WO2018106868A1

WO2018106868A1 - Slicing switch resources

Info

Publication number: WO2018106868A1
Application number: PCT/US2017/065024
Authority: WO
Inventors: Luca COMINARDI; Alain Mourad; Ping-Heng Kuo
Original assignee: Idac Holdings, Inc.
Priority date: 2016-12-07
Filing date: 2017-12-07
Publication date: 2018-06-14

Abstract

Systems, methods, and instrumentalities are disclosed for slicing switch resources. Switch networking resources may be sliced. Isolation may be provided for forwarding, management and configuration procedures for multiple tenants in the same physical switch. Uncoordinated tenants may coexist on the same switch. In an example, multiple virtual switch agents and virtual pipelines may be created and coordinated for multiple tenants, for example, by an infrastructure provider agent and a switch pipeline hypervisor. A physical switch pipeline may be configured to support a configuration of a switch pipeline hypervisor. A switch pipeline hypervisor may provide port and flow table abstraction and mapping between virtual switch pipelines and a physical switch pipeline, coordinate resources among uncoordinated tenants and/or provide isolation between tenants.

Description

SLICING SWITCH RESOURCES

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATOINS

[0001] This application claims priority to and the benefit of United States Provisional Application Serial No. 62/431 ,313, filed December 7, 2016, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Mobile communications continue to evolve. A fifth generation may be referred to as 5G. A previous (legacy) generation of mobile communication may be, for example, fourth generation (4G) long term evolution (LTE). Mobile wireless communications implement a variety of radio access technologies (RATs), such as New Radio (NR) or 5G flexible RAT. Use cases for NR may include, for example, extreme Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra High Reliability and Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC).

SUMMARY

[0003] Systems, methods, and instrumentalities are disclosed for slicing switch resources. Switch networking resources may be sliced. Isolation may be provided for forwarding, management and configuration features, e.g., for multiple tenants in the same physical switch. Uncoordinated tenants may coexist on the same switch. In an example, multiple virtual switch agents and virtual pipelines may be created and coordinated for multiple tenants, for example, by an infrastructure provider agent and a switch pipeline hypervisor. A physical switch pipeline may be configured to support a configuration of a switch pipeline hypervisor. A switch pipeline hypervisor may provide port and flow table abstraction and mapping between virtual switch pipelines and a physical switch pipeline, coordinate resources among uncoordinated tenants, and/or provide isolation between tenants. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] FIG. 1 A is a system diagram illustrating an example communications system in which one or more disclosed examples may be implemented.

[0005] FIG. 1 B is a system diagram illustrating an example wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an example.

[0006] FIG. 1 C is a system diagram illustrating an example radio access network (RAN) and an example core network (CN) that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an example.

[0007] FIG. 1 D is a system diagram illustrating a further example RAN and a further example CN that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1A according to an example.

[0008] FIG. 2 is an example of Software Defined Networking (SDN)-based network slicing

[0009] FIG. 3 is an example of SDN-based multi-tenancy.

[0010] FIG. 4 is an example of slicing switch resources.

[001 1] FIG. 5 is an example of OpenFlow-based switch slicing.

[0012] FIG. 6 is an example of OpenFlow Pipeline processing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0013] A detailed description of illustrative embodiments will now be described with reference to the various Figures. Although this description provides a detailed example of possible implementations, it should be noted that the details are intended to be exemplary and in no way limit the scope of the application.

[0014] FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating an example communications system 100 in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. The communications system 100 may be a multiple access system that provides content, such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast, etc., to multiple wireless users. The communications system 100 may enable multiple wireless users to access such content through the sharing of system resources, including wireless bandwidth. For example, the communications systems 100 may employ one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), zero-tail unique-word DFT-Spread OFDM (ZT UW DTS-s OFDM), unique word OFDM (UW-OFDM), resource block-filtered OFDM, filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), and the like.

[0015] As shown in FIG. 1A, the communications system 100 may include wireless transmit/receive units

(WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, a RAN 104/1 13, a CN 106/1 15, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, the Internet 110, and other networks 112, though it will be appreciated that the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, base stations, networks, and/or network elements. Each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may be any type of device configured to operate and/or communicate in a wireless environment. By way of example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, any of which may be referred to as a "station" and/or a "STA", may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals and may include a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a subscription-based unit, a pager, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a laptop, a netbook, a personal computer, a wireless sensor, a hotspot or Mi-Fi device, an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. Any of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and 102d may be interchangeably referred to as a UE.

[0016] The communications systems 100 may also include a base station 114a and/or a base station 1 14b. Each of the base stations 114a, 114b may be any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the CN 106/115, the Internet 1 10, and/or the other networks 1 12. By way of example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, an eNode B, a Home Node B, a Home eNode B, a gNB, a NR NodeB, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, and the like. While the base stations 1 14a, 114b are each depicted as a single element, it will be appreciated that the base stations 1 14a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and/or network elements.

[0017] The base station 1 14a may be part of the RAN 104/1 13, which may also include other base stations and/or network elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), relay nodes, etc. The base station 114a and/or the base station 114b may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals on one or more carrier frequencies, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). These frequencies may be in licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or a combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. A cell may provide coverage for a wireless service to a specific geographical area that may be relatively fixed or that may change over time. The cell may further be divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associated with the base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in one embodiment, the base station 114a may include three transceivers, i.e., one for each sector of the cell. In an embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and may utilize multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell. For example, beamforming may be used to transmit and/or receive signals in desired spatial directions. [0018] The base stations 114a, 114b may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d over an air interface 116, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF), microwave, centimeter wave, micrometer wave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

[0019] More specifically, as noted above, the communications system 100 may be a multiple access system and may employ one or more channel access schemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. For example, the base station 114a in the RAN 104/113 and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), which may establish the air interface 1 15/1 16/1 17 using wideband CDMA (WCDMA). WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and/or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High-Speed Downlink (DL) Packet Access (HSDPA) and/or High-Speed UL Packet Access (HSU PA).

[0020] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish the air interface 1 16 using Long Term Evolution (LTE) and/or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and/or LTE-Advanced Pro (LTE-A Pro).

[0021] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as NR Radio Access , which may establish the air interface 116 using New Radio (NR).

[0022] In an embodiment, the base station 1 14a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement multiple radio access technologies. For example, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement LTE radio access and NR radio access together, for instance using dual connectivity (DC) principles. Thus, the air interface utilized by WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be characterized by multiple types of radio access technologies and/or transmissions sent to/from multiple types of base stations (e.g., a eNB and a gNB).

[0023] In other embodiments, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (i.e., Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and the like.

