CN117242800A

CN117242800A - Edge application server discovery and identification of active edge application servers and related configuration files

Info

Publication number: CN117242800A
Application number: CN202380011354.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 伊拉吉·索达加
Original assignee: Tencent America LLC
Current assignee: Tencent America LLC
Priority date: 2022-03-30
Filing date: 2023-03-30
Publication date: 2023-12-15

Abstract

The present application relates to an edge enabled fifth generation media streaming (5 GMS) system comprising a user equipment sending an Edge Application Server (EAS) discovery request comprising at least one of: a service key performance indicator KPI, a service area, a service availability plan, or a service continuity scenario. The edge data network is responsive to the discovery request to identify the at least one available EAS that satisfies the discovery request. The application also relates to a 5GMS application provider communicating with a 5GMS Application Function (AF) and/or an Edge Enabled Server (EES), obtaining a list of active EAS's and/or an EAS profile of active EAS's. The list and the EAS profile are obtained by the 5GMS application provider using different interfaces.

Description

Edge application server discovery and identification of active edge application servers and related configuration files

Cross Reference to Related Applications

The present application claims priority to U.S. patent office, U.S. non-provisional application No. 18/127,996 at day 29 of 2023, U.S. patent office at day 3 of 2022, U.S. provisional application No. 63/325,508, and U.S. provisional application at day 30 of 2022, U.S. patent office, U.S. provisional application No. 63/325,512, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present application relate to fifth generation media streams (5 GMS) using edge processing, and more particularly to Edge Application Servers (EAS) discovery and identification of active EAS and related EAS profiles.

Background

The background description provided by embodiments of the application is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

For a 5GMS architecture, the use of edge processing is beneficial because it can provide advantages such as in terms of latency, response time, bandwidth, proximity (proximity) to processing by User Equipment (UE). Thus, various ways of providing edge services by clients and/or ways of obtaining information about edge application servers need to be devised.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a method and a device for processing media stream and edge resources in a fifth generation media stream (5 GMS) application.

In some implementations, a media streaming method includes:

The user equipment determines, for a streaming session of a 5 th generation media stream 5GMS and a 5GMS aware application of the user equipment, a target Edge Application Server (EAS);

the user device sends a discovery request to identify at least one available EAS for the streaming session, wherein the discovery request includes at least one discovery filter comprising at least one of: service key performance indicators KPIs, service areas, service availability plans, or service continuity scenarios;

the user device receiving a discovery request response indicating the at least one available EAS that satisfies the discovery request;

the user device selecting a target EAS from the at least one available EAS; the method comprises the steps of,

the user device communicates media streams with the target EAS during the streaming session.

In other implementations, a media streaming method includes:

a 5 th generation media stream 5GMS application function AF of the edge data network, receiving edge resource information, wherein said edge resource information received from a 5GMS application provider via an M1 interface, the edge resource being configured for provisioning at least one edge application server EAS; the method comprises the steps of,

In response to receiving the edge resource information, the 5GMS AF sends service access information to the user equipment via the M5 interface, the service access information indicating availability of edge resources, the service access information including EAS discovery templates for discovering target EAS for the 5GMS streaming session.

In other implementations, a method for processing edge resources includes:

the 5 th generation media stream 5GMS application provider of the data network determines to obtain a list comprising a list of at least one active edge application server EAS;

the 5GMS application provider sending an activated EAS request to the 5GMS application function AF of the edge data network requesting to obtain the list; the method comprises the steps of,

the 5GMS application provider receives the list from the 5GMS AF.

In other implementations, an apparatus for media stream and edge resource processing is disclosed. The device comprises circuitry configured to perform the method described in any of the implementations above.

The embodiment of the application also provides a non-volatile computer readable storage medium, on which instructions are stored, which when processed by a computer for media streaming and edge resources, cause the computer to execute the method described in any implementation above.

Drawings

Further features, properties and various advantages of the disclosed subject matter will become more apparent from the following detailed description and drawings:

fig. 1 shows a block diagram of an example configuration of an edge-enabled fifth generation media stream (5 GMS) system.

Fig. 2 shows a flow chart of an example method of media streaming performed by a user equipment.

Fig. 3 shows a flow chart of an example method of media streaming performed by an edge network.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of another example method of media streaming performed by an edge network.

Fig. 5 shows a flow chart of an example method of edge resource processing performed by a 5GMS application provider.

Fig. 6 shows a flow chart of an example method of edge resource processing performed by a 5GMS Application Function (AF).

Fig. 7 shows a flow chart of another example method of edge resource processing performed by a 5GMS application provider.

Fig. 8 shows a flow chart of another example method of edge resource processing performed by a 5GMS AF.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer system.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an example configuration of an edge-enabled fifth generation media stream (5 GMS) system 100. In general, a 5GMS system is a collection or component comprising at least one Application Function (AF), at least one Application Server (AS), and an interface from a 5GMS architecture that supports or is configured to perform Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and third party downlink media streaming services and MNO and third party uplink media streaming services. The edge-enabled 5GMS system has the functionality of a 5GMS system and a 5GMS architecture and is further supported or configured to perform edge processing (e.g., media processing in an edge Data Network (DN)). Generally, the term "edge" refers to a location at or relatively near the user. Accordingly, edge processing (or edge computation) refers to computer processing performed by at least one computing device that is considered to be located at or near the user device.

In the example configuration of fig. 1, the edge-enabled 5GMS system 100 includes a user equipment 102, a Data Network (DN) 104, and an edge DN 106. Typically, one user device or apparatus, or a plurality of (e.g., a network) electronic devices or apparatuses, are capable of communicating over a network. The user equipment may include or be referred to as a user terminal, user terminal device, or User Equipment (UE). Additionally, the user device may be or include, but is not limited to, a mobile device (such as a mobile phone, smart watch, tablet, notebook, vehicle or other watercraft (human, motor or engine driven such as automobile, airplane, train, ship or bicycle as non-limiting examples) or a fixed or stationary device (such as a desktop computer or other computing device that is typically not mobile for a long period of time such as an appliance, other relatively heavy device including internet of things (IoT), or a computing device used in a commercial or industrial environment, as non-limiting examples).

In addition, DN 104 and edge DN 106 can each include a computing device or computing devices configured to communicate signaling with user device 102. At least some of the signaling that communicates may be characterized as downlink or uplink. As used in embodiments of the present application, the term downlink refers to the direction of transmission from the network (e.g., DN or edge DN) to the user equipment. Accordingly, the network is the source of the information or content (e.g., media) transmitted and/or included in the transmission, and the user device is the consumer of the information or content, or acts as a consumer device. In this context, the network transmits and the user equipment receives downlink transmissions. Furthermore, as used in embodiments of the present application, the term uplink refers to the direction of transmission from the user equipment to the network (e.g., DN or edge DN). Accordingly, the user device is the source of the information or content (e.g., media) transmitted and/or included in the transmission, and the network is the consumer of the information or content, or acts as a consumer device. In this context, the user equipment transmits and the network receives uplink transmissions.

For the edge-enabled 5GMS system 100 of fig. 1, the user equipment 102, DN 104, and edge DN 106 may be configured to establish at least one media session and stream media during the at least one media session. For at least some configurations, user devices 102, DN 104, and edge DN 106 can perform media streaming and associated functions to establish media streaming and media in accordance with at least one 5GMS specification, standard, and/or protocol, such as third generation partnership project (3 GPP) Technical Specification (TS) 26.501.

