WO2020001769A1

WO2020001769A1 - Quality of service control and mobility management for advanced vehicular users of wireless network

Info

Publication number: WO2020001769A1
Application number: PCT/EP2018/067343
Authority: WO
Inventors: Vinh Van Phan; Ling Yu; Oliver Blume; Hajo Bakker; Dereje KIFLE
Original assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2018-06-27
Filing date: 2018-06-27
Publication date: 2020-01-02

Abstract

A method of receiving, by a network node that is providing a cell that is a future serving cell along a traveling path for a vehicular user device, a resource request for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; sending a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and receiving, by the network node, a message providing information regarding a primary committed serving cell group that indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

Description

Quality of Service Control and Mobility Management For Advanced Vehicular Users Of

Wireless Network

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] This description relates to wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

[0002] A communication system may be a facility that enables communication between two or more nodes or devices, such as fixed or mobile communication devices. Signals can be carried on wired or wireless carriers.

[0003] An example of a cellular communication system is an architecture that is being standardized by the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). A recent development in this field is often referred to as the long-term evolution (LTE) of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) radio-access technology. E- UTRA (evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) is the air interface of 3GPP's Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. In LTE, base stations (BSs) or access points (APs), which are referred to as enhanced Node-B (eNBs), provide wireless access within a coverage area or cell. In LTE, mobile devices, or mobile stations are referred to as user equipments (UE). LTE has included a number of improvements or developments.

[0004] 5G New Radio (NR) development is part of a continued mobile broadband evolution process to meet the requirements of 5G, similar to earlier evolution of 3G & 4G wireless networks. In addition, 5G is also targeted at the new emerging use cases in addition to mobile broadband. A goal of 5G is to provide significant improvement in wireless performance, which may include new levels of data rate, latency, reliability, and security. 5G NR may also scale to efficiently connect the massive Internet of Things (IoT), and may offer new types of mission-critical services.

SUMMARY

[0005] According to an example implementation, a method includes receiving, by a first network node, a traveling path of a vehicular user device; sending, by the first network node, a resource request for the vehicular user device to a plurality of second network nodes providing a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device; determining a primary committed serving cell group that includes a second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; determining a lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group, which is greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; and sending, to at least one of the second network nodes, a first message providing information regarding the primary committed serving cell group.

[0006] According to an example implementation, an apparatus includes at least one processor and at least one memory including computer instructions, when executed by at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive, by a first network node, a traveling path of a vehicular user device; send, by the first network node, a resource request for the vehicular user device to a plurality of second network nodes providing a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; receive a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device; determine a primary committed serving cell group that includes a second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; determine a lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group, which is greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; and send, to at least one of the second network nodes, a first message providing information regarding the primary committed serving cell group.

[0007] According to an example implementation, a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform a method of receiving, by a first network node, a traveling path of a vehicular user device; sending, by the first network node, a resource request for the vehicular user device to a plurality of second network nodes providing a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device; determining a primary committed serving cell group that includes a second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; determining a lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group, which is greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; and sending, to at least one of the second network nodes, a first message providing information regarding the primary committed serving cell group. [0008] According to an example implementation, a method includes receiving, by a network node that is providing a cell that is a future serving cell along a traveling path for a vehicular user device, a resource request for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; sending a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and receiving, by the network node, a message providing information regarding a primary committed serving cell group that indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

[0009] According to an example implementation, an apparatus includes at least one processor and at least one memory including computer instructions, when executed by at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive, by a network node that is providing a cell that is a future serving cell along a traveling path for a vehicular user device, a resource request for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; send a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and receive, by the network node, a message providing information regarding a primary committed serving cell group that indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

[0010] According to an example implementation, a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform a method of receiving, by a network node that is providing a cell that is a future serving cell along a traveling path for a vehicular user device, a resource request for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; sending a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and receiving, by the network node, a message providing information regarding a primary committed serving cell group that indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

[0011] The details of one or more examples of implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless network according to an example implementation.

[0013] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an advanced vehicular user according to an example embodiment.

[0014] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating two example architectures.

[0015] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating operation of a distributed control architecture according to an example embodiment.

[0016] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating operation of a central control architecture according to an example embodiment.

[0017] FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating operation of a network node (e.g., a BS, a central control entity, or other network node) according to an example embodiment.

[0018] FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating operation of a network node according to an example embodiment.

[0019] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a node or wireless node or station (e.g., base station/access point or mobile station/user device/UE or other node) according to an example implementation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless network 130 according to an example implementation. In the wireless network 130 of FIG. 1, user devices 131, 132, 133 and 135, which may also be referred to as mobile stations (MSs) or user equipment (UEs), may be connected (and in communication) with a base station (BS) 134, which may also be referred to as an access point (AP) (e.g., such as a 802.11 or WiFi AP, or other AP), an enhanced Node B (eNB), a 5G gNB, or a network node. At least part of the functionalities of an access point (AP), base station (BS) or (e)Node B (eNB) may also be carried out by any node, server or host which may be operably coupled to a transceiver, such as a remote radio head. Thus, the terms, BS, AP, eNB, gNB, or network node may be used interchangeably herein. BS (or AP) 134 provides wireless coverage within a cell 136, including to user devices 131, 132, 133 and 135. Although only four user devices are shown as being connected or attached to BS 134, any number of user devices may be provided. BS 134 is also connected to a core network 150 via a Sl interface 151. This is merely one simple example of a wireless network, and others may be used.

[0021] A user device (user terminal, user equipment (UE)) may refer to a portable computing device that includes wireless mobile communication devices operating with or without a subscriber identification module (SIM), including, but not limited to, the following types of devices: a mobile station (MS), a mobile phone, a cell phone, a smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handset, a device using a wireless modem (alarm or measurement device, etc.), a laptop and/or touch screen computer, a tablet, a phablet, a game console, a notebook, and a multimedia device, as examples, or any other wireless device. It should be appreciated that a user device may also be a nearly exclusive uplink only device, of which an example is a camera or video camera loading images or video clips to a network.

[0022] In LTE (as an example), core network 150 may be referred to as Evolved Packet Core (EPC), which may include a mobility management entity (MME) which may handle or assist with mobility/handover of user devices between BSs, one or more gateways that may forward data and control signals between the BSs and packet data networks or the Internet, and other control functions or blocks.

[0023] In addition, by way of illustrative example, the various example implementations or techniques described herein may be applied to various types of user devices or data service types, or may apply to user devices that may have multiple applications running thereon that may be of different data service types. New Radio (5G) development may support a number of different applications or a number of different data service types, such as for example: machine type communications (MTC), enhanced machine type communication (eMTC), Internet of Things (IoT), and/or narrowband IoT user devices, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC).

[0024] IoT may refer to an ever-growing group of objects that may have Internet or network connectivity, so that these objects may send information to and receive information from other network devices. For example, many sensor type applications or devices may monitor a physical condition or a status, and may send a report to a server or other network device, e.g., when an event occurs. Machine Type Communications (MTC, or Machine to Machine communications) may, for example, be characterized by fully automatic data generation, exchange, processing and actuation among intelligent machines, with or without intervention of humans. Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) may support much higher data rates than currently available in LTE.

[0025] Ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) is a new data service type, or new usage scenario, which may be supported for New Radio (5G) systems. This enables emerging new applications and services, such as industrial automations, autonomous driving, vehicular safety, e-health services, and so on. 3GPP targets in providing connectivity with reliability corresponding to block error rate (BLER) of 10 ⁵ and up to 1 ms U-Plane (user/data plane) latency, by way of illustrative example. Thus, for example, URLLC user devices/UEs may require a significantly lower block error rate than other types of user devices/UEs as well as low latency (with or without requirement for simultaneous high reliability). Thus, for example, a URLLC UE (or URLLC application on a UE) may require much shorter latency, as compared to a eMBB UE (or an eMBB application running on a UE).

[0026] The various example implementations may be applied to a wide variety of wireless technologies or wireless networks, such as LTE, LTE- A, 5G, cmWave, and/or mmWave band networks, IoT, MTC, eMTC, eMBB, URLLC, IEEE 802.11 or WiFi networks, etc., or any other wireless network or wireless technology. These example networks, technologies or data service types are provided only as illustrative examples.

[0027] Various example embodiments may be related to one or more advanced vehicular users (vehicular UEs/user devices), e.g., which may include a UE provided on a vehicle, such as on a car, truck, train, plane (or other aircraft), bus, drone, boat, etc. For example, some example embodiments may be directed to improving operation of moving vehicular systems which may include a number of cooperative individual UE devices traveling together on a common physical or logical platform and/or which may include a plurality of advanced vehicular users (UEs) traveling together over a predefined route or traveling path and for a considerable amount of time. Examples of such advanced vehicular users may include long-haul, real-time remote monitored and controlled platoons, trains, buses or mission driven individual transportation trucks, cars or drones. These are merely some illustrative examples, and other vehicular users (or vehicular UEs) may be used as well.

[0028] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an advanced vehicular user according to an example embodiment. A car platoon 210 (or a group or plurality of traveling automobiles) may include a plurality of cars that may be traveling together (or as a group) along a traveling path or route. A platoon leader 212 (or lead vehicle) may be one of the vehicles or cars within the platoon 210.

