WO2019154382A1

WO2019154382A1 - Method, base station, terminal device and computer readable storage media for transmitting qos information

Info

Publication number: WO2019154382A1
Application number: PCT/CN2019/074656
Authority: WO
Inventors: Dawei Wang; Xiaobing Leng; Junrong GU; Dongyao Wang; Gang Shen
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co., Ltd.; Nokia Solutions And Networks Oy
Priority date: 2018-02-06
Filing date: 2019-02-02
Publication date: 2019-08-15
Also published as: CN110121181A; CN110121181B

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method, base station, terminal device and computer readable storage media for transmitting Quality of Service (QoS) information. For example, the base station receives a first packet of a session from a core network device. The first packet includes an original QoS indication and an identification of the session, where the original QoS indication is used to indicate a QoS requirement of the first packet. The base station performs hash mapping of a combination of the original QoS indication and the identification of the session to generate a reference QoS indication. Then, the base station generates a second packet to be transmitted to the terminal device based on the first packet, the second packet including the reference QoS indication.

Description

METHOD, BASE STATION, TERMINAL DEVICE AND COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE MEDIA FOR TRANSMITTING QOS INFORMATION

FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to communication technology, and more specifically, to a method, base station, terminal device and computer readable storage media for transmitting Quality of Service (QoS) information.

BACKGROUND

At a gateway of a core network (CN) , such as a user platform function (UPF) , and a base stations (for example, a gNB) of a radio access network (RAN) in a long term evolution (LTE) system, service characteristics such as QoS requirements of different links are mapped to evolved packet system (EPS) bearers and data radio bearers (DRB) using specific filters such as non-access stratum (NAS) filters. An end-to-end processing approach from user equipment (UE) to the UPF for the mapping is proposed in the standardization conferences of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) . This approach uses a QoS flow Identifier (ID) (abbreviated as QFI) as a proxy between the QoS requirements and various bearers in the network to perform two-step conversion to implement the above mapping.

For example, the UPF may convert the QoS requirement at a NAS level into a QFI via an NAS filter. The QFI is attached by the UFP, for example, as a header to an Internet protocol (IP) data packet and transmitted to the RAN over the network. After receiving the IP data packet, the gNB may decode the data packet and select an appropriate DRB for the data packet based on the corresponding QoS requirement.

According to the specification of the 3GPP standard, this DRB may be adopted in a “reflective” link, namely, a corresponding link in uplink. Accordingly, the gNB may create a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) header for indicating the QoS information of the corresponding data packet. The gNB may remove the header of the received IP data packet (containing the QFI) and re-attach the SDAP header to the data packet. The UE may determine the DRB to be used in uplink based on this SDAP header.

To enable the proxy function of a QFI, the mapping between a DRB and a QFI should be unique in each cell. In other words, in each cell, for a specific service with a specific QoS requirement, there is a unique corresponding QFI. However, it is not required to remain the same QFI among different cells in the whole network.

Conventionally, in a downlink scenario where a protocol data unit (PDU) session is transmitted from the CN to the RAN, QoS information transmitted by the gNB to the UE via a Uu interface link may include a PDU session identification (ID) and the QFI. As long as the identification related to each UE is unique in the cell, the gNB can distinguish this UE from other UEs. If potential conflicts between identifications of different streams can be resolved when UE moves from one cell to another cell, different gNBs can reuse the same QFI plus PDU session ID in the respective cells to serve different UEs.

However, the length of the QFI plus PDU session ID is fixed and relatively long, and, therefore, more bits are needed to transmit such QoS information, which causes enormous overhead over a RAN air interface and significantly reduces transmission efficiency of valid data. This is especially true for machine type signal links, for example, in massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) , because a packet length of this machine type communication is typically shorter. Therefore, an approach for transmitting the QoS information is needed to reduce the overhead over the air interface.

SUMMARY

In general, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method, base station, terminal device and computer readable storage media for transmitting QoS information.

