WO2021127021A1

WO2021127021A1 - Control and management of swarm networks

Info

Publication number: WO2021127021A1
Application number: PCT/US2020/065375
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jaehyun AHN; Jani-Pekka KAINULAINEN; Alain Mourad; Charles TURYAGYENDA; Giovanni RIGAZZI; Ulises Olvera-Hernandez; Ravikumar Pragada
Original assignee: Idac Holdings, Inc.
Priority date: 2019-12-16
Filing date: 2020-12-16
Publication date: 2021-06-24

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses are described herein for control and management of swarm networks. For example, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) may receive, from a base station (BS), a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message that includes a group identifier indicating a swarm network associated with the WTRU. The group identifier may be a swarm network group-radio network temporary identifier (SG-RNTI) that indicates a group of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) links in the swarm network. If a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for which the WTRU monitors is masked by the group identifier, the WTRU may receive, via the PDCCH, downlink control information (DCI) that includes a control type indication to perform computational operation associated with the swarm network. The WTRU may activate or deactivate the computational operation based on the control type indication. The WTRU may also adjust resource allocation to the computational operation based on the control type indication.

Description

CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT OF SWARM NETWORKS

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/948,597, filed December 16, 2019, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

[0002] A swarm network can be defined as a logical or physical entity that comprises multiple inter networked devices such as vehicles, drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UVAs). The swarm network can be interwoven via mesh connectivity to computational resources that are working collaboratively towards executing a common computational task. Each connection between devices are connected via ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) connection to support the low inter-swarm distance and the connections within a swarm network needs to be synchronized. However, conventional semi-permanent scheduling (SPS)-like vehicle to vehicle (V2V) link control (e.g., with activation command) for URLLC requires extensive signaling for swarm activation and deactivation. Furthermore, conventional configured type-2 (NR) does not support synchronized control for multiple links of swarm network since a fog device cannot recognize the status of the other devices. Thus, methods and apparatuses that efficiently control a group of SPS links for a swarm network-based service at lower signaling overhead, lower latency, and lower power consumption are needed.

SUMMARY

[0003] Methods and apparatuses are described herein for control and management of swarm networks. For example, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) may receive, from a base station (BS), a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message that includes a group identifier indicating a swarm network associated with the WTRU. The swarm network may comprise one or more swarm control nodes and one or more swarm compute nodes. The group identifier may be a swarm network group-radio network temporary identifier (SG-RNTI) that indicates a group of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) links in the swarm network. The RRC configuration message may further include a list of RNTIs and one or more transmission resources. Each of the one or more transmission resources may be associated with a respective RNTI in the list of RNTIs. The WTRU may then, on a condition that a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for which the WTRU monitors is masked by the group identifier, receive, via the PDCCH, downlink control information (DCI). Specifically, the WTRU may determine, based on a PDCCH cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by the group identifier, whether the PDCCH is masked by the group identifier. The DCI may include a control type indication to perform computational operation associated with the swarm network. For example, if the control type indication is an activation command, the WTRU may activate the computational operation associated with the swarm network. If the control type indication is a deactivation command, the WTRU may deactivate the computational operation associated with the swarm network. If the control type indication is an adjustment command, the WTRU may adjust resource allocation to the computational operation associated with the swarm network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description, given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals in the figures indicate like elements, and wherein:

[0005] FIG. 1 A is a system diagram illustrating an example communications system in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented;

[0006] FIG. 1 B is a system diagram illustrating an example wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1 A according to an embodiment;

[0007] FIG. 1C is a system diagram illustrating an example radio access network (RAN) and an example core network (CN) that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG.

1A according to an embodiment;

[0008] FIG. 1 D is a system diagram illustrating a further example RAN and a further example CN that may be used within the communications system illustrated in FIG. 1 A according to an embodiment;

[0009] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example swarm network deployment;

[0010] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example swarm network service with a groupcast (one- to-many transmission) method;

[0011] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating example semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration and activation with a method (based on V2V SPS mechanism);

[0012] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating example swarm network operation by configured type-2 resource allocation in NR V2X;

[0013] FIG. 6 is a diagram logically illustrating example swarm control and computation nodes with respect to the communication with gNB; [0014] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example provision of swarm network group-radio network temporary identifier (SG-RNTI) in a swarm network;

[0015] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example swarm primary master node that receives a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message and forwards an activation signal to swarm nodes;

[0016] FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example activation transfer when RRC reconfiguration fails in a swarm primary master ;

[0017] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example activation transfer when failure reports are received from swarm nodes;

[0018] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating example transmissions of GERAN RNTI (G-RNTI)and SG- RNTI;

[0019] FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating example functionalities by entities in a swarm network;

[0020] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating example SPS configuration and activation (based on group control);

[0021] FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating example SPS resource allocation adjustment (based on group control); and

[0022] FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example procedure with related to SG-RNTI in a WTRU.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating an example communications system 100 in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. The communications system 100 may be a multiple access system that provides content, such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast, etc., to multiple wireless users. The communications system 100 may enable multiple wireless users to access such content through the sharing of system resources, including wireless bandwidth. For example, the communications systems 100 may employ one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), zero-tail unique-word discrete Fourier transform Spread OFDM (ZT-UW-DFT-S-OFDM), unique word OFDM (UW-OFDM), resource block-filtered OFDM, filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), and the like.

[0024] As shown in FIG. 1A, the communications system 100 may include wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, a radio access network (RAN) 104, a core network (ON) 106, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, the Internet 110, and other networks 112, though it will be appreciated that the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, base stations, networks, and/or network elements. Each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may be any type of device configured to operate and/or communicate in a wireless environment. By way of example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, any of which may be referred to as a station (STA), may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals and may include a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a subscription-based unit, a pager, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a laptop, a netbook, a personal computer, a wireless sensor, a hotspot or Mi-Fi device, an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. Any of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and 102d may be interchangeably referred to as a UE.

[0025] The communications systems 100 may also include a base station 114a and/or a base station 114b. Each of the base stations 114a, 114b may be any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the CN 106, the Internet 110, and/or the other networks 112. By way of example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be a base transceiver station (BTS), a NodeB, an eNode B (eNB), a Home Node B, a Home eNode B, a next generation NodeB, such as a gNode B (g N B) , a new radio (NR) NodeB, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, and the like. While the base stations 114a, 114b are each depicted as a single element, it will be appreciated that the base stations 114a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and/or network elements.

[0026] The base station 114a may be part of the RAN 104, which may also include other base stations and/or network elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), relay nodes, and the like. The base station 114a and/or the base station 114b may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals on one or more carrier frequencies, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). These frequencies may be in licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, or a combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. A cell may provide coverage for a wireless service to a specific geographical area that may be relatively fixed or that may change over time. The cell may further be divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associated with the base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in one embodiment, the base station 114a may include three transceivers, i.e., one for each sector of the cell. In an embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and may utilize multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell. For example, beamforming may be used to transmit and/or receive signals in desired spatial directions.

[0027] The base stations 114a, 114b may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d over an air interface 116, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF), microwave, centimeter wave, micrometer wave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).

[0028] More specifically, as noted above, the communications system 100 may be a multiple access system and may employ one or more channel access schemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. For example, the base station 114a in the RAN 104 and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 using wideband CDMA (WCDMA). WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High-Speed Packet Access (FI SPA) and/or Evolved HSPA (FISPA+). HSPA may include High- Speed Downlink (DL) Packet Access (FISDPA) and/or High-Speed Uplink (UL) Packet Access (HSUPA).

[0029] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 using Long Term Evolution (LTE) and/or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and/or LTE- Advanced Pro (LTE-A Pro).