[0029] According to an example embodiment, e.g., as shown in FIG. 2, there may be communications between one or more of the cars or vehicular UEs within the platoon with a wireless network, e.g., via one or more cells that may be provided by base stations (BSs) along the traveling path, such as with BS#i, BS#(i+l), etc. Other BSs or cells may also be provided. Also, the cars or vehicular UEs may also wirelessly communicate with each other while traveling, e.g., via device-to-device (D2D) communications over sidelink (SL) communications, for example. Resources (e.g., wireless or radio resources) may be required for the UE to BS communications and the sidelink communications between vehicular UEs of the car platoon. Thus, for example, there may be constant and/or continuous communications and thus data flows between cooperative vehicular UEs and/or between individual vehicular UEs and a central application server of an advanced vehicular user of interest. Taking platooning for an example, individual vehicles of a platoon may need to communicate with each other quickly and reliably on a regular basis and at least the platoon leader may need to communicate with a central server also fast and reliably on a regular basis. Taking a remote driving bus, truck, car or drone for another example, constant real-time data flows including high-resolution videos and driving control need to be provided between the vehicle and the network along the travelling path. Hence, the working assumption as well as motivation behind various example implementations may be as follows.

[0030] The traveling path of an advanced vehicular user (vehicular UE) may be (or may include) a semi- static (fixed, but capable of being changed or adjusted), long- haul travelling path that is known to the serving network in advance. The travelling path may include a specific geographic path or route for the vehicular UE(s), which may correspond or map to a plurality of future (or prospective) serving BSs along the traveling path. For example, an application server (e.g., a platoon server which coordinates a number of platoons on roads and trucks requesting to join a platoon or a remote driving server or a railway control server) may provide the route or traveling path to the serving network. Based on this information, the serving network may be able to map out all targeted serving cells (future serving cells along the traveling path of the vehicular UE) for the targeted advanced vehicular user in advance.

[0031] Each targeted advanced vehicular user may have a basic need (e.g., a constant or periodic need) of sufficient dedicated resources from a serving mobile cellular network to facilitate the required communications, either between its cooperative UE devices (vehicular UEs that are part of the platoon or cooperative group) or between its individual UEs and the serving network. Thus, the operation of the targeted application and operation of the advanced vehicular UE(s) may be based on the allocation of sufficient resources (e.g., radio resources at one or more cells) along the traveling path. Also, in some cases, a group of cars or vehicular UEs may not be able to operate as an intended platoon if there are not enough dedicated resources allocated to the group. Also, the resource allocation needs may need to be reassured over long enough amount of time or distance of the traveling path.

[0032] The current QoS control and mobility management for a UE may assume a random mobility or path, and may be provided dynamically (or on demand by the UE) from one serving cell to a next cell for an individual UE. A UE handover (HO) may be triggered and performed together on the fly and therefore impact of a HO cannot be prioritized and leveraged in advance in, e.g., admission control and resource allocation in the next targeted serving cell. This approach may not be preferable in serving targeted advanced vehicular users which come with more complex and challenging Quality of Service (QoS) requirements and therefore constant needs for faster and more reassured allocation of dedicated resources.

[0033] Thus, according to an example embodiment, techniques are provided for a quality of service (QoS) control and mobility management for advanced vehicular UEs within a wireless network. These techniques, including predictive control, may provide a serving network and the individual advanced vehicular UEs/users additional time to leverage possible impacts of dedicated resource allocation along a traveling path as well as to improve the speed and efficiency of the handover (HO) execution and resource allocation processes for the individual advanced vehicular UEs which may have more complex user contexts and/or greater service demands, as compared to individual UEs in current networks.

[0034] Thus, for example, one or more example embodiments may present a method for RAN (radio access network) level coordination between identified serving cells for facilitating efficient predictive QoS control and mobility management of advanced vehicular users. For example, either a centralized or distributed approach may be used. A resource request may be sent to one or more future (or expected or prospective) serving cells along a traveling path or route for a vehicular UE (e.g., which may be part of a group of cooperative vehicular UEs traveling along the same traveling path). The resource request may indicate, for example, a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular UE. The resource request may be for one vehicular UE, or may be a combined resource request for a plurality or group of vehicular UEs traveling together along a traveling path. A resource response may be received from one or more (or from all) of the future serving cells along the traveling path of the vehicular UE), indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular UE. A primary committed service cell group (PCSCG) may be determined for the vehicular UE that include a group or plurality of consecutive serving cells along the traveling path that have indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level. Also, a lowest resource commitment level of the PCSCG may be determined (e.g., lowest resource commitment level of the cells among the PCSCG), which may be, e.g., greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level, for example. A message may be sent to the future serving cells or cells of the PCSCG , e.g., indicating the cells of the PCSCG and the minimum and/or lowest resource commitment level of the PCSCG. A message may also be sent to the vehicular UE(s) traveling along the traveling path, e.g., indicating the cells (and/or providing cell context) and a resource commitment level for the PCSCG, and/or indicating the minimum and/or lowest resource commitment level of the PCSCG. Also, each (or one or more) of the cells of the PCSCG may perform handover (HO) preparation for one or more vehicular UEs traveling along the traveling path, e.g., based on the resource request. The cells may allocate resources for the vehicular UE(s), which may be used for UE communications with a BS and/or for communications between vehicular UEs via sidelink communications. Additional resource responses may be received from BSs providing serving cells along the traveling path, which may indicate an updated resource commitment level for the vehicular UE.

For example, if the updated resource commitment level is less than the minimum resource commitment level, then the cells/BSs of the PCSCG and/or the impacted vehicular UE may be warned or notified that a cell within the PCSCG or along the traveling path may not be able to provide the minimum resource commitment level.

[0035] According to an example embodiment, a method or technique may include receiving, by a first network node, a traveling path of a vehicular user device; sending, by the first network node, a resource request for the vehicular user device to a plurality of second network nodes providing a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device; determining a primary committed serving cell group that includes a second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; determining a lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group, which is greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; and sending, to at least one of the second network nodes, a first message providing information regarding the primary committed serving cell group.

[0036] According to an example embodiment, wherein the first message includes information identifying: 1) one or more cells that are part of the primary committed serving cell group including cells that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and 2) the lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group.

[0037] In another example embodiment, the method may further include determining a full primary committed serving cell group that includes a third number (L) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for which at least some handover preparation has been performed for the vehicular user device, including receiving a cell context of the future serving cell and associated user context established for the vehicular user device; and sending a second message to the vehicular user device indicating the future serving cells of the full primary committed serving cell group and associated user contexts for which handover preparation has been performed in advance for the vehicular user device.

[0038] In an example embodiment, the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells corresponds to an initial predictive control distance for the vehicular user device along traveling path.

[0039] In an example embodiment, the method may include receiving, by the first network node, from the vehicular user device in a wireless network, a resource request for resources to be used for at least one of network access communications with a cell or base station and/or device-to-device-communications over sidelink communications with one or more other cooperating vehicular user devices also traveling on the traveling path; and allocating, by the first network node, a set of resources to the vehicular user device in response to a resource request from the vehicular user device.

[0040] In an example embodiment, the resource request indicates a time, including at least one of an estimated time or an earliest time, that the vehicular user device will claim resources at the one or more cells of a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device.

[0041] In an example embodiment, the minimum resource commitment level may include the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device and at least one of the following: an actual resource commitment level currently allocated by a current serving cell of the vehicular user device; and a preferred resource commitment level that is preferred by the vehicular user device.

[0042] In an example embodiment, the resource commitment level indicated in the resource response is provided as a resource commitment level relative to the minimum resource commitment level, including indicating a resource commitment level that is a same as, higher than , or lower than the minimum resource commitment level.

[0043] In an example embodiment, a cell context includes one or more of a cell identifier (cell ID) that identifies a cell, and cell specific resources including one or more of random access resources and/or a random access preamble assigned to the vehicular user device and sidelink resources assigned to the vehicular user device; and wherein a user context includes one or more of a cell- specific radio network temporary identifier C- RNTI) for the vehicular user device, a sidelink radio network temporary identifier (SL- RNTI) assigned to the vehicular user device, a sidelink or data radio bearer, and/or an indication of resources assigned to the vehicular user device.

[0044] In an example embodiment, the method may further include determining that the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level is less than a minimum number of successive committed cells; and performing at least one of the following: decreasing the minimum resource commitment level to an adjusted minimum resource commitment level so as to increase the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the adjusted minimum resource commitment level; and sending a warning message to the vehicular user device indicating that one or more future serving cells along the traveling path may be unable to provide a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

[0045] In an example embodiment, further including determining that the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path, which indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level and lower than at least one of 1) the actual resource commitment level currently allocated by the current serving cell or 2) the preferred resource commitment level that is preferred by the vehicular user device, is less than a minimum number of successive committed cells; and performing at least one of the following: decreasing the actual resource commitment level to a lower resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level so as to increase the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the lower resource commitment level; and sending a warning message to the vehicular user device indicating that one or more future serving cells along the traveling path may provide the lower resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

[0046] In an example embodiment, the method may further include receiving a further resource response, indicating an updated resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from the one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device.

[0047] In an example embodiment, the method may further include receiving a further resource response, indicating an updated resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is less than the minimum resource commitment level, from one or more cells of the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that previously indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and sending a message to inform the vehicular user device of the updated resource commitment level by the one or more cells of the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path.

[0048] In an example embodiment, the vehicular user device is a first vehicular user device of a plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path, and which are communicating directly with each other via sidelink communications.

[0049] In an example embodiment, the sending comprises sending, by the first network node, a resource request for both the first vehicular user device and a second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path, to at least a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level; wherein the receiving a resource response comprises receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the first and second vehicular user devices, from the one or more cells of the first number of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path.

[0050] In an example embodiment, the resource request for both the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path comprises at least one of the following: a separate resource request for each of the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path; and a combined resource request for that requests resources for both of the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path.