In a first aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method implemented at a base station in a radio access network. The method comprises: receiving a first packet of a session from a core network device, the first packet including an original Quality of Service (QoS) indication and an identification of the session, the original QoS indication indicating a QoS requirement of the first packet; performing hash mapping of a combination of the original QoS indication and the identification of the session in the first packet to generate a reference QoS indication; and generating a second packet to be transmitted to a terminal device in the radio access network based on the first packet, the second packet including the reference QoS indication.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method implemented at a terminal device. The method includes: receiving a second packet of a session from a base station, the second packet including a reference Quality of Service (QoS) indication; and performing hash inverse mapping of the reference QoS indication in the second packet to determine an original QoS indication and an identification of the session.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a base station. The base station includes: a processor; and a memory including instructions. The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the base station to perform the method according to the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a terminal device. The terminal device includes: a processor; and a memory including instructions. The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform the method according to the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a computer readable storage medium comprising a computer program stored thereon. The computer program comprises instructions which, when implemented by a processor, cause the processor to perfonn the method according to the first aspect or second aspect.

It is to be understood that the smmnary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of example embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, the above and other features, advantages and aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent. In the drawings, the same or similar reference symbols refer to the same or similar elements, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

FIG. 2 illnstrates an example logic relation between a session and a bearer in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example process of hash mapping in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example transmission process of a QoS stream in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example process of hash mapping in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an example method in accordance with some other embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of a device suitable for implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in the following in more details with reference to the drawings. Although some embodiments of the present disclosure are displayed in the drawings, it is to be understood that the present disclosure may be implemented in various manners, not limited to the embodiments illustrated herein. On the contrary, these embodiments are provided to make the present disclosure more thorough and complete. It is to be understood that the drawings of the present disclosure and embodiments thereof are only for the purpose of illustration, without the limitation to the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

As used herein, the term “core network” or “CN” refers to a part responsible for a service management and control function in a communication network.

As used herein, the term “core network device” refers to a device or entity located in a core network. Examples of the core network device include, but are not limited to, a mobile switch center (MSC) , a mobility management entity (MME) , a serving gateway support node (SGSN) , a session border controller (SBC) , a proxy-call session control function (P-CSCF) , a service-call session control function (S-CSCF) , or a telephony application server (TAS) , a 5-generation core (5GC) and the like.

As used herein, the term “radio access network” or “RAN” refers to a part responsible for a user access function in a communication network.

As used herein, the term “base station” refers to a device or entity that can allow the terminal device to access the communication network. Examples of the base station include, but are not limited to, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB) , a gbit Node B (gNB) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and the like. In some embodiments, for the ease of discussion, gNB will be used as an example of the base station for illustration.

As used herein, the term “terminal device” or “user equipment” (UE) refers to any terminal device that can communicate wirelessly with the base station or with each other. As an example, the terminal device may include a mobile terminal (MT) , a subscriber station (SS) , a portable subscriber station (PSS) , a mobile station (MS) , or an access terminal (AT) , and the above devices mounted on vehicles.

As used herein, the term “includes” and its variants are to be read as open-ended terms that mean “includes, but is not limited to” . The term ″based on” is to be read as “based at least in part on” . The term “one embodiment” is to be read as “at least one embodiment” ; the term ” another embodiment” is to be read as “at least one another embodiment” . The following text may also contain relevant definitions of other terms.

As described above, in the 3GPP standardization conferences, it is proposed to introduce the QFI as the proxy between the QoS requirements and the various bearers in the network. For example, the UPF may convert a QoS requirement into a QFI and attach the QFI to (for example, a header of) a data packet to be transmitted to the gNB. The gNB may select the DRB for the data packet based on the QFI and then replace the QFI as a QFI plus PDU session ID to re-attach to the data packet to be transmitted to the UE. Conventionally, the gNB utilizes the QFI plus PDU session ID to identify a flow for a specific UE. However, as the PDU session ID plus QFI needs many bits for transmission, the transmission efficiency is lower over the RAN air interface.

For this purpose, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a new mechanism for transmitting QoS information. With this mechanism, the base station performs hash mapping of the QoS information from the core network. For example, in the scenario where a PDU session is transmitted from the CN to the RAN, the base station may use a hash function to map a QFI and a PDU session ID into a reference QoS indication, which is referred to as a “RAN QFI” , for example. Correspondingly, the terminal device performs hash inverse mapping of the reference QoS indication to determine the original QoS indication. By the hash mapping, a longer length of QoS information (containing the QFI and the PDU session ID) may be converted into a shorter RAN QFI to significantly reduce the number of bits to be transmitted via the air interface, thereby improving the transmission efficiency.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The communication network 100 comprises a RAN 105 and a CN 110. The RAN 105 includes a terminal device 115 and a base station 120, and the CN 110 includes four core network devices, namely, two gateways 125-1 and 125-2 (collectively referred to as “a gateway 125” ) and two servers 130-1 and 130-2 (collectively referred to as “a server 130” ) .