[0024] The base station 1 14b in FIG. 1A may be a wireless router, Home Node B, Home eNode B, or access point, for example, and may utilize any suitable RAT for facilitating wireless connectivity in a localized area, such as a place of business, a home, a vehicle, a campus, an industrial facility, an air corridor (e.g., for use by drones), a roadway, and the like. In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.1 1 to establish a wireless local area network (WLAN). In an embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). In yet another embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may utilize a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, NR etc.) to establish a picocell or femtocell. As shown in FIG. 1A, the base station 114b may have a direct connection to the Internet 1 10. Thus, the base station 1 14b may not be required to access the Internet 1 10 via the CN 106/1 15.

[0025] The RAN 104/113 may be in communication with the CN 106/115, which may be any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications, and/or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d. The data may have varying quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as differing throughput requirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements, reliability requirements, data throughput requirements, mobility requirements, and the like. The CN 106/115 may provide call control, billing services, mobile location-based services, pre-paid calling, Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and/or perform high-level security functions, such as user authentication. Although not shown in FIG. 1A, it will be appreciated that the RAN 104/1 13 and/or the CN 106/1 15 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANs that employ the same RAT as the RAN 104/1 13 or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN 104/113, which may be utilizing a NR radio technology, the CN 106/1 15 may also be in communication with another RAN (not shown) employing a GSM, UMTS, CDMA 2000, WiMAX, E-UTRA, or WiFi radio technology.

[0026] The CN 106/1 15 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 1 10, and/or the other networks 1 12. The PSTN 108 may include circuit-switched telephone networks that provide plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices that use common communication protocols, such as the transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) and/or the internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite. The networks 1 12 may include wired and/or wireless communications networks owned and/or operated by other service providers. For example, the networks 1 12 may include another CN connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104/113 or a different RAT.

[0027] Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities (e.g., the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks over different wireless links). For example, the WTRU 102c shown in FIG. 1 A may be configured to communicate with the base station 114a, which may employ a cellular- based radio technology, and with the base station 114b, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology. [0028] FIG. 1 B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102. As shown in FIG. 1 B, the WTRU 102 may include a processor 1 18, a transceiver 120, a transmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126, a display/touchpad 128, non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and/or other peripherals 138, among others. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elements while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0029] The processor 1 18 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 1 18 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While FIG. 1 B depicts the processor 1 18 and the transceiver 120 as separate components, it will be appreciated that the processor 1 18 and the transceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package or chip.

[0030] The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 1 16. For example, in one embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit and/or receive RF signals. In an embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an emitter/detector configured to transmit and/or receive IR, UV, or visible light signals, for example. In yet another embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and/or receive both RF and light signals. It will be appreciated that the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and/or receive any combination of wireless signals.

[0031] Although the transmit/receive element 122 is depicted in FIG. 1 B as a single element, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit/receive elements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in one embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two or more transmit/receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface 1 16.

[0032] The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate the signals that are to be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 122 and to demodulate the signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122. As noted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, the transceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as NR and IEEE 802.11 , for example.

[0033] The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to, and may receive user input data from, the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/or the display/touchpad 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit). The processor 1 18 may also output user data to the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/or the display/touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory, such as the non-removable memory 130 and/or the removable memory 132. The non-removable memory 130 may include random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storage device. The removable memory 132 may include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card, and the like. In other embodiments, the processor 1 18 may access information from, and store data in, memory that is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or a home computer (not shown).

[0034] The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, and may be configured to distribute and/or control the power to the other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry cell batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium- ion (Li-ion), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, and the like.

[0035] The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude and latitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In addition to, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS chipset 136, the WTRU 102 may receive location information over the air interface 116 from a base station (e.g., base stations 1 14a, 114b) and/or determine its location based on the timing of the signals being received from two or more nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may acquire location information by way of any suitable location-determination method while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0036] The processor 1 18 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality and/or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the peripherals 138 may include an accelerometer, an e-compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (for photographs and/or video), a universal serial bus (USB) port, a vibration device, a television transceiver, a hands free headset, a Bluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a digital music player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internet browser, a Virtual Reality and/or Augmented Reality (VR/AR) device, an activity tracker, and the like. The peripherals 138 may include one or more sensors, the sensors may be one or more of a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a hall effect sensor, a magnetometer, an orientation sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a time sensor; a geolocation sensor; an altimeter, a light sensor, a touch sensor, a magnetometer, a barometer, a gesture sensor, a biometric sensor, and/or a humidity sensor.

[0037] The WTRU 102 may include a full duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with particular subframes for both the UL (e.g., for transmission) and downlink (e.g., for reception) may be concurrent and/or simultaneous. The full duplex radio may include an interference management unit to reduce and or substantially eliminate self-interference via either hardware (e.g., a choke) or signal processing via a processor (e.g., a separate processor (not shown) or via processor 118). In an embodiment, the WRTU 102 may include a half-duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with particular subframes for either the UL (e.g., for transmission) or the downlink (e.g., for reception)).

[0038] FIG. 1 C is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 104 and the CN 106 according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 104 may employ an E-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communication with the CN 106.

[0039] The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c, though it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 1 16. In one embodiment, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, the eNode-B 160a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to, and/or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a.

[0040] Each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the UL and/or DL, and the like. As shown in FIG. 1 C, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may communicate with one another over an X2 interface.

[0041] The CN 106 shown in FIG. 1 C may include a mobility management entity (MME) 162, a serving gateway (SGW) 164, and a packet data network (PDN) gateway (or PGW) 166. While each of the foregoing elements are depicted as part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and/or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

[0042] The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 162a, 162b, 162c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, bearer activation/deactivation, selecting a particular serving gateway during an initial attach of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like. The MME 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM and/or WCDMA.

[0043] The SGW 164 may be connected to each of the eNode Bs 160a, 160b, 160c in the RAN 104 via the S1 interface. The SGW 164 may generally route and forward user data packets to/from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. The SGW 164 may perform other functions, such as anchoring user planes during inter-eNode B handovers, triggering paging when DL data is available for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, managing and storing contexts of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like.

[0044] The SGW 164 may be connected to the PGW 166, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices.

[0045] The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and traditional land-line communications devices. For example, the CN 106 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the CN 106 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to the other networks 112, which may include other wired and/or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by other service providers.

[0046] Although the WTRU is described in FIGS. 1A-1 D as a wireless terminal, it is contemplated that in certain representative embodiments that such a terminal may use (e.g., temporarily or permanently) wired communication interfaces with the communication network.

[0047] In representative embodiments, the other network 112 may be a WLAN.

