EP4193688A1 - Techniques to improve slice availability in a wireless cellular network - Google Patents

Techniques to improve slice availability in a wireless cellular network

Info

Publication number
EP4193688A1
EP4193688A1 EP21853163.0A EP21853163A EP4193688A1 EP 4193688 A1 EP4193688 A1 EP 4193688A1 EP 21853163 A EP21853163 A EP 21853163A EP 4193688 A1 EP4193688 A1 EP 4193688A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
nssai
network
information
ntcrm
ran
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Pending
Application number
EP21853163.0A
Other languages
German (de)
French (fr)
Inventor
Seau Sian Lim
Jaemin HAN
Sudeep Palat
Alexander Sirotkin
Changhong Shan
Richard Burbidge
Youn Hyoung Heo
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Intel Corp
Original Assignee
Intel Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Intel Corp filed Critical Intel Corp
Publication of EP4193688A1 publication Critical patent/EP4193688A1/en
Pending legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W48/00—Access restriction; Network selection; Access point selection
    • H04W48/18—Selecting a network or a communication service
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W48/00—Access restriction; Network selection; Access point selection
    • H04W48/02—Access restriction performed under specific conditions
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W48/00—Access restriction; Network selection; Access point selection
    • H04W48/16—Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W60/00—Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
    • H04W60/04—Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration using triggered events
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W8/00—Network data management
    • H04W8/02—Processing of mobility data, e.g. registration information at HLR [Home Location Register] or VLR [Visitor Location Register]; Transfer of mobility data, e.g. between HLR, VLR or external networks
    • H04W8/08—Mobility data transfer
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W8/00—Network data management
    • H04W8/18—Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W8/00—Network data management
    • H04W8/22—Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities

Definitions

  • Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications.
  • the steering of a user equipment (UE) to particular carrier frequency in idle mode is performed by absolute frequency priority based cell reselection based on dedicated frequency priority setting from the radio access network (RAN).
  • This dedicated frequency priority setting is derived by RAN from radio access technology (RAT) Frequency Service Profile (RFSP) index received from the core network (CN) which takes into consideration only the allowed network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI), which is a collection of single NSSAI (S-NSSAI) or slices that are allowed by the network.
  • NSSAI network slice selection assistance information
  • S-NSSAI single NSSAI
  • Figure 1 illustrates an example scenario for a tracking area with network slices available in respective carrier frequencies.
  • Figure 2 illustrates an example scenario with available slices in different tracking areas.
  • Figure 3 illustrates an example scenario with network slices deployed in different carrier frequencies.
  • Figure 4 illustrates a procedure for requesting network slicing based on network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI)).
  • NSSAI network slice selection assistance information
  • FIG. 5 illustrates a process for deriving a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index, in accordance with various embodiments.
  • RAT radio access technology
  • RFSP frequency service profile
  • FIG. 6 illustrates a process for deriving dedicated frequency priority information for a user equipment (UE), in accordance with various embodiments.
  • Figure 7 illustrates a process for network slicing based on UE radio capability, in accordance with various embodiments.
  • Figure 8 illustrates another process for network slicing based on UE radio capability, in accordance with various embodiments.
  • Figure 9 illustrates another process for network slicing based on UE radio capability, in accordance with various embodiments.
  • FIG. 10 illustrates a network in accordance with various embodiments.
  • Figure 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.
  • Figure 12 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
  • a machine-readable or computer-readable medium e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium
  • Figure 13 illustrates an example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein.
  • Figure 14 illustrates another example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein.
  • embodiments may provide techniques for network slicing in a wireless cellular network.
  • embodiments may include deriving a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index and/or frequency priority information for a user equipment (UE) based on allowed and rejected network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI).
  • RAT radio access technology
  • RFSP frequency service profile
  • NSSAI network slice selection assistance information
  • the allowed and rejected NSSAI may be the configured NSSAI, which is configured by the core network (CN) when the UE performs registration.
  • embodiments may include techniques for network slicing based on UE radio capability, e.g., for dual connectivity (DC) and/or carrier aggregation (CA).
  • DC dual connectivity
  • CA carrier aggregation
  • RAN radio access network
  • gNB next generation Node B
  • eNB evolved Node B
  • RNC radio network controller
  • UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service
  • Embodiments described herein may provide solutions to one or more of the problems described below.
  • the steering of a user equipment (UE) to particular carrier frequency in idle mode is performed by absolute frequency priority based cell reselection based on dedicated frequency priority setting from the radio access network (RAN).
  • This dedicated frequency priority setting is derived by RAN from radio access technology (RAT) Frequency Service Profile (RFSP) index received from the core network (CN) which takes into consideration only the allowed network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI), which is a collection of single NSSAI (S-NSSAI) or slices that are allowed by the network.
  • NSSAI network slice selection assistance information
  • S-NSSAI single NSSAI
  • UE is in a cell in Fl having an allowed NSSAI of SI and S2.
  • the UE can reselect to a cell in F2 that it can access the service from SI and S2.
  • the RSFP index can also be used for redirection to right frequency layer (e.g. RAN can redirect the UE to F2 with the appropriate redirection info).
  • the CN provides the RAN with the allowed NSSAI and together with the local information of the deployment, the RAN configures the measurement configuration and reporting to trigger handover to a cell in F2.
  • the UE is in a cell in Fl and requests for slices or S- NSSAI of SI and S2 (e.g. requested NSSAI contains S-NSSAI of SI and S2, as SI and S2 are part of the UE’s Configured NSSAI).
  • the requested NSSAI is a collection of S-NSSAIs which the UE requests to be included in the allowed NSSAI. Only S-NSSAI of SI will be in the allowed NSSAI and S-NSSAI of S2 will be in the rejected NSSAI.
  • Rejected NSSAI is a collection of S-NSSAIs which are rejected by the network due to some reasons (e.g., the S-NSSAI is not available in the current UE registration area).
  • the dedicated frequency priority setting, redirection info and handover are all based on the allowed NSSAI, the UE will not be steered towards F2 where all the UE requested NSSAI is available. Hence such deployment may require a new solution.
  • Allowed NSSAI include S-NSSAI of SI and S2 for the UE, UE is unable to concurrently have the slices active. This may not be desirable if the packet data network (PDN) session has to be released if UE is moved from one layer to another.
  • PDN packet data network
  • such a case can be avoided if the allowed NSSAI considers such deployment (within a TA) and takes into account the UE radio capability that it can handle more than a single frequency in connected mode (e.g. CA or DC).
  • a single frequency in connected mode e.g. CA or DC
  • solutions to problem #1 may include a method to steer the UE to a frequency/registration area that can provide the requested slices (which may be a subset or all of the Configured NSSAI) when the requested slices are not available in the current UE registration area.
  • the network may consider all the requested slices and the frequencies they are available in, and generate the RAT/Frequency Service Profile index (RFSP index) and/or dedicated frequency priority information such as to steer the UE to the frequency layer of a different registration area that can maximise the availability of the requested services.
  • RFSP index RAT/Frequency Service Profile index
  • dedicated frequency priority information such as to steer the UE to the frequency layer of a different registration area that can maximise the availability of the requested services.
  • the CN may provide the network supported slices requested by UE (e.g. the allowed NSSAI and part of the rejected NSSAI that are supported by the network on another registration area) to the RAN for the RAN to use to decide on the measurement configuration and reporting to be configured on the UE.
  • UE e.g. the allowed NSSAI and part of the rejected NSSAI that are supported by the network on another registration area
  • the embodiments may allow the UE to access slices that would otherwise have been rejected by steering to some of the requested slices when the requested slice is not in the UE registration area.
  • Solutions to problem #2 may include a method to allow concurrent usage of different slices when the slices are in different carrier frequencies and/or registrations areas. The requested slice would otherwise have been rejected due to deployment of different requested slices on different frequencies/registration area.
  • This method may take into account the UE’s radio capability (e.g., for carrier aggregation and/or dual connectivity) and network deployment of slices on different frequencies to accept slices that are on different TAs.
  • embodiments may include one or more of:
  • a UE or RAN based filtering process to ensure that the allowed slices configured by the network can be handled by the UE based on the RAN local configuration of the deployment and the UE radio capability.
  • Other filtering factors may also be considered during the filtering process by the RAN.
  • the embodiments may allow for service of slices to be supported when they are on different frequency in connected mode. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE or RAN based filtering may allow legacy UEs to be supported taking into consideration of UE and network CA/DC capability.
  • Embodiments described herein may be included in future versions of one or more 3 GPP Technical Specifications, such as TS38.413, TS23.501, TS23.502, and/or TS24.501.
  • Figure 4 illustrates a procedure for network slicing using NSSAI in 3GPP Rel-15. Aspects of the procedure include:
  • UE provides the Requested NSSAI during RRC Setup Complete to RAN or over NAS signalling (e.g. during initial and mobility registration).
  • RAN uses the public land mobile network (PLMN) Identity index and Requested NSSAI to perform AMF selection.
  • PLMN public land mobile network
  • RAN then provides the selected AMF with the Requested NSSAI.
  • the AMF uses the Requested NSSAI and other factors (e.g. local configuration including RAN capability) to derive the Allowed NSSAI.
  • the rejection criteria is based on the UE subscription, local configuration, and other locally available information including RAN capabilities in the current Tracking Area for the UE or load level information for a Network Slice instance.
  • the AMF then uses the Allowed NSSAI to derive the RFSP Index.
  • AMF provides the RAN with the Allowed NSSAI and the RFSP Index.
  • RAN uses the RFSP index to derive the dedicated frequency priority which is provided to UE for cell reselection in idle mode mobility.
  • the Allowed NSSAI and Rejected NSSAI (if any) is provided to the UE via NAS message.
  • some changes to the procedure of Figure 4 may be implemented, e.g., to solve problem#!.
  • operation 3) of Figure 1 instead of using just the Allowed NSSAI for deriving RFSP index, embodiments may take into consideration the Rejected NSSAI (e.g., together with Allowed NSSAI, which may be part of or all of the UE’s Configured NSSAI), “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs and/or UE radio capability.
  • Embodiment 1.1 Embodiment 1.1
  • the AMF/CN may also take into account the Rejected NSSAI (e.g., together with Allowed NSSAI, which may include part of or all of the UE’s Configured NSSAI) and/or “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs/frequencies/cells and/or UE radio capability for deriving the RFSP Index.
  • Rejected NSSAI e.g., together with Allowed NSSAI, which may include part of or all of the UE’s Configured NSSAI
  • “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs/frequencies/cells and/or UE radio capability for deriving the RFSP Index e.g., together with Allowed NSSAI, which may include part of or all of the UE’s Configured NSSAI
  • a subset of less than all of the S-NSSAI in the Rejected NSSAI should be considered for the RFSP index.
  • the AMF/CN may: o Consider all the rej ected NSSAI. o Consider only those rejected NSSAI that are available in the PLMN but are not available in the current UE registration area. o Consider only those rejected NSSAI that are available in the PLMN and are available in an overlapped UE registration area with the current UE registration area.
  • the RAN may use the RFSP index to derive the dedicated frequency priority setting for idle mode mobility and/or for redirection info.
  • Figure 5 illustrates a process in accordance with various embodiments.
  • the RAN may take into account the RejectedNSSAI (e.g., together with Allowed NSSAI, which may include part of or all of the UE’s Configured NSSAI), “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs/frequencies/cells, and/or UE radio capability for deriving the dedicated frequency priority settings for idle mode and/or inactive mode mobility.
  • RejectedNSSAI e.g., together with Allowed NSSAI, which may include part of or all of the UE’s Configured NSSAI
  • “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs/frequencies/cells e.g., UE radio access control
  • the AMF/CN may provide to the RAN: o all the rej ected NS SAI o only those rejected NSSAI that are available in the PLMN but are not available in the current UE registration area o only those rejected NSSAI that are available in the PLMN and are available in an overlapped UE registration area with the current UE registration area
  • the RAN may use the rejected NSSAI, “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs, and the RFSP index (solely based on Allowed NSSAI), to derive dedicated frequency priority setting for idle mode mobility and for redirection info
  • FIG. 6 illustrates an example process in accordance with various embodiments.
  • Embodiment #2
  • carrier aggregation and NR and multi-RAT dual connectivity are introduced for UE to receive and/or transmit data in more than 1 serving frequency in RRC Connected. This can be taken into consideration for the case where slices are available in different frequencies so that simultaneous usage of those slices are possible, in contrast to current assumption that simultaneous usage of slices can only occur for slices in the same frequency.
  • slice selection is performed in UE while generating the Requested NSSAI (at the beginning of the procedure) or at the network while deciding on the Allowed NSSAI at the AMF/CN (after Step 3).
  • the following information may be needed during slice selection: a. Deployment of the slices in the different carrier frequency (e.g. the slice availability in each carrier frequency) b. UE radio capability
  • Embodiment 2,1 Slice selection is at UE
  • the UE may determine the slice selection.
  • the UE may be provided with the information on deployment of slices in different carrier frequencies via one or more mechanisms.
  • the slice availability in respective carrier frequencies may be provided to the UE via the RAN and/or the CN (e.g., AMF).
  • the slice availability information may be provided by one or more of:
  • the slice availability information may be provided via broadcast signalling from the RAN, e.g., over radio resource control (RRC) signalling.
  • RRC radio resource control
  • the slice availability of the serving frequency may be provided in system information block (SIB) 1 or in SIB3, while the slice availability of inter-frequency cells may be provided in SIB4.
  • SIB system information block
  • An example ASN. 1 structure is shown in the Annex A.
  • another representation of S-NSSAI(s) may be broadcast (e.g.
  • the UE access stratum may forward the information to UE non-access stratum (NAS) and UE NAS may use this information during slice selection.
  • the UE AS may perform an initial filtering of the possible slice availability by taking into account of slice availability per carrier frequency and the UE radio capability and provide the filtered slice availability to the UE NAS.
  • the UE NAS may use the filtered information to configure the Requested NSSAI.
  • the slice availability information may be provided by the CN (e.g., the AMF), such as via NAS signalling.
  • the slice availability information may be provided via NAS signalling when providing the Configured NSSAI during the Update Configured NSSAI procedure.
  • the AMF/CN may get the local information of the RAN capability and deployment during NG Setup.