[0030] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as NR Radio Access , which may establish the air interface 116 using NR. [0031] In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement multiple radio access technologies. For example, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement LTE radio access and NR radio access together, for instance using dual connectivity (DC) principles. Thus, the air interface utilized by WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be characterized by multiple types of radio access technologies and/or transmissions sent to/from multiple types of base stations (e.g., an eNB and a gNB).

[0032] In other embodiments, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (i.e., Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and the like.

[0033] The base station 114b in FIG. 1 A may be a wireless router, Home Node B, Home eNode B, or access point, for example, and may utilize any suitable RAT for facilitating wireless connectivity in a localized area, such as a place of business, a home, a vehicle, a campus, an industrial facility, an air corridor (e.g., for use by drones), a roadway, and the like. In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establish a wireless local area network (WLAN). In an embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.15 to establish a wireless personal area network (WPAN). In yet another embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may utilize a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-A Pro, NR etc.) to establish a picocell or femtocell. As shown in FIG. 1A, the base station 114b may have a direct connection to the Internet 110. Thus, the base station 114b may not be required to access the Internet 110 via the CN 106.

[0034] The RAN 104 may be in communication with the CN 106, which may be any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications, and/or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d. The data may have varying quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as differing throughput requirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements, reliability requirements, data throughput requirements, mobility requirements, and the like. The CN 106 may provide call control, billing services, mobile location-based services, pre-paid calling, Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and/or perform high-level security functions, such as user authentication. Although not shown in FIG. 1A, it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 and/or the CN 106 may be in direct or indirect communication with other RANs that employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN 104, which may be utilizing a NR radio technology, the CN 106 may also be in communication with another RAN (not shown) employing a GSM, UMTS, CDMA 2000, WiMAX, E-UTRA, or WiFi radio technology. [0035] The CN 106 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and/or the other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include circuit- switched telephone networks that provide plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices that use common communication protocols, such as the transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) and/or the internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite. The networks 112 may include wired and/or wireless communications networks owned and/or operated by other service providers. For example, the networks 112 may include another CN connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 or a different RAT.

[0036] Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities (e.g., the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks over different wireless links). For example, the WTRU 102c shown in FIG. 1 A may be configured to communicate with the base station 114a, which may employ a cellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114b, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

[0037] FIG. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an example WTRU 102. As shown in FIG. 1B, the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, a transmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126, a display/touchpad 128, non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132, a power source 134, a global positioning system (GPS) chipset 136, and/or other peripherals 138, among others. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub combination of the foregoing elements while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

[0038] The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While FIG. 1B depicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separate components, it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package or chip.

[0039] The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 116. For example, in one embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit and/or receive RF signals. In an embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an emitter/detector configured to transmit and/or receive IR, UV, or visible light signals, for example. In yet another embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and/or receive both RF and light signals. It will be appreciated that the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and/or receive any combination of wireless signals. [0040] Although the transmit/receive element 122 is depicted in FIG. 1B as a single element, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit/receive elements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in one embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two or more transmit/receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface 116.

[0041] The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate the signals that are to be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 122 and to demodulate the signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122. As noted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, the transceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as NR and IEEE 802.11 , for example.

[0042] The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to, and may receive user input data from, the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/or the display/touchpad 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit). The processor 118 may also output user data to the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/or the display/touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory, such as the non-removable memory 130 and/or the removable memory 132. The non-removable memory 130 may include random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storage device. The removable memory 132 may include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card, and the like. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, memory that is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or a home computer (not shown).

[0043] The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, and may be configured to distribute and/or control the power to the other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry cell batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, and the like.

[0044] The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude and latitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In addition to, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS chipset 136, the WTRU 102 may receive location information over the air interface 116 from a base station (e.g., base stations 114a, 114b) and/or determine its location based on the timing of the signals being received from two or more nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may acquire location information by way of any suitable location-determination method while remaining consistent with an embodiment. [0045] The processor 118 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality and/or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the peripherals 138 may include an accelerometer, an e- compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (for photographs and/or video), a universal serial bus (USB) port, a vibration device, a television transceiver, a hands free headset, a Bluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a digital music player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internet browser, a Virtual Reality and/or Augmented Reality (VR/AR) device, an activity tracker, and the like. The peripherals 138 may include one or more sensors. The sensors may be one or more of a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a hall effect sensor, a magnetometer, an orientation sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a time sensor; a geolocation sensor, an altimeter, a light sensor, a touch sensor, a magnetometer, a barometer, a gesture sensor, a biometric sensor, a humidity sensor and the like.

[0046] The WTRU 102 may include a full duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with particular subframes for both the UL (e.g., for transmission) and DL (e.g., for reception) may be concurrent and/or simultaneous. The full duplex radio may include an interference management unit to reduce and or substantially eliminate self interference via either hardware (e.g., a choke) or signal processing via a processor (e.g., a separate processor (not shown) or via processor 118). In an embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include a half duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with particular subframes for either the UL (e.g., for transmission) or the DL (e.g., for reception)).

[0047] FIG. 1C is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 104 and the CN 106 according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 104 may employ an E-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communication with the CN 106.

[0048] The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c, though it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, the eNode-B 160a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to, and/or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a. [0049] Each of the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the UL and/or DL, and the like. As shown in FIG. 1C, the eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may communicate with one another over an X2 interface.

[0050] The CN 106 shown in FIG. 1C may include a mobility management entity (MME) 162, a serving gateway (SGW) 164, and a packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW) 166. While the foregoing elements are depicted as part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and/or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

[0051] The MME 162 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 162a, 162b, 162c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, bearer activation/deactivation, selecting a particular serving gateway during an initial attach of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like. The MME 162 may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM and/or WCDMA.

[0052] The SGW 164 may be connected to each of the eNode Bs 160a, 160b, 160c in the RAN 104 via the S1 interface. The SGW 164 may generally route and forward user data packets to/ffom the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. The SGW 164 may perform other functions, such as anchoring user planes during inter-eNode B handovers, triggering paging when DL data is available for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, managing and storing contexts of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like. [0053] The SGW 164 may be connected to the PGW 166, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices.

[0054] The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and traditional land line communications devices. For example, the CN 106 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the CN 106 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to the other networks 112, which may include other wired and/or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by other service providers.

[0055] Although the WTRU is described in FIGS. 1A-1D as a wireless terminal, it is contemplated that in certain representative embodiments that such a terminal may use (e.g., temporarily or permanently) wired communication interfaces with the communication network. [0056] In representative embodiments, the other network 112 may be a WLAN.

[0057] A WLAN in Infrastructure Basic Service Set (BSS) mode may have an Access Point (AP) for the BSS and one or more stations (STAs) associated with the AP. The AP may have access or an interface to a Distribution System (DS) or another type of wired/wireless network that carries traffic in to and/or out of the BSS. Traffic to STAs that originates from outside the BSS may arrive through the AP and may be delivered to the STAs. Traffic originating from STAs to destinations outside the BSS may be sent to the AP to be delivered to respective destinations. T raffic between STAs within the BSS may be sent through the AP, for example, where the source STA may send traffic to the AP and the AP may deliver the traffic to the destination STA. The traffic between STAs within a BSS may be considered and/or referred to as peer-to-peer traffic. The peer-to-peer traffic may be sent between (e.g., directly between) the source and destination STAs with a direct link setup (DLS). In certain representative embodiments, the DLS may use an 802.11e DLS or an 802.11 z tunneled DLS (TDLS). A WLAN using an Independent BSS (IBSS) mode may not have an AP, and the STAs (e.g., all of the STAs) within or using the IBSS may communicate directly with each other. The IBSS mode of communication may sometimes be referred to herein as an "ad-hoc” mode of communication.