[0048] A WLAN in Infrastructure Basic Service Set (BSS) mode may have an Access Point (AP) for the BSS and one or more stations (STAs) associated with the AP. The AP may have an access or an interface to a Distribution System (DS) or another type of wired/wireless network that carries traffic in to and/or out of the BSS. Traffic to STAs that originates from outside the BSS may arrive through the AP and may be delivered to the STAs. Traffic originating from STAs to destinations outside the BSS may be sent to the AP to be delivered to respective destinations. Traffic between STAs within the BSS may be sent through the AP, for example, where the source STA may send traffic to the AP and the AP may deliver the traffic to the destination STA. The traffic between STAs within a BSS may be considered and/or referred to as peer-to-peer traffic. The peer-to-peer traffic may be sent between (e.g., directly between) the source and destination STAs with a direct link setup (DLS). In certain representative embodiments, the DLS may use an 802.1 1e DLS or an 802.1 1z tunneled DLS (TDLS). A WLAN using an Independent BSS (IBSS) mode may not have an AP, and the STAs (e.g., all of the STAs) within or using the IBSS may communicate directly with each other. The IBSS mode of communication may sometimes be referred to herein as an "ad-hoc" mode of communication.

[0049] When using the 802.1 1 ac infrastructure mode of operation or a similar mode of operations, the AP may transmit a beacon on a fixed channel, such as a primary channel. The primary channel may be a fixed width (e.g., 20 MHz wide bandwidth) or a dynamically set width via signaling. The primary channel may be the operating channel of the BSS and may be used by the STAs to establish a connection with the AP. In certain representative embodiments, Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) may be implemented, for example in in 802.1 1 systems. For CSMA/CA, the STAs (e.g., every STA), including the AP, may sense the primary channel. If the primary channel is sensed/detected and/or determined to be busy by a particular STA, the particular STA may back off. One STA (e.g., only one station) may transmit at any given time in a given BSS.

[0050] High Throughput (HT) STAs may use a 40 MHz wide channel for communication, for example, via a combination of the primary 20 MHz channel with an adjacent or nonadjacent 20 MHz channel to form a 40 MHz wide channel.

[0051] Very High Throughput (VHT) STAs may support 20MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and/or 160 MHz wide channels. The 40 MHz, and/or 80 MHz, channels may be formed by combining contiguous 20 MHz channels. A 160 MHz channel may be formed by combining 8 contiguous 20 MHz channels, or by combining two noncontiguous 80 MHz channels, which may be referred to as an 80+80 configuration. For the 80+80 configuration, the data, after channel encoding, may be passed through a segment parser that may divide the data into two streams. Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing, and time domain processing, may be done on each stream separately. The streams may be mapped on to the two 80 MHz channels, and the data may be transmitted by a transmitting STA. At the receiver of the receiving STA, the above described operation for the 80+80 configuration may be reversed, and the combined data may be sent to the Medium Access Control (MAC).

[0052] Sub 1 GHz modes of operation are supported by 802.11 af and 802.1 1 ah. The channel operating bandwidths, and carriers, are reduced in 802.11 af and 802.1 1 ah relative to those used in 802.11 η, and 802.11 ac. 802.11 af supports 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 20 MHz bandwidths in the TV White Space (TVWS) spectrum, and 802.11 ah supports 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, and 16 MHz bandwidths using non-TVWS spectrum. According to a representative embodiment, 802.1 1 ah may support Meter Type Control/Machine- Type Communications, such as MTC devices in a macro coverage area. MTC devices may have certain capabilities, for example, limited capabilities including support for (e.g., only support for) certain and/or limited bandwidths. The MTC devices may include a battery with a battery life above a threshold (e.g., to maintain a very long battery life). [0053] WLAN systems, which may support multiple channels, and channel bandwidths, such as 802.11 η, 802.11 ac, 802.11 af, and 802.11 ah, include a channel which may be designated as the primary channel. The primary channel may have a bandwidth equal to the largest common operating bandwidth supported by all STAs in the BSS. The bandwidth of the primary channel may be set and/or limited by a STA, from among all STAs in operating in a BSS, which supports the smallest bandwidth operating mode. In the example of 802.11 ah, the primary channel may be 1 MHz wide for STAs (e.g., MTC type devices) that support (e.g., only support) a 1 MHz mode, even if the AP, and other STAs in the BSS support 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, 16 MHz, and/or other channel bandwidth operating modes. Carrier sensing and/or Network Allocation Vector (NAV) settings may depend on the status of the primary channel. If the primary channel is busy, for example, due to a STA (which supports only a 1 MHz operating mode), transmitting to the AP, the entire available frequency bands may be considered busy even though a majority of the frequency bands remains idle and may be available.

[0054] In the United States, the available frequency bands, which may be used by 802.11 ah, are from 902 MHz to 928 MHz. In Korea, the available frequency bands are from 917.5 MHz to 923.5 MHz. In Japan, the available frequency bands are from 916.5 MHz to 927.5 MHz. The total bandwidth available for 802.11 ah is 6 MHz to 26 MHz depending on the country code.

[0055] FIG. 1 D is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 113 and the CN 115 according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 113 may employ an NR radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 1 16. The RAN 113 may also be in communication with the CN 1 15.

[0056] The RAN 113 may include gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c, though it will be appreciated that the RAN 113 may include any number of gNBs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement MIMO technology. For example, gNBs 180a, 108b may utilize beamforming to transmit signals to and/or receive signals from the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c. Thus, the gNB 180a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to, and/or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement carrier aggregation technology. For example, the gNB 180a may transmit multiple component carriers to the WTRU 102a (not shown). A subset of these component carriers may be on unlicensed spectrum while the remaining component carriers may be on licensed spectrum. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology. For example, WTRU 102a may receive coordinated transmissions from gNB 180a and gNB 180b (and/or gNB 180c). [0057] The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using transmissions associated with a scalable numerology. For example, the OFDM symbol spacing and/or OFDM subcarrier spacing may vary for different transmissions, different cells, and/or different portions of the wireless transmission spectrum. The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using subframe or transmission time intervals (TTIs) of various or scalable lengths (e.g., containing varying number of OFDM symbols and/or lasting varying lengths of absolute time).

[0058] The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be configured to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c in a standalone configuration and/or a non-standalone configuration. In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c without also accessing other RANs (e.g., such as eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c). In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may utilize one or more of gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c as a mobility anchor point. In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using signals in an unlicensed band. In a non-standalone configuration WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with/connect to gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c while also communicating with/connecting to another RAN such as eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c. For example, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement DC principles to communicate with one or more gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c and one or more eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c substantially simultaneously. In the non-standalone configuration, eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may serve as a mobility anchor for WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may provide additional coverage and/or throughput for servicing WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c.

[0059] Each of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the UL and/or DL, support of network slicing, dual connectivity, interworking between NR and E-UTRA, routing of user plane data towards User Plane Function (UPF) 184a, 184b, routing of control plane information towards Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 182a, 182b and the like. As shown in FIG. 1 D, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may communicate with one another over an Xn interface.