[0051] In an example embodiment, the receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from the one or more cells of the first number of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path comprises at least one of: receiving a combined resource response, indicating a resource commitment level in response to the combined resource request for the first and second vehicular user devices; and receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for each of the first and second vehicular user devices.

[0052] In an example embodiment, the traveling path for the vehicular user device includes or corresponds to a plurality of future serving cells along the traveling path.

[0053] According to an example embodiment, techniques or methods are provided for, e.g., radio access network (RAN) level coordination between a plurality of pre-identified serving cells for facilitating efficient and/or predictive QoS (quality of service) control and mobility management of an advanced vehicular user/UE along a predefined travelling path that is based on a flexible and/or optimal resolution of which and how many of the pre-identified serving cells along the traveling path or route need to (or should) be actively involved in the predictive control and to what extent on the individual basis of the pre-identified serving cells. This, for example, may ensure that the predictive control does not cause excessive signaling overhead for needed coordination in the network side while at least in some cases, improving the speed and/or efficiency of the QoS control and mobility management related control signaling over the radio interface towards the UE side.

[0054] A vehicular UE may be connected to a current serving cell (the cell that is currently serving the vehicular UE). The current serving cell (e.g., starting with the first serving cell) may receive a resource request (e.g., on behalf of one or more vehicular UEs of a group or platoon of cars or vehicular UEs, for example) from the advanced vehicular user (vehicular UE). Thus, for example, the resource request may be received by the serving cell from a representative UE, denoted as Rep-UE, of the advanced vehicular user, such as the platoon leader (PL) in the case of the platoon for example, or from the serving network (or core network) block or function such as LTE MME (mobility management entity) or 5G AMF/SMF. The serving cell (or BS providing the serving cell) may also receive information describing the traveling path of the vehicular UE or car platoon in terms geography of the traveling and/or a list of future serving cells along the traveling path, e.g., the cells that the advanced vehicular user will (or will likely) be passing through and served by along the traveling path. According to an example embodiment, the serving cell may send a resource request to the next N consecutive cells along the traveling path of the vehicular UE, e.g., which may be N cells associated with a predictive control distance, which may be defined by the network. Also, a number of (m) cells, out of the N cells that were sent a resource request, may have responded to indicate a resource commitment level for the vehicular UE that is at least a minimum resource commitment level are the cells (along the primary committed serving distance of successive cells). Thus, the next consecutive m cells (out of the N cells) that provided at least the minimum resource commitment level to the vehicular UE, are the primary committed serving cell group (PCSCG). N may be introduced herein as a network parameter representing an active predictive control distance, which can be preconfigured to a plurality of pre-identified serving cells for the advanced vehicular UE. In a worst case, N can be set to the total number of the identified future serving cells along the (entire) traveling path of the advanced vehicular user/UE. But since the traveling path can be very long, e.g., hundreds or even thousands of kms which takes up hours to travel, the total number of the identified future serving cells along a traveling path may be considerably large. Therefore, N may be set in order to control and optimize the time window or distance of the predictive control, e.g., to prevent excessive protocol overhead in multi-cell coordination needed for the predictive control of interest as well as to take care of the prediction error. The further out the future cells are along the traveling path, the less predictable is the estimated time of arrival of the UE at the cell (e.g., when the UE would be expected to claim or use the committed resources at the cell) and even the route itself (e.g., there may be possible changes for the traveling path, such as, for example, due to traffic congestion, traffic accidents, travel breaks or stops, or driver decisions). Thus, resource planning or reservation may not be appropriate for cells that are far away. N therefore may be determined specifically to the advanced vehicular user based on, e.g., cell sizes and core network (CN) connections of identified passing cells or BSs and a preconfigured predictive control distance. For example, N can be set to, for example, the average number of identified cells which cover every next lOkm of travelling distance of the advanced vehicular user. For a simplistic example, N is determined and set to, for example, 10 in that way. N may also be context sensitive, e.g., reflecting the type of advanced vehicular user and service. For example, mission critical applications may be supported with a higher N than map updates. High-speed trains (e.g., having a higher speed) may also have higher N configured than cars on roads. Also, the service level agreement or data plan may make impact or affect a value chosen for N. In other words, N should be large enough and the size can be varied elastically depending on network and user/UE requirements, characteristics or behaviours. The details are as follows. By way of illustrative example, an example method may include one or more of the following operational steps.

[0055] 1) This first step may include receiving a request and allocating resources by a serving cell.

[0056] A) The BS of the current serving cell may receive a resource request from a vehicular user (which may be referred to as an advanced vehicular user).

A vehicular user may include at least one vehicular UE (vehicular user device). In some example embodiments, a vehicular user may include a vehicular user group that includes a representative vehicular UE (representative vehicular user device), such as a platoon leader, and one or more additional vehicular UEs, where the vehicular UEs of the vehicular user group may be cooperating with each other (e.g., which may include each vehicular UE of the group communicating with a wireless network and/or communicating with each other via sidelink communications) and/or traveling together along a traveling path. Thus, the term vehicular user may include a single-UE vehicular user, as well as a vehicular user group that may include a plurality of vehicular UEs including a representative vehicular UE (e.g., car platoon leader). Resources (e.g., radio or wireless resources) may typically need to be allocated to the vehicular user as the vehicular user travels along a traveling path that includes a plurality of future serving cells. According to an example embodiment, because the traveling path and or resource (or QoS)

requirements of the vehicular user may be known or determined by the network and/or current serving cell, steps may be taken in advance (e.g., before vehicular UEs arrive at cells along the traveling path) to allocate or request commitment of resources from cells along the traveling path and/or perform handover preparations (e.g., including obtaining a UE context and/or cell context for each cell) for the vehicular user (e.g., for each or one or more of the vehicular UEs of the vehicular user. Thus, in the case of a vehicular user group, the resource request may be received from a representative vehicular UE (e.g., a platoon leader), e.g., to request resources for the vehicular user group, e.g., to be used for communications with the network and/or for sidelink communications between vehicular UEs of the vehicular user group. The resource request may indicate that the request is from a vehicular user (from an advanced vehicular user), and may indicate a quality of service (QoS) requirement or resource requirements for the vehicular user and a number of the vehicular UEs that are part of the vehicular user (and/or may identify each vehicular UE (or vehicular user device). It is noted that in a centrally controlled network such as mobile cellular network, a service request from a UE may be communicated with a central control entity such as MME in LTE or AMF/SMF in 5G first and based on that the central control entity may determine and send a resource request, along for examples configurations of bearer services, for the UE to the serving RAN or BS. That is, in some options or example embodiments, the BS may receive the resource request for the vehicular UE from the core network and not from the UE directly. It is also possible in some options or example embodiments that one part of the resource request is received from the core network and the other part of the resource request is received from the UE.

[0057] B) The BS of the current serving cell of the vehicular user determines its own dedicated resources to be allocated to the advanced vehicular user.

The dedicated resources are meant to provide adequate quality of service (QoS) for at least all the basic or absolute real-time communication needs for the advanced vehicular user’s application and operation, e.g., considering possible constant or periodic communications that may be needed between co-operative vehicular UEs of the advanced vehicular user or platoon, and between at least the Rep-UE (e.g., platoon leader) of the advanced vehicular user and the network (e.g., core network), or an application server for the vehicular user. Taking the platooning as an example, the basic communication needs of a platoon may include, e.g.: direct D2D communications over sidelink

communications between the platoon’s members; and network access communications over a Uu connection between at least the platoon leader and the platoon server. In some cases, the current serving cell may be the primary serving cell of at least the Rep-UE (or platoon leader). There may be more than one current serving cell involved in serving an advanced vehicular user, considering e.g., possible use of multi-connectivity (a vehicular UE connected to multiple cells at the same time) or that the advanced vehicular user may be a long platoon or train of which vehicular UE members may momentarily be served by different neighboring cells simultaneously. In this case, the resource allocation may be based on collective commitments of all the current serving cells.

[0058] C) The serving cell may allocate the determined resources to the advanced vehicular user or the vehicular UE, e.g., via the Rep-UE right away without further delay or wait until Step 4.B. The allocation of resources may be resources allocated to just the representative UE (or platoon leader), or may include a combined set of resources allocated to the plurality of vehicular UEs of the vehicular user (e.g., vehicular UEs that are cooperatively traveling together on the same traveling path).

Such resources may be used for both network access to a BS(s) or cell, and/or sidelink communications between vehicular UEs of the vehicular user.

[0059] 2) The current serving cell may then send a resource request to the next N cells (or requests a resource reservation, or requests a resource commitment from the next N cells) along the traveling path for the advanced vehicular user. The resource request may indicate or request a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user.

The resource request may indicate the determined resource allocation of its own (of the current serving cell) for the advanced vehicular user. The resource request may also include a parameter for a time (e.g., an estimated time, or an earliest time) when the advanced vehicular user will (or is expected to) claim or obtain the resources at an individual next serving cell. In some example embodiments, the resource request may not be a request for actual resource allocation at this stage, but rather for obtaining admission control and obtaining a level of serving commitment (a resource level commitment) in advance at each of one or more future serving cells along the traveling path. In this regard, the request may include an indication whether a requested cell needs to provide actual resource allocation or not. The positive indication (e.g., indicating that a requested cell needs to provide its actual resource allocation as for predictive handover preparation) may be applied for a next or adjacent subset of the N future serving cells along the traveling path, e.g., for just one cell (e.g., a next serving cell) or several immediate next serving cells (see also step 7 below).