It is to be understood that the architecture of the communication network 100 is shown in FIG. 1 only for the purpose of illustration, without suggesting any limitation. The communication network 100 may further comprise a transmission network to allow interconnection between the RAN 105 and the CN 110, or may comprise other network parts. The RAN 105 may comprise any suitable number of terminal devices and base stations, and may compriseother devices. Likewise, the CN 110 may comprise any suitable number of gateways and servers, and may comprise other devices.

It is to be further understood that the communication network 100 is functionally divided into the RAN 105 and the CN 110 which may be separated or integrated physically. For example, in some embodiments, the gateway 125 and the base station 120 (for example, the gNB) may be provided in the same physical device.

In the RAN 105, the terminal device 115 may communicate with the base station 120 wirelessly or with other terminal devices (not shown) via the base station 120. Meanwhile, the base station 120 may communicate with the gateway 125 in a wired or wireless manner. It is to be understood that the communication between the base station 120 and the gateway 125 of the core network is shown in FIG. 1 only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitation. In some embodiments, the base station 120 may also communicate with other core network devices in a wired or wireless manner.

The communications in the communication network 100 may follow any suitable wireless communication technology and the corresponding communication standard. Examples of the communication technology include, but are not limited to, long term evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) , Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) , Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) , Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) , Bluetooth, ZigBee, machine type communication (MTC) , D2D, M2M and the like.

The communications may be performed according to any suitable communication protocol, including, but not limited to, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) /Internet Protocol (IP) , Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) , User Datagram Protocol (UDP) , Session Description Protocol (SDP) and the like.

In the communication network 100, the core network device 125 or 130 may transmit sessions with the terminal device 115. Different sessions, or different flows or packets of a session may have different QoS requirements. In the example as shown in FIG. 1, the gateway 125-1 and the server 130-1 closer to the RAN 105 transmit a session 135-1 to the RAN 105. The gateway 125-2 and the server 130-2 physically remote from the RAN 105 transmit a PDU session 135-2. It is to be understood that the positioning relationship among the core network device 125 or 130 and the RAN 105 is only illustrative but not limited.

The session 135 may relate to any suitable service. As an example, the session 135 may be a PDU session for an autonomous driving communication service. In this scenario, the terminal device 115 may be an onboard device in an autonomous driving car. The session 135-2 from the remote gateway 125-2 and the remote server 130-2 may include information about macro traffic. The session 135-1 from the nearby gateway 125-1 and the nearby server 130-1 may include information of controlling vehicle movement, such as ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) control signaling. Accordingly, the vehicle may be positioned and controlled using a mobile edge computing (MEC) network architecture, for example.

Since the above scenario has higher requirements on communication reliability and latency, the sessions 135-1 and 135-2 may both have higher QoS requirements. Correspondingly, the two sessions 135-1 and 135-2 may have the same QoS indicator (such as a QFI) . In this case, the base station 120 may select the same DRB for the two sessions.

An example of a logic relation between a session and a bearer will be discussed below with reference to FIG. 2. In this example, PDU sessions 205-1 and 205-2 are transmitted between the CN 110 and the RAN 105 in the form ofa QoS flow. As shown in FIG. 2, the PDU session 205-1 is transmitted between the gateway 125-1 (such as UPF 1) and the base station 120 (such as a NB) via an NG-U interface in an NG-U tunnel 210-1 and transmitted between the base station 120 and the terminal device 105 (such as a UE) via the a Uu interface with a DRB 215-1. The PDU session 205-2 is transmitted between the gateway 125-2 (such as UPF 2) and the base station 1202 via a NG-U interface in a NG-U interface tunnel 210-2, and transmitted between the base station 120 and the terminal device 105 via the Uu interface with a DRB 215-2. The PDU session 205-1 includes two QoS flows 220-1 and 220-2 which have different QoS requirements and thus are assigned to the different DRBs 215-1 and 215-2. The QoS flow 220-3 in the PDU session 205-2 and the QoS flow 220-2 in the PDU session 205-1 have the same QoS requirement, and therefore are assigned to the same DRB 215-2.

