WO2017044151A1 - Air interface slicing architecture for wireless communication systems - Google Patents

Air interface slicing architecture for wireless communication systems Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2017044151A1
WO2017044151A1 PCT/US2016/020034 US2016020034W WO2017044151A1 WO 2017044151 A1 WO2017044151 A1 WO 2017044151A1 US 2016020034 W US2016020034 W US 2016020034W WO 2017044151 A1 WO2017044151 A1 WO 2017044151A1
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Prior art keywords
network
slice
network slice
slices
executable instructions
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PCT/US2016/020034
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French (fr)
Inventor
Qian Li
Geng Wu
Original Assignee
Intel IP Corporation
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
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Application filed by Intel IP Corporation filed Critical Intel IP Corporation
Priority to DE112016004124.1T priority Critical patent/DE112016004124T5/en
Priority to TW105125327A priority patent/TWI745297B/en
Publication of WO2017044151A1 publication Critical patent/WO2017044151A1/en

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Classifications

    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04WWIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W16/00Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
    • H04W16/02Resource partitioning among network components, e.g. reuse partitioning
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04WWIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00Local resource management
    • H04W72/20Control channels or signalling for resource management
    • H04W72/23Control channels or signalling for resource management in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Definitions

  • Implementations of the disclosure generally may relate to the field of wireless communications.
  • Figure 1 shows a first view of the broad concept of vertical and horizontal network slicing
  • Figure 2 shows a second view of a portion of the wireless network of Figure 1;
  • Figure 3 shows how a Radio Access Network (RAN) can be sliced into horizontal and vertical slices according to an embodiment that is alternative (or additional) to that shown in Figure 1 ;
  • RAN Radio Access Network
  • Figure 4 shows a more detailed example of horizontal slicing in a sliceable wireless network architecture according to examples
  • FIG. 5 shows an example of a physical Layer (PHY) and media access control Layer (MAC) architecture with network slicing on an air interface in accordance with embodiments;
  • PHY physical Layer
  • MAC media access control Layer
  • Figure 6 shows an example mapping of physical radio resource to logical radio resource in accordance with embodiments
  • FIG. 7 shows a first example of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process in accordance with embodiments
  • Figure 8 shows a second example of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process in accordance with embodiments
  • Figure 9 shows an example PRACH channel type in an uplink frame in accordance with embodiments
  • Figure 10 shows an example of one downlink subframe, and is an illustration of an example physical downlink control channel type and location in accordance with embodiments;
  • Figure 11 shows an example of one uplink subframe, and is an illustration of an example physical uplink control channel type and location in accordance with
  • Figure 12 shows an example implementation of an electronic device (e.g. UE or base station) in accordance with embodiments
  • Figure 13 shows a first example method according to embodiments
  • Figure 14 shows a second example method according to embodiments
  • Figure 15 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources according to an embodiment.
  • 4G-LTE and LTE-Advanced/Pro wireless communications networks there has been a trend for heterogeneity in the network architecture and applications. Examples of these trends are the development of small cells and relay networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication networks (also known as proximity services), and machine type communications (MTC). Small cells may be considered any form of cell that is smaller than the traditional macro eNB/base station, e.g. micro/pico/femto cells.
  • 5G wireless communications networks the trend of heterogeneity may be more prominent, and suitably improved methods and apparatus for control of the wireless resources is desirable.
  • the 5G wireless communication networks may be expected to serve diverse range of applications (with various traffic types and requirements), network and user equipment (with various communication and computation capabilities), and commercial markets (i.e. use-cases) other than the more traditional voice services (e.g. Voice over LTE, VoLTE) and mobile broadband (MBB), there is a desire to provide control over each of these use- cases, so that an optimized, or at least improved, use of the wireless resources is possible.
  • applications with various traffic types and requirements
  • network and user equipment with various communication and computation capabilities
  • commercial markets i.e. use-cases
  • voice services e.g. Voice over LTE, VoLTE
  • MBB mobile broadband
  • Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the slicing of a radio access network (RAN) architecture of a wireless communications network.
  • the RAN may be the portion of the wireless communications network that implements one or more radio access technologies (RATs), and may be considered to reside at a position located between a user device (UE) such as a mobile phone, smartphone, connected laptop, or any remotely controlled (or simply accessible) machine and provides connection with the core network (CN) servicing the wireless communications network.
  • UE user device
  • CN core network
  • the RAN may be implemented using silicon chip(s) residing in the UEs and/or base stations, such as enhanced Node B (eNBs), base stations, or the like that form the cellular based wireless communications network/system.
  • eNBs enhanced Node B
  • GRAN a GSM radio access network
  • GERAN essentially an EDGE enabled GRAN
  • UTRAN a UMTS radio access network
  • E-UTRAN an LTE, or LTE-Advance/Pro, high speed and low latency radio access network
  • embodiments discuss the general architecture of network slicing in a radio access network of a wireless communication network, such as but not limited to a 5G wireless communication network.
  • embodiments may include the concept of horizontal and vertical network slicing.
  • Vertical slicing may comprise slicing the radio access network according to vertical markets, where a vertical market may comprise a single/particular type of communication (i.e. that may be defined as a single or particular use-case for the communications involved), out of the many existing and new types of communication that may be carried out over future wireless communication networks, particularly including the radio access network.
  • a commercial market that may be provisioned over a wireless communications network may also be called a vertical market.
  • the existing types include Mobile Broad Band (MBB) and Voice (VoLTE), while the new types of communication may include new types of connectivity services and use-cases, such machine type communications (MTC), personal area networks, dedicated health networks, machine to machine (M2M), enhanced MBB (eMBB), time critical communications, vehicle communications (V2X) (including vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I)), and the like.
  • MTC machine type communications
  • M2M machine to machine
  • eMBB enhanced MBB
  • V2X vehicle communications
  • V2V vehicle to vehicle
  • V2I vehicle to infrastructure
  • the definition of a vertical market is not limited, and will cover any existing or future logical separation (i.e. segregation, partition or the like) of a physical radio access network for exclusive use by wireless communications for particular use, or type of communication.
  • the proposed network slices may be programmable and highly scalable and flexible, taking into consideration the availability, latency and power requirements and impact on battery life, reliability, capacity, security and speed of the wireless communications network required by each particular use-case.
  • Network slicing is considered as one of the key technologies to fulfill the diverse requirements and the diverse services and applications expected to be supported in 5G communication networks. This is because, in wireless communication technologies, further improving the spectral efficiency at the radio link level is becoming increasingly challenging, so new ways have been found to build future wireless networks and devices served by those wireless networks to meet the ever increasing capacity demand. To achieve these goals, 5G and future generations of wireless networks, and in particular the wireless devices serving those, or served by those wireless networks, are evolving, to be about the combination of computing and communications, and the provision of end-to-end solutions. This is a paradigm shift from previous generations where technology
  • each network slice may have a different network architecture, and different application, control, packet and signal processing capabilities and capacity, in order to achieve optimum return on investment.
  • New vertical slices i.e. industry or type of service
  • Wireless network slicing provides a practical means to segregate the traffic from a vertical application standpoint from the rest of general mobile broadband services, thereby practically avoiding or dramatically simplifying the traditional QoS engineering problem.
  • Wireless network slicing may include slicing in both the core network and the radio access networks (i.e. is an end-to-end solution).
  • the capacity scaling of a network may no longer be as uniform as it has been in previous generations.
  • the scaling factor may be higher when the wireless network is closer to a user, and lower as we move deeper into the infrastructure of the wireless network.
  • This non-uniform scaling may be a result of an augmented user experience enabled by the significantly increased sensing capabilities (and/or processing resources) available at the wireless devices making use of wireless networks.
  • 5G and future generations of wireless networks may at least partly rely on information networks comprising diverse (heterogeneous and/or homogeneous) computing, networking and storage capabilities of the wireless networks and the wireless devices they serve/are served by.
  • the overall wireless network may continue to scale up rapidly, but the computing and networking at the network edge may grow even faster, therefore enabling user data traffic to be processed at the edge of the wireless network (so-called edge cloud applications).
  • User devices may no longer be simply "terminals" that terminate a communication link. Instead, they may become a new generation of moving or fixed networking nodes for a new generation of consumer devices, machines, and things.
  • a laptop, a tablet, a smart phone, a home gateway or any other wireless network device (or component device forming the , or part of the, wireless network device as sold to the consumer), can become a computing and networking center of a network cluster with many devices or things deployed around it. For example, it may form a Personal Area Network (PAN).
  • PAN Personal Area Network
  • Many such mobile or fixed wireless network clusters may form what may be called an underlay network, a new type of network in 5G and beyond, with devices capable of communicating with each other or directly with the fixed networks, and with computing able to be offloaded to larger form-factor platforms or edge cloud base stations (i.e. entities in the wireless network with greater processing resources, either outright, or simply available at the that time). This may be done to achieve optimum mobile computing and communication over a virtualized platform across many devices, including the edge cloud.
  • edge cloud base stations i.e. entities in the wireless network with greater processing resources, either outright, or simply available at the that time.
  • This new kind of wireless network scaling may be driven by a number of factors. For example, as device sensing is typically local, the processing of sensed data may be local, and the decisions and actions upon sensed data become local. This trend may be further amplified by the proliferation of wearable devices and the internet of things. For example, as machines start playing a greater role in communication than human users, the whole communication link speed may be increased.
  • end-to-end is therefore to be revisited, as an increasing number of communication links are in the proximity of users and user devices. It is therefore proposed to provide a cloud architecture framework that may incorporate data centers as well as edge clouds providing local intelligence and services closer to the end users or devices. This may be because, for example, as wireless networks and systems get deployed in enterprise, home, office, factory and automobile, edge cloud servers become more important for both performance and information privacy and security. These latter factors may be driven by user's (and governments) growing concern on privacy and security.
  • data centers deep into the fixed networks may continue to grow rapidly since many existing services may be better served with centralized architecture, with the new generation of portable and wearable devices, drones, industrial machines, self-driving cars, and the like fueling even more rapid growth in communication and computing capabilities at the edge of the network and locally around users.
  • the newly introduced concept of network slicing may introduce changes to the air interface, the radio access network (RAN) and the core network (CN) to enable a wireless network system with E2E network slicing.
  • E2E End-to-End
  • horizontal slicing enhances device capability by allowing computing resources to be shared across devices serving or being served (i.e. in or on) the wireless network, according to the processing needs of those devices over time and space/location.
  • Horizontal network slicing is designed to accommodate the new trend of traffic scaling and enable edge cloud computing and computing offloading:
  • the computing resources in the base station and the portable device may be horizontally sliced, and these slices, together with the wearable devices may be integrated to form a virtual computing platform though a new wireless air interface design as described herein, in order to significantly augment the computing capability of future portable and wearable devices.
  • Horizontal slicing augments device capability and enhances user experience.
  • Network slicing in the most general of terms, may be thought of as a way to use virtualization technology to architect, partition and organize computing and
  • one physical wireless network may be sliced into multiple logical radio access networks, each architected and optimized for a specific requirement and/or specific application/service (i.e. use-case).
  • a network slice may be defined as a self-contained, in terms of operation and traffic flow, and may have its own network architecture, engineering mechanisms and network provision.
  • Network slicing as proposed herein is able to simplify the creation and operation of network slices and allows function reuse and resource sharing of the physical wireless network infrastructure (i.e. provides efficiencies), whilst still providing sufficient wireless network resources (communications and processing resources) for the wireless devices served by the wireless network.
  • Vertical slicing is targeted at supporting diverse services and applications (i.e. use- case/types of communication). Examples include but are not limited to: Wireless/Mobile Broadband (MBB) communications; Extreme Mobile Broadband (E-MBB) communications; Real-time use-case such as Industrial Control communications, Machine-to-Machine communications (MTC/MTC1); non -real -time use-case, such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors communications, or massive-scale Machine-to-Machine communications (M-MTC/MTC2); Ultra Reliable Machine-to-Machine communications (U-MTC); Mobile Edge Cloud, e.g.
  • MMBB Wireless/Mobile Broadband
  • E-MBB Extreme Mobile Broadband
  • Real-time use-case such as Industrial Control communications, Machine-to-Machine communications (MTC/MTC1)
  • non -real -time use-case such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors communications, or massive-scale Machine-to-Machine communications
  • V2V Vehicle-to- Vehicle
  • V2I Vehicle-to-Infrastructure
  • V2X Vehicle-to-anything communications
  • Horizontal network slicing is targeted at extending the capabilities of devices in the wireless network, particularly mobile devices that may have limitations on the local resources available to them, and enhancing user experiences.
  • Horizontal network slicing goes across and beyond the hardware platforms' physical boundaries.
  • Horizontal network slicing enables resource sharing among network nodes and devices, i.e., highly capable network nodes/devices may then share their resources (e.g., computation, communication, storage) to enhance the capabilities of less capable network nodes/devices.
  • a simple example may be to use a network base station and/or a smartphone mobile device, to supplement the processing and communication capabilities of a wearable device.
  • An end result of horizontal network slicing may be to provide a new generation of mobile (e.g. moving) underlay network clusters, where mobile terminals become moving networking nodes.
  • Horizontal slicing may provide over-the-air resource sharing across wireless network nodes.
  • the wireless network air interface in use may be an integrated part and an enabler of horizontal
  • Vertical network slicing and horizontal network slicing may form independent slices.
  • the end-to-end traffic flow in a vertical slice may transit between the core network and the terminal devices.
  • the end-to-end traffic flow in a horizontal slice may be local and transit between the client and host of a mobile edge computation service.
  • each of the network nodes may implement similar functions among the separate slices.
  • a dynamic aspect of vertical slicing may lie predominantly in the resource partitioning.
  • new functions could be created at a network node when supporting a slice.
  • a portable device may use different functions to support different types of wearable devices.
  • the dynamic aspect of horizontal slicing may therefore lie in the network functions as well as the resource partitioning.
  • FIG. 1 shows a first view of the broad concept of vertical and horizontal network slicing.
  • a complete wireless network 100 including multiple vertical slices 110 - 140, each serving a different (or at least separate) vertical market, i.e. use-case.
  • vertical slice #1 110 serves mobile broadband communications
  • vertical slice #2 120 serves vehicle-to- vehicle communications
  • vertical slice #3 130 serves security communications
  • vertical slice #4 140 serves industrial control communications.
  • the wireless network 100 includes a core network layer portion 150 (e.g. having multiple server s/control entities/control portions of eNode-Bs, etc.), a radio access network layer portion 160 (e.g. including multiple base stations, e-Node Bs, etc.), a device layer portion 170 (including e.g. portable devices such as UEs, vehicles, surveillance devices, industrial devices, etc.), and a personal/wearable layer portion 180 (including, e.g. wearable devices such as smart watches, health monitors, GoogleTM glasses/MicrosoftTM Hololens type devices, and the like).
  • the wearable portion may only be involved in some use-cases, as shown by its inclusion in only vertical slices #1 and #2 in the example of Figure 1.
  • the physical computation/storage/radio processing resources in the network infrastructure (as denoted by the servers and base stations 150/160) and the physical radio resources (in terms of time, frequency, and space) are sliced, by use-case (i.e. type of communication) to form end-to-end vertical slices.
  • the physical resources (in terms of computation, storage, radio) in adjacent layers of the network hierarchy are sliced to form horizontal slices.
  • a smart phone can operation in a vertical slice on mobile broad band (MBB) service, a vertical slice on health care service and a horizontal slice supporting wearable devices.
  • MBB mobile broad band
  • RAN/air interfaces used to enable network slicing and in general 5G may include Flexibility (i.e. support flexible radio resource allocation among slices); Scalability (i.e. easily scale up with the addition of new slices; and Efficiency (e.g. efficiently use the radio and energy resources).
  • Horizontal slicing may comprise slicing the network hierarchy, e.g. the layers of network connectivity and compute (i.e. processing resource) capability. This may be done across any number of the vertical slices served by the network 100, for example anything from all the vertical markets down to within a one or more vertical slice(s). This is shown as the different widths of the two exemplary horizontal slices in Figure 1 - horizontal slice #1 190 is limited to a single vertical slice, whereas horizontal slice #2 is covers two vertical slices.
  • Examples of network hierarchy/layers may include, but is not limited to, a macro network layer, a micro/small cell network layer, a device to device communications layer, and the like. Other network layers may also be involved.
  • Figure 2 shows a second view 200 of a portion of the wireless network 100 of Figure 1.
  • Figure 2 shows an example of a slice-specific RAN architecture, where slices may be across multiple levels of the traditional wireless network architecture.
  • the RAN architecture of each of the slices may be dynamically configured.
  • slice #1 210 may only operate on the macro cell level.
  • slice #2 220 only operates on the small cells level.
  • slice #3 230 may operate on both macro and small cells levels.
  • a slice e.g. slice #1 210) may open up operation on small cells while another slice (e.g. slice #3 230) may close operation on some of the small cells.
  • Opening up operation/activating a slice may be referenced as a network slice turn-on, and closing operation/deactivating a slice may be referenced as a network slice turn-off.
  • the slice-specific RAN architecture may require slice-specific control-plane/user-plane operation, slice on/off operation and slice-based treatment on access control and load balancing, as will be discussed in more detail below.
  • Horizontal slicing comprising slicing the network/device computation and communication resources may achieve computation offloading. Examples include the base station using a slice of its computation resource to help a user device's computation, or a user device (e.g. smartphone) using a slice of its computation resource to help computation of an associated wearable device(s).
  • a user device e.g. smartphone
  • Embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to any particular form of slicing in the vertical (markets) or horizontal (network hierarchy /layers) directions.
  • Embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a management entity operable across the Control-plane (C -plane) and/or User-plane (U-plane), that may provide a management- plane entity that may be used to coordinate the operation of the different slices, either horizontal or vertical (or multiple/combined, or partial, ones thereof).
  • the management entity may use a flat management architecture or a hierarchal management architecture.
  • Slicing of the radio access network may be considered as compartmentalization of the radio access network according to predetermined vertical markets, or horizontal network layers (or multiple/partial layers) of the network. This may be considered a form of logical separation between the wireless resources provided by, or in use by, the radio access network. Logical separation of the wireless resources may allow that they may be separately defined, managed, and/or (generally or specifically) resourced. This separation may provide the ability for the different slices to not be able to, or allowed to, affect one another. Equally, in some embodiments, one or more slices may be specifically provided with the ability to manage another one or more slices, for operational reasons.
  • network functions may be fully offloaded to a network slice, and the slice may operate in a standalone mode, for example a standalone millimeter-wave (mmWave) small cell network, and an out-of-coverage D2D network.
  • mmWave small cell is one that uses milli-meter size radio waves (i.e. high frequency - e.g. 60GHz).
  • network function(s) may be partially offloaded to a slice, and the slice may operate in a non- standalone mode, for example in an anchor-booster architecture, where an anchor-booster architecture may comprise an anchor cell, providing a control-plane and a mobility anchor for maintaining connectivity.
  • the anchor cell may be a cell with wide coverage, for example a macro cell.
  • the anchor- booster architecture may further comprise a booster cell, providing user-plane data offloading.