  • the NG Setup and RAN Configuration Update message tabular is shown in Annex B. With this information, the AMF/CN may provide the slice availability per carrier frequency to the UE NAS.
  • Embodiment 2,2 Slice selection is at Network
  • the slice selection may be performed at the network side.
  • the RAN may provide a filtered requested NSSAI to the AMF/CN based on the slice availability in each carrier frequency in the deployment and the UE radio capability.
  • Figure 7 illustrates an example process in accordance with embodiment 2.2.
  • the Allowed NSSAI from the AMF/CN (as in Step 4 of Figure 8) is based on the on UE subscription, local configuration, and other locally available information including RAN capabilities in the current Tracking Area for the UE or load level information for a Network Slice instance provided by the NWDAF.
  • the local configuration and other locally available information including RAN capabilities in the current Tracking Area for the UE is known to the AMF/CN via NG Setup and RAN Configuration Update procedure.
  • As the slice availability per carrier frequency is not known to the AMF/CN, it is not possible currently for the AMF/CN to perform slice selection based on the slice availability per carrier frequency. This information may be added to NG Setup and RAN Configuration Update message as in Embodiment 2.1.
  • AMF/CN also takes UE radio capability into account in slice selection.
  • the RAN (where the UE radio capability is well understood to provide the different radio features) provides the filtered requested NSSAI to the AMF/CN based on the slice availability in each carrier frequency in the deployment and the UE radio capability.
  • the RAN knows the slice availability in each carrier frequency in the deployment.
  • the UE radio capability is only known to RAN either after RAN request from the UE (via Step 5 in Figure 8) during first attach or after AMF/CN provides it during Initial UE Context Request in subsequent connection (via Step 4 in Figure 8).
  • Step 3 of Figure 8 With the “indication” in Step 3 of Figure 8 to indicate to the AMF/CN that the RAN can perform slice-filtering based UE radio capability, AMF/CN does not provide the PDN session setup info in Step 4, as like in the case SRB only connection is established. This allows RAN to perform slice filtering during Initial UE Context Setup procedure and provides the filtered Requested NS SAI to the AMF/CN in the Initial UE Context Setup Response or in a new NGAP indication message.
  • the AMF/CN can derive the Allowed NSSAI and RFSP index which can be provided to the RAN in subsequent Downlink NAS Transport (for the case of Attach and TAU is the sending of the Attach Accept and TAU Accept, respectively) as in Step 4 of Figure 8. If not, UE Context Modification procedure can be initiated to provide both the RFSP Index and the Allowed NSSAI.
  • Annex C shows some examples of additional signalling in some of the existing messages required for this case.
  • AMF/CN may provide the Allowed NSSAI and RFSP index in the Initial UE Context Request based on the minimum UE radio capability (e.g. can operate only slices available in the current frequency) assuming the RAN provides AMF/CN with the slice availability per carrier frequency during NG Setup and RAN Configuration Update as in Annex B.
  • the RAN may provide the filtered Requested NSSAI later which the AMF/CN will use to update the Allowed NSSAI and RFSP index.
  • the PDN Session Setup based on the updated Allowed NSSAI can then performed.
  • a new NGAP message from RAN to AMF/CN may be needed to provide the filtered Requested NSSAI as well as the means to provide the update Allowed NSSAI to RAN and UE as well as updated RFSP Index to RAN to regenerate the dedicated frequency priority setting for cell reselection.
  • the filtering can also take into consideration of the user preference of the requested slices (e.g. priority order of the requested NSSAI). This will allow the RAN to consider which requested slice should be filtered if slice requested are in different carrier frequencies while the UE radio capability can only handle a limited number of carrier frequencies.
  • An example is Slice SI is in Frequency Fl, Slice S2 is in Frequency F2 and Slice S3 is in Frequency F3 and UE requested for all 3 slices but can only do CA or DC for 2 frequency layers either Fl and F2 or F2 and F3 or Fl and F3.
  • the RAN can filter the best option for the UE.
  • the RAN can get user preference information from the AMF via the Initial UE Context Request or from the UE via the RRC Setup message.
  • RAN provides the filtered Requested NSSAI (based on slice availability per frequency) directly over the NGAP Initial UE Message.
  • the AMF can know, based on the Requested NSSAI over NAS and the filtered one over the NGAP Initial UE Message, that not all PDU sessions for the slices in the Requested NSSAI can be established in the RAN and can only trigger PDU session setup for those in the filtered Requested NSSAI (or a subset thereof).
  • the Allowed NSSAI can still be based on the Requested NS SAI forwarded over NAS (e.g. not filtered by the RAN), so that information wise nothing is lost and the existing behaviour can be intact.
  • the RAN may further decide to establish a PDU session for a slice that was filtered from the Requested NSSAI.
  • Annex A SIB broadcast of slice availability
  • SIB1 contains information relevant when evaluating if a UE is allowed to access a cell and defines the scheduling of other system information. It also contains radio resource configuration information that is common for all UEs and barring information applied to the unified access control.
  • SIB1 SEQUENCE ⁇ cellSelectionlnfo SEQUENCE ⁇ q-RxLevMin Q-RxLevMin, q-RxLevMinOffset INTEGER (1 .8) OPTIONAL, -
  • OPTIONAL - Need S uac-BarringlnfoSetList UAC-BarringlnfoSetList, uac-AccessCategoryl-SelectionAssistancelnfo CHOICE ⁇ plmnCommon UAC-AccessCategory 1 -SelectionAssistancelnfo, individualPLMNList SEQUENCE (SIZE (2..maxPLMN)) OF UAC-
  • AccessCategory 1 SelectionAssistancelnfo
  • SIBl-vl6xy-IEs :: SEQUENCE ⁇ idleModeMeasurements-rl 6 ENUMERATED ⁇ ffs ⁇
  • SIBl-yl7xy-IEs :: SEQUENCE ⁇ s-NSSAI-List-r!7 SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxNrofS-NSSAI)) OF S-NSSAI OPTIONAL, - Need R nonCriticalExtension SEQUENCE ⁇ OPTIONAL
  • UAC-AccessCategoryl-SelectionAssistancelnfo ENUMERATED ⁇ a, b, c ⁇
  • SIB3 contains neighbouring cell related information relevant only for intra-frequency cell re-selection.
  • the IE includes cells with specific re-selection parameters as well as blacklisted cells.
  • SIB3 SEQUENCE ⁇ intraFreqNeighCellList IntraF reqN eighC el IL i st OPTIONAL, - Need R intraFreqBlackCellList IntraFreqBlackCellList OPTIONAL, - Need R lateNonCriticalExtension OCTET STRING OPTIONAL,
  • IntraFreqNeighCellList :: SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCelllntra)) OF
  • IntraFreqNeighCelllnfo SEQUENCE ⁇ physCellld PhysCellld, q-OffsetCell Q-OffsetRange, q-RxLevMinOffsetCell INTEGER (L .8) OPTIONAL, - Need R q-RxLevMinOffsetCellSUL INTEGER (L.8) OPTIONAL, - Need R q-QualMinOffs etC ell INTEGER (L .8) OPTIONAL, - Need R
  • IntraFreqBlackCellList :: SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCellBlack)) OF PCI-Range
  • IntraFreqWhiteCellList-rl6 :: SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCellWhite)) OF PCI-Range - TAG-SIB3-STOP
  • SIB 4 contains information relevant only for inter-frequency cell re-selection e.g. information about other NR frequencies and inter-frequency neighbouring cells relevant for cell reselection.
  • the IE includes cell re-selection parameters common for a frequency as well as cell specific re-selection parameters.
  • SIB4 SEQUENCE ⁇ interFreqCarrierFreqList InterFreqCarrierFreqList, lateNonCriticalExtension OCTET STRING OPTIONAL,
  • InterFreqCarrierFreqList :: SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxFreq)) OF InterFreqCarrierFreqlnfo
  • InterFreqCarrierFreqlnfo SEQUENCE ⁇ dl-CarrierFreq ARFCN-ValueNR, frequencyBandList MultiFrequencyBandListNR-SIB OPTIONAL, —
  • InterFreqNeighCellList :: SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCelllnter)) OF
  • InterFreqNeighCelllnfo SEQUENCE ⁇ physCellld PhysCellld, q-OffsetCell Q-OffsetRange, q-RxLevMinOffsetCell INTEGER (1..8) OPTIONAL, - Need R q-RxLevMinOffsetCellSUL INTEGER (1..8) OPTIONAL, - Need
  • InterFreqBlackCellList :: SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCellBlack)) OF PCI-Range
  • InterFreqWhiteCellList-rl6 :: SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCellWhite)) OF PCI-Range
  • Annex B Slice availability per frequency to AMF/CN during NG Setup
  • This message is sent by the NG-RAN node to transfer application layer information for an NG-C interface instance.
  • This message is sent by the NG-RAN node to transfer updated application layer information for an NG-C interface instance.
  • Annex C Slice availability per frequency between gNBs over Xn interface
  • the NR Frequency Info defines the carrier frequency and bands used in a cell for a given direction (UL or DL) in FDD or for both UL and DL directions in TDD or for SUL carrier.
  • Annex D Example of new signalling required for RAN based filtering Annex D, 1 :
  • Requested NSSAI needs to be signalled e.g. in the Initial UE Context Response in Step 7 of Figure 2: 38,401
  • This message is sent by the NG-RAN node to confirm the setup of a UE context.
  • the CN/AMF needs to provide the Allowed NSSAI to the RAN as well as the RFSP Index, this can e.g. either be done in one of the DOWNLINK NAS TRANSPORT in the case a NAS PDU needs to be sent (no changes needed) or in UE CONTEXT MODIFICATION REQUEST in the case no NAS PDU needs to be sent.
  • This message is sent by the AMF and is used for carrying NAS information over the NG interface.
  • This message is sent by the AMF to provide UE Context information changes to the NG- RAN node.
  • Annex E Another example of new sigalling required for RAN based filtering
  • Figures 10-12 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments.
  • Figure 10 illustrates a network 1000 in accordance with various embodiments.
  • the network
  • the network 1000 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems, or the like.
  • the network 1000 may include a UE 1002, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 1004 via an over-the-air connection.
  • the UE 1002 may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 1004 by a Uu interface.
  • the UE 1002 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electron! c/engine control unit, electron! c/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc.
  • the network 1000 may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface.
  • the UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.
  • the UE 1002 may additionally communicate with an AP 1006 via an over-the-air connection.
  • the AP 1006 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve 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, wherein the AP 1006 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router.
  • the UE 1002, RAN 1004, and AP 1006 may utilize cellular- WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP).
  • Cellular- WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 1002 being configured by the RAN 1004 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.
  • the RAN 1004 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 1008.
  • AN 1008 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 1002 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 1008 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 1020 and the UE 1002.
  • the AN 1008 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool.
  • the AN 1008 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc.
  • the AN 1008 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.
  • the RAN 1004 may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 1004 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 1004 is a 5G RAN).
  • the X2/Xn interfaces which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.
  • the ANs of the RAN 1004 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 1002 with an air interface for network access.
  • the UE 1002 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 1004.
  • the UE 1002 and RAN 1004 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 1002 to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell.
  • a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG.
  • the first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.
  • the RAN 1004 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum.
  • the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells.
  • the nodes Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.
  • LBT listen-before-talk
  • the UE 1002 or AN 1008 may be or act as a RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications.
  • An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable 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 eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like.
  • an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs.
  • the RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
  • the RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services.
  • the components of the RSU may be packaged 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 a backhaul network.
  • the RAN 1004 may be an LTE RAN 1010 with eNBs, for example, eNB 1012.
  • the LTE RAN 1010 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics : SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and 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; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and 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 operating on sub-6 GHz bands.
  • the RAN 1004 may be an NG-RAN 1014 with gNBs, for example, gNB 1016, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 1018.
  • the gNB 1016 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface.
  • the gNB 1016 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or anN3 interface.
  • the ng-eNB 1018 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface.
  • the gNB 1016 and the ng-eNB 1018 may connect with each other over an Xn interface.
  • the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG- U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 1014 and a UPF 1048 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN1014 and an AMF 1044 (e.g., N2 interface).
  • NG- U NG user plane
  • N3 interface e.g., N3 interface
  • N-C NG control plane
  • the NG-RAN 1014 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and 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 a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking.
  • the 5G-NR air interface may operating on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz.
  • the 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH.
  • the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes.
  • BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS.
  • the UE 1002 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 1002, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well.
  • Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving.
  • multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 1002 with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios.
  • a BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 1002 and in some cases at the gNB 1016.
  • a BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.
  • the RAN 1004 is communicatively coupled to CN 1020 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 1002).
  • the components of the CN 1020 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes.
  • NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 1020 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc.
  • a logical instantiation of the CN 1020 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 1020 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.
  • the CN 1020 may be an LTE CN 1022, which may also be referred to as an EPC.
  • the LTE CN 1022 may include MME 1024, SGW 1026, SGSN 1028, HSS 1030, PGW 1032, and PCRF 1034 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 1022 may be briefly introduced as follows.
  • the MME 1024 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 1002 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.
  • the SGW 1026 may terminate an SI interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 1022.
  • the SGW 1026 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.
  • the SGSN 1028 may track a location of the UE 1002 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 1028 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 1024; MME selection for handovers; etc.
  • the S3 reference point between the MME 1024 and the SGSN 1028 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active states.
  • the HSS 1030 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions.
  • the HSS 1030 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.
  • An S6a reference point between the HSS 1030 and the MME 1024 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/ authorizing user access to the LTE CN 1020.
  • the PGW 1032 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 1036 that may include an application/content server 1038.
  • the PGW 1032 may route data packets between the LTE CN 1022 and the data network 1036.
  • the PGW 1032 may be coupled with the SGW 1026 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management.
  • the PGW 1032 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF).
  • the SGi reference point between the PGW 1032 and the data network 10 36 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services.
  • the PGW 1032 may be coupled with a PCRF 1034 via a Gx reference point.
  • the PCRF 1034 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 1022.
  • the PCRF 1034 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 1038 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows.
  • the PCRF 1032 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.
  • the CN 1020 may be a 5GC 1040.
  • the 5GC 1040 may include an AUSF 1042, AMF 1044, SMF 1046, UPF 1048, NSSF 1050, NEF 1052, NRF 1054, PCF 1056, UDM 1058, and AF 1060 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown.