In this case, if a QoS flow is only identified with a QFI, different PDU sessions 205-1 and 205-2 cannot be differentiated at the terminal device 115. In this case, conventionally, a QFI plus PDU session ID may be used to indicate the QoS requirement of each QoS flow. However, since more transmission bits are required in a QFI plus PDU session ID while fewer transmission bits are required in URLLC control type information, the transmission efficiency of the URLLC control type information will be reduced considerably.

Embodiments of the present disclosure introduce hash mapping at the base station 120 so as to simplify the representation of the above QFI plus PDU session ID. In this way, the number of QoS information bits to be transmitted over the air interface is reduced, thereby reducing the transmission overhead and improving the transmission efficiency.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method 300 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 300 can be implemented at the base station 120. For the purpose of discussion, the method 300 will be described below with reference to FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 3, at block 305, the base station 120 receives a packet (referred to as “a first packet” ) of a session from a core network device (such as the gateway 125) . The first packet may be, for example, an IP packet or a packet of another protocol. The first packet includes an original QoS indication and an identification of the session (such as a session ID) , and the QoS indication is used to indicate a QoS requirement of the first packet. The original QoS indication may be implemented in any suitable way. In the embodiment where a QoS flow is used to transmit the session, the base station 120 may receive a flow including the first packet, and the QFI of this flow is the QoS indication of the first packet.

The original QoS indication and the session ID may be attached to the first packet in any suitable way. As an example, the original QoS indication and the session ID may be used as a header of the first packet. After the first packet is received, the base station may extract and decode the header of the packet to obtain the corresponding QoS indication and the session ID. Based on the QoS indication, the base station 120 may determine a DRB to be used for transmission to the terminal device 115.

At block 310, the base station 120 performs hash mapping of a combination of original QoS indication and the session ID in the first packet to generate a reference QoS indication. An example process of the hash mapping at the base station 120 will be discussed below with reference to FIG. 4.

As shown in FIG. 4, a combination of sessions ID 405-1 to 405-3 and the corresponding QoS indicators 410-1 to 410-3 (such as QFI 1, QFI 2 and QFI 3) is used as a hash key 415. The base station 120 may obtain the above combination from the core network device. For example, at the time of network deployment or during the initial setup of the base station 120, the base station 120 may receive from the core network device session IDs and QoS indications to be allowed. Alternatively, the base station 120 may store the allowed session IDs and the allowed QoS indications locally in advance. In the actual operation of the base station 120, if the session IDs and the QoS indications are updated, for example, added or deleted, the base station 120 may be notified by the core network device of the updating and accordingly update rules of the hash mapping.

The base station 120 may use the hash function 420 to perform a hash operation on the hash key 415 to obtain a hash bucket or a hash index 420 (such as a RAN QFI) , Al, ..., An, Am, as the reference QoS indication. The hash function may be specific to the base station 120. In other words, the mapping rules from the hash keys to the hash values may be different for different base stations.

The above hash operation may be represented by an equation (1) as below:

index = hashfunc (key) (1)

where “index” represents a hash index, “key” represents a hash key, and hashfunc () represents a hash function. The transmission bits required for the hash index obtained by the above hash operation are much fewer than the combination 415 of the session ID plus QoS indication, thereby significantly improving the transmission efficiency over the air interface.

In some embodiments, to further improve the efficiency, a modulus operation may be further performed on the hash value obtained using the hash function, which is represented by an equation (2) as below, for example, :

index = f (key, M) (2) where f () represents a hash function, and M represents the number of hash indexes allowed by the base station 120 (namely, the reference QoS indications allowed by the base station 120) . As an example, M=2 ^m, where m represents the number of bits used for the hash indexes.

The number M of hash indexes allowed by the base station 120 is associated with the number of the combinations 415 of session ID plus QoS indication that can be allowed by the base station 120. M may be a parameter specific to the terminal device. For example, the base station 120 may determine the corresponding M for the specific terminal device 115.

The above equation (2) , may be executed in two steps, for example, through the following equations (3) and (4) :

value = hashfunc (key) (3)

index = mod (value, M) (4)

where “value” in the equation (3) represents the hash value obtained using the combination of session ID plus QoS indication as the hash key with a hash function. The mod () in the equation (4) represents a modulus operation. With the equation (4) , the modulus operation may be performed on the obtained hash value by using M so as to further simplify the obtained hash index 425.

The modulus operation may cause the residues calculated from different session IDs plus QoS indications to be identical. In this case, the base station 120 may design different hash functions to avoid collision between different flows.

