received from a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -User Plane (UP), wherein the data notification message is used To notify packet arrival associated with a User Equipment (UE), the packet includes a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value, the QFI value is not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flows Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and determining a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for the QoS flow carrying the packet in response to the data notification message.

Example 32 includes the method of example 31, wherein the packet comprises a Downlink (DL) packet.

Example 33 includes the method of example 31 or 32, wherein the QFI value is included in a next generation user plane interface (NG-U) header of the DL packet.

Example 34 includes the method of any one of examples 31 to 33, wherein the data notification message comprises a DL data notification message.

Example 35 includes the method of any one of examples 31 To 34, wherein the data notification message includes an IE PDU Session To Notify List, the QFI value of the DL packet carried by the IE PDU Session To Notify List, and wherein the method further comprises: mapping the QoS flow to an existing DRB or a new DRB.

Example 36 includes the method of any one of examples 31 to 35, wherein the packet comprises an Uplink (UL) packet.

Example 37 includes the method of any one of examples 31 to 36, wherein the QFI value is included in a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) header of the UL packet.

Example 38 includes the method of any one of examples 31 to 37, wherein the data notification message comprises a UL data notification message including the QFI value of the UL packet, and wherein the method further comprises: mapping the QoS flow to an existing DRB or a new DRB.

Example 39 includes the method of any one of examples 31 to 38, wherein the method is applicable to a gNB-CU-Control Plane (CP).

Example 40 includes the method of any one of examples 31 to 39, wherein the method is applicable to AN Access Node (AN).

Example 41 includes an apparatus comprising: means for detecting arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), wherein the packet includes a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value that is not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and means for encoding, in response to the packet arrival, a data notification message for transmission to a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -Control Plane (CP) to determine a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for a QoS flow carrying the packet.

Example 42 includes the apparatus of example 41, wherein the packet comprises a Downlink (DL) packet.

Example 43 includes the apparatus of examples 41 or 42, wherein the QFI value is included in a next generation user plane interface (NG-U) header of the DL packet.

Example 44 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 41 to 43, wherein the data notification message comprises a DL data notification message.

Example 45 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 41 To 44, wherein the data notification message includes an IE PDU Session To Notify List, the QFI value of the DL packet carried by the IE PDU Session To Notify List, and wherein the apparatus further comprises: means for causing transmission of the DL packet to the UE based on an existing DRB or a new DRB determined by the gNB-CU-CP.

Example 46 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 41 to 45, wherein the packet comprises an Uplink (UL) packet.

Example 47 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 41 to 46, wherein the QFI value is included in a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) header of the UL packet.

Example 48 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 41 to 47, wherein the data notification message comprises a UL data notification message.

Example 49 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 41 to 48, wherein the apparatus is adapted for a gNB-CU-User Plane (UP).

Example 50 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 41 to 49, wherein the apparatus is adapted to AN Access Node (AN).

Example 51 includes an apparatus comprising: means for decoding a data notification message received from a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -User Plane (UP), wherein the data notification message is for notifying an arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), the packet including a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value, the QFI value not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and means for determining a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for a QoS flow carrying the packet in response to the data notification message.

Example 52 includes the apparatus of example 51, wherein the packet comprises a Downlink (DL) packet.

Example 53 includes the apparatus of examples 51 or 52, wherein the QFI value is included in a next generation user plane interface (NG-U) header of the DL packet.

Example 54 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 51 to 53, wherein the data notification message comprises a DL data notification message.

Example 55 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 51 To 54, wherein the data notification message comprises an IE PDU Session To Notify List, the QFI value of the DL packet carried by the IE PDU Session To Notify List, and wherein the apparatus further comprises: means for mapping the QoS flow to an existing DRB or a new DRB.

Example 56 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 51 to 55, wherein the packet comprises an Uplink (UL) packet.

Example 57 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 51 to 56, wherein the QFI value is included in a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) header of the UL packet.

