WO2022192638A1 - Small base station configuration and control in 5g networks - Google Patents

Abstract

A computer-readable storage medium stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an evolved residential gateway (eRG). The instructions configure the eRG for operation and control in a 5 G NR network and cause the eRG to perform operations. The operations include establishing a communication link from a Premises Radio Access Station (PRAS) to an application server of the 5G NR network. A profile of the PRAS received from the application server via the communication link is decoded. Registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network is performed based on the profile. The profile is encoded for transmission to the PRAS. The profile includes PRAS configuration information. Data received from the PRAS is encoded for re¬ transmission to the application server based on the PRAS configuration information.

Description

SMALL BASE STATION CONFIGURATION AND CONTROL IN 5G

NETWORKS

PRIORITY CLAIM

[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to the following

United States Provisional Patent Applications: [0002] United States Provisional Patent Application No. 63/159,931, filed March 11, 2021, and entitled “ENABLING SMALL BASE STATION FOR OPERATION AND CONTROL BY A 5G NETWORK;”

[0003] United States Provisional Patent Application No. 63/168,734, filed March 31, 2021, and entitled “TRIGGERING REMOTE PROVISIONING FOR SMALL BASE STATION FOR OPERATION AND CONTROL BY A 5G NETWORK;” and

[0004] United States Provisional Patent Application No. 63/177,312, filed April 20, 2021, and entitled “METHODS OF CONFIGURING SMALL BASE STATION AS INTEGRATED ACCESS AND BACKHAUL (IAB) NODE FOR OPERATION AND CONTROL BY A 5G NETWORK.”

[0005] Each of the above-listed patent applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD [0006] Aspects pertain to wireless communications. Some aspects relate to wireless networks including 3 GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) networks, 3 GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks, 3 GPP LTE-A (LTE Advanced) networks, (MulteFire, LTE-U), and fifth-generation (5G) networks and beyond including 5G new radio (NR) (or 5G NR) networks, 5G-LTE networks such as 5G NR unlicensed spectrum (NR-U) networks and other unlicensed networks including Wi-Fi, CBRS (OnGo), etc. Other aspects are directed to techniques to configure and enable small base stations for operation and control by 5GNR (and beyond) networks. For example, the disclosed techniques may be used for configuring a small base station as an Integrated Access and Backhaul (LAB) node for operation and control by the 5G network.

BACKGROUND

[0007] Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice systems to today’s highly sophisticated integrated communication platform. With the increase in different types of devices communicating with various network devices, usage of 3 GPP LTE systems has increased. The penetration of mobile devices (user equipment or UEs) in modem society has continued to drive demand for a wide variety of networked devices in many disparate environments. Fifth-generation (5G) wireless systems are forthcoming and are expected to enable even greater speed, connectivity, and usability. Next generation 5G networks (or NR networks) are expected to increase throughput, coverage, and robustness and reduce latency and operational and capital expenditures. 5G-NR networks will continue to evolve based on 3GPP LTE- Advanced with additional potential new radio access technologies (RATs) to enrich people’s lives with seamless wireless connectivity solutions delivering fast, rich content and services. As current cellular network frequency is saturated, higher frequencies, such as millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency, can be beneficial due to their high bandwidth.

[0008] Potential LTE operation in the unlicensed spectrum includes (and is not limited to) the LTE operation in the unlicensed spectrum via dual connectivity (DC), or DC-based LAA, and the standalone LTE system in the unlicensed spectrum, according to which LTE-based technology solely operates in the unlicensed spectrum without requiring an “anchor” in the licensed spectrum, called MulteFire. Further enhanced operation of LTE and NR systems in the licensed, as well as unlicensed spectrum, is expected in future releases and 5G (and beyond) systems. Such enhanced operations can include techniques to configure and enable small base stations for operation and control by 5GNR (and beyond) networks. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES [0009] In the figures, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The figures illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various aspects discussed in the present document.

[0010] FIG. 1 A illustrates an architecture of a network, in accordance with some aspects.

[0011] FIG. IB and FIG. 1C illustrate a non-roaming 5G system architecture in accordance with some aspects.

[0012] FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments.

[0013] FIG. 5 illustrates a reference diagram of an IAB architecture, in accordance with some aspects. [0014] FIG. 6 illustrates a central unit (CU) - distributed unit (DU) split and signaling in an IAB architecture, in accordance with some aspects.

[0015] FIG. 7 illustrates a customer premises network (CPN) using a premises radio access station (PRAS) configured for communication with a 5G network, in accordance with some aspects. [0016] FIG. 8 illustrates a high-level procedure to enable (off-the-shelf)

PRAS connecting to an eRG for operation and control by the 5G network, in accordance with some aspects.

[0017] FIG. 9 illustrates a high-level procedure to configure eRG as gateway UE for the PRAS’ registration, in accordance with some aspects. [0018] FIG. 10 illustrates a high-level procedure to configure eRG to invoke a remote provisioning process (RPP) for the PRAS, in accordance with some aspects.

[0019] FIG. 11 illustrates the PRAS operation configuration provisioning procedure where PRAS and eRG have 3GPP subscriptions from the same HPLMN provided by the same network operator, in accordance with some aspects.

[0020] FIG. 12 illustrates a UDM initiated PRAS configuration update, in accordance with some aspects. [0021] FIG. 13 illustrates the configuration function at HPLMN triggered PRAS operation authorization revocation (non-roaming), in accordance with some aspects.

[0022] FIG. 14 illustrates VPLMN configuration function triggered PRAS operation authorization revocation (roaming), in accordance with some aspects.

[0023] FIG. 15 illustrates an overall architecture of gNB, eRG, and

PRAS, in accordance with some aspects.

[0024] FIG. 16 illustrates an overall architecture of LAB with eRG and PRAS, in accordance with some aspects.

[0025] FIG. 17 illustrates an overall architecture of eRG and PRAS as

LAB nodes, in accordance with some aspects.

[0026] FIG. 18 illustrates a block diagram of a communication device such as an evolved Node-B (eNB), a new generation Node-B (gNB) (or another RAN node or a base station), a transmission-reception point (TRP), an access point (AP), a wireless station (STA), a mobile station (MS), or a user equipment (UE), in accordance with some aspects.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate aspects to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other aspects may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some aspects may be included in or substituted for, those of other aspects. Aspects outlined in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0028] FIG. 1 A illustrates an architecture of a network in accordance with some aspects. The network 140A is shown to include user equipment (UE)

101 and UE 102. The UEs 101 and 102 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks) but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless handsets, drones, or any other computing device including a wired and/or wireless communications interface. The UEs 101 and

102 can be collectively referred to herein as UE 101, and UE 101 can be used to perform one or more of the techniques disclosed herein.

[0029] Any of the radio links described herein (e.g., as used in the network 140 A or any other illustrated network) may operate according to any exemplary radio communication technology and/or standard.

[0030] LTE and LTE-Advanced are standards for wireless communications of high-speed data for UE such as mobile telephones. In LTE- Advanced and various wireless systems, carrier aggregation is a technology according to which multiple carrier signals operating on different frequencies may be used to carry communications for a single UE, thus increasing the bandwidth available to a single device. In some aspects, carrier aggregation may be used where one or more component carriers operate on unlicensed frequencies.

[0031] Aspects described herein can be used in the context of any spectrum management scheme including, for example, dedicated licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, (licensed) shared spectrum (such as Licensed Shared Access (LSA) in 2.3-2.4 GHz, 3.4-3.6 GHz, 3.6-3.8 GHz, and further frequencies and Spectrum Access System (SAS) in 3.55-3.7 GHz and further frequencies).

[0032] Aspects described herein can also be applied to different Single

Carrier or OFDM flavors (CP-OFDM, SC-FDMA, SC-OFDM, filter bank-based multicarrier (FBMC), OFDMA, etc.) and in particular 3 GPP NR (New Radio) by allocating the OFDM carrier data bit vectors to the corresponding symbol resources.

[0033] In some aspects, any of the UEs 101 and 102 can comprise an

Internet-of-Things (IoT) UE or a Cellular IoT (CIoT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short lived UE connections. In some aspects, any of the UEs 101 and 102 can include a narrowband (NB) IoT UE (e.g., such as an enhanced NB-IoT (eNB-IoT) UE and Further Enhanced (FeNB-IoT) UE). An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe), or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network includes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

[0034] In some aspects, any of the UEs 101 and 102 can include enhanced MTC (eMTC) UEs or further enhanced MTC (FeMTC) UEs.

[0035] The UEs 101 and 102 may be configured to connect, e.g., communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) 110. The RAN 110 may be, for example, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UEs 101 and 102 utilize connections 103 and 104, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, the connections 103 and 104 are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth-generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

[0036] In an aspect, the UEs 101 and 102 may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

[0037] The UE 102 is shown to be configured to access an access point

(AP) 106 via connection 107. The connection 107 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as, for example, a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, according to which the AP 106 can comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below).

[0038] The RAN 110 can include one or more access nodes that enable connections 103 and 104. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), Next Generation NodeBs (gNBs), RAN network nodes, and the like, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). In some aspects, the communication nodes 111 and 112 can be transmission/reception points (TRPs). In instances when the communication nodes 111 and 112 are NodeBs (e.g., eNBs or gNBs), one or more TRPs can function within the communication cell of the NodeBs. The RAN 110 may include one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RAN node 111, and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 112 or an unlicensed spectrum based secondary RAN node 112.

[0039] Any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 101 and 102. In some aspects, any of the RAN nodes 111 and 112 can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 110 including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. In an example, any of the nodes 111 and/or 112 can be a new generation Node-B (gNB), an evolved node-B (eNB), or another type of RAN node.

[0040] The RAN 110 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 120 via an SI interface 113. In aspects, the CN 120 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN (e.g., as illustrated in reference to FIGS. 1B-1C). In this aspect, the SI interface 113 is split into two parts: the Sl-U interface 114, which carries user traffic data between the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 122, and the SI -mobility management entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 111 and 112 and MMEs 121.

[0041] In this aspect, the CN 120 comprises the MMEs 121, the S-GW

122, the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 123, and a home subscriber server (HSS) 124. The MMEs 121 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs 121 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 124 may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions. The CN 120 may comprise one or several HSSs 124, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 124 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. [0042] The S-GW 122 may terminate the SI interface 113 towards the

RAN 110, and route data packets between the RAN 110 and the CN 120. In addition, the S-GW 122 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities of the S-GW 122 may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0043] The P-GW 123 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN.

The P-GW 123 may route data packets between the EPC network 120 and external networks such as a network including the application server 184 (alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 125. The P-GW 123 can also communicate data to other external networks 131 A, which can include the Internet, IP multimedia subsystem (IPS) network, and other networks. Generally, the application server 184 may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this aspect, the P-GW 123 is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server 184 via an IP interface 125. The application server 184 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over- Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 101 and 102 via the CN 120.

[0044] The P-GW 123 may further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 126 is the policy and charging control element of the CN 120. In a non-roaming scenario, in some aspects, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with a local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE's IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within an HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF 126 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 184 via the P-GW 123.

[0045] In some aspects, the communication network 140 A can be an IoT network or a 5G network, including a 5G new radio network using communications in the licensed (5GNR) and the unlicensed (5GNR-U) spectrum. One of the current enablers of IoT is the narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT). [0046] An NG system architecture can include the RAN 110 and a 5G network core (5GC) 120. The NG-RAN 110 can include a plurality of nodes, such as gNBs and NG-eNBs. The core network 120 (e.g., a 5G core network or 5GC) can include an access and mobility function (AMF) and/or a user plane function (UPF). The AMF and the UPF can be communicatively coupled to the gNBs and the NG-eNBs via NG interfaces. More specifically, in some aspects, the gNBs and the NG-eNBs can be connected to the AMF by NG-C interfaces, and the UPF by NG-U interfaces. The gNBs and the NG-eNBs can be coupled to each other via Xn interfaces.

[0047] In some aspects, the NG system architecture can use reference points between various nodes as provided by 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 23.501 (e.g., V15.4.0, 2018-12). In some aspects, each of the gNBs and the NG- eNBs can be implemented as a base station, a mobile edge server, a small cell, a home eNB, a RAN network node, and so forth. In some aspects, a gNB can be a master node (MN) and NG-eNB can be a secondary node (SN) in a 5G architecture. In some aspects, the master/primary node may operate in a licensed band and the secondary node may operate in an unlicensed band.