[0060] 3) Each of the next N cells individually may respond to the resource request (or resource reservation request) with their own resource commitment levels for the advanced vehicular user. For example, in one option, the resource commitment level of a corresponding cell may be an indication whether the corresponding cell is committed to serve the advanced vehicular user as requested or not, e.g., an indication of whether the future serving cell will provide a resource commitment level that at least meets (or not) a minimum resource commitment level. The indicated resource commitment level may include an actual resource allocation, or may indicate just a resource commitment level that may not include an actual reservation of resources at the cell or BS. In an example embodiment, the resource commitment level may be indicated with some predefined indication (e.g., equal, higher, or lower) indicating a commitment level relative to the requested level or relative to the minimum resource commitment level, or corresponding to specified levels of serving commitments similar to service level agreement (SLA). Thus, for example, the predefined resource level indications may include, by way of illustrative example, an indication of: equal (e.g., a resource commitment level of the cell meets the minimum or requested resource commitment level), higher (e.g., a resource commitment level of the cell exceeds the minimum or requested resource commitment level), or lower (e.g., a resource commitment level cell is less than the minimum or less than the requested resource commitment level, e.g., cell may be unable to provide the requested/minimum resource commitment level). The lower indication may include the case, e.g., that the corresponding cell does not have sufficient resources to serve the advanced vehicular user on the minimum required level as for the worst case.

[0061] For the above for step 3), the involved cells may be able to indicate or communicate in terms of actual resources which are reasonable in case the involved cells are of the same or at least compatible carriers. However, as different cells may operate on different carriers with different resource structures and granularities, a unified approach for communicating on the resource allocation may be based on the level of fulfilling the QoS requirements for the advanced vehicular user which is commonly valid to all the involved serving cells. In this regard, the service and resource allocation related request from the advanced vehicular user or the current serving cell may consist of different service levels and corresponding configurations which can then be translated into different levels of QoS requirements and corresponding fulfilments, such as minimum, flexible and maximum levels. Then the involved serving cells may communicate with each other in term of the level of QoS fulfilment for the advanced vehicular user, instead of or in addition to the actual resource allocation.

[0062] 4) The current serving cell, based on the responses from the next N cells, forms the PCSCG, e.g., which includes the next successive m cells out of the next N cells. In an example embodiment, m is the number of next successive (or future serving) cells along the traveling path that indicated or responded with a resource commitment level that is equal or higher than the requested or minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular UE or vehicular user, which may include resources requested for one vehicular UE or a group/plurality of cooperative vehicular UEs that are traveling together along the traveling path, e.g., part of the vehicular user. For example, the serving cell may send a message to the cells of the PCSCG indicating (e.g., providing the cell ID(s) of) the cells of the PCSCG, the minimum resource commitment level, and/or the lowest resource commitment level of the PCSCG (e.g., which may be greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level) for the vehicular UE or vehicular user (e.g., where the vehicular user may include one or more vehicular UEs of the group or platoon of vehicles or UEs).

[0063] A) M may be a preconfigured network parameter representing the minimum predictive control distance. Or, alternatively, M may be a minimum number of the next successive cells (e.g., corresponding to the minimum predictive control distance) that should (or need to) provide a resource commitment that is at least the requested or minimum resource commitment level, e.g., in order to support the vehicular user. Thus, in some cases, the serving cell may compare the number (m) of cells (or size) of the PCSCG to M, to determine if the number of committed future serving cells (m) of the PCSCG is at least (M) (the minimum number of next successive cells that indicated at least the minimum resource commitment level). Thus, for example, in case m < M, (e.g., where M = 5, and N = 10), in an embodiment, the current serving cell may reconfigure the current resource allocation for the advanced vehicular user, or may update or reconfigure (e.g., decrease) the minimum resource commitment level to a lower level of committed resources so that the minimum predictive control distance or m>M is maintained (e.g., to increase the number of future serving cells that indicated a resource commitment level of at least the updated minimum resource commitment level). The updated or lower committed resource level (updated minimum resource commitment level) may be assumed to be sufficient for the basic operation of the advanced vehicular user, corresponding to the minimum guaranteed level of QoS fulfilment for the vehicular user. Otherwise, for example, if the updated or lowered minimum resource commitment level is not sufficient to meet the basic operational needs of the advanced vehicular user, the serving network may decide not to serve the advanced vehicular user. In an example embodiment, this decision may be based on whether or not the serving network can guarantee or provide the minimum required QoS level for the advanced vehicular user, e.g., based on whether or not the platoon can be supported for at least, say, lOkm ahead, at the required or minimum resource commitment level. If the minimum or required resource commitment level cannot be provided for M cells or a minimum number of cells or distance, then, at least in some cases, the wireless network or service network may determine or decide not to serve the vehicular user as a vehicular user group or platoon.

[0064] B) In another example embodiment that may be more flexible (e.g., adapting to a reduced resource commitment level indicated by one or more cells along the traveling path), the serving network may prefer to maintain the service (or resource) level (the minimum resource commitment level) through as many cells as possible as well as serving the advanced vehicular user as long as possible at this minimum service level, considering that the advanced vehicular user may reconfigure itself on the application to adapt to committed level and resource allocation of the serving network. In this option, instead of reconfiguring or updating (e.g., decreasing) the current resource allocation or minimum resource commitment level for the advanced vehicular user to a lower level of committed resources, a warning message may be issued to the advanced vehicular user, e.g., via the representative UE (e.g., Rep-UE, car platoon leader, ...), to warn the representative UE or platoon leader that one or more future cells along the traveling path may be unable to provide the minimum resource commitment level. This gives the advanced vehicular user, representative UE (e.g., platoon leader) time to react or make adjustments in advance (e.g., platoon leader or representative UE may send a message to other vehicular UEs within the platoon or vehicular user to indicate that there may be a reduced service level for (or between) one or more non-committed cells for cooperating vehicular UEs of the platoon or vehicular user). For example, the representative UE or platoon leader may allocate resources received from the network to other vehicular UEs of the platoon or vehicular UE. Or these resources may be separately allocated to each vehicular UE by each cell along the traveling path. In the case where a cell may be unable to provide the minimum resource commitment level, the vehicular UE(s) of the vehicular user may reduce communications (e.g., to the network or server at the CN, and/or between vehicular UEs via sidelink communications) when connected to or served by the cell that indicated a resource commitment level that is less than minimum resource commitment level). In a hybrid option, an initial decision may be applied for initial admission control of an advanced vehicular user (e.g., the network may reject platoon service or vehicular user group service to the vehicular user if there are less than a minimum number of cells along the traveling path that indicate at least a minimum resource commitment level), whereas a more flexible option is for maintaining service continuity for an active advanced vehicular user being served, albeit at a possibly lower resource level for one or more cells along the traveling path that may be unable to commit to the requested or minimum resource commitment level.

[0065] C) The serving cell may allocate or reallocate the resources to the advanced vehicular user, via the Rep-UE (representative UE or platoon leader) for example. Thus, the serving cell may allocate resources to the vehicular user or vehicular UE(s) that are greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level required to meet the required QoS that would meet the basic operational requirements for the advanced vehicular user (e.g., which may include resources to meet the operational requirements of the representative UE and possibly one or more vehicular UEs in the platoon or vehicular user that are cooperating ( communicating between the vehicular UEs via sidelink communications) and/or traveling together along the traveling path.

This minimum resource commitment level may, as noted above, be communicated within a resource request to other cells along the travelling path, and the representative UE or platoon leader (or other UE within the group, platoon or vehicular user) may monitor the resources responses to determine which cells along the traveling path have committed to provide the requested or minimum resource commitment level. The PCSCG may then be determined by the serving cell, as noted above.

[0066] 5) The current serving cell may then inform one or more cells, e.g., the next N cells along the traveling path, of the cells of the PCSCG (e.g., including cell IDs of cells of the PCSCG), and may provide or indicate other information. For example, the serving cell may send a message to one or more cells of the PCSCG (e.g., all cells along the traveling path, or the next N cells along the traveling path, or all cells of the PCSCG) identifying the cells (e.g., providing the cell IDs) of the PCSCG, and one or more of (for example): the lowest resource commitment level for the PCSCG (the lowest resource commitment level received from the cells of the PCSCG), the minimum resource commitment level of the PCSCG of the vehicular user (e.g., which, in some cases, may typically be the same as or less than the lowest resource commitment level for PCSCG), and/or the individual resource commitment levels of each cell of the PCSCG, and/or cell IDs to identify any cells along the traveling path that may be unable to meet the minimum resource commitment level, and/or other information. Also, the serving cell may also send a message to the vehicular user (e.g., to a vehicular UE, representative UE or platoon leader) identifying the cells of the PCSCG and may include additional information, such as, e.g.: the lowest resource commitment level for the PCSCG, the minimum resource commitment level of the PCSCG, and/or the individual resource commitment levels of each cell of the PCSCG, and/or cell IDs to identify any cells along the traveling path that may be unable to meet the minimum resource commitment level. Other information may also be provided to the vehicular user, or vehicular UE (e.g., representative UE or platoon leader), such as cell context or user context.