[0060] The CN 115 shown in FIG. 1 D may include at least one AMF 182a, 182b, at least one UPF 184a, 184b, at least one Session Management Function (SMF) 183a, 183b, and possibly a Data Network (DN) 185a, 185b. While each of the foregoing elements are depicted as part of the CN 1 15, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and/or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

[0061] The AMF 182a, 182b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 1 13 via an N2 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the AMF 182a, 182b may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, support for network slicing (e.g., handling of different PDU sessions with different requirements), selecting a particular SMF 183a, 183b, management of the registration area, termination of NAS signaling, mobility management, and the like. Network slicing may be used by the AMF 182a, 182b in order to customize CN support for WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c based on the types of services being utilized WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. For example, different network slices may be established for different use cases such as services relying on ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC) access, services relying on enhanced massive mobile broadband (eMBB) access, services for machine type communication (MTC) access, and/or the like. The AMF 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 113 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, and/or non-3GPP access technologies such as WiFi.

[0062] The SMF 183a, 183b may be connected to an AMF 182a, 182b in the CN 115 via an N1 1 interface. The SMF 183a, 183b may also be connected to a UPF 184a, 184b in the CN 1 15 via an N4 interface. The SMF 183a, 183b may select and control the UPF 184a, 184b and configure the routing of traffic through the UPF 184a, 184b. The SMF 183a, 183b may perform other functions, such as managing and allocating UE IP address, managing PDU sessions, controlling policy enforcement and QoS, providing downlink data notifications, and the like. A PDU session type may be IP-based, non-IP based, Ethernet-based, and the like.

[0063] The UPF 184a, 184b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 1 13 via an N3 interface, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 1 10, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices. The UPF 184, 184b may perform other functions, such as routing and forwarding packets, enforcing user plane policies, supporting multi-homed PDU sessions, handling user plane QoS, buffering downlink packets, providing mobility anchoring, and the like.

[0064] The CN 115 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 1 15 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the CN 1 15 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 1 15 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to the other networks 112, which may include other wired and/or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by other service providers. In one embodiment, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be connected to a local Data Network (DN) 185a, 185b through the UPF 184a, 184b via the N3 interface to the UPF 184a, 184b and an N6 interface between the UPF 184a, 184b and the DN 185a, 185b.

[0065] In view of Figures 1A-1 D, and the corresponding description of Figures 1A-1 D, one or more, or all, of the functions described herein with regard to one or more of: WTRU 102a-d, Base Station 1 14a-b, eNode- B 160a-c, MME 162, SGW 164, PGW 166, gNB 180a-c, AMF 182a-b, UPF 184a-b, SMF 183a-b, DN 185a- b, and/or any other device(s) described herein, may be performed by one or more emulation devices (not shown). The emulation devices may be one or more devices configured to emulate one or more, or all, of the functions described herein. For example, the emulation devices may be used to test other devices and/or to simulate network and/or WTRU functions.

[0066] The emulation devices may be designed to implement one or more tests of other devices in a lab environment and/or in an operator network environment. For example, the one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, or all, functions while being fully or partially implemented and/or deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communication network in order to test other devices within the communication network. The one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, or all, functions while being temporarily implemented/deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communication network. The emulation device may be directly coupled to another device for purposes of testing and/or may performing testing using over-the-air wireless communications.

[0067] The one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, including all, functions while not being implemented/deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communication network. For example, the emulation devices may be utilized in a testing scenario in a testing laboratory and/or a non-deployed (e.g., testing) wired and/or wireless communication network in order to implement testing of one or more components. The one or more emulation devices may be test equipment. Direct RF coupling and/or wireless communications via RF circuitry (e.g., which may include one or more antennas) may be used by the emulation devices to transmit and/or receive data. FIG. 1 A is a diagram of an example communications system 100 in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. The communications system 100 may be a multiple access system that provides content, such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast, etc., to multiple wireless users. The communications system 100 may enable multiple wireless users to access such content through the sharing of system resources, including wireless bandwidth. For example, the communications system 100 may employ one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), and the like.

[0068] Mobile data traffic may increase significantly (e.g. eight-fold in four years). A substantial amount (e.g., 46%) may be generated by Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications. Vertical industries may deploy a significant number of M2M devices.

[0069] Vertical industries may run their own networks tailored to their specific applications. For example, emergency services in cities may deploy terrestrial trunked radio ("TETRA") systems. Manufacturers may deploy dedicated reliable and low latency industrial networks to control sensors, robots, and actuators. Networks may be well suited for their individual purposes, but may be costly to operate, maintain, and may evolve. Vertical industries may seek to leverage mobile network infrastructure while being able to meet their specific needs. [0070] Mobile network operators may open their infrastructure as a service, which may increase their customer base and revenue. For example, mobile operators may share their last mile fiber infrastructures and base stations towers. Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) may enter the market.

[0071] FIG. 2 is an example of Software Defined Networking (SDN)-based network slicing, e.g., addressed scenario. In an example, FIG. 2 shows SDN-based network slicing where, for example, an infrastructure provider may offer distinct slices of a network infrastructure to different tenants.

[0072] Network slicing may enable vertical industries to exploit mobile networks. Services may be programmed on top of network resources that may be allocated and sliced, for example, as an alternative to physical deployment and configuration of services. SDN may enable programmability in a network. SDN-switches may be elements of network resources. SDN switches may support slicing, for example, to enforce the virtualization of resources and ensure isolation between different verticals/tenants. An SDN- switch may be any device that may embed switch capabilities (e.g., encapsulation and decapsulation) with one or more packet-based network interfaces. An (e.g., one) eNB or small cell (SC) may have multiple network connections, which may need some switching capabilities.

[0073] A network may have a tenant, a virtual agent/virtual switch agent, a virtual switch pipeline, a switch pipeline hypervisor, a physical switch pipeline, a virtual switch table, and/or a virtual switch. A "tenant" includes a user or group of users (e.g., a tenant controller, e.g., processor programmed with instructions for performing the function described herein) who share a common access with specific privileges to the underlying network infrastructure. A "virtual agent/virtual switch agent" may include an entity or program (e.g., a processor programmed with instructions for performing the functions described herein) embedded in the virtual switch that allows for communication between the virtual switch and a controller. A "virtual switch pipeline" may include a set of linked flow tables (e.g., a processor programmed with instructions for performing the functions described herein) that provide matching, forwarding, and packet modification defined to implement the routing of packets in the virtual switch. A "switch pipeline hypervisor" may include an entity or program (e.g., a processor programmed with instructions for performing the functions described herein) that provides an abstraction layer for the physical switch pipeline, for example so that it can be used to create a virtual network. The switch pipeline hypervisor may be configured to translate the packets addressed for a virtual switch to packets transmitted over the physical switch. A "physical switch pipeline" includes a set of linked flow tables (e.g., a processor programmed with instructions for performing the functions described herein) that provide matching, forwarding, and packet modification in a physical switch. A "virtual switch table" includes a stage of a virtual switch pipeline (e.g., a processor programmed with instructions for performing the functions described herein) and may contain flow entries for flow forwarding in the virtual switch. A "virtual switch" includes an entity or program (e.g., a processor programmed with instructions for performing the functions described herein) that implements a logical switching fabric connecting virtual machines (VMs) in a virtual network.