  • the booster cell may be a small cell, and may be deployed under the coverage of an anchor cell. From a device perspective, the control-plane and user-plane may be decoupled, i.e., the control-plane may be maintained at the anchor cell while the data-plane may be maintained at the booster cell.
  • the horizontal slices and vertical slices may be viewed as intertwined (i.e. where the radio access network functions/resources are shared among some of the vertical and horizontal slices), as illustrated in the graph 300 of Figure 3.
  • Figure 3 shows how a Radio Access Network (RAN) can be sliced into horizontal and vertical slices according to an embodiment that is alternative (or additional) to that shown in Figure 1, where the slices are totally independent in terms of traffic flow and operation.
  • the graph 300 of Figure 1 has Network Hierarchy 302 (i.e. the network layers involved/in use) along the y-axis, and Radio Resource 304 (i.e. indicative of using separate radio resources, such as frequencies, time slots, etc.) along the x-axis.
  • Network Hierarchy 302 i.e. the network layers involved/in use
  • Radio Resource 304 i.e. indicative of using separate radio resources, such as frequencies, time slots, etc.
  • vertical slicing is shown as comprising four vertical slices 306.
  • the four vertical markets/use-cases shown chosen for the vertical slices are mobile broadband (MBB) 110, a vehicle type communication (V2X) 120, a first machine type communication (MTC-1) 130, a second machine type communication (MTC-2) 140, being slices Slice#l-Slice#4, respectively.
  • MBB mobile broadband
  • V2X vehicle type communication
  • MTC-1 first machine type communication
  • MTC-2 second machine type communication
  • slices Slice#l-Slice#4 being slices Slice#l-Slice#4
  • the four horizontal slices shown are macro network layer 210, micro network layer 220, device to device network layer 230, and Personal Area Network (PAN) (e.g.
  • PAN Personal Area Network
  • each horizontal slice contains a portion of multiple vertical slices. Equally, each vertical slice contains a portion of each horizontal slice.
  • the separate portions, as separated in both the horizontal and vertical directions may be referred to as a slice portion.
  • the MBB vertical slice 110 comprises four slice portions: Macro Network layer portion 112; Micro Network layer portion 114; D2D Network layer portion 116; and PAN Network layer portion 118.
  • V2X vertical slice 120 comprises four slice portions: Macro Network layer portion 122; Micro Network layer portion 124; D2D Network layer portion 126; and PAN Network layer portion 128.
  • the MTC-1 vertical slice 130 comprises four slice portions: Macro Network layer portion 132; Micro Network layer portion 134; D2D Network layer portion 136; and PAN Network layer portion 138
  • MTC-2 vertical slice 140 comprises four slice portions: Macro Network layer portion 142; Micro Network layer portion 144; D2D Network layer portion 146; and PAN Network layer portion 148.
  • a wearable health sensor may belong to a dedicated health network.
  • the personal area network layer may then represent a horizontal network slice.
  • the health sensor running under the coverage of the personal area network may belong to a vertical network slice.
  • each horizontal network slice could comprise multiple vertical network slices.
  • Each vertical network slice may have multiple horizontal network slices.
  • Another example is a macro cell (i.e. macro eNB) that serves a number of different use-case communications.
  • each vertical slice may contain portions of multiple horizontal slices, for example, in a V2X network, there may be V2I and V2V layers.
  • the mobile broad band (MBB) vertical slice includes portions in each of the macro, micro and device to device layers, as shown.
  • Edge cloud and edge computation the communication link between the source and the destination is getting shorter, thereby improving the communication efficiency and reducing the amount of information propagation in the network.
  • the optimal deployment of edge cloud and computation scheme varies. As a general rule, the less capable the end device is and/or the higher the device density, the closer the cloud and computation to the network edge.
  • the network nodes slice out part of their computation resources to help computation at the portable device, while the portable devices slice out part of their computation resources to help the computation at the wearable devices.
  • the network is horizontally sliced.
  • the sliced out computation resources and the air interface connecting the two ends form an integrated part that delivers the required service.
  • FIG. 4 shows a more detailed example of horizontal slicing in a sliceable wireless network architecture according to embodiments.
  • the left hand side shows the traditional 3G/4G architecture (but only from the RAN down).
  • This comprises a base station portion 410, comprising an up-stream/core network side communication function 412, a base station compute function 414 (i.e. the processing resources available in the base station, or closely coupled entity thereof), and a down-stream/wireless/device side communication function 416 (to communicate with the devices being served by that base station, or other, peer base station, e.g. in the case of fronthaul, etc.).
  • a portable portion 420 e.g.
  • the up-stream communication link is the typical cellular wireless communication link 422 (e.g. OFDM/CDMA/LTE type link) and a down-stream communication link 426 such as a 5G radio access technology (RAT) (e.g. OFDM/CDMA/LTE type link), a next generation communication link(s) such as a 5G PAN RAT (yet to be created), or a current or next generation other PAN wireless communication technology, e.g. Bluetooth, zigbee or the like.
  • RAT radio access technology
  • next generation communication link(s) such as a 5G PAN RAT (yet to be created)
  • a current or next generation other PAN wireless communication technology e.g. Bluetooth, zigbee or the like.
  • the local compute function 424 i.e. processing resources local to the portable device.
  • FIG. 4 shows the one of the new proposed horizontal network slicing concepts, in particular, how the processing resources of higher and lower entities in the network can be "combined", i.e. shared between themselves, using the communications and processing resource abilities of the entities taking part.
  • the basic functions are similar, therefore are denoted as items 410' to 434' respectively, and act in similar ways.
  • the concept of horizontal slices in this case, showing the horizontal slices #1 190 and #2 195 of Figure 1 in more detail.
  • the wearable device 430' is able to make use of the processing resources 424' of portable device 420', by using the communications functions to share processing data (e.g. data to process and the resultant processed data).
  • processing data e.g. data to process and the resultant processed data
  • the portable device 420' is able to use the base station 410' processing resources 414' .
  • these functions may be provided as new network function (NFs), which may be virtualized in some cases, e.g. by using network function virtualization (NFV).
  • NFs network function virtualization
  • NFV network function virtualization
  • These NFs and NFVs may be slice specific, or operate over multiple/all slices.
  • the proposed wireless network both as a whole (e.g. including the core network), but particularly the RAN will now be slice aware, by making use of a newly implemented slice identification.
  • Future wireless communication systems are expected to enable fully connected society and things, which may propel the advancement of the global economy and social wellbeing. This may require the future wireless communication systems to be able to support various market segments including manufacturing, public safety, road safety, health care, smart home, smart workplace, etc.
  • the new demands give mobile network operators opportunities to exploit new business models to support vertical markets and extend their subscriber ownership.
  • Legacy mobile communication systems are mainly designed for mobile broadband service. Operators provide horizontal platforms with flat air interface and network architecture. To support the future vertical markets, network slicing could be needed.
  • RA random access
  • LTE legacy Long Term Evolution
  • UE user equipment
  • a crowded network slice A with high RA collision probability should not affect a UE with network slice B access authorization to access network slice B.
  • Example embodiments are directed towards techniques for air interface slicing.
  • Example embodiments include fifth generation (5G) LTE air interfaces with support on public mobile broadband access and dedicated access for certain applications, services, and/or requirements.
  • the dedicated access may be assigned with one dedicated air interface slice.
  • Example embodiments include air interface slicing architecture and techniques. The example embodiments may be summarized as follows:
  • Protocol stack
  • Two-level media access control (MAC): Level-1 MAC for scheduling across network slices. Level-2 MAC for scheduling within each network slice. Each network slice has dedicated MAC entity in Level-2 MAC; Physical Layer (PHY) to logical PHY mapping: map physical radio resource to logical radio resource;
  • PHY Physical Layer
  • MAC operates on logical PHY.
  • sNetID network slice identifier
  • RA can be in common with physical random access channel (PRACH) shared among all the devices in the cellular network or in dedicated random access channel (RACH) for a network slice;
  • PRACH physical random access channel
  • RACH dedicated random access channel
  • a network slice may be in an active state.
  • PRACH location may be broadcasted to the devices in system broadcasting information and/or system information blocks (SIBs);
  • SIBs system information blocks
  • devices may do
  • RA in the common PRACH, during which the network slice may be triggered
  • the RA sequence used to access a network slice may carry the sNetID; Slice-specific contention resolution may be applied.
  • Physical downlink control channel o Common control channel (CCCH) and dedicated control channel (DCCH) configuration may be transmitted within one radio subframe;
  • the CCCH addresses to the cell radio network temporary identifier (C- RNTI) of the devices in the mobile broadband (MBB) service and the sNetlD. All the devices admitted in the network slice can detect the common control information addressed to the sNetlD.
  • the common control information addressed to the sNetlD may carry the resource allocation information for the network slice;
  • the DCCH may locate within the radio resources assigned for each network slice and may be used to schedule the transmission of the devices operating under the network slice.
  • PUCCH Physical uplink control channel
  • HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request
  • o Devices operating under a network slice may transmit uplink (UL) control information in the control region of the UL resource assigned for the network slice.
  • UL uplink
  • o Factors to be considered in assigning radio resources to a network slice may include: traffic load, traffic type and quality of service (QoS) requirements, and/or resource allocation granularity and dynamics.
  • QoS quality of service
  • Figure 5 shows an example embodiment of the PHY and MAC architecture with network slicing on the air interface.
  • Figure 5 illustrates a case where multiple PHY numerologies are implemented to meet different QoS requirements.
  • a portion of the radio resource is allocated to the active network slices in the cell.
  • three network slices additional to the base Mobile broadband slice are shown (i.e. there is shown Slice#l to Slice #4, denoted by shading styles 501-504, respectively. These shading styles are used uniformly throughout).
  • Each Slice is assigned a portion of the radio resource.
  • the resource allocation may be scheduled by a Level- 1 MAC 510.
  • the granularity and dynamics of the resource allocation may be selected according to various design choices and/or empirical studies.
  • each of the network slices 501-504 can have multiple radio frame types with different numerologies. This scenario may be implemented when the network slice has traffic with diverse performance and QoS requirements.
  • Figure 5 shows an overall MAC entity 500 comprising a Level- 1 (LI) MAC entity 510 operating across all the network slices, and an Level -2 (L2) MAC entity 520, itself comprising a number of slice-specific sub-entities 522-528 (i.e. a MAC for each of slices #1- #4, respectively).
  • L2 Level -2
  • These sub-entities 522-528 each are slice-specific, and operate on a respective, slice-specific potion of an overall logical radio resource 550, shown as slice-specific portions 552 - 558.
  • the respective relation between a slice- specific L2 MAC sub-entity 522-528 and a slice-specific portion of the logical radio resource, items 552 - 558, is shown by a doubled ended dotted arrow.
  • each of the slice-specific portions 552 - 558 of the logical radio resource are allocated to the actual physical radio resources (and more specifically, the numerologies in use on the wireless network at this point, e.g. numerologies #1 570 and #2 580, for this example) are shown by the single ended arrows.
  • Each set of single ended arrows for a particular slice is dotted in a different fashion, and each respective portion of the physical radio resources has suitably corresponding shading, for ease of review.
  • the shown relationships are merely exemplary, and any suitable arrangement of the network slice logical resource on to the physical resources may be used.
  • the physical radio resources are the actual physical frequencies 562 and time 561 allocations across the wireless resources 560 available, in a similar fashion to current 4G resource mapping, e.g. Physical resource blocks (PRBs), with TTI spacing, etc.
  • PRBs Physical resource blocks
  • each network slice is mapped to continuous logical radio resource, which may be used for Level-2 MAC scheduling for communication within the network slice.
  • Each network slice may have dedicated Level-2 MAC entity (e.g. sub-entities 522- 528 noted in Figure 5).
  • a logical transmission time interval (TTI) is defined based on the logical radio resource as shown in Figure 6, which is an illustration of physical radio resource to logical radio resource mapping and logical TTI.
  • the logical TTI may be the functional equivalent, in the logical/network slicing domain, as the TTI (i.e. physical TTI) of the traditional 4G network standards.
  • the TTI may be considered a logical unit instead of a temporal unit.
  • Figure 6 shows the mapping of a physical radio resource 610 distributed arrangement to a logical radio resource 620 contiguous/continuous arrangement.
  • blocks of physical radio resource 610 are illustrated as being mapped to blocks of logical radio resource 620 by dashed arrows.
  • the blocks of physical radio resource 610 may be distributed in time and frequency, and may be mapped to the contiguous/continuous subframes of logical radio resource 620 (denoted as SF0 to SF4 in Figure 6) to form a contiguous logical ordering of blocks.
  • FIG. 6 also shows a TTI 621 of logical radio resource 620, wherein the transmission time interval 621 is a subframes (labelled as SF0-SF4) of the logical radio resource 620.
  • the TTI may refer to the duration of a smallest transmission period on a radio link for each subframe, e.g. 1ms.
  • Figures 7 and 8 show two examples 700 and 800 of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process operating on the logical radio resource of a slice, which may be based on logical TTI units, such as the TTI unit 621 of Figure 6.
  • the example of Figure 7 is a HARQ procedure with four stop and wait (SAW) processes, acting between a set of downlink subframe blocks 710 and the respective the uplink subframe blocks 720.
  • SAW stop and wait
  • Figure 8 shows a similar HARQ process to Figure 7, however the example of Figure 8 includes a six SAW process instead of the four of figure 7, acting between a set of downlink subframe blocks 810 and the respective the uplink subframe blocks 820. 2.
  • Network slice identification
  • a network slice ID may be assigned to the network slice.
  • the sNetID is known by devices accessing (or going to access) the network slice.
  • the sNetID may be used to address all the devices in the network slice.
  • sNetlDs of the active networks can be broadcasted in system information and the like.
  • random access can be in a common physical random access channel (PRACH) shared among all devices in a wireless network, or in a dedicated PRACH for a network slice.
  • PRACH #0 920 may be a common PRACH that can be used by all the devices in the cell or network.
  • PRACH #1 930 may be a dedicated PRACH assigned for the network slice #1.
  • the example of Figure 9 illustrates both the common PRACH 920 and the dedicated PRACH 930 contained in a common physical uplink control channel PUCCH #1 910.
  • the network slice may be in an active state.
  • the PRACH location may be broadcast to devices in a system that are broadcasting information, and/or one or more system information blocks (SIBs).
  • SIBs system information blocks
  • devices may perform a RA procedure in the common PRACH 920, during which the network slice may be triggered.
  • the RA sequence used to access a network slice may carry the sNetlD. Slice-specific contention resolution may be applied.
  • a network slice in a cell can be turned into a dormant state if no traffic is present for a desired period of time. Once turned into the dormant state, the resources allocated to the network slice may be released. In various embodiments, a dormant network slice may be turned into an active state in at least one of the following two cases:
  • the network slice may be triggered by the network;
  • the network slice may be triggered by the UE during RA or another like scheduling request.
  • PDCCH Physical downlink control channel
  • common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information and dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information may be transmitted within one radio subframe.
  • Figure 10 shows an example of one downlink subframe 1000, and is an illustration of an example physical downlink control channel type and location.
  • Figure 10 shows the locations of cPDCCH information 1010 and dPDCCH information 1020 according to an example.
  • the cPDCCH 1010 may be located in fixed symbols of each subframe (e.g., the first three symbols, as in 4G LTE/LTE- Advanced).
  • the cPDCCH 1010 may carry resource allocation information for devices accessing a mobile broad band (MBB) network and may also carry the resource allocation information for any other network slices in a wireless network.
  • MBB mobile broad band
  • the cPDCCH 1010 may use a sNetlD to address scheduled network slices.
  • all devices accessing a scheduled network slice may detect the cPDCCH information 1010 addressed to the corresponding sNetlD.
  • Dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information 1020 for a network slice may be located in the radio resources assigned to the network slice.
  • the dPDCCH information 1020 may be located in two or more continuous resource blocks of the network slice, or may be distributed in the resource blocks of the network slice.
  • the dPDCCH 1020 carriers scheduling information for the devices operating under the network slice.
  • Figure 10 shows a cPDCCH portion 1010 of one downlink subframe 1000.
  • the cPDCCH portion 1010 may include an indication 1012 of the resource block (RB) allocation for a network slice.
  • the example of Figure 10 further shows the indication 1012 of the RB allocation mapped to a dPDCCH portion of one DL subframe.
  • the dPDCCH may further contain the downlink radio resource 1022 for a network slice.
  • common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmissions and dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmissions may be transmitted within one radio subframe, as illustrated in Figure 11, which is an illustration of an example physical uplink control channel type and location.
  • the cPUCCH may be used by all devices accessing the mobile operator network.
  • the dPUCCH may be dedicated to devices accessing a network slice.
  • a device with both MBB access and network slice access may aggregate its uplink control information of the MBB access and the network slice access to one control unit, and transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
  • the example of Figure 11 shows one uplink subframe 1100, comprising common physical uplink control channel portions 910, similar to the example of Figure 9.
  • the one uplink subframe 1100 may comprise cPUCCH portions 910 and dedicated physical uplink control channel dPUCCH portion 1120.
  • the example of figure 11 may further comprise uplink radio resource 1122 for a network slice, associated with dPUCCH 1120.
  • Factors to be considered in assigning radio resources to a network slice include: traffic load, traffic type and QoS requirements, and/or resource allocation granularity and dynamics. For example, for network slices that require low latency delivery, the resource can be allocated in continuous physical subframes to achieve the minimum amount of transmission latency as designed in the air interface. To reduce control signaling overhead, resource allocation patterns may be defined.
  • Figure 12 shows an example of a RAN control entity 1200 according to an embodiment.
  • the term RAN control entity may be any circuit, logic or circuitry suitable for and arranged to carry out the disclosed methods and control functions.
  • logic may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality.
  • ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit
  • the circuitry may be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules.
  • circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable in hardware.
  • FIG. 12 illustrates, for one embodiment, example components of an electronic device 1200.
  • the electronic device 1200 may be, implement, be incorporated into, or otherwise be a part of a user equipment (UE), base station (BS) such as an evolved NodeB (eNB), a RAN controller, or some other electronic device or network entity that is capable and arranged to perform the disclosed RAN slicing methods and functions.
  • UE user equipment
  • BS base station
  • eNB evolved NodeB
  • RAN controller or some other electronic device or network entity that is capable and arranged to perform the disclosed RAN slicing methods and functions.
  • the electronic device 1200 may include application circuitry 1210, control circuitry, such as baseband circuitry 1220, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1230, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1240 and one or more antennas 1250, coupled together at least as shown.
  • control circuitry such as baseband circuitry 1220, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1230, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1240 and one or more antennas 1250, coupled together at least as shown.
  • RF Radio Frequency
  • FEM front-end module
  • the application circuitry 1210 may include one or more application processors.
  • the application circuitry 1210 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors.
  • the processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.).
  • the processors may be coupled with and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.
  • the baseband circuitry 1220 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors.
  • the baseband circuitry 1220 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1230 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1230.
  • Baseband processing circuity 1220 may interface with the application circuitry 1210 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 1230.
  • the baseband circuitry 1220 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 1221, third generation (3G) baseband processor 1222, fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1223, and/or other baseband processor(s) 1224 for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.).
  • the baseband circuitry 1220 e.g., one or more of baseband processors 1221-1224
  • the radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc.
  • modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1220 may include Fast- Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping
  • FFT Fast- Fourier Transform
  • encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1220 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality.
  • LDPC Low Density Parity Check
  • the baseband circuitry 1220 may include elements of a protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) protocol including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or radio resource control (RRC) elements.
  • a central processing unit (CPU) 1226 of the baseband circuitry 1220 may be configured to run elements of the protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC Layers.
  • the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 1227.
  • the audio DSP(s) 1227 may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.
  • the baseband circuitry 1220 may further include memory/storage 1225.
  • the memory/storage 1225 may be used to load and store data and/or instructions for operations performed by the processors of the baseband circuitry 1220.
  • Memory/storage for one embodiment may include any combination of suitable volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory.
  • the memory/storage 1225 may include any combination of various levels of memory/storage including, but not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) having embedded software instructions (e.g., firmware), random access memory (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM)), cache, buffers, etc.
  • ROM read-only memory
  • DRAM dynamic random access memory
  • the memory/storage 1225 may be shared among the various processors or dedicated to particular processors.
  • Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments.
  • some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1220 and the application circuitry 1210 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).
  • SOC system on a chip
  • the baseband circuitry 1220 may provide for
  • the baseband circuitry 1220 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN).
  • EUTRAN evolved universal terrestrial radio access network
  • WMAN wireless metropolitan area networks
  • WLAN wireless local area network
  • WPAN wireless personal area network
  • Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 1220 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.
  • RF circuitry 1220 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium.
  • the RF circuitry 1230 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network.
  • RF circuitry 1230 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1240 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 1220.
  • RF circuitry 1230 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up- convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 1220 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 1240 for transmission.
  • the RF circuitry 1230 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path.
  • the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1230 may include mixer circuitry 1231, amplifier circuitry 1232 and filter circuitry 1233.
  • the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1230 may include filter circuitry 1233 and mixer circuitry 1231.
  • RF circuitry 1230 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1234 for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path.
  • the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1240 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 1234.
  • the amplifier circuitry 1232 may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 1233 may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals.
  • Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 1220 for further processing.
  • the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement.
  • mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.
  • the mixer circuitry 1231 of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1234 to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 1240.
  • the baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1220 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1233.
  • the filter circuitry 1233 may include a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.
  • LPF low-pass filter
  • the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1231 of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and/or upconversion respectively.
  • the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1231 of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection).
  • the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1231 may be arranged for direct downconversion and/or direct upconversion, respectively.
  • the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1231 of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.
  • the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.
  • the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals.
  • the RF circuitry 1230 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 1220 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 1230.
  • ADC analog-to-digital converter
  • DAC digital-to-analog converter
  • a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.
  • the synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable.
  • synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.
  • the synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1231 of the RF circuitry 1230 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.
  • frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement.
  • VCO voltage controlled oscillator
  • Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 1220 or the applications processor 1210 depending on the desired output frequency.
  • a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor 1210.
  • Synthesizer circuitry 1234 of the RF circuitry 1230 may include a divider, a delay- locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator.
  • the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DP A).
  • the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+l (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio.
  • the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop.
  • the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line.
  • Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line.
  • synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other.
  • the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO).
  • the RF circuitry 1230 may include an IQ/polar converter.
  • FEM circuitry 1240 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 1250, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1230 for further processing.
  • FEM circuitry 1240 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 1230 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 1250.
  • the FEM circuitry 1240 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation.
  • the FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path.
  • the receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1230).
  • the transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1240 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1230), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 1250).
  • PA power amplifier
  • the electronic device 1200 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or input/output (I/O) interface.
  • additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or input/output (I/O) interface.
  • the electronic device 1200 may be, implement, incorporate, or be otherwise part of a RAN entity.
  • the baseband circuitry 1220 may be to: identify one or more vertical slices of a RAN, the vertical slices related to vertical market segments of the RAN; identify one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, the horizontal slices related to network hierarchy segments of the RAN; and slice the RAN into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices.
  • the RF circuitry may be to send and/or receive one or more signals in accordance with the vertical and/or horizontal slices.
  • the electronic device of Figure 12 may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, and/or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. Figure 13 depicts one such process 1300.
  • the process may include slicing a physical radio resource into a plurality of network slices 1310; and mapping each of the plurality of network slices to contiguous logical radio resources 1320.
  • the method 1300 of Figure 13 may further comprise mapping each of the contiguous logical radio resources to physical radio resources 1330.
  • a Level- 1 media access control is to slice the physical radio resource into the plurality of network slices and a Level-2 MAC is to map the plurality of network slices to the contiguous logical radio resource wherein the Level-2 MAC is to schedule the physical radio resources within the network slice.
  • the plurality of network slices may be mapped to the contiguous logical radio resource according to a predefined logical transmission time interval (TTI) unit.
  • TTI transmission time interval
  • the method may include assigning a network slice identifier (sNetID) to a corresponding network slice of the plurality of network slices; and broadcasting each sNetID to each device being served by the eNB.
  • sNetID network slice identifier
  • each of the plurality of network slices are assigned to dedicated physical random access channel (PRACH) such that a user equipment (UE) is to access at least one of the plurality of network slices by performing a random access procedure over the dedicated PRACH.
  • PRACH physical random access channel
  • each of the plurality of network slices are to be in an active state in order to utilize the dedicated PRACH, and wherein when a network slice of the plurality of network slices is in a dormant state or an idle state, the UE is to perform a random access procedure over a common PRACH, and method further comprises:
  • the network slice to enter the active state in response to reception of a message indicative that the UE performed the random access procedure over the common PRACH, wherein the message is to include an sNetID of the network slice to be triggered.
  • the method may include broadcasting a location of the dedicated PRACH within a subframe to each device being served by the eNB in system broadcasting information message and/or in a system information block (SIB).
  • the method may include determining whether traffic is present within each of the plurality of network slices for a desired (e.g. specified) period of time; transitioning each network slice of the plurality of network slices to a dormant state when no traffic is determined to be present for the desired (e.g. specified) period of time; and releasing resources allocated to network slices that are in the dormant state.
  • the method may include transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when downlink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a network element.
  • the method may include transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when uplink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a UE during a random access procedure.
  • the method may include providing common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information and dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information.
  • cPDCCH common physical downlink control channel
  • dPDCCH dedicated physical downlink control channel
  • the cPDCCH information is to be used by a UE to locate fixed symbols of each subframe, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for the network slices, wherein each UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed to a corresponding UE.
  • MBB mobile broadband
  • the dPDCCH information associated with one of the plurality of network slices is located in the radio resources assigned to one of the plurality of network slices, wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the one of the plurality of network slices or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the one of the plurality of network slices, and wherein the dPDCCH is to carry scheduling information for a UE operating under the one of the plurality of network slices.
  • the method may include receiving a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network, wherein the dPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices.
  • cPUCCH common physical uplink control channel
  • dPUCCH dedicated physical uplink control channel
  • a UE configured to access both the MBB and the network slice is to aggregate associated uplink control information for accessing the MBB and accessing the network slice to a single control unit and the UE is to transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
  • the method may include determining a minimum amount of transmission latency for a traffic type of a data stream, and allocating the data stream to a number of continuous physical subframes to achieve the minimum amount of transmission latency.
  • the method may include performing a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation on logical subframes defined by the logical TTI.
  • HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request
  • the electronic device of Figure 12 may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, and/or methods as described herein, or portions thereof.
  • Figure 14 depicts one such process 1400.
  • the process may include determining, based on a communication from an evolved Node B (eNB), a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information that indicates one or more radio resources to locate one or more fixed symbols of each subframe of a plurality of subframes 1410; and determining, based on the communication from the eNB or another communication from the eNB, dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information that is to indicate scheduling information for transmitting data using a network slice of a plurality of network slices 1420.
  • eNB evolved Node B
  • cPDCCH common physical downlink control channel
  • dPDCCH dedicated physical downlink control channel
  • the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for
  • UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for accessing one of a plurality of network slices, and wherein the UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed the UE.
  • MBB mobile broadband
  • the dPDCCH information associated with the network slice is located in the radio resources assigned to the network slice, and wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the network slice or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the network slice.
  • the method may include transmitting a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network and the dPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access the network slice.
  • cPUCCH common physical uplink control channel
  • dPUCCH dedicated physical uplink control channel
  • the method may include aggregating uplink control information for accessing the MBB and uplink control information for accessing the network slice to a single control unit; and transmitting the control unit in the cPUCCH.
  • Figure 15 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 machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
  • Figure 15 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1500 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1510, one or more memory/storage devices 1520, and one or more communication resources 1530, each of which are communicatively coupled via a bus 1540.
  • the processors 1510 may include, for example, a processor 1512 and a processor 1514.
  • the memory/storage devices 1520 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof.
  • the communication resources 1530 may include interconnection and/or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1504 and/or one or more databases 1506 via a network 1508.
  • the communication resources 1530 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.
  • wired communication components e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)
  • cellular communication components e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)
  • NFC Near Field Communication
  • Bluetooth® components e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy
  • Wi-Fi® components e.g., Wi-Fi® components
  • Instructions 1550 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1510 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
  • the instructions 1550 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1510 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1520, or any suitable combination thereof.
  • any portion of the instructions 1550 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1500 from any combination of the peripheral devices 1504 and/or the databases 1506. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1510, the memory/storage devices 1520, the peripheral devices 1504, and the databases 1506 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.
  • Example 1 may include a system supporting mobile broadband (MBB) access and dedicated access for vertical markets or underlay networks.
  • MBB mobile broadband
  • Example 2 may include a user equipment (UE) configured to have both MBB access and dedicated accesses.
  • Example 2 may be incorporated into example 1 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 3 may include a method for slicing the network with each piece of the slice configured to support one dedicated access.
  • Example 3 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-2 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 4 may include a method of network slicing that contains core network slicing and air interface slicing.
  • Example 4 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-3 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 5 may include a method for mapping physical radio resource to logical radio resources.
  • Example 5 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-4 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 6 may include a media access control (MAC) operation based on one or more logical radio resources.
  • Example 6 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-5 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • MAC media access control
  • Example 7 may include a method of performing two level MAC, wherein Level- 1 MAC supports radio resource scheduling across network slices and Level-2 MAC supports radio resource scheduling within the network slice.
  • Example 7 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-6 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 8 may include a dedicated Level-2 MAC entity for each of the network slice.
  • Example 8 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-7 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 9 may include a logical transmission time interval (TTI) unit defined based on the logical radio resource.
  • TTI transmission time interval
  • Example 9 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-8 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 10 may include a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation on the logical subframes defined by the logical TTI.
  • HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request
  • Example 10 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-9 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 11 may include a network slice is identified by the variable sNetlD.
  • Example 11 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-10 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 12 may include the sNetlD of a network slice that is known to the devices accessing the network slice.
  • Example 12 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-11 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 13 may include the sNetlDs of active network slices of a cell being broadcasted in system broadcasting information or a system information block (SIB).
  • SIB system information block
  • Example 13 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-12 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 14 may include a random access (RA) procedure to access a network slice, wherein the RA procedure may use a common RA resource used for all devices in the operator network and/or a dedicated RA resource dedicated to the network slice.
  • RA random access
  • Example 14 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-13 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 15 may include a method performed by a user equipment (UE) to derive the dedicated RA resource location from system broadcasting or a SIB.
  • Example 15 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-14 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 16 may include a RA sequence that carries the sNetlD, which can be used for slice-specific contention resolution.
  • Example 16 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-15 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 17 may include a method for performing a slice-specific contention resolution and a UE configured to perform the slice-specific contention resolution.
  • Example 17 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-16 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 18 may include a method to turn a network slice into a dormant state or an idle state when no traffic is determined to be present within the network slice for a desired (e.g. specified) period of time.
  • Example 18 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-17 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 19 may include the method of example 18 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein when turned into dormant state, a radio resource assigned to the network slice is to be released.
  • Example 20 may include the method of example 18-19 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein activation of a dormant network slice is to be triggered by downlink traffic arrival or performance of an uplink random access procedure.
  • Example 21 may include a system comprising a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) and a dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH), wherein the cPDCCH is to be used for signaling across network slices; and the dPDCCH is to be used for signaling in each of the network slices.
  • cPDCCH common physical downlink control channel
  • dPDCCH dedicated physical downlink control channel
  • Example 21 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-20 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 22 may include a system comprising a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH), wherein, the cPUCCH is to be used by all the devices accessing the mobile operator network; the dPUCCH is to be dedicated to devices accessing a network slice, wherein a device with both MBB access and network slice access is to aggregate uplink control information associated with the MBB access and the network slice access to at least one control unit and transmit the at least one control unit in the cPUCCH.
  • Example 22 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-21 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 23 may include an apparatus to be implemented in an evolved node B (e B), the apparatus comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions; and one or more processors coupled with the one or more computer-readable storage media to execute the instructions to: slice a physical radio resource into a plurality of network slices; and map each of the plurality of network slices to a contiguous logical radio resource.
  • e B evolved node B
  • Example 24 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a Level- 1 media access control (MAC) is to slice the physical radio resource into the plurality of network slices and a Level-2 MAC is to map the plurality of network slices to the contiguous logical radio resource wherein the Level-2 MAC is to schedule the physical radio resources within the network slice.
  • MAC media access control
  • Example 25 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the plurality of network slices are to be mapped to the contiguous logical radio resource according to a predefined logical transmission time interval (TTI) unit.
  • TTI transmission time interval
  • Example 26 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to assign a network slice identifier (sNetID) to a corresponding network slice of the plurality of network slices; and broadcast each sNetID to each device being served by the e B.
  • sNetID network slice identifier
  • Example 27 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each of the plurality of network slices are assigned to dedicated physical random access channel (PRACH) such that a user equipment (UE) is to access at least one of the plurality of network slices by performing a random access procedure over the dedicated PRACH.
  • PRACH physical random access channel
  • Example 28 may include the apparatus of example 27 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each of the plurality of network slices are to be in an active state in order to utilize the dedicated PRACH, and wherein when a network slice of the plurality of network slices is in a dormant state or an idle state, the UE is to perform a random access procedure over a common PRACH, and the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to trigger the network slice to enter the active state in response to reception of a message indicative that the UE performed the random access procedure over the common PRACH, wherein the message is to include an sNetID of the network slice to be triggered.
  • Example 29 may include the apparatus of example 27 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to broadcast a location of the dedicated PRACH within a subframe to each device being served by the eNB in system broadcasting information message and/or in a system information block (SIB).
  • SIB system information block
  • Example 30 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to determine whether traffic is present within each of the plurality of network slices for a desired (e.g. specified) period of time; transition each network slice of the plurality of network slices to a dormant state when no traffic is determined to be present for the desired period of time; and release resources allocated to network slices that are in the dormant state.
  • a desired e.g. specified
  • Example 31 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to transition at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when downlink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a network element.
  • Example 32 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to transition at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when uplink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a UE during a random access procedure.
  • Example 33 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to provide common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information and dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information.
  • cPDCCH common physical downlink control channel
  • dPDCCH dedicated physical downlink control channel
  • Example 34 may include the apparatus of example 33 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the cPDCCH information is to be used by a UE to locate fixed symbols of each subframe, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for the network slices, wherein each UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed to a corresponding UE,
  • MBB mobile broadband
  • Example 35 may include the apparatus of example 33 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dPDCCH information associated with one of the plurality of network slices is located in the radio resources assigned to one of the plurality of network slices, wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the one of the plurality of network slices or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the one of the plurality of network slices, and wherein the dPDCCH is to carry scheduling information for a UE operating under the one of the plurality of network slices.
  • Example 36 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to receive a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network, wherein the dPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices.
  • cPUCCH common physical uplink control channel
  • dPUCCH dedicated physical uplink control channel
  • Example 37 may include the apparatus of example 36 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a UE configured to access both the MBB and the network slice is to aggregate associated uplink control information for accessing the MBB and accessing the network slice to a single control unit and the UE is to transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
  • Example 38 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to determine a minimum amount of transmission latency for a traffic type of a data stream, and allocate the data stream in a number of continuous physical subframes to achieve the minimum amount of transmission latency.
  • Example 39 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation is performed on logical subframes defined by the logical TTI.
  • HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request
  • Example 40 may include may include an apparatus to be implemented in a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions; and one or more processors coupled with the one or more computer- readable storage media to execute the instructions to: determine, based on a communication from an evolved Node B (eNB), a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information that indicates one or more radio resources to locate one or more fixed symbols of each subframe of a plurality of subframes; and determine, based on the communication from the eNB or another communication from the eNB, a dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information that is to indicate scheduling information for transmitting data using a network slice of a plurality of network slices.
  • eNB evolved Node B
  • cPDCCH common physical downlink control channel
  • dPDCCH dedicated physical downlink control channel
  • Example 41 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for accessing one of a plurality of network slices, and wherein the UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed the UE.
  • MBB mobile broadband
  • Example 42 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dPDCCH information associated with the network slice is located in the radio resources assigned to the network slice, and wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the network slice or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the network slice.
  • Example 43 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to transmit a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network and the dPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access the network slice.
  • cPUCCH common physical uplink control channel
  • dPUCCH dedicated physical uplink control channel
  • Example 44 may include the apparatus of example 43 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein when the UE is configured to access both the MBB and the network slice, the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to aggregate uplink control information for accessing the MBB and uplink control information for accessing the network slice to a single control unit; and transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
  • Example 45 may include a method to be performed by an evolved node B (eNB), the method comprising: slicing a physical radio resource into a plurality of network slices; and mapping each of the plurality of network slices to a contiguous logical radio resource.
  • eNB evolved node B
  • Example 46 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a Level- 1 media access control (MAC) is to slice the physical radio resource into the plurality of network slices and a Level-2 MAC is to map the plurality of network slices to the contiguous logical radio resource wherein the Level-2
  • MAC media access control
  • MAC is to schedule the physical radio resources within the network slice.
  • Example 47 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the plurality of network slices are to be mapped to the contiguous logical radio resource according to a predefined logical transmission time interval (TTI) unit.
  • TTI transmission time interval
  • Example 48 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: assigning a network slice identifier (sNetID) to a corresponding network slice of the plurality of network slices; and broadcasting each sNetID to each device being served by the e B.
  • sNetID network slice identifier
  • Example 49 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each of the plurality of network slices are assigned to dedicated physical random access channel (PRACH) such that a user equipment (UE) is to access at least one of the plurality of network slices by performing a random access procedure over the dedicated PRACH.
  • PRACH physical random access channel
  • Example 50 may include the method of example 49 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each of the plurality of network slices are to be in an active state in order to utilize the dedicated PRACH, and wherein when a network slice of the plurality of network slices is in a dormant state or an idle state, the UE is to perform a random access procedure over a common PRACH.
  • Example 51 may include the method of example 50 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising triggering the network slice to enter the active state in response to reception of a message indicative that the UE performed the random access procedure over the common PRACH, wherein the message is to include an sNetID of the network slice to be triggered.
  • Example 52 may include the method of example 49 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: broadcasting a location of the dedicated PRACH within a subframe to each device being served by the eNB in system broadcasting information message and/or in a system information block (SIB).