Additionally or alternatively, each of user device 102, DN 104, and edge DN 106 can include at least one component or module to enable communication of media streams and/or establishment of media streams and media sessions, such as in accordance with the 5GMS specification. Such components are collectively referred to as 5GMS components in embodiments of the present application. For the configuration shown in fig. 1, the 5GMS components include a 5GMS application provider 108, a 5GMS aware application 110, a 5GMS client 112, a media session processor 114, a media stream processor 116, a 5GMS Application Function (AF) 118, and a 5GMS Application Server (AS) 120. In other configurations, the 5GMS components may include more or fewer components than shown in fig. 1. Furthermore, as described in further detail below, the 5GMS components may be configured to communicate with each other via or through at least one interface M. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, each of the 5GMS components may be configured to communicate in both the uplink and downlink directions, and each of the interfaces M may handle communications in both the uplink and downlink directions. For at least some configurations, at least one of the 5GMS components and/or at least one of the interfaces M may be divided into a downlink portion handling downlink functions and an uplink portion handling uplink functions. For simplicity, the separate downlink and uplink portions are not separately designated in fig. 1 or otherwise mentioned in embodiments of the present application.

Typically, 5GMS application provider 108 is a module of DN 104 that uses 5GMS for streaming services and provisions or provides 5GMS aware applications 110 to user equipment 106. The 5GMS application provider 108 may execute, initiate, and/or establish provisioning sessions to configure 5GMS features for the 5GMS aware application 110. Additionally or alternatively, the 5GMS application provider 108 may provide functionality and/or programs used by the 5GMS aware application 110 that enable the user device 106 to discover available streaming services and content products and select a particular service or content item for access. Additionally or alternatively, the 5GMS application provider 108 may perform a service announcement that enables the 5GMS aware application 110 to obtain 5GMS service access information. Additionally or alternatively, the 5GMS application provider 108 uses 5GMS downlink (5 GMSd) functionality and/or 5GMS uplink (5 GMSu) functionality for downlink streaming services and/or uplink streaming services, respectively. Additionally or alternatively, the 5GMS application provider 108 has content-specific media functions such as media creation, encoding, and formatting that use the 5GM5 interface to stream media to the 5 GMS-aware application 110 and/or to stream media from the 5 GMS-aware application 110.

The 5GMS aware application 110 is a module of the user equipment 102 that includes service logic for at least one 5GMS application service and participates in the delivery of downlink and/or uplink 5GMS services.

The 5GMS clients 112 are modules of the user equipment 102 that are dedicated to the 5GMS, providing interfaces and/or Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to modules within the user equipment 102 to communicate with each other and/or modules or other components external to the user equipment 102 in accordance with the 5 GMS. For some configurations, such as that shown in fig. 1, the 5GMS client 112 may include a media session processor 114 and a media stream processor 116, although other configurations in which one or both of the media session processor 114 or the media stream processor 116 are separate from the 5GMS client 112 are also possible. In other configurations, the user device 102 may include a media session processor 114 and a media stream processor 116 without having a 5GMS client 112.

The media session processor 114 is a module of the user equipment 102 that communicates with 5GMS Application Functions (AFs) to establish, control and/or support communication and/or delivery of media during a media session. For at least some configurations, the media session processor 114 may perform additional functions, such as consumption and quality of experience (QoE) metric collection and reporting. Further, the media session processor 114 may provide network assistance, such as for downlink streaming media transmission and/or by providing bit rate recommendations and/or estimates. Additionally or alternatively, for at least some configurations, the media session processor 114 may expose at least one API used by the 5GMS aware application 110.

The media stream processor 116 is a module of the user equipment 102 that communicates with a 5GMS Application Server (AS) to perform downlink and/or uplink streaming of media content. The media stream processor 116 may also provide services for media capturing and uplink streaming to the 5GMS aware application 110 and services for media session control to the media session processor 114. Further, for at least some configurations, the media stream processor 116 may be configured with a media player that processes the media content stream, and/or may provide at least one API to the 5 GMS-aware application 110 for media playback, and/or at least one API to the media session processor 114 for media session control.

Edge DN 104 is a local data network comprising at least one computing device that supports and/or includes an architecture configured to enable edge applications and/or perform edge computation or processing. Edge DN 106 can include at least one 5GMS Application Function (AF) 118 and/or at least one Application Server (AS) 120. In the example configuration of fig. 1, edge DN 106 includes one 5gms AF 118 and two ases 120 (1), 120 (2). Other configurations of the at least one 5gms AF 118 and/or the at least one 5gms AS120 are also possible.

In general, the 5GMS AF 118 is a module that provides control functions to the media session processor 114 of the user equipment 102 and/or the 5GMS application provider 108 of the data network 102. For at least some configurations, 5gms AF 118 may relay or initiate requests for different policy or charging function (PCF) treatments.

Further, in general, 5gms AS120 is an application server dedicated to 5G media streaming and hosts 5G media functions. The 5gms AS120 may communicate with the media stream processor 116 to stream media content. Additionally or alternatively, the 5GMS AS120 may perform content hosting including, but not limited to, ingesting media content from the 5GMS application provider 108 and caching the media content to reduce repeated ingestion of the same content.

In addition, the edge enabled 5GMS system 100 may include multiple interfaces or APIs used by the 5GMS components to communicate with each other. As shown in fig. 1, each Mi (where i is an integer) may be used between corresponding two of the 5GMS components.

M1 is used to provide a data structure during a provisioning session from the 5GMS application provider 108 to the 5GMS AF, which is used to configure features of the 5GMS aware application 110. The M1 interface may enable the 5GMS application provider 108 to provision the use of the edge-enabled 5GMS system 100 for downlink and uplink media streams and obtain feedback. Additionally or alternatively, 5GMS application provider 108 may use the M1 interface to provide resources in edge DN 106 for 5GMS aware application 110, for example by configuring an edge processing resource template. For at least some configurations, the 5GMS application provider 108 may configure the following through the M1 interface: at least one condition for activating edge processing, such as a traffic descriptor, an application identifier or a geographical location of the user device 102; a selection of client driver or AF driver management; each EAS124 serves EAS profile information for an application, such as service Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), geographic location, and service continuity support; and/or application context relocation tolerance and requirements.

The M2 interface is the interface between 5GMS108 and 5GMS AS120 through which 5GMS AS120 ingests media content from 5GMS application provider 108.

The M3 interface is an interface between 5gms AF 118 and 5gms AS120, 5gms AF 118 and 5gms AS120 being used to exchange information for content hosted on 5gms AS 120. The M3 interface may also be used to allow selection of an appropriate one of the plurality of 5gms as120 for the media session.

The M4 interface is the interface between the 5gms as120 and the media stream processor 116. The M4 interface is used to communicate at least one media stream (in the uplink and/or downlink direction) of media content between the 5gms AS120 and the media stream processor 116.

The M5 interface is the interface between the 5gms AF 118 and the media session processor 114 for communicating information to process, control, report, and assist in the media session. The 5gms AF 118 and the media session processor 114 may also use the M5 interface to implement at least one security, authorization, and/or authentication mechanism for media sessions, and/or report QoE metrics. Additionally or alternatively, the 5gms AF 118 may communicate service access information to the media session processor 114 over the M5 interface in order to share configuration information regarding edge processing. Additionally or alternatively, the 5GMS AF 118 may use the M5 interface to communicate consumption report and/or metric report configuration information provided over the M1 interface and communicated by the 5GMS AF 118 to the 5GMS client 112.

The M6 interface is an interface between the media session processor 114 and the media stream processor 116 and/or between the media session processor 114 and the 5GMS aware application 110 for communication between two or more of the 5GMS aware application 110, the media session processor 114 and the media stream processor 116. The media session processor 114 and/or the media stream processor 116 may use the M6 interface to configure the 5GMS aware application 110 with 5GMS functionality or to enable the 5GMS aware application 110 to utilize 5GMS functionality. Additionally or alternatively, the M6 interface may be used to configure 5 GMS-related data reports for the 5 GMS-aware application 110.