[0074] FIG. 3 is an example of SDN-based multi-tenancy, showing an example with three tenant controllers, an infrastructure controller, and a switch. The tenant controllers communicate with the infrastructure provider through the NBI or northbound interface. The infrastructure provider controller communicates with the switch through the southbound interface. The switch may have a switch agent, a switch pipeline, ingress ports, and egress ports, as shown in Figure 3.

[0075] Virtualization and isolation may be provided (e.g., guaranteed) during forwarding, management and/or configuration procedures. A procedure may, for example, rely on multi-tenancy enforced in a control plane (see, e.g., FIG. 3) and/or data plane. True isolation in a switch may not be provided and (e.g., alternatively or additionally) virtualization of networking resources may not be possible (e.g., only reservation), for example, when a procedure relies on multi-tenancy in a control plane. An example of SDN-switch architecture (e.g., for OpenFlow-switches) is provided herein, e.g., in FIG. 6.

[0076] An SDN-switch pipeline and agents may be extended as described herein to support resource slicing (e.g., virtualization/isolation) among different verticals/tenants.

[0077] FIG. 4 is an example of slicing switch resources. FIG. 4 illustrates how an infrastructure provider may utilize a Root SBI to interact with and configure a physical switch pipeline and a switch pipeline hypervisor in a multi-tenancy switch. For example, the infrastructure provider may configure the physical switch pipeline and/or a switch pipeline hypervisor to provide different slices of the switch resources to different tenants. To configure and/or indicate tenant information for communications/slices to be used by a given tenant, a tenant controller may utilize a user SBI in order to control and/or manage a set of one or more virtual switch pipelines to be used by the tenant. A virtual switch agent at the switch may interact with the tenant via the user SBI and may be associated with an SDN controller of the one or more tenants (e.g., the tenant controller).

[0078] In an example (e.g., as shown in FIG. 4), switch resources may be sliced, for example, using on one or more of the following: (i) an infrastructure provider agent and a corresponding Root southbound interface ("SBI"); and (ii) a switch pipeline hypervisor, which may allow the creation, coexistence and/or coordination; of (iii) virtual switch pipelines; and/or (iv) virtual agents and corresponding user SBI.

[0079] An Infrastructure provider agent may be an (e.g., the only) agent on a switch allowed to/capable of utilizing a Root SBI. An Infrastructure provider agent and a Root SBI may be used (e.g., exclusively) by an infrastructure provider. An Infrastructure provider agent and a Root SBI may allow interaction with a physical switch pipeline and a switch pipeline hypervisor. The Root SBI may be used by the Infrastructure provider controller in order to configured or otherwise set one or more rules for a switch pipeline hypervisor and/or a physical switch pipeline. The Infrastructure provider agent at the switch may configure the switch pipeline hypervisor and/or the physical switch pipeline based on information received from the infrastructure provider controller via the Root SBI .

[0080] For example, a physical switch pipeline configuration may be provided by the infrastructure provider controller. An infrastructure provider controller may communicate with an infrastructure provider agent [e.g., through the Root SBI) to perform one or more actions on the physical switch pipeline, such as one or more of the following: (i) configure physical switch pipeline fabric [e.g., active ports); (ii) configure physical forwarding engine {e.g., forwarding tables); (iii) configure physical queues per each port {e.g., number, size); (iv) configure physical switch memory fabric {e.g., Ternary Content Addressable Memories (TCAM), buffers) and/or (v) configure physical switch CPU fabric {e.g., activate/disable CPU cores). One or more {e.g., all) of these actions may be available {e.g., only) on the Root SBI and may or may not be available on the User SBI . The infrastructure provider controller and the infrastructure provider agent may each include a processor with programmable instructions to accomplish these actions including for example determining that the actions should be taken and sending/receiving messages to accomplish the actions.

[0081 ] A Root SBI may {e.g., also) implement actions defined by a User SBI . A Root SBI may {e.g., accordingly) be a superset of a User SBI .

[0082] An infrastructure provider may {e.g., also) configure forwarding rules on a physical switch pipeline, for example, to {e.g., effectively) support a switch pipeline hypervisor configuration. One or more of the following examples may apply.

[0083] A tenant of incoming packets may be identified, for example, based on a virtual LAN (VLAN) tag, Ethernet/IP Source/Destination Address, and/or MPLS label, etc.

[0084] A tenant packet may be decapsulated, for example, when an encapsulation mechanism may be in place at an infrastructure provider level {e.g., Provider Backbone Bridge (PBB), Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), IP tunnel, Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE), Virtual Extensible VLAN (VXLAN)). This may be implemented {e.g., required), for example, when an infrastructure provider may encapsulate {e.g., all) traffic belonging to tenants from its own traffic.

[0085] The start of a virtual switch pipeline of the tenant may be identified in the physical switch pipeline. In an example, the beginning of a virtual switch pipeline of a given tenant may not be mapped at the beginning of the physical switch pipeline.

[0086] A packet may be sent to a virtual switch pipeline of an identified tenant.

[0087] A packet may be received by the tenant from the virtual switch pipeline. The tenant packet may be encapsulated before transmitting it. This may be the inverse of the above decapsulation of an incoming packet. [0088] A physical switch pipeline may have available one or more of the following actions, for example:

(i) Add/Remove/Update forwarding rules [e.g., field matching, wildcards, metadata); (ii)

Add/Remove/Update Access Control Lists (ACLs) [e.g., data quota, maximum number of flows); (iii) Add/Remove/Update rate limiters {e.g., per port, per flow, per tenant) and/or (iv) Add/Remove/Update packet modification rules {e.g., encapsulation, decapsulation, field rewriting).

[0089] A switch pipeline hypervisor configuration may be provided, for example by the infrastructure provider controller via the Root SBI . An infrastructure provider controller may communicate with an infrastructure provider agent, for example, through a Root SBI, e.g., to perform one or more actions on the switch pipeline hypervisor, such as one or more of the following: (i) configure new virtual switch pipelines;

(ii) create new virtual agents; (iii) configure a connection between a new virtual agent(s) and a tenant controller(s) and/or (iv) configure Service Level Agreements (SLAs) (e.g., bandwidth limits and priorities) between different tenants. The infrastructure provider controller may have a computer processor programmed with executable instructions for performing each of the identified actions, including determining that the action should be taken and sending/receiving messages to accomplish the actions.