[0058] When using the 802.11 ac infrastructure mode of operation or a similar mode of operations, the AP may transmit a beacon on a fixed channel, such as a primary channel. The primary channel may be a fixed width (e.g., 20 MHz wide bandwidth) or a dynamically set width. The primary channel may be the operating channel of the BSS and may be used by the STAs to establish a connection with the AP. In certain representative embodiments, Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) may be implemented, for example in 802.11 systems. For CSMA/CA, the STAs (e.g., every STA), including the AP, may sense the primary channel. If the primary channel is sensed/detected and/or determined to be busy by a particular STA, the particular STA may back off. One STA (e.g., only one station) may transmit at any given time in a given BSS.

[0059] High Throughput (HT) STAs may use a 40 MHz wide channel for communication, for example, via a combination of the primary 20 MHz channel with an adjacent or nonadjacent 20 MHz channel to form a 40 MHz wide channel.

[0060] Very High Throughput (VHT) STAs may support 20MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and/or 160 MHz wide channels. The 40 MHz, and/or 80 MHz, channels may be formed by combining contiguous 20 MHz channels. A 160 MHz channel may be formed by combining 8 contiguous 20 MHz channels, or by combining two non-contiguous 80 MHz channels, which may be referred to as an 80+80 configuration. For the 80+80 configuration, the data, after channel encoding, may be passed through a segment parser that may divide the data into two streams. Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processing, and time domain processing, may be done on each stream separately. The streams may be mapped on to the two 80 MHz channels, and the data may be transmitted by a transmitting STA. At the receiver of the receiving STA, the above described operation for the 80+80 configuration may be reversed, and the combined data may be sent to the Medium Access Control (MAC).

[0061] Sub 1 GHz modes of operation are supported by 802.11 af and 802.11 ah. The channel operating bandwidths, and carriers, are reduced in 802.11 af and 802.11 ah relative to those used in 802.11h, and 802.11 ac. 802.11 af supports 5 MHz, 10 MHz, and 20 MHz bandwidths in the TV White Space (TVWS) spectrum, and 802.11 ah supports 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, and 16 MHz bandwidths using non-TVWS spectrum. According to a representative embodiment, 802.11 ah may support Meter Type Control/Machine-Type Communications (MTC), such as MTC devices in a macro coverage area. MTC devices may have certain capabilities, for example, limited capabilities including support for (e.g., only support for) certain and/or limited bandwidths. The MTC devices may include a battery with a battery life above a threshold (e.g., to maintain a very long battery life).

[0062] WLAN systems, which may support multiple channels, and channel bandwidths, such as 802.11h, 802.11 ac, 802.11 af, and 802.11 ah, include a channel which may be designated as the primary channel. The primary channel may have a bandwidth equal to the largest common operating bandwidth supported by all STAs in the BSS. The bandwidth of the primary channel may be set and/or limited by a STA, from among all STAs in operating in a BSS, which supports the smallest bandwidth operating mode. In the example of 802.11 ah, the primary channel may be 1 MHz wide for STAs (e.g., MTC type devices) that support (e.g., only support) a 1 MHz mode, even if the AP, and other STAs in the BSS support 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 8 MHz, 16 MHz, and/or other channel bandwidth operating modes. Carrier sensing and/or Network Allocation Vector (NAV) settings may depend on the status of the primary channel. If the primary channel is busy, for example, due to a STA (which supports only a 1 MHz operating mode) transmitting to the AP, all available frequency bands may be considered busy even though a majority of the available frequency bands remains idle.

[0063] In the United States, the available frequency bands, which may be used by 802.11 ah, are from 902 MHz to 928 MHz. In Korea, the available frequency bands are from 917.5 MHz to 923.5 MHz. In Japan, the available frequency bands are from 916.5 MHz to 927.5 MHz. The total bandwidth available for 802.11 ah is 6 MHz to 26 MHz depending on the country code.

[0064] FIG. 1D is a system diagram illustrating the RAN 104 and the CN 106 according to an embodiment. As noted above, the RAN 104 may employ an NR radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. The RAN 104 may also be in communication with the CN 106. [0065] The RAN 104 may include gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c, though it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of gNBs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The gN Bs 180a, 180b, 180c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement MIMO technology. For example, gNBs 180a, 108b may utilize beamforming to transmit signals to and/or receive signals from the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c. Thus, the gNB 180a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to, and/or receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement carrier aggregation technology. For example, the gNB 180a may transmit multiple component carriers to the WTRU 102a (not shown). A subset of these component carriers may be on unlicensed spectrum while the remaining component carriers may be on licensed spectrum. In an embodiment, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technology. For example, WTRU 102a may receive coordinated transmissions from gNB 180a and gNB 180b (and/or gNB 180c).

[0066] The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using transmissions associated with a scalable numerology. For example, the OFDM symbol spacing and/or OFDM subcarrier spacing may vary for different transmissions, different cells, and/or different portions of the wireless transmission spectrum. The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using subframe or transmission time intervals (TTIs) of various or scalable lengths (e.g., containing a varying number of OFDM symbols and/or lasting varying lengths of absolute time).

[0067] The gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be configured to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c in a standalone configuration and/or a non-standalone configuration. In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c without also accessing other RANs (e.g., such as eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c). In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may utilize one or more of gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c as a mobility anchor point. In the standalone configuration, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c using signals in an unlicensed band. In a non-standalone configuration WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with/connect to gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c while also communicating with/connecting to another RAN such as eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c. For example, WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement DC principles to communicate with one or more gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c and one or more eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c substantially simultaneously. In the non-standalone configuration, eNode-Bs 160a, 160b, 160c may serve as a mobility anchor for WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may provide additional coverage and/or throughput for servicing WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. [0068] Each of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the UL and/or DL, support of network slicing, DC, interworking between NR and E-UTRA, routing of user plane data towards User Plane Function (UPF) 184a, 184b, routing of control plane information towards Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 182a, 182b and the like. As shown in FIG. 1 D, the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c may communicate with one another over an Xn interface.

[0069] The CN 106 shown in FIG. 1 D may include at least one AMF 182a, 182b, at least one UPF 184a, 184b, at least one Session Management Function (SMF) 183a, 183b, and possibly a Data Network (DN) 185a, 185b. While the foregoing elements are depicted as part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and/or operated by an entity other than the CN operator.

[0070] The AMF 182a, 182b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 104 via an N2 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the AMF 182a, 182b may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, support for network slicing (e.g., handling of different protocol data unit (PDU) sessions with different requirements), selecting a particular SMF 183a, 183b, management of the registration area, termination of non- access stratum (NAS) signaling, mobility management, and the like. Network slicing may be used by the AMF 182a, 182b in order to customize CN support for WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c based on the types of services being utilized WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. For example, different network slices may be established for different use cases such as services relying on ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC) access, services relying on enhanced massive mobile broadband (eMBB) access, services for MTC access, and the like. The AMF 182a, 182b may provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as LTE, LTE- A, LTE-A Pro, and/or non-3GPP access technologies such as WiFi.