  • SIB system information block
  • Example 53 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: determining whether traffic is present within each of the plurality of network slices for a desired period of time; transitioning each network slice of the plurality of network slices to a dormant state when no traffic is determined to be present for the desired period of time; and releasing resources allocated to network slices that are in the dormant state.
  • Example 54 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when downlink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a network element.
  • Example 55 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when uplink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a UE during a random access procedure.
  • Example 56 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: providing common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information and dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information.
  • cPDCCH common physical downlink control channel
  • dPDCCH dedicated physical downlink control channel
  • Example 57 may include the method of example 56 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the cPDCCH information is to be used by a UE to locate fixed symbols of each subframe, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for the network slices, wherein each UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed to a corresponding UE,
  • MBB mobile broadband
  • Example 58 may include the method of example 56 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dPDCCH information associated with one of the plurality of network slices is located in the radio resources assigned to one of the plurality of network slices, wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the one of the plurality of network slices or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the one of the plurality of network slices, and wherein the dPDCCH is to carry scheduling information for a UE operating under the one of the plurality of network slices.
  • Example 59 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: receiving a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network, wherein the dPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices.
  • cPUCCH common physical uplink control channel
  • dPUCCH dedicated physical uplink control channel
  • Example 60 may include the method of example 59 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a UE configured to access both the MBB and the network slice is to aggregate associated uplink control information for accessing the MBB and accessing the network slice to a single control unit and the UE is to transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
  • Example 61 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: determining a minimum amount of transmission latency for a traffic type of a data stream, and allocating the data stream to a number of continuous physical subframes to achieve the minimum amount of transmission latency.
  • Example 62 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: performing a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation on logical subframes defined by the logical TTI.
  • HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request
  • Example 63 may include a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: determining, based on a communication from an evolved Node B (eNB), a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information that indicates one or more radio resources to locate one or more fixed symbols of each subframe of a plurality of subframes; and determining, based on the communication from the eNB or another communication from the eNB, dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information that is to indicate scheduling information for transmitting data using a network slice of a plurality of network slices.
  • eNB evolved Node B
  • cPDCCH common physical downlink control channel
  • dPDCCH dedicated physical downlink control channel
  • Example 64 may include the method of example 63 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for accessing one of a plurality of network slices, and wherein the UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed the UE,
  • MBB mobile broadband
  • Example 65 may include the method of example 63 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dPDCCH information associated with the network slice is located in the radio resources assigned to the network slice, and wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the network slice or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the network slice.
  • Example 66 may include the method of example 63 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: transmitting a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network and the dPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access the network slice.
  • cPUCCH common physical uplink control channel
  • dPUCCH dedicated physical uplink control channel
  • Example 67 may include the method of example 66 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein when the UE is configured to access both the MBB and the network slice, the method further comprises: aggregating uplink control information for accessing the MBB and uplink control information for accessing the network slice to a single control unit; and transmitting the control unit in the cPUCCH.
  • Example 68 may include an apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network, and circuitry to provide a first, Level- 1, media access control function operable to control resource scheduling across all network slices of a wireless network, and provide a first, Level-2, media access control function operable to control resource scheduling within a network slice of the wireless network.
  • RF radio frequency
  • Example 69 may include the apparatus of example 68 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising a plurality of Level-2 media access control functions per single Level- 1 media access control function.
  • Example 70 may include the apparatus of examples 68-69 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each Level-2 media access control function applies different numerologies to radio subframes used in the network slice, and wherein a numerology applied is dependent on a use-case of the network slice or type of data communicated over the network slice.
  • Example 71 may include the apparatus of examples 68-70 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the Level-2 media access control function is dedicated to a single network slice.
  • Example 72 may include the apparatus of examples 68-71 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each network slice has a slice-specific transmission time interval (TTI), and a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operates on data of the network slice according to the slice-specific TTI.
  • TTI slice-specific transmission time interval
  • HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request
  • Example 73 may include the apparatus of examples 68-72 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a slice is identified using a dedicated slice
  • Example 74 may include the apparatus of examples 68 to 73 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the slice identification is broadcast in a system information block.
  • Example 75 may include the apparatus of examples 68-74 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the wireless network comprises a core network portion and/or an air interface portion
  • Example 76 may include a method comprising controlling resource scheduling across all network slices of a wireless network using a first, Level- 1, media access control function, and controlling resource scheduling within a network slice of the wireless network using a first, Level-2, media access control function.
  • Example 77 may include the method of example 76 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising providing a plurality of Level-2 media access control functions per single Level- 1 media access control function.
  • Example 78 may include the method of examples 76-77 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising applying different numerologies to radio subframes used in the network slice by each Level-2 media access control function, wherein a numerology applied is dependent on a use-case of the network slice or type of data communicated over the network slice.
  • Example 79 may include the method of examples 76-78 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising dedicating the Level-2 media access control function to a single network slice.
  • Example 80 may include the method of examples 76-79 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each network slice has a slice-specific transmission time interval (TTI), the method further comprising operating on data of the network slice according to the slice-specific TTI using a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ).
  • TTI slice-specific transmission time interval
  • HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request
  • Example 81 may include the method of examples 76-80 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising identifying a slice using a dedicated slice
  • Example 82 may include the method of examples 76-81 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising broadcasting the slice identification in a system information block.
  • Example 83 may include the method of examples 76-82 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising providing a core network portion and/or an air interface portion in the wireless network.
  • Example 84 may include an apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network, and circuitry to provide a slice specific dedicated slice identification, wherein the dedicated slice identification is broadcast to devices operable to access the wireless communication network during use.
  • RF radio frequency
  • Example 85 may include the apparatus of example 84 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dedicated slice identification is broadcast in a system information of the wireless communication network.
  • Example 86 may include a method comprising providing, to a network slice, a slice specific dedicated slice identification, and broadcasting the dedicated slice identification to devices operable to access the wireless communication network during use.
  • Example 87 may include the method of example 86 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dedicated slice identification is broadcast in a system information of the wireless communication network.
  • Example 88 may include an apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network, and circuitry to provide random access to a network slice using a common random access resource, and slice a wireless network, wherein to slice comprises configuring each slice or portion thereof to support transmission or delivery of a type of communications.
  • RF radio frequency
  • Example 89 may include the apparatus of example 88 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a type of communications comprises a single use-case of the communications.
  • Example 90 may include the apparatus of examples 88-89 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the common random access resource is accessible to all devices in the wireless communication network
  • Example 91 may include the apparatus of examples 88-90 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the circuitry is further to dedicate random access to a network slice using a dedicated random access resource of the network slice being accessed.
  • Example 92 may include the apparatus of examples 88-91 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the common random access resource is the common physical random access channel (PRACH).
  • Example 93 may include the apparatus of examples 88-92 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dedicated random access resource is the dedicated physical random access channel (dPRACH), and wherein the dPRACH is network slice specific.
  • PRACH common physical random access channel
  • dPRACH dedicated physical random access channel
  • Example 94 may include a method comprising providing random access to a network slice using a common random access resource, and slicing a wireless network, wherein slicing comprises configuring each slice or portion thereof to support transmission or delivery of a type of communications.
  • Example 95 may include the method of example 94 wherein a type of
  • communications comprises a single use-case of the communications.
  • Example 96 may include the method of examples 94-95 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising providing accessibility to the common random access resource by all devices in the wireless communication network
  • Example 97 may include the method of examples 94-96 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising dedicating random access to a network slice using a dedicated random access resource of the network slice being accessed.
  • Example 98 may include the method of examples 94-97 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the common random access resource is the common physical random access channel (PRACH).
  • PRACH common physical random access channel
  • Example 99 may include the method of examples 94-98 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dedicated random access resource is the dedicated physical random access channel (dPRACH), and wherein the dPRACH is network slice specific.
  • the dedicated random access resource is the dedicated physical random access channel (dPRACH)
  • dPRACH is network slice specific.
  • Example 100 may include an apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network, and circuitry to control status of a network slice of the wireless communication network, said circuitry to switch a network slice from an active state to a dormant state when no traffic or only traffic below a first predetermined threshold is available to use on the respective network slice, or switch on a network slice from a dormant state to an active state when traffic or only traffic above a second predetermined threshold is available to use on the respective network slice.
  • Example 101 may include the apparatus of example 100 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein to switch a network slice from an active state to a dormant state comprises releasing the wireless network resources assigned to the slice.
  • Example 102 may include the apparatus of examples 100-101 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein to switch on a network slice from a dormant state to an active state comprises triggering an activation of the network slice during a random access or scheduling request.
  • Example 103 may include the apparatus of examples 100-102 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the first and second threshold are different or the same.
  • Example 104 may include the apparatus of examples 100-103 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the first and second threshold are slice specific.
  • Example 105 may include a method comprising switching a network slice from an active state to a dormant state when no traffic or only traffic below a first predetermined threshold is available to use on the respective network slice, or switching on a network slice from a dormant state to an active state when traffic or only traffic above a second predetermined threshold is available to use on the respective network slice.
  • Example 106 may include the method of example 105 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising releasing the wireless network resources assigned to the slice when switching a network slice from an active state to a dormant state.
  • Example 107 may include the method of examples 105-106 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising triggering an activation of the network slice during a random access or scheduling request.
  • Example 108 may include the method of examples 105-107 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the first and second threshold are different or the same.
  • Example 109 may include the method of examples 105-108 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the first and second threshold are slice specific.
  • Example 110 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 3-20, 45-67, 76-83, 86-87, 94-99, 106-109, or any other method or process described herein.
  • Example 111 may include one or more 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 3-20, 45-67, 76-83, 86-87, 94-99, 106-109, or any other method or process described herein, or to provide the functionality of the apparatus or device according to any of examples 1, 2, 21-22, 23-39, 40-44, 68-75, 84-85, or 88-93 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
  • Example 112 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 3- 20, 45-67, 76-83, 86-87, 94-99, 106-109, or any other method or process described herein.
  • Example 113 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 of any of examples 3-20, 45-67, 76-83, 86-87, 94-99, 106-109, or any other method or process described herein.
  • Example 114 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.
  • Example 115 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.
  • Example 116 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.
  • Example 117 may include a device to enable network slicing in a radio access network comprising any combination of the devices, entities or methods described herein, or portions of the devices, entities or methods described herein.
  • Example 118 may include a radio access network comprising any combination of the devices, entities or methods described herein, or portions of the devices, entities or methods described herein.
  • Example 119 may include a device for use in a radio access network comprising any combination of the devices, entities or methods described herein, or portions of the devices, entities or methods described herein.
  • Examples use-cases/types of communications may include: Wireless/Mobile Broadband (MBB) communications; Extreme Mobile Broadband (E-MBB) communications; Real-time use-case such as Industrial Control communications, Machine-to-Machine communications (MTC/MTC1); non -real -time use-case, such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors communications, or massive-scale Machine-to-Machine communications (M-MTC/MTC2); Ultra Reliable Machine-to-Machine communications (U-MTC); Mobile Edge Cloud, e.g. caching, communications; Vehicle-to- Vehicle (V2V) communications; Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications; Vehicle-to-anything communications (V2X).
  • MBB Wireless/Mobile Broadband
  • E-MBB Extreme Mobile Broadband
  • Real-time use-case such as Industrial Control communications, Machine-to-Machine communications (MTC/MTC1)
  • non -real -time use-case such as Internet-of-Th
  • the radio access network (RAN) control entity is distributed across portions of the RAN.
  • the portions of RAN are the base stations (e.g. eNBs) of the RAN, in others, the portion(s) of the RAN may be a UE, or any other device being or to be served by the wireless network/RAN, or forming part of (or serving) the same, e.g. mobility management engine (MME), baseband unit (BBU), remote radio head (RRH) or, etc.
  • MME mobility management engine
  • BBU baseband unit
  • RRH remote radio head
  • the RAN control entity can be collocated with the macro BS, and only manage the slice portions that under the coverage of the macro BS.
  • the RAN control entity can manage a slice portion across multiple BSs which are under the coverage of the RAN control entity.
  • the RAN control entity may comprise at least a portion controlling allocation of RAN, or device, resources according to a need of the one or more horizontal or vertical slices, for example computational resources at/in, or available to, a device in the wireless network.
  • an example or claim recites RF circuitry, for example, to form a greater entity within the wireless network, e.g. a base station
  • this is also intended to cover the or an alternative embodiment which does not include the RF circuitry, for example for use in (or to provide) a distributed form of entity according to the disclosure.
  • This may be applicable, for example, when the entity forms part of a Cloud RAN, where the radio portions (e.g. RRH) are not co-located/within the same entity as at least a significant portion of the control function (entity, module, etc.) , e.g. BBU.
  • no embodiments are intended to be restricted to only those having an RF portion that sends or receives messages to or form the wireless network.
  • some implementations may be part of front-haul capabilities, which may be the connections to radio front ends (e.g. RRHs) from a centralized, or more centralized baseband function (e.g. BBU).
  • any reference to computer program product or computer readable medium may include reference to both transitory (e.g. physical media) and non-transitory forms (e.g. signals or data structures thereof).
  • Various examples disclosed herein may provide many advantages, for example, but not limited to: providing full(er) coverage for the devices being served, for any given amount of core network and/or RAN resources (e.g. computing, radio, etc); less control signaling delay and signaling exchange overhead among transmission points; providing improved coverage and at the same time reducing control signaling exchange among network nodes (inc. transmission points); a more efficient (overall, or substantial portion of a) wireless network, for example because, it allows a given amount of (e.g. a single) physical radio access network infrastructure to be used by multiple use-cases, thereby resulting in less hardware/infrastructure than would otherwise be used (e.g. double, or more, hardware, for example to provide separate physical radio access network infrastructure for each use case); generally improved radio access network performance, efficiency, reliability, maintaining/maintenance of service and quality of service, for all devices operating across the RAN, and within each slice of the RAN.
  • core network and/or RAN resources e.g. computing, radio, etc
  • turn-on, activation or logical separation, or the like, of the, or a, network slice may be equivalent to one another, and the terms used inter-changeably.
  • the turn-off, deactivation or logical desperation, or the like, of a network slice may all be equivalent to one another, and the terms used inter-changeably.
  • a network slice may also be referenced as a logically separate (separated, partitioned, etc.) radio network access, or as a logically separate (separated, partitioned, etc.) radio network access portion.
  • a device being, or to be served by the physical radio access network infrastructure, or a network slice may include a UE, however any and all other forms of devices that may be served are also interchangeable with a reference to a UE herein.
  • a device may be referenced as a wireless network device.
  • a wireless network device as used herein may also reference a serving entity, such as base station, MME, BBU, RRH, etc., dependent on context of use.
  • an access point and base station may be considered similar in use or deployment.
  • embodiments of the disclosure is/are not limited to any specific example, such as: where a specific vertical market is disclosed in relation to a Figure, this is only an example, and any vertical market may be used instead; where a specific portion of a slice is disclosed in relation to a Figure, any portion of a slice may be used instead; where a RAN has been disclosed as having a certain size, type or number of slices (horizontal or vertical) in relation to a Figure, any size, type or number of slices may be used instead; where a slice or slice portion has been disclosed as having a certain size, type or number (in the horizontal or the vertical) in relation to a Figure, any size, type or number of slice or slice portion may be used instead.
  • circuitry may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware or software components, including a one or more virtual machines that can provide the described functionality.
  • ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit
  • the circuitry may be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules.
  • circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable in hardware.
  • the processing/execution may be distributed instead of centralized processing/execution.
  • any reference to a (RAN) architecture may include anything that may be defined as or thought of as any form of specific process(es), technique(s), technology(ies), implementation detail, improvement in or type of operation of a wireless network (or similar networking system entity), particularly in the RAN.
  • Architectures may be typically introduced, maintained and updated in the standards documents for the respective wireless network technologies in use, for example the third generation partnership project (3GPP) standards, and the like.
  • any of the disclosed methods may be carried out by either a host or client, depending on the specific implementation (i.e. the disclosed methods/apparatuses are a form of communication(s), and as such, may be carried out from either 'point of view', i.e. in corresponding to each other fashion).
  • the terms “receiving” and “transmitting” encompass “inputting” and “outputting” and are not limited to an RF context of transmitting and receiving radio waves.
  • a chip or other device or component for realizing embodiments could generate data for output to another chip, device or component, or have as an input data from another chip, device or component, and such an output or input could be referred to as “transmit” and “receive” including gerund forms, that is, “transmitting” and “receiving”, as well as such "transmitting” and “receiving” within an RF context.
  • any formulation used of the style "at least one of A, B or C", and the formulation "at least one of A, B and C” use a disjunctive "or” and a disjunctive "and” such that those formulations comprise any and all joint and several permutations of A, B, C, that is, A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B in any order, A and C in any order, B and C in any order and A, B, C in any order. There may be more or less than three features used in such formulations.
  • any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim.
  • the word 'comprising' does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps then those listed in a claim.
  • the terms "a” or "an,” as used herein, are defined as one or more than one.
  • reference to 'layer' may be a reference to a predefined (or definable) portion of the infrastructure
  • reference to 'Layer' may be a reference to a network protocol Layer in operation on/in the network infrastructure, or portion thereof.
  • Reference to MAC Layer may also comprise a reference to the MAC Layer and above, up to just below the IP Layer, and for example may comprise the RRC functions of the wireless network (or RAN).
  • a vertical slice may be referenced as or related to a vertical market segment.
  • any machine executable instructions may carry out a disclosed method, and may therefore be used synonymously with the term method.

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Abstract

Embodiments provide an apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network, and circuitry to provide a first, Level-1, media access control function operable to control resource scheduling across all network slices of a wireless network, and provide a first, Level-2, media access control function operable to control resource scheduling within a network slice of the wireless network.

Description

AIR INTERFACE SLICING ARCHITECTURE FOR WIRELESS
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/217,632, filed September 11, 2015, the entire specification of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
TECHNICAL FIELD
Embodiments described herein generally relate to the field of wireless
communications systems, and in particular to the management of the Radio Access Network of a wireless communications system.
BACKGROUND
Implementations of the disclosure generally may relate to the field of wireless communications.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Aspects, features and advantages of embodiments of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of embodiments in reference to the appended drawings in which like numerals denote like elements and in which:
Figure 1 shows a first view of the broad concept of vertical and horizontal network slicing;
Figure 2 shows a second view of a portion of the wireless network of Figure 1;
Figure 3 shows how a Radio Access Network (RAN) can be sliced into horizontal and vertical slices according to an embodiment that is alternative (or additional) to that shown in Figure 1 ;
Figure 4 shows a more detailed example of horizontal slicing in a sliceable wireless network architecture according to examples;
Figure 5 shows an example of a physical Layer (PHY) and media access control Layer (MAC) architecture with network slicing on an air interface in accordance with embodiments;
Figure 6 shows an example mapping of physical radio resource to logical radio resource in accordance with embodiments;
Figure 7 shows a first example of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process in accordance with embodiments; Figure 8 shows a second example of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process in accordance with embodiments;
Figure 9 shows an example PRACH channel type in an uplink frame in accordance with embodiments;
Figure 10 shows an example of one downlink subframe, and is an illustration of an example physical downlink control channel type and location in accordance with embodiments;
Figure 11 shows an example of one uplink subframe, and is an illustration of an example physical uplink control channel type and location in accordance with
embodiments;
Figure 12 shows an example implementation of an electronic device (e.g. UE or base station) in accordance with embodiments;
Figure 13 shows a first example method according to embodiments;
Figure 14 shows a second example method according to embodiments;
Figure 15 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources according to an embodiment.