[0090] A tenant controller (e.g ., a SDN controller associated with a given tenant) may be configured to provide configuration information for one or more virtual switch pipelines. For example, a tenant controller may utilize a user SBI in order to communicate with a virtual agent at the switch which then implements the configuration information for a tenant via one or more virtual switch pipelines that are configured at the switch . Configuration of new virtual switch pipelines may include, for example, one or more of the following: (i) configuration of port abstraction for a {e.g., each) tenant; (ii) configuration of port mapping for a {e.g., each) tenant; (iii) configuration of flow table abstraction; (iv) configuration of flow table mapping for a {e.g., each) tenant; (v) configuration of Tenant ID {e.g., a tenant may be uniquely identified in the switch); (vi) configuration of statistics collection {e.g., type of collected statistics, such as received bytes, transmitted bytes, packet errors, etc., or size of statistics bucket, such as a number of collectable statistics at once); and/or (vii) configuration of available triggers {e.g., report statistics at a scheduled time, such as every minute, or report events when a given threshold is reached, such as when the number of dropped packets may be beyond a configured threshold). One or more {e.g., a combination) of these may allow creation of (e.g., new) virtual switch pipelines.

[0091 ] Creation of (e.g., new) virtual agents may include, for example, one or more of the following: (i) configuration of supported User SBI (e.g., specific version of OpenFlow, plain TCP vs Transport Layer Security (TLS)); (ii) configuration of allowed instructions on the User SBI (e.g., available matching fields, such as Ethernet Source and Destination Address, VLAN tag, IP Source and Destination Address, TCP port, UDP port, etc., or available actions, such as push/pop VLAN tags, push/pop MPLS label, GOTO, DROP, SET QUEUE, overwrite field, etc.); and/or (iii) configuration of prohibited instructions on the User SBI [e.g., prohibited actions, such as copying TTL outwards, copying TTL inwards, setting the value of the metadata that may identify the tenant, changing the rate limit associated with a given tenant, etc., or prohibited configurations, such as IP address of additional network controllers, change of a control plane connection mode [e.g., plain TCP vs TLS) and/or a port operation mode {e.g., full-duplex/half-duplex), etc.).

[0092] Configuration of a connection between a (e.g.,, new) virtual agent and one or more tenant controllers may include, for example, one or more of the following: (i) IP address(es) of tenant controller(s) and/or (ii) type of connection {e.g., plain TCP, TLS).

[0093] Configuration of SLAs between different tenants may include, for example, one or more of the following: (i) availability {e.g., 99.99%, 99.999%); (ii) admitted packet loss rate; and/or (iii) priorities between different tenants.

[0094] A switch pipeline hypervisor may be in charge of enforcing abstraction and mapping between different virtual switch pipelines and a physical switch pipeline.

[0095] A switch pipeline hypervisor may {e.g., also) be in charge of coordinating resources among different tenants that may otherwise be uncoordinated.

[0096] Port abstraction may be provided . A switch pipeline hypervisor may expose an abstraction of the physical port. A port abstraction may include, for example, one or more of the following: (i) a mmWave port abstracted as a 100 Mbps Ethernet port; and/or (ii) an optical port abstracted as a 1 Gbps Ethernet port.

[0097] Port mapping may be provided . Physical ports may or may not be exposed to a virtual switch pipeline. In an example, {e.g., only) a subset of ports may be exposed to a virtual switch pipeline. In an example, a port mapping capability may include mapping virtual ports to physical ports. For example, one or more virtual ports may be mapped onto one or more {e.g., single) physical ports {e.g., virtual connections). For example, one or more physical ports may be mapped into one or more {e.g., a single) virtual port {e.g., a 1 +1 scheme).

[0098] Flow tables may be abstracted, for example, from those available in the physical switch pipeline. For example, an OpenFlow 1 .3.0 pipeline may be exposed while the physical pipeline is based on

OpenFlow 1 .5.0. For example, an OpenFlow 1 .5.0 pipeline may be exposed while the physical pipeline is based on Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Forwarding and Control Element Separation (FORCES). For example, an IETF FORCES based pipeline may be exposed while the physical pipeline is based on P4.

[0099] Flow table mapping may be provided. Virtual flow tables may be mapped into physical flow tables. For example, a virtual flow table may be mapped over one or more physical flow tables. A virtual flow table may be a smaller portion of a physical flow table. A virtual flow table may be limited in the maximum number of flow entries. This number may be bigger than a physical flow table, for example, when a virtual flow table may be mapped onto more flow tables. [0100] Tenant isolation may provide metadata and extensions, for example, to implement isolation between different tenants.

[0101 ] For example, a translation may be provided between virtual flow tables and physical flow tables. A translation may be between a virtual port and a physical port. Queue management mechanisms [e.g., rate limiter) in the hypervisor may enforce an SLA between different tenants.

[0102] For example, flow rules in the physical switch pipeline may have metadata marking the corresponding tenant. This may, for example, (i) avoid modification of the rules by other tenants; (ii) limit the number of flow entries of each tenant by the infrastructure provider; (iii) track a packet path in a physical switch pipeline for a given tenant; and/or (iv) limit port abstraction to the virtual pipeline.

[0103] For example, forwarding rules of different tenants may be coordinated, e.g., so they don't interfere with each other.

[0104] For example, the use of resources from different tenants may be coordinated, e.g., so a tenant has no impact on other tenants [e.g., reserved bandwidth, jitter, latency, packet loss, etc.).

[0105] A switch hypervisor may enforce the SLAs of different tenants, for example, at the virtual (or physical) ingress and egress ports of a virtual switch pipeline. A hypervisor may enforce part of the SLAs at the virtual ingress port, for example, depending on the implementation of the physical pipeline.

[0106] A hypervisor may enforce part of the SLAs at the virtual ingress port, for example, when (i) a processing capability of the pipeline may be limited {e.g., the switch may not process all the packets coming from all the ports at the same time), and/or (ii) the tenant may have limited processing resources on the allocated pipeline.

[0107] A hypervisor may enforce part of the SLAs at the virtual egress port, for example, when (i) multiple queues may be available on the output port; (ii) different tenants may have different priorities (and may be prioritized accordingly); and/or (iii) a tenant may have limited bandwidth allocated on a given port.

[0108] A virtual switch pipeline may appear as a physical switch pipeline to a tenant. For example, an OpenFlow switch pipeline may be an instantiation of a virtual switch pipeline. A tenant may control a virtual switch pipeline and may operate on it.

[0109] A virtual agent and user SBI may be provided. A tenant controller may communicate with a virtual agent, for example, through a User SBI, e.g., to perform actions on the virtual switch pipeline. In an example, a User SBI may have some functionalities disabled to enforce the co-existence of multiple tenants on the same physical switch {e.g., setting a value of metadata identifying a tenant and/or changing a rate limit associated with a given tenant).

[01 10] FIG. 5 is an example of OpenFlow-based switch slicing .

[01 1 1 ] In an example, a physical switch may have eight (8) full-duplex Ethernet ports. [01 12] A physical switch pipeline may include, for example, five (5) physical switch flow tables.