[0071] The SMF 183a, 183b may be connected to an AMF 182a, 182b in the CN 106 via an N11 interface. The SMF 183a, 183b may also be connected to a UPF 184a, 184b in the CN 106 via an N4 interface. The SMF 183a, 183b may select and control the UPF 184a, 184b and configure the routing of traffic through the UPF 184a, 184b. The SMF 183a, 183b may perform other functions, such as managing and allocating UE IP address, managing PDU sessions, controlling policy enforcement and QoS, providing DL data notifications, and the like. A PDU session type may be IP-based, non-IP based, Ethernet-based, and the like. [0072] The UPF 184a, 184b may be connected to one or more of the gNBs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 104 via an N3 interface, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices. The UPF 184, 184b may perform other functions, such as routing and forwarding packets, enforcing user plane policies, supporting multi-homed PDU sessions, handling user plane QoS, buffering DL packets, providing mobility anchoring, and the like.

[0073] The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 106 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the CN 106 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to the other networks 112, which may include other wired and/or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by other service providers. In one embodiment, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be connected to a local DN 185a, 185b through the UPF 184a, 184b via the N3 interface to the UPF 184a, 184b and an N6 interface between the UPF 184a, 184b and the DN 185a, 185b.

[0074] In view of FIGs. 1A-1D, and the corresponding description of FIGs. 1A-1D, one or more, or all, of the functions described herein with regard to one or more of: WTRU 102a-d, Base Station 114a- b, eNode-B 160a-c, MME 162, SGW 164, PGW 166, gNB 180a-c, AMF 182a-b, UPF 184a-b, SMF 183a-b, DN 185a-b, and/or any other device(s) described herein, may be performed by one or more emulation devices (not shown). The emulation devices may be one or more devices configured to emulate one or more, or all, of the functions described herein. For example, the emulation devices may be used to test other devices and/or to simulate network and/or WTRU functions.

[0075] The emulation devices may be designed to implement one or more tests of other devices in a lab environment and/or in an operator network environment. For example, the one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, or all, functions while being fully or partially implemented and/or deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communication network in order to test other devices within the communication network. The one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, or all, functions while being temporarily implemented/deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communication network. The emulation device may be directly coupled to another device for purposes of testing and/or performing testing using over-the-air wireless communications.

[0076] The one or more emulation devices may perform the one or more, including all, functions while not being implemented/deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communication network. For example, the emulation devices may be utilized in a testing scenario in a testing laboratory and/or a non-deployed (e.g., testing) wired and/or wireless communication network in order to implement testing of one or more components. The one or more emulation devices may be test equipment. Direct RF coupling and/or wireless communications via RF circuitry (e.g., which may include one or more antennas) may be used by the emulation devices to transmit and/or receive data.

[0077] According to one or more embodiments, there is provided a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) configured to serve as a primary master node in a swarm network is provided comprising: a receiver, a transmitter, and a processor, wherein the receiver is configured to: receive a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message that includes a swarm network group-radio network temporary identifier (SG-RNTI) from a base station, and receive a resource report from each of a plurality of secondary nodes; wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the resource reports to the base station; and wherein the receiver and processor are configured to: monitor for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCFI) transmission that includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) that is masked by a group identifier; and on a condition that the PDCCFI transmission CRC is masked by the group identifier, process the PDCCFI transmission to receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) that includes a groups SPS control type indication.

[0078] According to one or more embodiments, there is provided a method to be performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for use as a primary master node in a swarm network, comprising: receiving a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message that includes a swarm network group-radio network temporary identifier (SG-RNTI) from a base station (BS); receiving a resource report from a plurality of secondary nodes; transmitting the resource reports to the base station; monitoring for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCFI) transmission including a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) that is masked by a group identifier; and on a condition that the PDCCFI transmission includes a CRC that is masked by the group identifier, decoding the PDCCFI transmission to receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) and identifying, in the DCI, a group SPS control type indication.

[0079] According to one or more embodiments, the SG-RNTI may further indicate a group of semi- persistent scheduling (SPS) links in the swarm network. According to one or more embodiments, the resource report may include at least one of MeanProcessorUsage, MeanMemoryUsage, MeanDisk Usage, UL PRB, DL PRB, CQI measurements, FIARQ retransmissions, data volume measurements, and RLC re-transmissions.

[0080] According to one or more embodiments, the processor of the WTRU may further be configured to: on a condition that the SPS control type indication is an activation command, activate the computational operation associated with the swarm network; on a condition that the SPS control type indication is a deactivation command, deactivate the computational operation associated with the swarm network; and on a condition that the SPS control type indication is an adjustment command, adjust resource allocation to the computational operation associated with the swarm network.

[0081] According to one or more embodiments, the RRC configuration message may further include a list of RNTIs and one or more transmission resources, wherein each of the one or more transmission resources is associated with a respective RNTI in the list of RNTIs.

[0082] According to one or more embodiments, the swarm network may compromise one or more swarm control nodes and one or more swarm compute nodes. Furthermore, according to one or more embodiments, the swarm network may compromise a secondary master node.

[0083] According to one or more embodiments, there is provided a method to be performed by a WTRU, configured to serve as a base station for a swarm network, comprising: receiving a resource report from a primary master node; and initiating a switchover from the primary master node to a secondary master node, comprising transmitting a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message to the primary master node to reconfigure the primary master node and secondary master node.

[0084] Fog computing can be described as a distributed computing paradigm across any devices capable of performing computation, storage and networking operations. Examples of fog devices may include, but are not limited to, mobile devices, Customer Premises Equipment (CPEs), drones, robots, cars, wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs), user equipments (UEs), etc.. The connection to and between fog devices may either be wired or wireless.

[0085] For example, in the 5G-DIVE project, there is a use case where drones are currently navigated through a set of GPS collected points which are pre-loaded into the drone navigation software. This example, called Way-point navigation, does not allow the real-time modification of the way-point (i.e., the trajectory) and does not include any swarm management of the relative position of each drone in the group. This use case requires that the current navigation system enable local processing of information and dynamic modification of the trajectory by a controller. Therefore, coordination mechanisms (e.g., centralized or distributed) among drones in the drones swarm are needed. The drones may process the collected information locally and may be utilized to keep the formation in an autonomous way. Besides, the drone-to-drone direct link and drone swarm relay may be needed to maintain the synchronization among various drone to cover more space and avoid any possible collision.

[0086] Where multiple fog devices are associated with a same group identifier, the nodes may form a local network that is capable of performing device-to-device (D2D) communication. This network may be referred to as a swarm network. The device members of a swarm do not necessarily have to be drones or UAVs, may be any kind of moving, stationary or flying objects. A swarm network may be defined as a logical or physical entity comprising multiple inter-networked devices. For example, a swarm network may be engaged and interwoven via mesh connectivity to computational resources working collaboratively towards executing a common computational task. In addition, the resources of swarm devices may be volatile, mobile and power-constrained.

[0087] In an example swarm network, common aspects may include, but are not limited to: (1) number of devices in a swarm is typically more than 2; (2) swarm devices communicate with each other interactively and bi-directionally (with or without the assistance from the network infrastructure); and/or (3) swarm devices are battery-powered and therefore are power constrained.

[0088] FIG. 2 illustrates an example swarm network deployment, which may be used in combination with any of other embodiments described herein. An application service for a client device may be split into six (6) computing tasks, which are distributed for joint execution on a base station 202 (e.g., gNB), the client device 204 and four neighboring devices 206a-206d, which are wirelessly connected. These wireless connections may include a main link to the gNB 202, and one or more sidelinks between the swarm devices 206a-206d. In one example, the swarm devices may be flying drones, but it can be any moving, stationary, or flying objects. It is also noted that the swarm network may comprise other type of devices, such as robots, cars, factory machines, cameras, or the like. Examples of computing task or computing operation may include, but are not limited to, machine learning-based drone navigation application, video processing for enhancing localization function, and group controlling. In this disclosure, the grant-free scheduled sidelink (i.e. SPS-like sidelink) may be used in a swarm network for URLLC service.