  • Functions of the elements of the 5GC 1040 may be briefly introduced as follows.
  • the AUSF 1042 may store data for authentication of UE 1002 and handle authentication- related functionality.
  • the AUSF 1042 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types.
  • the AUSF 1042 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.
  • the AMF 1044 may allow other functions of the 5GC 1040 to communicate with the UE 1002 and the RAN 1004 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 1002.
  • the AMF 1044 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 1002), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization.
  • the AMF 1044 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 1002 and the SMF 1046, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages.
  • AMF 1044 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 1002 and an SMSF.
  • AMF 1044 may interact with the AUSF 1042 and the UE 1002 to perform various security anchor and context management functions.
  • AMF 1044 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 1004 and the AMF 1044; and the AMF 1044 may be a termination point of NAS (Nl) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection.
  • AMF 1044 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 1002 over an N3 IWF interface.
  • the SMF 1046 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 1048 and AN 1008); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 1048 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 1044 over N2 to AN 1008; and determining SSC mode of a session.
  • SM may refer to management of a PDU session, 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 UPF 1048 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 1036, and a branching point to support multihomed PDU session.
  • the UPF 1048 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a 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 the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering.
  • UPF 1048 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.
  • the NSSF 1050 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 1002.
  • the NSSF 1050 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed.
  • the NSSF 1050 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 1002, or 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 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 1050, which may lead to a change of AMF.
  • the NSSF 1050 may interact with the AMF 1044 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 1050 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.
  • the NEF 1052 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 1060), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc.
  • the NEF 1052 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs.
  • NEF 1052 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 1060 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 1052 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information.
  • NEF 1052 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 1052 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 1052 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 1052 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.
  • the NRF 1054 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 1054 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 1054 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.
  • the PCF 1056 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior.
  • the PCF 1056 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 1058.
  • the PCF 1056 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.
  • the UDM 1058 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 1002. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 1058 and the AMF 1044.
  • the UDM 1058 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR.
  • the UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 1058 and the PCF 1056, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 1002) for the NEF 1052.
  • the Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 1058, PCF 1056, and NEF 1052 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR.
  • the UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions.
  • the UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management.
  • the UDM 1058 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.
  • the AF 1060 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.
  • the 5GC 1040 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3 rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 1002 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network.
  • the 5GC 1040 may select a UPF 1048 close to the UE 1002 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 1048 to data network 1036 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 1060. In this way, the AF 1060 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing.
  • the network operator may permit AF 1060 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 1060 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface.
  • the 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.
  • FIG 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network 1100 in accordance with various embodiments.
  • the wireless network 1100 may include a UE 1102 in wireless communication with an AN 1104.
  • the UE 1102 and AN 1104 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein.
  • the UE 1102 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 1104 via connection 1106.
  • the connection 1106 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5GNR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies.
  • the UE 1102 may include a host platform 1108 coupled with a modem platform 1110.
  • the host platform 1108 may include application processing circuitry 1112, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1114 of the modem platform 1110.
  • the application processing circuitry 1112 may run various applications for the UE 1102 that source/sink application data.
  • the application processing circuitry 1112 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations
  • the protocol processing circuitry 1114 may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 1106.
  • the layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 1114 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations.
  • the modem platform 1110 may further include digital baseband circuitry 1116 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 1114 in a 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/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.
  • PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may
  • the modem platform 1110 may further include transmit circuitry 1118, receive circuitry 1120, RF circuitry 1122, and RF front end (RFFE) 1124, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 1126.
  • the transmit circuitry 1118 may include a digital-to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.
  • the receive circuitry 1120 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.
  • the RF circuitry 1122 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.
  • RFFE 1124 may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc.
  • transmit/receive components may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 gHz frequencies, etc.
  • the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc.
  • the protocol processing circuitry 1114 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.
  • a UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels 1126, RFFE 1124, RF circuitry 1122, receive circuitry 1120, digital baseband circuitry 1116, and protocol processing circuitry 1114.
  • the antenna panels 1126 may receive a transmission from the AN 1104 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 1126.
  • a UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 1114, digital baseband circuitry 1116, transmit circuitry 1118, RF circuitry 1122, RFFE 1124, and antenna panels 1126.
  • the transmit components of the UE 1104 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 1126.
  • the AN 1104 may include a host platform 1128 coupled with a modem platform 1130.
  • the host platform 1128 may include application processing circuitry 1132 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1134 of the modem platform 1130.
  • the modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 1136, transmit circuitry 1138, receive circuitry 1140, RF circuitry 1142, RFFE circuitry 1144, and antenna panels 1146.
  • the components of the AN 1104 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components of the UE 1102.
  • the components of the AN 1108 may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.
  • Figure 12 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
  • Figure 12 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1200 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1210, one or more memory /storage devices 1220, and one or more communication resources 1230, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1240 or other interface circuitry.
  • a hypervisor 1202 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1200.
  • the processors 1210 may include, for example, a processor 1212 and a processor 1214.
  • the processors 1210 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.
  • CPU central processing unit
  • RISC reduced instruction set computing
  • CISC complex instruction set computing
  • GPU graphics processing unit
  • DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.
  • the memory /storage devices 1220 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof.
  • the memory /storage devices 1220 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.
  • DRAM dynamic random access memory
  • SRAM static random access memory
  • EPROM erasable programmable read-only memory
  • EEPROM electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
  • Flash memory solid-state storage, etc.
  • the communication resources 1230 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1204 or one or more databases 1206 or other network elements via a network 1208.
  • the communication resources 1230 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.
  • Instructions 1250 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1210 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
  • the instructions 1250 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1210 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory /storage devices 1220, or any suitable combination thereof.
  • any portion of the instructions 1250 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1200 from any combination of the peripheral devices 1204 or the databases 1206. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1210, the memory /storage devices 1220, the peripheral devices 1204, and the databases 1206 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.
  • the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s), chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, of Figures 10-12, or some other figure herein may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof.
  • Figure 13 illustrates a process 1300 in accordance with some embodiments. The process 1300 may be performed by a device of a RAN, such as a gNB. or a portion thereof.
  • the process 1300 may include receiving, from a core network (CN), accepted network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) and rejected NSSAI associated with a UE.
  • CN core network
  • NSSAI network slice selection assistance information
  • the accepted and rejected NSSAI may be received from an AMF.
  • the allowed NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI may each include some or all configured NSSAI of the UE.
  • the process 1300 may further include determining dedicated frequency priority information for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI. At 1306, the process 1300 may further include providing the dedicated frequency priority information to the UE.
  • FIG 14 illustrates another process 1400 in accordance with various embodiments.
  • the process 1400 may be performed by a device of a CN, such as an AMF.
  • the process 1400 may include receiving requested network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) associated with a user equipment (UE).
  • NSSAI network slice selection assistance information
  • the process 1400 may further include determining accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI based on the requested NSSAI.
  • the allowed NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI may each include some or all configured NSSAI of the UE.
  • the process 1400 may further include deriving a radio access technology (RAT)Zfrequency service profile (RFSP) index for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI.
  • the process 1400 may further include providing the RFSP to a serving next generation Node B (gNB).
  • RAT radio access technology
  • RFSP radio access technology
  • gNB serving next generation Node B
  • At least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below.
  • the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below.
  • circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.
  • Example 1 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions to cause a device of a radio access network (RAN), upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the device, to: receive, from a core network (CN), accepted network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) and rejected NSSAI associated with a UE; determine dedicated frequency priority information for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI; and provide the dedicated frequency priority information to the UE.
  • NCRM non-transitory computer-readable media
  • RAN radio access network
  • NSSAI network slice selection assistance information
  • Example 1 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions to cause a device of a radio access network (RAN), upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the device, to: receive, from a core network (CN), accepted network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) and rejected NSSAI associated with a UE; determine dedicated frequency priority information for the UE
  • Example 2 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 1, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is determined further based on slice availability information for a serving gNB and one or more neighboring gNBs.
  • Example 3 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 2, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is determined further based on a UE radio capability.
  • Example 4 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 1, wherein the rejected NSSAI includes single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE and not available in a current UE registration area of the UE.
  • S-NSSAIs single-NSSAIs
  • PLMN public land mobile network
  • Example 5 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 1, wherein the rejected NSSAI includes single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE and available in a UE registration area that overlaps with a current UE registration area of the UE.
  • S-NSSAIs single-NSSAIs
  • PLMN public land mobile network
  • Example 6 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to cause the device to receive, from the core network, a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index for the UE, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is determined further based on the RFSP.
  • RAT radio access technology
  • RFSP frequency service profile
  • Example 7 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 6, wherein the RFSP is based on the allowed NSSAI and not the rejected NSSAI.
  • Example 8 may include the one or more NTCRM of any one of Examples 1 to 7, wherein the allowed NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI each include some or all configured NSSAI of the UE.
  • Example 9 may include the one or more NTCRM of any one of Examples 1 to 8, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is for idle mode/Inactive mode mobility.
  • Example 10 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions to cause an access and mobility management function (AMF), upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the AMF, to: receive requested network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) associated with a user equipment (UE); determine accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI based on the requested NSSAI; derive a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI (e.g., which are both either part of or whole of the UE’s Configured NSSAI); and provide the RFSP to a serving next generation Node B (gNB).
  • NSSAI network slice selection assistance information
  • UE user equipment
  • RFSP radio access technology frequency service profile
  • gNB serving next generation Node B
  • Example 11 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 10, wherein the RFSP index is derived further based on slice availability information for the serving gNB, a serving frequency, or a serving cell and one or more neighboring gNBs, frequencies, or cells.
  • Example 12 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 10, wherein the RFSP index is derived based on a subset of single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) of the rejected NSSAI that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE.
  • S-NSSAIs single-NSSAIs
  • PLMN public land mobile network
  • Example 13 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 10, wherein the RFSP index is derived based on a subset of single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) of the rejected NSSAI that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE and available in a UE registration area that overlaps with a current UE registration area of the UE.
  • S-NSSAIs single-NSSAIs
  • PLMN public land mobile network
  • Example 14 may include the one or more NTCRM of any one of Examples 10 to 13, wherein the RFSP index is to trigger the RAN node to provide dedicated frequency priority information to the UE to move the UE to another registration area.
  • Example 15 may include an apparatus to be implemented in a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a memory to store UE radio capability information for communication using dual connectivity or carrier aggregation; and processor circuitry coupled to the memory.
  • the processor circuitry is to: receive slice availability information that indicates availability of network slices in a plurality of carrier frequencies; and select two or more network slices to access based on the slice availability information and the UE radio capability information.
  • Example 16 may include the apparatus of Example 15, wherein the slice availability information is received via broadcast radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
  • RRC radio resource control
  • Example 17 may include the apparatus of Example 15, wherein the slice availability information is received via non-access stratum (NAS) signalling.
  • NAS non-access stratum
  • Example 18 may include the apparatus of Example 15, wherein the processor circuitry is to implement an access stratum (AS) of the UE, and wherein the AS is to filter the slice availability information based on the UE radio capability information and provide the filtered slice availability information to a NAS of the UE.
  • AS access stratum
  • Example 19 may include the apparatus of Example 15, wherein the processor circuitry is further to access the selected two or more network slices on different carrier frequencies.
  • Example 20 may include the apparatus of any one of Examples 15 to 19, further comprising two or more antennas coupled to the processor circuitry.
  • Example 21 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.
  • Example 22 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.
  • Example 23 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.
  • Example 24 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof.
  • Example 25 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.
  • Example 26 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-18, or portions or parts thereof.
  • Example 27 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
  • PDU protocol data unit
  • Example 28 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
  • Example 29 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
  • PDU protocol data unit
  • Example 30 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.
  • Example 31 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.
  • Example 32 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.
  • Example 33 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.
  • Example 34 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.
  • Example 35 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise.
  • the foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.
  • AMBRAggregate 45 BPSK Binary Phase Shift 80 CDMA Code-
  • ANR Automatic BSR Buffer Status CID Cell-ID (e g.,
  • CPU CSI processing to-noise and interference Language Digital unit, Central Processing ratio Subscriber Line Unit 55 CSMA Carrier Sense 90 DSLAM DSL Access
  • EPDCCH enhanced FACCH/F Fast 95 FN Frame Number
  • PDCCH enhanced Associated Control FPGA Field-
  • GGSN Gateway GPRS (related to WUS) Secure (https is Support Node 40 GUMMEI Globally http/1.1 over SSL, GLONASS Unique MME Identifier 75 e.g. port 443)
  • GSM Global System for Number Element Identifier Mobile HSPA High Speed Packet IEIDL Information
  • WUS Connectivity 80 Function NACKNegative NM Network Manager NRS Narrowband Acknowl edgement NMS Network Reference Signal NAI Network Access Management System NS Network Service Identifier 50 N-PoP Network Point of NSA Non-Standalone
  • Non-Access Presence 85 operation mode Stratum, Non- Access NMIB, N-MIB NSD Network Service Stratum layer Narrowband MIB Descriptor NCT Network NPBCH Narrowband NSR Network Service Connectivity Topology 55 Physical Broadcast Record NC-JT NonCHannel 90 NSSAINetwork Slice coherent Joint NPDCCH Narrowband Selection Assistance Transmission Physical Downlink Information
  • PC Power Control PEI Permanent Proximity-Based Personal Computer Equipment Identifiers Service
  • PCC Primary PFD Packet Flow PRS Positioning Component Carrier
  • 60 Description 95 Reference Signal Primary CC
  • P-GW PDN Gateway PRR Packet Reception
  • PCell Primary Cell PHICH Physical Radio PCI Physical Cell ID, hybrid-ARQ indicator PS Packet Services Physical Cell Identity channel PSBCH Physical PCEF Policy and PHY Physical layer 100 Sidelink Broadcast Charging PLMN Public Land Mobile Channel
  • Temporary Identity Downlink Protocol S-TMSI SAE 60 SDNF Structured Data 95 SiP System in Package Temporary Mobile Storage Network SL Sidelink Station Identifier Function SLA Service Level SA Standalone SDP Session Description Agreement operation mode Protocol SM Session SAE System 65 SDSF Structured Data 100 Management Architecture Evolution Storage Function SMF Session SAP Service Access SDU Service Data Unit Management Function Point SEAF Security Anchor SMS Short Message SAPD Service Access Function Service Point Descriptor 70 SeNB secondary eNB 105 SMSF SMS Function SMTC SSB-based 35 Signal Received TCP Transmission
  • SoC System on Chip 40 Noise and Interference TDM Time Division SON Self-Organizing Ratio Multiplexing Network SSS Secondary 75 TDMATime Division
  • Synchronization Configuration Indicator 100 Signal based Reference Technical Standard TTI Transmission Time UPF User Plane VM Virtual Machine
  • circuitry refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field- programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality.