[01 13] A switch hypervisor may support, for example (as shown in FIG. 5), four virtual switch slices [e.g., Tenant #1 , #2, #3, #4). In an example [e.g., for simplicity), {e.g., only) virtual switch slices belonging to Tenant #1 and #3 may be reported . Virtual switch slices belonging to Tenant #2, #4 may {e.g., only) be represented through the mapping of the virtual flow tables onto the physical switch tables, for example, as shown in FIG. 5.

[01 14] A physical switch may be configured for a wide variety of scenarios.

[01 15] In an example, a first switch flow table may be used, for example, to identify a tenant of incoming packets {e.g., Backbone-ID for Provider Backbone Bridge as encapsulation mechanism). Metadata identifying the tenant may be populated. The metadata may be carried through a {e.g., whole) pipeline process.

[01 16] A first switch flow table may be used, for example, to decapsulate a packet {e.g., remove a PBB header).

[01 17] A first switch flow table may be used, for example, to map a physical port to virtual ports. This may be performed, for example, to provide correct processing of an incoming packet in a virtual switch pipeline.

[01 18] A first switch flow table may be used, for example, to send an incoming packet to a virtual switch pipeline for further processing, for example, as may be defined by forwarding rules defined by a tenant. This may be implemented as a GOTO instruction.

[01 19] Switch flow tables {e.g., switch table 2, 3, 4 in FIG. 5) may be used, for example, to store flow entries of virtual switch slices.

[0120] A {e.g., last) switch flow table {e.g., switch table 5, as shown in FIG. 5) may be used, for example, to enforce SLAs for different tenants. In an example, bandwidth on the egress port may be enforced by a queue management scheduling transmission of traffic belonging to different tenants over the same physical port. This type of operation may {e.g., alternatively or additionally) be enforced internally in the hypervisor or delegated to queue management on the physical switch pipeline.

[0121 ] A {e.g., last) switch flow table {e.g., switch table 5) may be used, for example, to map virtual ports to physical ports.

[0122] A {e.g., last) switch flow table {e.g., switch table 5) may be used, for example, to encapsulate a packet {e.g., by adding a PBB header based on tenant information and on the mapping of virtual ports to physical ports).

[0123] A {e.g., last) switch flow table {e.g., switch table 5) may be used, for example, to transmit a frame over a physical port. [0124] A switch hypervisor may be in charge of enforcing virtual switches. Each virtual switch may be associated with a given network slice. In an example [e.g., for Tenant #1 switch slice), tenant #1 virtual switch may include, for example, three full-duplex ports and two virtual switch tables. Three full-duplex ports may include, for example, (i) Virtual port 1 mapped to Physical port 3; (ii) Virtual port 2 mapped to Physical port 4 and 5 (1 +1 scheme or bonding scheme); and (iii) Virtual port 3 mapped to Physical port 6. Two virtual switch tables may include, for example, (i) Virtual switch table #1 mapped onto two subsets of physical switch flow tables [e.g., switch table #2 and #3) and (ii) Virtual switch table #2 mapped onto a subset of switch flow table #4.

[0125] In an example of an OpenFlow switch architecture, an OpenFlow Logical Switch may include one or more flow tables and a group table, which may perform packet lookups and forwarding, and one or more OpenFlow channels to an external controller. The switch may communicate with the controller. The controller may include a computer processor programmed with executable instructions to accomplish the following functions. The controller may manage the switch, e.g., via an OpenFlow switch protocol. The controller {e.g., using the OpenFlow switch protocol) may {e.g., reactively (in response to packets) and/or proactively) add, update, and delete flow entries in flow tables based on for example new information obtained from received packets. For example, the controller may determine that a packet was received and add, update, and/or delete flow entries based on the received packet. A {e.g., each) flow table in the switch may contain a set of flow entries, and the controller may be programmed with executable instructions to determine to update the flow table with flow entries based on received packets and the flow entry data. A {e.g., each) flow entry may include match fields, counters, and a set of instructions {e.g., to apply to matching packets). Flow entries may forward to a port {e.g., a physical port or a logical port), which may be defined by the switch or may be a reserved port that may be defined otherwise {e.g., by specification). Reserved ports may, for example, specify generic forwarding actions such as sending to the controller, flooding or forwarding using non-OpenFlow methods, such as "normal" switch processing. Switch-defined logical ports may specify link aggregation groups, tunnels, or loopback interfaces.

[0126] OpenFlow ports may be network interfaces for passing packets between OpenFlow processing and the rest of the network. OpenFlow switches may connect logically to each other via their OpenFlow ports. A packet may be forwarded from one OpenFlow switch to another OpenFlow switch, for example, {e.g., only) via an output OpenFlow port on a first switch and an ingress OpenFlow port on a second switch. Abstraction of a switch promoted by OpenFlow may rely on the concept of a port. A definition of a new type of port may be implemented, for example, for each new technology added to OpenFlow.

[0127] OpenFlow may switch process packets following an OpenFlow pipeline. An OpenFlow pipeline {e.g., in FIG. 5) may include a set of ingress and egress Flow Tables. Ingress and egress Flow Tables may {e.g., each) have multiple flow entries. An OpenFlow switch may include at least one ingress Flow Table. Packet operation of an OpenFlow switch and different forwarding behaviors applied to different flows may be defined, for example, based on how a packet travels through the OpenFlow pipeline and the set of actions applied to it while traversing them.

[0128] FIG. 6 is an example of OpenFlow Pipeline processing.

[0129] Flow tables of an OpenFlow switch may be sequentially numbered, e.g., starting at 0. Pipeline processing may occur in multiple (e.g., two) stages, e.g., ingress processing and egress processing.

Separation of stages may be indicated, for example, by the first egress table, an example of which is shown in FIG. 6. Pipeline processing may start with ingress processing at the first flow table. A packet may be matched against flow entries of flow table 0. A packet may be forwarded to an output port or to a different ingress Flow Table, for example, based on the matching result. A packet may be processed by the first egress Flow Table assigned to the output port, for example, when the packet is forwarded to an output port. The use of multiple ingress and egress Flow Tables may allow implementation of complex behaviors with less complexity than using one Flow Table. A (e.g., each) Flow Table may be a collection of flow entries. A (e.g., each) flow entry may contain one or more elements, such as one or more of the following: (i) match fields; (ii) priority; (iii) counters; (iv) instructions; and/or (v) timeouts.

[0130] Match fields may be used to match against packet headers and/or metadata that may be provided by a previous Flow Table processing result.

[0131] A priority may provide matching precedence of a flow entry.

[0132] Counters may be updated, for example, when packets are matched.

[0133] Instructions may be provided, for example, to modify the action set or pipeline processing.

[0134] Timeouts may provide a maximum lifetime of a flow entry.

[0135] A flow table entry may be identified, for example, by its match fields and priority. Match fields and priority may be taken together, for example, to identify a unique flow entry in a specific flow table. A flow entry instruction may contain actions to be performed on a packet at one or more points in a pipeline.