[0089] The devices in swarm networks may require high reliability and low latency. For example, a swarm of drones flying and exchanging steering and sensing information among the group members may need a proper mechanism to guarantee reliable and low latency communication. Otherwise, the inter-drone distance may need to be increased and the drone device may require more space, time and thus power to fly.

[0090] FIG. 3 illustrates an example swarm network service with a groupcast (e.g., one-to-many transmission) method. The 3GPP 5G specifications allow groupcast to be used on one-to-many transmissions (i.e. point-to-multipoint only). To be able to use groupcast for swarm networks (i.e. multi- point-to-multi-point), the current groupcast mechanism may need to be modified. The current groupcast mechanism assumes that the source ID needs to be unique per WTRU. The problem with the current groupcast method is that the radio resource indicated by the Sidelink Semi-Persistent Scheduling V2X-RNTI) (SL SPS V-RNTI) (e.g., RNTI for one-to-many transmission) is shared for all transmissions from different sources. This may be denoted as Sidelink GERAN-RNTI (SL G-RNTI). This results that there is a high probability for collision when devices are transmitting data simultaneously (e.g., which occurs more frequently as the number of swarm network members increases). The situation can be seen analogous to the unlicensed listen-before-talk Wi-Fi communication where devices are transmitting simultaneously and collisions occur may occur when two devices transmit simultaneously. The SL G-RNTI approach with the swarm networks may reduce reliability and increases latency, which makes it not suitable for swarm network communications. In order to guarantee reliable and low latency communications for swarm networks, orthogonal resource allocation for individual links may be needed.

[0091] The contention-free sidelink communication (e.g., SPS-like V2V communication with activation and de-activation command signaling) may be implemented. Each link may have orthogonal resources and may be controlled by the network through a PDCCH signaling.

[0092] FIG. 4 illustrates an example semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration and activation with a conventional method (based on V2V SPS mechanism). As shown in FIG. 4, for the sidelink, the amount of control signaling associated with the grant scheduling may become problematic for swarm networks involving a high number of devices because the sidelink communication procedure in 3GPP needs extensive signaling and therefore increases latency for sidelink activation.

[0093] The SPS activation method may be designed for V2V use case, which has different requirements from the swarm network use case (e.g., the number of group members is smaller and the devices may not be constrained). As shown in FIG. 4, in the activation methods, it is assumed that there are multiple requests to the base station (e.g., gNB) to transmit the SPS commands through PDCCH via Downlink Control Information (DCI) DCI5 message. The DCI5 message may include SPS resource activation and deactivation information to member devices in order to activate/deactivate individual SPS links.

[0094] Activation of every additional device within the same logical swarm may need an additional SPS activation command to be sent to every device member of the swarm. For example, for three swarm devices, six activation signals may be sent to the devices individually. This sequential activation signaling may cause at least six slots delay for activating a swarm network-based service since a swarm network service can only be operated whenever all links and all devices are synchronized. Moreover, each swarm device may need to invoke six times PDCCH monitoring, resulting in higher signaling overhead, service delay, and power consumption, which may also impact on the radio resources of downlink control region. [0095] Alternatively or additionally, Configured type-2 NR-V2X approach may be used for sidelink connection control. When Configured type-2 NR-V2X is used, individual members are unaware of the RRC reconfiguration that is sent to other members of the swarm. In order for a swarm to operate synchronously, each member device toned to recognize the connection activation status of all other members, resulting in significant overhead and latency.

[0096] FIG. 5 illustrates example swarm network operation by configured type-2 resource allocation in NR V2X. As illustrated in FIG. 5, all member devices may not know when a swarm service is initiated since they cannot get the RRC reconfiguration for other member devices. For example, when the gNB transmits a RRC reconfiguration message to Node 3, Node 1 and Node 2 are unaware of the configuration message. Similarly, when the gNB then transmits a RRC reconfiguration message to Node 2, Node is unaware of the configuration message.

[0097] In the V2V use case, all devices in a same logical swarm device may monitor all activation signals in order to recognize the activation state of all swarm devices. For example, in a swarm network group of 30 devices, each individual device may keep track of 30 unique activation signals. This becomes even more problematic in scenarios where there are hundreds of swarm devices in the same (terrestrial or non-terrestrial) swarm network. Thus, methods and apparatuses that efficiently control a group of SPS links for a swarm network-based service by reducing the signaling overhead, latency, and power consumption are needed.

[0098] In an embodiment, a base station (e.g., gNB) may provide an RNTI (e.g., SG-RNTI) for a WTRU, which is unique for a swarm group controller. The WTRU may use this SG-RNTI to activate/deactivate swarm group data transmissions and SPS mechanism.

[0099] In this disclosure, embodiments for the capability of WTRU to activate and deactivate swarm member service based on instruction profile it receives from a gNB are described. In addition, embodiments that activation or deactivation responsibilities are handed over to another controller due to conditions observed in the network outside or inside the swarm are described.

[0100] FIG. 6 illustrates example swarm control and computation nodes with respect to the communication with gNB 602, which may be used in combination with any of other embodiments described herein. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the responsibilities of the swarm nodes 604 may be function ally/logically divided between control and computation. The control nodes (i.e. master nodes) 606 may be members of the swarm which are capable of: (1) requesting & responding to the gNB's RRC configuration; and (2) communicating with the swarm group based on indications provided by the gNB. Computation nodes may be members of the swarm which are: (1) connected to the swarm master nodes (e.g., primary master and secondary master) either via one-to-one or one-to-many links; (2) reacting based on configuration received from the swarm master nodes; and (3) providing utilization reports of the communication resource usage to the master nodes.

[0101] FIG. 7 illustrates an example provision of swarm network group-radio network temporary identifier (SG-RNTI) in a swarm network where the primary master may use the SG-RNTI to activate the swarm compute nodes 706a-706c, which may be used in combination with any of other embodiments described herein. As illustrated in FIG. 7, in the context of a swarm group, the communication structures may be divided into controllers and computation nodes. The controllers may be responsible for the main swarm communication towards gNB 702. There may be one or more controllers (e.g., primary and secondary controller). The communication control plane responsibilities may be shared, or switched over from primary master node to the secondary master node.

[0102] In some embodiments, the swarm primary master 710 (in control of the specific control plane aspects of the swarm) may handle the activation forwarding instead of using direct links to the gNB 702.

[0103] FIG. 8 illustrates an example swarm primary master node 804 that receives a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message 806 and forwards an activation signal 808 to swarm nodes 810a and 810b, which may be used in combination with any of other embodiments described herein. The activation signal may be SG-RNTI to the swarm nodes. The swarm nodes may report the utilization of the radio resources back to the master.

[0104] FIG. 9 illustrates an example activation transfer when RRC reconfiguration fails in a swarm primary master, which may be used in combination with any of other embodiments described herein. The role of the secondary master may be to take over the activation when the RRC configuration fails in the swarm primary master. For example, when RRC configuration message from the gNB is fails or is rejected by the primary master, the Swarm secondary master may take over.

[0105] FIG. 10 illustrates an example activation transfer when failure reports are received from swarm nodes 1008, which may be used in combination with any of other embodiments described herein. The role of the secondary master 1006 may be to take over when the activation to the primary master 1004 fails. For example, when RRC configuration of the swarm fails or is rejected by the primary master 1004 (e.g., it does not have connections to all of the swarm nodes due to node locations), the swarm secondary master 1006 may take over.

[0106] In an embodiment, swarm devices in a swarm network may be grouped together in the context of scheduling, where signaling overhead caused by handling multiple devices with SPS links simultaneously can be reduced. In order to initiate a swarm computing service, SPS links may be activated with parallel activation/deactivation approach as opposed to sequential communication link (e.g., SPS PC5 and Uu interface) activation. This parallel activation/deactivation may reduce the power consumption required for PDCCH monitoring.