[0048] FIG. IB illustrates a non-roaming 5G system architecture in accordance with some aspects. Referring to FIG. IB, there is illustrated a 5G system architecture 140B in a reference point representation. More specifically, UE 102 can be in communication with RAN 110 as well as one or more other 5G core (5GC) network entities. The 5G system architecture 140B includes a plurality of network functions (NFs), such as access and mobility management function (AMF) 132, location management function (LMF) 133, session management function (SMF) 136, policy control function (PCF) 148, application function (AF) 150, user plane function (UPF) 134, network slice selection function (NSSF) 142, authentication server function (AUSF) 144, and unified data management (UDM)/home subscriber server (HSS) 146. The UPF 134 can provide a connection to a data network (DN) 152, which can include, for example, operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. The AMF 132 can be used to manage access control and mobility and can also include network slice selection functionality. The SMF 136 can be configured to set up and manage various sessions according to network policy. The UPF 134 can be deployed in one or more configurations according to the desired service type.

The PCF 148 can be configured to provide a policy framework using network slicing, mobility management, and roaming (similar to PCRF in a 4G communication system). The UDM can be configured to store subscriber profiles and data (similar to an HSS in a 4G communication system).

[0049] The LMF 133 may be used in connection with 5G positioning functionalities. In some aspects, LMF 133 receives measurements and assistance information from the next generation radio access network (NG- RAN) 110 and the mobile device (e.g., UE 101) via the AMF 132 over the NLs interface to compute the position of the UE 101. In some aspects, NR positioning protocol A (NRPPa) may be used to carry the positioning information between NG-RAN and LMF 133 over a next generation control plane interface (NG-C). In some aspects, LMF 133 configures the UE using the LTE positioning protocol (LPP) via AMF 132. The NG RAN 110 configures the UE 101 using radio resource control (RRC) protocol over LTE-Uu and NR-Uu interfaces.

[0050] In some aspects, the 5G system architecture 140B configures different reference signals to enable positioning measurements. Example reference signals that may be used for positioning measurements include the positioning reference signal (NR PRS) in the downlink and the sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning in the uplink. The downlink positioning reference signal (PRS) is a reference signal configured to support downlink- based positioning methods.

[0051] In some aspects, the 5G system architecture 140B includes an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) 168B as well as a plurality of IP multimedia core network subsystem entities, such as call session control functions (CSCFs).

More specifically, the IMS 168B includes a CSCF, which can act as a proxy CSCF (P-CSCF) 162BE, a serving CSCF (S-CSCF) 164B, an emergency CSCF (E-CSCF) (not illustrated in FIG. IB), or interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF) 166B. The P-CSCF 162B can be configured to be the first contact point for the UE 102 within the IM subsystem (IMS) 168B. The S-CSCF 164B can be configured to handle the session states in the network, and the E-CSCF can be configured to handle certain aspects of emergency sessions such as routing an emergency request to the correct emergency center or PSAP. The I-CSCF 166B can be configured to function as the contact point within an operator's network for all IMS connections destined to a subscriber of that network operator, or a roaming subscriber currently located within that network operator's service area. In some aspects, the I-CSCF 166B can be connected to another IP multimedia network 170E, e.g. an IMS operated by a different network operator.

[0052] In some aspects, the UDM/HSS 146 can be coupled to an application server 160E, which can include a telephony application server (TAS) or another application server (AS). The AS 160B can be coupled to the IMS 168B via the S-CSCF 164B or the I-CSCF 166B.

[0053] A reference point representation shows that interaction can exist between corresponding NF services. For example, FIG. IB illustrates the following reference points: N1 (between the UE 102 and the AMF 132), N2 (between the RAN 110 and the AMF 132), N3 (between the RAN 110 and the UPF 134), N4 (between the SMF 136 and the UPF 134), N5 (between the PCF 148 and the AF 150, not shown), N6 (between the UPF 134 and the DN 152),

N7 (between the SMF 136 and the PCF 148, not shown), N8 (between the UDM 146 and the AMF 132, not shown), N9 (between two UPFs 134, not shown),

N10 (between the UDM 146 and the SMF 136, not shown), Nil (between the AMF 132 and the SMF 136, not shown), N12 (between the AUSF 144 and the AMF 132, not shown), N13 (between the AUSF 144 and the UDM 146, not shown), N14 (between two AMFs 132, not shown), N15 (between the PCF 148 and the AMF 132 in case of a non-roaming scenario, or between the PCF 148 and a visited network and AMF 132 in case of a roaming scenario, not shown), N16 (between two SMFs, not shown), and N22 (between AMF 132 and NSSF 142, not shown). Other reference point representations not shown in FIG. IB can also be used.

[0054] FIG. 1C illustrates a 5G system architecture 140C and a service- based representation. In addition to the network entities illustrated in FIG. IB, system architecture 140C can also include a network exposure function (NEF) 154 and a network repository function (NRF) 156. In some aspects, 5G system architectures can be service-based and interaction between network functions can be represented by corresponding point-to-point reference points Ni or as service-based interfaces.

[0055] In some aspects, as illustrated in FIG. 1C, service-based representations can be used to represent network functions within the control plane that enable other authorized network functions to access their services. In this regard, 5G system architecture 140C can include the following service- based interfaces: Namf 158H (a service-based interface exhibited by the AMF 132), Nsmf 1581 (a service-based interface exhibited by the SMF 136), Nnef 158B (a service-based interface exhibited by the NEF 154), Npcf 158D (a service-based interface exhibited by the PCF 148), a Nudm 158E (a service- based interface exhibited by the UDM 146), Naf 158F (a service-based interface exhibited by the AF 150), Nnrf 158C (a service-based interface exhibited by the NRF 156), Nnssf 158A (a service-based interface exhibited by the NSSF 142), Nausf 158G (a service-based interface exhibited by the AUSF 144). Other service-based interfaces (e.g., Nudr, N5g-eir, and Nudsf) not shown in FIG. 1C can also be used.

[0056] FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments in different communication systems, such as 5G-NR (and beyond) networks. UEs, base stations (such as gNBs), and/or other nodes (e.g., satellites or other NTN nodes) discussed in connection with FIGS. 1 A-4 can be configured to perform the disclosed techniques.

[0057] FIG. 2 illustrates a network 200 in accordance with various embodiments. The network 200 may operate in a manner consistent with 3 GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3 GPP systems, or the like.

[0058] The network 200 may include a UE 202, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 204 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 202 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computing device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, IoT device, etc.

[0059] In some embodiments, the network 200 may include a plurality of

UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

[0060] In some embodiments, the UE 202 may additionally communicate with an AP 206 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 206 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 204. The connection between the UE 202 and the AP 206 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 206 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 202, RAN 204, and AP 206 may utilize cellular- WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular- WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 202 being configured by the RAN 204 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0061] The RAN 204 may include one or more access nodes, for example, access node (AN) 208. AN 208 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 202 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), Radio Link Control (RLC), MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 208 may enable data/voice connectivity between the core network (CN) 220 and the UE 202. In some embodiments, the AN 208 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 208 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 208 may be a macrocell base station or a low-power base station for providing femtocells, picocells, or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

[0062] In embodiments in which the RAN 204 includes a plurality of

ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 204 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 204 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

[0063] The ANs of the RAN 204 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 202 with an air interface for network access. The UE 202 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 204. For example, the UE 202 and RAN 204 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 202 to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be a secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.

[0064] The RAN 204 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells. Before accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0065] In V2X scenarios, the UE 202 or AN 208 may be or act as a roadside unit (RSU), which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by: a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”; an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high-speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally, or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network.

[0066] In some embodiments, the RAN 204 may be an LTE RAN 210 with eNBs, for example, eNB 212. The LTE RAN 210 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: sub-carrier spacing (SCS) of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for downlink (DL) and SC-FDMA waveform for uplink (UL); turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operate on sub-6 GHz bands.

[0067] In some embodiments, the RAN 204 may be an NG-RAN 214 with gNBs, for example, gNB 216, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 218. The gNB 216 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 216 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 218 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 216 and the ng-eNB 218 may connect over an Xn interface. [0068] In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 214 and a UPF 248 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN214 and an AMF 244 (e.g., N2 interface). [0069] The NG-RAN 214 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM, and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operate on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block (SSB) that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH.

[0070] In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs

(bandwidth parts) for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 202 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 202, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 202 with different amounts of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with a small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 202 and in some cases at the gNB 216. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic loads.

[0071] The RAN 204 is communicatively coupled to CN 220 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 202). The components of the CN 220 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 220 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 220 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 220 may be referred to as a network sub slice.

[0072] In some embodiments, the CN 220 may be connected to the LTE radio network as part of the Enhanced Packet System (EPS) 222, which may also be referred to as an EPC (or enhanced packet core). The EPC 222 may include MME 224, SGW 226, SGSN 228, HSS 230, PGW 232, and PCRF 234 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the EPC 222 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0073] The MME 224 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 202 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

[0074] The SGW 226 may terminate an SI interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the EPC 222. The SGW 226 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0075] The SGSN 228 may track the location of the UE 202 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 228 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 224; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 224 and the SGSN 228 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active states.

[0076] The HSS 230 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS 230 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 230 and the MME 224 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the LTE CN 220.

[0077] The PGW 232 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 236 that may include an application/content server 238. The PGW 232 may route data packets between the LTE CN 220 and the data network 236. The PGW 232 may be coupled with the SGW 226 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 232 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 232 and the data network 236 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW 232 may be coupled with a PCRF 234 via a Gx reference point.

[0078] The PCRF 234 is the policy and charging control element of the

LTE CN 220. The PCRF 234 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 238 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 234 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.

[0079] In some embodiments, the CN 220 may be a 5GC 240. The 5GC

240 may include an AUSF 242, AMF 244, SMF 246, UPF 248, NSSF 250, NEF 252, NRF 254, PCF 256, UDM 258, and AF 260 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 240 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0080] The AUSF 242 may store data for authentication of UE 202 and handle authentication-related functionality. The AUSF 242 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 240 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 242 may exhibit aNausf service-based interface.

[0081] The AMF 244 may allow other functions of the 5GC 240 to communicate with the UE 202 and the RAN 204 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 202. The AMF 244 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 202), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF -related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 244 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 202 and the SMF 246, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 244 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 202 and an SMSF. AMF 244 may interact with the AUSF 242 and the UE 202 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 244 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 204 and the AMF 244; and the AMF 244 may be a termination point of NAS (Nl) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 244 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 202 over an N3 IWF interface.

[0082] The SMF 246 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 248 and AN 208); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 248 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 244 over N2 to AN 208; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 202 and the data network 236. [0083] The UPF 248 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-

RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnecting to data network 236, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 248 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 248 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.

[0084] The NSSF 250 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 202. The NSSF 250 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs if needed. The NSSF 250 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 202, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 254. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 202 may be triggered by the AMF 244 with which the UE 202 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 250, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 250 may interact with the AMF 244 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 250 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0085] The NEF 252 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3 GPP network functions for the third party, internal exposure/re exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 260), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 252 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 252 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 260 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 252 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 252 may also receive information from other NFs based on the exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 252 as structured data, or a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 252 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 252 may exhibit a Nnef service-based interface.

[0086] The NRF 254 may support service discovery functions, receive

NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 254 also maintains information on available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during the execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 254 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.

[0087] The PCF 256 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support a unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 256 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 258. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 256 exhibits an Npcf service-based interface.

[0088] The UDM 258 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions and may store the subscription data of UE 202. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 258 and the AMF 244. The UDM 258 may include two parts, an application front end, and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 258 and the PCF 256, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 202) for the NEF 252. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR to allow the UDM 258, PCF 256, and NEF 252 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to the notification of relevant data changes in the UDR.

The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management, and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 258 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

[0089] The AF 260 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

[0090] In some embodiments, the 5GC 240 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 202 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 240 may select a UPF 248 close to the UE 202 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 248 to data network 236 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 260. In this way, the AF 260 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 260 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 260 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 260 may exhibit a Naf service-based interface.

[0091] The data network 236 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 238.

[0092] FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a wireless network 300 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 300 may include a UE 302 in wireless communication with AN 304. The UE 302 and AN 304 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein.

[0093] The UE 302 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 304 via connection 306. The connection 306 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies.