[0136] Systems, methods, and instrumentalities have been disclosed for slicing switch resources.

Switch networking resources may be sliced. Isolation may be provided for forwarding, management and configuration procedures for multiple tenants in the same physical switch, uncoordinated tenants may coexist on the same switch. In an example, multiple virtual switch agents and virtual pipelines may be created and coordinated for multiple tenants, for example, by an infrastructure provider agent and a switch pipeline hypervisor. A physical switch pipeline may be configured to support a configuration of a switch pipeline hypervisor. A switch pipeline hypervisor may provide port and flow table abstraction and mapping between virtual switch pipelines and a physical switch pipeline, coordinate resources among uncoordinated tenants, and/or provide isolation between tenants. [0137] The processes and instrumentalities described herein may apply in any combination, may apply to other wireless technologies, and for other services.

[0138] A WTRU may refer to an identity of the physical device, or to the user's identity such as subscription related identities, e.g., MSISDN, SIP URI, etc. WTRU may refer to application-based identities, e.g., user names that may be used per application.

[0139] Each of the computing systems described herein may have one or more computer processors having memory that are configured with executable instructions or hardware for accomplishing the functions described herein including determining the parameters described herein and sending and receiving messages between entities (e.g., WTRU and network) to accomplish the described functions. The processes described above may be implemented in a computer program, software, and/or firmware incorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer and/or processor.

[0140] The processes described above may be implemented in a computer program, software, and/or firmware incorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer and/or processor. Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limited to, electronic signals (transmitted over wired and/or wireless connections) and/or computer-readable storage media. Examples of computer- readable storage media include, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as, but not limited to, internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and/or optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and/or digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a WTRU, terminal, base station, RNC, and/or any host computer.

Claims

CLAIMS Claimed:

1. A switch for routing traffic, comprising:

a processor with executable instructions to:

implement an infrastructure provider agent configured to communicate with an infrastructure provider controller via a root interface to receive one or more configuration parameters for implementing a switch pipeline hypervisor;

implement one or more tenant virtual agents, wherein the one or more tenant virtual agents are configured to communicate with one or more tenant controllers to receive one or more parameters that can be used to create one or more virtual switch pipelines for routing packets corresponding to one or more services associated with the one or more tenant controllers; and

implement the switch pipeline hypervisor, wherein the switch pipeline hypervisor is configured to implement one or more rules to implement the one or more virtual switch pipelines using one or more physical switch pipelines based on the one or more configuration parameters received from the infrastructure provider controller.

2. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the processor executable instructions for creating a virtual switch pipeline comprise one or more of: (i) configuring a port abstraction for the one or more tenant controllers; (ii) configuring a port mapping between a physical port and a virtual port for the one or more tenant controllers; (iii) configuring a flow table abstraction for the one or more tenant controllers; (iv) configuring a data flow table mapping for the one or more tenant controllers; (v) configuring a tenant identification for the one or more tenant controllers; (vi) configuring collected statistics for the one or more tenant controllers; and/or (vii) configuring available triggers for the one or more tenant controllers.

3. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the infrastructure provider agent receives a message from the infrastructure provider controller to: (i) configure the one or more physical switch pipelines for the one or more tenant controllers; (ii) configure physical switch data tables for tracking a flow of data from the switch to the one or more tenant controllers; (iii) configure a physical queue for a physical port; (iv) configure a physical switch memory fabric; and (v) configure a processor fabric.

4. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the processor executable instructions further comprise using a first virtual switch table to: identify the one or more tenant controllers; decapsulate a data packet received from the infrastructure provider controller; map a physical port from which the data packet was received to a virtual port for the one or more tenant controllers; and send the decapsulated packet to a second virtual switch table for the one or more tenant controllers.

5. The switch of claim 4, wherein the executable instructions for identifying the one or more tenant controllers comprise identifying metadata that is associated with the one or more tenant controllers, the executable instructions for decapsulating the data packet comprise executable instructions to remove a PBB header from the data packet, and the processor executable instructions further comprise encapsulating the data packet with a third switch table.

6. The switch of claim 5, wherein the processor executable instructions further comprise

transmitting the encapsulated data packet to the one or more tenant controllers with the third switch table.

7. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the one or more rules comprise service level agreements that comprise at least one of bandwidth limitations for the one or more tenant controllers, priorities for the one or more tenant controllers, and processing resources for the one or more tenant controllers.

8. The switch of claim 4, wherein the processor executable instructions further comprise

maintaining a flow table for the data packet that comprise instructions for, entering ingress and egress entries in the flow table for the data packet entering and exiting the switch, that comprise a data packet match field and priority.

9. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the processor executable instructions further comprise

executable instructions for the one or more tenant agents communicating with the one or more tenant controllers via a southbound root interface.

10. The switch of claim 1 , wherein the processor executable instructions for implementing the one or more tenant virtual agents further comprise creating the one or more tenant virtual agents by configuring of a southbound root interface for the one or more tenant controllers.

11. The switch of claim 10, wherein configuring the southbound root interface further comprises one or more of allowed and prohibited instructions for the southbound root interface.

12. A method of routing data traffic with a switch, comprising:

implementing an infrastructure provider agent configured to communicate with an infrastructure provider controller via a root interface to receive one or more configuration parameters for implementing a switch pipeline hypervisor;

implementing one or more tenant virtual agents, wherein the one or more tenant virtual agents are configured to communicate with one or more tenant controllers to receive one or more parameters that can be used to create one or more virtual switch pipelines for routing packets corresponding to one or more services associated with the one or more tenant controllers; and

implementing the switch pipeline hypervisor, wherein the switch pipeline hypervisor is configured to implement one or more rules to implement the one or more virtual switch pipelines using one or more physical switch pipelines based on the one or more configuration parameters received from the infrastructure provider controller.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein creating a virtual switch pipeline comprises one or more of: (i) configuring a port abstraction for the one or more tenant controllers; (ii) configuring a port mapping between a physical port and a virtual port for the one or more tenant controllers; (iii) configuring a flow table abstraction for the one or more tenant controllers; (iv) configuring a data flow table mapping for the one or more tenant controllers; (v) configuring a tenant identification for the one or more tenant controllers; (vi) configuring collected statistics for the one or more tenant controllers; and/or (vii) configuring available triggers for the one or more tenant controllers.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving a message at the infrastructure provider agent from the infrastructure provider controller to: (i) configure the one or more physical switch pipelines for the one or more tenant controllers; (ii) configure physical switch data tables for tracking a flow of data from the switch to the one or more tenant controllers; (iii) configure a physical queue for a physical port; (iv) configure a physical switch memory fabric; and (v) configure a processor fabric.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein implementing the one or more tenant virtual agents further comprises creating the one or more tenant virtual agents by configuring of a southbound root interface for the one or more tenant controllers.