[0067] 6) While the m cells of the PCSCG may have indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular UE or vehicular user of at least a minimum resource commitment level, conditions (e.g., demand from other users and/or a change in supply of resources) may change at a cell before the advanced vehicular UE actually claims or obtains the resources at the cell. Thus, if conditions change, e.g., in the case where a cell of the PCSCG, which previously indicated a resource commitment level that meets or exceeds the minimum resource commitment level, has determined that it may be unable to provide resources at the indicated or committed level, the cell may notify the serving cell of such a change. Thus, individual m cells of the formed PCSCG may need to inform the current serving cell, e.g., on an event-triggered basis, whenever the committed resources need to be lowered, e.g., where the cell or BS determines an updated resource commitment level that is lower than the minimum resource commitment level, or less than the previously indicated resource commitment level. Also, cells out of the N next cells along the traveling path may periodically (e.g., every 3 minutes, or other time period) inform the current serving cell of their updated individual resource commitment levels. Note that the resource reservation or commitment for advanced vehicular users may be prioritized, e.g., a reduction of commitment may happen if the cell cannot free resources from other non-prioritized users (e.g. pedestrians). This step then can be looped back to Step 4, according to an example embodiment.

[0068] 7) In addition, at least some handover preparation may be performed in advance for one or more cells of the PCSCG, for one or more vehicular UEs of the vehicular user or platoon, triggered by the resource request as described in Step 2. Thus, for example, the current serving cell may determine a full primary committed serving cell group (full PCSCG) that includes L (e.g., which may be less than or equal to m) consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for which at least some handover preparation has been performed for the vehicular user. In an example embodiment, handover preparation may include the current serving cell receiving in the response to the resource request from each or one or more of the L cells and for one or more vehicular UEs of the vehicular user or platoon, context information, such as some user context and/or some cell context, to assist with a handover of one or more vehicular UEs of the platoon or vehicular user. The serving cell may then forward the received context information, received from one or more of the L cells, to the representative UE or platoon leader or the one or more vehicular UEs of the platoon or vehicular user. As a vehicular UE travels along the traveling path, a handover to one or more of the L cells may made faster or more efficient, e.g., based on the context information that is received by the vehicular UE, or other handover preparations. The representative vehicular UE may then forward to one or more vehicular UEs of the platoon or vehicular user, the context information. Thus, the current serving cell may send a message to one or more vehicular UEs of the platoon or vehicular user indicating the future serving cells of the full primary committed serving cell group and associated contexts (e.g., user context and/or cell context) for which handover preparation has been performed in advance for the vehicular user device. According to an example embodiment, cell context may include one or more of a cell identifier (cell ID) that identifies a cell, and cell specific resources including one or more of random access resources and/or a random access preamble assigned to the vehicular UE and sidelink resources assigned to the vehicular UE. Also, according to an example embodiment, an example user context may include one or more of a cell-specific radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) for the vehicular UE, a sidelink radio network temporary identifier (SL-RNTI) assigned to the vehicular UE, a sidelink or data radio bearer, and/or an indication of resources assigned to the vehicular UE. These are some examples, and context information may include additional and/or different information.

[0069] Also, according to an example embodiment of step 7), in case of a handover (HO) for the advanced vehicular user, because both the source and target cells are supposed to be of the PCSCG: a) The resource renegotiation during HO may not be needed, and therefore a HO decision and HO execution may be performed over a shorter period of time b) The source cell which is the current serving cell may inform the next N cells of the target cell which is the new serving cell in advance c) The selected serving cells (e.g. every X^th serving cell) from PCSCG may go back to Step 1 to initiate the request from Step 2 with x additional cells in order to maintain m cells in PCSCG again. That is, the extension of the resource reservation/resource request is not necessarily triggered at every handover, but, e.g., only at every second or third (or other number) handover in order to reduce signaling overhead. The value x may be determined based on the value of N, M and/or the velocity of the advanced vehicular users. As a special case, x can be set to 1, in such case, the new serving cell may go back to step 1, but may need to initiate the request from Step 2 with only one additional cell, the new Nth next cell of the new serving cell, assuming that N and M are specific to the advanced vehicular user but common to all the serving cells involved along the traveling path d) The rest of the next N cells may start to communicate with the new serving cell right away.

[0070] NOTE: To further extend the predictive control for HO of the advanced vehicular user over the formed PCSCG or at least the first subset of the PCSCG, referred to as the full predictive HO reassured subset of PCSCG and denoted as F-PCSCG, the full HO preparation may be done in advance with the following extensions, mainly to Step 2, Step 5 and Step 7a.

The resource reservation request in Step 2 may be seen as a HO request in advance for F-PCSCG which consist of up to F next successive serving cells of the formed PCSCG, l<=F<=m. In this case the resource reservation request may need to provide necessary user context details of the advanced vehicular user. For the aforementioned simplistic example with N=l0 and M=5, F is set to, said, 2. M, N and F are introduced for optimization purposes.

In response to Step 5, the individual cells of F-PCSCG may determine and provide preconfigured user contexts for the advanced vehicular user and not just resource allocation. The preconfigured user contexts may include serving cell contexts, RNTI(s), RB configurations and so forth per individual cell of F-PCSCG. The resource allocation or commitment of individual cells in F-PCSCG is not meant for possible reduce as in Step 6. This full preconfigured predictive HO preparation needs to be sent by each individual cell of F-PCSCG, a future targeted cell of an expected HO as preconfigured, to at least the current serving cell and, optionally, the cell which will be the direct source cell of the expected HO for reassuring purpose. The current serving cell may then communicate the preconfigured predictive HO preparation over F-PCSCG to the advanced vehicular user, at least the Rep-UE of the advanced vehicular user for example.

Step 7a is further simplified and fastened, as the HO preparation is done beforehand and therefore not needed at this stage. In an alternative, a quick UE initiated HO may be sufficiently applied, basically just to activate the preconfigured user contexts for the advanced vehicular user in the new serving cell as soon as possible or, that is, in a proactive fashion over F- PCSCG.

[0071] The proposed method thus may perform a predictive control decision on resource allocation for QoS control and mobility management of the advanced vehicular user over the PCSCG of the next m serving cells in advance, M<=m<=N (e.g., resources may be committed for a next cell, and may include one or more cells beyond immediate cell neighbor of the current serving cell, such as based on a traveling path of a vehicular user), as opposed to a current approach for QoS control and mobility management that is provided from-cell-to-cell basis (e.g., where presently, resources may be allocated only for a next/neighbor cell or immediately adjacent cell, and is not based on a traveling path, and/or is not provided for a vehicular user group that may include multiple UEs or vehicular UEs). The proposed method may also reduce signaling overhead towards the UE side.

[0072] According to an example embodiment, the traveling path of an advanced vehicular user may pass an identified serving cell more than once in different time intervals. Thus, a cell may occur several times in PCSCG. The next N serving cells may be selected in advance. However, each of the next N serving cells may be associated with a set of selectable overlapping cells. For a more dynamic and optimal forming of PCSCG, the cell selection may better be incorporated in the forming of PCSCG. For this the next N serving cells in e.g., Step 2 and Step 3 may be extended to include also the associated sets of selectable cells corresponding to each of the next N serving cells. Furthermore, considering possible use of multi-connectivity for serving an advanced vehicular user, each cell in PCSCG may be considered as a primary serving cell which can be associated with a set of secondary serving cells. The resource commitment level from each cell in PCSCG may be determined taking into account capabilities and capacities of some associated secondary serving cells.

[0073] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating two example architectures that may be used. As shown in FIG. 3, two example architectures may be used, by way of illustrative example, including a distributed control architecture 310 in which a currently serving BS may perform a number of control operations, or a central control architecture 330 in which a central control entity 332 may perform a number of control operations (instead of the currently serving BS).

[0074] A distributed control architecture 310 is shown that include a plurality of BSs, each BS providing a (current or future) serving cell for a vehicular user along the traveling path. The BSs may include, e.g., BS #i 311 (the current serving cell), and one or more future serving BSs, where each future BS provides a future serving cell along the traveling path, including: BS #(i+l) 312 (which is the next serving cell along the traveling path), ...BS #(i+L) 314, ... BS #(i+M) 315, BS #(i+m) 316, ...BS #(i+N) 317,

... and another BS 318. In the distributed control architecture 310, a currently serving BS may perform a number of control operations related to predictive QoS control and mobility management for an advanced vehicular user, including, for example, sending out requests for resource commitments to BSs/cells along a traveling path for the vehicular user, receiving resource responses from cells/BSs, determining or forming a PCSCG and/or a full PCSCG based on the resource responses, receiving any context information from one or more cells of the full PCSCG (F-PCSCG), communicating with one or more cells along the traveling path, communicating with a representative vehicular UE of the platoon or vehicular user regarding resource commitments and other information, etc. As shown at 310, a predefined predictive control distance 320 may include N serving cells (e.g., provided by N serving BSs, as shown); a PCSCG 322 may include m serving cells (e.g., provided by m serving BSs) that have indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the requested or minimum resource commitment level; and, a full PCSCG (F- PCSCG) 324 that includes L serving cells (e.g., provided by L BSs, as shown) along the traveling path for which at least some handover preparations have been performed for the vehicular user in advance.

[0075] As shown in FIG. 3, the central control architecture 330 may include a central control entity 332 may perform a number of control operations (instead of the currently serving BS). According to an example embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the centralized control entity 332 may be provided at any location or device within a network, such as within a core network, on an application server, or other location. Central control entity 332 (rather than the currently serving BS) may perform one or more control operations related to predictive QoS control and mobility management for an advanced vehicular user, including, for example, sending out requests for resource commitments to BSs/cells along a traveling path for the vehicular user, receiving resource responses from cells/BSs, determining or forming a PCSCG and/or a full PCSCG based on the resource responses, communicating with one or more cells along the traveling path, etc.