  • FPD field- programmable device
  • FPGA field-programmable gate array
  • PLD programmable logic device
  • CPLD complex PLD
  • HPLD high-capacity PLD
  • DSPs digital signal processors
  • the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality.
  • the term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.
  • processor circuitry refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data.
  • Processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions and one or more memory structures to store program and data information.
  • processor circuitry may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computerexecutable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes.
  • Processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like.
  • the one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators.
  • CV computer vision
  • DL deep learning
  • application circuitry and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”
  • interface circuitry refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices.
  • interface circuitry may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like.
  • user equipment refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network.
  • the term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc.
  • the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.
  • network element refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services.
  • network element may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.
  • computer system refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources.
  • appliance refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource.
  • program code e.g., software or firmware
  • a “virtual appliance” is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource.
  • resource refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or the like.
  • a “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s).
  • a “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc.
  • network resource or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network.
  • system resources may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.
  • channel refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream.
  • channel may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated.
  • link refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.
  • instantiate refers to the creation of an instance.
  • An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code.
  • Coupled may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other.
  • directly coupled may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another.
  • communicatively coupled may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, and/or the like.
  • information element refers to a structural element containing one or more fields.
  • field refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content.
  • SMTC refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.
  • SSB refers to an SS/PBCH block.
  • a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure.
  • Primary SCG Cell refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation.
  • Secondary Cell refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA.
  • Secondary Cell Group refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC.
  • Secondary Cell refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell.
  • serving cell refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA/.
  • Special Cell refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers to the Pcell.

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Abstract

Various embodiments herein provide techniques for network slicing in a wireless cellular network. For example, embodiments may include deriving a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index and/or frequency priority information for a user equipment (UE) based on allowed and rejected network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI). Additionally, embodiments may include techniques for network slicing based on UE radio capability, e.g., for dual connectivity (DC) and/or carrier aggregation (CA). Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Description

TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE SLICE AVAILABILITY IN A WIRELESS CELLULAR NETWORK
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/061,700, which was filed August 5, 2020.
FIELD
Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications. BACKGROUND
In 3GPP Release (Rel)-15, the steering of a user equipment (UE) to particular carrier frequency in idle mode is performed by absolute frequency priority based cell reselection based on dedicated frequency priority setting from the radio access network (RAN). This dedicated frequency priority setting is derived by RAN from radio access technology (RAT) Frequency Service Profile (RFSP) index received from the core network (CN) which takes into consideration only the allowed network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI), which is a collection of single NSSAI (S-NSSAI) or slices that are allowed by the network. For a S-NSSAI to be in the allowed NSSAI, it has to be available in current UE registration area (e.g. a tracking area or list of tracking areas).
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
Figure 1 illustrates an example scenario for a tracking area with network slices available in respective carrier frequencies.
Figure 2 illustrates an example scenario with available slices in different tracking areas.
Figure 3 illustrates an example scenario with network slices deployed in different carrier frequencies.
Figure 4 illustrates a procedure for requesting network slicing based on network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI)).
Figure 5 illustrates a process for deriving a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index, in accordance with various embodiments.
Figure 6 illustrates a process for deriving dedicated frequency priority information for a user equipment (UE), in accordance with various embodiments.
Figure 7 illustrates a process for network slicing based on UE radio capability, in accordance with various embodiments.
Figure 8 illustrates another process for network slicing based on UE radio capability, in accordance with various embodiments.
Figure 9 illustrates another process for network slicing based on UE radio capability, in accordance with various embodiments.
Figure 10 illustrates a network in accordance with various embodiments.
Figure 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.
Figure 12 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
Figure 13 illustrates an example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein.
Figure 14 illustrates another example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrases “A or B” and “A/B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B).
Various embodiments may provide techniques for network slicing in a wireless cellular network. For example, embodiments may include deriving a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index and/or frequency priority information for a user equipment (UE) based on allowed and rejected network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI). For example, the allowed and rejected NSSAI may be the configured NSSAI, which is configured by the core network (CN) when the UE performs registration. Additionally, embodiments may include techniques for network slicing based on UE radio capability, e.g., for dual connectivity (DC) and/or carrier aggregation (CA).
The aspects of various embodiments that are described below as included in or performed by the radio access network (RAN) may be implemented in a base station of the RAN, such as a next generation Node B (gNB), an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (RNC) of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS), etc. Further description of these devices is found in Figures 10 and 11 and the accompanying description.
Embodiments described herein may provide solutions to one or more of the problems described below.
Problem# 1 :
In 3GPP Release (Rel)-15, the steering of a user equipment (UE) to particular carrier frequency in idle mode is performed by absolute frequency priority based cell reselection based on dedicated frequency priority setting from the radio access network (RAN). This dedicated frequency priority setting is derived by RAN from radio access technology (RAT) Frequency Service Profile (RFSP) index received from the core network (CN) which takes into consideration only the allowed network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI), which is a collection of single NSSAI (S-NSSAI) or slices that are allowed by the network. For a S-NSSAI to be in the allowed NSSAI, it has to be available in current UE registration area (e.g. a tracking area).
Using the example in Figure 1: UE is in a cell in Fl having an allowed NSSAI of SI and S2. With the appropriate dedicated frequency priority setting, the UE can reselect to a cell in F2 that it can access the service from SI and S2.
For connected mode mobility, the RSFP index can also be used for redirection to right frequency layer (e.g. RAN can redirect the UE to F2 with the appropriate redirection info). If the UE is to stay in connected mode, the CN provides the RAN with the allowed NSSAI and together with the local information of the deployment, the RAN configures the measurement configuration and reporting to trigger handover to a cell in F2.
In Rel-17, anew deployment is possible where the available slices are in different TAs. One example is shown in Figure 2. In this scenario, the UE is in a cell in Fl and requests for slices or S- NSSAI of SI and S2 (e.g. requested NSSAI contains S-NSSAI of SI and S2, as SI and S2 are part of the UE’s Configured NSSAI). The requested NSSAI is a collection of S-NSSAIs which the UE requests to be included in the allowed NSSAI. Only S-NSSAI of SI will be in the allowed NSSAI and S-NSSAI of S2 will be in the rejected NSSAI. Rejected NSSAI is a collection of S-NSSAIs which are rejected by the network due to some reasons (e.g., the S-NSSAI is not available in the current UE registration area). As the dedicated frequency priority setting, redirection info and handover are all based on the allowed NSSAI, the UE will not be steered towards F2 where all the UE requested NSSAI is available. Hence such deployment may require a new solution.
Problem#2:
In Rel-15, it is assumed that one of the frequency carriers in the UE registration area will support all the slices required by a UE where concurrent usage of the different slices is possible. However, in some deployments, this may not be the case. An example of such deployment where slice deployment is carrier frequency is shown in Figure 3.
As shown, even if Allowed NSSAI include S-NSSAI of SI and S2 for the UE, UE is unable to concurrently have the slices active. This may not be desirable if the packet data network (PDN) session has to be released if UE is moved from one layer to another.
In accordance with various embodiments, such a case can be avoided if the allowed NSSAI considers such deployment (within a TA) and takes into account the UE radio capability that it can handle more than a single frequency in connected mode (e.g. CA or DC).
Various embodiments may provide solutions to problems #1 and #2 described above. The solutions are described further below with respect to Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 2. For example, solutions to problem #1 may include a method to steer the UE to a frequency/registration area that can provide the requested slices (which may be a subset or all of the Configured NSSAI) when the requested slices are not available in the current UE registration area. For example, the network may consider all the requested slices and the frequencies they are available in, and generate the RAT/Frequency Service Profile index (RFSP index) and/or dedicated frequency priority information such as to steer the UE to the frequency layer of a different registration area that can maximise the availability of the requested services.
For handover, the CN may provide the network supported slices requested by UE (e.g. the allowed NSSAI and part of the rejected NSSAI that are supported by the network on another registration area) to the RAN for the RAN to use to decide on the measurement configuration and reporting to be configured on the UE.
The embodiments may allow the UE to access slices that would otherwise have been rejected by steering to some of the requested slices when the requested slice is not in the UE registration area.
Solutions to problem #2 may include a method to allow concurrent usage of different slices when the slices are in different carrier frequencies and/or registrations areas. The requested slice would otherwise have been rejected due to deployment of different requested slices on different frequencies/registration area. This method may take into account the UE’s radio capability (e.g., for carrier aggregation and/or dual connectivity) and network deployment of slices on different frequencies to accept slices that are on different TAs. For example, embodiments may include one or more of:
• Configure UE with a Carrier Aggregation and/or Dual Connectivity configuration to allow UE to access different slices in different frequencies.
• A UE or RAN based filtering process to ensure that the allowed slices configured by the network can be handled by the UE based on the RAN local configuration of the deployment and the UE radio capability. Other filtering factors (such as user preference on the priority order of the requested slices) may also be considered during the filtering process by the RAN.
The embodiments may allow for service of slices to be supported when they are on different frequency in connected mode. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE or RAN based filtering may allow legacy UEs to be supported taking into consideration of UE and network CA/DC capability.
Embodiments described herein may be included in future versions of one or more 3 GPP Technical Specifications, such as TS38.413, TS23.501, TS23.502, and/or TS24.501.
Figure 4 illustrates a procedure for network slicing using NSSAI in 3GPP Rel-15. Aspects of the procedure include:
1. UE provides the Requested NSSAI during RRC Setup Complete to RAN or over NAS signalling (e.g. during initial and mobility registration).
2. RAN uses the public land mobile network (PLMN) Identity index and Requested NSSAI to perform AMF selection.
3. RAN then provides the selected AMF with the Requested NSSAI. The AMF uses the Requested NSSAI and other factors (e.g. local configuration including RAN capability) to derive the Allowed NSSAI. The rejection criteria is based on the UE subscription, local configuration, and other locally available information including RAN capabilities in the current Tracking Area for the UE or load level information for a Network Slice instance. The AMF then uses the Allowed NSSAI to derive the RFSP Index.
4. AMF provides the RAN with the Allowed NSSAI and the RFSP Index. RAN uses the RFSP index to derive the dedicated frequency priority which is provided to UE for cell reselection in idle mode mobility.
5. The Allowed NSSAI and Rejected NSSAI (if any) is provided to the UE via NAS message.
Embodiment #1
In various embodiments, some changes to the procedure of Figure 4 may be implemented, e.g., to solve problem#!. For example, in operation 3) of Figure 1, instead of using just the Allowed NSSAI for deriving RFSP index, embodiments may take into consideration the Rejected NSSAI (e.g., together with Allowed NSSAI, which may be part of or all of the UE’s Configured NSSAI), “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs and/or UE radio capability.
Embodiment 1.1
In this embodiment, the AMF/CN may also take into account the Rejected NSSAI (e.g., together with Allowed NSSAI, which may include part of or all of the UE’s Configured NSSAI) and/or “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs/frequencies/cells and/or UE radio capability for deriving the RFSP Index.
In some embodiments, a subset of less than all of the S-NSSAI in the Rejected NSSAI should be considered for the RFSP index. For example, the AMF/CN may: o Consider all the rej ected NSSAI. o Consider only those rejected NSSAI that are available in the PLMN but are not available in the current UE registration area. o Consider only those rejected NSSAI that are available in the PLMN and are available in an overlapped UE registration area with the current UE registration area.
The RAN may use the RFSP index to derive the dedicated frequency priority setting for idle mode mobility and/or for redirection info.
For example, Figure 5 illustrates a process in accordance with various embodiments.
Embodiment 1.2
In this embodiment, the RAN may take into account the RejectedNSSAI (e.g., together with Allowed NSSAI, which may include part of or all of the UE’s Configured NSSAI), “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs/frequencies/cells, and/or UE radio capability for deriving the dedicated frequency priority settings for idle mode and/or inactive mode mobility. For example, the AMF/CN may provide to the RAN: o all the rej ected NS SAI o only those rejected NSSAI that are available in the PLMN but are not available in the current UE registration area o only those rejected NSSAI that are available in the PLMN and are available in an overlapped UE registration area with the current UE registration area
The RAN may use the rejected NSSAI, “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information of the serving and neighbouring gNBs, and the RFSP index (solely based on Allowed NSSAI), to derive dedicated frequency priority setting for idle mode mobility and for redirection info
An example implementation of exchanging “Slice availability per carrier frequency” information between gNBs is provided in Annex C below.
Figure 6 illustrates an example process in accordance with various embodiments. Embodiment #2
Additionally, embodiments are provided to address problem #2 discussed above. In Rel-15 NR, carrier aggregation and NR and multi-RAT dual connectivity are introduced for UE to receive and/or transmit data in more than 1 serving frequency in RRC Connected. This can be taken into consideration for the case where slices are available in different frequencies so that simultaneous usage of those slices are possible, in contrast to current assumption that simultaneous usage of slices can only occur for slices in the same frequency.
As shown in Figure 4, slice selection is performed in UE while generating the Requested NSSAI (at the beginning of the procedure) or at the network while deciding on the Allowed NSSAI at the AMF/CN (after Step 3).