[0094] The UE 302 may include a host platform 308 coupled with a modem platform 310. The host platform 308 may include application processing circuitry 312, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 314 of the modem platform 310. The application processing circuitry 312 may run various applications for the UE 302 that source/sink application data. The application processing circuitry 312 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations

[0095] The protocol processing circuitry 314 may implement one or more layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 306. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 314 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

[0096] The modem platform 310 may further include digital baseband circuitry 316 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 314 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space- frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

[0097] The modem platform 310 may further include transmit circuitry

318, receive circuitry 320, RF circuitry 322, and RF front end (RFFE) 324, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 326. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 318 may include a digital -to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 320 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 322 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 324 may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry 318, receive circuitry 320, RF circuitry 322, RFFE 324, and antenna panels 326 (referred genetically as “transmit/receive components”) may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether the communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, may be disposed of in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

[0098] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 314 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.

[0099] A UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels

326, RFFE 324, RF circuitry 322, receive circuitry 320, digital baseband circuitry 316, and protocol processing circuitry 314. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 326 may receive a transmission from the AN 304 by receive- beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 326.

[00100] A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 314, digital baseband circuitry 316, transmit circuitry 318, RF circuitry 322, RFFE 324, and antenna panels 326. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 302 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 326.

[00101] Similar to the UE 302, the AN 304 may include a host platform 328 coupled with a modem platform 330. The host platform 328 may include application processing circuitry 332 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 334 of the modem platform 330. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 336, transmit circuitry 338, receive circuitry 340, RF circuitry 342, RFFE circuitry 344, and antenna panels 346. The components of the AN 304 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components of the UE 302. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN 304 may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[00102] FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 4 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 400 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 410, one or more memory/storage devices 420, and one or more communication resources 430, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 440 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 402 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 400. [00103] The processors 410 may include, for example, a processor 412 and a processor 414. The processors 410 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio- frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[00104] The memory/storage devices 420 may include a main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 420 may include but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[00105] The communication resources 430 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 404 or one or more databases 406 or other network elements via a network 408. For example, the communication resources 430 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi Fi® components, and other communication components.

[00106] Instructions 450 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 410 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 450 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 410 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory/storage devices 420, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 450 may be transferred to the hardware resources 400 from any combination of the peripheral devices 404 or the databases 406. Accordingly, the memory of processors 410, the memory/storage devices 420, the peripheral devices 404, and the databases 406 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media. [00107] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components outlined in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as outlined in the example sections below. For example, baseband circuitry associated with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, satellite, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.

[00108] The term “application” may refer to a complete and deployable package, environment to achieve a certain function in an operational environment. The term “ AI/ML application” or the like may be an application that contains some artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) models and application-level descriptions. In some embodiments, an AI/ML application may be used for configuring or implementing one or more of the disclosed aspects.

[00109] The term “machine learning” or “ML” refers to the use of computer systems implementing algorithms and/or statistical models to perform a specific task(s) without using explicit instructions but instead relying on patterns and inferences. ML algorithms build or estimate mathematical model(s) (referred to as “ML models” or the like) based on sample data (referred to as “training data,” “model training information,” or the like) to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform such tasks.

Generally, an ML algorithm is a computer program that learns from experience with respect to some task and some performance measure, and an ML model may be any object or data structure created after an ML algorithm is trained with one or more training datasets. After training, an ML model may be used to make predictions on new datasets. Although the term “ML algorithm” refers to different concepts than the term “ML model,” these terms as discussed herein may be used interchangeably for the present disclosure.

[00110] The term “machine learning model,” “ML model,” or the like may also refer to ML methods and concepts used by an ML-assisted solution. An “ML-assisted solution” is a solution that addresses a specific use case using ML algorithms during operation. ML models include supervised learning (e.g., linear regression, k-nearest neighbor (KNN), decision tree algorithms, support machine vectors, Bayesian algorithm, ensemble algorithms, etc.) unsupervised learning (e.g., K-means clustering, principal component analysis (PCA), etc.), reinforcement learning (e.g., Q-learning, multi-armed bandit learning, deep RL, etc.), neural networks, and the like. Depending on the implementation a specific ML model could have many sub-models as components and the ML model may train all sub-models together. Separately trained ML models can also be chained together in an ML pipeline during inference. An “ML pipeline” is a set of functionalities, functions, or functional entities specific for an ML-assisted solution; an ML pipeline may include one or several data sources in a data pipeline, a model training pipeline, a model evaluation pipeline, and an actor.

The “actor” is an entity that hosts an ML-assisted solution using the output of the ML model inference). The term “ML training host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the training of the model. The term “ML inference host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the model during inference mode (which includes both the model execution as well as any online learning if applicable). The ML-host informs the actor about the output of the ML algorithm, and the actor decides for an action (an “action” is performed by an actor as a result of the output of an ML-assisted solution). The term “model inference information” refers to information used as an input to the ML model for determining inference(s); the data used to train an ML model and the data used to determine inferences may overlap, however, “training data” and “inference data” refer to different concepts.

[00111] FIG. 5 illustrates a reference diagram of an IAB architecture, in accordance with some aspects. Referring to FIG. 5, the IAB architecture 500 can include a core network (CN) 502 coupled to an IAB donor node 503. The IAB donor node 503 can include control unit control plane (CU-CP) function 504, control unit user plane (CU-UP) function 506, other functions 508, and distributed unit (DU) functions 510 and 512. The DU function 510 can be coupled via wireless backhaul links to IAB nodes 514 and 516. The DU function 512 is coupled via a wireless backhaul link to IAB node 518. IAB node

514 is coupled to a UE 520 via a wireless access link, and IAB node 516 is coupled to IAB nodes 522 and 524. The IAB node 522 is coupled to UE 528 via a wireless access link. The IAB node 518 is coupled to UE 526 via a wireless access link.

[00112] Each of the IAB nodes illustrated in FIG. 5 can include a mobile termination (MT) function and a DU function. The MT function can be defined as a component of the mobile equipment and can be referred to as a function residing on an IAB node that terminates the radio interface layers of the backhaul Uu interface toward the IAB-donor or other IAB-nodes.

[00113] FIG. 5 shows a reference diagram for IAB in a standalone mode, which contains one IAB donor 503 and multiple IAB nodes (e.g., 514, 516, 518, 522, and 524). The IAB donor 503 is treated as a single logical node that comprises a set of functions such as gNB-DU, gNB-CU-CP 504, gNB-CU-UP 506, and potentially other functions 508. In deployment, the IAB donor 503 can be split according to these functions, which can all be either collocated or non- collocated as allowed by 3GPP NG-RAN architecture. IAB-related aspects may arise when such a split is exercised. In some aspects, some of the functions presently associated with the IAB-donor may eventually be moved outside of the donor in case it becomes evident that they do not perform IAB-specific tasks. [00114] FIG. 6 illustrates a central unit (CU) - distributed unit (DU) split and signaling in an IAB architecture 600, in accordance with some aspects. Referring to FIG. 6, the IAB architecture 600 includes an IAB donor 601, a parent IAB node 603, an IAB node 605, a child IAB node 607, and a child UE 609. The IAB donor 601 includes a CU function 602 and a DU function 604. The parent IAB node 603 includes a parent MT (P-MT) function 606 and a parent DU (P-DU) function 608. The IAB node 605 includes an MT function 610 and a DU function 612. The child IAB node 607 includes a child MT (C- MT) function 614 and a child DU (C-DU) function 616.

[00115] As illustrated in FIG. 6, RRC signaling can be used for communication between the CU function 602 of the IAB donor 601 and the MT functions 606, 610, and 614, as well as between the CU function 602 and the child UE (C-UE) 609. Additionally, FI access protocol (Fl-AP) signaling can be used for communication between the CU function 602 of the IAB donor 601 and the DU functions of the parent IAB node 603 and the IAB node 605.

[00116] IAB resource allocation techniques. [00117] In some aspects, in an IAB network 600, an IAB node 605 can connect to its parent node (an IAB donor 601 or another IAB node such as a parent IAB node 603) through parent backhaul (BH) link, as well as connect to a child UE 609 through child access (AC) link, and connect to a child IAB node 607 through a child BH link, as illustrated in FIG. 6.

[00118] In some aspects, the central unit (CU)/distributed unit (DU) split can be leveraged where each IAB node holds a DU function and an MT function. The MT function can be used to connect the IAB node 605 to its parent IAB node 603 or the IAB donor 601 like a UE. The DU function can be used for communication between the IAB node 605 and UEs (e.g., 609) and MTs of child IAB nodes (e.g., 614 of node 607) like a base station. Signaling between the MTs on an IAB node or UEs and the CU on the IAB donor uses RRC protocol while signaling between DU on an IAB node and the CU on the IAB donor uses Fl-AP protocol.

[00119] An example of the IAB CU/DU split architecture and signaling is illustrated in FIG. 6, where MT and DU in the parent IAB node 603 are indicated as P-MT/P-DU; MT and DU in the child IAB node are indicated as C- MT/C-DU, and the child UE 609 is indicated as C-UE.

[00120] In some aspects, regarding a time-domain resource, and from an MT/UE point-of-view, downlink/uplink/flexible (D/U/F) time resource can be indicated for the parent link as in Rel-15 specifications.

[00121] In some aspects, an IAB node 605 can use Rel-15 NR design for semi-static time-domain resource allocation (D/U/F time-domain resource indication), which can be done centrally at the CU 602 and signaled to MTs/UEs via RRC signaling. For example, in FIG. 6, the D/U/F time resource indicated from CU 602 to MT 610 via RRC signaling will be used for the parent BH link; the D/U/F time resource indicated from CU 602 to C-MT 614 via RRC signaling will be used for child BH link between nodes 607 and 605; and the D/U/F time resource indicated from the CU 602 to C-UE 609 via RRC signaling will be used for the child AC link between the C-UE 609 and node 605.

[00122] In some embodiments, the disclosed techniques can be used in connection with a UE, a base station, or another computing node using the configurations discussed in connection with FIGS. 1 A-6. [00123] FIG. 7 illustrates diagram 700 of a customer premises network (CPN) using a premises radio access station (PRAS) configured for communication with a 5G network, in accordance with some aspects.

[00124] In some aspects, enhancement of residential 5G network can be configured to support the following enhancements for indoor small base stations.

[00125] In some aspects, disclosed techniques can be used to improve the use of indoor small base stations in 5G residential use cases and determine the applicability for use with indoor small base stations in 5G residential use cases of concepts like private slices, SNPN, CAG as specified for non-public networks. The indoor small base station can be replaced with Premises Radio Access Station (PRAS) for supporting new service requirements.

[00126] In some aspects, an enhanced residential gateway (eRG) connecting to a 5G network can be configured to act as a gateway for providing 5G connectivity to its associated entities, e.g., UEs, non-3GPP devices, and PRAS.

[00127] In some aspects, the disclosed techniques can consider an operator acting as an identity provider motivated by user identity and authentication framework. A framework may be introduced to enable support of federated identity management (FIM) in the operator’s 5G network for different data network domains in the clouds, PIN, and Customer Premises Network (CPN) in a residential environment connected with 5G network. By regarding PIN or residential network connected with 5G network as data network domains, the operator acting as an identity provider can enhance the security of the PIN or residential network connected with 5G network by user authentication, service authorization, and access control.

[00128] In some aspects, the disclosed techniques may be used in connection with a use case that illustrates the need to protect the weak link between (off-the-shelf) PRAS (assuming untrusted) and an eRG based on user identification and authentication (UIA) framework. In some aspects, a 5G system can enable support to ensure the secure end-to-end connectivity from UEs connected to (off-the-shelf) PRAS (with or without a 3GPP subscription) connected to an eRG and the 5G network. [00129] The disclosed techniques can include service requirements and solutions in 5G system to enable identification, authentication, and authorization for the (off-the-shelf) PRAS, in which the solutions include: Solution #0: use case and service requirements; Solution #1: PRAS operation configuration and high-level procedure for enabling a PRAS for operation and control by the 5G network; Solution #2: the PRAS operation configuration provisioning, PRAS operation authorization update, and revocation procedures. Based on tethering connection between the eRG and the PRAS using non-3GPP defined technologies, e.g. Wi-Fi, or wireline, the disclosed techniques can be used for enabling the support for the off-the-shelf PRAS for the following use cases: [00130] Case-A:

[00131] (a) The eRG is the trusted 3GPP device with a 3GPP subscription.

[00132] (b) The associated/tethered entity of the eRG is a PRAS with a

3GPP subscription from the same HPLMN of the eRG. [00133] (c) The PRAS is a 3GPP device, which is with 5G capability for accessing the 5G network via connected/tethered eRG based on UE behind RG based on untrusted non-3GPP access.

[00134] Case-B: the associated/tethered entity is a PRAS without a 3GPP subscription: [00135] (a) The eRG is the trusted 3GPP device with a 3GPP subscription.

[00136] (b) The associated entity of the eRG is a PRAS without a 3GPP subscription.