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 the present disclosure. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the claims 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 present disclosure with unnecessary detail.
In fourth generation Long Term Evolution (4G-LTE) and LTE-Advanced/Pro wireless communications networks, there has been a trend for heterogeneity in the network architecture and applications. Examples of these trends are the development of small cells and relay networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication networks (also known as proximity services), and machine type communications (MTC). Small cells may be considered any form of cell that is smaller than the traditional macro eNB/base station, e.g. micro/pico/femto cells. Moving into fifth generation (5G) wireless communications networks, the trend of heterogeneity may be more prominent, and suitably improved methods and apparatus for control of the wireless resources is desirable. For example, because the 5G wireless communication networks may be expected to serve diverse range of applications (with various traffic types and requirements), network and user equipment (with various communication and computation capabilities), and commercial markets (i.e. use-cases) other than the more traditional voice services (e.g. Voice over LTE, VoLTE) and mobile broadband (MBB), there is a desire to provide control over each of these use- cases, so that an optimized, or at least improved, use of the wireless resources is possible.
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the slicing of a radio access network (RAN) architecture of a wireless communications network. The RAN may be the portion of the wireless communications network that implements one or more radio access technologies (RATs), and may be considered to reside at a position located between a user device (UE) such as a mobile phone, smartphone, connected laptop, or any remotely controlled (or simply accessible) machine and provides connection with the core network (CN) servicing the wireless communications network. The RAN may be implemented using silicon chip(s) residing in the UEs and/or base stations, such as enhanced Node B (eNBs), base stations, or the like that form the cellular based wireless communications network/system. Examples of RANs include, but are not limited to: GRAN (a GSM radio access network); GERAN (essentially an EDGE enabled GRAN); UTRAN (a UMTS radio access network); and E-UTRAN (an LTE, or LTE-Advance/Pro, high speed and low latency radio access network).
The herein described embodiments discuss the general architecture of network slicing in a radio access network of a wireless communication network, such as but not limited to a 5G wireless communication network. In particular, embodiments may include the concept of horizontal and vertical network slicing. Vertical slicing may comprise slicing the radio access network according to vertical markets, where a vertical market may comprise a single/particular type of communication (i.e. that may be defined as a single or particular use-case for the communications involved), out of the many existing and new types of communication that may be carried out over future wireless communication networks, particularly including the radio access network. A commercial market that may be provisioned over a wireless communications network may also be called a vertical market. The existing types include Mobile Broad Band (MBB) and Voice (VoLTE), while the new types of communication may include new types of connectivity services and use-cases, such machine type communications (MTC), personal area networks, dedicated health networks, machine to machine (M2M), enhanced MBB (eMBB), time critical communications, vehicle communications (V2X) (including vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I)), and the like. The definition of a vertical market is not limited, and will cover any existing or future logical separation (i.e. segregation, partition or the like) of a physical radio access network for exclusive use by wireless communications for particular use, or type of communication. In some examples, there may be multiple physical radio access networks in use, each separated into logically separated radio access networks.
The proposed network slices may be programmable and highly scalable and flexible, taking into consideration the availability, latency and power requirements and impact on battery life, reliability, capacity, security and speed of the wireless communications network required by each particular use-case.
Network slicing is considered as one of the key technologies to fulfill the diverse requirements and the diverse services and applications expected to be supported in 5G communication networks. This is because, in wireless communication technologies, further improving the spectral efficiency at the radio link level is becoming increasingly challenging, so new ways have been found to build future wireless networks and devices served by those wireless networks to meet the ever increasing capacity demand. To achieve these goals, 5G and future generations of wireless networks, and in particular the wireless devices serving those, or served by those wireless networks, are evolving, to be about the combination of computing and communications, and the provision of end-to-end solutions. This is a paradigm shift from previous generations where technology
development focused primarily on single level communications alone.
To provide the increased capacity in wireless networks, they may be sliced. This may involve slicing (i.e. logically partitioning/separating) the traditional large, single, mobile broadband network into multiple virtual networks to serve vertical industries and applications in a more cost and resource efficient manner. Each network slice may have a different network architecture, and different application, control, packet and signal processing capabilities and capacity, in order to achieve optimum return on investment. New vertical slices (i.e. industry or type of service) can be added to an existing sliceable wireless network at any time, instead of deploying a new dedicated wireless network for that vertical market. Thus, vertical network slicing provides a practical means to segregate the traffic from a vertical application standpoint from the rest of general mobile broadband services, thereby practically avoiding or dramatically simplifying the traditional QoS engineering problem. Wireless network slicing may include slicing in both the core network and the radio access networks (i.e. is an end-to-end solution).
In 5G wireless networks and beyond, the capacity scaling of a network may no longer be as uniform as it has been in previous generations. For example, the scaling factor may be higher when the wireless network is closer to a user, and lower as we move deeper into the infrastructure of the wireless network. This non-uniform scaling may be a result of an augmented user experience enabled by the significantly increased sensing capabilities (and/or processing resources) available at the wireless devices making use of wireless networks. Unlike previous generations of wireless networks where a network serves primarily as a data pipe, scaling uniformly (but singularly) from end-to-end as the air interface improves, 5G and future generations of wireless networks may at least partly rely on information networks comprising diverse (heterogeneous and/or homogeneous) computing, networking and storage capabilities of the wireless networks and the wireless devices they serve/are served by.
For example, the overall wireless network may continue to scale up rapidly, but the computing and networking at the network edge may grow even faster, therefore enabling user data traffic to be processed at the edge of the wireless network (so-called edge cloud applications). User devices may no longer be simply "terminals" that terminate a communication link. Instead, they may become a new generation of moving or fixed networking nodes for a new generation of consumer devices, machines, and things. For example, a laptop, a tablet, a smart phone, a home gateway or any other wireless network device (or component device forming the , or part of the, wireless network device as sold to the consumer), can become a computing and networking center of a network cluster with many devices or things deployed around it. For example, it may form a Personal Area Network (PAN). Many such mobile or fixed wireless network clusters may form what may be called an underlay network, a new type of network in 5G and beyond, with devices capable of communicating with each other or directly with the fixed networks, and with computing able to be offloaded to larger form-factor platforms or edge cloud base stations (i.e. entities in the wireless network with greater processing resources, either outright, or simply available at the that time). This may be done to achieve optimum mobile computing and communication over a virtualized platform across many devices, including the edge cloud.
This new kind of wireless network scaling may be driven by a number of factors. For example, as device sensing is typically local, the processing of sensed data may be local, and the decisions and actions upon sensed data become local. This trend may be further amplified by the proliferation of wearable devices and the internet of things. For example, as machines start playing a greater role in communication than human users, the whole communication link speed may be increased.
The definition of end-to-end is therefore to be revisited, as an increasing number of communication links are in the proximity of users and user devices. It is therefore proposed to provide a cloud architecture framework that may incorporate data centers as well as edge clouds providing local intelligence and services closer to the end users or devices. This may be because, for example, as wireless networks and systems get deployed in enterprise, home, office, factory and automobile, edge cloud servers become more important for both performance and information privacy and security. These latter factors may be driven by user's (and governments) growing concern on privacy and security. Moreover, data centers deep into the fixed networks may continue to grow rapidly since many existing services may be better served with centralized architecture, with the new generation of portable and wearable devices, drones, industrial machines, self-driving cars, and the like fueling even more rapid growth in communication and computing capabilities at the edge of the network and locally around users.
The newly introduced concept of network slicing, particularly of the sort that provides a wireless network system architecture that has End-to-End (E2E) vertical and horizontal network slicing may introduce changes to the air interface, the radio access network (RAN) and the core network (CN) to enable a wireless network system with E2E network slicing.
In simple terms horizontal slicing enhances device capability by allowing computing resources to be shared across devices serving or being served (i.e. in or on) the wireless network, according to the processing needs of those devices over time and space/location.
Horizontal network slicing is designed to accommodate the new trend of traffic scaling and enable edge cloud computing and computing offloading: The computing resources in the base station and the portable device may be horizontally sliced, and these slices, together with the wearable devices may be integrated to form a virtual computing platform though a new wireless air interface design as described herein, in order to significantly augment the computing capability of future portable and wearable devices. Horizontal slicing augments device capability and enhances user experience.
Network slicing, in the most general of terms, may be thought of as a way to use virtualization technology to architect, partition and organize computing and
communication resources of a physical wireless network infrastructure, into one or more logically separated radio access networks, to enable flexible support of diverse use-case realizations. For example, with network slicing in operation, one physical wireless network may be sliced into multiple logical radio access networks, each architected and optimized for a specific requirement and/or specific application/service (i.e. use-case).
Thus, a network slice may be defined as a self-contained, in terms of operation and traffic flow, and may have its own network architecture, engineering mechanisms and network provision. Network slicing as proposed herein is able to simplify the creation and operation of network slices and allows function reuse and resource sharing of the physical wireless network infrastructure (i.e. provides efficiencies), whilst still providing sufficient wireless network resources (communications and processing resources) for the wireless devices served by the wireless network.
Vertical slicing is targeted at supporting diverse services and applications (i.e. use- case/types of communication). Examples include but are not limited to: Wireless/Mobile Broadband (MBB) communications; Extreme Mobile Broadband (E-MBB) communications; Real-time use-case such as Industrial Control communications, Machine-to-Machine communications (MTC/MTC1); non -real -time use-case, such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors communications, or massive-scale Machine-to-Machine communications (M-MTC/MTC2); Ultra Reliable Machine-to-Machine communications (U-MTC); Mobile Edge Cloud, e.g. caching, communications; Vehicle-to- Vehicle (V2V) communications; Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications; Vehicle-to-anything communications (V2X). This is to say, the present disclosure relates to providing network slicing according to any readily definable/distinguishable type of communication that can be carried out over a wireless network. Vertical network slicing enables resource sharing among services and applications, and may avoid or simplify a traditional QoS engineering problem.
Horizontal network slicing, meanwhile, is targeted at extending the capabilities of devices in the wireless network, particularly mobile devices that may have limitations on the local resources available to them, and enhancing user experiences. Horizontal network slicing goes across and beyond the hardware platforms' physical boundaries. Horizontal network slicing enables resource sharing among network nodes and devices, i.e., highly capable network nodes/devices may then share their resources (e.g., computation, communication, storage) to enhance the capabilities of less capable network nodes/devices. A simple example may be to use a network base station and/or a smartphone mobile device, to supplement the processing and communication capabilities of a wearable device. An end result of horizontal network slicing may be to provide a new generation of mobile (e.g. moving) underlay network clusters, where mobile terminals become moving networking nodes. Horizontal slicing may provide over-the-air resource sharing across wireless network nodes. The wireless network air interface in use may be an integrated part and an enabler of horizontal slicing.
Vertical network slicing and horizontal network slicing may form independent slices. The end-to-end traffic flow in a vertical slice may transit between the core network and the terminal devices. The end-to-end traffic flow in a horizontal slice may be local and transit between the client and host of a mobile edge computation service.
In vertical slicing, each of the network nodes may implement similar functions among the separate slices. A dynamic aspect of vertical slicing may lie predominantly in the resource partitioning. In horizontal slicing, however, new functions could be created at a network node when supporting a slice. For example, a portable device may use different functions to support different types of wearable devices. The dynamic aspect of horizontal slicing may therefore lie in the network functions as well as the resource partitioning.
Figure 1 shows a first view of the broad concept of vertical and horizontal network slicing. There is shown a complete wireless network 100, including multiple vertical slices 110 - 140, each serving a different (or at least separate) vertical market, i.e. use-case. In the example shown vertical slice #1 110 serves mobile broadband communications, vertical slice #2 120 serves vehicle-to- vehicle communications, vertical slice #3 130 serves security communications, and vertical slice #4 140 serves industrial control communications. These are only exemplary use-cases, and the use-cases that may be served by sliceable wireless network according to the present disclosure is practically unlimited.
The wireless network 100 includes a core network layer portion 150 (e.g. having multiple server s/control entities/control portions of eNode-Bs, etc.), a radio access network layer portion 160 (e.g. including multiple base stations, e-Node Bs, etc.), a device layer portion 170 (including e.g. portable devices such as UEs, vehicles, surveillance devices, industrial devices, etc.), and a personal/wearable layer portion 180 (including, e.g. wearable devices such as smart watches, health monitors, Google™ glasses/Microsoft™ Hololens type devices, and the like). The wearable portion may only be involved in some use-cases, as shown by its inclusion in only vertical slices #1 and #2 in the example of Figure 1.
In the vertical domain, the physical computation/storage/radio processing resources in the network infrastructure (as denoted by the servers and base stations 150/160) and the physical radio resources (in terms of time, frequency, and space) are sliced, by use-case (i.e. type of communication) to form end-to-end vertical slices. In the horizontal domain, the physical resources (in terms of computation, storage, radio) in adjacent layers of the network hierarchy are sliced to form horizontal slices. In the example shown, there is a first horizontal network slice 190 operating between the RAN 160 and Device 170 layers, and a second horizontal network slice 195 operating between the Device 170 and wearable 180 layers. Any given device served or to be served by the wireless network 100 as a whole, and the RAN 160 (and below layers) in particular, could operate on multiple network slices, of either (or both) types. For instance, a smart phone can operation in a vertical slice on mobile broad band (MBB) service, a vertical slice on health care service and a horizontal slice supporting wearable devices.
When enabling network slicing in the RAN ( including the air interfaces employed in the RAN), besides meeting the 5G requirements (e.g., data rate, latency, number of connections, etc.), further desirable features of the RAN/air interfaces used to enable network slicing and in general 5G may include Flexibility (i.e. support flexible radio resource allocation among slices); Scalability (i.e. easily scale up with the addition of new slices; and Efficiency (e.g. efficiently use the radio and energy resources).
Horizontal slicing may comprise slicing the network hierarchy, e.g. the layers of network connectivity and compute (i.e. processing resource) capability. This may be done across any number of the vertical slices served by the network 100, for example anything from all the vertical markets down to within a one or more vertical slice(s). This is shown as the different widths of the two exemplary horizontal slices in Figure 1 - horizontal slice #1 190 is limited to a single vertical slice, whereas horizontal slice #2 is covers two vertical slices. Examples of network hierarchy/layers may include, but is not limited to, a macro network layer, a micro/small cell network layer, a device to device communications layer, and the like. Other network layers may also be involved.
Figure 2 shows a second view 200 of a portion of the wireless network 100 of Figure 1. In particular, Figure 2 shows an example of a slice-specific RAN architecture, where slices may be across multiple levels of the traditional wireless network architecture. For example, depending on factors such as traffic type, traffic load, QoS requirement, the RAN architecture of each of the slices may be dynamically configured. In a first example, slice #1 210 may only operate on the macro cell level. Whereas slice #2 220 only operates on the small cells level. Finally, slice #3 230 may operate on both macro and small cells levels. In another example, a slice (e.g. slice #1 210) may open up operation on small cells while another slice (e.g. slice #3 230) may close operation on some of the small cells. Opening up operation/activating a slice may be referenced as a network slice turn-on, and closing operation/deactivating a slice may be referenced as a network slice turn-off. The slice-specific RAN architecture may require slice-specific control-plane/user-plane operation, slice on/off operation and slice-based treatment on access control and load balancing, as will be discussed in more detail below.
Horizontal slicing comprising slicing the network/device computation and communication resources may achieve computation offloading. Examples include the base station using a slice of its computation resource to help a user device's computation, or a user device (e.g. smartphone) using a slice of its computation resource to help computation of an associated wearable device(s).
Embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to any particular form of slicing in the vertical (markets) or horizontal (network hierarchy /layers) directions.
Embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a management entity operable across the Control-plane (C -plane) and/or User-plane (U-plane), that may provide a management- plane entity that may be used to coordinate the operation of the different slices, either horizontal or vertical (or multiple/combined, or partial, ones thereof). The management entity may use a flat management architecture or a hierarchal management architecture.
Slicing of the radio access network may be considered as compartmentalization of the radio access network according to predetermined vertical markets, or horizontal network layers (or multiple/partial layers) of the network. This may be considered a form of logical separation between the wireless resources provided by, or in use by, the radio access network. Logical separation of the wireless resources may allow that they may be separately defined, managed, and/or (generally or specifically) resourced. This separation may provide the ability for the different slices to not be able to, or allowed to, affect one another. Equally, in some embodiments, one or more slices may be specifically provided with the ability to manage another one or more slices, for operational reasons.
In some embodiments network functions may be fully offloaded to a network slice, and the slice may operate in a standalone mode, for example a standalone millimeter-wave (mmWave) small cell network, and an out-of-coverage D2D network. A mmWave small cell is one that uses milli-meter size radio waves (i.e. high frequency - e.g. 60GHz).
In some embodiments network function(s) may be partially offloaded to a slice, and the slice may operate in a non- standalone mode, for example in an anchor-booster architecture, where an anchor-booster architecture may comprise an anchor cell, providing a control-plane and a mobility anchor for maintaining connectivity. In an embodiment, the anchor cell may be a cell with wide coverage, for example a macro cell. The anchor- booster architecture may further comprise a booster cell, providing user-plane data offloading. In an embodiment, the booster cell may be a small cell, and may be deployed under the coverage of an anchor cell. From a device perspective, the control-plane and user-plane may be decoupled, i.e., the control-plane may be maintained at the anchor cell while the data-plane may be maintained at the booster cell.
In some example embodiments, the horizontal slices and vertical slices may be viewed as intertwined (i.e. where the radio access network functions/resources are shared among some of the vertical and horizontal slices), as illustrated in the graph 300 of Figure 3. Thus, Figure 3 shows how a Radio Access Network (RAN) can be sliced into horizontal and vertical slices according to an embodiment that is alternative (or additional) to that shown in Figure 1, where the slices are totally independent in terms of traffic flow and operation. The graph 300 of Figure 1 has Network Hierarchy 302 (i.e. the network layers involved/in use) along the y-axis, and Radio Resource 304 (i.e. indicative of using separate radio resources, such as frequencies, time slots, etc.) along the x-axis. In the example of Figure 1, vertical slicing is shown as comprising four vertical slices 306. However, any number of different markets/use-cases may be involved. The four vertical markets/use-cases shown chosen for the vertical slices are mobile broadband (MBB) 110, a vehicle type communication (V2X) 120, a first machine type communication (MTC-1) 130, a second machine type communication (MTC-2) 140, being slices Slice#l-Slice#4, respectively. These are only exemplary choices of the use-cases that could be served. Also shown in Figure 3 is horizontal slicing, in this example again comprising four horizontal slices 308. The four horizontal slices shown are macro network layer 210, micro network layer 220, device to device network layer 230, and Personal Area Network (PAN) (e.g. wearable) network layer 240. According to an example, each horizontal slice contains a portion of multiple vertical slices. Equally, each vertical slice contains a portion of each horizontal slice. The separate portions, as separated in both the horizontal and vertical directions may be referred to as a slice portion. Thus, in the example of Figure 1, the MBB vertical slice 110 comprises four slice portions: Macro Network layer portion 112; Micro Network layer portion 114; D2D Network layer portion 116; and PAN Network layer portion 118. Similarly, V2X vertical slice 120 comprises four slice portions: Macro Network layer portion 122; Micro Network layer portion 124; D2D Network layer portion 126; and PAN Network layer portion 128. Meanwhile, the MTC-1 vertical slice 130 comprises four slice portions: Macro Network layer portion 132; Micro Network layer portion 134; D2D Network layer portion 136; and PAN Network layer portion 138, and MTC-2 vertical slice 140 comprises four slice portions: Macro Network layer portion 142; Micro Network layer portion 144; D2D Network layer portion 146; and PAN Network layer portion 148.