In order to take carrier aggregation and dual connectivity into account, the following information may be needed during slice selection: a. Deployment of the slices in the different carrier frequency (e.g. the slice availability in each carrier frequency) b. UE radio capability
Embodiment 2,1 : Slice selection is at UE
In this embodiment, the UE may determine the slice selection. The UE may be provided with the information on deployment of slices in different carrier frequencies via one or more mechanisms. For example, the slice availability in respective carrier frequencies may be provided to the UE via the RAN and/or the CN (e.g., AMF). In some embodiments, the slice availability information may be provided by one or more of:
In some embodiments, the slice availability information may be provided via broadcast signalling from the RAN, e.g., over radio resource control (RRC) signalling. For example, the slice availability of the serving frequency may be provided in system information block (SIB) 1 or in SIB3, while the slice availability of inter-frequency cells may be provided in SIB4. An example ASN. 1 structure is shown in the Annex A. In some embodiments, instead of or in addition to the slice availability provided as S-NSSAI for the serving frequency and neighbouring frequencies, another representation of S-NSSAI(s) may be broadcast (e.g. some form of mapping between a group of S-NSSAI to a newly defined slice group ID, etc.) Upon receiving the slice availability per carrier frequency, the UE access stratum (AS) may forward the information to UE non-access stratum (NAS) and UE NAS may use this information during slice selection. Alternatively, the UE AS may perform an initial filtering of the possible slice availability by taking into account of slice availability per carrier frequency and the UE radio capability and provide the filtered slice availability to the UE NAS. The UE NAS may use the filtered information to configure the Requested NSSAI.
Alternatively, or additionally, the slice availability information may be provided by the CN (e.g., the AMF), such as via NAS signalling. For example, the slice availability information may be provided via NAS signalling when providing the Configured NSSAI during the Update Configured NSSAI procedure. The AMF/CN may get the local information of the RAN capability and deployment during NG Setup. The NG Setup and RAN Configuration Update message tabular is shown in Annex B. With this information, the AMF/CN may provide the slice availability per carrier frequency to the UE NAS.
Embodiment 2,2: Slice selection is at Network
In this embodiment, the slice selection may be performed at the network side. The RAN may provide a filtered requested NSSAI to the AMF/CN based on the slice availability in each carrier frequency in the deployment and the UE radio capability. Figure 7 illustrates an example process in accordance with embodiment 2.2.
In Rel-15, the Allowed NSSAI from the AMF/CN (as in Step 4 of Figure 8) is based on the on UE subscription, local configuration, and other locally available information including RAN capabilities in the current Tracking Area for the UE or load level information for a Network Slice instance provided by the NWDAF. The local configuration and other locally available information including RAN capabilities in the current Tracking Area for the UE is known to the AMF/CN via NG Setup and RAN Configuration Update procedure. As the slice availability per carrier frequency is not known to the AMF/CN, it is not possible currently for the AMF/CN to perform slice selection based on the slice availability per carrier frequency. This information may be added to NG Setup and RAN Configuration Update message as in Embodiment 2.1. However, it is still not sufficient for the AMF/CN whether simultaneous usage of the slices is possible for the case the requested slices are in different carrier frequency unless it knows the UE radio capability related to its CA/DC capability. Currently, the UE radio capability is only a transparent container to the AMF/CN (as it is not required to know). One implementation of this embodiment is that AMF/CN also takes UE radio capability into account in slice selection.
Another approach which may be advantageous is that the RAN (where the UE radio capability is well understood to provide the different radio features) provides the filtered requested NSSAI to the AMF/CN based on the slice availability in each carrier frequency in the deployment and the UE radio capability. The RAN knows the slice availability in each carrier frequency in the deployment. However, the UE radio capability is only known to RAN either after RAN request from the UE (via Step 5 in Figure 8) during first attach or after AMF/CN provides it during Initial UE Context Request in subsequent connection (via Step 4 in Figure 8). Some further changes in message exchange between the RAN and the AMF/CN are thus needed.
With the “indication” in Step 3 of Figure 8 to indicate to the AMF/CN that the RAN can perform slice-filtering based UE radio capability, AMF/CN does not provide the PDN session setup info in Step 4, as like in the case SRB only connection is established. This allows RAN to perform slice filtering during Initial UE Context Setup procedure and provides the filtered Requested NS SAI to the AMF/CN in the Initial UE Context Setup Response or in a new NGAP indication message. With the filtered Requested NS SAI from the RAN in Step 7 of Figure 8 from the RAN, the AMF/CN can derive the Allowed NSSAI and RFSP index which can be provided to the RAN in subsequent Downlink NAS Transport (for the case of Attach and TAU is the sending of the Attach Accept and TAU Accept, respectively) as in Step 4 of Figure 8. If not, UE Context Modification procedure can be initiated to provide both the RFSP Index and the Allowed NSSAI. Annex C shows some examples of additional signalling in some of the existing messages required for this case.
An alternative is that AMF/CN may provide the Allowed NSSAI and RFSP index in the Initial UE Context Request based on the minimum UE radio capability (e.g. can operate only slices available in the current frequency) assuming the RAN provides AMF/CN with the slice availability per carrier frequency during NG Setup and RAN Configuration Update as in Annex B. The RAN may provide the filtered Requested NSSAI later which the AMF/CN will use to update the Allowed NSSAI and RFSP index. The PDN Session Setup based on the updated Allowed NSSAI can then performed. For this alternative, a new NGAP message from RAN to AMF/CN may be needed to provide the filtered Requested NSSAI as well as the means to provide the update Allowed NSSAI to RAN and UE as well as updated RFSP Index to RAN to regenerate the dedicated frequency priority setting for cell reselection.
The above described methods of messaging between the AMF and RAN are just some exemplary methods and other methods of messaging to provide AMF with the filtered requested NSSAI may be used in accordance with embodiments described herein.
In some embodiments, other than taking into account of the radio capability for the filtering of requested NSSAI, the filtering can also take into consideration of the user preference of the requested slices (e.g. priority order of the requested NSSAI). This will allow the RAN to consider which requested slice should be filtered if slice requested are in different carrier frequencies while the UE radio capability can only handle a limited number of carrier frequencies. An example is Slice SI is in Frequency Fl, Slice S2 is in Frequency F2 and Slice S3 is in Frequency F3 and UE requested for all 3 slices but can only do CA or DC for 2 frequency layers either Fl and F2 or F2 and F3 or Fl and F3. With the knowledge of the user preference, the RAN can filter the best option for the UE. The RAN can get user preference information from the AMF via the Initial UE Context Request or from the UE via the RRC Setup message.
Another alternative (described in Figure 9) is that, since the Requested NSSAI is provided from the UE over AS and NAS simultaneously, RAN provides the filtered Requested NSSAI (based on slice availability per frequency) directly over the NGAP Initial UE Message. The AMF can know, based on the Requested NSSAI over NAS and the filtered one over the NGAP Initial UE Message, that not all PDU sessions for the slices in the Requested NSSAI can be established in the RAN and can only trigger PDU session setup for those in the filtered Requested NSSAI (or a subset thereof). The Allowed NSSAI can still be based on the Requested NS SAI forwarded over NAS (e.g. not filtered by the RAN), so that information wise nothing is lost and the existing behaviour can be intact. Once the UE capability is known, the RAN may further decide to establish a PDU session for a slice that was filtered from the Requested NSSAI.
An example implementation for this alternative is described in the Annex E.
Annex A: SIB broadcast of slice availability
For serving frequency/intra-frequency in SIB1:
SIB1
SIB1 contains information relevant when evaluating if a UE is allowed to access a cell and defines the scheduling of other system information. It also contains radio resource configuration information that is common for all UEs and barring information applied to the unified access control.
Signalling radio bearer: N/A
RLC-SAP: TM
Logical channels: BCCH
Direction: Network to UE
SIB1 message
- ASN1 START
- TAG-SIB 1 -START
SIB1 ::= SEQUENCE { cellSelectionlnfo SEQUENCE { q-RxLevMin Q-RxLevMin, q-RxLevMinOffset INTEGER (1 .8) OPTIONAL, -
- Need S q-RxLevMinSUL Q-RxLevMin OPTIONAL, -
- Need R q-QualMin Q-QualMin OPTIONAL, -
Need S q-QualMinOffset INTEGER ( 1..8) OPTIONAL -
Need S
OPTIONAL, - Cond
Standalone cellAccessRelatedlnfo CellAccessRelatedlnfo, connEstF ailureControl ConnEstF ailureControl OPTIONAL,
— Need R si- S chedulinglnfo S I- S chedulinglnfo OPTIONAL, -
Need R servingCellConfigCommon ServingCellConfigCommonSIB
OPTIONAL, - Need R ims -Emergency Support ENUMERATED {true}
OPTIONAL, - Need R eCallOverlMS-Support ENUMERATED {true}
OPTIONAL, - Cond Absent ue-TimersAndConstants UE-TimersAndConstants
OPTIONAL, - Need R uac-Barringlnfo SEQUENCE { uac-BarringForCommon UAC-BarringPerCatList
OPTIONAL, - Need S uac-BarringPerPLMN-List UAC-BarringPerPLMN-List
OPTIONAL, - Need S uac-BarringlnfoSetList UAC-BarringlnfoSetList, uac-AccessCategoryl-SelectionAssistancelnfo CHOICE { plmnCommon UAC-AccessCategory 1 -SelectionAssistancelnfo, individualPLMNList SEQUENCE (SIZE (2..maxPLMN)) OF UAC-
AccessCategory 1 -SelectionAssistancelnfo
OPTIONAL - Need S
OPTIONAL, - Need R useFullResumelD ENUMERATED {true}
OPTIONAL, - Need R lateNonCriticalExtension OCTET STRING
OPTIONAL, nonCriticalExtension SIBl-vl6xy-IEs OPTIONAL
SIBl-vl6xy-IEs ::= SEQUENCE { idleModeMeasurements-rl 6 ENUMERATED {ffs}
OPTIONAL, - Need N posSI-SchedulinglnfoList-rl 6 PosSI-SchedulinglnfoList-rl 6
OPTIONAL, - Need R nonCriticalExtension SIBl-vl7xy-IEs OPTIONAL
SIBl-yl7xy-IEs ::= SEQUENCE { s-NSSAI-List-r!7 SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxNrofS-NSSAI)) OF S-NSSAI OPTIONAL, - Need R nonCriticalExtension SEQUENCE {} OPTIONAL
1
UAC-AccessCategoryl-SelectionAssistancelnfo ::= ENUMERATED {a, b, c}
- TAG-SIB 1 -STOP
- ASN1STOP
For serving frequency/intra-frequency in SIB3:
SIB3
SIB3 contains neighbouring cell related information relevant only for intra-frequency cell re-selection. The IE includes cells with specific re-selection parameters as well as blacklisted cells.
SIB3 information element
- ASN1 START
- TAG-SIB3-START SIB3 SEQUENCE { intraFreqNeighCellList IntraF reqN eighC el IL i st OPTIONAL, - Need R intraFreqBlackCellList IntraFreqBlackCellList OPTIONAL, - Need R lateNonCriticalExtension OCTET STRING OPTIONAL,
[[ intraFreqWhiteCellList-rl 6 IntraFreqWhiteCellList-rl6 OPTIONAL — Need R
]L
II s-NSSAI-List-r!7 SEQUENCE (SIZE (l..maxNrofS-NSSAI)) OF S-NSSAI
OPTIONAL, - Need R
11
IntraFreqNeighCellList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCelllntra)) OF
IntraFreqNeighCelllnfo
IntraFreqNeighCelllnfo ::= SEQUENCE { physCellld PhysCellld, q-OffsetCell Q-OffsetRange, q-RxLevMinOffsetCell INTEGER (L .8) OPTIONAL, - Need R q-RxLevMinOffsetCellSUL INTEGER (L.8) OPTIONAL, - Need R q-QualMinOffs etC ell INTEGER (L .8) OPTIONAL, - Need R
[[ ssb-PositionQCL-r!6 SSB-PositionQCL-Relationship-rl6 OPTIONAL — Need R
]]
IntraFreqBlackCellList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCellBlack)) OF PCI-Range
IntraFreqWhiteCellList-rl6 ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCellWhite)) OF PCI-Range - TAG-SIB3-STOP
- ASN1STOP
For inter-frequency slice availability in SIB4:
SIB4
SIB 4 contains information relevant only for inter-frequency cell re-selection e.g. information about other NR frequencies and inter-frequency neighbouring cells relevant for cell reselection. The IE includes cell re-selection parameters common for a frequency as well as cell specific re-selection parameters.
SIB4 information element
- ASN1 START
- TAG-SIB4-START
SIB4 ::= SEQUENCE { interFreqCarrierFreqList InterFreqCarrierFreqList, lateNonCriticalExtension OCTET STRING OPTIONAL,
InterFreqCarrierFreqList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxFreq)) OF InterFreqCarrierFreqlnfo
InterFreqCarrierFreqlnfo ::= SEQUENCE { dl-CarrierFreq ARFCN-ValueNR, frequencyBandList MultiFrequencyBandListNR-SIB OPTIONAL, —
Cond Mandatory frequencyBandListSUL MultiFrequencyBandListNR-SIB OPTIONAL, —
Need R nrofS S -BlocksT oAv erage INTEGER (2.. maxNrofS S -BlocksT o Average)
OPTIONAL, - Need S absThreshSS-BlocksConsolidation ThresholdNR OPTIONAL, - Need
S smtc SSB-MTC OPTIONAL, - Need S ssbSubcarrierSpacing SubcarrierSpacing, ssb-ToMeasure SSB-ToMeasure OPTIONAL, - Need S deriveSSB-IndexFromCell BOOLEAN, ss-RSSI-Measurement SS-RSSI-Measurement OPTIONAL, q-RxLevMin Q-RxLevMin, q-RxLevMinSUL Q-RxLevMin OPTIONAL, - Need R q-QualMin Q-QualMin OPTIONAL, - Need S p-Max P-Max OPTIONAL, - Need S t-ReselectionNR T-Reselection, t-ReselectionNR-SF SpeedStateScaleF actors OPTIONAL, - Need S threshX-HighP ReselectionThreshold, threshX-LowP ReselectionThreshold, threshX-Q SEQUENCE { threshX-HighQ ReselectionThresholdQ, threshX-LowQ ReselectionThresholdQ
OPTIONAL, - Cond RSRQ cellReselectionPriority CellReselectionPriority OPTIONAL, - Need R cellReselectionSubPriority CellReselectionSubPriority OPTIONAL, - Need
R q-OffsetFreq Q-OffsetRange DEFAULT dBO, interF reqN eighC el IL i st InterF reqN eighC el IL i st OPTIONAL, - Need R interFreqBlackCellList InterFreqBlackCellList OPTIONAL, - Need R
[[ smtc2-LP-rl6 SSB-MTC2-LP-rl6 OPTIONAL, - Need R interF reqWhiteCellList-rl 6 InterFreqWhiteCellList-rl6 OPTIONAL, — Need
R ssb-PositionQCL-Common-r 16 SSB-PositionQCL-Relationship-rl 6 OPTIONAL
— Need R
]] a
II s-NSSAI-List-r!7 SEQUENCE (SIZE (l..maxNrofS-NSSAI)) OF S-NSSAI
OPTIONAL, - Need R
11 InterFreqNeighCellList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCelllnter)) OF
InterF reqN eighCelllnfo
InterFreqNeighCelllnfo ::= SEQUENCE { physCellld PhysCellld, q-OffsetCell Q-OffsetRange, q-RxLevMinOffsetCell INTEGER (1..8) OPTIONAL, - Need R q-RxLevMinOffsetCellSUL INTEGER (1..8) OPTIONAL, - Need
R q-QualMinOffsetCell INTEGER (1..8) OPTIONAL, - Need R
[[ ssb-PositionQCL-rl6 SSB-PositionQCL-Relationship-rl6 OPTIONAL —
Need R
]]
InterFreqBlackCellList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCellBlack)) OF PCI-Range
InterFreqWhiteCellList-rl6 ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxCellWhite)) OF PCI-Range
- TAG-SIB4-STOP
- ASN1STOP
Annex B: Slice availability per frequency to AMF/CN during NG Setup
9.2.6.1 NG SETUP REQUEST
This message is sent by the NG-RAN node to transfer application layer information for an NG-C interface instance.