Example 58 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 51 to 57, wherein the data notification message comprises a UL data notification message including the QFI value of the UL packet, and wherein the apparatus further comprises: means for mapping the QoS flow to an existing DRB or a new DRB.

Example 59 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 51 to 58, wherein the apparatus is adapted for a gNB-CU-Control Plane (CP).

Example 60 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 51 to 59, wherein the apparatus is adapted to AN Access Node (AN).

Example 61 includes a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a processor circuit, cause the processor circuit to perform the method of any of examples 21-30.

Example 62 includes a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a processor circuit, cause the processor circuit to perform the method of any of examples 31-40.

Example 63 includes a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -Control Plane (CP) as shown and described in the specification.

Example 64 includes the method shown and described in the specification as performed at a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -Control Plane (CP).

Example 65 includes a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -User Plane (UP) as shown and described in the specification.

Example 66 includes the method shown and described in the specification as performed at a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -User Plane (UP).

Example 67 includes a User Equipment (UE) as shown and described in the specification.

Example 68 includes the method shown and described in the specification as performed at a User Equipment (UE).

Example 69 includes AN Access Node (AN) as shown and described in the specification.

Example 70 includes the method performed at AN Access Node (AN) shown and described in the specification.

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 disclosure. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments discussed herein. Therefore, it is intended that the embodiments described herein be limited only by the following claims and the equivalents thereof.

Claims (20)

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface circuit; and

a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit,

wherein the processor circuit is to:

detecting arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), wherein the packet includes a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value that is not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and

in response to the packet arrival, encoding a data notification message for transmission to a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Centralized Unit (CU) -Control Plane (CP) via the interface circuitry to determine a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for a QoS flow carrying the packet.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the packet comprises a Downlink (DL) packet.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the QFI value is included in a next generation user plane interface (NG-U) header of the DL packet.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the data notification message comprises a DL data notification message.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the data notification message comprises an IE PDU Session To Notify List, the QFI value of the DL packet carried by the IE PDU Session To Notify List, and wherein the processor circuit is further To:

causing the DL packet to be transmitted to the UE based on an existing DRB or a new DRB determined by the gNB-CU-CP.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the packet comprises an Uplink (UL) packet.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the QFI value is included in a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) header of the UL packet.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the data notification message comprises an UL data notification message.

9. The apparatus according to any of claims 1-8, wherein the apparatus is adapted for a gNB-CU-User Plane (UP).

10. The apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the apparatus is adapted for AN Access Node (AN).

11. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface circuit; and

a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit,

wherein the processor circuit is to:

decoding a data notification message received via the interface circuitry from a next generation NodeB (gNB) -Concentration Unit (CU) -User Plane (UP), wherein the data notification message is To notify an arrival of a packet associated with a User Equipment (UE), the packet including a quality of service (QoS) Flow ID (QFI) value, the QFI value not configured by an Information Element (IE) QoS Flow Information To Be Setup or IE Flow Mapping Information; and

determining a Data Radio Bearer (DRB) for a QoS flow carrying the packet in response to the data notification message.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the packet comprises a Downlink (DL) packet.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the QFI value is included in a next generation user plane interface (NG-U) header of the DL packet.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the data notification message comprises a DL data notification message.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the data notification message comprises an IE PDU Session To Notify List, the QFI value of the DL packet carried by the IE PDU Session To Notify List, and wherein the processor circuit is further configured To:

mapping the QoS flow to an existing DRB or a new DRB.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the packet comprises an Uplink (UL) packet.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the QFI value is included in a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) header of the UL packet.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the data notification message comprises a UL data notification message that includes the QFI value of the UL packet, and wherein the processor circuit is further to:

mapping the QoS flow to an existing DRB or a new DRB.

19. The apparatus according to any of claims 11-18, wherein the apparatus is adapted for a gbb-CU-Control Plane (CP).

20. The apparatus according to any of claims 11 to 18, wherein the apparatus is adapted for AN Access Node (AN).

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