[0107] In this disclosure, RRC configuration for group SPS resource configuration (could include Uu interface for edge computing server in a gNB) is described. As illustrated in FIG. 5, RRC layer may decide SPS resources and indications for member devices of swarm network, where one SPS link between base station (BS) (e.g., gNB) and WTRU, two D2D links among WTRU/Vehicle/CPE are considered as an example. Then, RRC layer of BS may generate RRC messages to include the information and send them to the member devices. For a group, as described above, SG-RNTI may be introduced. SG-RNTI may be associated with multiple RNTIs (e.g., C-RNTI, SL SPS V-RNTI) for multiple connections with different source. A single PDCCH masked by SG-RNTI may control multiple RNTIs associated with SG-RNTI such as connection activation, deactivation, or adjustment.

[0108] In this disclosure, SPS activation/deactivation mechanism is described to control a group of SPS links. Based on the RRC configuration, a base station (BS) (e.g., gNB) may allow swarm group controller to make activation/deactivation for PDCCH and group-cast to member devices. Based on the RRC configuration, member devices may wait for the activation/deactivation message via PDCCH. Receiving the PDCCH message, each device may activate or deactivate the communication link correspondingly.

[0109] Furthermore, partial activation and deactivation scheme, in which a part of member devices can be activated and deactivated, are described herein as an alternative or additional embodiment for improving the flexibility of control.

[0110] Furthermore, adjustment of resource allocation of SPS link, where the resource for transmission will be dynamically selected with a pool of resource allocation candidates according to the change of situation such as the required QoS level and link quality, is described herein as an alternative or additional embodiment for improving the flexibility of control.

[0111] Compared to SL G-RNTI, which is used for a groupcast D2D connection transmitting the same data from one transmitter to multiple receivers within a group, the SG-RNTI described herein may be used for indicating multiple D2D (or Uu interface) connections with different data transmissions simultaneously. Assuming a group of connections (i.e. RNTIs) associated with SG-RNTI, the SG-RNTI may indicate whole or partial connections. The SG-RNTI may mask a single PDCCH which will be used to control whole or partial connections such as activation, deactivation, or adjustment. An example is illustrated in FIG. 11. SL G-RNTI may indicate data from 1 transmitter 1102 to 3 receivers 1104a-1104c. SG-RNTI is associated with 8 different RNTIs, each indicating a separate data transmission. The 8 different connections with different RNTIs can be controlled wholly or partially by a single PDCCH masked by SG-RNTI. Each fog device will have RNTIs for connections sourced by the fog device and, additionally, SG-RNTI to control the individual RNTIs in a group manner. PDCCH will include the control information (e.g. activation / deactivation / adjustment) and corresponding RNTIs.

[0112] In an embodiment, devices in a swarm network may be grouped together and the signaling overhead associated with the devices' SPS activation may be reduced by a PDCCH based mechanism. The embodiment may remove the need for a swarm network to waste resources on monitoring the PDCCH channel. The embodiment may also introduce RRC configuration for group activation and deactivation mechanisms. The devices such as UE, WTRU, and terminal in the group may need to be configured by the BS (e.g., gNB). The RRC configuration may handle group SPS links for a swarm network.

[0113] In an embodiment, a member device of a swarm network may receive a RRC reconfiguration message to include connectivity control information. The connectivity control information may include, but are not limited to, at least one of: SG-RNTI (i.e. a Swarm network Group Identifier), the list of SPS RNTIs (e.g., to include the list of engaged connection RNTIs), and the SPS resource information for RNTIs.

[0114] In another embodiment, a member device may be activated/deactivated/adjusted by a new PDCCH signaling. For example, the PDCCH CRC is scrambled by SG-RNTI. The PDCCH may be received by the group of member devices through the same radio resource (i.e. group-cast). The PDCCH behavior is able to activate/deactivate/adjust a sub-set of members (i.e. not all members). The PDCCH may selectively activate a SPS resource from a candidate set for a member device. [0115] FIG. 12 illustrates example functionalities by entities in a swarm network.

[0116] In SPS configuration, a specific SPS resource may be associated with one SPS-RNTI. If multiple SPS resources are needed, each SPS resource may have a distinguished SPS-RNTI. SPS V-RNTI may exist only for V2V use case. In addition, the SPS resource configuration may be unidirectional, from the source vehicle to the target vehicle, which means that another SPS resource configuration is needed for the return direction.

[0117] In an embodiment, the network (e.g., gNB) may configure a group of member devices in the swarm network with RRC configuration messages, which include at least one of information elements: SG-RNTI, a list of RNTIs, and a list of resource allocation. The configuration message may be sent in unicast to each member device in the absence of a group-cast channel, or otherwise if available, via a group-cast channel to all members of the group. [0118] The SG-RNTI may be an identifier to indicate a group of SPS links (i.e. Swarm network Group RNTI). This may scramble the CRC of PDCCH to convey the DCI for controlling and managing group SPS links and corresponding devices.

[0119] The list of RNTIs may include all RNTIs relevant to the swarm network, for example, SL- RNTIs, SPS V-RNTIs, V-RNTIs (for PC5 interface) and C-RNTIs, Temporary C-RNTIs, SPS C-RNTIs, Temporary SPS C-RNTIs (for Uu interface), CS-RNTI (for NR Uu interface), or the like. Using the RNTIs in this list, group member devices may identify all links associated with the swarm network. [0120] Each resource allocation information element is associated with a RNTI in the list of RNTIs. This resource allocation information may indicate the radio resource to be used for the communication through Uu interface or PC5 interface. Resource allocation may include at least one of the followings: Time domain information (e.g., slot number, frame number, SFN, periodicity, and duration), Frequency domain information (e.g., PRB location and Bandwidth part number), and Spatial domain information (e.g., PMI, beam number, and SSB number). A RNTI may include several alternatives of resource allocation. For example, three bandwidth options may be configured with 1 PRB, 2 PRBs, and 4PRBs, which may be adjusted according to the computation status (the more demanding the computing job the higher the communication bandwidth). It may be controlled by PDCCH activation mechanism described herein.

[0121] A device in the swarm network may receive the above RRC configuration message and then recognize the resource for D2D transmission/reception and Downlink/Uplink communication with the BS (e.g., gNB). The device may wait for activation command from the BS (e.g., gNB) to conduct transmission and reception. An exemplary procedure is illustrated in FIG. 13 for initial configuration of all member devices of a swarm network. Every member device may receive the enhanced RRC reconfiguration message individually and are then be activated by the same PDCCH scrambled by SG-RNTI, as opposed to the scheme where multiple SPS activation commands are required individually and sequentially.

[0122] Here, an SPS activation mechanism for a group of swarm member devices is described. The devices in a swarm network are assumed here to have already acquired RRC configuration as per the method described above.

[0123] An indication parameter is introduced for group SPS activation, deactivation, and adjustment. The purpose of this parameter is to provide activation/deactivation/adjustment indication to a swarm group member. Based on the indication type, the receiver of the signal may determine which operation to perform. For example, assuming that a 2-bits field is used: ‘00’ may indicate activation of SPS for the swarm network group; ΌT may indicate deactivation of SPS for the swarm network group; ‘10’ may indicate adjustment of SPS for swarm network group; and "11” may be reserved for future use.

[0124] The information bit for the partial indication (e.g., conditional) may indicate partial activation/deactivation/adjustment case combined with Group SPS activation/deactivation/adjustment indication. That means, only a sub-set of group members in the swarm network may be activated, deactivated, or adjusted.