Direction: NG-RAN node
9.2.6.4 RAN CONFIGURATION UPDATE
This message is sent by the NG-RAN node to transfer updated application layer information for an NG-C interface instance.
Direction: NG-RAN node
Annex C: Slice availability per frequency between gNBs over Xn interface
9.2.2.19 NR Frequency Info The NR Frequency Info defines the carrier frequency and bands used in a cell for a given direction (UL or DL) in FDD or for both UL and DL directions in TDD or for SUL carrier.
Annex D: Example of new signalling required for RAN based filtering Annex D, 1 :
In order to indicate to AMF/CN that RAN can provide NS SAI filtering on the Requested NSSAI, an indication is needed in e.g. Initial UE Message as shown in Step 3 of Figure 2:
9.2.5.1 INITIAL UE MESSAGE This message is sent by the NG-RAN node to transfer the initial layer 3 message to the AMF over the NG interface.
Direction: NG-RAN node —> AMF
Annex D.2:
In order for RAN to provide the filtered Requested NSSAI to CN/AMF, the filtered
Requested NSSAI needs to be signalled e.g. in the Initial UE Context Response in Step 7 of Figure 2: 38,401
9.2.2.2 INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP RESPONSE
This message is sent by the NG-RAN node to confirm the setup of a UE context.
Direction: NG-RAN node —> AMF
Annex D.3:
With the Allowed NSSAI and RFSP Index taking into consideration of the filtered Requested NSSAI, the CN/AMF needs to provide the Allowed NSSAI to the RAN as well as the RFSP Index, this can e.g. either be done in one of the DOWNLINK NAS TRANSPORT in the case a NAS PDU needs to be sent (no changes needed) or in UE CONTEXT MODIFICATION REQUEST in the case no NAS PDU needs to be sent.
9.2.5.2 DOWNLINK NAS TRANSPORT
This message is sent by the AMF and is used for carrying NAS information over the NG interface.
Direction: AMF —> NG-RAN node
9.2.2.7 UE CONTEXT MODIFICATION REQUEST
This message is sent by the AMF to provide UE Context information changes to the NG- RAN node.
Direction: node
Annex E: Another example of new sigalling required for RAN based filtering
9.2.5.1 INITIAL UE MESSAGE This message is sent by the NG-RAN node to transfer the initial layer 3 message to the AMF over the NG interface.
Direction: NG-RAN node
SYSTEMS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS
Figures 10-12 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments. Figure 10 illustrates a network 1000 in accordance with various embodiments. The network
1000 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems, or the like. The network 1000 may include a UE 1002, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 1004 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 1002 may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 1004 by a Uu interface. The UE 1002 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electron! c/engine control unit, electron! c/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc.
In some embodiments, the network 1000 may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.
In some embodiments, the UE 1002 may additionally communicate with an AP 1006 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 1006 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve 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, wherein the AP 1006 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 1002, RAN 1004, and AP 1006 may utilize cellular- WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular- WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 1002 being configured by the RAN 1004 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.
The RAN 1004 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 1008. AN 1008 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 1002 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 1008 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 1020 and the UE 1002. In some embodiments, the AN 1008 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 1008 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 1008 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.
In embodiments in which the RAN 1004 includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 1004 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 1004 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.
The ANs of the RAN 1004 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 1002 with an air interface for network access. The UE 1002 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 1004. For example, the UE 1002 and RAN 1004 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 1002 to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.
The RAN 1004 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.
In V2X scenarios the UE 1002 or AN 1008 may be or act as a RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable 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 eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged 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 a backhaul network.
In some embodiments, the RAN 1004 may be an LTE RAN 1010 with eNBs, for example, eNB 1012. The LTE RAN 1010 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics : SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and 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; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and 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 operating on sub-6 GHz bands.
In some embodiments, the RAN 1004 may be an NG-RAN 1014 with gNBs, for example, gNB 1016, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 1018. The gNB 1016 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 1016 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or anN3 interface. The ng-eNB 1018 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 1016 and the ng-eNB 1018 may connect with each other over an Xn interface.
In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG- U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 1014 and a UPF 1048 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN1014 and an AMF 1044 (e.g., N2 interface).
The NG-RAN 1014 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and 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 a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operating on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH.
In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 1002 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 1002, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 1002 with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 1002 and in some cases at the gNB 1016. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.
The RAN 1004 is communicatively coupled to CN 1020 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 1002). The components of the CN 1020 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 1020 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 1020 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 1020 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. In some embodiments, the CN 1020 may be an LTE CN 1022, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 1022 may include MME 1024, SGW 1026, SGSN 1028, HSS 1030, PGW 1032, and PCRF 1034 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 1022 may be briefly introduced as follows.
The MME 1024 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 1002 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.
The SGW 1026 may terminate an SI interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 1022. The SGW 1026 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.
The SGSN 1028 may track a location of the UE 1002 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 1028 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 1024; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 1024 and the SGSN 1028 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active states.
The HSS 1030 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS 1030 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 1030 and the MME 1024 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/ authorizing user access to the LTE CN 1020.
The PGW 1032 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 1036 that may include an application/content server 1038. The PGW 1032 may route data packets between the LTE CN 1022 and the data network 1036. The PGW 1032 may be coupled with the SGW 1026 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 1032 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 1032 and the data network 10 36 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW 1032 may be coupled with a PCRF 1034 via a Gx reference point.
The PCRF 1034 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 1022. The PCRF 1034 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 1038 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 1032 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.
In some embodiments, the CN 1020 may be a 5GC 1040. The 5GC 1040 may include an AUSF 1042, AMF 1044, SMF 1046, UPF 1048, NSSF 1050, NEF 1052, NRF 1054, PCF 1056, UDM 1058, and AF 1060 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 1040 may be briefly introduced as follows.
The AUSF 1042 may store data for authentication of UE 1002 and handle authentication- related functionality. The AUSF 1042 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 1040 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 1042 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.
The AMF 1044 may allow other functions of the 5GC 1040 to communicate with the UE 1002 and the RAN 1004 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 1002. The AMF 1044 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 1002), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 1044 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 1002 and the SMF 1046, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 1044 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 1002 and an SMSF. AMF 1044 may interact with the AUSF 1042 and the UE 1002 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 1044 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 1004 and the AMF 1044; and the AMF 1044 may be a termination point of NAS (Nl) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 1044 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 1002 over an N3 IWF interface.
The SMF 1046 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 1048 and AN 1008); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 1048 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 1044 over N2 to AN 1008; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, 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 UPF 1048 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 1036, and a branching point to support multihomed PDU session. The UPF 1048 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a 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 the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 1048 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.
The NSSF 1050 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 1002. The NSSF 1050 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 1050 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 1002, or 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 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 1050, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 1050 may interact with the AMF 1044 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 1050 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.
The NEF 1052 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 1060), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 1052 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 1052 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 1060 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 1052 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 1052 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 1052 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 1052 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 1052 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.
The NRF 1054 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 1054 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 1054 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.
The PCF 1056 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 1056 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 1058. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 1056 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.
The UDM 1058 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 1002. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 1058 and the AMF 1044. The UDM 1058 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 1058 and the PCF 1056, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 1002) for the NEF 1052. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 1058, PCF 1056, and NEF 1052 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 1058 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.
The AF 1060 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.
In some embodiments, the 5GC 1040 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 1002 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 1040 may select a UPF 1048 close to the UE 1002 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 1048 to data network 1036 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 1060. In this way, the AF 1060 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 1060 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 1060 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 1060 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface.
The 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.
Figure 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network 1100 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 1100 may include a UE 1102 in wireless communication with an AN 1104. The UE 1102 and AN 1104 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein.
The UE 1102 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 1104 via connection 1106. The connection 1106 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5GNR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies.
The UE 1102 may include a host platform 1108 coupled with a modem platform 1110. The host platform 1108 may include application processing circuitry 1112, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1114 of the modem platform 1110. The application processing circuitry 1112 may run various applications for the UE 1102 that source/sink application data. The application processing circuitry 1112 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations
The protocol processing circuitry 1114 may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 1106. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 1114 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations.
The modem platform 1110 may further include digital baseband circuitry 1116 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 1114 in a 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/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.
The modem platform 1110 may further include transmit circuitry 1118, receive circuitry 1120, RF circuitry 1122, and RF front end (RFFE) 1124, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 1126. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 1118 may include a digital-to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 1120 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 1122 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 1124 may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry 1118, receive circuitry 1120, RF circuitry 1122, RFFE 1124, and antenna panels 1126 (referred generically as “transmit/receive components”) may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 gHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc.
In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 1114 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.
A UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels 1126, RFFE 1124, RF circuitry 1122, receive circuitry 1120, digital baseband circuitry 1116, and protocol processing circuitry 1114. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 1126 may receive a transmission from the AN 1104 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 1126.
A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 1114, digital baseband circuitry 1116, transmit circuitry 1118, RF circuitry 1122, RFFE 1124, and antenna panels 1126. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 1104 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 1126.
Similar to the UE 1102, the AN 1104 may include a host platform 1128 coupled with a modem platform 1130. The host platform 1128 may include application processing circuitry 1132 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1134 of the modem platform 1130. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 1136, transmit circuitry 1138, receive circuitry 1140, RF circuitry 1142, RFFE circuitry 1144, and antenna panels 1146. The components of the AN 1104 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components of the UE 1102. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN 1108 may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.
Figure 12 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 12 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1200 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1210, one or more memory /storage devices 1220, and one or more communication resources 1230, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1240 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1202 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1200.
The processors 1210 may include, for example, a processor 1212 and a processor 1214. The processors 1210 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.
The memory /storage devices 1220 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory /storage devices 1220 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.
The communication resources 1230 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1204 or one or more databases 1206 or other network elements via a network 1208. For example, the communication resources 1230 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.
Instructions 1250 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1210 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1250 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1210 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory /storage devices 1220, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1250 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1200 from any combination of the peripheral devices 1204 or the databases 1206. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1210, the memory /storage devices 1220, the peripheral devices 1204, and the databases 1206 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.
EXAMPLE PROCEDURES
In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s), chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, of Figures 10-12, or some other figure herein, may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. For example, Figure 13 illustrates a process 1300 in accordance with some embodiments. The process 1300 may be performed by a device of a RAN, such as a gNB. or a portion thereof.
At 1302, the process 1300 may include receiving, from a core network (CN), accepted network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) and rejected NSSAI associated with a UE. For example, the accepted and rejected NSSAI may be received from an AMF. The allowed NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI may each include some or all configured NSSAI of the UE.
At 1304, the process 1300 may further include determining dedicated frequency priority information for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI. At 1306, the process 1300 may further include providing the dedicated frequency priority information to the UE.
Figure 14 illustrates another process 1400 in accordance with various embodiments. The process 1400 may be performed by a device of a CN, such as an AMF. At 1402, the process 1400 may include receiving requested network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) associated with a user equipment (UE). At 1404, the process 1400 may further include determining accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI based on the requested NSSAI. The allowed NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI may each include some or all configured NSSAI of the UE. At 1406, the process 1400 may further include deriving a radio access technology (RAT)Zfrequency service profile (RFSP) index for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI. At 1408, the process 1400 may further include providing the RFSP to a serving next generation Node B (gNB).
For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions to cause a device of a radio access network (RAN), upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the device, to: receive, from a core network (CN), accepted network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) and rejected NSSAI associated with a UE; determine dedicated frequency priority information for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI; and provide the dedicated frequency priority information to the UE.
Example 2 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 1, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is determined further based on slice availability information for a serving gNB and one or more neighboring gNBs.
Example 3 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 2, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is determined further based on a UE radio capability.
Example 4 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 1, wherein the rejected NSSAI includes single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE and not available in a current UE registration area of the UE.
Example 5 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 1, wherein the rejected NSSAI includes single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE and available in a UE registration area that overlaps with a current UE registration area of the UE.
Example 6 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to cause the device to receive, from the core network, a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index for the UE, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is determined further based on the RFSP.
Example 7 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 6, wherein the RFSP is based on the allowed NSSAI and not the rejected NSSAI.
Example 8 may include the one or more NTCRM of any one of Examples 1 to 7, wherein the allowed NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI each include some or all configured NSSAI of the UE.
Example 9 may include the one or more NTCRM of any one of Examples 1 to 8, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is for idle mode/Inactive mode mobility.
Example 10 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions to cause an access and mobility management function (AMF), upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the AMF, to: receive requested network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) associated with a user equipment (UE); determine accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI based on the requested NSSAI; derive a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI (e.g., which are both either part of or whole of the UE’s Configured NSSAI); and provide the RFSP to a serving next generation Node B (gNB). Example 11 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 10, wherein the RFSP index is derived further based on slice availability information for the serving gNB, a serving frequency, or a serving cell and one or more neighboring gNBs, frequencies, or cells.