The M7 interface is an interface between the media session processor 114 and the media stream processor 116 and between the media stream processor 116 and the 5GMS aware application 110. The M7 interface may allow the media session processor 114 and/or the 5GMS aware application 110 to utilize a media player of the media stream processor 116 and/or to configure a set of QoE metrics and/or metrics measurement logs to be measured and recorded by the user device 106. Additionally or alternatively, the M7 interface may be used to configure, activate and/or deactivate media capturing, media encoding and/or media upstream client functions.

The M8 interface is an interface between the 5GMS application provider 108 and the 5GMS aware application 110. In any of a variety of configurations, as a non-limiting example, the 5GMS application provider 108 may use the M8 interface to directly provide various information to the 5 GMS-aware application 110 including service access information, remote control commands, service announcement information.

In addition, as previously described, the 5GMS system 100 of fig. 1 is edge enabled and/or capable of performing edge processing in order to perform 5G media streaming. The 5GMS system 100 may support edges by being configured with edge components that provide edge computing or processing functionality to at least one of the 5GMS components. In this regard, each of the 5gms AF 118 and 5gms AS120 may be an edge-enabled component and/or configured to perform edge processing as indicated as part of edge DN 106. In addition, user equipment 102 may be edge-enabled for media streaming at least by being able to communicate with edge-enabled 5GMS118 and edge-enabled 5GMS as 120. The 5gms AF 118 may become an edge-enabled component by at least including a first type of edge component referred to as an edge-enabled server (EES) 122. Further, each 5GMS AS120 may be an edge enabled component by including a second type of edge component referred to as an Edge Application Server (EAS) 124. In addition, the user device 102 may be an edge-enabled component by including third and fourth types of edge components, referred to as edge-enabled clients (EECs) 126 and/or application clients 128, respectively. The edge components may also include an Edge Configuration Server (ECS) 130. The edge components may communicate with each other in accordance with at least one specification, standard, and/or protocol (e.g., 3gpp ts 23.558).

Generally, EES122 support or are configured to perform functions that support the operation of at least one EAS124 and EEC 126, including provisioning configuration information to EEC 126 and/or allowing application data traffic to be exchanged with at least one EAS 124. Furthermore, for at least some embodiments, EES122 may perform additional functions such as the ability to interact with a core network (not shown in fig. 1) to access network functions, perform context transfer with EECs 126, support external exposure of network and service capabilities to at least one EAS, registration functions (including registration, update, and de-registration of EECs 126 and EAS124, and/or trigger EAS instantiation as needed, as non-limiting examples.

In addition, EAS124 is typically configured to connect to user equipment 102 to utilize the services of 5GMS aware applications with edge computing capabilities. In addition, EAS124 may consume core network capabilities, for example, by calling core network capabilities via an edge enabled layer, via EES122, directly calling core network function APIs, and/or calling core network capabilities via capability exposure functions. Additionally or alternatively, EAS124 may expose its service APIs to other EAS124, such as by supporting API provider domain functions. Additionally or alternatively, EAS124 may consume EAS service APIs exposed by other EAS, such as by supporting API caller functions. EAS124 may also perform other functions or actions.

In addition, EEC 126 is a module of user device 102 configured to retrieve configuration information to enable exchange of application data traffic with EAS124. Additionally, EEC 126 may be configured to discover available EAS124 in edge DN 106. Additionally or alternatively, EEC 126 may be configured to detect mobility events for user device 106. For at least some configurations such as that shown in fig. 1, EEC 126 may be part or a component of media session processor 114 of user device 102, although other configurations are possible in which EEC 126 is a separate component from media session processor 114.

In addition, an Application Client (AC) 128 is a module of the user device 102 that locates and/or connects to the at least one EAS124. For example, AC 128 may determine to connect to EAS124, determine the need to best suit service 5GMS aware application 110. For at least some configurations such as that shown in fig. 1, AC 128 may be part or component of 5 GMS-aware application 110, although other configurations are possible in which AC 128 is a separate component from 5 GMS-aware application 110.

In addition, in general, ECS130 is a module that provides support functions for EEC 126 to connect with EES 122. For example, ECS130 may provide edge configuration information to EEC 126. For at least some configurations, the edge configuration information may include at least one of information that EECs 126 differentiate between multiple EES126 or information that establishes a connection with at least one EES 122. In some configurations, the ECS130 may also support registration, update, and/or de-registration of the EES122, and/or the ability to interact with the core network to access network functions. Other functions of the ECS130 are also possible. For at least some configurations such as that shown in fig. 1, ECS130 is a separate component from each of user device 102, DN 104, and edge DN 106, although other configurations in which ECS130 are components of user device 102, DN 104, or edge DN 106 are possible.

In addition, similar to the "M" interface used by the 5GMS component, the edge components may communicate with each other via multiple edge interfaces or APIs. As shown in fig. 1, each EDGE interface is designated EDGE-j, j being an integer.

EDGE-1 is the interface between EES122 and EEC 126. EES122 and EECs 126 can use EDGE-1 to communicate information regarding registration and de-registration of EECs 126 to EES122, retrieve and supply EAS configuration information, discover EAS124 available in EDGE DN 106, and/or service continuity procedures.

EDGE-3 is the interface between EES122 and EAS 124. EES122 and EAS124 can use EDGE-3 to register EAS124 with EES122 (which can include registration availability information, such as time constraints and/or location constraints); de-registering the EAS124 from the ESS; performing discovery of target EAS (T-EAS) information to support Application Context Transfer (ACT); providing access to network capability information (e.g., location information); and/or requesting that a data session be established between AC 128 and EAS124, including QoS information communication. EDGE-3 may be used to communicate other information and/or may perform other functions.

EDGE-4 is the interface between EEC 126 and ECS 130. ECS130 may use EDGE-4 to provide EDGE configuration information to EEC 126.

EDGE-5 is the interface between EEC 126 and application client 128.

EDGE-6 is the interface between EES122 and ECS 130. The EES122 and ECS130 can use EDGE-6 to register the EES122 with the ECS 130; deregister EES122 from ECS 130; and/or retrieve the target ESS information from the ECS 130.

EDGE-9 is the interface between two EES 122. Both EES122 can use EDGE-9 to discover target EAS information to support Application Context Relocation (ACR); executing an EEC context relocation program; and/or an Edge Enabled Layer (EEL) manages transparent transfer of application context during ACR.

Other edge interfaces, including interfaces between edge components and the core network not shown in fig. 1, may be part of the edge-enabled 5GMS system 100, and may also be used in other various example configurations.

Additionally, as used by embodiments of the present application, the service access information is a set of at least one parameter and/or address used by the user equipment 102 (such as the 5GMS client 112) to activate and control the streaming media session. For at least some example configurations, the service access information may also include at least one parameter and/or address for reporting services, content, and/or QoE metrics. In some configurations, user device 102 may receive service access information directly from DN 104. In other configurations, user device 102 may receive service access information from 5gms AF 118 of edge DN 106. With edge enablement, the media session processor 114 of the user device 102 may be configured to use the service access information to determine whether the media streaming session meets qualification criteria for requesting edge resources.

As described above, during provisioning, the 5GMS application provider 108 may request deployment of edge resources and/or configure information about its edge processing requirements for the media streaming session. During the provisioning session, the 5GMS application provider 108 may use the M1 interface to configure information about its edge processing requirements. As part of the provisioning, the 5GMS application provider 108 may provision at least one new EAS124 using the M1 interface. Using the M1 interface, the 5GMS application provider 108 may create, update, and/or retrieve edge resource configuration information. Further, 5gms AF 118 may share configuration information regarding edge processing with media session processor 114. The configuration information may be included as part of the service access information provided by the 5gms AF 118 to the media session processor 114 over the M5 interface. When media session processor 114 receives service access information from 5gms AF 118, EEC 126 may process the configuration information and, in turn, may request EDGE processing for the streaming media session from EES 122 of 5gms AF 118 using EDGE-1. Table 1 below lists a number of parameters (also referred to as attributes, some or all of which may be included in the service access information provided to the media session processor by the 5gms AF 118).