To enable the terminal device 115 to be aware of the original QoS information transmitted by the core network, consensus on available hash functions and possible hash keys needs to be reached between the base station 120 and the terminal device 115. The base station 120 may, for example, transmit the hash functions and the hash keys to the terminal device 115 in radio resource control (RRC) signaling. For example, the base station 120 may transmit the hash functions and the possible hash keys to the terminal device 115 in the RRC signaling when the terminal device 115 accesses the network 100 initially. When the hash functions and the hash keys are updated, the base station 120 may transmit an indication of the updating to the terminal device 120. In the embodiment where the base station 120 performs the modulus operation, the base station 120 may transmit the determined M to the individual terminal devices in the RRC signaling.

Still with reference to FIG. 3, at block 315, the base station 120 generates a packet (referred to as “a second packet” ) for transmission to the terminal device 115 based on the first packet, where the reference QoS indication is included. The reference QoS indication may be attached to the second packet in any suitable way. In the embodiment where the header of the first packet from the core network 110 includes the QoS indication and the session ID, the base station 120 may delete the header of the first packet after extracting and decoding the QoS indication and the session ID, and attach the reference QoS indication as a new header to the packet.

Similar to the first packet, the second packet may also be a packet of any suitable communication protocol. As an example, the second packet may be an SDAP packet. Correspondingly, the reference QoS indication may serve as a SDAP header.

Once the terminal device 115 receives the second packet, the terminal device 115 may obtain the reference QoS indication from the second packet, for example, by decoding the header. The terminal device 115 may perform the hash inverse mapping using a hash function consistent with that used at the base station 120 to obtain the original QoS indication and the session ID. When uplink transmission is initiated, the terminal device 115 may determine the DRB based on the same QoS indication.

If the base station 120 receives a packet (referred to as “a third packet” ) including the reference QoS indication from the terminal device 115, the base station 120 may perform hash inverse mapping of the reference QoS indication. Thus, the base station 120 may determine the QoS indication and the session ID. When the base station 120 generates a packet (referred to as “a fourth packet” ) for transmission to the core network device based on the third packet, the determined QoS indication and session ID may be included in the fourth packet.

FIG. 5 illustrates a transmission process 500 of a QoS flow in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 5, the terminal device 115 (such as a UE) transmits (505) an admission request to the base station 120 (such as a gNB) . The base station 120 determines (510) , admission of the terminal device 115 and the available hash functions and the possible hash keys, including the QoS indications (such as the QFIs) and the session IDs (such as the PDU session IDs) that can be allowed. As described above, the QoS indications and the session IDs allowable by the base station 120 may be obtained from the core network gateway 125 (such as a UPF) or stored locally in advance. The base station 120 transmits (515) the available hash functions and the possible hash keys to the terminal device 115. The terminal device 115 performs initialization (520) of a hash table.

When the QoS indications and the session IDs are updated, the base station 120 receives (525) new possible QoS indications and session IDs from the gateway 125 and updates (530) the rules of the hash mapping (such as the hash table) accordingly. The base station 120 transmits (535) the received new possible QoS indications and PDU session IDs to the terminal device 115 which thereby updates (540) local rules of the hash inverse mapping, for example, updates the local hash table.

In response to receiving (545) an NG2 connection establishment request from the gateway 125, the base station 120 establishes (550) an NG2 connection with the gateway 125. After the base station 120 transmits (555) a Uu connection request to the terminal device 115, the terminal device 115 establishes (560) a Uu connection with the base station 120. Then, the base station 120 transmits (565) a connection establishment acknowledgement (ACK) to the gateway 125.

At 570, a NAS filter (not shown) at the gateway 125 creates a QoS indication (such as a QFI) based on a QoS requirement of a packet to be transmitted, and attaches the QoS indication and a session ID together to the header of the packet. After the QoS indication is generated, the NAS filter at the gateway 125 may check if a bearer has been established for the combination of the specific QoS indication and the session ID. If the bearer exists, the gateway 125 transmits (575) the packet to the base station 120 with the corresponding DRB in the form of a QoS flow, for example. Otherwise, the gateway 125 may create a new bearer for the specific QoS requirement.