[00137] (c) The PRAS is a non-3GPP device.

[00138] In some aspects, to ensure providing the secure connectivity for UEs connected to 5G network via (off-the-shelf) PRAS behind eRG, this use case illustrates the need to have 5G system support for identification, authentication, and authorization of (off-the-shelf) Premises Radio Access

Stations. The use case is to ensure that there is a 3GPP mechanism to protect the weak link between (off-the-shelf) PRAS (assuming untrusted) and the eRG. The disclosed techniques also include a use case that enables a secure mechanism to remotely provision profiles for PRAS based on the remote provisioning process

(RPP). In some aspects, the eRG is the trusted 3GPP device with 3GPP subscriptions. In some aspects, the associated/tethered entity of the eRG is a PRAS without a 3GPP subscription. Instead, the eRG subscriptions are enabled for one or more multiple connected/tethered PRAS(es). In some aspects, the PRAS is with 5G capability for accessing the 5G network via connected/tethered eRG based on UE behind RG based on untrusted non-3GPP access. [00139] The disclosed techniques provide solutions (e.g., solutions 7-8) for enabling PRAS to act as an IAB node connected to the gNB as an IAB donor with/without eRG with another collocated PRAS as intermediate IAB node after the remote provisioning for the required PRAS operation configuration.

[00140] The disclosed techniques can be based on one or more of the following assumptions:

[00141] (a) An (off-the-shelf) Premises Radio Access Stations (PRAS) is not provided by the operator and thus considered as untrusted devices for the operator’s network.

[00142] (b) Customer Premises Network (CPN): a network located within a premise (e.g. a residence, office, or shop), which is owned, installed, and/or (at least partially) configured by the customer of a public network operator.

[00143] (c) Evolved Residential Gateway (eRG): a gateway between the public operator network (fixed/mobile/cable) and a customer premises network within a residence, office, or shop. [00144] (d) Premises Radio Access Station (PRAS): a base station installed at a customer premises network primarily for use within a residence, office, or shop.

[00145] (e) IoT device: a type of UE or non-3GPP device which is dedicated to a set of specific use cases or services and which is allowed to make use of certain features restricted to this type of UEs. An IoT device may be optimized for the specific needs of services and applications being executed (e.g., smart home/city, smart utilities, e-Health, and smart wearables). Some IoT devices are not intended for human-type communications.

[00146] The disclosed techniques can include the following solutions. [00147] (A) Solution #0: Use Case and Service Requirements.

[00148] (B) Solution #1: Service Requirements. [00149] The following use case can be considered: [00150] The eRG is the trusted 3GPP device with 3GPP subscriptions. The associated/tethered entity of the eRG is a PRAS without a 3GPP subscription. The PRAS is with 5G capability for accessing the 5G network via connected/tethered eRG based on UE behind RG based on untrusted non-3GPP access.

[00151] In some aspects, to ensure providing the secure connectivity for UEs connected to 5G network via (off-the-shelf) PRAS behind eRG, this use case illustrates the need to have 5G system support for identification, authentication, and authorization of (off-the-shelf) Premises Radio Access Stations.

[00152] In some aspects, the present use case is to ensure that there is a 3GPP mechanism to protect the weak link between (off-the-shelf) PRAS (assuming untrusted) and the eRG.

[00153] Service requirements. [00154] The following service requirements are proposed to enable 5G network support for (off-the-shelf) PRAS with or without 3GPP subscriptions:

[00155] In some aspects, the evolved residential gateway is a trusted 3GPP device with 5G subscriptions provided by the network operator.

[00156] In some aspects, the 5G network operators shall be able to provide eRG subscriptions for allowing one or multiple PRAS(es) connected to it.

[00157] In some aspects, the 5G system may provide mechanisms to create an identity for off-the-shelf PRAS without 3GPP subscription and store profiles for the PRAS connected to an eRG. [00158] In some aspects, the 5G system may provide mechanisms to identify, authenticate, and authorize an (off-the-shelf) PRAS connected to an eRG based on the stored PRAS profile when it first connects to the 5G network. [00159] In some embodiments, the 5G system may provide mechanisms to provision configuration with operation settings and authorization to an authenticated and authorized (off-the-shelf) PRAS connected to an eRG based on the stored PRAS profile and eRG’s subscription. [00160] In some aspects, the 5G system may be able to update or revoke authorization of the PRAS configuration for an (off-the-shelf) PRAS connected to an eRG.

[00161] In some aspects, the 5G system may be able to update PRAS configuration for operational settings for an (off-the-shelf) PRAS connected to an eRG.

[00162] (C) Solution #2: eRG Subscription for Associated/Tethered Entity as PRAS.

[00163] For an eRG with 3GPP subscription, to enable 5G network support of federated identity management (FIM) for the eRG’ s associated/tethered entity without a 3GPP subscription, e.g. PRAS, the eRG’s subscription can include the following:

[00164] (a) Subscription for 5G enabled FIM and authentication for an associated entity without 3GPP subscriptions, e.g. PRAS. [00165] Further, to enable the 5 G support for tethering connection between the eRG and the PRAS, the eRG may have the following 3 GPP subscription for providing 5G connectivity to the associated/tethered PRAS for it to access the 5G network via the eRG:

[00166] (a) Subscription to provide IP connection for associated/tethered entity as PRAS without 3GPP subscription.

[00167] (a.1) Authorization for tethering with PRAS which is identifiable by the 5G network.

[00168] (a.2) Authorization of a maximum number of tethering PRAS(es).

[00169] (a.3) Authorization of maximum total bandwidth of tethering PRAS(es).

[00170] The above techniques may cover the case that the eRG and the PRAS are collocated in that the eRG and the PRAS are also regarded as connected via tethering connection.

[00171] For this tethering authorization in eRG 3GPP subscription, the following information can be further indicated in the eRG’s subscription for defining the applicable 5G features to the tethered PRAS: [00172] (a) Authorized tethering PRAS identified by the user identity and allowed user identifiers.

[00173] (b) Authorized 5G services, e.g. eMBB, V2X, URLLC, Proximity

Service, MBMS, etc. [00174] (c) Authorized PDU session parameters and access technologies

(3GPP access, non-3GPP access, or both), e.g. combination list of DNN, S- NSSAI, and access technologies.

[00175] (d) Authorized validity parameters, e.g., validity time/duration, validity location. [00176] (e) Authorized maximum bandwidth of one tethering PRAS.

[00177] (f) Authorized network and radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, and network slices for RAN slices for serving UE over NR Uu. [00178] For the user profile of the PRAS, the following information can be indicated: [00179] (a) User Identifier.

[00180] (b) Authorized tethering eRG identified by the eRG ID.

[00181] (c) Authorized 5G services, e.g. eMBB, V2X, URLLC, Proximity

Service, MBMS, etc.

[00182] (d) Authorized PDU session parameters and access technologies (3GPP access, non-3GPP access, or both), e.g. combination list of DNN, S- NSSAI, and access technologies.

[00183] (e) Authorized validity parameters, e.g. validity time/duration, validity location.

[00184] (f) Authorized maximum bandwidth of one tethering PRAS. [00185] (g) Authorized network and radio resources, e.g., carrier frequencies and network slices for RAN slices for serving UE over NR Uu. [00186] (D) Solution #2.1.

[00187] Following solution #2, the FIM is a new 5G network capability that supports the following features: [00188] (a) Provide identity for the associated entity of a trusted 3GPP device with a 3GPP subscription while the associated entity does not have a 3GPP subscription.

[00189] (b) Store the profile for the associated entity of a trusted 3GPP device with a 3GPP subscription.

[00190] (c) Authenticate the associated entity based on its profile configuration including credentials, e.g. identifier, security keys, certificate, passwords, etc.

[00191] In some aspects, the 5G network can provide identity for each PRAS, i.e. PRAS ID, which is a globally unique number (e.g. serial number of the PRAS), an associated entity, and configure with one or more PRAS profiles with different operation settings. Each PRAS profile configuration includes the following information:

[00192] (a) PRAS identifier that can identify the associated profile for a PRAS as an associated entity.

[00193] (b) PRAS operation settings and parameters including network parameters (e.g. QoS parameters), specific network and radio resources (e.g. carrier frequencies, network slices settings for RAN slices), shared network settings with allowed PLMNs list, operator’s setting for UAC (unified access control), etc.

[00194] (c) Required Capabilities of the eRG supports for device (its associated entity) authentication.

[00195] (d) Information regarding authentication/authorization policies for the PRAS. [00196] (e) Enabled specific service settings for supporting the 5G network services at the PRAS, e.g., location-based service, multicast, and broadcast services, etc.

[00197] In some aspects, a PRAS or AMF in the 5G network can authenticate the PRAS ID based on the requested one or more PRAS identified s) for the PRAS ID.

[00198] In some aspects, the PRAS can indicate its PRAS ID and one or more valid PRAS identifiers in the registration request procedures via the eRG, and the 5G network can determine which PRAS identifier is the accepted registration and the applied PRAS profile for the PRAS ID.

[00199] For example, the PRAS can indicate its PRAS ID and one PRAS identifier for the PRAS registration, and the AMF in the 5G network can determine whether to accept the registration based on both the PRAS identifier and the PRAS ID. If the request is not accepted by the 5G network, the 5G network can reject the PRAS registration with a proper cause value and optionally indicate the preferred PRAS identifier for its corresponding PRAS configuration profile. [00200] (E) Solution #3 : Remote Provisioning Process Triggered by the

5G Network.

[00201] Following solution #2, FIG. 8 shows the high-level procedure to enable a PRAS without 3GPP subscription for operation and control by the 5G network based on the eRG subscription for the tethering PRAS (solution #2). [00202] FIG. 8 illustrates diagram 800 of a high-level procedure to enable

(off-the-shelf) PRAS connecting to an eRG for operation and control by the 5G network, in accordance with some aspects. The following is a brief description of the illustrated steps.

[00203] Step 1 : an eRG with 3GPP subscription provided by Network Operator-W registers and connects to the 5G network successfully.

[00204] Step 2: This step is needed for PRAS without a 3 GPP subscription to allow the 5G network to enable the PRAS, an associated entity of the eRG which is a trusted device with a 3GPP subscription, for its control and management. [00205] Step 2a: Manual configuration: A human user logs on to its account on Operator-W’ s portal to add a Premises Radio Access Station. The 5G network allocates an identity for the PRAS and creates a profile for the PRAS which indicates the association with a trusted 3 GPP device, eRG.

[00206] Step 2b: Automatic configuration: when firstly turning on the PRAS, the PRAS connects to an application server via an eRG’s 5G connectivity. The application server requests the application function (AF) for adding the PRAS as an associated entity of the eRG via a standardized API over the N33 interface between the NEF and the AF. [00207] Step 2c: The 5G network creates an identity for the PRAS (PRAS ID) and creates one or more profiles for the PRAS and each profile contains the following information:

[00208] (a) PRAS identifier. [00209] (b) Indication for the association with the trusted 3 GPP device, i.e., eRG identified by its 3GPP identity, e.g. IMSI, SUPI, SUSI, or an FQDN. [00210] (c) Credentials of the PRAS including PRAS identifier, security keys, password, etc.

[00211] (d) PRAS operation authorization, e.g. token, allowed PLMN(s) list, and validity time for authorized PRAS operation.

[00212] (e) Operator’s policy for authentication and authorization based on the capability of the associated entity and eRG.

[00213] (f) Operator’s policy for PRAS operation.

[00214] Step 2d: After successfully adding the PRAS as an associated entity of the eRG and creating the PRAS profile, the 5G network initiates UE configuration update procedure towards the eRG, in which the configuration is for the associated entity (PRAS) and the configuration contains the following information:

[00215] (a) PRAS credentials. [00216] (b) the operator’s policy for the authentication and authorization to this PRAS.

[00217] Step 3: for PRAS without 3GPP subscription, the operator’s policy indicates that both authentication and authorization are required, the eRG registers the associated PRAS to the 5G network in a NAS request message indicating PRAS’s credentials based on the PRAS profile, e.g. via a new NAS request message or the registration update request, indicating the followings information:

[00218] (a) PRAS’s credentials including the PRAS identifier based on

PRAS profile for the associated entity, and required security keys, certificates, or passwords.

[00219] (b) The indication for requesting the PRAS configuration update with authorization. [00220] (c) The active status of the PRAS.

[00221] In some aspects, the device authentication of the PRAS without a 3GPP subscription is used by the 5G network to ensure the authenticity of the PRAS which can use the PRAS authorization and apply the operator’s configuration for PRAS operation to serve the UEs.