[0125] The list of RNTIs (e.g., conditional) may be included in the RRC configuration message for the group of swarm members to be activated, deactivated, or adjusted. Implementation options for the list: RNTIs are listed with full RNTI value. In another example, the member which are remaining activated may be only indicated. The index of RNTIs may be listed, which would reduce the bit size of indication. For example, an RRC configuration message may include a list of RNTIs as follows: 1 : 0109, 2: 010A, and 3: 010B. If 0109 and 010B are activated, the DCI may only contain indexes 1 and 3, instead of 0109 and 010B.

[0126] Resource allocation indication may provide information about Physical Resource Block (PRB) allocation and Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) level for swarm network members using SPS. For example, the PRB and MCS allocation adjustment field may be used for Group SPS adjustment procedure. A number of bit string may be used to indicate the PRB number. For example, an RNTI may be associated with three resource allocation options for the bandwidth such as 1/2/3 PRBs. This information may be indicated with a number (1—3). A number of bit string may be used to indicate the MCS level number. For example, a RNTI may be associated with three resource allocation options for MCS level such as QPSK QPSK ½, 16QAM This information may be indicated with a number (1—3).

[0127] FIG. 13 illustrates example SPS configuration and activation (based on group control), which may be used in combination with any of other embodiments described herein. As illustrated in FIG. 13, a swarm network comprises a gNB 1302, two (2) fog devices 1304a and 1304b, and the client 1306. In this example activation procedure illustrated in FIG. 13, first, each member device in the swarm network may receive a RRC configuration message from the gNB 1302 and prepare the transmission, as described above. In this example, four bi-directional connections among the member devices correspond to 8 SPS communication links. The RRC configuration message may include information elements such as SG-RNTI, 8 RNTIs for 8 SPS communication channel, and corresponding transmission resources (e.g., time/frequency/spatial domain information for transmission). [0128] Next, all group members may simultaneously receive PDCCH masked by SG-RNTI. The fog devices may decode a DCI conveyed by the PDCCH. The DCI may include Group SPS activation indication as described previously. At step 3, after receiving the activation signaling by PDCCH, all group members may initiate own computing tasks and communication with corresponding fog devices. [0129] The deactivation of the swarm group may be either implicit or explicit. There are some conditions in which the termination may be implicit and based on environment conditions. For example, (i.e. example conditions to terminate SPS swarm group), all SPS links may be deactivated due to swarm network service termination. The service termination may cause that the link is terminated either when the service is terminated (i.e. implicit) or by having explicit termination message. Upon finishing a computation task that was associated with the swarm network, the SPS links may be deactivated due to the task reduction. In case that there are replicated tasks (i.e. multiple swarm entities are performing the same computation operation) and one member is faster on computation than another, the slower member who is performing the redundant task may perform implicit deactivation as the resources are no longer needed. The deactivation may also be indicated by SPS deactivation indication or command described above.

[0130] Partial activation or deactivation may be performed when the active swarm size needs to be dynamically changed (e.g., reduced), some computing task is temporarily migrated to another fog devices due to low battery issue, or there are multiple members departing simultaneously. Another exemplary operation scenario is dormant mode operation for a part of group members. Similar to a processing job in a computer, a task executing on a member device of a swarm network may be completed while the tasks by the other member devices continue. In this situation, the member device which does not have additional tasks may need to go on-sleep mode without connectivity. Thus, the SPS resource may need to be deactivated and the resource may be temporarily utilized by the other devices (i.e. non-member devices) within the gNB coverage. The SPS resource configuration may be maintained while SPS resource configuration is not deleted by the gNB. The member SPS transmission may be re-activated by SPS activation command from the gNB. The partial activation or deactivation may be based on: (1) partial indication bit that may be included in the DCI; and (2) list of RNTIs, where the RNTIs in the list are only activated or deactivated.

[0131] In swarm network service, the resource allocations of several links may need to be adjusted due to the change in wireless resources. In one example, the QoS that was guaranteed for the particular service may not be guaranteed anymore, as the link quality has changed. [0132] In another example, when a swarm network is performing a computation, some of the nodes in the swarm group, due to the device internal link resource prioritizations (has critical data to send), may not be able to guarantee link level resources for the swarm to use.

[0133] Similarly, when a fog system is performing a task that requires tight communication between the nodes, the link resources may need to be allocated by a gNB. Those resources may need to be adjusted based on dynamic link behavior. This may raise a need for group PRB allocation adjustment that is capable of explicitly adjusting the resource allocation of the swarm network.

[0134] FIG. 14 illustrates example SPS resource allocation adjustment (e.g., based on group control), which may be used in combination with any of other embodiments described herein. It is assumed that member devices have alternative or additional resource allocation configuration through RRC configuration procedure. Moreover, swarm network communication has been already activated. When swarm network members receive a PDCCH masked by SG-RNTI and the PDCCH convey DCI with group SPS adjustment indication, swarm network members can recognize some resource allocation change within the candidate SPS resources configured. The DCI may include at least one of Group SPS adjustment indication, a list of RNTIs, and/or resource allocation indication. The Group SPS adjustment indication may indicate that this DCI is used for group SPS adjustment indication. The list of RNTIs may identify adjusted SPS links. The resource allocation indication may by an ID indicating that resource allocation option is activated.

[0135] FIG. 15 illustrates an example procedure with related to SG-RNTI in a WTRU, which may be used in combination with any of other embodiments described herein.

[0136] At 1504, group members of a swarm network may recognize the identifier (i.e. SG-RNTI) to indicate the group of the swarm network and SPS resources for transmission and reception, which information is configured by information elements via RRC message. Each member device may recognize SG-RNTI as his own group identifier.

[0137] At 1506, a PDCCH to enable group activation/deactivation/modification may be constructed by network. CRC of the PDCCH may be scrambled by a SG-RNTI and may be groupcast to all group members. Group member device may monitor the PDCCH to receive group control signaling.

[0138] At 1508, PDCCH masked by SG-RNTI (i.e. PDCCH CRC is scrambled by SG-RNTI) can be decoded by all member devices of the swarm network. The PDCCH may comprise DCI to include at least group SPS control type (e.g., activation / deactivation / adjustment) indication.

[0139] At 1510, after decoding PDCCH, a member device may parse DCI to identify group SPS control type (activation/deactivation/adjustment) indication indicating which control function is to be used for the swarm network. [0140] At 1512, according to group SPS control type indication, three actions can be conducted by a member device: activation 1514, deactivation 1516, and/or adjustment 1518.

[0141] For the activation action 1514, before receiving the activation command (or signaling) through PDCCH, a device may wait for the transmission. After a member device receives the PDCCH information that includes the activation, it can run the task allocated and communicate with corresponding swarm member device.

[0142] For the deactivation action 1516, when receiving deactivation command (or signaling) through PDCCH, a device may stop or hold the computing task and data transmission via SPS link. Stopping may be similar to releasing the resource, which means the allocated resource configured by RRC is released. Thus, if reactivation is required, additional RRC configuration may be needed. However, holding may not release the allocated resource configured by RRC. Instead, only data transmission through the resource may be kept until reactivation.

[0143] For the adjustment action 1518, when receiving adjustment command (or signaling) through PDCCH, a device may apply another resource allocation (e.g., PRB allocation, MCS level, or the like) to the transmission.