At 580, after the base station 120 receives a packet from the gateway 125, the base station 120 may establish an admission stratum (AS) filter, connect the session ID and the QoS indication information in the received packet to be one piece of information, and map the information into the reference QoS indication which is attached to a packet (for example, as a SDAP header) to be transmitted to the terminal device 115. FIG. 6 shows an example process of this mapping. As shown in FIG. 6, after the base station 120 receives the QoS flow, the base station 120 retrieves the PDU session ID 405 and the QoS indication 410 (such as the QFI) and maps the combination of the PDU session ID 405 and the QoS indication 410 into the hash index 425 (such as the RAN QFI) as the reference QoS indication by using an AS filter 605. The specific mapping process has been described in detail with reference to FIG. 4, which thus will not be repeated here.

Still with reference to FIG. 5, at 585, the base station 120 establishes or selects a DRB by the AS filter for the transmission of the second packet based on the QoS indication and transmits the packet attached with the reference QoS indication to the terminal device 115 using the SDAP protocol, for example. The terminal device 115 performs hash inverse mapping (590) of the reference QoS indication to determine the original QoS indication and the session ID.

The reference QoS indication determined by the base station 120 is not static, and therefore the terminal device 115 needs to monitor the headers of the packets from the base station 120 constantly. Moreover, when the terminal device 115 moves from one cell to another, an original hash mapping rule in an original cell should be updated to be a new hash mapping rule of a new cell.

In a system in which the network slicing technology is implemented, the above hash mapping mechanism may also be adopted so that information bits for the same slice are organized in the same SDAP packet for transmission. Moreover, a similar approach may be utilized to apply a downlink EPS bearer to the corresponding uplink transmission.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method 700 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 700 can be implemented at the terminal device 115. For the purpose of discussion, the method 700 will be described below with reference to FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 7, at block 705, the terminal device 115 receives the second packet of the session from the base station 120. The second packet includes the reference QoS indication. At block 710, the terminal device 115 performs the hash inverse mapping of the reference QoS indication in the second packet to determine the original QoS indication and the identification of the session.

In some embodiments, to enable the hash inverse mapping of the reference QoS indication, the terminal device 115 may receive from the base station 120 the hash function and the QoS indications and the identifications of the sessions allowed by the base station 120. The terminal device 115 uses the received hash function and QoS indications and identifications of the sessions to determine a rule of the hash inverse mapping.

In the embodiment in which the modulus operation is performed at the base station 120 on the reference QoS indication with the number of reference QoS indications allowed by the base station 120, the terminal device 115 may further receive the number from the base station and determine the original QoS indication and the identification of the session with this number.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 115 may receive from the base station 120 an indication of updating the QoS indications and the identifications of the sessions allowed by the base station 120. Based on the indication of the updating, the terminal device 115 may update the rule of the hash inverse mapping.

In some embodiments, the header of the second packet includes a reference QoS indication. In some embodiments, the original QoS indication is a QFI for the session.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 115 may further transmit the third packet of the session to the base station 120. The third packet includes the reference QoS indication.

In some embodiments, the second packet is a SDAP packet. In some embodiments, the session may be a PDU session.

It is to be understood that the operations and the associated features performed by the base station 120 described above with reference to FIGS. 3-6 are also applicable to the method 700 performed by the terminal device 115 and have the same effects, and the specific details will not be repeated here.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of a device 800 suitable to implement embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 800 can be used to implement the base station 120 or the terminal device 115 shown in FIG. 1, for example.

As illustrated, the device 800 includes a controller 810. The controller 810 controls the operations and functions of device 800. For example, in some embodiments, the controller 810 may implement various operations by means of instructions 830 stored in a memory 820 coupled thereto. The memory 820 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology such as semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, as non-limiting examples. While only one memory unit is shown in FIG. 8, there may be several physically distinct memory units in the device 800.

The controller 810 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors models based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 800 may have multiple controllers 810 which are coupled with a communication module 855. The communication module 855 includes a receiver 840 and a transmitter 850 that implement reception and transmission of information by means of one or more antennas and/or other components.