[00222] Step 4: Based on the request message from the eRG in step 3 and stored profiles of the PRAS, Operator-W’s 5G network identifies PRAS and conduct the following actions based on the stored operator’s policy for the PRAS: [00223] (a) For device authentication: the AMF in the 5G network receives registration requests for PRAS and the AMF in the 5G network sends an authentication request to AUSF to perform device authentication based on PRAS ID, indicated PRAS identifier for the stored PRAS profile, and the PRAS credentials. [00224] (b) For PRAS operation authorization: the AMF in the 5G network also checks the authorization of the PRAS from the AUSF. If the authorization is confirmed, the AMF in the 5G network requests its associated configuration function, e.g., PCF or a network function capable of PRAS configuration, for initiating the PRAS configuration update procedure. [00225] Step 5: the 5G network initiates profile downloading preparation process towards provisioning server, e.g., SM-DP+ (proxy), SM-DS (default server) (e.g., based on GSMA SGP.22-RSP technical spec., and 5: SGP.21 RSP architecture).

[00226] Step 6: the 5G network triggers the remote provisioning process towards PRAS via eRG.

[00227] Step 7: After successful installation of the provisioned profile, the PRAS enables its 5G capabilities and reconnects to the 5G network via eRG based on the UE behind RG over untrusted non-3GPP access procedure in TS 23.316. [00228] In some aspects, the configuration function in the registered 5G network can update and revoke PRAS configurations with operation settings and authorizations to the PRAS via eRG with the following information: [00229] (a) PRAS operation authorization, e.g. token, and validity time for PRAS operation.

[00230] (b) PRAS operation authorization for allowed PLMN(s) list.

[00231] (c) PRAS operation settings for network and radio resources, e.g., carrier frequencies, network slices settings for RAN slices, RAN sharing for the list of supported PLMN IDs, UAC (unified access control), TAC list, and each item including TAC (Tracking Area Code) and PLMN support list (including PLMN ID, Slice support list, NPN support, Extended Slice Support List), etc.

[00232] (d) Information regarding required 5G service capabilities at the RAN, e.g. LCS, MBMS.

[00233] In some aspects, the PRAS may update its active operation status to the configuration function in the 5G network via the eRG by indicating its active operation status.

[00234] Once this process is complete, Premises Radio Access Stations may be re successfully authenticated, authorized, and connected to Operator-W's network via eRG and are now fully operational.

[00235] In some aspects, the 5G network ensures that the E2E connection from the 5G core network to the UE connected to PRAS behind eRG is secure because both (off-the-shelf) PRAS connected via the operator’s eRG are authenticated, authorized, and managed by the operator.

[00236] (F) Solution #3.1.

[00237] Following solution #3 (step 1 to step 6), this solution provides the example to invoke remote provisioning procedure (RPP) for the PRAS.

[00238] The following options are different based on the following factors:

[00239] (a) On-boarding methods for PRAS registration procedure to 5G network (for step 3-5 in Figure Y):

[00240] (a.1) via eRG’s user plane 5G connection, i.e., eRG acts as a

Layer 3 gateway UE and the endpoint of the PRAS’s connection is at the 5G network (optionl). The PRAS acts as a 5G capable for non-3GPP access. [00241] (a.2) via eRG’s signaling plane 5G connection, i.e., eRG acts as a

Layer 2 gateway UE and the endpoint of the PRAS’s connection is at the eRG. (option 2). The PRAS acts as a non-3GPP device.

[00242] (b) 5G network triggers remote provisioning process (RPP) depending on the PRAS’s registration procedure (for step 6).

[00243] (c) The RPP can be triggered with or without an activation code issued by the operator. In the former case, the activation code can be provided from the operator to the PRAS directly or via eRG. (for step 6).

[00244] (c.1) For example, the 5G network can connect the PRAS to the configured provisioning server based on the activation code stored in the user profile of the PRAS.

[00245] (c.2) For example, the PRAS can connect to the configured provisioning service based on activation code sent by the 5G network:

[00246] (c.2.1) via registration accept message to the PRAS, in this case, the PRAS can be a 5G capable device (option 1).

[00247] (c.2.2) via eRG. (option 2). For example, the 5G network notifies eRG for triggering RPR for its associated entity of PRAS and indicates an activation code in which the eRG triggers the RPP of the PRAS by sending the activation code to PRAS using non-3GPP specified connection, e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi direct.

[00248] Option 1 : eRG as gateway UE for the PRAS’s registration (based on TS23.316).

[00249] The on-boarding procedure is based on PRAS’s requests via eRG as gateway UE to the 5G network. [00250] The RPP is based on the eRG’s 5G connection.

[00251] FIG. 9 illustrates diagram 900 of a high-level procedure to configure eRG as gateway UE for the PRAS’ registration, in accordance with some aspects. The following is a brief description of the steps illustrated in FIG. 9. [00252] Step 0: eRG registers to the 5G network and established a PDU session. PRAS connects with the UE-1 using non-3GPP defined access technologies, e.g. Bluetooth, WLAN direct access. [00253] Step 1 : Based on the configuration of authorizations for sharing the 3GPP subscription with authorized PRAS, the user of eRG initiates the sharing 3GPP subscription procedure and the eRG sends a message to PRAS for triggering the 5G registration. This step is out of the scope of 3 GPP. [00254] Step 2: PRAS connecting to eRG sends registration request message indicating its PRAS ID and user identifier to the 5G network via gateway UE based on the registration procedure for UE behind RG using untrusted non-3GPP access in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 23.316. [00255] Step 3 : Based on the PRAS ID, user identifier and the corresponding user profile for PRAS for enabling eRG’s 3GPP subscription for PRAS, the AMF checks the following authorization in eRG subscription:

[00256] (a) if PRAS is an authorized associated entity of the eRG;

[00257] (b) if eRG has a valid 3GPP subscription for sharing to its associated entity, e.g. PRAS; and [00258] (c) if PRAS is authorized in eRG’s 3GPP subscription for tethering connection with PRAS; the authorization confirmation may be indicated for requesting eRG authorization confirmation in step 4.

[00259] In some aspects, if the PRAS is with valid associated entity authorization and eRG’s 3GPP subscription for PRAS authorization, the AMF initiates the remote provisioning process in steps 5-7. Otherwise, the AMF rejects the registration request and indicates the proper rejection cause to PRAS. The rejection cause can include:

[00260] (a) authorization failure as an associated entity of the eRG;

[00261] (b) no valid subscription of the eRG for the 3GPP subscription of tethering PRAS; and

[00262] (c) authorization expires for using a shared subscription from eRG.

[00263] Step 4: The AMF can notify eRG about PRAS’s registration attempt for eRG’s 3GPP subscription for PRAS. This step can be used to get authorization confirmation from eRG if the user profile of the PRAS indicates the authorization confirmation is needed to notify eRG about the registration status before initiating the remote provision process for the PRAS indicated in eRG’s subscription for PRAS.

[00264] Step 5: the 5G network initiates profile downloading preparation process towards provisioning server, e.g. SM-DP+ (proxy), SM-DS (default server), based on [4: GSMA SGP.22-RSP technical spec., and 5: SGP.21 RSP architecture]

[00265] Step 6: the 5G network sends a registration accept message to PRAS via eRG in response to the registration request message sent in Step 2; the registration accept message contains an optional activation code for RPP. In addition, the 5G network may indicate to eRG to establish required PDU session information for preparing PRAS’s remote provisioning process, e.g. DNN, S- NSSAI.

[00266] Step 7: PRAS initiates the remote provisioning process by conducting the following: [00267] (a) Establishes a PDU session with indicated DNN, S-NSSAI via eRG. The AMF selects a specific SMF configured for RPP and the SMF can establish a specific PDU session for RPP.

[00268] (b) The RPP among the PRAS, 5G network, and provisioning server is based on the interfaces and protocols defined in GSMA SGP.22. [00269] (c) During RPP, the PRAS indicates its EID if it has been configured by the operator during user identification creation in solution #3. If not, the PRAS indicates its IMEI.

[00270] Option 2: eRG invokes the RPP for the PRAS.

[00271] The onboarding procedure is based on eRG’s requests to the 5G network. The RPP is based on the eRG’s 5G connection.

[00272] FIG. 10 illustrates diagram 1000 of a high-level procedure to configure eRG to invoke a remote provisioning process (RPP) for the PRAS, in accordance with some aspects. The following is a brief description of the steps illustrated in FIG. 10. [00273] Step 0: same as Step 0 in FIG. 9. [00274] Step 1 : Based on the configuration of authorizations for eRG’s subscription for PRAS, eRG retrieves PRAS ID, user identifier information from tethered PRAS based on the connection established in step Ob.

[00275] Step 2: eRG sends a message for enabling its 3GPP subscription for PRAS indicating PRAS ID, user identifier of the UE-2.

[00276] Step 3: same as Step 3 in FIG. 9.

[00277] Step 4: same as Step 5 in FIG. 9.

[00278] Step 5: the 5G network sends an accept message for service request enabling its 3GPP subscription for PRAS to eRG, which includes specific PDU session parameters (DNN, S-NSSAI), and optionally activation code for the RPP to PRAS.

[00279] Step 6: eRG indicates to the PRAS for triggering remote provisioning process for PRAS based on the connection established in step 0b, in which remote provisioning process container is provided. The remote provisioning container includes the following information if eRG received the info from the 5G network in Step 5:

[00280] (a) Specific PDU session parameters (DNN, S-NSSAI) for RPP;

[00281] (b) Activation code for RPP; and

[00282] (c) allowed access technologies for triggering registration with RPP, e g. 3GPP access or non-3GPP access.

[00283] Step 7: PRAS connecting to eRG sends registration request message indicating its PRAS ID and user identifier to the 5G network via eRG based on the registration procedure for UE behind RG using untrusted non-3GPP access in TS 23.316, and PDU session establishing request procedure for a specific DNN and S-NSSAI if receiving from eRG in Step 6, in which the specific PDU session is for the connection towards to the configured provisioning server based on information contained in activation code.

[00284] Using the specific PDU session, the RPP among the PRAS, 5G network, and provisioning server is based on the interfaces and protocols defined in GSMA SGP.22. [00285] During RPP, the PRAS indicates its EID if it has been configured by the operator during user identification creation in solution #2. If not, the PRAS indicates its IMEI.

[00286] (G) Solution #4. [00287] Following solution #3, after remote provisioning process (FIG. 8, steps 1-6), for PRAS registration and PRAS configuration update for an authenticated and authorized PRAS, there are two cases based on the network operators policies, which provides 3GPP subscriptions for an eRG and a PRAS connected to the eRG. In some aspects, the PRAS operation configuration provisioning procedure is executed in the following scenarios:

[00288] (a) before starting to serve UEs if the PRAS has no valid PRAS operation authorization information (as shown in solutions #2 - #3); or [00289] (b) when the PRAS already start operation for serving UEs and the connected eRG changes its registered PLMN and has no valid PRAS operation authorization information for the new registered PLMN.

[00290] (c) when the PRAS operation authorization expires.

[00291] In this solution, the followings configurations are applied (FIG. 8, step 7):

[00292] (a) the configuration function can be a PCF or a new network function for PRAS configuration.

[00293] (b) In the case of PCF, the eRG sends a NAS message to request the PRAS configuration. In this case, the UE Configuration Update procedure is used in step 2 to provide PRAS configuration. The procedure can refer to TS 23.502: 4.2.4, UE Configuration Update. [00294] (c) In the case of a new network function, e.g., Provisioning

Server/Proxy, a new interface is used between the eRG and the configuration function; a new request message is used to request for PRAS configuration, and a new response message is used to deliver PRAS configuration.

[00295] (c.1) The address of the PRAS configuration function is provisioned to the eRG as part of the eRG configuration if the eRG has a 3 GPP subscription to provide IP connection to an associated entity for PRAS. [00296] For enabling a PRAS connecting to 5G network via an eRG for operation and control by the 5G network, the 5G network provides PRAS operation configuration via eRG, in which the PRAS configuration includes the following information: [00297] (a) PRAS operation authorization, e.g. token, and validity time for PRAS operation;

[00298] (b) PRAS operation authorization for allowed PLMN(s) list;

[00299] (c) PRAS operation settings for network and radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, network slices settings for RAN slices, RAN sharing for the list of supported PLMN IDs, UAC (unified access control), TAC list, and each item including TAC (Tracking Area Code) and PLMN support list (including PLMN ID, Slice support list, NPN support, Extended Slice Support List), etc. [00300] (d) Information regarding required 5G service capabilities at the

RAN, e.g. LCS, MBMS. [00301] In some aspects, when the PRAS connects to the 5G network via eRG, the PRAS can send a NAS message for PRAS setup request or piggyback the PRAS setup request in the NAS message that is sent via the eRG and indicates its associated eRG ID. The message includes the following information:

[00302] (a) PRAS name.