[0076] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating operation of a distributed control architecture according to an example embodiment. A representative UE 410 (e.g., platoon leader, or representative vehicular UE) of a vehicular user (such as for a vehicular user group or platoon) may be connected to or in communication with a serving BS 412. Next or future serving BSs are also provided, along the traveling path for the vehicular user.

At 414, the current serving BS/serving cell 412 provide a radio connection and sufficient dedicated resource allocation for the advanced vehicular user via the representative UE 410. Thus, at 414, the current serving BS may provide resources to the vehicular user via a message sent to the representative UE 412. At 416, the current serving BS 412 may initiate to form PCSCG and F-PCSCG, including sending (at 418) a resource request to each of the N future serving BSs/future serving cells along the traveling path, and receive (at 420) a response from each of the N future serving BSs/future serving cells. The resource request may, e.g., indicate a requested or minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user, along with possibly other information (e.g., an estimated time that the vehicular user may be expected to claim such resources at the cell). Each resource response may include, e.g., a resource commitment level for the cell. At 421, the current serving BS may form the PCSCG and/or the F-PCSCG based on the responses and/or information provided by each future serving BS/cell. A PCSCG may include cells that have indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the requested or the minimum resource commitment level. A F-PCSCG may include cells that performed at least some HO preparations for the vehicular user (or for one or more vehicular UEs or cars of the vehicular user group or platoon), e.g., by providing at least some context information that may be used for handover (HO). Thus, the messages at 420 may include, for example, the current serving BS/cell 412 receiving some contexts (e.g., user contexts and/or cell contexts) from each cell for HO preparations for the vehicular user (e.g., for various vehicular UEs of the vehicular user or vehicular user group or platoon). At 424 and 422, the current serving BS/cell 412 may send a message(s) to the cells along the traveling path that identifies (e.g., provide cell IDs of) the cells of the PCSCG and the F-PCSCG, respectively. At 426, the current serving BS/cell 412 may provide (or may configure)

HO contexts (associated with one or more cells along the traveling path) to the representative UE 410 of the vehicular user. The representative UE 410 may forward the contexts (e.g., UE context and/or cell context) to each of the one or more members or vehicular UEs of the vehicular user or platoon, e.g., to facilitate HO of the vehicular UEs to each of the future cells along the traveling path.

[0077] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating operation of a central control architecture according to an example embodiment. A representative UE 410 (e.g., platoon leader, or representative vehicular UE) of a vehicular user (such as for a vehicular user group or platoon) may be connected to or in communication with a serving BS 412. Next or future serving BSs are also provided, along the traveling path for the vehicular user. At 414, the current serving B S/serving cell 412 provides a radio connection and sufficient dedicated resource allocation for the advanced vehicular user via the representative UE 410. Thus, at 414, the current serving BS 412 may provide resources to the vehicular user via a message sent to the representative UE 412. At 512, the current serving BS 412 may provide to the central control entity 510 information on resource allocation (e.g., resources allocated by the serving BS 412) of the vehicular user. At 516, the central control entity 510 may initiate to form PCSCG and F-PCSCG, including sending (at 517, 518) a resource request to current serving BS/cell (at 517) and to each of the N future serving BSs/future serving cells (at 518). Central control entity 510 may also receive (at 519, 520) a response from the current serving BS/cell and from each of the N future serving BSs/future serving cells (520). The resource requests and resource responses may be similar to what is described above for FIG. 4 or herein. At 521, the central control entity 510 may compare the resource commitment levels received from each BS/Cell to the requested or minimum resource commitment level, and then may determine or form the PCSCG and/or the F-PCSCG based on the responses and/or information provided by the current BS 412 and each future serving BS/cell. A PCSCG may include cells that have indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the requested or the minimum resource commitment level. A F-PCSCG may include cells that performed at least some HO preparations for the vehicular user (or for one or more vehicular UEs or cars of the vehicular user group or platoon), e.g., by providing at least some context information that may be used for handover (HO). Thus, the messages at 520 may include, for example, the current serving BS/cell 412 receiving some contexts (e.g., user contexts and/or cell contexts) from each cell for HO preparations for the vehicular user (e.g., for various vehicular UEs of the vehicular user or vehicular user group or platoon). At 524 and 522, the central control entity 510 may send a message(s) to the current BS/cell 412 and future cells along the traveling path that identifies (e.g., provide cell IDs of) the cells of the PCSCG and the F-PCSCG, respectively. At 526, the current serving BS/cell 412, based on information received from he central control entity 510, may provide (or may configure) HO contexts (associated with one or more cells along the traveling path) to the representative UE 410 of the vehicular user. The representative UE 410 may forward the contexts (e.g., UE context and/or cell context) to each of the one or more members or vehicular UEs of the vehicular user or platoon, e.g., to facilitate HO of the vehicular UEs to each of the future cells along the traveling path.

[0078] There may be a need for the following, and/or the following may be provided in some cases, for example:

[0079] Temporary Network Identifier (TNI) is uniquely assigned for the advanced vehicular user being served which is shared among at least the next N cells and used to address the advanced vehicular user. This TNI may not need to be known by the advanced vehicular user. The serving network may trigger the advanced vehicular user or, the Rep-UE, or the central application server of the advanced vehicular user to provide the travelling path information in advance to map out the involved serving cells along the travelling path for the predictive control. Also, in some cases, it may be preferable to have the same RAN (radio access network) level user contexts including RB (radio bearer) configuration and resource allocation for the advanced vehicular user over F-PCSCG if RAN capabilities and capacities allow, e.g., so as to reduce further protocol overhead.

[0080] Some example embodiments are now described.

[0081] Example 1. FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating operation of a network node (e.g., a BS, a central control entity, or other network node) according to an example embodiment. Operation 610 includes receiving, by a first network node, a traveling path of a vehicular user device. Operation 620 includes sending, by the first network node, a resource request for the vehicular user device to a plurality of second network nodes providing a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device. Operation 630 includes receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device. Operation 640 includes determining a primary committed serving cell group that includes a second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level. Operation 650 includes determining a lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group, which is greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device. And, operation 660 includes sending, to at least one of the second network nodes, a first message providing information regarding the primary committed serving cell group

[0082] Example 2. According to an example embodiment of the method of example 1, The method of claim 1 wherein the first message includes information identifying: 1) one or more cells that are part of the primary committed serving cell group including cells that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and 2) the lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group.

[0083] Example 3. The method of any of examples 1-2, and further comprising: determining a full primary committed serving cell group that includes a third number (L) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for which at least some handover preparation has been performed for the vehicular user device, including receiving a cell context of the future serving cell and associated user context established for the vehicular user device; and sending a second message to the vehicular user device indicating the future serving cells of the full primary committed serving cell group and associated user contexts for which handover preparation has been performed in advance for the vehicular user device.

[0084] Example 4. The method of any of examples 1-3, wherein the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells corresponds to an initial predictive control distance for the vehicular user device along traveling path.

[0085] Example 5. The method of any of examples 1-4, and further comprising: receiving, by the first network node, from the vehicular user device in a wireless network, a resource request for resources to be used for at least one of network access

communications with a cell or base station and/or device-to-device-communications over sidelink communications with one or more other cooperating vehicular user devices also traveling on the traveling path; allocating, by the first network node, a set of resources to the vehicular user device in response to a resource request from the vehicular user device.

[0086] Example 6. The method of any of examples 1-5, wherein the resource request indicates a time, including at least one of an estimated time or an earliest time, that the vehicular user device will claim resources at the one or more cells of a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device.

[0087] Example 7. The method of any of examples 1-6, wherein the minimum resource commitment level may include the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device and at least one of the following an actual resource commitment level currently allocated by a current serving cell of the vehicular user device; and a preferred resource commitment level that is preferred by the vehicular user device.

[0088] Example 8. The method of any of examples 1-7, wherein the resource commitment level indicated in the resource response is provided as a resource

commitment level relative to the minimum resource commitment level, including indicating a resource commitment level that is a same as, higher than , or lower than the minimum resource commitment level.

[0089] Example 9. The method of any of examples 1-8, wherein a cell context includes one or more of a cell identifier (cell ID) that identifies a cell, and cell specific resources including one or more of random access resources and/or a random access preamble assigned to the vehicular user device and sidelink resources assigned to the vehicular user device; and wherein a user context includes one or more of a cell-specific radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI) for the vehicular user device, a sidelink radio network temporary identifier (SL-RNTI) assigned to the vehicular user device, a sidelink or data radio bearer, and/or an indication of resources assigned to the vehicular user device.

[0090] Example 10. The method of any of examples 1-9, further comprising: determining that the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level is less than a minimum number of successive committed cells; and performing at least one of the following: decreasing the minimum resource commitment level to an adjusted minimum resource commitment level so as to increase the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the adjusted minimum resource commitment level; and sending a warning message to the vehicular user device indicating that one or more future serving cells along the traveling path may be unable to provide a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

[0091] Example 11. The method of any of examples 1-10, further comprising: determining that the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path, which indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level and lower than at least one of 1) the actual resource commitment level currently allocated by the current serving cell or 2) the preferred resource commitment level that is preferred by the vehicular user device, is less than a minimum number of successive committed cells; and performing at least one of the following: decreasing the actual resource commitment level to a lower resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level so as to increase the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the lower resource commitment level; and sending a warning message to the vehicular user device indicating that one or more future serving cells along the traveling path may provide the lower resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

[0092] Example 12. The method of any of examples 1-11, and further comprising receiving a further resource response, indicating an updated resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from the one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device.

[0093] Example 13. The method of any of examples 1-12, further comprising: receiving a further resource response, indicating an updated resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is less than the minimum resource commitment level, from one or more cells of the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that previously indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and sending a message to inform the vehicular user device of the updated resource commitment level by the one or more cells of the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path.