An example of such an architecture is, in a personal area network, a wearable health sensor may belong to a dedicated health network. The personal area network layer may then represent a horizontal network slice. The health sensor running under the coverage of the personal area network may belong to a vertical network slice. In the same token, each horizontal network slice could comprise multiple vertical network slices. Each vertical network slice may have multiple horizontal network slices. Another example is a macro cell (i.e. macro eNB) that serves a number of different use-case communications. Likewise, each vertical slice may contain portions of multiple horizontal slices, for example, in a V2X network, there may be V2I and V2V layers. In another example, the mobile broad band (MBB) vertical slice includes portions in each of the macro, micro and device to device layers, as shown. Thus, embodiments provide a way to logically carve up the wireless resources provided by, and/or in use by, the radio access network, according to both use-case (vertically) and network layer (horizontally).
Communication and computation have been helping each other in pushing the boundaries of information and computing technologies. At the network side, computation has been used to help communication by moving computation and storage to the edge. With edge cloud and edge computation, the communication link between the source and the destination is getting shorter, thereby improving the communication efficiency and reducing the amount of information propagation in the network. The optimal deployment of edge cloud and computation scheme varies. As a general rule, the less capable the end device is and/or the higher the device density, the closer the cloud and computation to the network edge.
Moving forward at the device side, with the devices further shrinking in size from portable devices to wearable devices and the user expectation on computation keeping increasing, we expect future communications will help to deliver the user experience, e.g., the network nodes slice out part of their computation resources to help computation at the portable device, while the portable devices slice out part of their computation resources to help the computation at the wearable devices. In this way, the network is horizontally sliced. The sliced out computation resources and the air interface connecting the two ends form an integrated part that delivers the required service.
Figure 4 shows a more detailed example of horizontal slicing in a sliceable wireless network architecture according to embodiments. The left hand side shows the traditional 3G/4G architecture (but only from the RAN down). This comprises a base station portion 410, comprising an up-stream/core network side communication function 412, a base station compute function 414 (i.e. the processing resources available in the base station, or closely coupled entity thereof), and a down-stream/wireless/device side communication function 416 (to communicate with the devices being served by that base station, or other, peer base station, e.g. in the case of fronthaul, etc.). There is also shown a portable portion 420 (e.g. a User Equipment, or a like device) comprising a similar combination of up-stream and down-stream communication resources and local processing resources. In this case, the up-stream communication link is the typical cellular wireless communication link 422 (e.g. OFDM/CDMA/LTE type link) and a down-stream communication link 426 such as a 5G radio access technology (RAT) (e.g. OFDM/CDMA/LTE type link), a next generation communication link(s) such as a 5G PAN RAT (yet to be created), or a current or next generation other PAN wireless communication technology, e.g. Bluetooth, zigbee or the like. In between is the local compute function 424, i.e. processing resources local to the portable device. Lastly, in the example, there is the wearable portion 430, which typically has only a single up-stream communications link 432 and limited local processing resources function 434. The right hand side of figure 4 shows the one of the new proposed horizontal network slicing concepts, in particular, how the processing resources of higher and lower entities in the network can be "combined", i.e. shared between themselves, using the communications and processing resource abilities of the entities taking part. The basic functions are similar, therefore are denoted as items 410' to 434' respectively, and act in similar ways. However, there is now the concept of horizontal slices, in this case, showing the horizontal slices #1 190 and #2 195 of Figure 1 in more detail. In this basic example, the wearable device 430' is able to make use of the processing resources 424' of portable device 420', by using the communications functions to share processing data (e.g. data to process and the resultant processed data). Similarly, the portable device 420' is able to use the base station 410' processing resources 414' .
There will now follow more detailed description of a portion of the network slicing concept, according to the present disclosure. In some example, these functions may be provided as new network function (NFs), which may be virtualized in some cases, e.g. by using network function virtualization (NFV). These NFs and NFVs may be slice specific, or operate over multiple/all slices. The proposed wireless network, both as a whole (e.g. including the core network), but particularly the RAN will now be slice aware, by making use of a newly implemented slice identification.
Future wireless communication systems are expected to enable fully connected society and things, which may propel the advancement of the global economy and social wellbeing. This may require the future wireless communication systems to be able to support various market segments including manufacturing, public safety, road safety, health care, smart home, smart workplace, etc. The new demands give mobile network operators opportunities to exploit new business models to support vertical markets and extend their subscriber ownership.
Legacy mobile communication systems are mainly designed for mobile broadband service. Operators provide horizontal platforms with flat air interface and network architecture. To support the future vertical markets, network slicing could be needed.
Current investigations on network slicing are focused on the core network, such as by means of software defined network (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), etc. Air-interface slicing is largely unattended. To see the operation of air interface slicing, we take random access (RA) as an example: In the legacy Long Term Evolution (LTE) air interface standards, user equipment (UE) or other like mobile devices fairly content for access and are treated indiscriminately in case of collision. With network slicing, UEs accessing different network slices should be differentiated. A crowded network slice A with high RA collision probability should not affect a UE with network slice B access authorization to access network slice B.
Example embodiments are directed towards techniques for air interface slicing. Example embodiments include fifth generation (5G) LTE air interfaces with support on public mobile broadband access and dedicated access for certain applications, services, and/or requirements. The dedicated access may be assigned with one dedicated air interface slice. Example embodiments include air interface slicing architecture and techniques. The example embodiments may be summarized as follows:
1. Protocol stack:
Two-level media access control (MAC): Level-1 MAC for scheduling across network slices. Level-2 MAC for scheduling within each network slice. Each network slice has dedicated MAC entity in Level-2 MAC; Physical Layer (PHY) to logical PHY mapping: map physical radio resource to logical radio resource;
MAC operates on logical PHY.
2. Network slice identity:
o Define network slice identifier (sNetID);
o Broadcast the sNet!Ds of the active network slices in system information.
3/4 Device random access and network slice activation:
RA can be in common with physical random access channel (PRACH) shared among all the devices in the cellular network or in dedicated random access channel (RACH) for a network slice;
In case of dedicated PRACH, a network slice may be in an active state. The
PRACH location may be broadcasted to the devices in system broadcasting information and/or system information blocks (SIBs);
When the network slice is in a dormant state or idle state, devices may do
RA in the common PRACH, during which the network slice may be triggered;
The RA sequence used to access a network slice may carry the sNetID; Slice-specific contention resolution may be applied.
5. Physical downlink control channel (PDCCH): o Common control channel (CCCH) and dedicated control channel (DCCH) configuration may be transmitted within one radio subframe;
o The CCCH addresses to the cell radio network temporary identifier (C- RNTI) of the devices in the mobile broadband (MBB) service and the sNetlD. All the devices admitted in the network slice can detect the common control information addressed to the sNetlD. The common control information addressed to the sNetlD may carry the resource allocation information for the network slice;
o The DCCH may locate within the radio resources assigned for each network slice and may be used to schedule the transmission of the devices operating under the network slice.
6. Physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ):
o Devices operating under a network slice may transmit uplink (UL) control information in the control region of the UL resource assigned for the network slice.
7. Resource allocation for network slices:
o Factors to be considered in assigning radio resources to a network slice may include: traffic load, traffic type and quality of service (QoS) requirements, and/or resource allocation granularity and dynamics.
1. PHY and MAC architecture
Figure 5 shows an example embodiment of the PHY and MAC architecture with network slicing on the air interface. For the PHY, Figure 5 illustrates a case where multiple PHY numerologies are implemented to meet different QoS requirements. A portion of the radio resource is allocated to the active network slices in the cell. In the example shown by Figure 5, three network slices additional to the base Mobile broadband slice are shown (i.e. there is shown Slice#l to Slice #4, denoted by shading styles 501-504, respectively. These shading styles are used uniformly throughout). Each Slice is assigned a portion of the radio resource. The resource allocation may be scheduled by a Level- 1 MAC 510. The granularity and dynamics of the resource allocation may be selected according to various design choices and/or empirical studies. Note that each of the network slices 501-504 can have multiple radio frame types with different numerologies. This scenario may be implemented when the network slice has traffic with diverse performance and QoS requirements.
In more detail, Figure 5 shows an overall MAC entity 500 comprising a Level- 1 (LI) MAC entity 510 operating across all the network slices, and an Level -2 (L2) MAC entity 520, itself comprising a number of slice-specific sub-entities 522-528 (i.e. a MAC for each of slices #1- #4, respectively). These sub-entities 522-528 each are slice-specific, and operate on a respective, slice-specific potion of an overall logical radio resource 550, shown as slice-specific portions 552 - 558. The respective relation between a slice- specific L2 MAC sub-entity 522-528 and a slice-specific portion of the logical radio resource, items 552 - 558, is shown by a doubled ended dotted arrow.
How each of the slice-specific portions 552 - 558 of the logical radio resource are allocated to the actual physical radio resources (and more specifically, the numerologies in use on the wireless network at this point, e.g. numerologies #1 570 and #2 580, for this example) are shown by the single ended arrows. Each set of single ended arrows for a particular slice is dotted in a different fashion, and each respective portion of the physical radio resources has suitably corresponding shading, for ease of review. The shown relationships are merely exemplary, and any suitable arrangement of the network slice logical resource on to the physical resources may be used. As herein used, the physical radio resources are the actual physical frequencies 562 and time 561 allocations across the wireless resources 560 available, in a similar fashion to current 4G resource mapping, e.g. Physical resource blocks (PRBs), with TTI spacing, etc.
As described above, the distributed physical radio resource of each network slice is mapped to continuous logical radio resource, which may be used for Level-2 MAC scheduling for communication within the network slice. Each network slice may have dedicated Level-2 MAC entity (e.g. sub-entities 522- 528 noted in Figure 5). A logical transmission time interval (TTI) is defined based on the logical radio resource as shown in Figure 6, which is an illustration of physical radio resource to logical radio resource mapping and logical TTI. The logical TTI may be the functional equivalent, in the logical/network slicing domain, as the TTI (i.e. physical TTI) of the traditional 4G network standards. The TTI may be considered a logical unit instead of a temporal unit. MAC operation on logical radio resource allows more scalable HARQ procedure, which may be based on a logical TTI unit instead of a temporal TTI unit. In more detail, Figure 6 shows the mapping of a physical radio resource 610 distributed arrangement to a logical radio resource 620 contiguous/continuous arrangement. In Figure 6, blocks of physical radio resource 610 are illustrated as being mapped to blocks of logical radio resource 620 by dashed arrows. The blocks of physical radio resource 610 may be distributed in time and frequency, and may be mapped to the contiguous/continuous subframes of logical radio resource 620 (denoted as SF0 to SF4 in Figure 6) to form a contiguous logical ordering of blocks. Figure 6 also shows a TTI 621 of logical radio resource 620, wherein the transmission time interval 621 is a subframes (labelled as SF0-SF4) of the logical radio resource 620. The TTI may refer to the duration of a smallest transmission period on a radio link for each subframe, e.g. 1ms.
Figures 7 and 8 show two examples 700 and 800 of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process operating on the logical radio resource of a slice, which may be based on logical TTI units, such as the TTI unit 621 of Figure 6. The example of Figure 7 is a HARQ procedure with four stop and wait (SAW) processes, acting between a set of downlink subframe blocks 710 and the respective the uplink subframe blocks 720.
Figure 8 shows a similar HARQ process to Figure 7, however the example of Figure 8 includes a six SAW process instead of the four of figure 7, acting between a set of downlink subframe blocks 810 and the respective the uplink subframe blocks 820. 2. Network slice identification
According to example embodiments, to identify a network slice in the air interface, a network slice ID (sNetID) may be assigned to the network slice. The sNetID is known by devices accessing (or going to access) the network slice. The sNetID may be used to address all the devices in the network slice. sNetlDs of the active networks can be broadcasted in system information and the like.
3. Random access (RA)
According to various embodiments, random access (RA) can be in a common physical random access channel (PRACH) shared among all devices in a wireless network, or in a dedicated PRACH for a network slice. In the example shown in Figure 9, which is an illustration of example PRACH channel types in uplink frame 900, PRACH #0 920 may be a common PRACH that can be used by all the devices in the cell or network. PRACH #1 930 may be a dedicated PRACH assigned for the network slice #1. The example of Figure 9 illustrates both the common PRACH 920 and the dedicated PRACH 930 contained in a common physical uplink control channel PUCCH #1 910. In the case of a dedicated PRACH 930, the network slice may be in an active state. The PRACH location may be broadcast to devices in a system that are broadcasting information, and/or one or more system information blocks (SIBs). When the network slice is in a dormant state or idle state, devices may perform a RA procedure in the common PRACH 920, during which the network slice may be triggered. The RA sequence used to access a network slice may carry the sNetlD. Slice-specific contention resolution may be applied.
4. Network slice dormancy and activation
According to various embodiments, a network slice in a cell can be turned into a dormant state if no traffic is present for a desired period of time. Once turned into the dormant state, the resources allocated to the network slice may be released. In various embodiments, a dormant network slice may be turned into an active state in at least one of the following two cases:
1) When downlink traffic occurs in the network slice. In this case, the network slice may be triggered by the network; or
2) When uplink traffic occurs in the network slice. In this case, the network slice may be triggered by the UE during RA or another like scheduling request.
5. Physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)
According to various embodiments, common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information and dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information may be transmitted within one radio subframe. Figure 10 shows an example of one downlink subframe 1000, and is an illustration of an example physical downlink control channel type and location. Figure 10 shows the locations of cPDCCH information 1010 and dPDCCH information 1020 according to an example.
The cPDCCH 1010 may be located in fixed symbols of each subframe (e.g., the first three symbols, as in 4G LTE/LTE- Advanced). The cPDCCH 1010 may carry resource allocation information for devices accessing a mobile broad band (MBB) network and may also carry the resource allocation information for any other network slices in a wireless network.
In an example, the cPDCCH 1010 may use a sNetlD to address scheduled network slices. In such an example, all devices accessing a scheduled network slice may detect the cPDCCH information 1010 addressed to the corresponding sNetlD.
Dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information 1020 for a network slice may be located in the radio resources assigned to the network slice. The dPDCCH information 1020 may be located in two or more continuous resource blocks of the network slice, or may be distributed in the resource blocks of the network slice. The dPDCCH 1020 carriers scheduling information for the devices operating under the network slice.
In more detail, Figure 10 shows a cPDCCH portion 1010 of one downlink subframe 1000. In the example of Figure 10, the cPDCCH portion 1010 may include an indication 1012 of the resource block (RB) allocation for a network slice. The example of Figure 10 further shows the indication 1012 of the RB allocation mapped to a dPDCCH portion of one DL subframe. In the example of Figure 10, the dPDCCH may further contain the downlink radio resource 1022 for a network slice.
6. Physical uplink control channel
According to example embodiments, common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmissions and dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmissions may be transmitted within one radio subframe, as illustrated in Figure 11, which is an illustration of an example physical uplink control channel type and location. The cPUCCH may be used by all devices accessing the mobile operator network. The dPUCCH may be dedicated to devices accessing a network slice. A device with both MBB access and network slice access may aggregate its uplink control information of the MBB access and the network slice access to one control unit, and transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
In more detail, the example of Figure 11 shows one uplink subframe 1100, comprising common physical uplink control channel portions 910, similar to the example of Figure 9. In the example of Figure 11, the one uplink subframe 1100 may comprise cPUCCH portions 910 and dedicated physical uplink control channel dPUCCH portion 1120. The example of figure 11 may further comprise uplink radio resource 1122 for a network slice, associated with dPUCCH 1120.
7. Resource allocation
Factors to be considered in assigning radio resources to a network slice include: traffic load, traffic type and QoS requirements, and/or resource allocation granularity and dynamics. For example, for network slices that require low latency delivery, the resource can be allocated in continuous physical subframes to achieve the minimum amount of transmission latency as designed in the air interface. To reduce control signaling overhead, resource allocation patterns may be defined. Figure 12 shows an example of a RAN control entity 1200 according to an embodiment. As used herein, the term RAN control entity may be any circuit, logic or circuitry suitable for and arranged to carry out the disclosed methods and control functions. The term "logic", "circuit" and "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable in hardware.
Embodiments described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. Figure 12 illustrates, for one embodiment, example components of an electronic device 1200. In embodiments, the electronic device 1200 may be, implement, be incorporated into, or otherwise be a part of a user equipment (UE), base station (BS) such as an evolved NodeB (eNB), a RAN controller, or some other electronic device or network entity that is capable and arranged to perform the disclosed RAN slicing methods and functions. In some embodiments, the electronic device 1200 may include application circuitry 1210, control circuitry, such as baseband circuitry 1220, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1230, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1240 and one or more antennas 1250, coupled together at least as shown.
The application circuitry 1210 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 1210 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.
The baseband circuitry 1220 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 1220 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1230 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1230. Baseband processing circuity 1220 may interface with the application circuitry 1210 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 1230. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1220 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 1221, third generation (3G) baseband processor 1222, fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1223, and/or other baseband processor(s) 1224 for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.). The baseband circuitry 1220 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 1221-1224) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 1230. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments,
modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1220 may include Fast- Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping
functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1220 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.
In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1220 may include elements of a protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) protocol including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or radio resource control (RRC) elements. A central processing unit (CPU) 1226 of the baseband circuitry 1220 may be configured to run elements of the protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC Layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 1227. The audio DSP(s) 1227 may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.
The baseband circuitry 1220 may further include memory/storage 1225. The memory/storage 1225 may be used to load and store data and/or instructions for operations performed by the processors of the baseband circuitry 1220. Memory/storage for one embodiment may include any combination of suitable volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. The memory/storage 1225 may include any combination of various levels of memory/storage including, but not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) having embedded software instructions (e.g., firmware), random access memory (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM)), cache, buffers, etc. The memory/storage 1225 may be shared among the various processors or dedicated to particular processors.
Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1220 and the application circuitry 1210 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).
In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1220 may provide for
communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1220 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 1220 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.
RF circuitry 1220 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various
embodiments, the RF circuitry 1230 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 1230 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1240 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 1220. RF circuitry 1230 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up- convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 1220 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 1240 for transmission.
In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 1230 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1230 may include mixer circuitry 1231, amplifier circuitry 1232 and filter circuitry 1233. The transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1230 may include filter circuitry 1233 and mixer circuitry 1231. RF circuitry 1230 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1234 for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1240 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 1234. The amplifier circuitry 1232 may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 1233 may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 1220 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.