[00303] (b) PRAS node ID.

[00304] (c) One or more PRAS identifiers.

[00305] (d) Supported RAT information.

[00306] (H) Solution #4.1.

[00307] After RPP, the eRG and PRAS are assumed to have 3 GPP subscriptions from the same network operator.

[00308] For a PRAS with a 3GPP subscription from the same PLMN of the eRG, the 5G network provides PRAS operation configuration via eRG, as shown in FIG. 11. [00309] FIG. 11 illustrates diagram 1100 of the PRAS operation configuration provisioning procedure where PRAS and eRG have 3GPP subscriptions from the same HPLMN provided by the same network operator, in accordance with some aspects. The following is a brief description of the steps illustrated in FIG. 11.

[00310] In some aspects, the configuration is retrieved and delivered using “over IP” mechanisms, and only IP connectivity provided by the eRG is required to allow the PRAS to access this Configuration Function in the 5G network via eRG.

[00311] Step 1 : the PRAS connects to the eRG which is with an IP connection to the 5G network.

[00312] Step 2: the eRG requests Configuration information for PRAS (identified by PRAS identifier) to a configuration function in the 5G network.

[00313] Step 3 : Configuration function at the serving PLMN requests for PRAS operation configuration information for the requested PRAS.

[00314] The PRAS operation configuration info provided to the PRAS applies to the serving PLMN and PLMNs determined by the HPLMN as Local PLMNs (e.g., based on the Serving PLMN) to be available to the PRAS. The PRAS stores the operation configuration obtained from this Configuration Function securely. If needed at any point the PRAS operation authorization can be revoked by the Configuration Function in Local PLMN or VPLMN or Configuration Function in the HPLMN. [00315] For eRG/PRAS non-roaming case: Configuration Function of

HPLMN requests for UDM for PRAS configuration for the PRAS identified by the PRAS Identifier. The PRAS configuration information is provided by the Configuration function to the eRG.

[00316] For eRG/PRAS roaming case: Based on PRAS identifier which contains information of Home PLMN ID of the PRAS, the Configuration

Function at registered VPLMN of the eRG requests for PRAS configuration for PRAS identified by PRAS identifier from configuration function at PRAS’s Home PLMN.

[00317] Step 4: the eRG delivers the PRAS configuration information to the PRAS.

[00318] Step 5: the PRAS installs the configuration information and stores the configuration. [00319] (I) Solution #4.2: Authorization Update.

[00320] Following solution #4, the allowed PLMNs list for PRAS operation authorization can be updated at any point by the UDM or the Configuration function. And the configuration function can be in HPLMN, VPLMN, or Local PLMN. The addition of the PLMN into the allowed PLMN list for PRAS operation authorization is triggered by UDM.

[00321] Before the PRAS operation authorization validity timer expires, the Configuration Function uses the PRAS operation Notification message to send the updated PRAS operation authorization to the PRAS connected to eRG immediately or waits for the next time communication with the Configuration Function per operator's policy.

[00322] UDM initiated the PRAS operation configuration update procedure as illustrated in FIG. 12. FIG. 12 illustrates a UDM initiated PRAS configuration update, in accordance with some aspects. A brief description of the steps in FIG. 12 is provided below.

[00323] Step 1 : UDM triggered subscription data updated notify message for PRAS operation to the HPLMN configuration function.

[00324] Step 2 (optional): HPLMN configuration function sends PRAS operation configuration update notification to the PRAS over a new interface or via NAS message, wherein the notification message indicating the PRAS as destination endpoint is sent from HPLMN Configuration function to VPLMN Configuration function and the VPLMN configuration function forwards the message to the AMF over NAS message or the new interface towards eRG. The eRG forwards the message to PRAS. [00325] Step 3 : the subscriber data update can be sent directly from UDM to the VPLMN configuration function (step 3a) or from the HPLMN configuration function to the VPLMN configuration function (step 3b).

[00326] Step 3a: HPLMN UDM sends insert subscriber (PRAS) data message (PRAS identifier, updated PRAS subscription data) with the updates of PRAS operation information and authorization to VPLMN Configuration function. [00327] Step 3b: HPLMN configuration function sends subscriber data update message (PRAS identifier, updated PRAS subscription data) to VPLMN Configuration function.

[00328] Step 4: the VPLMN configuration function sends a PRAS configuration update message indicating the PRAS as destination endpoint to eRG over a non-access stratum (NAS) message or the new interface towards eRG. The eRG forwards the message to PRAS.

[00329] (J) Solution #4.3: configuration update with PRAS operation authorization revocation. [00330] Example processing for the non-roaming case is illustrated in

FIG. 13. FIG. 13 illustrates the configuration function at HPLMN triggered PRAS operation authorization revocation (non-roaming), in accordance with some aspects. A brief description of the steps of FIG. 13 is provided below. [00331] Step 1: HPLMN configuration function triggered subscription data updated notification message for PRAS operation to the PRAS via eRG. In step lb, the PRAS may halt the operation for accepting new arrival UEs and start to direct the UE to other PRAS or gNB with a timer for releasing the RRC connection with the current PRAS. The UE may initiate cell re-selection procedure or wait until the timer expiration and the RRC connection is released. When the timer is expired, the RRC connection of the UE is released from the current PRAS.

[00332] Steps 2-3 : HPLMN configuration function sends PRAS operation configuration update notification to the UDM and eRG over a new interface or via NAS message, wherein the notification message indicating the PRAS as destination endpoint is sent from HPLMN Configuration function to eRG via the AMF over NAS message or the new interface towards eRG.

[00333] Step 4: The eRG forwards the message to PRAS.

[00334] Step 5: the PRAS stores configuration information for operation and enforce the configuration to apply new configuration settings or stop the operation due to authorization revocation.

[00335] Example processing for the roaming case is illustrated in FIG. 14. FIG. 14 illustrates VPLMN configuration function triggered PRAS operation authorization revocation (roaming), in accordance with some aspects. A brief description of the steps in FIG. 14 is provided below.

[00336] Step 1 : VPLMN configuration function triggered PRAS configuration updated notification message for PRAS operation to the PRAS via eRG. In step lb, the PRAS may halt the operation for accepting new arrival UEs and start to direct the UE to other PRAS or gNB with a timer for releasing the RRC connection with the current PRAS. The UE may initiate cell re-selection procedure or wait until the timer expiration and the RRC connection is released. When the timer is expired, the RRC connection of the UE is released from the current PRAS.

[00337] Steps 2-3 : VPLMN configuration function sends PRAS operation configuration update notification to the HPLMN configuration function and UDM.

[00338] Step 4: VPLMN configuration function sends PRAS configuration update message indicating the destinated endpoint as PRAS to eRG over a new interface or via NAS message, wherein the message sent from VPLMN Configuration function to eRG via the AMF over NAS message or the new interface towards eRG.

[00339] Step 5: The eRG forwards the message to PRAS. [00340] Step 6: the PRAS stores configuration information for operation and enforce the configuration to apply new configuration settings or stop the operation due to authorization revocation.

[00341] (K) Solution #5: example service flows.

[00342] Service flow example: [00343] (a) Pre-conditions.

[00344] Alicia got a promotion deal from her smartphone operator

Wallowa to upgrade her home network with a bundle package including one eRG and one PRAS. When receiving both devices, Alicia installed the eRG and PRAS on the second floor and connected both via wireline. Alicia powered on both devices. Both devices register to the 5G network and are provisioned with a configuration of operation settings and authorizations from the 5G network. Both eRG and the PRAS are up and running well to provide 5G coverage in Alicia’s home. [00345] Later, Alicia found there were still some coverage holes in the comer of the first floor so she decided to purchase one Premises Radio Access Stations (PRAS) off-the-shelf without 5G subscription, i.e., these devices were not provided by the operator and thus considered as untrusted devices for the operator’s network.

[00346] When returning home, Alicia logs on to her account on Operator Wallowa's portal to upgrade the eRG subscription for allowing connecting two PRAS(es) and then add this off-the-shelf Premises Radio Access Station by configuring the device settings manually or via scanning a QR code of the PRAS and associating it to the trusted 3 GPP device, eRG, which it will be connected with tethering connection.

[00347] Alicia installed the PRAS on the first floor and connected the PRAS to the 5G network via the operator’s eRG.

[00348] (b) Service Flows. [00349] (b.1) Operator Wallowa's 5G network creates an identity for the off-the-shelf PRAS devices and stores profiles of the PRAS based on Alicia’s inputs.

[00350] (b.2) Alicia turns on the PRAS and connects the PRAS to the eRG. The PRAS connects to the 5G network via the eRG. Based on the eRG subscription for the associated/tethered PRAS(es) and profiles of the off-the- shelf PRAS, Operator Wallowa’s 5G network identifies, authenticates, and authorizes the PRAS.

[00351] (b.3) The 5G network updates the PRAS profile and provisions configurations, e.g. PRAS operation authorization, operator’s settings, etc., to the PRAS via eRG.

[00352] (b.4) When the PRAS completes the installation, it reconnects to

Operator Wallowa's 5G network via eRG based on provisioned PRAS configuration.

[00353] (b.5) The Operator Wallowa's 5G network can identify the off- the-shelf PRAS, authenticate its identity, and authorize the PRAS operation based on a profile and configuration of the PRAS.

[00354] (b.6) Once this process is complete, the off-the-shelf Premises

Radio Access Station is successfully authenticated, authorized, configured, and connected to Operator Wallowa's network via eRG and are now fully operational.

[00355] (c) Post-conditions.

[00356] The 5G network ensures that the E2E connection from the 5G core network to the UE connected to the operator’ s PRAS and the off-the-self PRAS behind eRG are secure because both PRAS(es) are connected via operator’s eRG are authenticated, authorized, and managed by the operator.

[00357] Alicia can now connect her EIEs to both Premises Radio Access Stations. She is happy that she can speak to the phone when walking around the house with good 5G service coverage.

[00358] (L) Solution #6: the enabled 5G capability of the PRAS after remote provisioning.

[00359] Following solution #4 or #5, the PRAS enabled 5G capability and connects to the eRG or gNB based on the operator’s policy, provisioned PRAS profile configuration, eRG subscriptions, and eRG capability for the PRAS. There are the following options:

[00360] Option 1 : the tethering connection between PRAS and the eRG is via non-3GPP access technologies, e.g., Wi-Fi, or wireline.

[00361] FIG. 15 illustrates diagram 1500 of an overall architecture of gNB, eRG, and PRAS, in accordance with some aspects.

[00362] Option 2: the tethering connection between PRAS and the eRG is using 5G NR over NR Uu interface, i.e. IAB node connection between the PRAS and the eRG, whereby gNB acts as an IAB donor to the eRG collocated with another PRAS acting as an intermediate IAB node, and the PRAS is a terminating IAB node.

[00363] FIG. 16 illustrates diagram 1600 of an overall architecture of IAB with eRG and PRAS, in accordance with some aspects. As shown in FIG. 16:

[00364] (a) This option requires that both PRAS(es) (collocated with the eRG) supports IAB node capabilities. [00365] (b) Both PRAS(es) are configured with the following parameters:

[00366] (b.1) authorization of the tethering connection for using NR Uu between eRG and the PRAS; and [00367] (b.2) authorization of network and Radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, and network slices settings for RAN slices.

[00368] (M) Solution #6.1 : the enabled 5G capability of the PRAS connecting to IAB donor directly after remote provisioning. [00369] In some aspects, the following processing can be performed following solutions #4-5:

[00370] Option 3 : the connection between PRAS and the gNB is via IAB nodes connection, whereby the gNB acts as an IAB donor to the PRAS as terminating IAB node. The eRG does not act as an IAB node and the PRAS may connect to the same or different gNB as shown in FIG. 17.

[00371] FIG. 17 illustrates diagram 1700 of an overall architecture of eRG and PRAS as IAB nodes, in accordance with some aspects.

[00372] This option requires the PRAS to support IAB node capabilities and contains IAB node authorizations include: [00373] (a) authorization for using the radio resources of NR Uu, e.g. carrier frequencies, for connection between the PRAS and the IAB donor;

[00374] (b) authorization for network slices settings for RAN slices, for connection between the PRAS and the IAB donor; and

[00375] (c) in addition to the PRAS operation settings for the network and radio, e.g. carrier frequencies, for serving the UE over NR Uu (as indicated in Solution #2).