[0094] Example 14. The method of any of examples 1-13, wherein the vehicular user device is a first vehicular user device of a plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path, and which are communicating directly with each other via sidelink communications.

[0095] Example 15. The method of any of examples 1-14, wherein the sending comprises sending, by the first network node, a resource request for both the first vehicular user device and a second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path, to at least a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level; wherein the receiving a resource response comprises receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the first and second vehicular user devices, from the one or more cells of the first number of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path.

[0096] Example 16. The method of any of examples 1-15, wherein the resource request for both the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path comprises at least one of the following: a separate resource request for each of the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path; and a combined resource request for that requests resources for both of the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path.

[0097] Example 17. The method of any of examples 16, wherein the receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from the one or more cells of the first number of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path comprises at least one of: receiving a combined resource response, indicating a resource commitment level in response to the combined resource request for the first and second vehicular user devices; and receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for each of the first and second vehicular user devices.

[0098] Example 18. The method of any of examples 1-17, wherein the traveling path for the vehicular user device includes or corresponds to a plurality of future serving cells along the traveling path.

[0099] Example 19. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of examples 1-18.

[00100] Example 20. An apparatus comprising means for performing a method of any of examples 1-18.

[00101] Example 21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform a method of any of examples 1-18.

[00102] Example 22. FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating operation of a network node according to an example embodiment. Operation 710 includes receiving, by a network node that is providing a cell that is a future serving cell along a traveling path for a vehicular user device, a resource request for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device. Operation 720 includes sending a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level. And, operation 730 includes receiving, by the network node, a message providing information regarding a primary committed serving cell group that indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

[00103] Example 23. The method of example 22, wherein the resource request indicates a time that the vehicular user device is expected to claim the resources of the cell.

[00104] Example 24. The method of any of examples 22-23, further comprising allocating resources corresponding to at least the minimum resource commitment level in response to the resource request.

[00105] Example 25. The method of any of examples 22-24, further comprising: detecting a change in available resources with respect to the vehicular user device; and, sending, by the network node, an updated resource response indicating an updated resource commitment level that is not at least the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device.

[00106] Example 26. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of examples 22-25.

[00107] Example 27 : An apparatus comprising means for performing a method of any of examples 22-25.

[00108] Example 28. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform a method of any of examples 22-25. [00109] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a wireless station (e.g., AP, eNB/gNB, BC node, or user device) 900 according to an example implementation. The wireless station 900 may include, for example, one or two RF (radio frequency) or wireless transceivers 902A, 902B, where each wireless transceiver includes a transmitter to transmit signals and a receiver to receive signals. The wireless station also includes a processor or control unit/entity (controller) 904 to execute instructions or software and control transmission and receptions of signals, and a memory 906 to store data and/or instructions.

[00110] Processor 904 may also make decisions or determinations, generate frames, packets or messages for transmission, decode received frames or messages for further processing, and other tasks or functions described herein. Processor 904, which may be a baseband processor, for example, may generate messages, packets, frames or other signals for transmission via wireless transceiver 902 (902A or 902B). Processor 904 may control transmission of signals or messages over a wireless network, and may control the reception of signals or messages, etc., via a wireless network (e.g., after being down-converted by wireless transceiver 902, for example). Processor 904 may be programmable and capable of executing software or other instructions stored in memory or on other computer media to perform the various tasks and functions described above, such as one or more of the tasks or methods described above. Processor 904 may be (or may include), for example, hardware, programmable logic, a programmable processor that executes software or firmware, and/or any combination of these. Using other terminology, processor 904 and transceiver 902 together may be considered as a wireless transmitter/receiver system, for example.

[00111] In addition, referring to FIG. 8, a controller (or processor) 908 may execute software and instructions, and may provide overall control for the station 900, and may provide control for other systems not shown in FIG. 8, such as controlling input/output devices (e.g., display, keypad), and/or may execute software for one or more applications that may be provided on wireless station 900, such as, for example, an email program, audio/video applications, a word processor, a Voice over IP application, or other application or software.

[00112] In addition, a storage medium may be provided that includes stored instructions, which when executed by a controller or processor may result in the processor 904, or other controller or processor, performing one or more of the functions or tasks described above.

[00113] According to another example implementation, RF or wireless

transceiver(s) 902A/902B may receive signals or data and/or transmit or send signals or data. Processor 904 (and possibly transceivers 902A/902B) may control the RF or wireless transceiver 902A or 902B to receive, send, broadcast or transmit signals or data.

[00114] The embodiments are not, however, restricted to the system that is given as an example, but a person skilled in the art may apply the solution to other

communication systems. Another example of a suitable communications system is the 5G concept. It is assumed that network architecture in 5G will be quite similar to that of the LTE-advanced. 5G is likely to use multiple input - multiple output (MEMO) antennas, many more base stations or nodes than the LTE (a so-called small cell concept), including macro sites operating in co-operation with smaller stations and perhaps also employing a variety of radio technologies for better coverage and enhanced data rates.

[00115] It should be appreciated that future networks will most probably utilise network functions virtualization (NFV) which is a network architecture concept that proposes virtualizing network node functions into“building blocks” or entities that may be operationally connected or linked together to provide services. A virtualized network function (VNF) may comprise one or more virtual machines running computer program codes using standard or general type servers instead of customized hardware. Cloud computing or data storage may also be utilized. In radio communications this may mean node operations may be carried out, at least partly, in a server, host or node operationally coupled to a remote radio head. It is also possible that node operations will be distributed among a plurality of servers, nodes or hosts. It should also be understood that the distribution of labour between core network operations and base station operations may differ from that of the LTE or even be non-existent.

[00116] Implementations of the various techniques described herein may be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or in combinations of them. Implementations may implemented as a computer program product, i.e., a computer program tangibly embodied in an information carrier, e.g., in a machine-readable storage device or in a propagated signal, for execution by, or to control the operation of, a data processing apparatus, e.g., a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple computers. Implementations may also be provided on a computer readable medium or computer readable storage medium, which may be a non-transitory medium. Implementations of the various techniques may also include implementations provided via transitory signals or media, and/or programs and/or software

implementations that are downloadable via the Internet or other network(s), either wired networks and/or wireless networks. In addition, implementations may be provided via machine type communications (MTC), and also via an Internet of Things (IOT).

[00117] The computer program may be in source code form, object code form, or in some intermediate form, and it may be stored in some sort of carrier, distribution medium, or computer readable medium, which may be any entity or device capable of carrying the program. Such carriers include a record medium, computer memory, read only memory, photoelectrical and/or electrical carrier signal, telecommunications signal, and software distribution package, for example. Depending on the processing power needed, the computer program may be executed in a single electronic digital computer or it may be distributed amongst a number of computers.

[00118] Furthermore, implementations of the various techniques described herein may use a cyber-physical system (CPS) (a system of collaborating computational elements controlling physical entities). CPS may enable the implementation and exploitation of massive amounts of interconnected ICT devices (sensors, actuators, processors microcontrollers,...) embedded in physical objects at different locations. Mobile cyber physical systems, in which the physical system in question has inherent mobility, are a subcategory of cyber-physical systems. Examples of mobile physical systems include mobile robotics and electronics transported by humans or animals. The rise in popularity of smartphones has increased interest in the area of mobile cyber physical systems. Therefore, various implementations of techniques described herein may be provided via one or more of these technologies.

[00119] A computer program, such as the computer program(s) described above, can be written in any form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and can be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit or part of it suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.

[00120] Method steps may be performed by one or more programmable processors executing a computer program or computer program portions to perform functions by operating on input data and generating output. Method steps also may be performed by, and an apparatus may be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application- specific integrated circuit).

[00121] Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer, chip or chipset. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. Elements of a computer may include at least one processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data.

Generally, a computer also may include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks. Information carriers suitable for embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory may be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.

[00122] To provide for interaction with a user, implementations may be implemented on a computer having a display device, e.g., a cathode ray tube (CRT) or liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor, for displaying information to the user and a user interface, such as a keyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by which the user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices can be used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example, feedback provided to the user can be any form of sensory feedback, e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user can be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, or tactile input.

[00123] Implementations may be implemented in a computing system that includes a back-end component, e.g., as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g., an application server, or that includes a front-end component, e.g., a client computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browser through which a user can interact with an implementation, or any combination of such back-end, middleware, or front-end components. Components may be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples of communication networks include a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN), e.g., the Internet.

[00124] While certain features of the described implementations have been illustrated as described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes and equivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the various embodiments.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a first network node, a traveling path of a vehicular user device; sending, by the first network node, a resource request for the vehicular user device to a plurality of second network nodes providing a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device;

receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device;

determining a primary committed serving cell group that includes a second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level;

determining a lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group, which is greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; and

sending, to at least one of the second network nodes, a first message providing information regarding the primary committed serving cell group.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first message includes information identifying: 1) one or more cells that are part of the primary committed serving cell group including cells that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and 2) the lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group.

3. The method of any of claims 1-2 and further comprising: determining a full primary committed serving cell group that includes a third number (L) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for which at least some handover preparation has been performed for the vehicular user device, including receiving a cell context of the future serving cell and associated user context established for the vehicular user device; and

sending a second message to the vehicular user device indicating the future serving cells of the full primary committed serving cell group and associated user contexts for which handover preparation has been performed in advance for the vehicular user device.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3 wherein the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells corresponds to an initial predictive control distance for the vehicular user device along traveling path.