Example 12 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 10, wherein the RFSP index is derived based on a subset of single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) of the rejected NSSAI that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE.
Example 13 may include the one or more NTCRM of Example 10, wherein the RFSP index is derived based on a subset of single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) of the rejected NSSAI that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE and available in a UE registration area that overlaps with a current UE registration area of the UE.
Example 14 may include the one or more NTCRM of any one of Examples 10 to 13, wherein the RFSP index is to trigger the RAN node to provide dedicated frequency priority information to the UE to move the UE to another registration area.
Example 15 may include an apparatus to be implemented in a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a memory to store UE radio capability information for communication using dual connectivity or carrier aggregation; and processor circuitry coupled to the memory. The processor circuitry is to: receive slice availability information that indicates availability of network slices in a plurality of carrier frequencies; and select two or more network slices to access based on the slice availability information and the UE radio capability information.
Example 16 may include the apparatus of Example 15, wherein the slice availability information is received via broadcast radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
Example 17 may include the apparatus of Example 15, wherein the slice availability information is received via non-access stratum (NAS) signalling.
Example 18 may include the apparatus of Example 15, wherein the processor circuitry is to implement an access stratum (AS) of the UE, and wherein the AS is to filter the slice availability information based on the UE radio capability information and provide the filtered slice availability information to a NAS of the UE.
Example 19 may include the apparatus of Example 15, wherein the processor circuitry is further to access the selected two or more network slices on different carrier frequencies.
Example 20 may include the apparatus of any one of Examples 15 to 19, further comprising two or more antennas coupled to the processor circuitry.
Example 21 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein. Example 22 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.
Example 23 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.
Example 24 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof.
Example 25 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.
Example 26 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-18, or portions or parts thereof.
Example 27 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
Example 28 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
Example 29 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
Example 30 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.
Example 31 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.
Example 32 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.
Example 33 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein. Example 34 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.
Example 35 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.
Abbreviations
Unless used differently herein, terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with terms, definitions, and abbreviations defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 V16.0.0 (2019-06). For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.
3GPP Third Generation 35 AWGN Additive 70 CCA Clear Channel
Partnership Project White Gaussian Assessment
4G Fourth Generation Noise CCE Control Channel
5G Fifth Generation BAP Backhaul Element
5GC 5G Core network Adaptation Protocol CCCH Common Control
ACK Acknowledgement 40 BCH Broadcast Channel 75 Channel
AF Application BER Bit Error Ratio CE Coverage
Function BFD Beam Failure Enhancement
AM Acknowledged Detection CDM Content Delivery
Mode BLER Block Error Rate Network
AMBRAggregate 45 BPSK Binary Phase Shift 80 CDMA Code-
Maximum Bit Rate Keying Division Multiple
AMF Access and BRAS Broadband Remote Access
Mobility Access Server CFRA Contention Free
Management BSS Business Support Random Access
Function 50 System 85 CG Cell Group
AN Access Network BS Base Station CI Cell Identity
ANR Automatic BSR Buffer Status CID Cell-ID (e g.,
Neighbour Relation Report positioning method)
AP Application BW Bandwidth CIM Common
Protocol, Antenna 55 BWP Bandwidth Part 90 Information Model
Port, Access Point C-RNTI Cell Radio CIR Carrier to
API Application Network Temporary Interference Ratio
Programming Interface Identity CK Cipher Key
APN Access Point Name CA Carrier CM Connection
ARP Allocation and 60 Aggregation, Certification 95 Management, Conditional
Retention Priority Authority Mandatory
ARQ Automatic Repeat CAPEX CAPital CMAS Commercial Mobile
Request Expenditure Alert Service
AS Access Stratum CBRA Contention Based CMD Command
ASN.1 Abstract Syntax 65 Random Access 100 CMS Cloud Management
Notation One CC Component Carrier, System
AUSF Authentication Country Code, CO Conditional
Server Function Cryptographic Optional
Checksum CoMP Coordinated MultiCS Circuit Switched DF Deployment Point CSAR Cloud Service Flavour
CORESET Control Archive DL Downlink
Resource Set CSI Channel-State DMTF Distributed
COTS Commercial Off- 40 Information 75 Management Task Force
The-Shelf CSI-IM CSI DPDK Data Plane
CP Control Plane, Interference Development Kit Cyclic Prefix, Connection Measurement DM-RS, DMRS Point CSI-RS CSI Demodulation
CPD Connection Point 45 Reference Signal 80 Reference Signal
Descriptor CSI-RSRP CSI DN Data network
CPE Customer Premise reference signal DRB Data Radio Bearer Equipment received power DRS Discovery
CPICHCommon Pilot CSI-RSRQ CSI Reference Signal
Channel 50 reference signal 85 DRX Discontinuous
CQI Channel Quality received quality Reception Indicator CSI-SINR CSI signal- DSL Domain Specific
CPU CSI processing to-noise and interference Language. Digital unit, Central Processing ratio Subscriber Line Unit 55 CSMA Carrier Sense 90 DSLAM DSL Access
C/R Multiple Access Multiplexer
Command/Respons CSMA/CA CSMA with DwPTS Downlink e field bit collision avoidance Pilot Time Slot
CRAN Cloud Radio CSS Common Search E-LAN Ethernet
Access Network, 60 Space, Cell- specific 95 Local Area Network
Cloud RAN Search Space E2E End-to-End
CRB Common Resource CTS Clear-to-Send ECCA extended clear
Block CW Codeword channel assessment,
CRC Cyclic Redundancy CWS Contention extended CCA Check 65 Window Size 100 ECCE Enhanced Control
CRI Channel-State D2D Device-to-Device Channel Element,
Information Resource DC Dual Connectivity, Enhanced CCE
Indicator, CSI-RS Direct Current ED Energy Detection
Resource Indicator DCI Downlink Control
C-RNTI Cell RNTI 70 Information EDGE Enhanced Datarates 35 EREG enhanced REG, FAUSCH Fast Uplink for GSM Evolution enhanced resource 70 Signalling Channel (GSM Evolution) element groups FB Functional Block EGMF Exposure ETSI European FBI Feedback Governance Telecommunication Information
Management 40 s Standards Institute FCC Federal Function ETWS Earthquake and 75 Communications
EGPRS Enhanced Tsunami Warning Commission GPRS System FC CH Frequency
EIR Equipment Identity eUICC embedded UICC, Correction CHannel Register 45 embedded Universal FDD Frequency Division eLAA enhanced Licensed Integrated Circuit Card 80 Duplex
Assisted Access, E-UTRA Evolved FDM Frequency Division enhanced LAA UTRA Multiplex
EM Element Manager E-UTRAN Evolved FDMAFrequency Division eMBB Enhanced Mobile 50 UTRAN Multiple Access
Broadband EV2X Enhanced V2X 85 FE Front End
EMS Element F1AP Fl Application FEC Forward Error
Management System Protocol Correction eNB evolved NodeB, E- Fl-C Fl Control plane FFS For Further Study UTRAN Node B 55 interface FFT Fast Fourier
EN-DC E-UTRA- Fl-U Fl User plane 90 Transformation
NR Dual interface feLAA further enhanced
Connectivity FACCH Fast Licensed Assisted
EPC Evolved Packet Associated Control Access, further Core 60 CHannel enhanced LAA
EPDCCH enhanced FACCH/F Fast 95 FN Frame Number PDCCH, enhanced Associated Control FPGA Field-
Physical Downlink Channel/Full rate Programmable Gate Control Cannel FACCH/H Fast Array EPRE Energy per resource 65 Associated Control FR Frequency Range element Channel/Half rate 100 G-RNTI GERAN
EPS Evolved Packet FACH Forward Access Radio Network System Channel Temporary Identity GERAN GSM EDGE 35 GTP-UGPRS Tunnelling HTTP Hyper Text
RAN, GSM EDGE Protocol for User 70 Transfer Protocol
Radio Access Plane HTTPS Hyper Text Network GTS Go To Sleep Signal Transfer Protocol
GGSN Gateway GPRS (related to WUS) Secure (https is Support Node 40 GUMMEI Globally http/1.1 over SSL, GLONASS Unique MME Identifier 75 e.g. port 443)
GLObal'naya GUTI Globally Unique I-Block Information
NAvigatsionnaya Temporary UE Identity Block
Sputnikovaya HARQ Hybrid ARQ, ICCID Integrated Circuit
Sistema (Engl.: 45 Hybrid Automatic Card Identification
Global Navigation Repeat Request 80 IAB Integrated Access
Satellite System) HANDO Handover and Backhaul gNB Next Generation HFN HyperFrame ICIC Inter-Cell NodeB Number Interference gNB-CU gNB- 50 HHO Hard Handover Coordination centralized unit, Next HLR Home Location 85 ID Identity, identifier
Generation NodeB Register IDFT Inverse Discrete centralized unit HN Home Network Fourier Transform gNB-DU gNB- HO Handover IE Information distributed unit, Next 55 HPLMN Home element
Generation NodeB Public Land Mobile 90 IBE In-Band Emission distributed unit Network GNSS Global Navigation HSDPA High Speed IEEE Institute of
Satellite System Downlink Packet Electrical and Electronics
GPRS General Packet 60 Access Engineers
Radio Service HSN Hopping Sequence 95 IEI Information
GSM Global System for Number Element Identifier Mobile HSPA High Speed Packet IEIDL Information
Communications, Access Element Identifier Groupe Special 65 HSS Home Subscriber Data Length Mobile Server 100 IETF Internet
GTP GPRS Tunneling HSUPA High Speed Engineering Task Protocol Uplink Packet Access Force
IF Infrastructure IM Interference ISDN Integrated Services Ll-RSRP Layer 1
Measurement, Digital Network reference signal Intermodulation, IP ISIM IM Services received power Multimedia Identity Module L2 Layer 2 (data link
IMC IMS Credentials 40 ISO International 75 layer)
IMEI International Organisation for L3 Layer 3 (network
Mobile Equipment Standardisation layer)
Identity ISP Internet Service LAA Licensed Assisted
IMGI International mobile Provider Access group identity 45 IWF Interworking- 80 LAN Local Area
IMPI IP Multimedia Function Network
Private Identity I-WLAN LBT Listen Before Talk
IMPU IP Multimedia Interworking LCM LifeCycle
PUblic identity WLAN Management
IMS IP Multimedia Constraint length of 85 LCR Low Chip Rate
Subsystem the convolutional code, LCS Location Services
IMSI International USIM Individual key LCID Logical
Mobile Subscriber kB Kilobyte (1000 Channel ID
Identity bytes) LI Layer Indicator loT Internet of Things kbps kilo-bits per second 90 LLC Logical Link
IP Internet Protocol Kc Ciphering key Control, Low Layer
Ipsec IP Security, Internet Ki Individual Compatibility Protocol Security subscriber LPLMN Local
IP-CAN IP- authentication key PLMN
Connectivity Access KPI Key Performance 95 LPP LTE Positioning Network Indicator Protocol
IP-M IP Multicast KQI Key Quality LSB Least Significant
IPv4 Internet Protocol Indicator Bit
Version 4 KSI Key Set Identifier LTE Long Term
IPv6 Internet Protocol 65 ksps kilo-symbols per 100 Evolution
Version 6 second LWA LTE-WLAN
IR Infrared KVM Kernel Virtual aggregation
IS In Sync Machine LWIP LTE/WLAN Radio
IRP Integration LI Layer 1 (physical Level Integration with
Reference Point 70 layer) 105 IPsec Tunnel LTE Long Term MCS Modulation and MPBCH MTC Evolution coding scheme Physical Broadcast
M2M Machine-to- MDAF Management Data 70 CHannel Machine Analytics Function MPDCCH MTC
MAC Medium Access MDAS Management Data Physical Downlink Control (protocol Analytics Service Control CHannel layering context) MDT Minimization of MPDSCH MTC MAC Message Drive Tests 75 Physical Downlink authentication code ME Mobile Equipment Shared CHannel (security/encry ption MeNB master eNB MPRACH MTC context) 45 MER Message Error Physical Random
MAC-A MAC used Ratio Access CHannel for authentication and MGL Measurement Gap 80 MPUSCH MTC key agreement (TSG T Length Physical Uplink Shared
WG3 context) MGRP Measurement Gap Channel MAC-IMAC used for data Repetition Period MPLS MultiProtocol integrity of signalling MIB Master Information Label Switching messages (TSG T Block, Management 85 MS Mobile Station WG3 context) Information Base MSB Most Significant MANO MIMO Multiple Input Bit
Management and Multiple Output MSC Mobile Switching Orchestration MLC Mobile Location Centre
MBMS Multimedia Centre 90 MSI Minimum System Broadcast and Multicast MM Mobility Information, MCH Service Management Scheduling
MBSFN Multimedia MME Mobility Information
Broadcast multicast Management Entity MSID Mobile Station service Single Frequency MN Master Node 95 Identifier Network MnS Management MSIN Mobile Station
MCC Mobile Country Service Identification Code MO Measurement Number
MCG Master Cell Group Object, Mobile MSISDN Mobile MCOT Maximum Channel Originated 100 Subscriber ISDN
Occupancy Time Number MT Mobile Terminated, 35 NFPD Network NPSS Narrowband Mobile Termination Forwarding Path 70 Primary MTC Machine-Type Descriptor Synchronization Communications NFV Network Functions Signal mMTCmassive MTC, Virtualization NSSS Narrowband massive Machine- 40 NFVI NFV Infrastructure Secondary Type Communications NFVO NFV Orchestrator 75 Synchronization MU-MIMO Multi User NG Next Generation, Signal MIMO Next Gen NR New Radio, MWUS MTC wakeNGEN-DC NG-RAN E- Neighbour Relation up signal, MTC 45 UTRA-NR Dual NRF NF Repository
WUS Connectivity 80 Function NACKNegative NM Network Manager NRS Narrowband Acknowl edgement NMS Network Reference Signal NAI Network Access Management System NS Network Service Identifier 50 N-PoP Network Point of NSA Non-Standalone
NAS Non-Access Presence 85 operation mode Stratum, Non- Access NMIB, N-MIB NSD Network Service Stratum layer Narrowband MIB Descriptor NCT Network NPBCH Narrowband NSR Network Service Connectivity Topology 55 Physical Broadcast Record NC-JT NonCHannel 90 NSSAINetwork Slice coherent Joint NPDCCH Narrowband Selection Assistance Transmission Physical Downlink Information
NEC Network Capability Control CHannel S-NNSAI Single-
Exposure 60 NPDSCH Narrowband NSSAI
NE-DC NR-E- Physical Downlink 95 NSSF Network Slice UTRA Dual Shared CHannel Selection Function Connectivity NPRACH Narrowband NW Network NEF Network Exposure Physical Random NWUSNarrowband wake¬
Function 65 Access CHannel up signal, Narrowband
NF Network Function NPUSCH Narrowband 100 WUS NFP Network Physical Uplink NZP Non-Zero Power Forwarding Path Shared CHannel O&M Operation and
Maintenance ODU2 Optical channel PCF Policy Control 70 PM Performance Data Unit - type 2 Function Measurement OFDM Orthogonal PCRF Policy Control and PMI Precoding Matrix Frequency Division Charging Rules Indicator Multiplexing Function PNF Physical Network
OFDMA Orthogonal 40 PDCP Packet Data 75 Function
Frequency Division Convergence Protocol, PNFD Physical Network
Multiple Access Packet Data Function Descriptor
OOB Out-of-band Convergence PNFR Physical Network