[00376] The eRG subscription for PRAS does not need to indicate the sharing of bandwidth for the tethering connection between eRG and the PRAS.

[00377] In some aspects, to enable the 5G support for direct connection between the gNB and the PRAS, the eRG needs to have the following subscription for sharing its 3GPP subscription with the PRAS and for the PRAS to directly connect to the gNR over NR Uu using 5G radio resources:

[00378] (a) Subscription to IP connection for a PRAS with IAB node capability and without 3GPP subscription: [00379] (a.1) Authorization for sharing 3GPP subscription of the eRG with the PRAS which is identifiable by the 5G network; [00380] (b) Authorization of maximum number of PRAS(es) sharing the

3GPP subscription; and

[00381] (c) Authorization of maximum total bandwidth of all PRAS(es) sharing the 3GPP subscription. [00382] (N) Solution #6.2.

[00383] Following solution #6.1, the eRG may have a 3GPP subscription that is authorized for a PRAS capable of LAB node sharing its 3GPP subscription (solution #6.1), and for a PRAS using tethering connection via eRG (solution #2 and solution #6). [00384] For PRAS acts as an LAB node and the gNB acts as an IAB donor, the related mechanisms follow TS 38.401 and TS 38.300.

[00385] (O) Solution #7.

[00386] Following solutions #6 and #6.1, based on eRG’s 3GPP subscription for subscription with PRAS(es), the following information can be further indicated in the eRG’s subscription for defining the applicable 5G features to each PRAS:

[00387] (a) Authorized PRAS identified by the user identity and allowed user identifiers.

[00388] (b) Authorized 5G services, e g. eMBB, V2X, URLLC, Proximity Service, MBMS, etc.

[00389] (c) Authorized PDU session parameters and access technologies

(3GPP access, non-3GPP access, or both), e.g. combination list of DNN, S- NSSAI, and access technologies.

[00390] (d) Authorized validity parameters, e.g. validity time/duration, validity location.

[00391] (e) Authorized maximum bandwidth of the PRAS.

[00392] (f) Authorized radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, and network slices for RAN slices for serving UEs over Uu.

[00393] (g) Authorized PRAS types for backhaul, e.g. connected to eRG via non-3GPP access (option 1), an IAB node connected to eRG via 3 GPP access (option2), and an IAB node directly connected to gNB as IAB donor (option3). [00394] (h) Authorized radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, and network slices for RAN slices for acting as LAB nodes connected to backhaul with eRG and gNB (option2) or gNB directly (option3) over NR Uu.

[00395] For the user profile of the PRAS, the following information can be indicated:

[00396] (a) User identifier.

[00397] (b) Authorized eRG identified by the eRG ID that shares 3 GPP subscription.

[00398] (c) Authorized 5G services, e g. eMBB, V2X, URLLC, Proximity Service, MBMS, etc.

[00399] (d) Authorized PDU session parameters and access technologies

(3GPP access, non-3GPP access, or both), e.g. combination list of DNN, S- NSSAI, and access technologies, for serving UEs.

[00400] (e) Authorized validity parameters, e.g. validity time/duration, validity location.

[00401] (f) Authorized maximum bandwidth of the PRAS authorized radio resources, e.g., carrier frequencies, and network slices for RAN slices for serving UEs over NR Uu.

[00402] (g) Authorized PRAS type for backhaul, e.g. connected to eRG via non-3GPP access (option #1), and IAB node connected to eRG via 3 GPP access (option #2), or an IAB node directly connected to gNB as IAB donor (option #3). Each PRAS can indicate only one type for backhaul.

[00403] (h) Authorized radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, and network slices for RAN slices for acting as IAB node connected to backhaul with eRG and gNB (option #2) or gNB directly (option #3) over NR Uu.

[00404] The following example processing can be performed using the disclosed techniques.

[00405] A method for triggering remote provisioning for a small base station for operation and control by the 5G network. In some aspects, the PRAS is capable of 5G capabilities without a 3GPP subscription and connected to an evolved residential gateway (eRG) via a tethering connection. In some aspects, the eRG is with a 3GPP subscription and provides IP connectivity for its associated/tethered entities including one or more PRAS(es). In some aspects, the eRG is considered as a trusted device when it is authenticated and authorized by the 5G network.

[00406] In some aspects, the 5G network identifies a Premises Radio Access Station without a 3GPP subscription connected to an authenticated and authorized eRG based on its configured PRAS ID.

[00407] Example processing associated with Solutions #6 and #2 (eRG subscriptions) includes the following. In some aspects, for an eRG with a 3 GPP subscription, to enable 5G network support of the eRG’s associated/tethered entity without a 3GPP subscription, e.g., PRAS, the eRG’s subscription can include a subscription for 5G enabled FIM and authentication for an associated entity without 3GPP subscriptions, e.g., PRAS.

[00408] In some aspects, the eRG may have a 3GPP subscription that is authorized for a PRAS capable of LAB node sharing its 3GPP subscription (solution #6.1), and for a PRAS using tethering connection via eRG (solution #2 and solution #6).

[00409] In some aspects, after remote provisioning of the PRAS configuration, the PRAS enabled 5G capability and connects to the eRG or gNB base station on the operator’s policy, provisioned PRAS profile configuration, eRG subscriptions, and eRG capability for the PRAS.

[00410] In some aspects, the tethering connection between PRAS and the eRG is via non-3GPP access technologies, e.g., Wi-Fi, or wireline. In some aspects, the tethering connection between PRAS and the eRG is using 5GNR over NR Uu interface, i.e., LAB node connection between the PRAS and the eRG, whereby gNB acts as an IAB donor to the eRG collocated with another PRAS acting as an intermediate IAB node, and the PRAS is a terminating IAB node.

[00411] In some aspects, both PRAS(es) (collocated with the eRG) supports IAB node capabilities and are configured with the following parameters: authorization of the tethering connection for using NR Uu between eRG and the PRAS, and Authorization of network and Radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, and network slices settings for RAN slices. [00412] In some aspects, the connection between PRAS and the gNB is via IAB nodes connection. In some aspects, the gNB acts as an IAB donor to the PRAS as terminating IAB node. In some aspects, the eRG is not acting as an IAB node and the PRAS may connect to the same or different gNB.

[00413] In some aspects, the PRAS supports IAB node capabilities and contains IAB node authorizations, in addition to the PRAS operation settings for the network and radio, e.g. carrier frequencies, for serving the UE over NR Uu, include: authorization for using the radio resources of NR Uu, e.g., carrier frequencies, for connection between the PRAS and the IAB donor; and authorization for network slices settings for RAN slices, for connection between the PRAS and the IAB donor.

[00414] In some aspects, the eRG subscription for PRAS does not need to indicate the sharing of bandwidth for the tethering connection between eRG and the PRAS.

[00415] In some aspects, to enable the 5G support for direct connection between the gNB and the PRAS, the eRG needs to have the following subscription for sharing its 3GPP subscription with the PRAS and for the PRAS to directly connect to the gNR over NR Uu using the following 5G radio resources: subscription to IP connection for a PRAS with IAB node capability and without a 3GPP subscription which includes the following information: authorization for sharing 3GPP subscription of the eRG with the PRAS which is identifiable by the 5G network; authorization of a maximum number of PRAS(es) sharing the 3GPP subscription; and authorization of maximum total bandwidth of all PRAS(es) sharing the 3GPP subscription.

[00416] Example processing in connection with solution #7 (eRG subscriptions for supporting PRAS as IAB node using NR Uu) includes the following. In some aspects, eRG’s 3GPP subscription for PRAS(es) further includes at least one of the following information for defining the applicable 5G features to each PRAS: authorized PRAS identified by the user identity and allowed user identifiers; authorized 5G services, e.g. eMBB, V2X, URLLC, Proximity Service, MBMS, etc.; authorized PDU session parameters and access technologies (3GPP access, non-3GPP access, or both), e.g., combination list of DNN, S-NSSAI, and access technologies; authorized validity parameters, e.g. validity time/duration, validity location; authorized maximum bandwidth of the PRAS; authorized radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, and network slices for RAN slices for serving UEs over Uu; authorized PRAS types for backhaul, e.g. connected to eRG via non-3GPP access (option 1), and IAB node connected to eRG via 3 GPP access (option 2), and an IAB node directly connected to gNB as IAB donor (option 3); and authorized radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, and network slices for RAN slices for acting as IAB nodes connected to backhaul with eRG and gNB (option2) or gNB directly (option3) over NR Uu.

[00417] In some aspects, the PRAS stores the user profile which includes at least one of the following information: a user identifier; an authorized eRG identified by the eRG ID that shares 3GPP subscription; an authorized 5G services, e.g. eMBB, V2X, URLLC, Proximity Service, MBMS, etc.; authorized PDU session parameters and access technologies (3 GPP access, non-3GPP access, or both), e.g., combination list of DNN, S-NSSAI, and access technologies, for serving UEs; authorized validity parameters, e.g. validity time/duration, validity location; authorized maximum bandwidth of the PRAS authorized radio resources, e.g., carrier frequencies, and network slices for RAN slices for serving UEs over NR Uu.; authorized PRAS type for backhaul, e.g. connected to eRG via non-3GPP access (option 1), and IAB node connected to eRG via 3 GPP access (option 2), or an IAB node directly connected to gNB as IAB donor (option 3). Each PRAS can indicate only one type for backhaul; and authorized radio resources, e.g. carrier frequencies, and network slices for RAN slices for acting as IAB nodes connected to backhaul with eRG and gNB (option2) or gNB directly (option3) over NR Uu.

[00418] FIG. 18 illustrates a block diagram of a communication device such as an evolved Node-B (eNB), a new generation Node-B (gNB) (or another RAN node or a base station), a transmission-reception point (TRP), an access point (AP), a wireless station (STA), a mobile station (MS), or a user equipment (UE), in accordance with some aspects. In alternative aspects, the communication device 1800 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other communication devices.

[00419] Circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry) is a collection of circuits implemented in tangible entities of the device 1800 that include hardware (e.g., simple circuits, gates, logic, etc.). Circuitry membership may be flexible over time. Circuitries include members that may, alone or in combination, perform specified operations when operating. In an example, the hardware of the circuitry may be immutably designed to carry out a specific operation (e.g., hardwired). In an example, the hardware of the circuitry may include variably connected physical components (e.g., execution units, transistors, simple circuits, etc.) including a machine-readable medium physically modified (e.g., magnetically, electrically, moveable placement of invariant massed particles, etc.) to encode instructions of the specific operation.

[00420] In connecting the physical components, the underlying electrical properties of a hardware constituent are changed, for example, from an insulator to a conductor or vice versa. The instructions enable embedded hardware (e.g., the execution units or a loading mechanism) to create members of the circuitry in hardware via the variable connections to carry out portions of the specific operation when in operation. Accordingly, in an example, the machine-readable medium elements are part of the circuitry or are communicatively coupled to the other components of the circuitry when the device is operating. In an example, any of the physical components may be used in more than one member of more than one circuitry. For example, under operation, execution units may be used in a first circuit of a first circuitry at one point in time and reused by a second circuit in the first circuitry, or by a third circuit in a second circuitry at a different time. Additional examples of these components with respect to the device 1800 follow.

[00421] In some aspects, the device 1800 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other devices. In a networked deployment, the communication device 1800 may operate in the capacity of a server communication device, a client communication device, or both in server- client network environments. In an example, the communication device 1800 may act as a peer communication device in a peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The communication device 1800 may be a

UE, eNB, PC, a tablet PC, an STB, a PDA, a mobile telephone, a smartphone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any communication device capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that communication device. Further, while only a single communication device is illustrated, the term "communication device" shall also be taken to include any collection of communication devices that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), and other computer cluster configurations.

[00422] Examples, as described herein, may include, or may operate on, logic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In an example, circuits may be arranged (e.g., internally or with respect to external entities such as other circuits) in a specified manner as a module. In an example, the whole or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client, or server computer system) or one or more hardware processors may be configured by firmware or software (e.g., instructions, an application portion, or an application) as a module that operates to perform specified operations. In an example, the software may reside on a communication device-readable medium. In an example, the software, when executed by the underlying hardware of the module, causes the hardware to perform the specified operations.

[00423] Accordingly, the term "module" is understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transitorily) configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a specified manner or to perform part or all of any operation described herein. Considering examples in which modules are temporarily configured, each of the modules need not be instantiated at any one moment in time. For example, where the modules comprise a general-purpose hardware processor configured using the software, the general-purpose hardware processor may be configured as respective different modules at different times. The software may accordingly configure a hardware processor, for example, to constitute a particular module at one instance of time and to constitute a different module at a different instance of time.