When the device 800 acts as the base station 120, the controller 810, the receiver 840 and the transmitter 850 may operate in cooperation to implement the method 300 described above with reference to FIGS. 3-6. When the device 800 acts as the terminal device 115, the controller 810, the receiver 840 and the transmitter 850 may operate in cooperation to implement the method 700 described above with reference to FIG. 7. All the features as described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7 are likewise applicable to the device 800 and will not be repeated here.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

As an example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be described in the context of computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the computer or other programmable data processing apparatuses, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

In the context of the present disclosure, computer readable medium may be any tangible medium that includes or stores a program for or about an instruction execution system, apparatus or device. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be perfonned, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A method implemented at a base station in a radio access network, comprising:

receiving a first packet of a session from a core network device, the first packet including an original Quality of Service (QoS) indication and an identification of the session, the original QoS indication indicating a QoS requirement of the first packet;

performing a hash mapping of a combination of the original QoS indication and the identification of the session in the first packet to generate a reference QoS indication; and

generating a second packet to be transmitted to a terminal device in the radio access network based on the first packet, the second packet including the reference QoS indication.
The method according to claim 1, wherein performing the hash mapping of the combination of the original QoS indication and the identification of the session comprises:

mapping, using a hash function, the combination of the original QoS indication and the identification of the session into a hash value; and

generating the reference QoS indication based on the hash value.
The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

transmitting the hash function to the terminal device.
The method according to claim 2, wherein generating the reference QoS indication based on the hash value comprises:

determining the number of allowed reference QoS indications; and

performing a modulus operation on the hash value using the number of allowed reference QoS indications to generate the reference QoS indication.
The method according to claim 4, wherein one of the allowed reference QoS indications is represented by a plurality of bits, and determining the number of the allowed reference QoS indications comprises:

determining the number of the allowed reference QoS indications based on the number of bits.
The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

transmitting the number of the allowed reference QoS indications to the terminal device.
The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the core network device, allowed QoS indications and allowed identifications of sessions; and

determining a rule of the hash mapping based on the allowed QoS indications and the allowed identifications of the sessions.
The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

transmitting the allowed QoS indications and the allowed identifications of the sessions to the terminal device.
The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

receiving an indication of updating the allowed QoS indications and the allowed identifications of the sessions from the core network device; and

updating the rule of the hash mapping based on the indication of the updating.
The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

transmitting the indication of the updating to the terminal device.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the first packet has a first header including the original QoS indication and the identification of the session, the second packet has a second header including the reference QoS indication, and generating the second packet comprises:

replacing the first header with the second header to generate the second packet.
The method according to claim 1, wherein receiving the first packet comprises:

receiving a flow of the session from the core network device, the flow including the first packet,

wherein the original QoS indication comprises a QoS flow identifier of the flow.
The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the original QoS indication, a radio bearer for transmitting the second packet to the terminal device.
The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a third packet of the session from the terminal device, the third packet including the reference QoS indication;

performing hash inverse mapping of the reference QoS indication in the third packet to determine the original QoS indication and the identification of the session; and

generating, based on the third packet, a fourth packet for transmission to the core network device, the fourth packet including the original QoS indication and the identification of the session.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the first packet is an Internet Protocol (IP) packet, and the second packet is a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) packet.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the session is a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session.
A method implemented at a terminal device, comprising:

receiving a second packet of a session from a base station, the second packet including a reference Quality of Service (QoS) indication; and

performing hash inverse mapping of the reference QoS indication in the second packet to determine an original QoS indication and an identification of the session.
The method according to claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a hash function from the base station;

receiving, from the base station, QoS indications and identifications of sessions allowed by the base station; and

determining a rule of the hash inverse mapping based on the hash function and the QoS indications and the identifications of the sessions.
The method according to claim 18, wherein a modulus operation is performed at the base station on the reference QoS indication with the number of reference QoS indications allowed by the base station, and the method further comprises:

receiving, from the base station, the number of reference QoS indications allowed by the base station; and

determining the original QoS indication and identification of the session further based on the number of reference QoS indications.
The method according to claim 18, further comprising:

receiving, from the base station, an indication of updating the QoS indications and the identifications of the sessions allowed by the base station; and

updating the rule of the hash inverse mapping based on the indication of the updating.
The method according to claim 17, wherein a header of the second packet comprises the reference QoS indication.
The method according to claim 17, wherein the original QoS indication is a QoS flow identifier for the session.
The method according to claim 17, further comprising:

transmitting a third packet of the session to the base station, the third packet including the reference QoS indication.
The method according to claim 17, wherein the second packet is a Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) packet.
The method according to claim 17, wherein the session is a protocol data unit (PDU) session.
A base station, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the base station to perform the method according to any of claims 1-16.
A terminal device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform the method according to any of claims 17-25.
A computer readable storage medium comprising a computer program stored thereon, the computer program comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method according to any of claims 1-16.
A computer readable storage medium comprising a computer program stored thereon, the computer program comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method according to any of claims 17-25.