In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1231 of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1234 to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 1240. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1220 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1233. The filter circuitry 1233 may include a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.
In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1231 of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and/or upconversion respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1231 of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1231 may be arranged for direct downconversion and/or direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1231 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1231 of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.
In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 1230 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 1220 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 1230.
In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.
In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.
The synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1231 of the RF circuitry 1230 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.
In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 1220 or the applications processor 1210 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor 1210.
Synthesizer circuitry 1234 of the RF circuitry 1230 may include a divider, a delay- locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DP A). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+l (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.
In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 1234 may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 1230 may include an IQ/polar converter.
FEM circuitry 1240 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 1250, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1230 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1240 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 1230 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 1250.
In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1240 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1230). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1240 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1230), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 1250).
In some embodiments, the electronic device 1200 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or input/output (I/O) interface.
In some embodiments, the electronic device 1200 may be, implement, incorporate, or be otherwise part of a RAN entity. In embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1220 may be to: identify one or more vertical slices of a RAN, the vertical slices related to vertical market segments of the RAN; identify one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, the horizontal slices related to network hierarchy segments of the RAN; and slice the RAN into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices. The RF circuitry may be to send and/or receive one or more signals in accordance with the vertical and/or horizontal slices. In some embodiments, the electronic device of Figure 12 may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, and/or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. Figure 13 depicts one such process 1300. For example, in embodiments where the electronic device is, implements, is incorporated into, or is otherwise part of a an evolved node B (e B), or a portion thereof, the process may include slicing a physical radio resource into a plurality of network slices 1310; and mapping each of the plurality of network slices to contiguous logical radio resources 1320. The method 1300 of Figure 13 may further comprise mapping each of the contiguous logical radio resources to physical radio resources 1330.
In some embodiments, a Level- 1 media access control (MAC) is to slice the physical radio resource into the plurality of network slices and a Level-2 MAC is to map the plurality of network slices to the contiguous logical radio resource wherein the Level-2 MAC is to schedule the physical radio resources within the network slice.
In some embodiments, the plurality of network slices may be mapped to the contiguous logical radio resource according to a predefined logical transmission time interval (TTI) unit.
In some embodiments, the method may include assigning a network slice identifier (sNetID) to a corresponding network slice of the plurality of network slices; and broadcasting each sNetID to each device being served by the eNB.
In some embodiments, each of the plurality of network slices are assigned to dedicated physical random access channel (PRACH) such that a user equipment (UE) is to access at least one of the plurality of network slices by performing a random access procedure over the dedicated PRACH.
In some embodiments, each of the plurality of network slices are to be in an active state in order to utilize the dedicated PRACH, and wherein when a network slice of the plurality of network slices is in a dormant state or an idle state, the UE is to perform a random access procedure over a common PRACH, and method further comprises:
triggering the network slice to enter the active state in response to reception of a message indicative that the UE performed the random access procedure over the common PRACH, wherein the message is to include an sNetID of the network slice to be triggered.
In some embodiments, the method may include broadcasting a location of the dedicated PRACH within a subframe to each device being served by the eNB in system broadcasting information message and/or in a system information block (SIB). In some embodiments, the method may include determining whether traffic is present within each of the plurality of network slices for a desired (e.g. specified) period of time; transitioning each network slice of the plurality of network slices to a dormant state when no traffic is determined to be present for the desired (e.g. specified) period of time; and releasing resources allocated to network slices that are in the dormant state.
In some embodiments, the method may include transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when downlink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a network element.
In some embodiments, the method may include transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when uplink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a UE during a random access procedure.
In some embodiments, the method may include providing common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information and dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information.
In some embodiments, the cPDCCH information is to be used by a UE to locate fixed symbols of each subframe, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for the network slices, wherein each UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed to a corresponding UE.
In some embodiments, the dPDCCH information associated with one of the plurality of network slices is located in the radio resources assigned to one of the plurality of network slices, wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the one of the plurality of network slices or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the one of the plurality of network slices, and wherein the dPDCCH is to carry scheduling information for a UE operating under the one of the plurality of network slices.
In some embodiments, the method may include receiving a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network, wherein the dPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices.
In some embodiments, a UE configured to access both the MBB and the network slice is to aggregate associated uplink control information for accessing the MBB and accessing the network slice to a single control unit and the UE is to transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
In some embodiments, the method may include determining a minimum amount of transmission latency for a traffic type of a data stream, and allocating the data stream to a number of continuous physical subframes to achieve the minimum amount of transmission latency.
In some embodiments, the method may include performing a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation on logical subframes defined by the logical TTI.
In some embodiments, the electronic device of Figure 12 may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, and/or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. Figure 14 depicts one such process 1400. For example, in embodiments where the electronic device is, implements, is incorporated into, or is otherwise part of a user equipment (UE), or a portion thereof, the process may include determining, based on a communication from an evolved Node B (eNB), a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information that indicates one or more radio resources to locate one or more fixed symbols of each subframe of a plurality of subframes 1410; and determining, based on the communication from the eNB or another communication from the eNB, dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information that is to indicate scheduling information for transmitting data using a network slice of a plurality of network slices 1420.
In some embodiments, the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for
UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for accessing one of a plurality of network slices, and wherein the UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed the UE.
In some embodiments, the dPDCCH information associated with the network slice is located in the radio resources assigned to the network slice, and wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the network slice or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the network slice. In some embodiments, the method may include transmitting a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network and the dPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access the network slice.
In some embodiments, when the UE is configured to access both the MBB and the network slice, the method may include aggregating uplink control information for accessing the MBB and uplink control information for accessing the network slice to a single control unit; and transmitting the control unit in the cPUCCH.
Figure 15 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 machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 15 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1500 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 1510, one or more memory/storage devices 1520, and one or more communication resources 1530, each of which are communicatively coupled via a bus 1540.
The processors 1510 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 1512 and a processor 1514. The memory/storage devices 1520 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof.
The communication resources 1530 may include interconnection and/or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1504 and/or one or more databases 1506 via a network 1508. For example, the communication resources 1530 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.
Instructions 1550 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1510 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 1550 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 1510 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1520, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 1550 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1500 from any combination of the peripheral devices 1504 and/or the databases 1506. Accordingly, the memory of processors 1510, the memory/storage devices 1520, the peripheral devices 1504, and the databases 1506 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.
Embodiments can be realized according to any of the following examples taken jointly and severally in any and all permutations:
Example 1 may include a system supporting mobile broadband (MBB) access and dedicated access for vertical markets or underlay networks.
Example 2 may include a user equipment (UE) configured to have both MBB access and dedicated accesses. Example 2 may be incorporated into example 1 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 3 may include a method for slicing the network with each piece of the slice configured to support one dedicated access. Example 3 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-2 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 4 may include a method of network slicing that contains core network slicing and air interface slicing. Example 4 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-3 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 5 may include a method for mapping physical radio resource to logical radio resources. Example 5 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-4 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 6 may include a media access control (MAC) operation based on one or more logical radio resources. Example 6 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-5 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 7 may include a method of performing two level MAC, wherein Level- 1 MAC supports radio resource scheduling across network slices and Level-2 MAC supports radio resource scheduling within the network slice. Example 7 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-6 and/or any other example disclosed herein. Example 8 may include a dedicated Level-2 MAC entity for each of the network slice. Example 8 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-7 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 9 may include a logical transmission time interval (TTI) unit defined based on the logical radio resource. Example 9 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-8 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 10 may include a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation on the logical subframes defined by the logical TTI. Example 10 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-9 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 11 may include a network slice is identified by the variable sNetlD.
Example 11 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-10 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 12 may include the sNetlD of a network slice that is known to the devices accessing the network slice. Example 12 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-11 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 13 may include the sNetlDs of active network slices of a cell being broadcasted in system broadcasting information or a system information block (SIB). Example 13 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-12 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 14 may include a random access (RA) procedure to access a network slice, wherein the RA procedure may use a common RA resource used for all devices in the operator network and/or a dedicated RA resource dedicated to the network slice. Example 14 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-13 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 15 may include a method performed by a user equipment (UE) to derive the dedicated RA resource location from system broadcasting or a SIB. Example 15 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-14 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 16 may include a RA sequence that carries the sNetlD, which can be used for slice-specific contention resolution. Example 16 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-15 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 17 may include a method for performing a slice-specific contention resolution and a UE configured to perform the slice-specific contention resolution. Example 17 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-16 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 18 may include a method to turn a network slice into a dormant state or an idle state when no traffic is determined to be present within the network slice for a desired (e.g. specified) period of time. Example 18 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-17 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 19 may include the method of example 18 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein when turned into dormant state, a radio resource assigned to the network slice is to be released.
Example 20 may include the method of example 18-19 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein activation of a dormant network slice is to be triggered by downlink traffic arrival or performance of an uplink random access procedure.
Example 21 may include a system comprising a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) and a dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH), wherein the cPDCCH is to be used for signaling across network slices; and the dPDCCH is to be used for signaling in each of the network slices. Example 21 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-20 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 22 may include a system comprising a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH), wherein, the cPUCCH is to be used by all the devices accessing the mobile operator network; the dPUCCH is to be dedicated to devices accessing a network slice, wherein a device with both MBB access and network slice access is to aggregate uplink control information associated with the MBB access and the network slice access to at least one control unit and transmit the at least one control unit in the cPUCCH. Example 22 may be incorporated into any of examples 1-21 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 23 may include an apparatus to be implemented in an evolved node B (e B), the apparatus comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions; and one or more processors coupled with the one or more computer-readable storage media to execute the instructions to: slice a physical radio resource into a plurality of network slices; and map each of the plurality of network slices to a contiguous logical radio resource.
Example 24 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a Level- 1 media access control (MAC) is to slice the physical radio resource into the plurality of network slices and a Level-2 MAC is to map the plurality of network slices to the contiguous logical radio resource wherein the Level-2 MAC is to schedule the physical radio resources within the network slice.
Example 25 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the plurality of network slices are to be mapped to the contiguous logical radio resource according to a predefined logical transmission time interval (TTI) unit.
Example 26 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to assign a network slice identifier (sNetID) to a corresponding network slice of the plurality of network slices; and broadcast each sNetID to each device being served by the e B.
Example 27 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each of the plurality of network slices are assigned to dedicated physical random access channel (PRACH) such that a user equipment (UE) is to access at least one of the plurality of network slices by performing a random access procedure over the dedicated PRACH.
Example 28 may include the apparatus of example 27 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each of the plurality of network slices are to be in an active state in order to utilize the dedicated PRACH, and wherein when a network slice of the plurality of network slices is in a dormant state or an idle state, the UE is to perform a random access procedure over a common PRACH, and the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to trigger the network slice to enter the active state in response to reception of a message indicative that the UE performed the random access procedure over the common PRACH, wherein the message is to include an sNetID of the network slice to be triggered.
Example 29 may include the apparatus of example 27 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to broadcast a location of the dedicated PRACH within a subframe to each device being served by the eNB in system broadcasting information message and/or in a system information block (SIB).
Example 30 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to determine whether traffic is present within each of the plurality of network slices for a desired (e.g. specified) period of time; transition each network slice of the plurality of network slices to a dormant state when no traffic is determined to be present for the desired period of time; and release resources allocated to network slices that are in the dormant state.
Example 31 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to transition at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when downlink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a network element.
Example 32 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to transition at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when uplink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a UE during a random access procedure.
Example 33 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to provide common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information and dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information.
Example 34 may include the apparatus of example 33 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the cPDCCH information is to be used by a UE to locate fixed symbols of each subframe, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for the network slices, wherein each UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed to a corresponding UE,
Example 35 may include the apparatus of example 33 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dPDCCH information associated with one of the plurality of network slices is located in the radio resources assigned to one of the plurality of network slices, wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the one of the plurality of network slices or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the one of the plurality of network slices, and wherein the dPDCCH is to carry scheduling information for a UE operating under the one of the plurality of network slices. Example 36 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to receive a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network, wherein the dPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices.
Example 37 may include the apparatus of example 36 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a UE configured to access both the MBB and the network slice is to aggregate associated uplink control information for accessing the MBB and accessing the network slice to a single control unit and the UE is to transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
Example 38 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to determine a minimum amount of transmission latency for a traffic type of a data stream, and allocate the data stream in a number of continuous physical subframes to achieve the minimum amount of transmission latency.
Example 39 may include the apparatus of example 23 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation is performed on logical subframes defined by the logical TTI.
Example 40 may include may include an apparatus to be implemented in a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions; and one or more processors coupled with the one or more computer- readable storage media to execute the instructions to: determine, based on a communication from an evolved Node B (eNB), a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information that indicates one or more radio resources to locate one or more fixed symbols of each subframe of a plurality of subframes; and determine, based on the communication from the eNB or another communication from the eNB, a dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information that is to indicate scheduling information for transmitting data using a network slice of a plurality of network slices.
Example 41 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for accessing one of a plurality of network slices, and wherein the UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed the UE.
Example 42 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dPDCCH information associated with the network slice is located in the radio resources assigned to the network slice, and wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the network slice or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the network slice.
Example 43 may include the apparatus of example 40 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to transmit a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network and the dPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access the network slice.
Example 44 may include the apparatus of example 43 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein when the UE is configured to access both the MBB and the network slice, the one or more processors are to execute the instructions to aggregate uplink control information for accessing the MBB and uplink control information for accessing the network slice to a single control unit; and transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
Example 45 may include a method to be performed by an evolved node B (eNB), the method comprising: slicing a physical radio resource into a plurality of network slices; and mapping each of the plurality of network slices to a contiguous logical radio resource.
Example 46 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a Level- 1 media access control (MAC) is to slice the physical radio resource into the plurality of network slices and a Level-2 MAC is to map the plurality of network slices to the contiguous logical radio resource wherein the Level-2
MAC is to schedule the physical radio resources within the network slice.
Example 47 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the plurality of network slices are to be mapped to the contiguous logical radio resource according to a predefined logical transmission time interval (TTI) unit.
Example 48 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: assigning a network slice identifier (sNetID) to a corresponding network slice of the plurality of network slices; and broadcasting each sNetID to each device being served by the e B.
Example 49 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each of the plurality of network slices are assigned to dedicated physical random access channel (PRACH) such that a user equipment (UE) is to access at least one of the plurality of network slices by performing a random access procedure over the dedicated PRACH.
Example 50 may include the method of example 49 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each of the plurality of network slices are to be in an active state in order to utilize the dedicated PRACH, and wherein when a network slice of the plurality of network slices is in a dormant state or an idle state, the UE is to perform a random access procedure over a common PRACH.
Example 51 may include the method of example 50 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising triggering the network slice to enter the active state in response to reception of a message indicative that the UE performed the random access procedure over the common PRACH, wherein the message is to include an sNetID of the network slice to be triggered.
Example 52 may include the method of example 49 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: broadcasting a location of the dedicated PRACH within a subframe to each device being served by the eNB in system broadcasting information message and/or in a system information block (SIB).
Example 53 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: determining whether traffic is present within each of the plurality of network slices for a desired period of time; transitioning each network slice of the plurality of network slices to a dormant state when no traffic is determined to be present for the desired period of time; and releasing resources allocated to network slices that are in the dormant state.
Example 54 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when downlink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a network element. Example 55 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when uplink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a UE during a random access procedure.
Example 56 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: providing common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information and dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information.
Example 57 may include the method of example 56 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the cPDCCH information is to be used by a UE to locate fixed symbols of each subframe, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for the network slices, wherein each UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed to a corresponding UE,
Example 58 may include the method of example 56 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dPDCCH information associated with one of the plurality of network slices is located in the radio resources assigned to one of the plurality of network slices, wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the one of the plurality of network slices or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the one of the plurality of network slices, and wherein the dPDCCH is to carry scheduling information for a UE operating under the one of the plurality of network slices.
Example 59 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: receiving a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network, wherein the dPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices.
Example 60 may include the method of example 59 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a UE configured to access both the MBB and the network slice is to aggregate associated uplink control information for accessing the MBB and accessing the network slice to a single control unit and the UE is to transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
Example 61 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: determining a minimum amount of transmission latency for a traffic type of a data stream, and allocating the data stream to a number of continuous physical subframes to achieve the minimum amount of transmission latency.
Example 62 may include the method of example 45 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: performing a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation on logical subframes defined by the logical TTI.
Example 63 may include a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: determining, based on a communication from an evolved Node B (eNB), a common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information that indicates one or more radio resources to locate one or more fixed symbols of each subframe of a plurality of subframes; and determining, based on the communication from the eNB or another communication from the eNB, dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information that is to indicate scheduling information for transmitting data using a network slice of a plurality of network slices.
Example 64 may include the method of example 63 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for accessing one of a plurality of network slices, and wherein the UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed the UE,
Example 65 may include the method of example 63 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dPDCCH information associated with the network slice is located in the radio resources assigned to the network slice, and wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the network slice or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the network slice.
Example 66 may include the method of example 63 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising: transmitting a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network and the dPUCCH is to be used by the UE to access the network slice. Example 67 may include the method of example 66 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein when the UE is configured to access both the MBB and the network slice, the method further comprises: aggregating uplink control information for accessing the MBB and uplink control information for accessing the network slice to a single control unit; and transmitting the control unit in the cPUCCH.
Example 68 may include an apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network, and circuitry to provide a first, Level- 1, media access control function operable to control resource scheduling across all network slices of a wireless network, and provide a first, Level-2, media access control function operable to control resource scheduling within a network slice of the wireless network.
Example 69 may include the apparatus of example 68 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising a plurality of Level-2 media access control functions per single Level- 1 media access control function.
Example 70 may include the apparatus of examples 68-69 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each Level-2 media access control function applies different numerologies to radio subframes used in the network slice, and wherein a numerology applied is dependent on a use-case of the network slice or type of data communicated over the network slice.
Example 71 may include the apparatus of examples 68-70 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the Level-2 media access control function is dedicated to a single network slice.
Example 72 may include the apparatus of examples 68-71 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each network slice has a slice-specific transmission time interval (TTI), and a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operates on data of the network slice according to the slice-specific TTI.
Example 73 may include the apparatus of examples 68-72 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a slice is identified using a dedicated slice
identification.
Example 74 may include the apparatus of examples 68 to 73 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the slice identification is broadcast in a system information block. Example 75 may include the apparatus of examples 68-74 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the wireless network comprises a core network portion and/or an air interface portion
Example 76 may include a method comprising controlling resource scheduling across all network slices of a wireless network using a first, Level- 1, media access control function, and controlling resource scheduling within a network slice of the wireless network using a first, Level-2, media access control function.
Example 77 may include the method of example 76 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising providing a plurality of Level-2 media access control functions per single Level- 1 media access control function.
Example 78 may include the method of examples 76-77 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising applying different numerologies to radio subframes used in the network slice by each Level-2 media access control function, wherein a numerology applied is dependent on a use-case of the network slice or type of data communicated over the network slice.
Example 79 may include the method of examples 76-78 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising dedicating the Level-2 media access control function to a single network slice.