[00424] The communication device (e.g., UE) 1800 may include a hardware processor 1802 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 1804, a static memory 1806, and a storage device 1807 (e.g., hard drive, tape drive, flash storage, or other block or storage devices), some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 1808. [00425] The communication device 1800 may further include a display device 1810, an alphanumeric input device 1812 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 1814 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the display device 1810, input device 1812, and UI navigation device 1814 may be a touchscreen display. The communication device 1800 may additionally include a signal generation device 1818 (e.g., a speaker), a network interface device 1820, and one or more sensors 1821, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or another sensor. The communication device 1800 may include an output controller 1828, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, card reader, etc.).

[00426] The storage device 1807 may include a communication device- readable medium 1822, on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 1824 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. In some aspects, registers of the processor 1802, the main memory 1804, the static memory 1806, and/or the storage device 1807 may be, or include (completely or at least partially), the device-readable medium 1822, on which is stored the one or more sets of data structures or instructions 1824, embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 1802, the main memory 1804, the static memory 1806, or the mass storage 1816 may constitute the device-readable medium 1822.

[00427] As used herein, the term "device-readable medium" is interchangeable with “computer-readable medium” or “machine-readable medium”. While the communication device-readable medium 1822 is illustrated as a single medium, the term "communication device-readable medium" may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions 1824. The term "communication device-readable medium" is inclusive of the terms “machine-readable medium” or “computer-readable medium”, and may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions (e.g., instructions 1824) for execution by the communication device 1800 and that causes the communication device 1800 to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting communication device-readable medium examples may include solid-state memories and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of communication device-readable media may include non volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto optical disks; Random Access Memory (RAM); and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. In some examples, communication device-readable media may include non-transitory communication device-readable media. In some examples, communication device-readable media may include communication device- readable media that is not a transitory propagating signal.

[00428] Instructions 1824 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 1826 using a transmission medium via the network interface device 1820 utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols. In an example, the network interface device 1820 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communications network 1826. In an example, the network interface device 1820 may include a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input-multiple-output (SIMO), MIMO, or multiple- input-single-output (MISO) techniques. In some examples, the network interface device 1820 may wirelessly communicate using Multiple User MIMO techniques.

[00429] The term "transmission medium" shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the communication device 1800, and includes digital or analog communications signals or another intangible medium to facilitate communication of such software. In this regard, a transmission medium in the context of this disclosure is a device-readable medium.

[00430] The terms “machine-readable medium,” “computer-readable medium,” and “device-readable medium” mean the same thing and may be used interchangeably in this disclosure. The terms are defined to include both machine-storage media and transmission media. Thus, the terms include both storage devices/media and carrier waves/modulated data signals.

[00431] Described implementations of the subject matter can include one or more features, alone or in combination as illustrated below by way of examples.

[00432] Example 1 is an apparatus for use in a Premises Radio Access Station (PRAS) configured for operation in a Fifth Generation New Radio (5G NR) network, the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry, wherein to configure the PRAS for operation and control by the 5G NR network, the processing circuitry is to: establish a communication link to an application server of the 5G NR network via an evolved residential gateway (eRG), the establishing of the communication link causing configuration of the PRAS as an associated entity of the eRG, generation of a profile of the PRAS, and registration of the PRAS in the 5G NR network; decode signaling received from the application server of 5G NR network via the eRG, the signaling including the profile of the PRAS; determine PRAS configuration information using the profile of the PRAS; and re-establish the communication link to the application server via the eRG of the 5G NR network, based on the PRAS configuration information; and a memory coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to store the profile of the PRAS.

[00433] In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 includes subject matter where the processing circuitry is configured to establish the communication link via a tethering connection to the eRG.

[00434] In Example 3, the subject matter of Examples 1-2 includes the PRAS configuration information includes a PRAS identifier of the PRAS, an indication of the association of the PRAS with the eRG, and PRAS authorization information for communication with the application server of the 5GNR network via the re-established communication link. [00435] Example 4 is an apparatus for use in an evolved residential gateway (eRG) configured for operation in a Fifth Generation New Radio (5G NR) network, the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry, wherein to configure the eRG for operation and control by the 5G NR network, the processing circuitry is to: establish a communication link from a Premises Radio Access Station (PRAS) to an application server of the 5G NR network; decode a profile of the PRAS received from the application server via the communication link; perform registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network based on the profile; encode the profile for transmission to the PRAS, the profile including PRAS configuration information; and encode data received from the PRAS for re-transmission to the application server based on the PRAS configuration information, and a memory coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to store the profile of the PRAS.

[00436] In Example 5, the subject matter of Example 4 includes, the PRAS configuration information includes a PRAS identifier of the PRAS, an indication of the association of the PRAS with the eRG, and PRAS authorization information for communication with the application server of the 5GNR network via the re-established communication link.

[00437] In Example 6, the subject matter of Example 5 includes subject matter where the PRAS authorization information includes a list of allowed public land mobile networks (PLMNs), validity time for authorized operation of the PRAS, and at least one configuration of the authorized operation of the PRAS.

[00438] In Example 7, the subject matter of Examples 5-6 includes, 5G NR network, the processing circuitry is configured to encode a non-access stratum (NAS) message for transmission to the application server, the NAS message requesting the registration of the PRAS.

[00439] In Example 8, the subject matter of Example 7 includes, the NAS message includes the PRAS identifier and a request for authorizing the PRAS for communication within the 5G NR network.

[00440] In Example 9, the subject matter of Examples 5-8 includes, 5G NR network, the processing circuitry is configured to encode a registration update request message for transmission to the application server, the registration update request message requesting the registration of the PRAS. [00441] In Example 10, the subject matter of Examples 4-9 includes subject matter where the processing circuitry is configured to decode an update to the PRAS configuration information, the update received from a configuration function of the 5G NR network; and encode the update for transmission to the PRAS via the communication link.

[00442] In Example 11, the subject matter of Example 10 includes, the update revokes the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network.

[00443] In Example 12, the subject matter of Examples 4-11 includes subject matter where the processing circuitry is configured to perform the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network via one of a user plane 5G connection or a signaling plane 5G connection of the eRG.

[00444] Example 13 is a computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an evolved residential gateway (eRG), the instructions to configure the eRG for operation and control in a Fifth Generation New Radio (5G NR) network and to cause the eRG to perform operations comprising: establishing a communication link from a Premises Radio Access Station (PRAS) to an application server of the 5G NR network; decoding a profile of the PRAS received from the application server via the communication link; performing a registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network based on the profile; encoding the profile for transmission to the PRAS, the profile including PRAS configuration information; and encoding data received from the PRAS for re-transmission to the application server based on the PRAS configuration information.

[00445] In Example 14, the subject matter of Example 13 includes, the PRAS configuration information includes a PRAS identifier of the PRAS, an indication of the association of the PRAS with the eRG, and PRAS authorization information for communication with the application server of the 5GNR network via the re-established communication link.

[00446] In Example 15, the subject matter of Example 14 includes subject matter where the PRAS authorization information includes a list of allowed public land mobile networks (PLMNs), validity time for authorized operation of the PRAS, and at least one configuration of the authorized operation of the PRAS. [00447] In Example 16, the subject matter of Examples 14-15 includes,

5G NR network further comprises: encoding a non-access stratum (NAS) message for transmission to the application server, the NAS message requesting the registration of the PRAS. [00448] In Example 17, the subject matter of Example 16 includes, the

NAS message includes the PRAS identifier and a request for authorizing the PRAS for communication within the 5G NR network.

[00449] In Example 18, the subject matter of Examples 14-17 includes,

5G NR network further comprising: encoding a registration update request message for transmission to the application server, the registration update request message requesting the registration of the PRAS.

[00450] In Example 19, the subject matter of Examples 13-18 includes, the operations further comprising decoding an update to the PRAS configuration information, the update received from a configuration function of the 5GNR network; and encoding the update for transmission to the PRAS via the communication link.

[00451] In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19 includes, the update revokes the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network.

[00452] Example 21 is at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations to implement any of Examples 1-20.

[00453] Example 22 is an apparatus comprising means to implement any of Examples 1-20.

[00454] Example 23 is a system to implement any of Examples 1-20. [00455] Example 24 is a method to implement any of Examples 1-20.

[00456] Although an aspect has been described with reference to specific exemplary aspects, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these aspects without departing from the broader scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. This Detailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various aspects is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for use in a Premises Radio Access Station (PRAS) configured for operation in a Fifth Generation New Radio (5G NR) network, the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry, wherein to configure the PRAS for operation and control by the 5G NR network, the processing circuitry is to: establish a communication link to an application server of the 5G NR network via an evolved residential gateway (eRG), the establishing of the communication link causing configuration of the PRAS as an associated entity of the eRG, generation of a profile of the PRAS, and registration of the PRAS in the 5G NR network; decode signaling received from the application server of 5G NR network via the eRG, the signaling including the profile of the PRAS; determine PRAS configuration information using the profile of the PRAS; and re-establish the communication link to the application server via the eRG of the 5G NR network, based on the PRAS configuration information; and a memory coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to store the profile of the PRAS.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: establish the communication link via a tethering connection to the eRG.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the PRAS configuration information includes a PRAS identifier of the PRAS, an indication of an association of the PRAS with the eRG, and PRAS authorization information for communication with the application server of the 5G NR network via the re-established communication link.

4. An apparatus for use in an evolved residential gateway (eRG) configured for operation in a Fifth Generation New Radio (5G NR) network, the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry, wherein to configure the eRG for operation and control by the 5G NR network, the processing circuitry is to: establish a communication link from a Premises Radio Access Station (PRAS) to an application server of the 5G NR network; decode a profile of the PRAS received from the application server via the communication link; perform registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network based on the profile; encode the profile for transmission to the PRAS, the profile including PRAS configuration information; and encode data received from the PRAS for re-transmission to the application server based on the PRAS configuration information; and a memory coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to store the profile of the PRAS.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the PRAS configuration information includes a PRAS identifier of the PRAS, an indication of an association of the PRAS with the eRG, and PRAS authorization information for communication with the application server of the 5G NR network via the re-established communication link.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the PRAS authorization information includes a list of allowed public land mobile networks (PLMNs), validity time for authorized operation of the PRAS, and at least one configuration of the authorized operation of the PRAS.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein to perform the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network, the processing circuitry is configured to: encode a non-access stratum (NAS) message for transmission to the application server, the NAS message requesting the registration of the PRAS.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the NAS message includes the PRAS identifier and a request for authorizing the PRAS for communication within the 5G NR network.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein to perform the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network, the processing circuitry is configured to: encode a registration update request message for transmission to the application server, the registration update request message requesting the registration of the PRAS.

10. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: decode an update to the PRAS configuration information, the update received from a configuration function of the 5G NR network; and encode the update for transmission to the PRAS via the communication link.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the update revokes the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network.

12. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: perform the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR. network via one of a user plane 5G connection or a signaling plane 5G connection of the eRG.

13. A computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an evolved residential gateway (eRG), the instructions to configure the eRG for operation and control in a Fifth Generation New Radio (5G NR) network, and to cause the eRG to perform operations comprising: establishing a communication link from a Premises Radio Access Station (PRAS) to an application server of the 5G NR network; decoding a profile of the PRAS received from the application server via the communication link; performing a registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network based on the profile; encoding the profile for transmission to the PRAS, the profile including PRAS configuration information; and encoding data received from the PRAS for re-transmission to the application server based on the PRAS configuration information.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the PRAS configuration information includes a PRAS identifier of the PRAS, an indication of an association of the PRAS with the eRG, and PRAS authorization information for communication with the application server of the 5GNR network via the re-established communication link.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the PRAS authorization information includes a list of allowed public land mobile networks (PLMNs), validity time for authorized operation of the PRAS, and at least one configuration of the authorized operation of the PRAS.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations for performing the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network further comprise: encoding a non-access stratum (NAS) message for transmission to the application server, the NAS message requesting the registration of the PRAS.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the NAS message includes the PRAS identifier and a request for authorizing the PRAS for communication within the 5G NR network.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations for performing the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network further comprise: encoding a registration update request message for transmission to the application server, the registration update request message requesting the registration of the PRAS.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising decoding an update to the PRAS configuration information, the update received from a configuration function of the 5G NR network; and encoding the update for transmission to the PRAS via the communication link.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the update revokes the registration of the PRAS with the 5G NR network.