OOS Out of Sync Protocol layer Function Record
OPEX OPerating EXpense PDCCH Physical 80 POC PTT over Cellular OSI Other System Downlink Control PP, PTP Point-to- Information Channel Point
OSS Operations Support PDCP Packet Data PPP Point-to-Point System Convergence Protocol Protocol
OTA over-the-air 50 PDN Packet Data 85 PRACH Physical
PAPR Peak-to-Average Network, Public Data RACH Power Ratio Network PRB Physical resource
PAR Peak to Average PDSCH Physical block Ratio Downlink Shared PRG Physical resource
PBCH Physical Broadcast 55 Channel 90 block group Channel PDU Protocol Data Unit ProSe Proximity Services,
PC Power Control, PEI Permanent Proximity-Based Personal Computer Equipment Identifiers Service PCC Primary PFD Packet Flow PRS Positioning Component Carrier, 60 Description 95 Reference Signal Primary CC P-GW PDN Gateway PRR Packet Reception
PCell Primary Cell PHICH Physical Radio PCI Physical Cell ID, hybrid-ARQ indicator PS Packet Services Physical Cell Identity channel PSBCH Physical PCEF Policy and PHY Physical layer 100 Sidelink Broadcast Charging PLMN Public Land Mobile Channel
Enforcement Network PSDCH Physical Function PIN Personal Sidelink Downlink
Identification Number Channel PSCCH Physical QZSS Quasi-Zenith RL Radio Link
Sidelink Control Satellite System RLC Radio Link Control,
Channel RA-RNTI Random Radio Link Control layer
PSFCH Physical Access RNTI RLC AM RLC
Sidelink Feedback 40 RAB Radio Access 75 Acknowledged Mode
Channel Bearer, Random RLC UM RLC
PSSCH Physical Access Burst Unacknowledged Mode
Sidelink Shared RACH Random Access RLF Radio Link Failure
Channel Channel RLM Radio Link
PSCell Primary SCell 45 RADIUS Remote 80 Monitoring
PSS Primary Authentication Dial In RLM-RS Reference
Synchronization User Service Signal for RLM
Signal RAN Radio Access RM Registration
PSTN Public Switched Network Management
Telephone Network 50 RAND RANDom number 85 RMC Reference
PT-RS Phase-tracking (used for Measurement Channel reference signal authentication) RMSI Remaining MSI,
PTT Push-to-Talk RAR Random Access Remaining Minimum
PUCCH Physical Response System Information
Uplink Control 55 RAT Radio Access 90 RN Relay Node
Channel Technology RNC Radio Network
PUSCH Physical RAU Routing Area Controller
Uplink Shared Update RNL Radio Network
Channel RB Resource block, Layer
QAM Quadrature 60 Radio Bearer 95 RNTI Radio Network
Amplitude Modulation RBG Resource block Temporary Identifier
QCI QoS class of group ROHC RObust Header identifier REG Resource Element Compression
QCL Quasi co-location Group RRC Radio Resource
QFI QoS Flow ID, QoS 65 Rel Release 100 Control, Radio
Flow Identifier REQ REQuest Resource Control layer
QoS Quality of Service RF Radio Frequency RRM Radio Resource
QPSK Quadrature RI Rank Indicator Management
(Quaternary) Phase Shift RIV Resource indicator RS Reference Signal
Keying 70 value RSRP Reference Signal SAPI Service Access SEPP Security Edge Received Power Point Identifier Protection Proxy RSRQ Reference Signal SCC Secondary SFI Slot format Received Quality Component Carrier, indication
RS SI Received Signal 40 Secondary CC 75 SFTD Space-Frequency Strength Indicator SCell Secondary Cell Time Diversity, SFN and
RSU Road Side Unit SC-FDMA Single frame timing difference RSTD Reference Signal Carrier Frequency SFN System Frame Time difference Division Multiple Number or RTP Real Time Protocol 45 Access 80 Single Frequency
RTS Ready-To-Send SCG Secondary Cell Network RTT Round Trip Time Group SgNB Secondary gNB Rx Reception, SCM Security Context SGSN Serving GPRS Receiving, Receiver Management Support Node S1AP SI Application 50 SCS Subcarrier Spacing 85 S-GW Serving Gateway Protocol SCTP Stream Control SI System Information
SI -MME SI for the Transmission SI-RNTI System control plane Protocol Information RNTI
Sl-U SI for the user SDAP Service Data SIB System Information plane 55 Adaptation Protocol, 90 Block
S-GW Serving Gateway Service Data Adaptation SIM Subscriber Identity
S-RNTI SRNC Protocol layer Module
Radio Network SDL Supplementary SIP Session Initiated
Temporary Identity Downlink Protocol S-TMSI SAE 60 SDNF Structured Data 95 SiP System in Package Temporary Mobile Storage Network SL Sidelink Station Identifier Function SLA Service Level SA Standalone SDP Session Description Agreement operation mode Protocol SM Session SAE System 65 SDSF Structured Data 100 Management Architecture Evolution Storage Function SMF Session SAP Service Access SDU Service Data Unit Management Function Point SEAF Security Anchor SMS Short Message SAPD Service Access Function Service Point Descriptor 70 SeNB secondary eNB 105 SMSF SMS Function SMTC SSB-based 35 Signal Received TCP Transmission
Measurement Timing Quality Communication Configuration SS-SINR 70 Protocol
SN Secondary Node, Synchronization TDD Time Division Sequence Number Signal based Signal to Duplex
SoC System on Chip 40 Noise and Interference TDM Time Division SON Self-Organizing Ratio Multiplexing Network SSS Secondary 75 TDMATime Division
SpCell Special Cell Synchronization Multiple Access SP-CSI-RNTISemi- Signal TE Terminal
Persistent CSI RNTI 45 SSSG Search Space Set Equipment
SPS Semi-Persistent Group TEID Tunnel End Point
Scheduling SSSIF Search Space Set 80 Identifier
SQN Sequence number Indicator TFT Traffic Flow SR Scheduling Request SST Slice/Service Types Template SRB Signalling Radio 50 SU-MIMO Single User TMSI Temporary Mobile Bearer MIMO Subscriber Identity
SRS Sounding Reference SUL Supplementary 85 TNL Transport Network Signal Uplink Layer
SS Synchronization TA Timing Advance, TPC Transmit Power
Signal 55 Tracking Area Control
SSB SS Block TAC Tracking Area TPMI Transmitted
SSBRI SSB Resource Code 90 Precoding Matrix
Indicator TAG Timing Advance Indicator
SSC Session and Service Group TR Technical Report
Continuity 60 TAU Tracking Area TRP, TRxP
SS-RSRP Update Transmission
Synchronization TB Transport Block 95 Reception Point
Signal based Reference TBS Transport Block TRS Tracking Reference Signal Received Size Signal
Power 65 TBD To Be Defined TRx Transceiver
SS-RSRQ TCI Transmission TS Technical
Synchronization Configuration Indicator 100 Specifications, Signal based Reference Technical Standard TTI Transmission Time UPF User Plane VM Virtual Machine
Interval Function VNF Virtualized
Tx Transmission, URI Uniform Resource Network Function
Transmitting, Identifier VNFFG VNF
Transmitter 40 URL Uniform Resource 75 Forwarding Graph
U-RNTI UTRAN Locator VNFFGD VNF
Radio Network URLLC UltraForwarding Graph
Temporary Identity Reliable and Low Descriptor
UART Universal Latency VNFMVNF Manager
Asynchronous 45 USB Universal Serial 80 VoIP Voice-over-IP,
Receiver and Bus Voice-over- Internet
Transmitter USIM Universal Protocol
UCI Uplink Control Subscriber Identity Module VPLMN Visited
Information USS UE-specific search Public Land Mobile
UE User Equipment space 85 Network
UDM Unified Data UTRA UMTS Terrestrial VPN Virtual Private
Management Radio Access Network
UDP User Datagram UTRAN Universal VRB Virtual Resource
Protocol Terrestrial Radio Block
UDR Unified Data Access Network 90 WiMAX Worldwide
Repository UwPTS Uplink Pilot Interoperability for
UDSF Unstructured Data Time Slot Microwave Access
Storage Network V2I Vehicle-to- WLANWireless Local
Function Infrastruction Area Network
UICC Universal V2P Vehicle-to- 95 WMAN Wireless
Integrated Circuit Card Pedestrian Metropolitan Area
UL Uplink V2V Vehicle-to-Vehicle Network
UM Unacknowledged V2X Vehicle-to- WPANWireless Personal
Mode every thing Area Network
UML Unified Modelling VIM Virtualized 100 X2-C X2-Control plane
Language Infrastructure Manager X2-U X2-User plane
UMTS Universal Mobile VL Virtual Link, XML extensible Markup
Telecommunication VLAN Virtual LAN, Language s System Virtual Local Area XRES EXpected user
UP User Plane 70 Network 105 RESponse XOR exclusive OR
ZC Zadoff-Chu
ZP Zero Power
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.
The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field- programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.
The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. Processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions and one or more memory structures to store program and data information. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computerexecutable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. Processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”
The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like.
The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.
The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.
The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources.
The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used herein refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource.
The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or the like. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.
The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” as used herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.
The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code.
The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, and/or the like.
The term “information element” refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content.
The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.
The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block.
The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure.
The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation. The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA.
The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC. The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell.
The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA/.
The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers to the Pcell.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions to cause a device of a radio access network (RAN), upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the device, to: receive, from a core network (CN), accepted network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) and rejected NSSAI associated with a UE; determine dedicated frequency priority information for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI; and provide the dedicated frequency priority information to the UE.
2. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is determined further based on slice availability information for a serving gNB, frequency, or cell and one or more neighboring gNBs, frequencies or cells.
3. The one or more NTCRM of claim 2, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is determined further based on a UE radio capability.
4. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the rejected NSSAI includes single- NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE and not available in a current UE registration area of the UE.
5. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the rejected NSSAI includes single- NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE and available in a UE registration area that overlaps with a current UE registration area of the UE.
6. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to cause the device to receive, from the core network, a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index for the UE, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is determined further based on the RFSP.
7. The one or more NTCRM of claim 6, wherein the RFSP is based on the allowed NSSAI and not the rejected NSSAI.
8. The one or more NTCRM of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the allowed NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI each include some or all configured NSSAI of the UE.
9. The one or more NTCRM of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the dedicated frequency priority information is for at least one of idle mode or inactive mode mobility.
10. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions to cause an access and mobility management function (AMF), upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the AMF, to: receive requested network slice selection assistance information (NSSAI) associated with a user equipment (UE); determine accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI based on the requested NSSAI; derive a radio access technology (RAT) frequency service profile (RFSP) index for the UE based on the accepted NSSAI and rejected NSSAI, wherein the accepted NSSAI and the rejected NSSAI each include some or all configured NSSAI of the UE; and provide the RFSP to a serving next generation Node B (gNB).
11. The one or more NTCRM of claim 10, wherein the RFSP index is derived further based on slice availability information for the serving gNB, a serving frequency, or a serving cell and one or more neighboring gNBs, frequencies, or cells.
12. The one or more NTCRM of claim 10, wherein the RFSP index is derived based on a subset of single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) of the rejected NSSAI that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE.
13. The one or more NTCRM of claim 10, wherein the RFSP index is derived based on a subset of single-NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs) of the rejected NSSAI that are available in a public land mobile network (PLMN) associated with the UE and available in a UE registration area that overlaps with a current UE registration area of the UE.
14. The one or more NTCRM of any one of claims 10 to 13, wherein the RFSP index is to trigger the RAN node to provide dedicated frequency priority information to the UE to move the UE to another registration area.
15. An apparatus to be implemented in a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a memory to store UE radio capability information for communication using dual connectivity or carrier aggregation; and processor circuitry coupled to the memory, the processor circuitry to: receive slice availability information that indicates availability of network slices in a plurality of carrier frequencies; and select two or more network slices to access based on the slice availability information and the UE radio capability information.
16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the slice availability information is received via broadcast radio resource control (RRC) signaling.
17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the slice availability information is received via non-access stratum (NAS) signalling.
18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor circuitry is to implement an access stratum (AS) of the UE, and wherein the AS is to filter the slice availability information based on the UE radio capability information and provide the filtered slice availability information to a NAS of the UE.
19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor circuitry is further to access the selected two or more network slices on different carrier frequencies.
20. The apparatus of any one of claims 15 to 19, further comprising two or more antennas coupled to the processor circuitry.
EP21853163.0A 2020-08-05 2021-07-30 Techniques to improve slice availability in a wireless cellular network Pending EP4193688A1 (en)

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EP4274305A1 (en) * 2022-05-06 2023-11-08 Nokia Technologies Oy Service request handling with non-homogeneous network slice support
WO2024082259A1 (en) * 2022-10-21 2024-04-25 Qualcomm Incorporated Slice aware mobility

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