[0144] Embodiments for RRC configuration of a base station (BS) (e.g., gNB) are described herein. Upon receiving a request for swarm group formation, a BS (e.g., gNB) may allocate a SG-RNTI for a swarm group. The BS (e.g., gNB) may create an RRC message containing SG-RNTI, a list of RNTIs, and a list of resource allocation that are associated with the swarm group. The BS (e.g., gNB) may transmit the RRC configuration to the primary master node of the swarm group. The BS (e.g., gNB) may configure the primary master to be able to receive measurements from the swarm compute node. [0145] Embodiments for the reception of RRC configuration by a primary master node are described herein. Upon receiving the RRC configuration, the primary master node may perform an analysis of activation needs based on swarm group compute usage and performance measurements. The analysis may be performed based on measurements transmitted by the swarm compute nodes. Based on the analysis, the primary master node may perform: activation of SPS transmission, deactivation of SPS transmission, and/or adjustment (RRC reconfiguration) of transmission.

[0146] Embodiments for measurements received by the primary master node are described herein. Upon receiving a configuration to transmit measurements (e.g., periodical or by request), the swarm computation node may transmit a resource report to swarm primary master and/or swarm secondary master. The resource report may include MeanProcessorUsage, MeanMemoryUsage, MeanDiskUsage, UL PRB used for data traffic, DL PRB used for data traffic, and CQI measurements, CQI, HARQ retransmissions, data volume measurement, RLC re-transmissions or the like. [0147] Embodiments for the change from a primary master node to a secondary master node based on BS's indication are described herein. Triggered by measurement report or radio condition indications (e.g., CQI, HARQ retransmissions, data volume measurement, RLC re-transmissions), the BS (e.g., gNB) may initiate a primary to secondary master node switchover. The BS (e.g., gNB) may initiate a RRC reconfiguration which reconfigures the primary and secondary swarm master nodes. Upon receiving RRC reconfiguration from the BS (e.g., gNB), the primary master node may transmit list of activated/deactivated WTRUs to the secondary master node. Upon receiving the list, the secondary master node may become a primary master node.

[0148] Embodiments for the change from a primary master node to a secondary master node based on swarm node indication are described herein. Upon indication from one or more swarm nodes, the BS (e.g., gNB) may send a primary secondary master node switchover signal. The signal may include a list of active/inactive swarm group members. A WTRU may receive configuration from the BS (e.g., gNB) regarding formation of the swarm, and its selection as a primary master node. The configuration information may include at least one of the temporary identifiers (RNTIs) of the swarm members and the Swarm Group RNTI (SG-RNTI). The WTRU may transmit sidelink resources where periodic control info can be transmitted by swarm nodes. The WTRU may collate the control information and transmit it periodically or based on configured thresholds. The control information may include at least one of MeanProcessorUsage, MeanMemoryUsage, MeanDiskUsage, UL PRB used for data traffic, DL PRB used for data traffic and/or CQI measurements. The WTRU may perform activation and/or deactivation of corresponding swarm nodes based configuration from the BS (e.g., gNB) and dynamically overwrite the grant for one or more swarm nodes based on DCI received from the BS (e.g., gNB).

[0149] In an embodiment, devices in a swarm network may be grouped together and the signaling overhead associated with the devices' SPS activation may be reduced by introducing a PDCCH based mechanism. This embodiment may remove the need for a swarm network to waste resources on monitoring the PDCCH channel and introduce RRC configuration for group activation and deactivation mechanisms. A WTRU may receive a RRC configuration message that includes swarm network information. When receiving a PDCCH masked by a group identifier configured, the WTRU may decode DCI from the PDCCH and check whether the indication includes information to the particular WTRU and which control is intended. If the particular WTRU is indicated, it takes an action based on the message control type. The RRC configuration message may include swarm network information that comprises at least one of following lEs; SG-RNTI (swarm network identifier); list of RNTIs (list of identifiers of links controlled by this swarm network); and transmission resources (transmission resources are allocated to links, where resources of links are orthogonal each other). Multiple transmission resources may be allocated to a link such that a transmission of the link may be dynamically adjusted. A WTRU may receive a PDCCH masked by SG-RNTI to convey DCI that includes a list of identifiers and control type indication. If the WTRU detect its own identifier in the list of identifiers, the WTRU may take an action. No list of identifier can implicitly indicate every links of the swarm network. Control type indication may indicate activation/deactivation/adjustment.

[0150] Although features and elements are described above in particular combinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that each feature or element can be used alone or in any combination with the other features and elements. In addition, the methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of computer-readable media include electronic signals (transmitted over wired or wireless connections) and computer-readable storage media. Examples of computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a WTRU, UE, terminal, base station, RNC, or any host computer.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) configured to serve as a primary master node in a swarm network, comprising: a receiver; a transmitter; and a processor; wherein the receiver is configured to: receive a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message that includes a swarm network group-radio network temporary identifier (SG-RNTI) from a base station, and receive a resource report from each of a plurality of secondary nodes; wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the resource reports to the base station; and wherein the receiver and processor are configured to: monitor for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission that includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) that is masked by a group identifier; and on a condition that the PDCCH transmission CRC is masked by the group identifier, process the PDCCH transmission to receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) that includes a groups SPS control type indication.

2. The WTRU of claim 1 wherein the SG-RNTI indicates a group of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) links in the swarm network.

3. The WTRU of claim 1 wherein each resource report includes at least one of MeanProcessorUsage, MeanMemoryUsage, MeanDisk Usage, UL PRB, DL PRB, CQI measurements, HARQ retransmissions, data volume measurements, and RLC re-transmissions.

4. The WTRU of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to: on a condition that the SPS control type indication is an activation command, activate the computational operation associated with the swarm network; on a condition that the SPS control type indication is a deactivation command, deactivate the computational operation associated with the swarm network; and on a condition that the SPS control type indication is an adjustment command, adjust resource allocation to the computational operation associated with the swarm network.

5. The WTRU of claim 1 , wherein the RRC configuration message includes a list of RNTIs and one or more transmission resources, wherein each of the one or more transmission resources is associated with a respective RNTI in the list of RNTIs.

6. The WTRU of claim 1 , wherein the swarm network comprises one or more swarm control nodes and one or more swarm compute nodes.

7. A method performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for use as a primary master node in a swarm network, comprising: receiving a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message that includes a swarm network group-radio network temporary identifier (SG-RNTI) from a base station (BS); receiving a resource report from a plurality of secondary nodes; transmitting the resource reports to the base station; monitoring for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission including a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) that is masked by a group identifier; and on a condition that the PDCCH transmission includes a CRC that is masked by the group identifier, decoding the PDCCH transmission to receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) and identifying, in the DCI, a group SPS control type indication.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein each resource report includes at least one of MeanProcessorUsage, MeanMemoryUsage, MeanDisk Usage, UL PRB, DL PRB, CQI measurements, HARQ retransmissions, data volume measurements, and RLC re-transmissions.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the SG-RNTI indicates a group of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) links in the swarm network.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising: on a condition that the control type indication is an activation command, activate the computational operation associated with the swarm network; on a condition that the control type indication is a deactivation command, deactivate the computational operation associated with the swarm network; and on a condition that the control type indication is an adjustment command, adjust resource allocation to the computational operation associated with the swarm network.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the RRC configuration message further includes a list of RNTIs and one or more transmission resources, wherein each of the one or more transmission resources is associated with a respective RNTI in the list of RNTIs.

12. The method of claim of claim 11 wherein the swarm network comprises one or more swarm control nodes and one or more swarm compute nodes.

13. The method of claim of claim 11, wherein the one or more of swarm control nodes comprise a secondary master node.

14. A method performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) configured to serve as a base station for a swarm network, comprising: receiving a resource report from a primary master node; and initiating a switchover from the primary master node to a secondary master node, comprising transmitting a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message to the primary master node to reconfigure the primary master node and secondary master node.