Example 80 may include the method of examples 76-79 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein each network slice has a slice-specific transmission time interval (TTI), the method further comprising operating on data of the network slice according to the slice-specific TTI using a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ).
Example 81 may include the method of examples 76-80 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising identifying a slice using a dedicated slice
identification.
Example 82 may include the method of examples 76-81 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising broadcasting the slice identification in a system information block.
Example 83 may include the method of examples 76-82 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising providing a core network portion and/or an air interface portion in the wireless network.
Example 84 may include an apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network, and circuitry to provide a slice specific dedicated slice identification, wherein the dedicated slice identification is broadcast to devices operable to access the wireless communication network during use.
Example 85 may include the apparatus of example 84 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dedicated slice identification is broadcast in a system information of the wireless communication network.
Example 86 may include a method comprising providing, to a network slice, a slice specific dedicated slice identification, and broadcasting the dedicated slice identification to devices operable to access the wireless communication network during use.
Example 87 may include the method of example 86 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dedicated slice identification is broadcast in a system information of the wireless communication network.
Example 88 may include an apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network, and circuitry to provide random access to a network slice using a common random access resource, and slice a wireless network, wherein to slice comprises configuring each slice or portion thereof to support transmission or delivery of a type of communications.
Example 89 may include the apparatus of example 88 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein a type of communications comprises a single use-case of the communications.
Example 90 may include the apparatus of examples 88-89 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the common random access resource is accessible to all devices in the wireless communication network
Example 91 may include the apparatus of examples 88-90 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the circuitry is further to dedicate random access to a network slice using a dedicated random access resource of the network slice being accessed.
Example 92 may include the apparatus of examples 88-91 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the common random access resource is the common physical random access channel (PRACH). Example 93 may include the apparatus of examples 88-92 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dedicated random access resource is the dedicated physical random access channel (dPRACH), and wherein the dPRACH is network slice specific.
Example 94 may include a method comprising providing random access to a network slice using a common random access resource, and slicing a wireless network, wherein slicing comprises configuring each slice or portion thereof to support transmission or delivery of a type of communications.
Example 95 may include the method of example 94 wherein a type of
communications comprises a single use-case of the communications.
Example 96 may include the method of examples 94-95 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising providing accessibility to the common random access resource by all devices in the wireless communication network
Example 97 may include the method of examples 94-96 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising dedicating random access to a network slice using a dedicated random access resource of the network slice being accessed.
Example 98 may include the method of examples 94-97 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the common random access resource is the common physical random access channel (PRACH).
Example 99 may include the method of examples 94-98 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the dedicated random access resource is the dedicated physical random access channel (dPRACH), and wherein the dPRACH is network slice specific.
Example 100 may include an apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network, and circuitry to control status of a network slice of the wireless communication network, said circuitry to switch a network slice from an active state to a dormant state when no traffic or only traffic below a first predetermined threshold is available to use on the respective network slice, or switch on a network slice from a dormant state to an active state when traffic or only traffic above a second predetermined threshold is available to use on the respective network slice. Example 101 may include the apparatus of example 100 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein to switch a network slice from an active state to a dormant state comprises releasing the wireless network resources assigned to the slice.
Example 102 may include the apparatus of examples 100-101 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein to switch on a network slice from a dormant state to an active state comprises triggering an activation of the network slice during a random access or scheduling request.
Example 103 may include the apparatus of examples 100-102 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the first and second threshold are different or the same.
Example 104 may include the apparatus of examples 100-103 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the first and second threshold are slice specific.
Example 105 may include a method comprising switching a network slice from an active state to a dormant state when no traffic or only traffic below a first predetermined threshold is available to use on the respective network slice, or switching on a network slice from a dormant state to an active state when traffic or only traffic above a second predetermined threshold is available to use on the respective network slice.
Example 106 may include the method of example 105 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising releasing the wireless network resources assigned to the slice when switching a network slice from an active state to a dormant state.
Example 107 may include the method of examples 105-106 and/or any other example disclosed herein, further comprising triggering an activation of the network slice during a random access or scheduling request.
Example 108 may include the method of examples 105-107 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the first and second threshold are different or the same.
Example 109 may include the method of examples 105-108 and/or any other example disclosed herein, wherein the first and second threshold are slice specific.
Example 110 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 3-20, 45-67, 76-83, 86-87, 94-99, 106-109, or any other method or process described herein.
Example 111 may include one or more 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 3-20, 45-67, 76-83, 86-87, 94-99, 106-109, or any other method or process described herein, or to provide the functionality of the apparatus or device according to any of examples 1, 2, 21-22, 23-39, 40-44, 68-75, 84-85, or 88-93 and/or any other example disclosed herein.
Example 112 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 3- 20, 45-67, 76-83, 86-87, 94-99, 106-109, or any other method or process described herein.
Example 113 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 of any of examples 3-20, 45-67, 76-83, 86-87, 94-99, 106-109, or any other method or process described herein.
Example 114 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.
Example 115 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.
Example 116 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.
Example 117 may include a device to enable network slicing in a radio access network comprising any combination of the devices, entities or methods described herein, or portions of the devices, entities or methods described herein.
Example 118 may include a radio access network comprising any combination of the devices, entities or methods described herein, or portions of the devices, entities or methods described herein.
Example 119 may include a device for use in a radio access network comprising any combination of the devices, entities or methods described herein, or portions of the devices, entities or methods described herein.
Examples use-cases/types of communications may include: Wireless/Mobile Broadband (MBB) communications; Extreme Mobile Broadband (E-MBB) communications; Real-time use-case such as Industrial Control communications, Machine-to-Machine communications (MTC/MTC1); non -real -time use-case, such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors communications, or massive-scale Machine-to-Machine communications (M-MTC/MTC2); Ultra Reliable Machine-to-Machine communications (U-MTC); Mobile Edge Cloud, e.g. caching, communications; Vehicle-to- Vehicle (V2V) communications; Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications; Vehicle-to-anything communications (V2X). This is to say, the present disclosure relates to providing network slicing according to any readily definable/distinguishable type of communication that can be carried out over a wireless network.
In some examples, the radio access network (RAN) control entity is distributed across portions of the RAN. In some examples, the portions of RAN are the base stations (e.g. eNBs) of the RAN, in others, the portion(s) of the RAN may be a UE, or any other device being or to be served by the wireless network/RAN, or forming part of (or serving) the same, e.g. mobility management engine (MME), baseband unit (BBU), remote radio head (RRH) or, etc. In some examples, if the RAN control entity is physically distributed, the RAN control entity can be collocated with the macro BS, and only manage the slice portions that under the coverage of the macro BS. In some examples, if the RAN control entity is in a central location, the RAN control entity can manage a slice portion across multiple BSs which are under the coverage of the RAN control entity. The RAN control entity may comprise at least a portion controlling allocation of RAN, or device, resources according to a need of the one or more horizontal or vertical slices, for example computational resources at/in, or available to, a device in the wireless network.
As herein described, where an example or claim recites RF circuitry, for example, to form a greater entity within the wireless network, e.g. a base station, this is also intended to cover the or an alternative embodiment which does not include the RF circuitry, for example for use in (or to provide) a distributed form of entity according to the disclosure. This may be applicable, for example, when the entity forms part of a Cloud RAN, where the radio portions (e.g. RRH) are not co-located/within the same entity as at least a significant portion of the control function (entity, module, etc.) , e.g. BBU. Thus, no embodiments are intended to be restricted to only those having an RF portion that sends or receives messages to or form the wireless network. For example, some implementations may be part of front-haul capabilities, which may be the connections to radio front ends (e.g. RRHs) from a centralized, or more centralized baseband function (e.g. BBU).
As used herein, any reference to computer program product or computer readable medium, may include reference to both transitory (e.g. physical media) and non-transitory forms (e.g. signals or data structures thereof).
Various examples disclosed herein may provide many advantages, for example, but not limited to: providing full(er) coverage for the devices being served, for any given amount of core network and/or RAN resources (e.g. computing, radio, etc); less control signaling delay and signaling exchange overhead among transmission points; providing improved coverage and at the same time reducing control signaling exchange among network nodes (inc. transmission points); a more efficient (overall, or substantial portion of a) wireless network, for example because, it allows a given amount of (e.g. a single) physical radio access network infrastructure to be used by multiple use-cases, thereby resulting in less hardware/infrastructure than would otherwise be used (e.g. double, or more, hardware, for example to provide separate physical radio access network infrastructure for each use case); generally improved radio access network performance, efficiency, reliability, maintaining/maintenance of service and quality of service, for all devices operating across the RAN, and within each slice of the RAN.
As herein described, turn-on, activation or logical separation, or the like, of the, or a, network slice may be equivalent to one another, and the terms used inter-changeably. Similarly, the turn-off, deactivation or logical desperation, or the like, of a network slice may all be equivalent to one another, and the terms used inter-changeably. A network slice may also be referenced as a logically separate (separated, partitioned, etc.) radio network access, or as a logically separate (separated, partitioned, etc.) radio network access portion. A device being, or to be served by the physical radio access network infrastructure, or a network slice may include a UE, however any and all other forms of devices that may be served are also interchangeable with a reference to a UE herein. A device may be referenced as a wireless network device. However, a wireless network device as used herein may also reference a serving entity, such as base station, MME, BBU, RRH, etc., dependent on context of use. Operationally, in terms of the disclosed network slicing, an access point and base station may be considered similar in use or deployment.
As herein described, specific examples have been used to explain the disclosed methods and functions (and function units that carry out those functions), however, the disclosure is not so limited. For example, embodiments of the disclosure is/are not limited to any specific example, such as: where a specific vertical market is disclosed in relation to a Figure, this is only an example, and any vertical market may be used instead; where a specific portion of a slice is disclosed in relation to a Figure, any portion of a slice may be used instead; where a RAN has been disclosed as having a certain size, type or number of slices (horizontal or vertical) in relation to a Figure, any size, type or number of slices may be used instead; where a slice or slice portion has been disclosed as having a certain size, type or number (in the horizontal or the vertical) in relation to a Figure, any size, type or number of slice or slice portion may be used instead. Also, in the foregoing, whilst a numbering scheme for the slices has been applied starting from 1, other numbering schemes may also be implemented, e.g. the numbers may start from 0 instead, such that Slice#l may be Slice#0, and the like. Thus, the specific numbers are not limiting, other than by showing an exemplary distinction between slices (by being differently numbered) or an exemplary relation between numbered slice portions (by being consecutively numbered sub-parts of the same numbered slice).
As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group), and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable hardware or software components, including a one or more virtual machines that can provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may be implemented in, or functions associated with the circuitry may be implemented by, one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable in hardware. In some embodiment, the processing/execution may be distributed instead of centralized processing/execution.
As used herein, any reference to a (RAN) architecture may include anything that may be defined as or thought of as any form of specific process(es), technique(s), technology(ies), implementation detail, improvement in or type of operation of a wireless network (or similar networking system entity), particularly in the RAN. Architectures may be typically introduced, maintained and updated in the standards documents for the respective wireless network technologies in use, for example the third generation partnership project (3GPP) standards, and the like.
It will be appreciated that any of the disclosed methods (or corresponding apparatuses, programs, data carriers, etc.) may be carried out by either a host or client, depending on the specific implementation (i.e. the disclosed methods/apparatuses are a form of communication(s), and as such, may be carried out from either 'point of view', i.e. in corresponding to each other fashion). Furthermore, it will be understood that the terms "receiving" and "transmitting" encompass "inputting" and "outputting" and are not limited to an RF context of transmitting and receiving radio waves. Therefore, for example, a chip or other device or component for realizing embodiments could generate data for output to another chip, device or component, or have as an input data from another chip, device or component, and such an output or input could be referred to as "transmit" and "receive" including gerund forms, that is, "transmitting" and "receiving", as well as such "transmitting" and "receiving" within an RF context.
As used in this specification, any formulation used of the style "at least one of A, B or C", and the formulation "at least one of A, B and C" use a disjunctive "or" and a disjunctive "and" such that those formulations comprise any and all joint and several permutations of A, B, C, that is, A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B in any order, A and C in any order, B and C in any order and A, B, C in any order. There may be more or less than three features used in such formulations.
In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The word 'comprising' does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps then those listed in a claim. Furthermore, the terms "a" or "an," as used herein, are defined as one or more than one. Also, the use of introductory phrases such as "at least one" and "one or more" in the claims should not be construed to imply that the introduction of another claim element by the indefinite articles "a" or "an" limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and indefinite articles such as "a" or "an." The same holds true for the use of definite articles. Unless stated otherwise, terms such as "first" and "second" are used to arbitrarily distinguish between the elements such terms describe. Thus, these terms are not necessarily intended to indicate temporal or other prioritization of such elements. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.
Unless otherwise explicitly stated as incompatible, or the physics or otherwise of the embodiments, example or claims prevent such a combination, the features of the foregoing embodiments and examples, and of the following claims may be integrated together in any suitable arrangement, especially ones where there is a beneficial effect in doing so. This is not limited to only any specified benefit, and instead may arise from an "ex post facto" benefit. This is to say that the combination of features is not limited by the described forms, particularly the form (e.g. numbering) of the example(s), embodiment s), or dependency of the claim(s). Moreover, this also applies to the phrase "in one embodiment", "according to an embodiment" and the like, which are merely a stylistic form of wording and are not to be construed as limiting the following features to a separate embodiment to all other instances of the same or similar wording. This is to say, a reference to 'an', 'one' or 'some' embodiment(s) may be a reference to any one or more, and/or all embodiments, or combination(s) thereof, disclosed. Also, similarly, the reference to "the" embodiment may not be limited to the immediately preceding embodiment.
In the foregoing, reference to 'layer' may be a reference to a predefined (or definable) portion of the infrastructure, whereas reference to 'Layer' may be a reference to a network protocol Layer in operation on/in the network infrastructure, or portion thereof. Reference to MAC Layer may also comprise a reference to the MAC Layer and above, up to just below the IP Layer, and for example may comprise the RRC functions of the wireless network (or RAN). As used herein, a vertical slice may be referenced as or related to a vertical market segment. As used herein, any machine executable instructions may carry out a disclosed method, and may therefore be used synonymously with the term method.
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 the claims to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various implementations of the disclosure.

Claims

CLAIMS:
1. An apparatus operable in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising:
radio frequency (RF) circuitry to receive or transmit at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network; and
circuitry to:
provide a first, Level- 1, media access control function operable to control resource scheduling across all network slices of a wireless network; and
provide a first, Level-2, media access control function operable to control resource scheduling within a network slice of the wireless network.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of Level-2 media access control functions per single Level- 1 media access control function.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each Level-2 media access control function applies different numerologies to radio subframes used in the network slice, and wherein a numerology applied is dependent on a use-case of the network slice or type of data communicated over the network slice.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Level-2 media access control function is dedicated to a single network slice.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each network slice has a slice-specific transmission time interval (TTI), and a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operates on data of the network slice according to the slice-specific TTI.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a slice is identified using a dedicated slice identification.
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the slice identification is broadcast in a system information block.
8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the wireless network comprises a core network portion and/or an air interface portion
9. Machine executable instructions arranged, when executed by one or more than one processor, to implement a method to be performed by an evolved Node B (eNB), the method comprising:
slicing a physical radio resource into a plurality of network slices; and
mapping each of the plurality of network slices to a contiguous logical radio resource.
10. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising slicing the physical radio resource into the plurality of network slices with the Level- 1 media access control (MAC) and mapping the plurality of network slices to the contiguous logical radio resource with the Level-2 MAC, wherein the Level-2 MAC is to schedule the physical radio resources within the network slice.
11. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising mapping the plurality of network slices to the contiguous logical radio resource according to a predefined logical transmission time interval (TTI) unit.
12. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising:
assigning a network slice identifier (sNetID) to a corresponding network slice of the plurality of network slices; and
broadcasting each sNetID to each device being served by the e B.
13. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising assigning each of the plurality of network slices to a dedicated physical random access channel (PRACH) such that a user equipment (UE) is to access at least one of the plurality of network slices by performing a random access procedure over the dedicated PRACH.
14. The machine executable instructions of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of network slices are to be in an active state in order to utilize the dedicated PRACH, and wherein when a network slice of the plurality of network slices is in a dormant state or an idle state, the method further comprising performing a random access procedure over a common PRACH by the UE.
15. The machine executable instructions of claim 14, further comprises:
triggering the network slice to enter the active state in response to reception of a message indicative that the UE performed the random access procedure over the common PRACH, wherein the message is to include an sNetID of the network slice to be triggered.
16. The machine executable instructions of claim 13, further comprising broadcasting a location of the dedicated PRACH within a subframe to each device being served by the eNB in system broadcasting information message and/or in a system information block (SIB).
17. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising:
determining whether traffic is present within each of the plurality of network slices for a specified period of time; transitioning each network slice of the plurality of network slices to a dormant state when no traffic is determined to be present for the specified period of time; and
releasing resources allocated to network slices that are in the dormant state.
18. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when downlink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a network element.
19. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising transitioning at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices from a dormant state to an active state when uplink traffic occurs in the at least one network slice, wherein the at least one network slice is to be triggered by a UE during a random access procedure.
20. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising providing common physical downlink control channel (cPDCCH) information and dedicated physical downlink control channel (dPDCCH) information.
21. The machine executable instructions of claim 20, wherein the cPDCCH information is to be used by a UE to locate fixed symbols of each subframe, wherein the cPDCCH is to carry resource allocation information for UEs accessing a mobile broadband (MBB) network and resource allocation information for the network slices, wherein each UE is to use an sNetID to detect the cPDCCH information addressed to a corresponding UE.
22. The machine executable instructions of claim 20, wherein the dPDCCH information associated with one of the plurality of network slices is located in the radio resources assigned to one of the plurality of network slices, wherein the dPDCCH information is to be assigned to two or more continuous resource blocks of the one of the plurality of network slices or is to be distributed in the resource blocks associated with the one of the plurality of network slices, and wherein the dPDCCH is to carry scheduling information for a UE operating under the one of the plurality of network slices.
23. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising receiving a common physical uplink control channel (cPUCCH) transmission and a dedicated physical uplink control channel (dPUCCH) transmission within one radio subframe, wherein the cPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access a mobile broadband (MBB) network, wherein the dPUCCH is to be used by one or more UEs that desire to access at least one network slice of the plurality of network slices.
24. The machine executable instructions of claim 23, wherein a UE configured to access both the MBB and the network slice is to aggregate associated uplink control information for accessing the MBB and accessing the network slice to a single control unit and the UE is to transmit the control unit in the cPUCCH.
25. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising:
determining a minimum amount of transmission latency for a traffic type of a data stream; and
allocating the data stream to a number of continuous physical subframes to achieve the minimum amount of transmission latency.
26. The machine executable instructions of claim 9, further comprising performing a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) operation on logical subframes defined by the logical transmission time interval (TTI).
PCT/US2016/020034 2015-09-11 2016-02-29 Air interface slicing architecture for wireless communication systems WO2017044151A1 (en)

Priority Applications (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
DE112016004124.1T DE112016004124T5 (en) 2015-09-11 2016-02-29 Air interface subnetwork architecture for wireless communication systems
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