5. The method of any of claims 1-4, and further comprising:

receiving, by the first network node, from the vehicular user device in a wireless network, a resource request for resources to be used for at least one of network access communications with a cell or base station and/or device-to-device-communications over sidelink communications with one or more other cooperating vehicular user devices also traveling on the traveling path;

allocating, by the first network node, a set of resources to the vehicular user device in response to a resource request from the vehicular user device.

6. The method of any of claims 1-5 wherein the resource request indicates a time, including at least one of an estimated time or an earliest time, that the vehicular user device will claim resources at the one or more cells of a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device.

7. The method of any of claims 1-6 wherein the minimum resource commitment level may include the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device and at least one of the following:

an actual resource commitment level currently allocated by a current serving cell of the vehicular user device; and

a preferred resource commitment level that is preferred by the vehicular user device.

8. The method of any of claims 1-7 wherein the resource commitment level indicated in the resource response is provided as a resource commitment level relative to the minimum resource commitment level, including indicating a resource commitment level that is a same as, higher than , or lower than the minimum resource commitment level.

9. The method of any of claims 1-8:

wherein a cell context includes one or more of a cell identifier (cell ID) that identifies a cell, and cell specific resources including one or more of random access resources and/or a random access preamble assigned to the vehicular user device and sidelink resources assigned to the vehicular user device; and

wherein a user context includes one or more of a cell-specific radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI) for the vehicular user device, a sidelink radio network temporary identifier (SL-RNTI) assigned to the vehicular user device, a sidelink or data radio bearer, and/or an indication of resources assigned to the vehicular user device.

10. The method of any of claims 1-9, further comprising:

determining that the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level is less than a minimum number of successive committed cells; and

performing at least one of the following: decreasing the minimum resource commitment level to an adjusted minimum resource commitment level so as to increase the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the adjusted minimum resource commitment level; and

sending a warning message to the vehicular user device indicating that one or more future serving cells along the traveling path may be unable to provide a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

11. The method of any of claims 1-10, further comprising:

determining that the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path, which indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level and lower than at least one of 1) the actual resource commitment level currently allocated by the current serving cell or 2) the preferred resource commitment level that is preferred by the vehicular user device, is less than a minimum number of successive committed cells; and

performing at least one of the following:

decreasing the actual resource commitment level to a lower resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level so as to increase the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the lower resource commitment level; and

sending a warning message to the vehicular user device indicating that one or more future serving cells along the traveling path may provide the lower resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

12. The method of any of claims 1-11 and further comprising: receiving a further resource response, indicating an updated resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from the one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device.

13. The method of any of claims 1-12, further comprising:

receiving a further resource response, indicating an updated resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is less than the minimum resource commitment level, from one or more cells of the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that previously indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and sending a message to inform the vehicular user device of the updated resource commitment level by the one or more cells of the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path.

14. The method of any of claims 1-13 wherein the vehicular user device is a first vehicular user device of a plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path, and which are communicating directly with each other via sidelink communications.

15. The method of any of claims 1-14:

wherein the sending comprises sending, by the first network node, a resource request for both the first vehicular user device and a second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path, to at least a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level; wherein the receiving a resource response comprises receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the first and second vehicular user devices, from the one or more cells of the first number of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the resource request for both the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path comprises at least one of the following:

a separate resource request for each of the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path; and

a combined resource request for that requests resources for both of the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path.

17. The method of any of claims 14-16 wherein the receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from the one or more cells of the first number of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path comprises at least one of:

receiving a combined resource response, indicating a resource commitment level in response to the combined resource request for the first and second vehicular user devices; and

receiving a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for each of the first and second vehicular user devices.

18. The method of any of claims 1-17, wherein the traveling path for the vehicular user device includes or corresponds to a plurality of future serving cells along the traveling path.

19. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1-18.

20. An apparatus comprising means for performing a method of any of claims 1- 18.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform a method of any of claims 1-18.

22. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

receive, by a first network node, a traveling path of a vehicular user device; send, by the first network node, a resource request for the vehicular user device to a plurality of second network nodes providing a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device;

receive a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device;

determine a primary committed serving cell group that includes a second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level;

determine a lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group, which is greater than or equal to the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device; and

send, to at least one of the second network nodes, a first message providing information regarding the primary committed serving cell group.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the first message includes information identifying: 1) one or more cells that are part of the primary committed serving cell group including cells that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and 2) the lowest resource commitment level of the primary committed serving cell group.

24. The apparatus of any of claims 22-23 and further causing the apparatus to: determine a full primary committed serving cell group that includes a third number (L) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for which at least some handover preparation has been performed for the vehicular user device, including receiving a cell context of the future serving cell and associated user context established for the vehicular user device; and

send a second message to the vehicular user device indicating the future serving cells of the full primary committed serving cell group and associated user contexts for which handover preparation has been performed in advance for the vehicular user device.

25. The apparatus of any of claims 22-24 wherein the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells corresponds to an initial predictive control distance for the traveling path.

26. The apparatus of any of claims 22-25, and further causing the apparatus to: receive, by the first network node, from the vehicular user device in a wireless network, a resource request for resources to be used for at least one of network access communications with a cell or base station and/or device-to-device-communications over sidelink communications with one or more other cooperating vehicular user devices also traveling on the traveling path; and

allocate, by the first network node, a set of resources to the vehicular user device in response to a resource request from the vehicular user device.

27. The apparatus of any of claims 22-26 wherein the resource request indicates a time, including at least one of an estimated time or an earliest time, that the vehicular user device will claim resources at the one or more cells of a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device.

28. The apparatus of any of claims 22-27 wherein the minimum resource commitment level may include the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device and at least one of the following:

29. The apparatus of any of claims 22-28 wherein the resource commitment level indicated in the resource response is provided as a resource commitment level relative to the minimum resource commitment level, including indicating a resource commitment level that is a same as, higher than , or lower than the minimum resource commitment level.

30. The apparatus of any of claims 22-29:

31. The apparatus of any of claims 22-30, further causing the apparatus to:

determine that the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level is less than a minimum number of successive committed cells; and

perform at least one of the following: decrease the minimum resource commitment level to an adjusted minimum resource commitment level so as to increase the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the adjusted minimum resource commitment level; and

send a warning message to the vehicular user device indicating that one or more future serving cells along the traveling path may be unable to provide a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

32. The apparatus of any of claims 22-31, further causing the apparatus to:

determine that the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path, which indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level and lower than at least one of 1) the actual resource commitment level currently allocated by the current serving cell or 2) the preferred resource commitment level that is preferred by the vehicular user device, is less than a minimum number of successive committed cells; and

perform at least one of the following:

decrease the actual resource commitment level to a lower resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level so as to increase the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the lower resource commitment level; and

send a warning message to the vehicular user device indicating that one or more future serving cells along the traveling path may provide the lower resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

33. The apparatus of any of claims 22-32 and further causing the apparatus to: receive a further resource response, indicating an updated resource commitment level for the vehicular user device, from the one or more cells of the first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path for the vehicular user device.

34. The apparatus of any of claims 22-33, further causing the apparatus to:

receive a further resource response, indicating an updated resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is less than the minimum resource commitment level, from one or more cells of the second number (m) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path that previously indicated a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and send a message to inform the vehicular user device of the updated resource commitment level by the one or more cells of the consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path.

35. The apparatus of any of claims 22-34 wherein the vehicular user device is a first vehicular user device of a plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path, and which are communicating directly with each other via sidelink communications.

36. The apparatus of claim 35:

wherein causing the apparatus to send comprises causing the apparatus to send, by the first network node, a resource request for both the first vehicular user device and a second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path, to at least a first number (N) of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level; and

and further causing the apparatus to receive a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the first and second vehicular user devices, from the one or more cells of the first number of consecutive future serving cells along the traveling path.

37. The apparatus of claim 36 wherein the resource request for both the first vehicular user device and the second vehicular user device of the plurality of cooperative vehicular user devices that are traveling together along the traveling path comprises at least one of the following:

38. The apparatus of any of claims 35-37 wherein the causing the apparatus to receive a resource response comprises at least one of:

39. A method comprising:

receiving, by a network node that is providing a cell that is a future serving cell along a traveling path for a vehicular user device, a resource request for the vehicular user device, the resource request indicating a minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device;

sending a resource response, indicating a resource commitment level for the vehicular user device that is at least the minimum resource commitment level; and

receiving, by the network node, a message providing information regarding a primary committed serving cell group that indicated a resource commitment level that is at least the minimum resource commitment level.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein the resource request indicates a time that the vehicular user device is expected to claim the resources of the cell.

41. The method of any of claims 39-40, further comprising:

allocating resources corresponding to at least the minimum resource commitment level in response to the resource request .

42. The method of any of claims 39-41, further comprising:

detecting a change in available resources with respect to the vehicular user device; sending, by the network node, an updated resource response indicating an updated resource commitment level that is not at least the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device.

43. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of claims 39-42.

44. An apparatus comprising means for performing a method of any of claims 39- 42.

45. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, are configured to cause a computing system to perform a method of any of claims 39-42.

46. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

47. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the resource request indicates a time that the vehicular user device is expected to claim the resources of the cell.

48. The apparatus of any of claims 46-47, further causing the apparatus to:

allocate resources corresponding to at least the minimum resource commitment level in response to the resource request .

49. The apparatus of any of claims 46-48, further causing the apparatus to:

detect a change in available resources with respect to the vehicular user device; and

send, by the network node, an updated resource response indicating an updated resource commitment level that is not at least the minimum resource commitment level for the vehicular user device.