Table 1: example Properties of service Access information

/>

As shown in the penultimate row of table 1, the service access information may include an EAS discovery template (easdiscovery template), which may be a template for an EAS discovery filter that EEC 126 uses to discover and select a target EAS124 from at least one available EAS124 as serving user device 102 during a media streaming session. Table 2 below lists a number of parameters or attributes, some or all of which may be included in the EAS discovery template provided to the media session processor 114 by the 5gms AF 118.

Table 2: exemplary Properties of the EAS discovery template

In some example configurations, when the user device 102 determines, such as via its media session processor 114, to conduct media streaming communications during a streaming media session, the EEC 126 sends an EAS discovery request, such as via an EDGE-1 interface, to the EES122 to obtain information about available EAS 124. In response to the EAS discovery request, the EEC 126 may receive an EAS discovery request response from the EES122 indicating at least one available EAS124 and its associated service, from which the ECC 126 may identify or select a target EAS124, the target EAS124 entering a streaming session with the target EAS 124.

The discovery request sent by EEC 126 may include at least one EAS discovery filter. The EAS discovery filter is a characteristic that the user device 102 wishes the EAS124 to have for a media streaming session. In some configurations, at least one EAS discovery filter may be included in the discovery request as at least one Information Element (IE). For at least some configurations, at least one discovery filter included in the EAS discovery request by EEC 126 may match at least one of the parameters, or at least one discovery filter included in the EAS discovery request by EEC 126 may be responsive to or dependent on EAS discovery template attributes included in the EAS discovery template. In addition, the EEC 126 may populate at least one discovery filter with at least one discovery filter value for the at least one discovery filter.

In response to receiving the EAS discovery request, the EES122 may seek to identify at least one available EAS124 that satisfies at least one discovery filter included in the EAS discovery template. To determine at least one available EAS124, the ESS122 may perform a discovery filter value matching process in which the EES122 attempts to match at least one discovery filter value with the capabilities of at least one registered or candidate EAS124 known to the ESS 122. As used in embodiments of the present application, the candidate EAS124 is an EAS124 known to the EES122 that has been registered with the ESS122, or the EES122 considers that it is likely that the EAS discovery request can be satisfied as available EAS124. Further, EES122 may use any of a variety of criteria for finding a filter value match to evaluate whether the candidate EAS124 is an available EAS124 (e.g., satisfying at least one found filter value). For example, if a given candidate EAS124 has all discovery filter values, has at least (or exceeds) a threshold number of discovery filter values, or has at least one particular predetermined discovery filter value, the EES122 may identify the given candidate EAS124 as an available EAS124. In performing the discovery filter value match, the EES122 may determine a discovery filter value match result indicating zero or at least one available EAS124 that satisfies the EAS discovery request.

Additionally, upon completion of discovering the filter value matches, EES122 may generate a discovery request response including discovery filter value match results indicating zero or at least one available EAS124 determined from the discovery filter value matches. The discovery request response may also indicate a characteristic of each of the at least one available EAS124. EES122 can send a discovery request response to EEC 126, such as via an EDGE-1 interface.

Upon receiving the discovery request response, the EEC 126 may select the target EAS124 from at least one available EAS124 indicated in the discovery request response. In other words, the EEC 126 may select one available EAS124 from the at least one available EAS124 as the target EAS124. As described above, the target EAS124 may be the available EAS124 that the EEC 126 determines as the best or most appropriate EAS124 for communicating the media stream with the 5GMS aware application 110 during the media stream. In the event that multiple available EAS124 are indicated in the discovery request response, EEC 126 may use any of a variety of criteria to select one available EAS124 over other available EAS124 as the target EAS124 for the streaming media session. Upon selection of the target EAS124, at least one component of the user device 102, such as at least one of the media session processor 114, EEC 126, media stream processor 116, 5GMS aware application 110, and/or application client 128, is operable to establish a media session with the target EAS124 such that the target EAS124 communicates streaming media with the user device 102 (such as with the media stream processor 116) via an M4 interface during the streaming media session.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of an example method 200 of media streaming. The method 200 may be performed by the user equipment 102 desiring to stream media during a streaming session (in the downlink and/or uplink directions). At block 202, the user device 102 may determine to identify a target EAS124 for the streaming media session. Any of the various modules or components of the user device 102 may make the determination for any of a variety of reasons. For example, the media session processor 114 and/or EEC 126 may identify that the 5GMS aware application 110 is or wants to transmit a media stream during a streaming media session and, in turn, identify the target EAS124 of the streaming media session. As another example, the media session processor 114 and/or EEC 126 may identify the 5 GMS-aware application 110 and/or the application client 128 and, in turn, identify the target EAS124 of the 5 GMS-aware application 110 and/or the application client 128 for future or upcoming media sessions involving the 5 GMS-aware application 110. As another example, media session processor 114 may receive service access information from 5GMS AF 118, which in turn, 5GMS AF 118 may prompt media session processor 114 and/or EEC 126 to identify target EAS124 for a streaming media session with 5GMS aware application 110.

At block 204, the user device 102 may send a discovery request to the edge DN 106 to identify at least one available EAS124 for the media session. For example, as previously described, EEC 126 may send a discovery request to EES 122, such as via an EDGE-1 interface. The discovery request may include at least one discovery filter and associated at least one discovery filter value indicating at least one characteristic that EEC 126 wishes target EAS124 to have. The at least one discovery filter may include at least one attribute of the EAS discovery templates listed in table 2 above. For example, the at least one discovery filter may match at least one attribute included in an EAS discovery template of service access information received by the media session processor 114 from the 5gms AF 118. EEC 126 may select or determine that all or less than all of the attributes included in the EAS discovery template are at least one discovery filter included in the discovery request.

For at least some embodiments, discovering at least one of the filters may include at least one of: key Performance Indicators (KPIs), service areas (serviceareas), service availability plans (serviceAvailabilitySchedule), or service continuity scenarios (servicecontinuotyscalearios). As described above, a service KPI is at least one service characteristic that the EAS124 is to satisfy. The service area is a list of at least one geographical area served by the EAS 124. The service availability plan is an availability plan of EAS 124. The service continuity scenario is at least one application context relocation scenario where EAS124 supports service continuity.

At block 206, the user device 102 may receive a discovery request response corresponding to the discovery request, e.g., from the edge DN 106. For example, the ECC 126 may receive a discovery request response from the EES 122, e.g., via an EDGE-1 interface. The discovery request response may indicate at least one candidate EAS 124 that satisfies the discovery request, for example, by having at least one discovery filter value indicated in the discovery request. At block 208, a user device 102, such as one having an EEC 126, may select a target EAS 124 from at least one candidate EAS 124 indicated in the discovery request response. At block 210, the user device 102 may perform media streaming (in the downlink direction and/or the uplink direction) during a streaming session with the target EAS 124 selected by the user device 102 from the discovery request response. For example, the media stream processor 116 may stream media with the target EAS 124 via an M4 interface.

Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of an example method 300 of media streaming performed by edge DN 106. At block 302, edge DN 106 may receive a discovery request from user device 102, the discovery request including at least one discovery filter and an associated at least one discovery filter value. For example, the EES 122 of the EDGE network 106 can receive discovery requests from the EECs of the user device 102, e.g., via an EDGE-1 interface. For at least some implementations, the at least one discovery filter may match at least one attribute of an EAS discovery template transmitted by the edge network 106 to the user device 102. Accordingly, for some embodiments, at block 302, the edge network 106 may transmit a discovery filter template including at least one attribute, such as a portion of the service access information as described above, and may receive the discovery request after transmitting the discovery filter template and/or in response to transmitting the discovery filter template. Further, in some example embodiments, edge DN 106 can send discovery filter templates, such as a portion of service access information, after receiving configuration information regarding edge processing from DN 104 and/or in response to receiving configuration information regarding edge processing from DN 104. For example, 5GMS AF 118 may receive edge processing configuration information from 5GMS application provider 108 of DN 104 via the M1 interface during the provisioning session. In response to receiving the configuration information, the 5gms AF 118 may send service access information to the media session processor 114, such as via an M5 interface. For at least some embodiments, the information in the service access information (including at least one attribute included in the EAS discovery template) may depend on configuration information received from the 5GMS application provider 108.

Further, for at least some embodiments, the at least one discovery filter of the discovery request may include at least one attribute included in the EAS discovery template sent by the edge DN 106 to the user device 102. The at least one attribute may include at least one of those listed in the EAS discovery template in table 2 above. For at least some of these embodiments, it is found that at least one of the filters may comprise at least one of: key Performance Indicators (KPIs), service areas (serviceareas), service availability plans (serviceAvailabilitySchedule), or service continuity scenarios (servicecontinuotyscalearios).

In response to receiving the discovery request, the edge DN 106 (such as via EES 122) may identify at least one available EAS 124 that satisfies the discovery request at block 304. As previously described, edge DN 106 can perform a discovery value match to determine which of at least one candidate EAS 124 satisfies the discovery request and thereby identify at least one available EAS 124. At block 306, EDGE DN 106 (e.g., using EES 122) may generate a discovery request response and send the discovery request response to user device 102 (e.g., EEC 126) via the EDGE-1 interface, the discovery request response including the identified at least one available EAS 124. At block 308, one of the at least one available EAS 124 indicated in the discovery request response may transmit streaming media (in the downlink direction and/or the uplink direction) during the streaming media session after and/or in response to the discovery request response.

As described above, in some embodiments, the EAS discovery template sent by the edge network 106 to the user device 102 and/or the discovery request sent by the user device 102 to the edge network 106 may include at least one of the following attributes: service KPI (serviceKpi), service area (serviceArea), service availability plan (serviceAvailabilitySchedule), or service continuity scenario (servicecontinuity). These particular embodiments may include a combination of at least one of these attributes with at least one additional attribute including at least one of: EAS provider ID (EASProviderlds), EAS type (EASType), or at least one EAS feature (easf eatures). Such implementations may be contrasted with other implementations that do not include any of the services KPI (serviceKpi), service areas (serviceareas), service availability plans (serviceavailabilityschedules), or service continuity scenarios (servicecontinuotyscenarios). For example, such other embodiments may include only one or more of the following: EAS provider ID (EASProviderlds), EAS type (EASType), or at least one EAS feature (easf eatures). However, by including at least one of a service KPI (serviceKpi), a service area (serviceArea), a service availability schedule (serviceAvailabilitySchedule), or a service continuity scenario (servicecontinuyscenerios) in the discovery request, the EES 122 may select the improved EAS group 124 for participating in the streaming session with the user device 102. For example, EES 122 may identify candidate EAS 124 that do not include discovery requests for these attributes and/or may avoid identifying certain EAS 124 that are not optimal as candidate EAS 124 due to their lack of at least one of a particular service KPI, a particular service area, a particular service availability plan, or a particular service continuity scenario that EECs 126 wish to have for target EAS 124.

Thus, in some embodiments, the 5GMS aware application 110 may instantiate the EAS124. Generally, the EAS124 is illustrated when the EAS124 is capable of running an application to stream media with the user device 102. In particular embodiments, EAS124 may be instantiated for a streaming media session when the 5 GMS-aware application is capable of running a program that allows EAS124 to stream media content with or for the 5 GMS-aware application during the streaming media session. The edge server requirements received by the M1 interface are delivered to the user equipment (client) 102 over the M5 interface as part of the service access information. The user device (client) 102 may use at least one edge discovery interface (e.g., API) to discover at least one matching available EAS124.

As previously described, the 5GMS application provider 108 may provide a new EAS124 using the M1 interface. Through the M1 interface, the 5GMS application provider 108 may create, update, and/or retrieve edge resource configurations. In some embodiments, the 5GMS application provider may do so using the operations listed in table 3 below.

Table 3: operational configuration for edge resources supported by 5GMS application provider

Additionally, for at least some embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may use at least one attribute of the edge resource configurations listed in table 4 below.

Table 4: edge resource allocation attributes

/>

Fig. 4 is a flow chart of another example method 400 of media streaming performed by edge DN 106. In block 402, the 5gms AF 118 may receive edge resource information. The edge resource information may be received from the 5GMS application provider 108 via the M1 interface. Additionally or alternatively, edge resource information may be used to create an edge resource configuration. Additionally or alternatively, edge resource information may be used to provide at least one EAS124. At block 404, the 5gms AF 118 may send service access information to the user equipment 102, such as to the media session processor 114. As previously described, the 5gms AF 118 may send service access information to the user equipment 102 via the M5 interface, or alternatively, the service addition. Additionally or alternatively, the service access information may include an EAS discovery template including at least one attribute, as previously described. In some implementations, the at least one characteristic can include one or more of: a service KPI, a service area, a service availability plan, or a service continuity scenario. Further, in some embodiments, EES118 may receive discovery requests in response to sending service access information. The discovery request may include at least one discovery filter, wherein the at least one discovery filter matches at least one attribute included in the EAS discovery template. As previously described, the EES118 may identify at least one available EAS124 that satisfies the discovery request and transmit a discovery response identifying the at least one available EAS124.

In some embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may want or determine to acquire a list of activated EAS124. Typically, the activated EAS124 is an EAS124 that has been engaged in a streaming session and/or streaming media with the user device 102. As described above, the target EAS124 is an EAS that the user device 102 may select from at least one available EAS124 identified by the edge DN 106. When the user device 102 and the target EAS124 communicate media during a streaming media session, the target EAS124 is an active EAS124. Depending on the number of active EAS124, the list may include zero or at least one active EAS124 at any different time or instance. To obtain the list, 5GMS application provider 108 may send an active EAS request to 5GMS AF 118 via interface M1, which instructs or commands 5GMS AF 118 to send or return the list to 5GMS application provider 108. In some embodiments, the activated EAS request may include an EAS Identification (ID) tag (e.g., easldFlag in table 3). The EAS ID tag may indicate to the 5gms AF 118 whether to return a list of activated EAS124. For example, in some embodiments, the EAS ID tag may be a first value indicating to the 5gms AF 118 to return a list (such as a boolean logic "1" or logic "0" value) or a second value not returning a list (such as another boolean logic "0" or logic "1" value).

In response to receipt of the activated EAS request, the 5GMS AF 118 may retrieve the list of activated EAS124 and return or send the list to the 5GMS application provider 108, e.g., via the M1 interface. For at least some embodiments, the list may include EAS IDs (e.g., easld in table 3) of the activated EAS124 to indicate the activated EAS 124.

In some implementations, the active EAS request may be part of an edge resource configuration request. For example, the edge resource configuration request may instruct or instruct the 5GMS AF 118 to retrieve the edge resource configuration and send the retrieved edge resource configuration to the 5GMS application provider 108. The edge resource configuration request may include at least one of the following attributes in table 4, including edge resource configuration ID (edgeResourcesConfigurationld), edge management mode (edgeManagementMode), eligibility criterion (eigeyimitcria), EAS requirements (easbrequipments), or EAS relocation requirements (easrelocatable requirements). The edge resource configuration request may also include an EAS ID tag indicating whether to include a list of active EAS124 with the edge resource configuration, or as part of the edge resource configuration, the 5GMS AF 118 returns the edge resource configuration to the 5GMS application provider 108. Upon receiving the edge resource configuration request, the 5gms AF 118 may check the EAS ID tag. If the EAS ID tag indicates that a list of active EAS124 is returned (e.g., by being the first value), the 5GMS AF 118 may retrieve the list of active EAS124, including the list of active EAS124 with the remaining edge resource configurations, and return the edge resource configuration with the list of active EAS124 to the 5GMS application provider 108.

Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the activated EAS request and/or EAS ID tag may instruct or instruct the 5gms AF 118 to retrieve a list of activated EAS124 during an edge resource configuration retrieval operation. That is, regardless of whether the active EAS request and/or EAS ID tag is part of or included in the edge resource configuration request, the active EAS request and/or EAS ID tag may indicate to the 5gms AF 118 to retrieve the list of active EAS124 during the edge resource configuration retrieval operation. Further, when the 5gms AF 118 performs an edge resource configuration retrieval operation, the 5gms AF 118 may retrieve a list of active EAS124 as part of the operation.

Upon receiving the list of activated EAS124, the 5GMS application provider 108 may perform at least one action associated with and/or using the EAS ID. For example, the 5GMS application provider 108 may determine a health status of a given activated EAS124, such as at least one processing capability used (e.g., EAS 124). Central Processing Unit (CPU) power and/or Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)), used network bandwidth, used volatile memory (e.g., random Access Memory (RAM)) and/or used non-volatile memory (memory storage). Once the EAS ID is known, the 5GMS application provider 108 may use the EAS ID to obtain at least one health parameter of the activated EAS identified by the EAS ID. As another example, the 5GMS application provider 108 may associate EAS reports with particular EAS 124. For example, as a non-limiting example, the 5GMS application provider 108 may receive reports related to streaming media sessions, such as consumption reports and/or QoE reports, including at least one of various parameters and/or statistics related to streaming media sessions, such as duration of streaming media sessions, portions of media content transferred or consumed, popularity statistics, statistics related to media content in the uplink and downlink directions. Upon receiving the listed activated EAS124, the 5GMS application provider 108 may link or associate a given report with a given activated EAS124 using the activated EAS IDs included in the list.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may obtain an EAS profile for at least one activated EAS 124. For at least some of these embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may retrieve at least one active EAS profile from the EES 122. In particular, in these embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may communicate directly with the EES122 via an interface 132 extending between the 5GMS application provider 108 and the EES122 to obtain an EAS profile of the activated EAS 124. As shown in fig. 1, interface 132 is a different or separate interface from the M1 interface. The 5GMS application provider 108 may send an active EAS profile request to EES122, for example, via interface 132. In response to receiving the request, the 5GMS application provider 108 may obtain an EAS profile of the at least one activated EAS124 and send or return the EAS profile to the 5GMS application provider 108.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may send the active EAS profile request after receiving a list of active EAS124 from the 5GMS AF 118, e.g., via an M1 interface. After receiving the list of activated EAS124, or in response to receiving the list of activated EAS124, the 5GMS application provider 108 may send an EAS profile request to the EES122 including the list of activated EAS 124. In some embodiments, the list of activated EAS124 may include EAS IDs (e.g., easld in table 4) of activated EAS124, as previously described. Accordingly, in response to receipt of the EAS ID of the activated EAS124, the 5GMS application provider 108 may include the EAS ID in the activated EAS profile request that it sends to the EES 122. In response, EES122 may retrieve EAS profiles associated with the EAS ID and return these EAS profiles to 5GMS application provider 108 as part of their response to the activated EAS profile request.

In some embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may use at least one EAS profile it receives to evaluate or confirm the allocation of at least one activated EAS 124. For example, using an EAS profile, the 5GMS application provider 108 may evaluate whether the active EAS124 associated with the EAS profile is properly assigned or selected for participation in the media session. For example, the assigned EAS124 may have an associated set of maximum operating parameters, such as maximum CPU power, maximum GPU power, volatile and/or non-volatile memory capacity, and/or maximum bandwidth. In various embodiments, at least one of the maximum operating parameters may be defined by a service KPI. Using the EAS profile of the activated EAS124, the 5GMS application provider 108 may evaluate or confirm whether the actual operating parameters are within the range of the maximum operating parameters and, in turn, determine whether the activated EAS124 is properly assigned.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example method 500 for edge resource processing. The application provider 108 may determine to obtain a list or record identifying at least one activated EAS124 in the edge DN 106 at block 502,5GMS. The application provider 108 may send an active EAS request to the 5gms AF 118 at block 504,5GMS. For at least some embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may send an active EAS request via the M1 interface. Further, for at least some embodiments, the activated EAS request may include an EAS Identification (ID) tag that indicates to the 5GMS AF 118 whether to return a list of activated EAS124 to the 5GMS application provider 108. Additionally or alternatively, for at least some embodiments, the activated EAS request and/or EAS ID tag may be part of an edge resource configuration request. The application provider 108 may receive a list of at least one active EAS124 in response to the active EAS request and/or associated with the active EAS request at block 506,5GMS. The application provider 108 may determine at least one health status based on or using the list of at least one active EAS124 as previously described and/or link at least one report regarding at least one streaming media session with at least one active EAS124 at block 508,5GMS.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example method 600 of edge resource processing. At block 602, the 5gms AF 118 may receive an active EAS request to obtain a list or record identifying at least one active EAS124 in the edge DN 106. At block 604, the 5GMS AF 118 may identify the activated EAS124 and indicate or include them in the list of activated EAS 124. At block 606, the 5GMS AF may send the list of activated EAS124 to the 5GMS application provider 108. In some embodiments, the 5gms AF 118 may indicate that the activated EAS124 may include the EAS ID of the activated EAS124 in the list.

Fig. 7 is a flow chart of an example method 700 of edge resource processing. The application provider 108 may determine to acquire an EAS profile of the activated EAS124 at block 702,5GMS. The application provider 108 may generate and/or send an active EAS profile request to obtain an EAS profile at block 704,5GMS. In some embodiments. In particular, in these embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 sends the active EAS profile request to the EES122 via an interface 132 that is separate or distinct from the M1 interface. As explained, a separate interface 132 may extend between the 5GMS application provider 108 and EES122. Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the 5GMS application provider may include an EAS ID of the active EAS124 that it wants to receive the EAS profile. The application provider 108 may receive an EAS configuration of the activated EAS124 in response to the activated EAS configuration request at block 706,5GMS. In some embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may receive an EAS profile from the ESS 122. In particular, in these embodiments, the 5GMS application provider 108 may receive the EAS configuration file via a separate interface 132 between the 5GMS application provider 108 and the EES122. The application provider 108 may evaluate or confirm at block 708,5GMS at least one assignment of at least one activated EAS124 based on or using the EAS profile, as previously described.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of an example method 800 of edge resource processing. At block 802, the ees122 may receive an active EAS profile request. In some embodiments, EES122 may receive the active EAS profile request via an interface 132 that is different or separate from the M1 interface. At block 804, the EES122 identifies or retrieves an EAS profile in response to receipt of the activated EAS profile request. At block 806, the ees may send the EAS profile of the activated EAS124 to the 5GMS application provider 108. In some embodiments, EES122 may transmit the EAS configuration file via a separate interface 132. Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the activated EAS configuration request may include EAS IDs, and EES122 may obtain EAS configurations of activated EAS identified by the EAS IDs (i.e., EAS configurations associated with the EAS IDs).

Other methods of combining edge resource processing of at least one block of two or more of the methods 400, 500, 700, 800 are also possible. For example, at block 704, when the 5GMS application provider 108 generates an active EAS profile request, the 5GMS application provider 108 may include the active EAS124 that it identified from the active EAS request response it received at block 406. For example, the 5GMS application provider 108 may receive a list of the EAS IDs of the activated EAS124 and, in turn, include the EAS ID in the activated EAS profile request that it sends to the EES 122. Other similar methods of combining at least one block of methods 500 and 800 may also be performed.

In addition, as used in embodiments of the present application, the term module refers to an electronic device implemented in hardware alone or in a combination of hardware or software configured to implement or perform at least one function or action. For example, a module may include circuitry configured to execute computer-executable instructions, digital logic circuitry, a processor (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU)) or a controller, memory storing computer-executable instructions configured to be executed by a processor or controller, or any of various combinations thereof.

Further, the techniques described above may be implemented as computer software using computer readable instructions and physically stored in at least one computer readable medium. For example, FIG. 9 illustrates a computer system 900 suitable for implementing certain embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.

The computer software may be encoded using any suitable machine code or computer language that is amenable to assembly, compilation, linking, or similar mechanisms to create code comprising instructions executable by one or more computer Central Processing Units (CPUs), graphics Processing Units (GPUs), or the like, directly or through interpretation, microcode execution, or the like.

The instructions may be executed on various types of computers or components thereof, including, for example, personal computers, tablet computers, servers, smart phones, gaming devices, internet of things devices, and the like.

The components shown in fig. 9 for computer system 900 are exemplary in nature and are not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the computer software implementing embodiments of the application. Nor should the configuration of components be construed as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary embodiment of computer system 900.

Computer system 900 may include some human interface input devices. Such a human interface input device may be responsive to at least one human user through, for example, tactile input (such as key strokes, swipes, data glove movements), audio input (such as speech, beats), visual input (such as gestures), olfactory input (not shown). The human interface device may also be used to capture certain media that are not necessarily directly related to conscious input by a person, such as audio (such as speech, music, ambient sound), images (such as scanned images, photographic images acquired from still image cameras), video (such as two-dimensional video, three-dimensional video including stereoscopic video).

The input human interface device may include at least one of (only one of which is depicted): keyboard 901, mouse 902, trackpad 903, touch screen 910, data glove (not shown), joystick 905, microphone 906, scanner 907, camera 908.

The computer system 900 may also include some human interface output devices. Such a human interface output device may stimulate the perception of at least one human user by, for example, tactile output, sound, light and smell/taste. Such human interface output devices may include haptic output devices (e.g., haptic feedback through touch screen 910, data glove (not shown) or joystick 905, but there may also be haptic feedback devices that do not serve as input devices), audio output devices (e.g., speakers 909, headphones (not shown)), visual output devices (such as screen 910 to include CRT screens, LCD screens, plasma screens, OLED screens, each with or without touch screen input capabilities, each with or without haptic feedback capabilities, some of which can output two-dimensional visual output or more than three-dimensional output by way of, for example, stereoscopic output, virtual reality glasses (not shown), holographic displays and smoke cans (not shown)), and printers (not shown).

The computer system 900 may also include human-accessible storage devices and their associated media such as optical media including media 921 such as CD/DVD ROM/RW920 with CD/DVD, thumb drive 922, removable hard disk or solid state drive 923, conventional magnetic media such as magnetic tape and floppy disk (not shown), special ROM/ASIC/PLD based devices such as secure dongles (not shown), and the like.

It should also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the term "computer readable medium" as used in connection with the presently disclosed subject matter does not include transmission media, carrier waves or other volatile signaling.

Computer system 900 may also include an interface 954 to at least one communication network 955. The network may be wireless, wired, optical, for example. The network may also be local, wide area, metropolitan, on-board and industrial, real-time, delay tolerant, etc. Examples of networks include local area networks such as ethernet, wireless LANs, cellular networks including GSM, 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE, etc., TV wired or wireless wide area digital networks including cable television, satellite television and terrestrial broadcast television, vehicle and industrial networks including CAN buses, etc. Some networks typically require an external network interface adapter to connect to some general data port or peripheral bus 949 (e.g., a USB port of computer system 900); other systems are typically integrated into the core of computer system 900 by connecting to a system bus as described below (e.g., an ethernet interface into a PC computer system or a cellular network interface into a smart phone computer system). Using any of these networks, the computer system (900) may communicate with other entities. Such communications may be uni-directional, receive-only (e.g., broadcast TV), uni-directional (e.g., CANbus to some CANbus devices), or bi-directional, e.g., to other computer systems using a local or wide area digital network. Certain protocols and protocol stacks may be used on each of those networks and network interfaces as described above.

The human interface devices, human accessible storage devices, and network interfaces described above may be attached to the core 940 of the computer system 900.

The core 940 may include at least one Central Processing Unit (CPU) 941, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) 942, a dedicated programmable processing unit in the form of a Field Programmable Gate Area (FPGA) 943, a hardware accelerator 944 for certain tasks, a graphics adapter 950, and the like. These devices, along with Read Only Memory (ROM) 945, random access memory 946, internal mass storage 947 such as internal non-user accessible hard drives, SSDs, and the like, may be connected by system bus 948. In some computer systems, the system bus 948 may be accessed in the form of at least one physical plug to allow expansion by an additional CPU, GPU, or the like. Peripheral devices may be connected to the core system bus 948 directly or through the peripheral bus 949. In one example, screen 910 may be connected to graphics adapter 950. The architecture of the peripheral bus includes PCI, USB, etc.

The CPU 941, GPU 942, FPGA943, and accelerator 944 may execute certain instructions, a combination of which may constitute the computer code described above. The computer code may be stored in ROM 945 or RAM 946. Transitional data may also be stored in RAM 946, while persistent data may be stored in, for example, internal mass storage 947. Quick storage and retrieval of any memory device may be enabled through the use of a cache memory, which may be closely associated with one or more CPUs 941, GPUs 942, mass storage 947, ROM 945, RAM 946, and the like.

The computer readable medium may have computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. The media and computer code may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present application, or they may be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts.

As a non-limiting example, a computer system having architecture 900, and in particular core 940, may provide functionality as a result of a processor (including CPU, GPU, FPGA, accelerator, etc.) executing software contained in at least one tangible computer-readable medium. Such computer readable media may be media associated with user accessible mass storage as described above, as well as some memory of core 940 having non-volatile properties, such as core internal mass storage 947 or ROM 945. Software implementing various embodiments of the present application may be stored in such devices and executed by core 940. The computer-readable medium may include at least one memory device or chip according to particular needs. The software may cause the core 940, and in particular the processor therein (including CPU, GPU, FPGA, etc.), to perform certain processes or certain portions of certain processes described herein, including defining data structures stored in the RAM 946, and modifying such data structures according to the software-defined processes. In addition, or in the alternative, the computer system may provide functionality (e.g., accelerator 944) as a result of logic hardwired or otherwise embodied in circuits that may operate in place of or in conjunction with software to perform certain processes or certain portions of certain processes described in embodiments of the application. Where appropriate, references to software may include logic and vice versa. References to computer-readable media may include circuitry, such as an Integrated Circuit (IC), containing logic for execution, or both, storing software for execution, as appropriate. The present application includes any suitable combination of hardware and software.

The subject matter of the application may also relate to or include, inter alia, the following aspects:

in a first aspect, a media streaming method includes: determining, by the user equipment, a target Edge Application Server (EAS) for a fifth generation media stream (5 GMS) session with a 5GMS aware application of the user equipment; transmitting, by the user device, a discovery request to identify at least one available EAS for the streaming session, wherein the discovery request includes at least one discovery filter comprising one or more of: key Performance Indicators (KPIs), service areas, service availability plans, or service continuity scenarios; receiving, by the user device, a discovery request response indicating at least one available EAS that satisfies the discovery request; selecting, by the user device, a target EAS from the at least one available EAS; and media streaming communication by the user device with the target EAS during the streaming media session.

A second aspect includes the first aspect, wherein the at least one discovery filter includes a service KPI.

A third aspect includes any one of the first or second aspects, wherein the at least one discovery filter includes a service area.

A fourth aspect includes any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the at least one discovery filter includes a service availability plan.

A fifth aspect includes any one of the first to fourth aspects, wherein the at least one discovery filter includes a service continuity scenario.

A sixth aspect includes any one of the first to fifth aspects, and further includes: service access information is received by the user device from the edge data network, wherein the service access information comprises EAS discovery templates comprising at least one of a service KPI, a service area, a service availability plan, or a service continuity scenario.

The seventh aspect includes the sixth aspect, and further includes: the EAS discovery template responsive to the service access information includes at least one of a service KPI, a service area, a service availability plan, or a service continuity scenario, the at least one discovery filter being set by the user device to include at least one of a service KPI, a service area, a service availability plan, or a service continuity scenario.

An eighth aspect includes a media streaming method, the method comprising: receiving edge resource information by a fifth generation media stream (5 GMS) Application Function (AF) of the edge data network, the edge resource information received from a 5GMS application provider via an M1 interface, the edge resource configured for provisioning at least one Edge Application Server (EAS); and in response to receiving the edge resource information, transmitting, by the 5GMS AF, service access information indicating the availability of the edge resource to the user equipment via the M5 interface, the service access information including an EAS discovery template for discovering a target EAS of the 5GMS streaming media session.

The ninth aspect includes the eighth aspect, and further includes: receiving, by an Edge Enabled Server (EES) of an edge data network, a discovery request to identify at least one available EAS for a streaming media session in response to transmitting the service access information, the discovery request including at least one discovery filter matching at least one attribute of an EAS discovery template; identifying, by the EES, at least one available EAS that satisfies the discovery request; and transmitting, by the EES, a discovery response identifying at least one available EAS.

A tenth aspect includes any of the eighth or ninth aspects, wherein the attribute of the EAS discovery template comprises a Key Performance Indicator (KPI).

An eleventh aspect includes any of the eighth to tenth aspects, wherein the attribute of the EAS discovery template comprises a service area.

A twelfth aspect includes any of the eighth to eleventh aspects, wherein the attribute of the EAS discovery template comprises a service availability plan.

A thirteenth aspect includes any of the eighth to twelfth aspects, wherein the attribute of the EAS discovery template comprises a service continuity scenario.

A fourteenth aspect includes any one of the eighth to thirteenth aspects, and further includes: the media stream communication is performed by the target EAS with the user equipment during the 5GMS streaming media session.

A fifteenth aspect includes a method of edge resource processing, the method comprising: determining to obtain a list of at least one active Edge Application Server (EAS) using a fifth generation media stream (5 GMS) application provider of the data network; the 5GMS application provider sending an activated EAS request to a 5GMS Application Function (AF) of the edge data network to obtain a list; and the 5GMS application provider receives the list from the 5GMS AF.

A sixteenth aspect includes the fifteenth aspect, wherein the activated EAS request is sent over an M1 interface between the 5GMS application provider and the 5GMS AF.

A seventeenth aspect includes any of the fifteenth or sixteenth aspects, wherein the list including at least one activated EAS is received over an M1 interface between the 5GMS application provider and the 5GMS AF.

An eighteenth aspect includes any of the fifteenth to seventeenth aspects, wherein the activated EAS request includes an EAS Identification (ID) tag indicating to the 5GMS AF whether to return a list including at least one activated EAS to the 5GMS application provider.

A nineteenth aspect includes any one of the fifteenth to eighteenth aspects, and further includes: the 5GMS application provider sends an edge resource configuration request to the 5GMS AF, wherein the active EAS request is part of the edge resource configuration request.

A twentieth aspect includes any one of the fifteenth to nineteenth aspects, and further includes: the 5GMS application provider sends an active EAS profile request to an Edge Enabled Server (EES) to request at least one EAS profile of at least one active EAS indicated in the list, the interface sending the active EAS profile request being different from the M1 interface between the 5GMS application provider and the 5GMS AF.

A twenty-first aspect includes a media streaming device comprising a memory storing a plurality of instructions, and a processor configured to execute the plurality of instructions, and upon execution of the plurality of instructions, the processor is configured to implement any of the first through twentieth aspects.

A twenty-second aspect includes a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a plurality of instructions executable by a processor, wherein the plurality of instructions, when executed by the processor, are configured to cause the processor to implement any one of the first through twentieth aspects.

In addition to the features mentioned in each of the independent aspects enumerated above, some examples may show optional features mentioned in the dependent aspects and/or as disclosed in the above description and shown in the drawings, alone or in combination.

While this application has been described in terms of several exemplary embodiments, there are alterations, permutations, and various substitute equivalents, which fall within the scope of this application. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous systems and methods which, although not explicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of the application and are thus within its spirit and scope.

Appendix a: acronyms

3GPP: third generation partnership project

5GMS: fifth generation media stream

AC: application client

ACR: application context relocation

ACT: application context transfer

AF: application functionality

AS: application server

DN: data network

EAS: edge application server

ECS: edge configuration server

EEC: edge enabled clients

EEL: edge enabled layer

EES: edge enabled server

KPI: key performance index

UE: a user equipment.

Claims

1. A method of media streaming, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one discovery filter comprises the service KPI.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the at least one discovery filter comprises the service area.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one discovery filter comprises the service availability plan.

5. The method according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the at least one discovery filter comprises the service continuity scenario.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising:

the user equipment receives service access information from an edge data network and at least one of the service KPI, the service area, the service availability plan, or the service continuity scenario.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

the EAS discovery template responsive to the service access information includes at least one of the service KPI, the service area, the service availability plan, or the service continuity scenario, the user equipment sets the at least one discovery filter to include at least one of the service KPI, the service area, the service availability plan, or the service continuity scenario.

8. A method of media streaming, the method comprising:

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

in response to sending the service access information, an edge enabled server EES of the edge data network receiving a discovery request to identify at least one available EAS for the streaming session, the discovery request including at least one discovery filter, the at least one discovery filter matching at least one attribute of the EAS discovery template;

the EES identifying at least one available EAS that satisfies the discovery request; and

the EES transmits a discovery response identifying the at least one available EAS.

10. The method of claim 8 or 9, wherein the attribute of the EAS discovery template comprises a service key performance indicator KPI.

11. The method of any of claims 8 to 10, wherein the attribute of the EAS discovery template comprises a service area.

12. The method of any of claims 8 to 11, wherein the attribute of the EAS discovery template comprises a service availability plan.

13. The method of any of claims 8 to 12, wherein the attribute of the EAS discovery template comprises a service continuity scenario.

14. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 13, further comprising:

the target EAS communicates media streams with the user equipment during the 5GMS streaming session.

15. A method for processing edge resources, the method comprising:

the 5GMS application provider receives the list from the 5GMS AF.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the activated EAS request is sent over an M1 interface between the 5GMS application provider and the 5GMS AF.

17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that the list comprising the at least one activated EAS is received over an M1 interface between the 5GMS application provider and the 5GMS AF.

18. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein the activated EAS request comprises an EAS identification, ID, flag indicating to the 5GMS AF whether to return the list comprising the at least one activated EAS to the 5GMS application provider.

19. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 18, further comprising:

the 5GMS application provider sends an edge resource configuration request to the 5GMS AF, wherein the active EAS request is part of the edge resource configuration request.

20. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 19, further comprising:

the 5GMS application provider sends an active EAS profile request to an edge enabled server EES requesting at least one EAS profile of the at least one active EAS indicated in the list, the interface sending the EAS profile request being different from the M1 interface between the 5GMS application provider and the 5GMS AF.